CRITICAL NOTES.
Micah 1:10.] The Prophet thinks now of the malicious joy of heathen neighbours. Ten places are mentioned in Micah 1:10-15 to depict what would happen in them. In most cases the things said of each city are a play upon the name of that city, a method of writing well adapted to impress the memory [Cowles].
Micah 1:11. Forth] To console others (Jeremiah 6:25). Standing] i.e. the sustenance of the foe.
Micah 1:12. Waited] for better fortune, but in vain [Calvin].
Micah 1:13. Bind] Flee as fast as possible from the advancing enemy. Begin.] The first to introduce false gods.
Micah 1:14. Thou] Israel would renounce all claim to Mor. and give it up to the foe; and Ach. would answer to its name, and disappoint Israel’s hopes.
Micah 1:15. Heir] A new possessor, viz., the Assyrian shall occupy the place, as they expelled former inhabitants, and Israel’s glory (Adullam) shall decay.
Micah 1:16. Bald] A token of deep mourning (Job 1:20; Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 16:6). Children] wept for, as the loss of a mother. Eagle] Not the common eagle, but the bearded or carrion vulture. Judgments in general are described, not particular definite punishments, without precise methods of accomplishment, so that the predictions embrace all the judgments against Judah which took place from the Assyrian invasion until the Roman catastrophe [Keil].
THE PROPHET’S LAMENTATION.—Micah 1:10
The calamity of God’s people and the sorrow of the Prophet were such that should be unknown to the enemy, lest he should indulge in malignant joy, and add to affliction. Hence, in language borrowed from 2 Samuel 1:20, they are urged to conceal distress, suppress weeping, lest the Philistines in Gath should hear.
Learn,
I. That some rejoice in the affliction of God’s people. “Declare it not,” &c. Many would be glad to see the Church in deepest misery. Strange to say that nearest neighbours are often bitterest enemies. Gath was next to the borders, but did not partake of the spirit of Judah. But God’s servants have great sympathy with his people, and constant jealousy for his honour. “Let none that wait on thee be ashamed.”
II. That God’s people cannot always hide their affliction. “Weep not,” it will be of no avail. Sometimes grief may be smothered by concealing it. At other times it is impossible to hide it. God will publish it as a discipline to his people and a warning to the world. Our afflictions must be noted by men, and under them they may be permitted to insult and reproach us. But God will defend his honour and his church. “Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants” (Cf. Psalms 89:50; 1 Peter 2:20).
III. That God’s people should humble themselves under their affliction. “Roll thyself in the dust.” If not to mourn in Gath, they may in Aphrah. Silent before the wicked, they may grieve in private. Noisy lamentation may be imprudent, but silent tears are becoming. When weeping would be the joy and laughter of God’s enemies it is often acceptable to God. From the dust we sprang, to the dust we must return, and affliction is designed to remind us of this. “O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation.”
GREAT CITIES AND GREAT RUIN.—Micah 1:11-16
Whether the following places be figurative or real, they set forth the greatness of the calamity which falls upon them by their names, qualities, and condition.
I. Great cities are often guilty of great sins. Proximity and commercial intercourse corrupt. Popular sins spring from certain ranks and certain places. Each has its special sin, and all are involved in idolatry and its miseries.
II. In the punishment of great cities God deals to each its due. Each city of Judah received its due. Saphir with its beauty would be clothed with shame; Zaanan with its flocks and population would be the encampment of the enemy, and unable to sympathize with Beth-ezel, its nearest neighbour. The inhabitants of Maroth would expect good and receive evil; Lachish would be strong only to flee, “like a brook that fails and deceives; her inheritance (Mareshah) inherited; herself taking refuge in dens and caves of the earth, yet even there found and bereft of her glory.” God weighs truly the responsibilities of each, and foremost in privileges will be foremost in punishment for the neglect of those privileges.
III. No earthly power can ward off the punishment of great cities. It may be lawful to defend ourselves in danger; but against God’s fierce anger none can prevail.
1. Human helps will be in vain. Maroth waited anxiously for good, but were disappointed (Micah 1:12). Beauty and strength, splendid positions and large populations, will not succour those who trust to them. Men who hope in sin will find bitterness in the end; and this bitterness may only be the beginning of a greator calamity. “Unto the gate of Jerusalem.”
2. Flight cannot save (Micah 1:13). Lachish had chariots and swift beasts, but where are they now? Shut up in the hand of the enemy, and unable to escape. “The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord.”
3. Presents cannot bribe. Lachish would send gifts to some town or country in Gath to purchase aid against the invader, but would be disappointed. Wicked men employ any means rather than seek God in trouble. They might learn from those whose sins are written on their foreheads, and whose name and nature are a lie. “The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the king of Israel.”
4. Great distance will not secure. Adullam was the remotest border to Assyria (Micah 1:15). Distance, if such there be, can never exempt from God’s judgments. He will find out and chastise the guilty wherever they be. Christ is the only security, and heaven the only abiding inheritance. Secure those blessings from which no enemy can drive you.
IV. Universal mourning results from the ruin of great cities. The body of the people, the mother cities, are called upon to mourn. The people will be taken captive and diminished, or if left behind will be weakened and despised. Sin in the end will turn mirth into bitterness, deprive of liberty, plunge into misery and everlasting lamentation. “And in that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth.”
