Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. “Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.”Psalm 2:1-3
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath,..
Psalm 2:4.5
“Vex them;” either by horror of conscience, or corporal plaques;
one way or the other he will have his pennyworths of them, as he always
has had of the persecutors of his people.
-John Trapp (1601-1669)
When Pontius Pilate and the Jews conspire to destroy the cause of God, the Lord not only has them in derision but over-rules even their malice and violence to promote that very cause they attempted to destroy; so that it is a very wrong maxim, and argues great ignorance in us, to imagine that God never brings about his designs by the means and instrumentality of wicked men.
This is the Papists’ objection against the Reformation; great pains have been taken to blacken the reformers, and to make it believed that a reformation could not be good, that was begun by people of bad character, and a king of an immoral life. But so far is this from eclipsing, that it illustrates the wisdom and goodness of divine Providence, in obliging the wicked to do what they never designed, and over-ruling their counsels for the fulfilling God’s holy, wise, and sovereign decree.
George Whitefield (1714-1770)
“The severest punishment awaits the despisers of the Gospel, since the ancients
under the law did not despise it with impunity.
John Calvin (1509-1564)
When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding;
but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive.
Proverbs 28:28