2. Commotions in the world. There is the eye of God, that eye which
2. Commotions in the world. There is the eye of God, that eye which runs to and fro throughout the whole earth in the wheels of worldly motions, even in the most dreadful providences in the world that stare upon men with a grim countenance: Ezek. 1:18, 'Their wings were dreadful, and their wings were full of eyes.' All the overturnings in the world are subservient to the church's interest, though they are not visibly so, unless diligently attended.* God orders the confusions of the world, and is in the midst of the tumults of the people: Ps.
29:10, 11, 'The Lord sits upon the flood; yea, the Lord sits King for ever. The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.' He sits upon the flood as a charioteer in his chariot, guiding it with holy and merciful intentions to his people, to give them both strength and peace in the midst of them, and as the issue of them. By water and floods is frequently meant tumults and confusions in the world. If it were not so, why should our Saviour encourage his disciples, and all their successors in the same profession, to lift up their heads when they hear of wars, if their redemption were not designed by God in them? Luke 21:25–28; they are all testimonies of the nearer approaches of Christ in power and glory to judge the earth, and glorify his people. God's great end in the shaking of nations is the performing those gracious promises to his church which yet remained unaccomplished. These earthquakes in the world will bring heaven to the church. The great revolutions in the eastern part of the world, the ruin of the Babylonian empire, the erecting the Persian, and all the means whereby it was brought about, God ordered, God foretold, God directed, for Jacob's service.
Cyrus, led by ambition, levies an army against Babylon; yet though he was a ravenous bird he was to execute the counsel of God: Isa.
46:11, 'Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel,' to be an instrument for the delivery of the captived
Jews, and the restorer of the ruined temple. He had called him out by name to make a great revolution of the world. He foretold by his prophet Isaiah many years before, the means he should use in the siege of Babylon to attain the victory, the very dividing Euphrates, which was the great confidence of the Babylonian: Isa. 44:27, 'That say to the deep, Be dry; and I will dry up the rivers;' whereby it was