What [is] the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?
Ver. 15. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?] Here the rottenness of their hearts blistereth out at the lips of these rich wretches, these fat bulls of Bashan, such as was Pharaoh, that sturdy rebel, who asked this very question in the text, What, or who, is the Almighty? &c., Exodus 5:2; and hath a large reply made him by one plague upon another, till he was compelled to answer himself, The Lord is righteous. (He seemeth to rehearse the very words of Pharaoh. Diod.) Forced he was to speak fair while held upon the rack, if nothing else, yet that he might get off. Such queryings as this carry greatest contempt in them, and would lay the Almighty quite below the required duty; as if Almighty were but an empty title, and that he could do neither good nor evil, Zephaniah 1:12, that it was to no purpose or profit to serve him, that the gains would not pay for the pains, &c.
And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?] Heb. If we meet him, viz. by our prayers, Jeremiah 7:16 Amo 4:12 Malachi 3:14, See Trapp on " Mal 3:14 " Children will not say their prayers unless they may have their breakfast; nor hypocrites pray but for some profit. They pretend sometimes to meet God, but they draw not near with that true heart, mentioned Hebrews 10:20; in seeking God they merely seek themselves, as Spira said he did. In Parabola ovis capras suas quaerunt. No penny, no Pater Noster our Father. And as the wolf in the fable having spelled Pater, and being bid put together, said Agnus; so when these pray, their hearts are upon their half penny, Eze 33:31 They follow Christ for the loaves, and serve him no longer than he serves their turns.
- Rarae fumant faelicibus arae.