| Back to Home Page | Back
to Book Index |
Micah Chapter
Two
Micah 2
Chapter Contents
The sins and desolations of Israel. (1-5) Their evil
practices. (6-11) A promise of restoration. (12
13)
Commentary on Micah 2:1-5
Woe to the people that devise evil during the night
and
rise early to carry it into execution! It is bad to do mischief on a sudden
thought
much worse to do it with design and forethought. It is of great moment
to improve and employ hours of retirement and solitude in a proper manner. If
covetousness reigns in the heart
compassion is banished; and when the heart is
thus engaged
violence and fraud commonly occupy the hands. The most haughty
and secure in prosperity
are commonly most ready to despair in adversity. Woe
to those from whom God turns away! Those are the sorest calamities which cut us
off from the congregation of the Lord
or cut us short in the enjoyment of its
privileges.
Commentary on Micah 2:6-11
Since they say
"Prophesy not
" God will take
them at their word
and their sin shall be their punishment. Let the physician
no longer attend the patient that will not be healed. Those are enemies
not
only to God
but to their country
who silence good ministers
and stop the
means of grace. What bonds will hold those who have no reverence for God's
word? Sinners cannot expect to rest in a land they have polluted. You shall not
only be obliged to depart out of this land
but it shall destroy you. Apply
this to our state in this present world. There is corruption in the world
through lust
and we should keep at a distance from it. It is not our rest: it
was designed for our passage
but not for our portion; our inn
but not our
home; here we have no continuing city; let us therefore arise and depart
let
us seek a continuing city above. Since they will be deceived
let them be
deceived. Teachers who recommend self-indulgence by their doctrine and example
best suit such sinners.
Commentary on Micah 2:12
13
These verses may refer to the captivity of Israel and
Judah. But the passage is also a prophecy of the conversion of the Jews to
Christ. The Lord would not only bring them from captivity
and multiply them
but the Lord Jesus would open their way to God
by taking upon him the nature
of man
and by the work of his Spirit in their hearts
breaking the fetters of
Satan. Thus he has gone before
and the people follow
breaking
in his
strength
through the enemies that would stop their way to heaven.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Micah》
Micah 2
Verse 1
[1] Woe
to them that devise iniquity
and work evil upon their beds! when the morning
is light
they practise it
because it is in the power of their hand.
That devise —
Contrive and frame mischief.
Evil work —
Contrive how to work it.
It is in the power —
Because they can; without regarding right or wrong.
Verse 2
[2] And they covet fields
and take them by violence; and houses
and take
them away: so they oppress a man and his house
even a man and his heritage.
And his house —
His family
which by this means is left to poverty.
And his heritage —
And this is done against ancient right and possession
nay
in a case where God
hath forbidden them to sell their heritage.
Verse 3
[3]
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold
against this family do I devise an evil
from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for
this time is evil.
Against this family —
God will devise evil against their family
as they devised evil against the
family of their neighbours.
Haughty —
You have made others hang the head; so shall you now.
Is evil —
Full of miseries on the whole family of Jacob.
Verse 4
[4] In
that day shall one take up a parable against you
and lament with a doleful
lamentation
and say
We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my
people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our
fields.
A parable — A
taunting proverb.
And lament —
Your friends for you
and you for yourselves.
He — God.
Portion —
Their wealth
plenty
freedom
joy and honour
into poverty
famine
servitude
grief and dishonour.
How —
How dreadfully hath God dealt with Israel; removing their persons into
captivity
and transferring their possession to their enemies? Turning away -
Turning away from us in displeasure. God hath divided our fields among others.
Verse 5
[5] Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the
congregation of the LORD.
Thou shalt have —
None that shall ever return to this land
to see it allotted by line and given
them to possess it.
In the congregation —
They shall no more be the congregation of the Lord
nor their children after
them.
Verse 6
[6]
Prophesy ye not
say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to
them
that they shall not take shame.
They shall not prophesy — So God doth in his displeasure grant their desire.
Take shame —
That will not take shame to themselves.
Verse 7
[7] O
thou that art named the house of Jacob
is the spirit of the LORD straitened
are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?
That art named —
You are in name
not in truth
the seed of Jacob.
Straitened —
The power
wisdom
and kindness of God is not less now than formerly.
Are these —
Are these severe proceedings the doings your God delighteth in? Do not my words
- My words promise all good
to those that with honest hearts walk in the ways
of God.
Verse 8
[8] Even
of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with the
garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.
Is risen up —
They have risen up
Israel against Judah
and Judah against Israel
and of late
the tribes have conspired against one another; subjects against their kings
and great ones against the meaner sort.
With the garment —
You strip those that fearing no evil
go about their private affairs.
Verse 9
[9] The
women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their
children have ye taken away my glory for ever.
The women —
The widows.
Of my people — Of
Israelites
not strangers
that were by peculiar provision from God's law
to
be tenderly dealt with
Exodus 22:22.
Cast out —
You have turned out of their old habitations.
From their children —
You have turned their children out of their houses
and estates
which were
secured by the law of God from any sale beyond the jubilee; yet you have
confiscated them for ever.
My glory —
Which was the glory of my bounty to them.
Verse 10
[10]
Arise ye
and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted
it
shall destroy you
even with a sore destruction.
Arise ye — Ye
inhabitants of Israel
prepare for your departure out of this land.
Your rest —
Though it was given this people for a rest under God's wing; yet it was on
condition of continued obedience.
Polluted —
With many
and great
and old sins.
Destroy — It
shall spue you out.
Verse 11
[11] If a
man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie
saying
I will prophesy unto thee
of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.
Walking — If
a man pretend to have the spirit of prophesy.
Saying —
You shall have plenty of days
and may eat
drink
and be merry.
He shall even be the prophet — Such they like and chuse.
Verse 12
[12] I
will surely assemble
O Jacob
all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of
Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah
as the flock in the
midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of
men.
Them —
All the remnant.
As the sheep — ln
great numbers.
Their fold —
Their own fold
where they are safe.
The multitude of men — This was fulfilled in part
when the Jews returned out of Babylon
but
more fully when Christ by his gospel gathered together in one
all the children
of God that were scattered abroad.
Verse 13
[13] The
breaker is come up before them: they have broken up
and have passed through
the gate
and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them
and
the LORD on the head of them.
The breaker — To
break down all opposition.
The gate —
The door of escape out of their captivity. No cities so strong
which the
Assyrians shall not take and possess
and enter in through the gates.
The Lord —
Even Jehovah
as he was at the head of Israel
when he brought them out of
Egypt.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Micah》
02 Chapter 2
Verses 1-13
Verses 1-4
And they covet fields
and take them by violence
Avarice
Greed is the spring and spirit of all oppression.
Here rapacious avarice is presented in three aspects.
I. Scheming in the
night. When avarice takes possession of a man
it works the brain by night as
well as by day. What schemes to swindle
defraud
and plunder men are
fabricated every night upon the pillow!
II. Working in the
day. The idea esteemed most is the worldly gain of avaricious labour. So it
ever is; gain is the God of the greedy man. He sacrifices all his time and
labour on its altar. Shakespeare compares such a man to a whale which plays and
tumbles
driving the poor fry before him
and at last devours them all at a
mouthful.
