Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Who can stand before His indignation? - This question appeals to our own consciences, that we cannot . It anticipates the self-conviction at every day of God' s visitation, the forerunners of the lust. The word rendered "indignation" is reserved almost exclusively to denote the wrath of God. : "Who can trust in his own righteousness, and, for the abundance of his works or consciousness of his virtues, not be in need of mercy? ' Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified;' and in Job it is said truly, ' Behold He put no trust in His servants, and His Angels He charged with folly. How much less in them that dwell in houses of' clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which ewe crushed before the moth?' Job 4:18-19. It were needless now to prove, that man' s own deserts suffice to no one, and that we are not saved but by the grace of God, ' for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God' Romans 3:23. Wherefore he saith, ' before His indignation,' standing face to Face before Him in wrath."
Literally, "in the Face of:" guilt cannot look in the face of man, how much less, of God. The bliss of the righteous is the punishment of the wicked, to behold God face to Face. For "whoever trusts in his own works deserves His indignation. and thinking he stands, righteously does he fall."
His fury is poured out - is used of the pouring out of God' s wrath, Jeremiah 7:20; Jeremiah 42:18; II Chronicles 12:7 (as more commonly ׁ here its native meaning is brought out the more, by adding .
Like fire - , sweeping away, like a torrent of molten fire, him who presumes that be can stand before His Face, as He did the cities of the plain Gen. 19, the image of the everlasting fire, which shall burn up His enemies on every side. "And rocks are thrown down" Psalms 97:3; Psalms 50:3; Psalms 68:3; Psalms 18:8. The rocks are like so many towers of nature, broken down and crushed "by Him" literally, "from Him." It needs not any act of God' s. He wills and it is done. Those who harden themselves, are crushed and broken to pieces, the whole fabric they had built for themselves and their defenses, crumbling and shivered. If then they, whose hearts are hard as rocks, and bold against all peril, and even Satan himself, whose "heart is as firm as a stone, yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone" Job 41:24, shall be crushed then, who shall abide?
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