" It seems, also, as if
the earthquake or hurricane had been actually a benefit to Jerusalem--
which was often then, and has been often since, in want of water--that
either fresh springs had broken out, or abundant rain had fallen, as
occurs at times in such convulsions of nature. But that, too, was God's
doing on behalf of His chosen city. "The rivers of the flood" had made
"glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the most
highest."
Moreover, there seem to have been great disturbances and wars among the
nations round. The heathen had made much ado, and the kingdoms had been
moved. But whatever their plans were, it was God who had brought them to
naught. God had shewed His voice, and the earth melted away; and (we
know not how) discomfiture had fallen upon them, and a general peace had
followed. "O come hither," says the Psalmist, "and behold the works of
the Lord, what desolations He has made in the earth." Not a desolation
of cruelty and tyranny: but a desolation of mercy and justice; putting
down the proud, the aggressive, the ruthless, and helping the meek, the
simple, the industrious, and the innocent.
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