III. Suffering in
the judgment. For judgment comes at last
and in the judgment these words give
us to understand the punishment will correspond with the sin. “Because they
reflect upon evil
” says Delitzsch
“to deprive their fellow men of their
possessions
Jehovah will bring evil upon this generation
lay a heavy yoke
upon their necks
under which they will not be able to walk loftily or with
extended neck.” Ay
the time will come when the avaricious millionaire will
exclaim
“We be utterly spoiled.” “Go to
now
ye rich men
weep and howl for
your miseries that shall come upon you
” etc. (Homilist.)
The wrong which Micah attacks
Micah scourges the avarice of the landowner
and the
injustice which oppresses the peasant. Social wrongs are always felt most
acutely
not in the town
but in the country. It was so in the days of Rome
whose earliest social revolts were agrarian. It was so in the Middle Ages; the
fourteenth century saw both the Jacquerie in France and the Peasants’ rising in
England; Langland
who was equally familiar with town and country
expends
nearly all his sympathy upon the poverty of the latter
“the poure folk in
cotes.” It was so after the Reformation
under the new spirit of which the
first social revolt was the Peasants’ war in Germany. It was so at the French
Revolution
which began with the march of the starving peasants into Paris. And
it is so still
for our new era of social legislation has been forced upon us
not by the poor of London and the large cities
but by the peasantry of Ireland
and the crofters of the Scottish Highlands. Political discontent and religious
heresy take their start among industrial and manufacturing centres
but the
first springs of the social revolt are nearly always found among rural
populations. Why the country should begin to feel the acuteness of social wrong
before the town is sufficiently obvious. In the town there are mitigations
and
there are escapes. If the conditions of one trade become oppressive
it is
easier to pass to another. The workers are better educated and better
organised; there is a middle class
and the tyrant dare not bring matters to so
high a crisis. The might of the wealthy
too
is divided; the poor man’s
employer is seldom at the same time his landlord. But in the country power
easily gathers into the hands of the few. The labourer’s opportunities and
means of work
his house
his very standing ground are often all the property
of one man. In the country the rich have a real power of life and death
and
are less hampered by competition with each other
and by the force of public
opinion. One man cannot hold a city in fee
but one man can affect for evil or
for good almost as large a population as a city’s
when it is scattered across
a country side. This is precisely the state of wrong which Micah attacks. This
is the evil
the ease with which wrong is done in the country. “It lies to the
power of their hands; they covet and seize.” Micah feels that by themselves the
economic wrongs explain and justify the doom impending on the nation. (G. A.
Smith
D. D.)
Verse 3
Therefore
thus saith the Lord: Behold
against this family do I
devise evil
The great antagonist
Here is Micah
the flesh child of the country
who has communed
with the Lord God in the ploughed field in the flagrant vineyard
amid the
primeval forest
in lonely wilderness
and in secluded height.
He comes to human affairs with keen and unblunted perceptions. Through this
man’s eyes we may gaze at the outlines and colours of the golden age
we may
look upon the causes of lukewarm and congealed affection
and we may also
contemplate the fated and inevitable consequences of sin. It is this latter
awful vision which I want to bring before yore “Behold
against this family do
I devise an evil.” Let us get the connection of this word. In an earlier
chapter I come upon this indictment: “Woe to them that devise iniquity upon
their beds.” The people are busy devising
planning
plotting
scheming. They
are building upon falsehood. They are arranging the items of their life in evil
sequence. But there is a Counter plotter! “Against this family do I devise an
evil.” The human schemer is confronted by a great Antagonist
God. The
Antagonist evidences His working in adversities
disappointments
dissatisfactions
in failures
in fundamental and ignominious defeat. Micah’s
initial teaching is therefore this: Every sin has its deliberately planned
penalty. We cannot isolate the bacillus of sin; it makes its appointed ravages
and no human ministry can fashion an escape. Man devises iniquity; God devises
the appropriate issue. One is as certain as the other. Prussic acid is not more
certain in its ravages than sin
Now
with this expression of a general and
unescapable law before us
let us see what this sharp-eyed prophet regards as
some of the inevitable consequences of sin. “Uncleanness that destroyeth with a
grievous destruction.” All sin is uncleanness
and uncleanness is a monster of
destruction. As sure as a moth eats away the fabrics of a garment
so sin
consumes the robes and habits of the soul. As sure as rust corrodes an
instrument of steel
so sin destroys the implements of life. What does sin
destroy? Our philosophers arrange the powers and endowments of man in a
heightening scale. They begin with mere animal vitality
sheer naked energy
the basal aptitudes and passions
and they ascend through the senses
the
intellectual perceptions
the powers of reasoning
the aesthetic tastes
alp to
the moral realm
and higher still to the peerless sphere of reverence and
veneration
where life looks out upon God! It is all-important that we remember
this range of endowment when we are considering the destructiveness of sin. And
I will tell you why. When sin breaks out in the life there are parts of this
extensive range which appear to be untouched and if a man looked at these alone
it might appear that sin has committed no ravages at all. Let us look at this.
When a noxious gas gets into a greenhouse the most delicate things are the
first things to suffer. When the coarser plants are smitten the finer
ones
have long been dead. It is so in the life. When destructive uncleanness enters
the coarsest thing is the last to be hit. The body preserves its life the
longest. Let us assume that a man has become ridden by lust. When that man’s
body begins to shake the more delicate things of the soul are already
destroyed. When the passion for drink shows itself in the face
other parts are
already in ashes. The fire of sin always begins to flame in the upper chambers
and burns down towards the basement. The first thing to suffer is our
affection. When purity goes out of life love droops like a bird whose cage is
near the ceiling
and which faints amid the accumulated fumes of the burning
gas. Let a man live an impure life
for one day; let falsehood
passion
malice
bear down upon him
and let him watch the effect upon his affection for
wife and child. “Uncleanness
” according to this prophet
“destroyeth with a
grievous destruction.” “It shall be night unto you
and ye shall have no
vision. You will not be surprised to he taken this second step under the
guidance of the prophet Micah. The sentence is descriptive of a second penalty.
What is that? It is the loss of spiritual perception. In the higher realms of
our being we are like instruments to be played upon by the Spirit of God. But
what is the worth of the harp when the strings are eaten away? What is the use
of a piano when the wires are corroded? The executant is unable to convey his
message because the instrument is unable to receive it. And when the instrument
of our higher self is corrupted or impaired we cannot perceive the approaches
of the Spirit or discern the whispering counsels of our God. This is a law
whose working I have proved by sad experience in my own life. There have been
days when the Book of Scripture seemed closed before me. The page appears
commonplace; it does not glow with the heavenly Presence. But on the day of
moral alertness and strenuousness of spiritual nearness to my God the common
bush is aflame
and His word becomes “a light unto my path.” Sin spoils our
spiritual eyes and ears
and makes us poor receivers. “Thou shalt eat and not
be satisfied.” This is the third of the penalties of sin. Sin issues in
deep-seated weariness and unrest. The man makes money
but he sighs amid his
abundance. His friends speak of him in terms of admiration: “He has got
everything that heart could wish.” Ah
that is just what he has not got! He has
got everything that flesh could wish
but the heart is mourning in secret impoverishment.
