CRITICAL NOTES.
Micah 7:11.] This confidence rises. Day] Fences will be built up. Decree] The law imposed upon Israel by heathens, some; others, the decree of God for her captivity.
Micah 7:12. That day] when the walls are built, there shall come to thee. He] i.e. many from Assyria, &c., scattered believers and heathen nations. From sea] i.e. from the Mediterranean to the Persian Sea. Mtn.] i.e. from Sinai in the south to Lebanon in the north.
Micah 7:13. Notwith.] Glorious the prospect of restoration, yet remember judgment. Land] i.e. the earth as opposed to the Church of God. In Zion alone will be deliverance, outside will be desolation.
HOMILETICS
A GLORIOUS DAY.—Micah 7:11-12
The Prophet predicts a glorious time, when Jerusalem shall be divested of enclosures and narrowness; when the Church shall be enlarged by the return of captives and the conversion of nations.
I. A day of deliverance from bondage. “In that day shall the decree be far removed.” God’s decree to punish, and the decree of Nebuchadnezzar to retain in captivity. Tyrannical rule would be destroyed, and perfect freedom enjoyed. No power on earth can detain God’s people in bondage when he intends to deliver.
II. A day of gathering together the scattered tribes. From fortress and fortified cities; from sea to sea, and from the utmost bounds of the earth, shall captive Jews return. As proselytes from all nations came to Jerusalem of old, so shall converts from north and south flow into the Christian Church. “In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt,” &c. (Isaiah 19:23).
III. A day of peaceful restoration. The walls of Zion shall no longer be in ruins. They shall be reared for a habitation and defence. Sin pulls down the walls and creates mischief. God alone can prosper and establish the Church. Without his aid we build in vain. Our prayer should ever be, “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.”
THE LAND CURSED BY THE SINS OF ITS INHABITANTS.—Micah 7:13
Salvation may come to the people, but the desolation of their land would remind them of their sins. However glorious the prospect, “the fruit of their doings” would curse the country in which they lived. Many are the sins of a people which are calamities to the land in which they are committed. We notice a few.
I. National idleness is a curse to the land. The ground is cursed by the sin of man, but will yield produce when cultivated. But idleness will bring ruin in all departments of trade. As men sow, so must they reap in this respect.
II. National intemperance is a curse to the land. It squanders financial resources, aggravates the curse of poverty, and leads to failure in the means of comfort and subsistence. It devours savings and capital; and causes theft and destruction of property.
III. National war is a curse to the land. Devastated fields, the destruction of towns and villages, are some of the fruits of men’s doings. In many ways judgments from God, as real as the fire upon the cities of the plain, desolate the ground because of them that dwell therein (Hosea 4:3; Jeremiah 23:10; Genesis 19:25). “A fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell herein.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Micah 7:11-12. These words are a promise and consolation to the Jews, for their restoration is here foretold as Micah had already foretold it (ch. Micah 4:10). But the whole is not limited to this. He says with remarkable indefiniteness, there shall come. He does not say who shall come. But he twice sets two opposite boundaries, from which men should come; and since these boundaries, not being coincident, cannot be predicted of one and the same subject, there must be two distinct incomings. While in the first place the restoration of Israel is foretold, there follows that conversion of the world which Micah had before promised (Micah 4:1-3), and which was the object of the restoration of Israel [Pusey].
1. The Lord will in due time restore and make up the ruins of his destroyed Church and people; for thy walls are to be built.
2. God’s time is to be patiently waited for in the restoration of his Church; for there is the day for doing it which he will keep, and no sooner.
3. As it is one of the greatest trials to the Church, to lie under the tyranny and oppression of strangers, who, by decrees and injunctions executed with vigour, labour to ruin her and destroy the work of God; so, when he has wrought his work upon his Church by such trial, the Lord will deliver them from the yoke, set them at liberty to serve him and enjoy tranquillity without interruptions; for, in that day the decree shall be removed [Hutcheson].
The fate of the earth and the glory of Zion are here set forth. Zion is multiplied by the addition of Gentiles, but judgment falls upon a sinful world. Salvation and peace within, danger and destruction without.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 7
Micah 7:12. From mountain to mountain probably includes all subdivisions of our habitable earth, as the words, from sea to sea, had embraced it as a whole. For, physically and to sight, mountains are the great natural divisions of our earth. Rivers are but the means of transit. The Euphrates and the Nile were the centres of the kingdoms which lay upon them. Each range of mountains, as it rises on the horizon, seems to present an insuperable barrier. No barrier should avail to hinder the onflow to the Gospel. Isaiah foretold that all obstacles should be removed, “Every valley shall be exalted,” &c. (Isaiah 40:4); so Micah prophesies from mountain to mountain [Pusey].