Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle - (or, thy nest) The eagle builds its nest in places nearly inaccessible to man. The Edomites were a race of eagles. It is not the language of poetry or exaggeration; but is poetic, because so true. "And though thou set thy nest in the stars." This is men's language, strange as it is. "I shall touch the stars with my crown;" "I shall strike the stars with my lofty crown;" "since I have touched heaven with my lance." As Job says Job 20:6-7, "Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reacheth unto the clouds," yet," he shall perish forever, like his own dung." And Isaiah to the king of Babylon, the type of Anti Christ and of the Evil one Isa 14:13, Isa 14:11, "Thou hast said in thy heart, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; thy pomp is brought down to the grave, the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee" . "The pagan saw this. AEsop, when asked, what doeth God? said, 'He humbles the proud and exalts the humble.' And another , 'whom morning's dawn beholdeth proud, The setting sun beholdeth bowed. '"
"They who boast of being Christians, and are on that ground self-satisfied, promising themselves eternal life, and thinking that they need not fear Hell, because they are Christians and hold the faith of the Apostles, while their lives are altogether alien from Christianity, are such Edomites, priding themselves because they dwell in clefts of the rocks. For it sufficeth not to believe what Christ and the apostles taught, unless thou do what they commanded. These spiritual Edomites, from a certain love or some fear of future torments, are moved by grief for sin, and give themselves to repentance, fastings, almsgiving, which is no other than to enter the clefts of the rocks; because they imitate the works of Christ and the Italy apostles who are called rocks, like those to whom John said, Mat 3:7. "O ye generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"
But, since they have no humility, they become thereby the more inflated with pride, and the more of such works they do, the more pleasures they allow themselves, and become daily the prouder and the wickeder. "The pride" then "of" their "heart deceiveth" them, because they seem in many things to follow the deeds of the holy, and they fear no enemies, as though they "dwelt in clefts of the rocks." They exalt their throne, in that, through the shadow of lofty deeds, they seem to have many below them, mount as high as they can, and place themselves, where they think they need fear no peril. But to them the Lord saith, "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle - thence will I bring thee down." For, however exalted they be, and however they seem good and great, they are "brought down to the ground" and out from the caverns of the rocks, wherein they deemed that they dwelt securely, in that they lapse into overt shameful sin; from where all perceive, what they were then too, when they were thought to be righteous.
And striking is it, that they are compared to "eagles." For although the eagle fly aloft, yet thence, it looks to the earth and the carcasses and animals which it would devour, as Job writes of it Job 39:28-30, "She dwelleth and abideth upon the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. From thence she seeketh the prey; her eyes behold afar off; her young ones also suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is she." So these, while they pretend perfection, never turn their eyes away from earthly goods, always casting them on honors, or wealth, or pleasure, without which they count life to be no life. Well, too, is it called their nest. For, toil how they may, in seeking an assured, restful, security of life, yet, what they build, is a nest made of hay and stubble, constructed with great toil, but lightly destroyed. This security of rest they lose, when they are permitted, by the just judgment of God, to fall into uncleanness, ambition or foulest sins, and are deprived of the glory which they unjustly gained, and their folly becomes manifest to all. Of such, among the apostles, was the traitor Judas. But the rich too and the mighty of this world, although they think that their possessions and what, with great toil, they have gained, when they have raised themselves above others, are most firm, it is but that nest which they have placed among the stars, soon to be dissipated by wind and rain." |