These dissatisfied souls are all about us
in the pulpit and out of it. But our
very dissatisfaction is more than the issue of sin; it is the merciful judgment
of infinite grace and love. If our Father left us in satisfaction our perdition
would be hopeless and complete. (J. H. Jowett
M. A.)
Verse 7
O thou that art named the house of Jacob
is the Spirit of the
Lord straitened?
The criminality and folly of limiting the Holy Spirit
1. Amongst the numerous instances in which Christians conduct
themselves as if they imagined that the Spirit of the Lord is straitened
notice the following.
2. The unreasonableness of such conduct. It is at once sinful and
selfish
unreasonable and absurd. Consider--
The influence of the Spirit
--the doctrine abused by straitening
the Spirit
1. The work of the Lord
the Spirit
is wide
extended
and
extensive. He is emphatically the “Comforter”; this is His principal work. He
comforts the soul
made conscious how little there is in himself to nourish and
strengthen; stripped
in a sense
of his self-wisdom
self-power
self-importance
and self-complacency. He testifies of Jesus as having “all
fulness” in Him. He comforts the poor
tried
and harassed soul
in the midst
of its trial
sorrow
and affliction
by unfolding the man of sympathy
the
sympathy of the God-man Mediator. He comforts the soul by revealing the
character of God; in His gracious character; in His sin-forgiving character; in
His tenderness
compassion
gentleness
and holiness. He comforts His saints as
they pass through the changes of a changing world
by revealing the covenant
“ordered in all things and sure.” He unfolds the gracious promises of the God
of grace. He is called “the Comforter
” because it belongs to Him especially to
comfort the saints of the Most High. But He is a Rebuker as well as a
Comforter. Here it is to be feared that He is not glorified as He ought to be.
He is a “Spirit of judgment” in our souls. There is no court that a natural man
so dislikes as the court of an enlightened conscience. It is a solemn place.
Not only in the first awakening of the soul
but in all after revealings of the
Lord Jesus Christ to our hearts
there is still something of a rebuking Spirit.
We have to learn out our truths in the school of God
who will be a light to
guide in the way.
2. God’s Word yields to the spiritual pilgrim food and nourishment
as well as light.
3. As the pilgrim’s way lies through an enemy’s country he is liable
to various assaults
and the Word of God will furnish him with armour of
defence. It is his shield and buckler
to ward off and repel the fiery darts of
the wicked one.
4. When the Christian begins to be weary and faint in his mind
God’s
Word becomes his stay and support.
5. It is a comfort to travellers to have a prospect
though a distant
and imperfect one
of the place whither they are going. The Divine Word is both
a map of the heavenly country and a perspective glass through which we may view
it. It is the prospect of that better country which cheers the Christian by the
way
and quickens his steps through the wilderness. (B. Beddome
M. A.)
The plenitude of the Holy Spirit’s influence
The prophet is reproving the people for their opposition to the
servants of God
and their attachment to false prophets. Their rulers would
silence the prophets of the Lord
because they wished to hear no more of their
alarming predictions
but to be told only smooth and flattering things. Micah
is therefore commissioned to declare that they should be deprived of this
privilege.
I. The work of the
holy spirit in our salvation. The recovery of fallen men to the love and
likeness of God is usually expressed by the word “salvation.” Salvation is
ascribed in Scripture to the love of God the Father
in whose infinite
benevolence it originated. It was
however
necessary that an adequate
atonement should be made for human transgressions. This work
assigned to
Christ in the economy of redemption
He voluntarily undertook
and He alone
could execute it. All the blessings of salvation are ascribed to Him. But the
death of Christ would have been fruitless without the work of the Holy Ghost.
Without this there could be no conviction of our need of salvation
no discernment
of the way in which alone it can be obtained
no desire to possess it
no
faith
no hope
no love
nothing of that purity of heart
destitute of which no
man can see the Lord. The Spirit proceedeth from the Father. He gave His Son
that He might send His pure and Holy Spirit into our depraved hearts to form us
for communion with
and the everlasting enjoyment of Himself. We are equally
indebted for the Spirit to the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
II. The work of the
holy spirit in the plenitude of his influence. It is perfectly consistent with
the practical design of Scripture to apply a truth spoken on a particular
occasion to the general purposes of the Christian life. Is the Spirit of the
Lord straitened? No; we are to set no bounds to His power; we are not to
circumscribe the measure of His influence; our expectations and our endeavours
should correspond to the fulness of His grace. We may infer that the influences
of the Holy Spirit are not straitened from the extent and merit of the
Saviour’s sufferings
and the greatness and design of His exaltation; from the
abundant measure in which the gifts of the Spirit were communicated on the day
of Pentecost; from the predictions of Scripture concerning the future
prosperity of the Christian Church
and from the eminence in piety and
usefulness to which many have attained. The truth we press on attention is
that every one may
through faith in the Saviour
and in answer to prayer
certainly obtain all the assistance from the Holy Spirit which he needs. This
is evident from a multitude of promises. The subject calls for an admonitory
application.
1. It condemns an undue dependence on instruments.
2. It forbids an exclusive attachment to particular subjects.
3. It censures those who despair of the conversion of others.
4. It remonstrates with such as are ready to abandon their efforts to
do good from a feeling of their own insufficiency.
5. It should urge us to unite in all scriptural plans of usefulness
instead of confining ourselves to particular methods.
6. It frowns on a bigoted party spirit.
7. Beware of resisting and grieving the Spirit. (Essex
Remembrancer.)
The straitened Spirit
Regard the Holy Spirit as that most glorious and blessed
agency by which our depraved nature is purified
our bondage of evil turned
into freedom
our spiritual darkness enlightened
our penitent sorrows
exchanged for feelings of joyousness
and our rugged path on life’s upward
journey made smooth and plain. In the time of Micah the inspiration of prophecy
was regarded by the people of the Jews as the result of this agency; but they
were not always pleased with it. The prophets who were faithful were men who
did not seek to please the public ear by prophesying what was most palatable to
its pride and luxury
but what was calculated to humble and alarm. And if this
offended some
was their offence to be the guide and rule of the prophet’s
teaching? Was the Spirit of God to be straitened or limited in His operations
because His inspired messages were not acceptable? Hence the question of the
text.
I. The Spirit of
the Lord acts with unlimited sovereignty. He is not bound by human laws and
human opinions
neither is He fettered in His movements by any dogmatic
assumption or priestly power. What is to hinder Him from doing His Will? An
earnest seeking for His aid
an humble trust in His love
a devout prayer for
His deliverance
and a persevering hold upon Christ as our Sacrifice and
Mediator may soon bring to the soul that bright light of life which speaks of
His indwelling presence and resurrection power.
II. The Spirit of
the Lord acts with an unchangeableness of love. And who can give any bounds to
this love
not only in its objects but in its intensity? It never changes. Time
can never alter it
and nothing in the great universe about us can either
divert it from its course or weaken its power.
III. Though the
Spirit of God is not straitened
it is possible that it may appear so. But this
arises from our own disobedience. We may have stifled His convictions. We may
have deserted His counsels. We may have rejected His offers
His promises
and
His invitations.
