Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
Make thee bald ... - a token of deep mourning (Ezra 9:3; Job 1:20). Mourn, O land, for thy darling children.
Poll thee - shave off thy hair.
Enlarge thy baldness - mourn grievously. The land is compared to a mother weeping for her children.
As the eagle - the bald eagle; or the dark-winged vulture. In the moulting season all eagles are comparatively bald (cf. Psalms 103:5, "Thy youth is renewed as the eagle's").
Remarks:
(1) Micah designates himself by the humble village to which he belonged, "the Morasthite." But while he humbleth himself he exalts his office. He spake not words of himself, but "the word of the Lord that came to" him, and "which he saw" (Micah 1:1). The glory of the minister is to forget himself while he glorifies his Master.
(2) Beginning with the same appeal as that used by his namesake, the former Micaiah, "Hear all ye people," Micah implies that the fulfillment of the word of God spoken by his predecessor is an earnest of the fulfillment of it as spoken by himself. The pagan peoples being, before the event, apprised of the judgment coming on the people of God, could not attribute that judgment to want of power or faithlessness on the part of Yahweh, but would have to recognize therein the hand of the just and holy God. So, at the coming judgment, the righteousness of God shall be revealed before all His creatures: and it is for this end that the Lord shall "call the earth, from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof." "He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people" (Psalms 50:1; Psalms 50:4).
Every judgment on the nations now is an earnest of the final judgment. Especially so is the judgment under which Israel and the Jews have been for ages suffering. God, by the fulfillment of His threats against His ancient people, is a "witness" alike to His own justice and truth and against their apostasy. In the last judgment He shall witness against evil doers and for them that do well (Micah 1:2).
(3) The coming of the Lord is always drawing nigh. He abides in His place while He is now unseen. He "cometh forth out of His place" (Micah 1:3) when He shall manifest Himself as the Avenger of sin and the Rewarder of obedience. That shall be the day when "the high places of the earth," as well as the haughty men that resemble them, shall be trodden under foot. Nor shall the deep valleys, and the sinners who hide in them, escape the searching glance of the Almighty, Judge. As wax melteth before the fire (Micah 1:3), and as waters dashed down a precipice, so shall the ungodly perish before the presence of Yahweh.
(4) The judgment inflicted on Israel by Assyria was not through any change of purpose in God, but on account of "the transgression of" the degenerate descendants of "Jacob." The Assyrian was but the instrument in the hand of God for the chastisement of His people. The unfaithfulness was on their part, not on God's part. The very name of Jacob and Israel which they bore was a standing witness against their degeneracy: just as the name Christian testifies against all who dishonour "that worthy name by the which they are called" (James 2:7). The capital city, Samaria, was the center of evil whence, as from a fountain-head, the streams of corruption overflowed the land. Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, too, had fallen away from its past spiritual eminence. Sin in the people of God is peculiarly offensive and provoking to Him.
(5) Samaria having been foremost in guilt was to be the first in the punishment. Its site, originally occupied by 'vine-plantings,' was to be reduced to the same state again (Micah 1:6). The stones of its buildings would be gathered in "heaps," to make way for cultivation, after they had been "poured down into the valley," beneath the crest of the hill on which the city, "the crown of pride," once stood (Isaiah 28:1). Such is the miserable end of those who depart from God.
(6) All whatever of wealth, pleasure, or fame a man promises to himself to gain by giving his heart to any object out of God is the "hire" of spiritual fornication, and shall be consumed by "the fire" of the last day (Micah 1:7). Whosoever turn their glory into shame, their glory shall be turned into shame, and their temporary gains into everlasting losses.
(7) The prophet, when desiring to move his people to penitential weeping, weeps first himself (Micah 1:8). Example is more powerful than precept: at least, example most effectually recommends precept. The minister or Christian who would win souls must be a man of sympathy-one who grieves for the misery awaiting the impenitent, and who, by personal experience, knows the preciousness of the love of God, which the unregenerate forfeit. Let us seek to have some measure of the apostle's sympathy, when he says, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?" (2 Corinthians 11:29).
(8) The moral wound of the sinner is incurable (Micah 1:9), and only to be dealt with by utter excision, when a man has so long hardened himself against the love and grace, and light of God that the Spirit of God has ceased to strive with him in mercy. Then nothing "remaineth but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation" (Hebrews 10:27).
(9) Such was the case of Israel as a nation in Micah's time." Still the prophet would not have it declared in Gath (Micah 1:10), lest the pagan Philistines there should exult over the downfall of Israel, as the triumph of pagandom over the religion of Yahweh, the God of Israel. To be indifferent to the honour of God, and to have no sorrow at reproach being brought on the cause of religion through the fall of its professors, is the mark of the carnal, unregenerate mind. On the other hand, to be tenderly alive to all that affects the interests and glory of the Lord's kingdom on earth is the mark of one who is himself a member of the heavenly citizenship.
(10) The inhabitant of Maroth "waited carefully for good; but evil came down from the Lord" (Micah 1:12). The reason why such was the result was, because he waited for the good which God gives, rather than for the good which God is. None who truly wait on Him and for Him shall be disappointed. For He hath said, "They shall not be ashamed that wait for me" (Isaiah 49:23). But they who look for good from the Lord, but are not willing to give up the evil of their own ways, shall look to Him in vain.
(11) Whosoever is "the beginning of sin" to the people of God shall be foremost in the punishment (Micah 1:13). Nor shall any creaturely power avert it. The human stays on which the sinner had relied shall fail, and prove but a "lie" in the time of sorest need (Micah 1:14). Heaven is the only abiding inheritance, and the Lord the only lasting portion. Let us seek, through the Saviour, and by His Spirit, that abiding and glorious portion from which no enemy can ever supplant us!