(v. 28.) when a good king came in the room of a bad one, then this acceptable message was sent among them. When we reform, then, and not till then, we may look for good news from heaven. Now here we have,
1. A rebuke to the Philistines for triumphing in the death of king Uzziah. He had been as a serpent to them, had bitten them, had smitten them, had brought them very low; (2 Chron. xxvi. 6.) he warred against the Philistines, broke down their walls, and built cities among them; but when Uzziah died, or rather abdicated, it was told with joy in Gath, and published in the streets of Askelon. It is inhuman thus to rejoice in our neighbour's fall; but let them not be secure, for though, when Uzziah was dead, they made reprisals upon Ahaz, and took many of the cities of Judah, (2 Chron. xxviii. 18.) yet out of the root of Uzziah should come a cockatrice, a more formidable enemy than Uzziah was, even Hezekiah, the fruit of whose government should be to them a fiery flying serpent, for he should fall upon them with incredible swiftness and fury: we find he did so; (2 Kings xviii. 8.) He smote the Philistines even to Gaza. Note, If God remove one useful instrument in the midst of his usefulness, he can, and will, raise up others to carry on and complete the same work that they were employed in, and left unfinished.
2. A prophecy of the destruction of the Philistines by famine and war. (1.) By famine; (v. 30.) when the people of God, whom the Philistines had wasted, and distressed, and impoverished, shall enjoy plenty again, and the first-born of their poor shall feed, (the poorest among them shall have food convenient,) then, as for the Philistines, God will kill their root with famine; that which was their strength, and with which they thought themselves established as the tree is by the root, shall be starved and dried up by degrees, as those die, that die by famine; and thus he shall slay the remnant: those that escape from one destruction, are but reserved for another; and when there are but a few left, those few shall at length be cut off, for God will make a full end. (2.) By war; when the needy of God's people shall lie down in safety, (v. 30.) not terrified with the alarms of war, but delighting in the songs of peace, then every gate and every city of the Philistines shall be howling and crying, (v. 31.) and there shall be a total dissolution of their state; for from Judea, which lay north of the Philistines, there shall come a smoke, a vast army raising a great dust, a smoke that shall be the indication of a devouring fire at hand: and none of all that army shall be alone in his appointed times; none shall straggle or be missing when they are to engage; but they shall be vigorous and unanimous in attacking the common enemy, when the time appointed for the doing of it comes. None of them shall decline the public service, as, in Deborah's time, Reuben abode among the sheepfolds, and Asher on the sea-shore, Judg. v. 16, 17. When God has work to do, he will wonderfully endow and dispose men for it.
III. The good use that should be made of all these events for the encouragement of the people of God; (v. 32.) What shall one then answer the messengers of the nations? This implies, 1. That the great things God does for his people, are, and cannot but be, taken notice of by their neighbours; they among the heathen make remarks upon them, Ps. cxxvi. 2. 2. That messengers will be sent to inquire concerning them. Jacob and Israel had long been a people distinguished from all others, and dignified with uncommon favours; and therefore some, for good-will, others, for ill-will, and all, for curiosity, are inquisitive concerning them. 3. That it concerns us always to be ready to give a reason of the hope that we have in the providence of God, as well as in his grace, in answer to every one that asks it, with meekness and fear, 1 Pet. iii. 15. And we need go no further than the sacred truths of God's word, for a reason; for God, in all he does, is fulfilling the scripture. 4. The issue of God's dealings with his people shall be so clearly and manifestly glorious, that any one, every one, shall be able to give an account of them to those that inquire concerning them. Now the answer which is to be given to the messengers of the nations, is, (1.) That God is, and will be, a faithful Friend to his church and people, and will secure and advance their interests. Tell them that the Lord has founded Zion. This gives an account both of the work itself that is done, and of the reason of it. What is God doing in the world, and what is he designing in all the revolutions of states and kingdoms, in the ruin of some nations, and the rise of others? He is, in all this, founding Zion; he is aiming at the advancement of his church's interests; and what he aims at he will accomplish. The messengers of the nations, when they sent to inquire concerning Hezekiah's successes against the Philistines, expected to learn by what politics, counsels, and arts of war, he carried his point; they are told that they were not owing to any thing of that nature, but to the care God took of his church, and the interest he had in it. The Lord has founded Zion, and therefore the Philistines must fall. (2.) That his church has, and will have, a dependence upon him; The poor of his people shall trust in it, his poor people who have been brought very low, even the poorest of them; they more than others, for they have nothing else to trust to; (Zeph. iii. 12, 13.) the poor receive the gospel, Matth. xi. 5. They shall trust to this, to this great truth, that the Lord has founded Zion; on this they shall build their hopes, and not on an arm of flesh. This ought to give us abundant satisfaction as to public affairs, that, however it goes with particular persons, parties, and interests, the church, having God himself for its founder, and Christ the Rock for its Foundation, cannot but stand firm; The poor of his people shall betake themselves to it; so some read it; shall join themselves to his church, and embark in its interests; they shall concur with God in his designs to establish his people, and shall wind up all on the same plan, and make all their little concerns and projects bend to that. They that take God's people for their people, must be willing to take their lot with them, and cast in their lot among them. Let the messengers of the nations know that the poor Israelites, who trust in God, having, like Zion, their foundation in the holy mountains, (Ps. lxxxvii. 1.) are like Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides for ever, (Ps. cxxv. 1.) and therefore they will not fear what man can do unto them.
CHAP. XV.
This chapter, and that which follows it, are the burthen of Moab; a prophecy of some great desolation that was coming upon that country, which bordered upon this land of Israel, and had often been injurious and vexatious to it, though the Moabites were descended from Lot, Abraham's kinsman and companion, and though the Israelites, by the appointment of God, had spared them, when they might both easily and justly have cut them off with their neighbours. In this chapter, we have, I. Great lamentations made by the Moabites, and by the prophet himself for them, v. 1..5. II. The great calamities which should occasion that lamentation, and justify it, v. 6..9.
1.THE burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence: 2. He is gone up to Bajith, and
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