The opportuneness of God's judgments.
It is characteristic of Divine interpositions that they take place at the moment of greatest need. Isaac is on the point of being sacrificed when the angel calls to Abraham out of heaven (Genesis 22:10, Genesis 22:11). Elisha is compassed about with horsemen and chariots, and on the point of falling into his enemies' hands, when they are smitten with blindness (2 Kings 6:15-18). The Israelites are hemmed in between the Egyptians and the sea, and must perish on the morrow, when the waters are divided for them, and a way opened to them for escape (Exodus 14:10-22). More especially is the appropriateness of the time noticeable, when the interposition is in the shape of a judgment. Judgments are opportune doubly:
I. JUDGMENTS ARE OPPORTUNE WITH RESPECT TO THOSE ON WHOM THEY FALL. God is so merciful that he will not judge men "before the time," or until they have "filled up the measure of their iniquities." Hence it is the general rule that his enemies are at their greatest height of exaltation, and at the very acmé of their haughtiness and pride, when the fatal blow falls upon them. Assyria had reached the zenith of her greatness under Sennacherib in B.C. 700. He himself had reached a pitch of arrogance unknown to former kings (2 Kings 19:23, 2 Kings 19:24; 2 Kings 19:8), when the destroying angel went forth. So Nebuchadnezzar was stricken down at the height of his glory and his glorying (Daniel 4:29-33); and Haman had attained to the greatest elevation possible for a subject (Esther 5:11) when he was seized and hanged in front of his house. Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:21-23) is another instance; and so, perhaps, is Arius.
II. JUDGMENTS ARE OPPORTUNE WITH RESPECT TO THOSE WHOM THEY RELIEVE. Generally, though not always, a deliverance accompanies a judgment. God, when he "putteth down one, setteth up another." Hezekiah and the Jewish nation were delivered by the destruction of Sennacherib's host. Mordecai was saved when Haman suffered death. Alexander and the Catholics of Constantinople breathed again when Arius suddenly expired. The Church had rest when Galerius perished miserably. It is in their utmost need especially that God succors men, perhaps because they then turn to him with most sincerity, and offer their supplications to him with most earnestness. When they call to him "out of the depth," their need and their faith both plead for them, and he "hears their voice" (Psalms 130:1, Psalms 130:2).