IV. Some wish the
Spirit of the Lord to be straitened to their own view of things. Some would
straiten the Lord in the execution of His judgments. To the fainting
weak
and
doubting spirit of the Christian there is something very exhilarating in the
thought that the Spirit of the Lord is not straitened in His power and
love and wisdom. Troubled as He oftentimes is from a deceitful heart and
powerful temptations
how great a privilege to feel His nearness and to realise
His inspiration in the prayer that goes up like incense to the throne of
heaven. In the infinitude of the Spirit’s power there is liberty--a vast ocean
of life
that seems to spread out more and more before the eager and aspiring
soul. But
on the contrary
this very truth of the Holy Spirit’s illumitability
will be a cause of condemnation to those who continue to reject Him. (W. D.
Horwood.)
The Spirit of the Lord not straitened
Here God is expostulating with His Church
when in a low and
languishing state
as to the cause of this. He is vindicating Himself from all
share of blame in the matter
--He is showing them where the blame lies
even
with His professing people themselves
in their want of faith and prayer. It is
their unbelief that mars all. This straitens
shuts up
in prisons their
spirits
so that their desires do not flow forth with any enlargement after
Divine communications. It is not the Spirit of the Lord that is straitened.
There is a straitening
but it is all on their part.
I. The question in
the text implies that the Spirit is not straitened in the sense which our
unbelief would suggest.
1. The Spirit is not straitened in respect of His own inherent
sufficiency. All grace
wisdom
might
and faithfulness are in Him. The
creature is limited in duration; He is eternal. The creature is limited in
respect of knowledge. “The Spirit searcheth all things
yea
the deep things of
God.” The creature is limited in respect of power; not so the Spirit. The
creature is limited in respect of moral excellence; the Spirit is distinctively
and supereminently the Spirit of holiness.
2. In respect of the Saviour’s purchase of Him for the Church. As the
Head of His Church
Christ is its source of spiritual influence. In Him
for
the use of His Church
the Spirit dwells in immeasurable degree. Mark the
encouragement afforded us by the death of Christ to expect free and full
communications of the Holy Spirit.
3. In respect of the offer of Him in the Gospel.
II. The question
implies that He is often straitened or diminished in respect of His actual
communications to the Church. It is a fact that the presence and power of the
Spirit are not enjoyed by the Church at some periods as much as at others.
Point out some of the characteristics of a Church from which the Spirit has
withdrawn much of His presence and power.
1. In such a Church the truth will not generally be preached with
evangelical purity
faithfulness
and power.
2. There will be a general departure from the simple and scriptural
principles of government and discipline on which the Church is founded.
3. There will be a sad lack of zeal in propagating religion and
extending the means of grace. The missionary spirit will be all but extinct.
4. There will be few conversions.
5. Even the people of God themselves will not be possessed of so high
a tone of spirituality as they ought to be. In short
there will be little
personal piety and family prayer; but
on the contrary
much worldliness
much
unGodliness
much hostility to anything like zealous Christianity. In the same
proportion as the Spirit departs will spirituality decay and carnality
increase. What should we learn from this but our entire dependence upon this
blessed agent?
III. The question is
intended to convey a rebuke to the Church for its not having sufficiently
valued
and therefore asked and received
the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is
restrained in His actual communications
this must be either because He is
unwilling to bestow His influences upon us
or because we are unwilling to
accept of them. It cannot be the first; it must be the last. Apply--
1. To the unconverted; there are some who are entirely destitute of
any work of the Spirit of God upon their hearts. Dare they say that they have
long been willing to receive Him
but have found it impossible? Their
consciences would not suffer them to say so.
2. To those who have in some measure received the Spirit. They often
complain of the low state of religion in their own hearts
and in the world
around them. Hard thoughts of God suggest themselves to them
as if He had
become careless of the interests of His Church. But they will find reason to
exonerate God of all blame
and to place it to their own account. Have they
cherished
as they ought to have done
the visits of this Divine Person to
their own souls? Is it not true that they have
in a great measure
ceased to
realise their dependence on Him? Thus religion decaying in their own hearts
they become less concerned about the progress of religion in the hearts of
others.
IV. The question is
intended to convey an encouragement to us to ask Him--to ask Him confidently
and largely. The encouragement is twofold
drawn--
1. From the form of the question itself. It is evidently designed to
teach us that the Spirit of the Lord is not straitened
not limited nor
confined in the sense our unbelief suggests. It is as if it were said--Set no
bounds to your desires; ask more and more; ask again and again.
2. Notice to whom the question is addressed. “O thou that art named
the house of Israel.” It is addressed to the professing Church and people of
God
and it is designed to put them in mind of the relation God bears to them
as their God
and the warrant thereby afforded them to ask and expect the Holy
Spirit. There must be a want
and what can that want be but the want of
sufficiently earnest and believing prayer? Immediately
then
let this want be
supplied. (A. L. R. Foote.)
Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened
I. The promise of
Pentecost. What did it declare and hold forth for the faith of the Church?
1. The promise of a Divine Spirit by symbols which express some
at
all events
of the characteristics and wonderfulness of His work. The “rushing
of a mighty wind” spoke of a power which varies in its manifestations from the
gentlest breath that scarce moves the leaves on the summer trees to the wildest
blast that casts down all which stands in its way. The natural symbolism of the
wind
to popular apprehension
the least material of all material forces
and
of which the connection with the immaterial part of a man’s personality has
been expressed in all languages
points to a Divine
immaterial
mighty
life-giving power which is free to blow where it listeth
and of which men can
mark the effects
though they are all ignorant of the force itself. The twin
symbol of the fiery tongues which parted and sat upon each of them speaks in
like manner of the Divine influence
not as destructive
but full of quick
rejoicing energy and life
the power to transform and to purify. Whithersoever
the fire comes
it changes all things into its own substance. Wherever the
fiery spirit comes there is energy
swift life
rejoicing activity
transforming and transmuting power which changes the recipient of the flame into
flame itself. In the fact of Pentecost there is the promise of a Divine Spirit
which is to influence all the moral side of humanity. This is the distinction
between the Christian doctrine of inspiration and all others which have
in
heathen lands
partially reached similar conceptions--that the Gospel of Jesus
Christ has laid emphasis upon the Holy Spirit
and has declared that holiness
of heart is the touchstone and test of all claims of Divine inspiration. Gifts
are much
graces are more. An inspiration which makes wise is to be coveted
an
inspiration which makes holy is transcendently better. There we find the safe
guard against all the fanaticisms which have at times invaded the Christian
Church. The Spirit that came at Pentecost is not merely a spirit of rushing
might
and of swift flaming energy; it is a Spirit of holiness. Pentecost also
carried in it the promise and prophecy of a Spirit granted to all the Church.
“They were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Further
the promise of the early
history was that of a Spirit which should fill the whole nature of the men to
whom He was granted. Each man
according to his character
stature
circumstances
and all the varying conditions which determine his power of
receptivity
will receive a varying measure of that gift. Yet it is meant that
all shall be full.
