And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Ver. 3. Can you not discern the sign of the times?] The men of Issachar were in great account with David, because "they had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do," 1 Chronicles 12:32; "A prudent man foreseeth an evil, and hideth himself," Proverbs 22:3. He foreseeth it; not by divination, or star gazing, but by a judicious collection and connection of causes and consequences: as, if God be the same that ever, as holy, just, powerful, &c.; if sin be the same that ever, as foul, loathsome, pernicious, &c.; then such and such events will follow upon such and such courses. As God hath given us signs, and fore tokens of a tempest, so he hath also of an ensuing judgment, and blames those that take not notice thereof; sending them to school to the stork and swallow, Jeremiah 8:7. If Elias see but a cloud as a hand arising from Carmel, he can tell that great store of rain will follow, that the whole heaven will anon be covered. Finer tempers are sooner sensible of change of weather. Moses, as more acquainted with God, spies his wrath at first setting out: so might we have done ere it came to this, and have redeemed a great part of our present sorrows, had we had our eyes in our heads, Ecclesiastes 2:14, had we not been of those wilful ones, who seek straws to put out their eyes also, as Bernard hath it, or that wink for the filty talk, saith Justin Martyr, that they may not see, when some unsavoury potion is ministered unto them. a
a Qui festucam quaerunt unde oculos sibi eruant. Bern. εκουσιως καταπινοντες το πικρον .