Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
Ver. 7. Surely the Lord God will do nothing] i.e. hardly anything. He loveth to foresignify, to warn before he wound; and this merely out of his philanthropy. Howbeit sometimes, and in some cases, he is more sudden and still in his revenges; that he may thereby, first, maintain his honour and glory, the eyes whereof are by some sins extraordinarily provoked, as Acts 12:23. And secondly, to teach men not to continue in sin, no, not for a moment; since they may be presently cut off from all further time of repentance, acceptation, and grace for ever; this made Austin say that he would not be an atheist, no, not one half hour, to gain all the world. See Luke 17:32; Luke 12:20. Pharaoh had warning of the first and second plagues, not so of the third; and again of the fourth and fifth, but not of the sixth; and yet again of the seventh and eighth, but not of the ninth. And when neither warning nor no warning would do good, then came that sweeping plague;
“ Tandem prototocos ultima plaga necat. ”
But he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets] God's prophets, then, are his menial servants; not his underlings, or inferior hinds but of noblest employment about him. Every faithful minister is servant to the King of heaven (Acts 27:23, "whose I am, and whom I serve"; this the devil denied not, Act 16:16-17), yea, his steward, ambassador, herald (as here), by whom he proclaims war, but first proffers pardon and proposes conditions of peace: a practice usual not only among the people of God, by his appointment, Deuteronomy 20:10, but also among the heathens, as histories inform us. The Romans had their Lex Faecialis; by their heralds they sent to such as had wronged them, Caduceum et Hastam, as ensigns of peace and war, that within thirty days they might take their choice; within which time, if they did them not right, the herald presently denounced war against them, casting forth a dart in token thereof. Alexander's course was as follows, when he sat down before a city, to set up a torch; to show that if they would come in and submit before that torch were burnt out, they should have hearing; Tamerlane hanged out first a white flag, then a red, and lastly a black; and the Turks to this day first make to their enemies some offer of peace, how unreasonable soever it matters not. God's offers in this kind are all of grace, and for our good. If it were otherwise, what need he give warning? and why doth he not as Absalom did, when, intending to murder Amnon, he spake neither good nor evil to him? Well might the Lord say, "Fury is not in me: O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. As I live, I desire not the death of a sinner," &c. If he did, why might he not rush suddenly upon such and confound them at once, as he did the reprobate angels, even in the very act and first moment of their sin? Why comes he first in a soft still voice, when he might justly thunder strike us? and why sendeth he his heralds to proclaim war, but yet with articles of peace and reconciliation open in their hands? Why was he but six days in making tbe world, and yet seven days in unmaking and destroying one city, Jericho? (Chrysost.). Was it not to show that "the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and of great kindness?" Psalms 103:8. And this he hath commanded his prophets to make known, that the goodness of God may lead men to repentance, Romans 2:4. As, if they turn his grace into wantonness, and pervert his patience to presumption, their commission is to declaim against such practices with all authority, Titus 2:15, and to proclaim hell fire, in case men amend not. Necessity is laid upon them so to do, and woe be to them if they preach not law as well as gospel; that when they return up their commission they may report the matter, saying, "Behold, we have done as thou hast commanded us," Ezekiel 9:11. True it is, that perverse people question the prophets, and quarrel them for this plain dealing; as Ahab did Elijah for a troubler of Israel, and Amaziah our prophet Amos for a trumpeter of rebellion. But this is as great folly as if some fond people should accuse the herald or the trumpet as the cause of their war; or as if some ignorant peasant, when he seeth his fowls bathing in his pond, should cry out of them as the causes of foul weather.