CRITICAL NOTES.
Micah 5:7. Rem.] Shall quicken and have the same influence as imperceptible dew] (Deuteronomy 32:2; Psalms 72:6). An earnest of greater blessings hereafter (Isaiah 66:19; Zechariah 8:13). Showers] From dâbăr to multiply, multitudes of drops; from God, and independent of human agency, as dew and rain.
CRITICAL NOTES.
HOMILETICS
ISRAEL AS THE DEW.—Micah 5:7
The remnant of Jacob through participation in the Messiah’s work shall have a beneficent power, and spiritually influence surrounding nations, as rain and dew revive withering grass.
I. The Divine origin of dew. “As a dew from the Lord.” Israel’s restoration and increase here entirely from the Lord. This “orient pearl” glistens with Divine light. It is one of “the precious things of heaven” (Deuteronomy 33:13). Everything that quickens and invigorates spiritual life, every influence that preserves it from corruption and decay, comes from God. “I will be as the dew unto Israel.”
II. The sovereign laws of dew. “That tarrieth not for man,” &c. It is independent of the contrivance of man. It does not originate by human caprice and calculation. Man with all his science and skill can neither make nor hinder it. God supplies it according to his own purpose and law. “Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?”
III. The blessed influence of dew. Distilled in the silent night by the influences of heaven and earth, it bathes and refreshes each blade and flower with stainless moisture, and becomes an image of choicest blessing.
1. It is quickening in its influence. Without rain a Christian or an ungodly community is like grass dry and withered in appearance. “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.”
2. It is gentle in its influence. The word showers implies multitude of drops. “Drops as the gentle dew from heaven.” Imagine sheets of water falling at once. What destruction to life and vegetation! God breaks the force by its distribution in the needed showers, and each shower into countless drops. Not even the tenderest plant is injured. It descends noiselessly and penetrates deeply. Herbs grow and flourish under the soft influence which waiteth not for the sons of men. “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.”
3. It is copious in its influence. “As the showers.” Multitude of drops in falling rain we call a shower. Showers are dispersed in drops over the face of the earth. “God hath divided a watercourse for the overflowings of water” (Job 38:35). Pentecost and times of revivals illustrate this. Thus the influence of the Church upon the world should be like the effects of rain upon dry fields and withering plants. It should quicken and strengthen, make fruitful and fragrant. The godly should mitigate God’s anger which burns up the ungodly; draw blessings from heaven in personal and social life; and be as the dew “in the midst of many people.”
“Now sliding streams their thirsty plants renew,
And feed their fibres with reviving dew” [Pope].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 5
Micah 5:7. Dew comes down from heaven, is of heavenly, not earthly, origin, transparent, glistening with light, reflecting the hues of heaven; gentle, slight, weak in itself, refreshing, cooling the strong heats of the day; consumed itself, yet thereby preserving life; falling on the dry and withered grass, wherein all nature droops, and recalling it to freshness of life. And still more in those lands, where from the beginning of April to the end of October, the close of the latter and the beginning of the early rain, during all the hot months of summer, the life of all herbage depends upon the dew alone [Pusey].