Wesley Corpus

Your fathers - Who lived under the judges; and you shall have no advantage by the change of government, nor shall your kings be able to protect you against God's displeasure. The mistake, if we think we can evade God's justice, by shaking off his dominion. If we will not let God rule us, yet he will judge us. Wheat - harvest - At which time it was a rare thing in those parts to have thunder or rain; the weather being more constant in its seasons there, than it is with us. Rain - That you may understand that God is displeased with you; and also how foolishly and wickedly you have done in rejecting the government of that God, at whose command are all things both in heaven and in earth. Samuel - Who had such power and favour with God. By this thunder and rain, God shewed them their folly in desiring a king to save them, rather than God or Samuel, expecting more from an arm of flesh than from the arm of God, or from the power of prayer. Could their king thunder with a voice like God Could their prince command such forces as the prophet could by his prayers Likewise he intimates, that how serene soever their condition was now, (like the weather in wheat harvest) yet if God pleased, he could soon change the face of their heavens, and persecute them with his storms. Thy God - Whom thou hast so great an interest in, while we are ashamed and afraid to call him our God. Fear not - With a desponding fear, as if there were no hope left for you. Turn aside - After idols; as they had often done before; and, notwithstanding this warning, did afterwards. Vain things - So idols are called, Deut 32:21 Jer 2:5, and so they are, being mere nothings, having no power in them; no influence upon us, nor use or benefit to us. His name's sake - That is, for his own honour, which would suffer much among men, if he should not preserve and deliver his people in eminent dangers.