ll their
strictness of meaning. But the limitation may be arrived at, and
effected in a different, and legitimate way. There is, in the nature of
ungodliness, a levity which flatters every individual with the hope of
escape, even although a threatened general calamity should take place.
All the possibilities of deliverance are sought after in such a
disposition of mind, and are, by imagination, easily changed into
probabilities and realities, because just that is wanting which proves
them to be improbable and unreal, viz., the consciousness of a living,
omnipotent God. Thus men free themselves from fear, and with it, from
the troublesome obligation of escaping from it in another and a
legitimate way, viz., by true conversion. Now, it is this levity which
the prophet opposes. He shows that whatever possibility of deliverance
such levity may dream of, it never would become a reality, and this [Pg
375] for the simple reason, that they had not to deal with human
antagonists; from them an escape by human means would be possible, how
powerful and wise soever they might be. But they have to deal with an
omnipotent God, who, being also omnipresent, can arm all His creatures
against His despisers, so that they cannot retreat to any place where
He, who reigneth absolutely in heaven and on earth, has not ministers
of His vengeance. Every thought, then, of an escape by _human means_ is
here cut off. But with this, every thought of deliverance in any way is
taken from the _ungodly_, who are told by their own consciences
that GOD will not deliver them. But, on the other hand, the same
consideration could not but administer consolation to the godly. If no
one, should he even hide himself in heaven, can escape from God the
Avenger, then no one, were he even in the midst of his enemies, and
were the sword even already lifted up against him, can be lost from God
the Deliverer.--Another question has been asked, which relates to the
historical reference of the threatened punishment. It goes just as far
as the thought which lies at its foundation: "You only have I known of
all the families of the earth; therefore I shall visit upon you all
your transgressions." Those interpreters who think exclusively of
either the Assyrian, or the Chaldean, or the Roman destruction, are, in
the same way, partly right and partly wrong, at the same time. All
these events, and others besides, belong essentially to one whole. The
difference as to time and circu