"Hannibal thinks that he is conquering the Romans by reason of the great courage and the extraordinary diligence he possesses. Alexander has greater gifts, which enable him to be successful in all his undertakings. But these are “masks.” They are the only things we see. But God’s control, by which governments are either strengthened or overturned, we do not see.
This is what it really means when Nineveh is called a city of God, and likewise when the trees are said to be trees of God; for they are controlled and fostered by God so that they grow. Even if they are helped by human industry and labor as well, these would be vain without God’s blessing. And who, I ask you, takes care of the forests and the groves, the trees in the vast uninhabited places?
Christ says (Matt. 5:45): “Your heavenly Father lets His sun rise over the good and the evil.” He calls the sun God’s sun, which He Himself created to invigorate nature.
Thus what is called a garden of God here is not, as the Jews prattle, a large one; it is one that is cultivated not only by human hands and effort but by God, because the Lord makes it fertile and blesses it.It is said that traces of this gift are in existence to this day. For near the Dead Sea the most beautiful fruits are produced; but when they are opened, they are full of a vile odor and ashes, obviously, as the poet says, “monuments of an ancient crime.” (emphasis mine)
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