Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.
God in His anger removes mountains and overturns them, and they themselves do not know it. The not knowing also means that men do not perceive it, especially rulers when God is overturning them. His power is so great that He can in a moment, in a short time, dissolve the whole frame of nature and blot out the whole scene of nature. That authority reaches to overturning what men have built however firm it appears, touching houses built by human skill and counted indestructible and fire-proof with His fire until they consume away so that nothing can stay the progress of His fire.
The same hand that made the world and moves mountains without their knowing took Moses, a creature of dust and a mighty man of faith, and set him in a cleft of the rock on the mountain summit so he could endure and behold as much of the divine glory and goodness passing before him as his mortal state could bear.
He is wonderful and terrible in His counsels, able to remove and overturn what seems firmly established, including the plans and power of rulers opposed to His word. Their seemingly prudent measures to establish their own authority and strengthen their power He turns to their own ruin and destruction without their knowing how. Pharaohs and kings of Babylon and of Israel illustrate this, for they most hastened their own ruin when by measures that looked most prudent they tried to establish their own authority. The verse therefore warns rulers not to try to secure authority or stop discord by resisting and fighting against the holy word of God, lest such efforts end in disaster. Those efforts bring inextricable dangers, present disaster and everlasting desolation, since it is the character and destiny of the gospel to be a cause of trouble and dissension.
God in His anger removes mountains and overturns them, and they themselves do not know it. The not knowing also means that men do not perceive it, especially rulers when God is overturning them. His power is so great that He can in a moment, in a short time, dissolve the whole frame of nature and blot out the whole scene of nature. That authority reaches to overturning what men have built however firm it appears, touching houses built by human skill and counted indestructible and fire-proof with His fire until they consume away so that nothing can stay the progress of His fire.
The same hand that made the world and moves mountains without their knowing took Moses, a creature of dust and a mighty man of faith, and set him in a cleft of the rock on the mountain summit so he could endure and behold as much of the divine glory and goodness passing before him as his mortal state could bear.
He is wonderful and terrible in His counsels, able to remove and overturn what seems firmly established, including the plans and power of rulers opposed to His word. Their seemingly prudent measures to establish their own authority and strengthen their power He turns to their own ruin and destruction without their knowing how. Pharaohs and kings of Babylon and of Israel illustrate this, for they most hastened their own ruin when by measures that looked most prudent they tried to establish their own authority. The verse therefore warns rulers not to try to secure authority or stop discord by resisting and fighting against the holy word of God, lest such efforts end in disaster. Those efforts bring inextricable dangers, present disaster and everlasting desolation, since it is the character and destiny of the gospel to be a cause of trouble and dissension.