Isaiah 31

Ver. 2, 3. As wise as ye think yourselves, God will countermine all your subtle contrivances, and bring effectual ruin upon both you and your Egyptian helpers. 4, 5. Undismayed by all the noise, boasting, and blasphemy, of the Assyrians, God shall, with almighty force, furiously encounter and devour them; but tenderly defend Jerusalem, as a bird doth its nest, or as the angel did the Israelites when he destroyed the Egyptians. 8, 9. By the immediate vengeance of God shall the Assyrian army be generally destroyed; and Sennacherib himself, with the poor remains, terrified by the visible tokens of God’s wrath, shall flee home to Nineveh his capital.—God had his sanctuary and altar in Jerusalem, and there he appeared, like a fire, to defend his people, and consume his enemies

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XXXI.—Many wickedly go far for human help and to no purpose, when they might have help from God at hand, to infinite advantage. But, the more we know of men, we shall trust them the less: and, the more we know of God, we shall trust him the more. It is an atheistical disbelief of his all-sufficiency that ever makes us depart from him to depend on a creature; and, when we do so, we may expect to have it ruined along with ourselves. But ever safe are those whom God defends with infinite compassion and almighty power. His promises are an infallible ground of faith; his goodness ought to lead the greatest rebels against him to a kindly repentance; and every remarkable deliverance should be attended with remarkable reformation. But great is the ruin and the terror which await his implacable foes!