惡人的燈何嘗熄滅?患難何嘗臨到他們呢? 神何嘗發怒,向他們分散災禍呢? 17 「Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in his anger?
你們說: 神為惡人的兒女積蓄罪孽;我說:不如本人受報,好使他親自知道。 19 (It is said) God stores up a man's punishment for his sons. Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it!
願他親眼看見自己敗亡,親自飲全能者的忿怒。 20 Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. 21:17-20 Verses 17 and 18 may be taken as exclamations and 19 and 20 as declarations.
就是惡人在禍患的日子得存留,在發怒的日子得逃脫。 30 that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, that he is delivered from 21:30 Or ((man is reserved for the day of calamity, that he is brought forth to)) the day of wrath?
他要以谷中的土塊為甘甜;在他以先去的無數,在他以後去的更多。 33 The soil in the valley is sweet to him; all men follow after him, and a countless throng goes 21:33 Or ((as a countless throng went)) before him.
March 15 "Fear not, thou worm Jacob....I will make thee a threshing instrument with teeth." (Isa. 41:14, 15.) COULD any two things be in greater contrast than a worm and an instrument with teeth? The worm is delicate, bruised by a stone, crushed beneath the passing wheel; an instrument with teeth can break and not be broken; it can grave its mark upon the rock. And the mighty God can convert the one into the other. He can take a man or a nation, who has all the impotence of the worm, and by the invigoration of His own Spirit, He can endow with strength by which a noble mark is left upon the history of the time. And so the "worm" may take heart. The mighty God can make us stronger than our circumstances. He can bend them all to our good. In God's strengthwe can make them all pay tribute to our souls. We can even take hold of a black disappointment, break it open, and extract some jewel of grace. When God gives us wills like iron, we can drive through difficulties as the iron share cuts through the toughest soil. "I will make thee," and shall He not do it? ─Dr. Jowett. Christ is building His kingdom with earth's broken things. Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms; but God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth's broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. he can lift earth's saddest failure up to heaven's glory. ─J. R. Miller. "Follow Me, and I will make you".... Make you speak My words with power, Make you channels of My mercy, Make you helpful every hour. "Follow Me, and I will make you".... Make you what you cannot be─ Make you loving, trustful, godly, Make you even like to me. ─L. S. P.