Amos 3:6—Isaiah 45:7—Deuteronomy 32:39; Hosea 4:1
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?—I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.—See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Though the earth be filled with tokens of the goodness, patience, and forbearance of God, it likewise abounds with marks of His displeasure. I think we have sufficient reason to attribute earthquakes, hurricanes, famine, and pestilence, to sin as their original and proper cause.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It must not be supposed that to do evil denotes, in this passage, to commit injustice, which is contrary to the nature of God; but it means to inflict punishment, and to send adversity, which ought to be ascribed to the providence of God. In this sense it is very frequently found in Scripture. In like manner Jeremiah accuses the people of not acknowledging God to be “the Author of good and of evil,” Lamentations 3:38.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): God has a variety of sore judgments wherewith to punish sinful nations, and He has them all at command and inflicts which He pleases—they are God’s messengers, which He sends on His errands, and they shall accomplish that for which He sends them.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The “four sore judgments” of God—famine, the sword, wild beasts, and pestilence, are among the rods by which guilty nations, in all ages, have been scourged, Ezekiel 14:21.
JOHN CALVIN: By “evils” of that kind, therefore, such as wars, pestilence, famine, poverty, disease, and others of the same kind, the Lord punishes the sins of the people, and wishes to be acknowledged as the Author of them all.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): When pestilence stalks through the land and sweeps away its myriads, think not that God has done an unthoughtful act without any intention in it—He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men for nothing…We believe that God sends all pestilences, let them come how they may; and that He sends them with a purpose—And we conceive that it is our business as ministers of God to call the people’s attention to God in the disease and teach them the lesson which God would have them learn. I am not among those, as you know, who believe that every affliction is a judgment upon the particular person to whom it occurs—except in extraordinary cases. But we do, nevertheless, very firmly believe that there are national judgments, and that national sins provoke national chastisements.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): What is it that arms God against a nation, and provokes Him to visit it with war, pestilence, and famine? Is it not sin?
MATTHEW HENRY: The pestilence is God’s messenger.
WILLIAM GREENHILL (1591-1677): “Pestilence.” It is from a Hebrew word דּבר that signifies to speak, and speak out; the pestilence is a speaking thing, it proclaims the wrath of God amongst a people…The Hebrew root signifies to destroy, to cut off, and hence may the plague or pestilence have its name.
MATTHEW HENRY: The righteous God long seems to keep silence, yet, sooner or later, He will make judgment to be heard. When God is speaking judgment from heaven it is time for the earth to compose itself into an awful and reverent silence: “Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still,” Psalm 76:8—as silence is made by proclamation when the court sits.
ROBERT SOUTH (1634-1716): When God speaks, it is the creature’s duty to hear.
C. H. SPURGEON: Though God is speaking, at this moment in the clearest tones, none will recognize His voice, or understand His words, but those who are taught by His Holy Spirit.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): When God is speaking loudly in judgment―as He is today―the one endowed with spiritual wisdom will discern the intent of the Divine dispensations, and set his own house in order…God has a controversy with the world, and bids His sinful and rebellious creatures cease their controversy with Him. Because they will not, He frequently gives signs of His displeasure and portents of the future storm of Divine judgment which shall yet burst upon the wicked and wholly engulf them. Every epidemic of disease, every severe storm on land and sea, every pestilence and famine, every earthquake and flood, is a mark of the Creator’s anger, and presages the Day of Judgment. They are Divine calls for men to cease fighting against God, and solemn warnings of His dreadful and future vengeance if they will not.
C. H. SPURGEON: It only needs God to will it and the pestilence lays men low in heaps, like the grass of the meadow when the mower’s scythe has passed over it.
CHARLES SIMEON: Yes, it is a chastisement from God on account of our sins: and I call upon you not only to “believe” this, but to “hear the rod, and Him that has appointed it,” Micah 6:9. If we will not view the hand of God in these dispensations, we can have no hope that they shall be exchanged for mercies: but to acknowledge Him in them will be the best preparation for the reception of mercies from Him, and the most certain prelude to His bestowment of them.
A. W. PINK: His “rod” bids us consider the Hand that wields it and calls upon us to forsake our sins.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): When God speaks, it is neither reverent nor safe to refuse to listen…Pestilence walks in darkness, and the victim does not know until its poison fang is in him.
C. H. SPURGEON: When pestilence comes, with equal foot it kicks at the door both of the palace and of the cottage.
MATTHEW HENRY: Prince and peasant stand upon the same level before God’s judgments, for there is no respect of persons with Him.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It matters not of what nation, or of what state and condition of life persons be.
A. W. PINK: When God speaks in judgment to a nation—and it refuses to heed His voice—His judgments increase in severity, as did His plagues upon Egypt of old. Therefore it is the part of wisdom to redeem the time and make the most of the privileges which are ours today…When God speaks in judgment it is the final warning that He is not to be trifled with.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The nearer judgements approach, the louder they call for repentance.
CHARLES SIMEON: Every sinner therefore, in proportion as he increases the nation’s guilt, contributes also to its punishment.
C. H. SPURGEON: Listen! God is speaking! God is speaking to you somewhat roughly by that dread disease, but listen to its voice! If I am addressing any who are in the condition, most pitiable and sad, of being likely to end their days in the hospital, let me interpret to them the voice of God in this trying dispensation—“Turn you, turn you to Him that smites you; turn at once unto the Lord, and live.”
