After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
Ver. 2. After two days will he revive us] Whereas some of those who were called upon to "Come and return unto the Lord," might say with those in Jeremiah 18:12, "Nay, for there is no hope," God hath mortally wounded us, so that we are already in the jaws of death, "free among the dead," as the Psalmist hath it, Psalms 88:5, free of that company. The better sort of them, fullest of faith, answer, dead though we be, yet God will revive us; and long though it seem, yet after two days, or such a matter, in a very short time, as soon as ever it shall be convenient, and for our greatest good, "He that shall come" to our comfort, "will come, and will not tarry," Hebrews 10:37. And for the certainty of it, as sure as the third day followeth the second, so sure shall deliverance come in due season; fear ye not.
In the third day he will raise me up] He will, he will, never doubt it. Oh, the rhetoric of God! Oh the certainty of the promises! See the like expressions, Isaiah 26:20; Isaiah 10:25 Hag 2:7 Habakkuk 2:3 Hebrews 10:37, and have patience. God's help seems long, because we are short: Nec quia dura, sed quia molles patimur (Seneca). We should draw forth hope as a line; and think we hear Christ saying, as he did to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter," John 13:7 .