The righteous is delivered from trouble, And it comes to the wicked instead. (Proverbs 11:8) Thus do these two classes change places in the dispensations of God. The same providence often marks Divine faithfulness and retributive justice. The Israelites were delivered out of the trouble of the Red Sea; the Egyptians came in their stead. (Exo_14:21-28 .) Mordecai was delivered from the gallows; Haman was hanged upon it. (Est_5:14 ; Est_7:10 .) The noble confessors in Babylon were saved from the fire; their executioners were "slain" by it. (Dan_3:22-26 .) Daniel was preserved from the lions; his accusers were devoured by them. (Dan_6:22-24 .) Peter was snatched from death; his jailers and persecutors were condemned. (Act_12:6, Act_12:19, Act_12:23 .) Thus "precious in the sight of the LORD is" the life, no less than "the death, of his saints." (Psa_116:15 .) For the deliverance of one precious soul out of trouble he will bring a nation into distress. (1Sa_23:25-28 .) Yea — for the ransom of his own chosen people, he gave not only "Egypt" of old, but in later times "Ethiopia and Seba — men for them, and people for their life." To what source but his own free and sovereign love can we trace this special estimation? "Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee." (Isa_43:4, ut supra.) We do not always mark the same outward manifestation. But the love is unchangeably the same. And how should it at once lay us in the dust, and build our confidence upon an unshaking foundation! ~Charles Bridges Commentary on Proverbs
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:44:22 +0000
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