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Pro_15:29 The LORD [is] far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.
Ver. 29. The Lord is far from the wicked.] He was so from the proud Pharisee, who yet got as near God as he could, pressing up to the highest part of the temple. The poor publican, not daring to do so, stood aloof off; yet was God far from the Pharisee, near to the publican. Videte magnum miraculum! saith Augustine, altus est Deus; erigis te, et fugit a te; inclinas te, et descendit ad te, &c.; - Behold a great miracle! God is on high; thou liftest up thyself and he flees from thee; thou bowest thyself downward and he descends to thee. Low things he respects, that he may raise them, proud things he knows afar off, that he may depress them. When a stubborn fellow, being committed, was no whit mollified with his durance, but the contrary, one of the senators said to the rest, Let us forget him a while and then he will remember himself. Such is God’s dealing with those that stout it out with him. "I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction (if ever) they will seek me early." {Hos_5:15} And it proved so. {Pro_6:1}
But he heareth the prayer of the righteous.] "The Lord is near to all that call upon him." {Psa_145:18} "His ears are in their prayers." {1Pe_3:12} Yea, he can feel breath when no voice can be heard for faintness. {Lam_3:56} When the flesh makes such a din that it is hard to hear the Spirit’s sighs, "He knows the meaning, öñïíçìá , of the Spirit," {Rom_8:26-27} and can pick English out of our broken requests; yea, he hears our "afflictions," {Gen_16:11} our "tears," {Psa_39:12} our "chatterings," {Isa_38:14} though we cry to him but by implication only, as "the young ravens" do. {Psa_147:9} It is not with God as with their Jupiter of Crete, that had no ears, that was not at leisure {a} to attend small matters, that had cancellos in coelo, as Lucian feigns, certain crevices or chinks in heaven, through which, at certain times, he looks down upon men, and hears prayers; whereas at other times he hears them not though they call upon him never so long, never so loud. Neither is it with God as with Baal, that pursuing his enemies could not hear his friends; nor yet as with Diana, that, being present at Alexander’s birth, could not at the same time preserve her Ephesian temple from the fire. "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?" {Jer_23:23} Yes, yes, he is both, and delights to distinguish himself from all dunghill deities by hearing prayers. Hereby Manasseh "knew him to be the true God"; {2Ch_33:13} and all Israel hereupon cried out with one consent, "The Lord he is God; the Lord he is God." {1Ki_18:39} {See Trapp on "Pro_15:8"}
{a} Non vacat exiguis. - Lucian Dialog.