CRITICAL NOTES.] Punishment is threatened against the heads and leaders of Israel.
Micah 3:1. Princes] Administrators of justice. You] Above every one. To know] To regard justice (Isaiah 42:25).
Micah 3:2. Pluck] Proverbial for the greatest injustice and inhumanity (Ezekiel 22:27; Zephaniah 3:3).
Micah 3:3. Flay] Sets forth still more their barbarity and cruelty.
Micah 3:4. Then] Time of punishment certain, seen and expressed. Ill] Lit. have made their deeds evil, reversing the call of the prophets (Jeremiah 35:15).
HOMILETICS
THE PUNISHMENT OF UNGODLY MAGISTRATES.—Micah 3:1-4
The prophet had denounced the sins of the people, now he threatens the civil rulers and religious teachers of the nation. The Judges of the law should have been exemplary in knowledge and virtue, but they were corrupt in thought, and ungodly in conduct.
I. The sins of which they were guilty. They are specially challenged by the prophet, and accused of no ordinary guilt. “Hear, I pray you.”
1. Sins against superior light. They were expected to know and love the right. From the law of God, and the customs of the country, they knew the rules of equity. They had means of ascertaining the right, to administer impartial justice, and could not plead excuses for ignorance (Jeremiah 5:4). Affected ignorance and wilful neglect only aggravate God. Civil rulers sin against superior privileges, public sentiment, and moral law, when they pervert justice. “Is it not for you to know judgment?”
2. Sins against responsible office. They were the heads, the rulers of the people, but abused their authority and dishonoured their position. Instead of doing good, they loved evil. When teachers corrupt doctrine, and preachers withhold the gospel; when rulers and princes pervert equity, and neglect special duties for the defence of which they are put in office; they poison the stream of life and turn it into deadly fountains.
3. Sins against the claims of humanity. They robbed the innocent, and devoured the helpless. Their furious rapacity surmounted every tie of humanity. Instead of feeding they fleeced the sheep, and sucked out the very blood of the people. The words indicate (a) Their intense greed; and (b) Their inhuman cruelty in satisfying it. But great men who oppress the poor, and hold themselves above law, will be accountable for their deeds and condemned for their cruelty. “Woe to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves; should not the shepherd feed the flock,” &c. (Ezekiel 34:2-4).
II. The punishment with which they are threatened. Men cannot fare well if they do ill. A just God rules over all things, whom they wickedly forget.
1. Punishment is certain. “Then,” predicts the prophet, with solemn certainty. A day of retribution was before his mind. He warns them of it. Though unseen, it is fixed in the purpose of God, and will surely come upon them.
2. Punishment is proportioned to their guilt. “As they behaved themselves ill in their doings.” God’s law is unchangeable; those who show no mercy shall have judgment without mercy. (a) They will cry and not be heard in their distress. If the cries of the poor are disregarded by us, they will be heard against us (Exodus 22:23). Men should have a feeling heart and a helping hand; should count it not charity, but a duty and a privilege, to defend the poor. But covetousness hardens the heart and makes the ear deaf. A time is coming when the scorner and the oppressor will cry to God in vain. “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard” (Proverbs 21:13; Proverbs 21:18; Proverbs 21:31). (b) They will be forsaken of God in their distress. “He will even hide his face from them at that time.” They cared not for others; God will, therefore, withhold his kindness and presence from them. Forsaken in heart and office, bereft of power and protection, they will be undone for ever. Before God, kings and paupers, priests and people, are treated according to their character and deserts. He is above all principalities and powers, and impartial in his rule. Usurped power shall be dethroned, and with the froward God will show himself froward. “Lo, this is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive of the Almighty.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Micah 3:2. Hate God and love evil. This is an awful transformation of moral character. Man at first loves good, though he pursues evil. There is constant strife in the soul, to end which many quieten conscience and blind judgment. “Then they hate the truth or good with a bitter hatred, because it disturbs the darkness of the false peace with which they would envelop themselves.” “Love of evil is always connected with hatred toward the good, although men commonly in practising evil keep up a semblance of love for the good” [Lange].
Micah 3:3. He heaps up their guilt act by act. First they flay, i.e. take away their outer goods; then they break their bones in pieces, the most solid parts, on which the whole frame of their body depends, to get at the very marrow of their life, and so feed themselves upon them [Pusey]. Alas that kings and ecclesiastics should do the same things now! Men are robbed of the means of subsistence, cut to pieces, and treated like cattle—
“And he that stands upon a slippery place,
Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up.” [Shakespeare.]
Micah 3:4. As they behaved. “Measure for measure” will ever be meted out to the evil-doer. “As I have done, so God hath requited me” (Judges 1:7).
Micah 3:1-4. A warning to Judges 1. Their responsibility as possessors of knowledge.
2. Their sin: violation of duty and self-seeking.
3. Their punishment [Lange].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Micah 3:1-4. Judgment. It is neither the great man’s power, nor the poor man’s meanness, that a judge is to mind in judgment. A judge, a justice, must never cry out, “Oh, he is a poor man!” nor yet out of base fear cry out, “Oh, he is a great man!” The judges in Egypt were portrayed without hands and without eyes, to signify that they were not to take bribes, nor to accept men’s persons [Brooks].
Micah 3:3. Eat flesh.
“Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions” [Shakespeare].