II. The apparent
failure of the promise. Will anyone say that the religious condition of any
body of believers at this moment corresponds to Pentecost? Do any existing
Churches present the final perfect form of Christianity as embodied in a
society? Estimate by three tests.
1. Does the ordinary tenour of our own religious life look as if we
had that Divine Spirit in us which transforms everything into its own beauty
and makes men
through all the regions of their nature
holy and pure? Does the
standard of devotion and consecration in any Church witness of the presence of
a Divine Spirit?
2. Do the relations of modern Christians and their churches to one
another attest the presence of a unifying Spirit?
3. Look at the comparative impotence of the Church in its conflict
with the growing worldliness of the world.
III. The solution of
the contradiction. It is sometimes urged that the Spirit of the Lord is straitened.
Some say
Christianity is effete. Others say
God in His sovereignty is pleased
to withhold His Spirit for reasons which we cannot trace. But there is always
the same flow from God. There are ebbs and flows in the spiritual power of the
Church. It is our own fault
and the result of evil in ourselves that may be
remedied
that we have so little of this Divine gift. (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
Why is the Spirit straitened
In view of the large effusion of religious knowledge in our days
we inquire
Why does not the fear of God more abound? Whence is it that
even
where true piety really exists
it is so little deep
spiritual
and full of
love
warmth
and holy unction? Shall we reply that the blessing must be from
above
and that God alone can remodel the human heart? This indeed is true; but
then occurs the question
“Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?” If He be not
straitened
whence comes it to pass that His gracious influences are not more
fully manifested? Is the fault in ourselves or in God? The influences of the
Holy Spirit are His miraculous and His ordinary manifestations. Is He
straitened in either of these?
I. Is He
straitened in His miraculous influences? Miracles
we say
are not now to be
expected. They have done their work. But God is not therefore straitened. He
could
if He saw fit
revive His miraculous influences. And even now we have
remarkable effusions of grace
as in revival times. He could
if He so willed
bring back even a second day of Pentecost
with all its miraculous outpourings.
II. Is He
straitened in those ordinary promised influences under which we ourselves live?
Take the following influences--as a Teacher
as a Sanctifier
as a Comforter.
Is the Holy Spirit less an Enlightener
a Sanctifier
and a Guide now than He
was in the days of Abraham
or David
or St. Paul? Is He less powerful? Is He
less willing? Is He less gracious in His promises? Whence
then
comes it to
pass that
after so many centuries of nominal Christianity
more spiritual good
has not been effected? In particular
what are the causes which impede in our own
age
our own country
our own families and congregations
and above all
in our
own hearts
the operations of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit of the Lord may be
straitened
on account of the finite capacity of the recipient. If the Holy
Ghost consecrates our hearts for His temple
He chooses a shrine in which He
can exhibit
so to speak
but a small portion of His glory; it will be enlarged
in heaven
but even there it will be finite. Take the love of St. John
the
fervour of David
the heavenly mindedness of St. Paul; these fruits of the
Spirit in those blessed men were eminently great; but they were bounded by the
mortal mould
and for them to be enlarged to the elevation of a Gabriel death
must intervene. But the littleness of the human heart is not the only cause why
the Divine manifestations appear straitened. Its corruption and sinfulness are
far more powerful causes. Think of the innate workings of human depravity; the
stubbornness of the soil which is to be broken up and cultivated; the natural
enmity of the human heart to God
and all that is like God; the prejudices
which exist against the Gospel of Christ; the evil devices of Satan; the
“infection of nature” which remains “even in them that are regenerate.” In
addition to the deadening effects of sin generally
every age and country has
its own special temptations
which in a peculiar manner seem to restrain the
effusion of the Divine influences at that particular place and season.
1. Being satisfied with a low standard of spiritual attainment. Look at
apostles and prophets; look at saints and professors and martyrs. Are we like
them?
2. Another cause of check to the Spirit’s work in our day is
excitement
Not religious excitement so much as the rush and hurry and worry of
modern business and social life. The Spirit needs quiet times and moods in
which to carry on His hallowing work. (Samuel Charles Wilks
M. A.)
The Holy Spirit not straitened
(marg.
“shortened”):--The meaning is
not limited
bound
restrained
but free to work and bless at all times
and in unlimited measure.
We pray and act as if God were subject to metes and bounds
--confined to times
and seasons--unable or unwilling to do for His cause and people on a scale
commensurate with His own infinite grace and power and purpose.
I. God the Spirit
is not straitened in Himself. This were impossible
as His nature and all His
attributes are infinite; His love
mercy
grace
power are unbounded.
II. He has not tied
His own hands
by His decrees
or in any other way
so that He cannot work to save
even to the uttermost all that will come to Him. His arm is never shortened
that it cannot save. If the Church is in a feeble state
the fault lies at her
own door.
III. God is not
straitened by reason of any lack of provision in the gospel economy
or
efficacy in the atoning sacrifice
or fulness of the Spirit’s power.
IV. Neither is the
Spirit straitened by reason of the unbelief and obstinacy of sinners. Or the
abounding infidelity and wickedness of the times. The power that could change
Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle; that could plant and maintain flourishing
Christian Churches in such corrupt heathen cities as Corinth
Ephesus
and
Rome; that could resurrect the Church of the Reformation from the grave of the
dark ages and the corruptions of Rome; that is achieving such glorious
conquests today
not simply in heathen lands
is equal to any emergency
any
work
that prayer and Christian endeavour can compass. If God is ever
straitened
it is in His people. Their unbelief
supineness
inaction
serve to
restrain the Spirit’s power
and block the wheels of salvation. What a
tremendous responsibility! Who is willing to share it? (J. M. Sherwood
D.
D.)
The straitened Spirit
The Lord’s people were now so far degenerated as to continue and
oppose God’s messengers
as if they might limit His Spirit to speak only what
pleased them; or as if His Spirit were straitened to do them good. Doctrine--
1. It is a deplorable case
and sadly to be lamented
when men stand
in opposition to the Word of God
and the carriers thereof. So much doth this
expostulation and these pressing interrogatories imply.
2. Men may both think and do many things with great boldness
which
yet
if they would seriously think upon
they would be forced to condemn
and
find a witness against in their own bosoms. For these questions put to their
consciences imply
that God had a witness for Him there
and they durst not say
or do as they did if their consciences were put to it
as in His sight.
3. Many have and study to keep up a name which they are ill worthy
of
and no way answerable to it.
4. God can discern betwixt shows and substance
and will see a fault
in such as glory in fair titles; for He calls them as they are. “Thou art named
the house of Jacob
and hast but a name.”
5. It is an evidence that a visible church is degenerated
whatever
show they have
when they turn opposers of the Word of the Lord in the mouth of
His servants.
6. Such as oppose and fight against the Word of God and His
messengers do in effect fight against the Spirit of the Lord
whose Word it is.
These opposers are challenged as “straitening the Spirit of the Lord.”
7. It is a high presumption and injury clone to the Spirit
to think
to imprison and deny Him liberty in the mouth of His servants
to speak
anything but what men please. It is not seemly that men should limit God in
giving commission to His servants.
8. The Lord hath a storehouse of Spirit “to bring forth comforts
and
of power to produce mercies
if His people were fit for them.
