CRITICAL NOTES. The Church now mourns itself, and confesses that its condition is like a vintage after gleaning. No cluster] to be found. Ripe fruit] of excellent flavour chiefly desired.
Micah 7:2. Good] Heb. merciful and good to man (Psalms 12:1); delivered from the evil to come (Isaiah 57:1); or cut off by those in wait for blood—lit. bloods, i.e. blood-shedding. Net] used for hunting (Habakkuk 1:15). Brother] Bound by law to love another as himself (Leviticus 19:18).
HOMILETICS
THE SCARCITY OF GODLY MEN.—Micah 7:1-2
The prophet mourns that he lives in a degenerate age. Good men have perished. Instead of finding the nation like a ripe vintage, there is not “a cluster to eat.” It is gleaned of the best and filled with the worst of men.
I. Godly men are scarce upon the earth. “The good man is perished out of the earth.” We should not complain, like Elijah, for we are not left alone in the present day. Yet good men are few.
1. Some are removed by cruelty. They are cut off by those who “lie in wait for blood.” In all ages the blood of martyrs has been freely spilt. The wicked plot and persecute, lie in ambuscade for the reputation and life of the godly now. All malice is cruelty, and would put to death those whom it hates. “Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.”
2. Others perish by moral defection. Iniquity abounds, and the love of many grows cold. Difficulties and dangers terrify some, others are not sincere, get disappointed, and “draw back unto perdition.” “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us no doubt they would have continued with us.”
3. Many are taken away by death. Good men ripen on earth for the blessedness of heaven. They are gathered like the summer fruits, and thus escape the severity of winter. “Merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.”
II. The scarcity of godly men upon the earth is a cause of regret. “Woe is me!” Godly men are precious and profitable as the first ripe fruits; useful to the Christian Church and the world.
1. They are a loss to the Christian Church. Their presence and example adorn and strengthen the Church. They are pillars, “the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.” We require the wisdom and zeal, the faith and power, of former ages. Every death seems to diminish the faithful, and make them “as the grape-gleanings of the vintage.”
2. They are a loss to the world. As lights their influence is diffusive and blessed. “Like the sun,” says Hume, “they cheer, invigorate, and sustain the surrounding world.” As salt they preserve the earth from corruption, and quicken men to higher life. Their prayers draw blessings from heaven, and ward off judgments from men. They refresh and fructify the place in which they dwell. When they die, justice, benevolence, and beauty depart. “The world is upheld by the veracity of good men,” says Emerson; “they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious.” “The saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom is all my delight.”
MATURITY REQUIRED BY GOD.—Micah 7:1
These words may be taken as expressing God’s desire for ripeness or maturity in grace. Hence they relate to our experience, character, and efforts.
I. God requires maturity in human experience. “My soul desired the first ripe fruit.”
1. The unconverted must be renewed. No clusters of grace and beauty adorn their conduct. They are like trees without foliage and fruit. Barren and unfruitful in the works and ways of God.
“Here elements have lost their uses,
Air ripens not, nor earth produces” [Swift].
2. The penitent must ripen in humility. Not mere blossoms of sorrow, but fruits meet for repentance must be produced. Penitence and pardon, faith and holiness, must be visible. “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.”
II. God requires maturity in Christian character. Christian character grows. In this growth are seed time and harvest; progress in knowledge and holiness. There are babes, but we must come to the full stature, not the mere outline, but the perfect likeness in Christ. “He is but the counterfeit of a Christian who hath not the life of a Christian,” says one. All the virtues of Christian conduct must ripen. God is glorified, and ministers glad, when we bring forth much fruit. “I desire fruit that may abound to your account.”
III. God requires maturity in personal effort. There must be thought and maturity in everything.
1. In efforts we must put forth our strength and work earnestly. Whatsoever our hands find to do, must be done with all our might. Decision and energy must be thrown into every undertaking.
2. In offerings we must give the first ripe fruit. In sacred worship and daily life let there be nothing sour and unripe. In the Sunday-school and the sick-room, think, prepare, and do your best. David would not offer to God of that which cost nothing. If we spare the seed we shall reap no harvest (Proverbs 11:24; 2 Corinthians 9:6); but thorough consecration will secure overflowing vintage. “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Micah 7:1. The moral contrast or,
1. What is desired. “The first ripe fruit.”
2. What is really found. “There is no cluster to eat” (Micah 7:1).
Micah 7:2. The picture of a good man.
1. The good man in his character. Good here means merciful, actively good and benevolent to men.
2. The good man in his influence. He upholds justice, checks corruptions, and testifies to God. When merciful men die, uprightness goes and cruelty enters the land. “The good man is perished, and there is none upright.”
3. The good man in his death. The Church and the servants of God lament the loss. “Woe is me!”
“A combination, and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man.” [Shakespeare.]
Brotherly cruelty. “They hunt every man his brother.”
1. Wicked men plan to assail others.
2. These plans are crafty. Nets of various kinds laid to ensnare.
3. These crafty plans often succeed. Fraud is added to force, and craft to cruelty. The guilt is greater because a brother, by race or grace, is humbled. Nearest friends are often entrapped like birds by the fowler.
Every man is the brother of every man, because he is a man, born of the same first parent, children of the same Father: yet they lay wait for one another, as hunters for wild beasts (cf. Psalms 35:7; Psalms 57:7; Jeremiah 5:26) [Pusey].
“O what are these?
Death’s ministers, not men: who thus deal death
Inhumanly to men; and multiply
Ten thousandfold the sin of him who slew
His brother” [Milton].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 7
Micah 7:1-2. Good men few. They say that fish smell first at the head, and when godly men decay, the whole commonwealth will soon go rotten. We must not, however, be rash in our judgment on this point, for Elijah erred in counting himself the only servant of God alive, when there were thousands whom the Lord held in reserve [Spurgeon].