I.That God very often appears to work with a suddenness that is startling.
1. In the realm of nature.
(1) Storms.
(2) Earthquakes.
(3) The transition of the seasons.
2. In the realm of providence.
(1) Israel’s deliverance at the Red Sea.
(2) The elevation of Saul to the throne of Israel.
(3) Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation.
3. In the realm of grace.
(1) The conversion of Manasseh, of Saul the persecutor.
(2) Revivals in churches.
II. The fact that although god’s works may appear to be marvellously sudden, yet at the same time, they have been preceded by a preparation that has perhaps lasted for years. It was so in this particular case. Hezekiah thanked God for having prepared the people. Do you ask me how they were prepared? I think I could venture to answer that question by saying they were prepared by the very openness of the sin of the previous monarch. Ahaz had gone to such a tremendous length in iniquity that his very excesses of crime had awoke a counter-feeling amongst the people. So is it in everything. First in the realm of nature. The storm that comes with racehorse speed across the sky might doubtless be traced back to atmospheric agencies far, far remote. The storm is only a climax. As in the realm of nature, so in the realm of providence. The deliverance at the Red Sea--it appeared sudden--it was not. It was only one link in a long chain. From the very beginning God had determined how He would deliver His people. Is not it specially so in the realm of grace? Look at Manasseh, whom we have used as an example of sudden conversion. It at your leisure you refer to his history, you will find in the thirty-third chapter, eleventh and twelfth verses, the account of God’s preparation. “And Manasseh was caught in the thorns, and was taken a captive to Babylon; and in his distress he sought the Lord.” Take the case of Pentecost. If you read the second chapter of the Acts attentively, you will see that God had brought together at Jerusalem at one time an immense number of people out of every country, and I read they were “devout men”; that is, they were inquirers after the truth. God had heaped together prepared fuel, then He made Peter strike the spark which resulted in the grand Pentecostal blaze. So is it in revivals. A revival appears sudden, and yet it is only the result of previous preparation. You are revived and you say that youare revived suddenly. Let me ask you a question or two, and I think you will see there has been prior working. Did you have any troubles in your business? Did you lose a child? Were you sick? What an encouraging thought it is to every worker for God that mighty things can thus be accomplished in a moment. (A. G. Brown.)
“Suddenly”
Observe the conjunction of words: “prepared--suddenly.” That is the true order of progress--preparation as to process, suddenness as to revelation. As the volcano, it is always gathering its heat, the moment of explosion is sudden; it always comes unexpectedly; it is like death itself, for though we have reckoned about the time death will come, when he does come his white ghastliness makes us forget our preparation and say, It was so sudden at the last! Have some of us not had preparation enough? Is it not time now for enthusiasm? We have heard thousands of discourses; we have attended thousands of religious services; we have even gone so far as to criticise the services we have attended. Has there not been preparation enough? Is it not time for a little suddenness, outburst, genuine enthusiasm? “The Lord shall suddenly come to His temple.” “Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”; and yet all the ages had been preparing for that one moment. Eternity had been waiting for that crisis, and yet even then it was said, “And suddenly.” “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, a sound as of a rushing, mighty wind.” . . . Yet, though apparently so unexpected, “this is that which was spoken bythe prophet Joel.” (J. Parker, D.D.)