THE INHABITANT OF MAROTH.—Micah 1:12
This refers to the invasion of the Assyrian, the rod of God’s anger. He had subdued and ravaged Israel, and now entered Judah. The Prophet laments the horrors of the scene, and describes the effects of them upon the places in the line of march. Maroth was very interior, and situated nigh Jerusalem; and probably the inhabitants thought on that account they were safer than those who lived on the borders. This may remind us of the disappointments of life, the source of calamity, and the season of deliverance. They “waited carefully for good;” but in vain: “evil came.” Is such a disappointment a strange or unusual thing? What is there in life that is not uncertain, and does not expose the hope resting upon it? Is it Substance? Health? Children? Friends? Does the Scripture only cry, “All is vanity;” and, “Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils”? Does not all history, observation, and experience tell us the same? Let the young, and all, be sober in expectation of earthly things. It is the way to escape the surprise and anguish of disappointment. Make the Lord your hope. He will not deceive us: he cannot fail us. “Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” See also the source of calamity. “Evil came down from the Lord.” This seems strange when we are assured that “every good and every perfect gift” comes down from him. Micah speaks of natural evil, or the evil of suffering. And what calamity is there that Scripture has not ascribed to God? A storm at sea? “He breaketh the ships of Tarshish.” Barrenness of soil? “He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness.” The loss of connections? “Lover and friend hast thou put far from me.” We oftener connect war with the follies and passions of men than other evils; but he has “created the waster to destroy.” Never view sufferings, public or private, personal or relative, abstractedly from God. Let not the instruments lead us to overlook his agency. They could have no power at all against us except it was given them from above. But how does this evil come from him? Some view mercy as separate from justice; and others justice as separate from mercy: one of these partial views genders presumption, the other despair. Extremes should be avoided in considering God as the righteous governor and the tender father. Everything in his present administration is adapted to show the union of holiness and goodness, to awaken fear and hope. The evils he sends are the effects of sin; the fruits to take away sin. We deserve them and need them; the one shows that we have no right to murmur, the other that we have no reason to complain. Cheerful submission is required; but this can only be given when we see the relation that affliction has to our desert and improvement. Mark also the time of deliverance. Though God saves his people he may permit destruction to draw very nigh. In this case he could have hindered the calamity at the frontier, but evil came “unto the gate of Jerusalem.” So far, but no farther, did the insulting foe come. Here were his proud waves stayed. Here his power and triumph ended. Hezekiah conquered him on his knees, and the Lord put his bridle into his jaws and drew him back. The angel made a great slaughter in the camp that night, showing that God can not only deliver in the greatest straits, but that he frequently does not interfere till the evil has reached its extremity. The delay is not abandonment. He waits to be gracious, and the season in which he will appear will display his glory and draw forth our praise. It is often darkest just before the break of day. “In the mount it shall be seen” [Jay].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Micah 1:10. To be indifferent to the honour of God, and to have no sorrow at reproach being brought on the cause of religion through the fall of its professors, is the mark of the carnal, unregenerate mind [Fausset].
Micah 1:11. Selfish men are often so taken up with their own sorrows that they have no sympathy for others. “The inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel.”
Micah 1:13. Beginning of sin. What a world of evil lies in the three words! [Pusey]. To be the first occasion and chief stumbling-block in a land’s defection brings on exemplary judgment [Hutcheson].
Micah 1:14. Learn—I. That in trouble men often flee to human help. Treaties, presents, and bribes are all tried rather than God. II. That God warns men against trusting to human help.
1. By their own experience.
2. By the experience of others. “The houses of Achzib” might have taught wisdom, for they are “a lie.” III. The failure of all human helps is conspicuous. They are known by their names, natures, and results. They deceive, they are “a lie.”
Micah 1:15. All possessions, houses, lands, and families are insecure when God is provoked—may be taken from us, and another may be the heir to them. “I will bring an heir unto thee.”
The glory of Israel.
1. Religious privileges are the glory of a nation.
2. This glory may depart through a nation’s sin. When religious ordinances are neglected or abused, and God is provoked, they cannot ward off judgment. A nation’s glory may then be laid in the dust.
1. The signs of sorrow. Baldness, enlarged baldness. In other cases baldness forbidden Israel, but in sorrow for sin they were called to it (Isaiah 22:12). As the eagle, which not only loses its feathers, but its beauty, swiftness, and courage with them.
2. The causes of sorrow. The captivity of children. Indulgent fathers may become parricides, not parents. “Those who give themselves up to luxury are at least given up to miserable slavery. When a man makes his children effeminate he makes for himself grief and heart-pangs” [Lange].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Micah 1:10-16. God’s providences illustrate his word. Nations are punished for their sins. “History is a practical comment upon revelation, and revelation is a sure key to many parts of history.”
This passage of Micah (Micah 1:10-16) is to be compared with that noble one in Isaiah (Isaiah 10:28-32), where the Prophet describes the panic which spreads from one town to another near Jerusalem, when the Assyrian army under Sennacherib invaded Judah, and took all its fenced cities (Isaiah 36:1). Micah continues the prophetic description of Isaiah. Isaiah represents the panic, alarm, and havoc produced in the days of Hezekiah by the Assyrian army under Sennacherib invading Jerusalem from the north-east. Micah represents his career to the south-west, even to Lachish, mentioned by both the prophets (See Micah 1:13).
We know from Jeremiah (Jeremiah 26:18) that the prophetic warnings and reproofs of Micah wrought powerfully on the mind of the good king Hezekiah; and that for a time the judgments impending over Jerusalem were averted by his repentance. Similar results appear to have been produced on him by the cheering voice of Isaiah, who completed the work of Micah, by inspiring the king with faith and hope; and God blessed the work of the two prophets, and the prayers of the penitent king, who at first had faltered (See 2 Kings 18:14-16), by delivering him and his people, and by destroying the army of Sennacherib, when it returned from Egypt in triumph, beneath the walls of Jerusalem. (See above, on Isaiah 37:36.) [Wordsworth.]