And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.
Ver. 11. We have walked to and fro through the earth] Itavimus, we have coursed up and down with incredible swiftness. Hence they are called the chariots of God, Psalms 68:17 (Heb. God's chariot, to note out their joint service, as of one), as here his horsemen, ready pressed to do his pleasure.
And behold all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest] Excepting the Church alone, which, like Noah's ark, is ever tossed up and down till it rest at last on the everlasting mountain; then she shall have her happy halcyons; then she shall see her enemies afar off, as Lazarus did Dives, or as the Israelites at the Red Sea did their persecutors, dead upon the shore. Meanwhile, she must not expect to be calm and quiet for any continuance. In the world ye shall have trouble, and ye shall weep and lament; but the world shall rejoice; they shall revel, and laugh themselves fat, John 16:20; John 16:23 "The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed," Esther 3:15. The Church is called God's threshing floor, because threshed with continual crosses; and God's husbandry, because he will be sure to plough his own ground, and to make long furrows upon their backs, whatsoever become of the waste, Isa 21:10 1 Corinthians 3:9; and to weed his own garden, though the rest of the world be let alone, and grow wild. Moab is not poured from vessel to vessel, but settleth upon the lees, Jeremiah 48:11; when the Israel of God is poured out as milk, and curdled like cheese, as Job speaketh in another case, Job 10:10 .