Jerusalem was
to be brought to great misery by everlasting burnings, as well as by
being besieged by the Assyrians; and yet the very shaking of the
earth and eruption of fire which was nearly to destroy it, was to be
the cause of its deliverance. So Isaiah prophesied, and we cannot
doubt his words came true. For this may explain to us the way in
which the king of Assyria's army was destroyed. The text says, that
when they encamped near Jerusalem the messenger of the Lord went out,
and slew in one night one hundred and eighty thousand of them, who
were all found dead in the morning. How they were killed we cannot
exactly tell, most likely by a stream of poisonous vapour, such as
often comes forth out of the ground during earthquakes and eruptions
of burning mountains, and kills all men and animals who breathe it.
That this was the way that this great army was destroyed, I have
little doubt, not only on account of what Isaiah says in his
prophecies of God's "sending a blast" upon the king of Assyria, but
because it was just like the old lesson which God had been teaching
the Jews all along, that the earth and all in it was His property,
and obeyed Him. For what could teach them that more strongly than to
see that the earthquakes and burning mountains, of all things on
earth the most awful and most murderous, the very things against
which man has no defence, obeyed God; burst forth when He chose, and
did His work as He willed? For man can conquer almost everything in
the world except these burning mountains and earthquakes.
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