Verse 14. - He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea,he reproved kings for their sakes. The reference is to the punishment inflicted on the Pharaoh of Abraham's time (Genesis 12:17), and on Abimelech of Gerar (Genesis 20:3, 7, 18).
105:8-23 Let us remember the Redeemer's marvellous works, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth. Though true Christians are few number, strangers and pilgrims upon earth, yet a far better inheritance than Canaan is made sure to them by the covenant of God; and if we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, none can do us any harm. Afflictions are among our mercies. They prove our faith and love, they humble our pride, they wean us from the world, and quicken our prayers. Bread is the staff which supports life; when that staff is broken, the body fails and sinks to the earth. The word of God is the staff of spiritual life, the food and support of the soul: the sorest judgment is a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. Such a famine was sore in all lands when Christ appeared in the flesh; whose coming, and the blessed effect of it, are shadowed forth in the history of Joseph. At the appointed time Christ was exalted as Mediator; all the treasures of grace and salvation are at his disposal, perishing sinners come to him, and are relieved by him.
He suffered no man to do them wrong,.... Though strangers and unsettled, and moving from place to place; and few in number, and weak and defenceless. Thus the herdsmen of Gerar were not suffered to do any harm to Isaac and his herdsmen; but, on the contrary, the king of the place, with some of his chief men, sought an alliance, and entered into one with Isaac. Thus Laban was not suffered to hurt Jacob, nor the Sichemites to hurt him and his sons; the terror of God falling on all the cities round about, Genesis 26:20. The people of God are in this world exposed to the injuries of the men of it, being as sheep among wolves; and it is often in the power of their hands to hurt them, as it was in the power of Laban to hurt Jacob; nor do they want an inclination, there being a rooted enmity in the seed of the serpent to the seed of the woman: but God will not suffer them; though they would willingly, like Balaam, curse them, yet they cannot curse whom God has blessed; he will not suffer them to injure them.
Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; as Pharaoh king of Egypt, and Abimelech king of Gerar; whom he reproved, both verbally and really, with words and stripes, Genesis 12:17. Kings are to be reproved by men, when they do amiss, as Herod was by John Baptist; and may expect to be reproved by the King of kings, when they do wrong, especially to his people; who are themselves kings and priests unto God, and are esteemed by him above the kings of the earth, and made higher than they.
Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; as Pharaoh king of Egypt, and Abimelech king of Gerar; whom he reproved, both verbally and really, with words and stripes, Genesis 12:17. Kings are to be reproved by men, when they do amiss, as Herod was by John Baptist; and may expect to be reproved by the King of kings, when they do wrong, especially to his people; who are themselves kings and priests unto God, and are esteemed by him above the kings of the earth, and made higher than they.