9. When the Lord sends forth sad threatenings in the mouths of His
servants
it becomes a people seriously to examine their ways. (George
Hutcheson.)
Do not My words do good to
him that walketh uprightly?--
The privileges of the upright
Weary of correction and reproof
the house of Jacob refused to
receive instruction
and said to the prophets
“Prophesy ye not.” The Lord
appeals to them that the messages sent by His servants were intended for their
good
that even the threatenings were designed to correct and to reclaim
that He
was ready to pour out of His Spirit upon them
but for their impenitence and
unbelief and rejection of His testimony; and that His words were acceptable and
profitable to the upright
how much soever they might be despised by the
apostate house of Jacob.
I. The characters
to whom the Word of God is profitable are the “upright.”
1. The truly upright are those whose hearts are right in the sight of
God; Israelites in whom is no guile. They are no dissemblers in religion; truth
is stamped upon their words and actions. Their faith is unfeigned
and their
love without dissimulation. An upright man is what he appears to be.
2. The upright are such as walk by a right rule
the Word of God
making this the guide and standard of their actions. He who is continually
gadding about to change his way cannot be in the right way. Uniformity of
conduct is essential to uprightness.
3. The upright are represented as “walking
” or making progress in
the way to heaven. True religion means not only persevering
but making some
proficiency in the good ways of God. Hence we learn that--
II. The advantages
which the truly upright derive from the Word of God. To him that walketh
uprightly
the word of real experience
and we are taught them oft in the
school of painful experience; it is in this way He applies them. All His
rebukings are for our sanctification.
II. The cause for
caution on our part
that we turn not away from a whole consideration of this
wide
extended
and extensive work of the Spirit. Do not imagine that a man can
really “straiten the Spirit of God.” I might as well imagine that a molehill
could change the course of the planets. Our blessed Spirit is Jehovah
omnipotent. Some attempt to straiten the Spirit of God by confining their ideas
of His operation on the soul to that which is pleasant on1y
to that which is
refreshing
to that which is comforting
to that which is elevating. They see
not that there is as much the work of the Spirit in that which humbles
in that
which reproves
in that which cuts down
in that which dries up
in that which
lays low
and keeps the soul as in a low place. (J. H. Evans
M. A.)
Upright walking
the condition of profiting by the ministry of the
Word
The greatest blessings when perverted become the greatest curses.
An unimproved or an abused privilege becomes a positive evil. It were easy to
adduce a host of illustrations to confirm the justice of these observations.
There is hardly a temporal blessing to be named
in respect of which it may not
be shown that its abuse becomes a curse to the possessor. Take the endowment of
intellect or of reason. Or the case of one to whom providence has allotted a
more than common abundance of this world’s wealth. Spiritual mercies may be
equally abused with temporal
and the result which ensues from their misuse is
to the full as disastrous. The prophet
speaking in the name of God
demands
“Do not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” But the form of
interrogation clearly implies
that to such as walk not in uprightness
the
words of the Almighty will rather do injury. It was in reply to the
solicitations of those who entreated of the prophet not to prophesy that he
delivered the emphatic appeal which we have in the verse containing our text.
We are
however
concerned with the broad principle which it seems to imply.
There is pointed out the condition of all profitable hearing of God’s words. It
is--upright walking. The precept must be embodied in practice
or it will not
only be useless
it will be positively injurious.
I. What reasons there
are for expecting that the hearing of God’s words will injure
rather than
benefit
the individual who walks not uprightly. Some qualification is
necessary at the outset to obviate an erroneous conclusion which might be
drawn. It might be said
“What
then
becomes of the utility of the
proclamation to the disobedient? And what remains of the office of the Word to
convince and to convert the soul?” The apparent contradiction is easily
explained. The prophet is clearly speaking of such persons as
under the
hearing of God’s words
refused to repent and be obedient. The message he had
to deliver was calculated to reclaim and convert them
but they refused
submission to the authority of Him in whose name the messenger spake
and it
was in this case that the tidings injured
in place of benefiting. The guilt
and the responsibility were all their own; the fault was not in the Word. The
prophet was not to desist from proclaiming that Word
simply because
when its
statements were rejected
moral injury would result. And we are not to be
deterred from communicating God’s words to the disobedient
simply because
there is a possibility that they will continue to be disobedient
and in that
case be injured and not advantaged by the message
Now take the case of one to
whom God’s words are sent
but they have never yet led him to a walk of
uprightness. God’s words have been practically a dead letter. This is the ease
in which we are prepared to contend that the words of God are turning to that
man’s injury; the blessing is being converted into a curse. We assume that
every man’s real and highest enjoyment
his greatest moral advantage
depends
upon his conformity to the precepts of God’s Word. Each instance in which God’s
words are heard
and no result towards holiness produced
diminishes the
probability of ultimate obedience. He is becoming more hard and inflexible
and
less likely ever to become the subject of genuine repentance. It is a law of
man’s moral constitution
that feelings once aroused
which are not carried out
into practice
gradually become feebler and less capable of being wakened
afresh. There is no case in which there is greater cause for apprehension than
that of an individual who has long been accustomed to the ministrations of the
Gospel
without being converted beneath them;
II. The positive
good which results to the upright from hearing God’s words.
1. Look at the knowledge which revelation imparts.
2. The words of God accomplish a most important purpose with
reference to the believer’s sanctification
or his actual preparation for
heaven. The promise cannot advantage any but the Consistent disciple. No man
has a right to appropriate a single promise of God’s Word
who is not resolved
upon striving after obedience. It is the “upright” walker to whom alone the
promise in reality belongs. May we carry away with us the recollection of this
great truth
--that in order to profit by God’s words
whether as communicated
to us on the page of inspiration
or by the ministrations of the Gospel
there
must be an endeavour on our parts to walk uprightly
or to walk in agreement
with what God’s Word prescribes. (Robert Bickersteth
B. A.)
The Bible vindicated by its good effects
There are some difficulties to be found in the Bible
no doubt.
There are a good many things that you do not understand in nature
but you do
not dismiss them. Whatever may be said against this planet
it is our best
standing ground at present. And so long as the Bible vindicates itself in its
practical
moral
and spiritual effects
that is enough for us. Look today at
the nations that do not read the Bible--Turkey
China
India
--they belong to
the ruined civilisations. Scientists have used the spectroscope lately
and
they have found a good deal in the sun that they did not expect. They have
found a good many terrestrial elements there. But
so long as the sun keeps on
ripening harvests and painting summers
and filling the planet with loveliness
and music
we shall respect the sun. And whatever may be the technical defects
or alleged defects of Scripture
so long shall we stand by it whilst it lifts
up fallen men into righteousness
and makes the great wilderness of the nations
to blossom as the rose.
The social evils of Christendom are not sanctioned by the Bible
These are the indignant questions proposed by the inspired man of
God when he contemplated the corruption and depravity which had spread
themselves throughout the whole Church and nation of the Jews.
I. Explain what I
mean by the social evils of Christendom. Some would tell us that religion is a
Social evil; marriage
private property
and equitable laws
social evils. We
can all see that ignorance and credulity
superstition and imposture
tyranny
and oppression
war and persecution are among the social evils which all good men
ought to deplore.
