And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
Ver. 3. And Abram fell on his face.] It was fit he should, now that God talked with him. Such a posture of body befits us at the hearing of the word, as may best express our reverence, and further our attention. Balak is bid to rise up to hear Balaam's parable. Num 23:18 Eglon, though a fat unwieldy man, riseth up from his seat to hear God's message from Ehud. Jdg 3:20 The people in Nehemiah "stood up" Neh 8:5 to hear the law read and expounded. Constantine the Great would not be entreated to sit down or be covered at a sermon: a no more would our Edward VI, whose custom was also to take notes of what he heard, which (together with his own applications of the word to himself) he wrote in Greek characters, that his servants might not read them. b The Thessalonians are commended for this, that they heard Paul's preaching "as the word of God, and not of man". 1Th 2:13 Had Samuel thought it had been God that called to him (and not Eli), he would not have slept, but fallen on his face before the Lord, as Abram here, who was no novice, but knew well that though God loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience yet he takes state upon him in his ordinances, and will be trembled at in his word and judgments.
a Eusebius.
b Act. and Mon.