Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32.35.
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieveing Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained void of counsel, having no understanding in them.
Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit. Our text, THEIR FOOT SHALL SLIDE IN DUE TIME seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites and all wicked men are exposed.
1. That they were always exposed to destruction: as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall.
2. It implies that they are always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction.
3. Another thing is, they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.
4. The reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, THEIR FOOT SHALL SLIDE.
There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of an incensed God.
1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hand cannot be strong when God rises up.
2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using His power at any moment to destroy them. Instead justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins.
3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. John 3.18 - "he that believes not is condemned already."
4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, which is expressed in the torments of hell. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow.
5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him.
6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints.
7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances.
8. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony.
9. All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure tjem from hell one moment. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done.
10. God has laid Himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, and the promises given in Christ.
"Your wickedness makes you as heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock."
Now God stands ready to pity you: this is a day of mercy: you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain: you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare.
And you, young men, and young women, will you neglet this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ?
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieveing Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained void of counsel, having no understanding in them.
Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit. Our text, THEIR FOOT SHALL SLIDE IN DUE TIME seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites and all wicked men are exposed.
1. That they were always exposed to destruction: as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall.
2. It implies that they are always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction.
3. Another thing is, they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.
4. The reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, THEIR FOOT SHALL SLIDE.
There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of an incensed God.
1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hand cannot be strong when God rises up.
2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using His power at any moment to destroy them. Instead justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins.
3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. John 3.18 - "he that believes not is condemned already."
4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, which is expressed in the torments of hell. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow.
5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him.
6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints.
7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances.
8. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony.
9. All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure tjem from hell one moment. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done.
10. God has laid Himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, and the promises given in Christ.
"Your wickedness makes you as heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock."
Now God stands ready to pity you: this is a day of mercy: you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain: you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare.
And you, young men, and young women, will you neglet this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ?
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