1. Ignorance and credulity. That the inhabitants of those nations who
possess a Book that contains a revelation from God of all the great principles
of faith and duty
should be in a state of ignorance
seems most extraordinary.
Up to comparatively a very recent date
throughout the whole of Christendom the
common people were in a state of deplorable ignorance. We count ignorance to be
a fearful social evil. Credulity is always the result of ignorance; and thus
originates that moat baneful maxim
that “ignorance is the mother of devotion.”
2. We account superstition and imposture to be great social evils
as
they have existed in Christendom. Christianity
as established by the apostles
was a religion of extraordinary simplicity. It had no temples
no altars
no
sacrifices
no priests
no pageants
no festivities
no holidays. It was a
simple religion
plain and unadorned
addressing itself to the judgment and to
the affections of men. To meet the prejudices of the vulgar
and to gratify the
corrupt taste of the multitude
pompous ceremonies were introduced
which
easily reconciled the pagans to a worship that appeared so like their own. It
is a matter beyond all controversy that the old demigods of paganism were
worshipped under new names by these very questionable Christians
--worshipped
at the same wells
on the same mountain sides
in the same groves
and with the
same rites
--and that nothing was changed but the name. Surely these things do
not result from God’s Holy Word!
3. Tyranny and oppression
as they have existed in Christendom
are
social evils which must be deplored. They are as old as the apostasy of man
from God. When man would not submit to God
he soon sought to usurp authority
over his brethren. In private and in public life it will be found that those
who are least disposed to submit are most disposed to usurp. Those persons who
are least patient of restraints themselves
are most willing to put restraints
on others. We refer
however
not so much to oppression and tyranny in civil
affairs
as to that spiritual usurpation which arose in the Church
when the
humble presbyters became priests
patriarchs
and popes. We lament over all
proofs of spiritual tyranny and oppression.
4. Wars and persecutions are amongst the social evils that have
afflicted Christendom. Some of these have been political contests--wars
undertaken upon questions of international polity. But religious wars now
demand our attention. The history of Christian nations is like Ezekiel’s roll
“written within and without with lamentations and mourning and woe.”
II. These social
evils are not sanctioned by the Bible
but corrected by it. It must he
conceded
however
that there are some facts connected with the history of the
Jews in the Old Testament which appear at first sight to sanction at least some
of these acts of violence and bloodshed. Some are explained by God’s right to
visit and punish guilty nations
as well as guilty individuals. These are
reserved and excepted cases
and those who now dare to plead for the
extirpation and oppression of their enemies
or for acts of violence and
persecution from the facts of the Old Testament
are altogether beside the
mark
unless they can show that they possess the power of working miracles to
sustain the assumption.
1. We account the Bible to be the enemy of ignorance and credulity.
That which is a revelation necessarily supposes the dissipation of ignorance.
The very communication of a Book that must be read
studied
and illustrated by
various other critical
scientific
and historical inquiries
compels
intelligence
and shows that the Word of God is the friend of knowledge
the
fountain of wisdom.
2. The Bible is the enemy of superstition and imposture. There were
many ceremonies in the Jewish Church
but these were “a shadow of good things
to come
” and were only to continue until the substance should appear. When
Christianity was revealed
Judaism passed away. Primitive Christianity and the
Word of God are not answerable for the accumulated ceremonies and superstitions
of the modern Christian Church.
3. The Bible is the enemy of tyranny and oppression. The Word of God
professes to be the Word of the Most Upright; just and right is He! Rectitude
characterises the mind and government of God. That Word would be inconsistent
with its Author if it were found to sanction tyranny and oppression in any
form.
4. The Bible is the enemy of war and persecution. Our Lord inculcated
in His disciples a spirit of forbearance
a disposition not to resist evil
not
to take offence. Then if we desire important changes in human society
it is
that there may be more equal happiness. Let us then become Bible Christians. If
we really take the Book as our guide
we shall not be ignorant or superstitious
or tyrannical. We shall avoid the mischiefs by which the Christian name is
dishonoured
and we shall exhibit to those around us the blessed influence of
the religion of Jesus on the character and lives of men. (John Blackburn.)
God’s Word good to the upright
Micah says
You are trying to do the right thing in a wrong way:
you are wasting the bread of the kingdom of heaven: you have mistaken the right
beginning and the right continuance of all this ministry of revelation. My sun
will never do good to a dead creed; every beam of that sun is a sword striking
at that poor outcast dead thing. “Do not My words do good?” To whom? To the man
who wants them
longs for them
represents their purpose
walks uprightly.
Literally
Do not My words do good to him that is upright? You must not only
have right food
you must have the right appetite and the right digestion.
God’s revelation is lost upon the man who cares nothing for it. It is within
the power of the eyelid to shut out the midday. The Bible has nothing to say to
the froward soul. The revelation of God never talks to the critic. Intellect
unless a servant
has no business with things spiritual
supernatural
ineffable. Let every man then test himself by this one standard. The Word of
the Lord is meant to be good to the upright. Not necessarily to the personally
perfect. There are no such people
except in their own estimation
and
therefore there are none perfect at all. What is it to be upright then? To be
sincere: to mean to be right. There is a middle line in every man’s thought and
life and purpose. Do not judge him by the higher line
or by the lower level;
you will find the average thought
and tendency
and pressure--judge by that.
When a man says
1 want to be right
though I am failing seven times a day
--he
is right . . . To walk uprightly is not to walk pedantically
ostentatiously
and perfectly in the estimation of the world; but to walk uprightly is to have
the stress of the soul in the right direction. (Joseph Parker
D. D.)
God’s truth
“Thou called house of Jacob
is the patience of Jehovah short
then? or is this His doing? Are not My words good to him that walketh
uprightly?” Such is a modern translation. We prefer the translation of
Henderson
as follows: “What language
O house of Jacob! Is the Spirit of
Jehovah shortened? Are these His operations? Do not My words benefit him that
walketh uprightly?” These words seem to be a reply to an objection raised
against the prophets in the preceding verse. The objector did not approve of
predictions so terribly severe. “It is not strange
” says Matthew Henry
“if
people that are vicious and debauched covet to have ministers that are
altogether such as themselves
for they are willing to believe that God is so
too.”
I. That the Spirit
of Divine truth cannot be restrained. “Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?”
There is no limit to truth; it is an ocean that has no shore
a field whose
everspringing seeds are innumerable. “The Lord hath yet more light and truth to
break forth from His Word.”
II. That the
practice of Divine truth cannot but do good. “Do not My words do good to him
that walketh uprightly?” Though you have never heard the particular truth
before
though it may be too severe to please you
though it may clash with all
your prejudices and wishes
if you practise it
it will do you good.
1. It is to be practised. It is not merely for speculation
systematising
controversy
and debate
it is for inspiring the activities and
ruling the life. It is a code rather than a creed. It must be incarnated
made
flesh
and dwell in the land.
2. When practised it is a blessing. “Do not My words do good to him
that walketh uprightly?” Yes
they do good. When they are translated
not into
languages and creeds
but into living deeds. A man gets good only as he builds
up a noble character. (Homilist.)
