“24 Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, 25 Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke; 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes; 27 When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. 28 Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, 30 they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. 31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies. 32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them;"-Prov.1:24-32
Commentary: “The crime is recited and it is highly provoking. See what it is for which judgment will be given against impenitent sinners in the great day, and you will say they deserve it, and the Lord is righteous in it. It is, in short, rejecting Christ and the offers of his grace, and refusing to submit to the terms of his gospel, which would have saved them both from the curse of the law of God and from the dominion of the law of sin…Christ called to them, to warn them of their danger; he stretched out his hand to offer them mercy, nay, to help them out of their miserable condition, stretched out his hand for them to take hold of, but they refused and no man regarded…God stretched out his hand in mercies bestowed upon them, and, when those would not work upon them, in corrections, but all were in vain…they set at naught all his counsel as not worth heeding, and would have none of his reproof, as if it were below them to be reproved by him and as if they had never done anything that deserved reproof…they called reproofs reproaches, and took them as an insult…Now God pities their folly, but he will then laugh at their calamity (v.26); It intimates that they shall be forever shut out of God's compassions; they have so long sinned against mercy that they have now quite sinned it away. His eye shall not spare, neither will he have pity. Nay, his justice being glorified in their ruin, he will be pleased with it, though now he would rather they should turn and live. Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries…Now sinners are in prosperity and secure; they live at ease, and set sorrow at defiance. But, first, their calamity will come...sickness will come, and those diseases which they shall apprehend to be the very arrests and harbingers of death; other troubles will come, in mind, in estate, which will convince them of their folly in setting God at a distance. Secondly, their calamity will put them into a great fright. Fear seizes them, and they apprehend that bad will be worse…Death is the king of terrors to them…this fear will be their continual torment. Thirdly, according to their fright will it be to them. Their fear shall come (the thing they were afraid of shall befall them); it shall come as desolation, as a mighty deluge bearing down all before it…it shall come as a whirlwind, which suddenly and forcibly drives away all the chaff. Note, those that will not admit the fear of God lay themselves open to all other fears, and their fears will not prove causeless. Fourthly, their fright will then be turned into despair: Distress and anguish shall come upon them, for, having fallen into the pit they were afraid of, they shall see no way to escape...Now God is ready to hear their prayers and to meet them with mercy, if they would but seek to him for it; but then the door will be shut, and they shall cry in vain (v. 28)…Then those that slighted God will seek him early (that is, earnestly), but in vain; they shall not find him, because they sought him not when he might be found, Isa. 55:6. The rich man in hell begged, but was denied.”
My comments: What a heavy word of warning from God Almighty to rebellious humanity! At the risk of beating a dead horse I will say again that we desperately need that kind of Spirit-anointed preaching today. Throughout history God has honored and used that kind of plain, bold preaching to awaken many souls to their need for Christ's mercy. For example, here is an excerpt of one of George Whitefield’s sermons(based on Luke 13:3)during the first Great Awakening: “O consider this, my guilty brethren, you that think it no crime to swear, whore, drink, or scoff and jeer at the people of God; consider how your voices will then be changed, and you that counted their lives madness, and their end without honor, shall howl and lament at your own madness and folly…Then you will lament and bemoan your own dreadful condition; but it will be of no significance: for he that is not your merciful Savior, will then become your inexorable Judge. Now he is easy to be entreated; but then, all your tears and prayers will be in vain…In what a dreadful condition will you then be? What horror and astonishment will possess your souls? Then all thy lies and oaths, thy scoffs and jeers at the people of God, all thy filthy and unclean thoughts and actions, thy misspent time in balls, plays, and assemblies, thy spending whole evenings at cards, dice, and masquerades, thy frequenting of taverns and alehouses, thy worldliness, covetousness, and thy uncharitableness, will be brought at once to thy remembrance, and at once charged upon thy guilty soul. And how can you bear the thoughts of these things? Indeed I am full of compassion towards you, to think that this should be the portion of any who now hear me." Another example of this is that famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."
Paul wrote, "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men"-2Cor.5:11.