CRITICAL NOTES.]
Micah 2:8. Late] Lit. yesterday = not long since; or again, recently, the people stood up, took an hostile attitude. Pull off] Not content with the outer garment, they rob passers-by of the ornamental robe, strip them of their habiliments as spoils of war.
Micah 2:9. Women] Widows, unprotected (Isaiah 10:2), were driven from houses to which they were attached, and which they inherited from their husbands. Children] Orphans of widows not spared. Glory] My ornament, i.e. garment or upper-coat. For ever] No repentance, no return of the coat according to law (Exodus 22:25-27).
Micah 2:10. Arise] As you have cast out others, so must you be cast out. Canaan was no longer a rest to them.
HOMILETICS
GRIEVOUS SINS AND RIGHTEOUS RETRIBUTION.—Micah 2:8-10
The Prophet describes the sad change that had come over the people. Their fathers were famous in war, heroic in the defence of their country against the enemy, and humane towards others. But they had barbarously treated peaceful subjects and innocent women and children. God threatens to do to them as they had done to others.
I. What are the sins denounced?
1. Rebellion against God. “My people is risen up as an enemy.” (a) This rebellion was recent. “Even of late;” only yesterday you have added to former sins. When men cast off the restraints of God’s Word and God’s Spirit they will commit greater folly. No bonds will check the ungodly and rebellious. (b) This rebellion was unprovoked. God was not their enemy, but designed their good. They had risen up vehemently (Cf. Micah 5:4; Micah 7:14; 1 Kings 11:14) against God and man, and become Ishmaelites rather than Israelites. (c) This rebellion was universal. They rose up as one man. Whatever their profession, they were one in their sympathies and conduct. Sin is determined opposition to God. Those who assume this attitude are enemies to God and their country, put themselves away from the benefits of God’s Word, and prefer darkness to light because their deeds are evil.
2. Hostility to man. Casting off the fear of God, they had no regard for man. (a) They robbed peaceful travellers. Men averse from war and strife were hindered in their journey, stripped of their comely dress, and violently treated as prisoners of war. What injustice to permit this! What inhumanity to man! “Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked; out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.” (b) They abused defenceless women. “The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses.” God, the preserver of men, has tender regard for the weaker sex, and will punish aggravations against them. “They devoured widows’ houses.” (c) They maltreated innocent children. They robbed them of the fitting apparel which God had given them, kept the garments for ever which they had taken, and never made restitution. They sold into captivity, and never ceased their oppression. Sex did not save the women, nor age the children. Human rights and human happiness were disregarded. Thus they provoked God, who is a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless.
II. What is the punishment threatened?
1. They were treated as enemies. They had set upon quiet citizens as if they were suspicious characters; ill used friends as if they had been enemies. God now considers them as enemies. “My people is risen up as an enemy.”
2. They were deprived of their possessions. As they had driven helpless widows from their homes, so God gives them corresponding punishment. The land shall not be their rest; they must quit it by force, for it is polluted by their sin. “Arise ye and depart.” There can be no resting-place in sin. A place polluted by guilt will soon become “the sore destruction” of its inhabitants. “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.”
THE CHRISTIAN’S CALL FROM EARTH.—Micah 2:10
We may take these words as a call to Christians to arise from the world with all its attractions—an admonition not to live too much for earth. For everything proclaims the transitory nature of things below, and reminds us that “here we have no continuing city.” Every condition justifies the sentiment of the poet—
“Too low they build who build beneath the skies.”
I. Earth is not the scene of repose. “This is not your rest.” We get no repose physically. Outward circumstances, however smooth, get upset and changed. Intellectually we get no satisfaction. The more we know, the more we desire to know. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the intellect with knowing. But spiritually rest is impossible on earth. Earth is an inn, not a home; our passage, not our portion. Only at the end of our journey will be “quietness and assurance for ever.”
II. Earth is not the place of destination. Many idolize the world, and live as if they had not to depart hence; but the Christian is a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth. “I am a citizen of the whole world,” said Diogenes, when asked what countryman he was. Our citizenship is in heaven, and, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we look “for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” “a better country, even a heavenly.”
III. Earth is not suitable for our residence. “It is good for pilgrimage, but miserable for residence,” says one. With all its beauties and pleasures it is polluted. Sin and death abound and blacken its fair skies. Sin defiles the land in which it is committed. “Corruption in the world through lust.” If you do not keep yourselves unspotted from the world, but settle down in it and make it your rest, you will be overturned “with a sore destruction.”
“It is not for me to be seeking my bliss,
Or building my hopes in a region like this;
I look for a city that hands have not piled,
I pant for a country by sin undefiled.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
I. The description of the world.
1. It is polluted.
2. It is dangerous. “It shall destroy you.”
3. Hence it is not a rest. II. The command to depart from it. “Arise,” &c.
1. It is comprehensive. Separate yourselves from the world, and touch not the unclean. Avoid its company. “The friendship of the world is enmity with God.” Renounce its maxims and conversations. “Those who are bound for Canaan must not speak the language of Ashdod,” says Philip Henry. Live above the allurements and pleasures, the anxieties and cares of the world. Set your affections on things above.
2. It is urgent. “Arise and depart.” Like Israel from Egypt, and the pilgrim from the city of destruction, we must hasten and delay not.
3. It is needed. We are apt to grow careless, settle down and say, “In my prosperity I shall never be moved,” but God wakens us by his providence and Word, “Arise, and depart.”
The present is not our rest. It was not designed to be our rest. It is not fit to be our rest. If we are Christians we have relinquished it and chosen another rest. But many, like Reuben and Gad, prefer an inheritance on this side Jordan. The godly themselves have need to have their pure minds stirred up by way of remembrance. God sends them therefore the message, “Arise ye,” &c. There are five ways by which he sends it. The first is his Word. The second is affliction. The third is worldly success. The fourth is the earnests and foretastes of a better world. The last is death. This orders us to depart really as well as morally. Every apprehension and approach of it cries, “It is high time to awake out of sleep,” &c. [From Jay]
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Micah 2:8-9. Women and children.
“The cries of orphans, and the oppressor’s rage
Doth reach the stars” [Dryden].
Micah 2:10. Not your rest.
“This is the scene of combat, not of rest;
Man’s is laborious happiness at best;
On this side death his dangers never cease,
His joys are joys of conquest, not of peace.”