Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_000_t.lzh/4_093.TXT

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number of the one as of the other; not that an exact
precise number of the one with the other is intended;
but that there might be a proper proportion of the one
to the other; and commonly God does set the one over-
against the other: there is a mixture of both in the be-
liever's life, which is like unto a chequer of black and
white, in which there is a proper proportion of both
colours; and so prosperity and adversity are had in
turns, and work together tbr good to them that love the
Lord: and when it is said make us glad, that is, with
thy fayour and presence, it suggests, that these are a
sufficient recompense for all affliction and trouble;
and if so here, what must the enjoyment of these be
in heaven! Between this and present afflictions there
is nO proportion, neither with respect to the things
themselves, nor the duration of them; see Rom. viii.
18. 2 Cor. iv. 17. and the years wherein we have seen
evil; afflictions are evils; they flow from the evil of
sin, and to some are the evil of punishment; and even
chastisements are not joyous, but grievous: this
may have respect to the forty-years' travel in the
wilderness, in which the Israelites saw or had an ex-
perience of much affliction and trouble; and even to
the four hundred years in which the seed of Abraham
were afflicted in a land not their's ;see Numb. xiv.
33, 34. Gen. xv. 13. Hence the Jews {} make the
times of the Messiah to last four hundred years, an-
swerable to those years of evil, and which they take
to be the sense of the text; and so Jarchi's note on it
is,." make us glad in the days of the Messiah, ac-
"cording to the number of the days in which thou
"hast afflicted us in the captivities, and according to
"the number of the years in which we have seen
"evil."
Vet. 16. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, &c.]
Either the work of Providence, in conducting the
people of Israel through the wilderness, and bringing
them into the land of Canaan; which God had pro-
mised to do for them, especially for their posterity,
and therefore their children are particularly mentioned
in the next clause; or the work of salvation, as Kim-
chi; even the great work of redemption by the Messiah,
which is the work of God, which he dctermined
should be done, appointed his son to do, and gave it
him for that purpose.- nosy this was spoken of, and
promised, as what should be done; but as yet it did
not appear; wherefore it is prayed for, that it might;
that the Redeemer might be sent, and the work be
done: or else the work of grace upon the heart, which
is God's work, and an internal one, and not so obvious
to view; and hence it is entreated, that, being wrought
by him, he would shine upon it, bear witness to it,
and make it manifest that it was really wrought, and
a genuine and true work; and moreover this may
reach to and include the great work of God, to be
brought about in the latter day, respecting the con-
version of the Jews, the bringing in the fulness of the
Gentiles, the destruction of antichrist, and the esta-
blishment and glory of the kingdom of Christ: and thy
glory unto their children; the glory of God, displayed
in the above works of pr9vidence and grace, particu-
larly in the work of redemption, in which all the
divine perfections are glorified; 0r Christ himself, who
is the brightness of his father's glory, that he would
appear to them iu human nature, and dwell among
them ;' and they behold his glory,. as they afterwards
did, John i. 14. or else the sense is, that the glorious
grace of God might appear unto them, and upon them,
by which they would be madeall-glorious within, and be
changed into the image of Christ, from g1ory to glory;
or that the Shechinah, the glorious majesty and pre-
sence of God, might be among them, and be seen by
them in his sanctuary, Psal. lxiii. 2.
Ver. 17. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be
upon us, &c.] Either the grace and favour of God,
his gracious presence vouchsafed in his ordinances,
wllich makes his tabernacles amiable and lovely, and
his ways ways of pleasantness; or the righteousness of
Christ, which is that comeliness he puts upon his
people, whereby they become a perfection of beauty;
or the beauty of holiness, which appears on them,
when renewed and sanctified by the Spirit; every grace
is beautiful and ornamental: or Christ himself may be
meant; for the words may be rendered, let the beauty
o the Lord be with us {k}; he who is white and ruddy,
the chiefest among ten thousand alto ether 1ovel
fairer than the children of men, let him appear as the
Iramanuel, God with us: and establish thou the work of
our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish
thou it; or direct it {}; though God works all works of
grace for us, and in us, yet there is a work of duty
and obedience to him for us to do; nor should we be
slothful and inactive, but be the rather animated to it
by what he has done for us: our hands should be con-
tinually employed in service for his honour and glory;
and, whatever we find to do, do it with all the might
of grace we have; and in which we need divine direc-
tion and strength, and also establishment, that we
may be steadfast and immovable, always aboundlag
in the work of the Lord: and this petition is repeated,
to shew the sense he had of the necessity of it, and of
the vehemence and strength of desire after it. Jar-
chi interprets this of the work of the tabernacle, in
which the hands of the Israelites were employed
in the wilderness; so Ara. ma of the tabernacle of
Bezaleel.

l \^whnnwk\^ \~katayeunon\~, Sept. dirige, V. L. Musculus; dirige & con-
firma, Michaelis.