Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built
again
Which some restrain to the tower of Babel; but though the
builders of it were obliged to desist from building, it does not
appear that it was broken down, but seems to have continued many
ages after: others more probably refer it to the destruction of
Sodom, as Sephorno, which was an utter destruction, a perpetual
desolation, and that city never was rebuilt to this day; and the
same may be observed of many other cities that have had their
foundations razed up, and have never been rebuilt, Thebes, Tyre
and as will be the case of Rome, or the great city of Babylon,
when once destroyed; yea, this has been true of kingdoms and
states, such as Jeremiah was to root out, pull down, and destroy;
that is, by prophesying of their destruction, as the Ammonites,
Moabites, Edomites, and others, whose names and nations are no
more, see ( Jeremiah
1:10 ) ( 25:27 ) ;
and the four monarchies broken down and destroyed, and made as
the chaff of the summer threshing floor, by the kingdom of
Christ, ( Daniel 2:35 Daniel 2:44 ) ; and may
be exemplified in particular persons and families; in Job and his
family, the Lord broke him with breach upon breach; he broke him
in his estate and substance; he broke down the hedge about him,
and exposed him to thieves and robbers that plundered him of his
substance; he broke down his family, that had been so largely and
happily built up, by taking away his children by death; and he
broke his constitution by diseases, afflictions, and sorrows, to
which Job may have here respect, when he at this time never
expected to have his losses in his substance, and in his family,
and in his health, repaired, as they were; nor could it have been
done without the will and pleasure of God; and oftentimes, when
such breaches are made, there is no reparation; a man's wealth,
and health, and family, are never built up again:
he shutteth up a man, and there can be no
opening;
if he shut up a man in a prison, there is no opening the doors of
it to let out unless he pleases; whether it be the prison of sin,
in which all are concluded, in the fetters and with the cords of
which they are held, and will continue, unless those shackles are
broken off by powerful and efficacious grace, and the Lord
proclaims liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison
to them that are bound, and gives it; or whether it be the prison
of the law, in which sinners are shut up, and held as condemned
malefactors; there is no deliverance from it but by Christ, who
has redeemed his people from the curse and condemnation of it;
and by his Spirit, as a spirit of adoption, who delivers them
from the bondage of it, and makes them free indeed; or whether it
be the prison of afflictions, straits, and difficulties in life,
with which even good men are surrounded, being bound in fetters,
and holden in cords of affliction; there is no opening for them,
or getting out of them, unless the Lord breaks their bands
asunder, and brings them out of darkness and distress, as out of
prison houses, and so opens and makes a way for their escape; or
whether he shuts them up, and they are so straitened in their
souls that they cannot come forth in the free exercise of grace,
and discharge of duty, as it was with Heman, when he said, "I am
shut up, and I cannot come forth", ( Psalms 88:8 ) ; and as
it was with David, when he prayed, "bring my soul out of prison,
that I may praise thy name", ( Psalms 142:7
) ; there is no opening for them till the spirit of the Lord
opens their hearts and their graces, and brings them forth into
exercise; and "where he is there is liberty", ( 2
Corinthians 3:17 ) ; or if he shuts up a man in the grave, as
the Targum paraphrases it, brings him to the house appointed for
all living, and locks him up in it; there can be no opening for
him till the resurrection morn, when Christ, who has the keys of
hell and death, will unlock the graves, and the dead shall come
forth, as Lazarus did at his call, ( John 11:43 ) : or if "he
shuts upon a man" F18, as the words may be rendered;
shuts the gates of heaven upon a man, as the door into the
marriage chamber of the Lamb will be shut upon and against the
foolish virgins, as well as profane sinners, there can be no
opening, cry as long as they will; see ( Matthew
25:10-13 ) ; and as God shut the door of Eden, or the earthly
paradise, against Adam, when he drove him out, ( Genesis 3:23
Genesis
3:24 ) , to which Sephorno refers this passage; or if the
Lord shuts up a man in hell, there is no opening, no way of
escape from thence. We read of "spirits in prison", ( 1 Peter 3:19
) , which is to be understood not of the limbus or purgatory of
the Papists, but of hell; and these "spirits" are the disobedient
in the times of Noah, who dying, or being swept away with the
flood, were cast into hell, where they have lain ever since, and
will lie unto the judgment of the great day; between the place of
the damned, and of the happy, in Abraham's bosom, is a great
gulf, that there is no passing from one to the other, which is
the immutable and unalterable decree of God, which has fixed the
everlasting states of men, ( Luke 16:26 ) .