An upright man reaps the full benefit of God’s Word
The leading circumstances which gave rise to these words
was the degeneracy of God’s ancient people
the Jews. This degeneracy was very
prevalent in the days of Micah
both in the kingdom of Israel and that of
Judah. Let it be remembered that the covenant engagements into which the Divine
Being enters with man by no means preclude His hatred and condemnation of sin;
neither do our covenant engagements with Him exempt us from the liability of
falling into sin. Nothing that was said to them by God and His servants met
their approbation. Everything was wrong
and
in their vitiated judgment
unlike what it had been. And
to make good their own case
they were
presumptuous enough to charge the cause of all their woes upon God; but He
nobly vindicated Himself
and tacitly condemned them in these words
“Do not My
words
” etc. The drift of the text
or the doctrine contained therein
is
this
--that however painful and offensive God’s Word may be to those who live in
the love of sin
it is highly beneficial to those who walk uprightly; and that
if it does not please and profit the soul
it is not owing to any defect in the
Word
but to some defect in us.
I. To the
character of an upright man. The husbandman
in winnowing his grain for the
market
divides one heap into two. The one he calls corn
the other chaff. And
thus does the Bible deal with the human family: it divides the whole into two
classes--and into two only
as to kind. The one it calls good
the other bad.
But the husbandman
by putting his corn through another process or two
divides
it into three or more portions
according to its quality. The best he calls
saleable; the next best
hinderends; and the rest
hen corn. After the same way
does the Bible divide the righteous into classes; and in the same way will they
be disposed of at the last day. Nearly all the good men we read of in the Bible
and elsewhere excelled in one or two branches of piety; but few excelled in
all. Christ
however
did this. An upright man is one who strives to know as
much of the will of God as he can
in order that he may live according to it.
His main object is to live well and die happy.
1. He is a religious man. Not a mere professor of religion
not one
whose opinions have undergone a change for the better
nor one whose morality
is of a high and refined order; but a man whose heart and mind
principles and
practices have been changed by Divine grace.
2. He is a considerate man--Sensible of the many evils with which he
is surrounded
and the proneness of human nature to fall into them
he ponders
well the path of his feet. He plans with his head what he executes with his
hands. He thinks before he acts. “Thou God seest me” is indelibly engraven on
his memory. That he may be found a wise and safe man at last he
at present
considers his ways in his heart (Haggai 1:15).
3. He is a conscientious man. Conscience is prompt in commanding
and
he is as prompt in obeying. It speaks
and the upright
God-fearing man
responds
“How
then
can I do this great wickedness
and sin against God?”
4. He is a consistent man. He is actuated by principle rather than
passion.
II. We purpose to
show whether such a man is benefited by the Word of God. By the Word of God we
understand the Bible. It contains the revelation of His will to and concerning
man. And every man who can have the Bible is expected to understand and
practise it so far as is essential to his salvation. To an upright man the Word
of God proves--
1. An instructive Word. The Bible is professionally a book of
instructions. Its instructions relate to the highest subjects--to soul matters
and matters of eternity. And
apart from its teachings
we cannot gain the same
instructions elsewhere. The upright man is quite alive to this; hence he prizes
the Bible
and evinces a peculiar aptness for its teachings. By a prayerful
perusal of its sacred pages he becomes possessed of much spiritual and Divine
knowledge. And Bible light is the best of light. The knowledge that comes from
God is the purest of knowledge. It makes us acquainted with God and His
will--with man and his ways--with sin and its consequences--with redemption and
its effects. These things are spiritual in their nature
and by the upright man
are spiritually discerned.
2. It is a corrective Word. Not only are all men liable to err
but
all men have erred; for
“to err is human.” Hence all men need correction. But
all are not willing to be corrected; Some
however
are
and among these may be
ranked the upright. The corrective lessons of the Bible are received by him in
the same spirit and with the same thankfulness
as what a traveller who has
missed his way evinces when put right. It is in this light especially that
God’s “words do good to him that walketh uprightly.”
3. It is a pacific Word. The midday sun does not bring its rays more
gently to bear upon the virgin flower than are the soothing truths of God’s
Word brought to hear upon the good man’s troubled spirit. The gentle rain is
not more acceptable to the vegetation of spring than are God’s promises to the
tried Christian. The healing balm is not more alleviating to the wounded
traveller than is God’s Word to the expiring pilgrim.
In conclusion
observe three things--
1. The Word of God is full of truth and goodness. Its sole object
being to make men wise and happy.
2. That it may “not return unto God void
but accomplish that which
He pleases
and prosper in the thing whereto He sends it
” we must be upright.
3. All may become upright
and thereby enjoy all the blessings of the
Bible. (J. Fawcit.)
Verse 8-9
My people is risen up as an enemy
Sin an antagonist
This chapter refers to the character and doings of Israel during
the last nine years of Ahaz.
A very dark period in Israelitish history was this. “We are told in 2 Chronicles 28:24-25
that Ahaz
shut up the doors of the temple and erected altars in every corner of
Jerusalem. We may safely conclude
from the language of Micah (chap. 2) and
Isaiah (chap. 11)
that when he did so
abominations of every kind overran the
land. A prophet like Micah was no longer permitted to speak. The testimony of
Isaiah (chaps. 7
8) had borne no fruit; the fruitlessness of invoking the aid
of Assyria had taught him no better. Ahaz did not repent
like Manasseh
but
persisted in his evil ways. What a melancholy course of conduct! Like Uzziah
Ahaz was denied honourable burial (2 Chronicles 28:27). The prophet
here
in denouncing the sins which were then most prevalent in Judah and
Ephraim
alludes expressly to the acts of oppression and violence then common
and tells them that for these they would be driven out of the land.” The verses
lead us to look at sin in the aspect of an antagonist
and suggest--
I. That it is an
antagonist to the Divine. “Even of late [marg.
‘yesterday’] My people has
risen up as an enemy.” “It is not stated
” says Delitzsch
“against whom the
people rise up as an enemy; but
according to the context
it can only be
against Jehovah.” Sin is an antagonist to God; it lifts up the soul in
hostility against its Maker. Unregenerated men say that they are not conscious
of any enmity in their hearts towards their Maker; on the contrary
sometimes
they feel a passing glow of gratitude and adoration for Him. But it is the conduct
of a man that proves the settled state of his heart.
1. This enmity is most unjustifiable. Enmity sometimes admits of
justification
but never in this case.
2. This enmity is most wicked. It is against reason and justice.
3. This enmity is most miserable. Enmity to God is the fountain of
all the misery in the universe. The words suggest another idea concerning sin--
II. That it is an
antagonist to the human. “Ye pull off the robe with the garment [marg.
‘over
against the garment’] from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.”
Not content with the outer garment
ye greedily rob passers-by of the
ornamental robe fitting the body closely and flowing down to the feet; and this
you do
not to enemies
but to friends
to those who are “averse from war.”
More: “The women of My people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses.” The
widows of the men slain by you in battle you have deprived of their homes. They
“devoured widows’ houses.” This was not all. “From their children have ye taken
away My glory for ever.” The orphan children you have despoiled. In all this
there is the manifestation of sin
as an antagonist to human rights and human
happiness. Sin puts man against his brother; hence the slanders
quarrels
litigations
wars that are rife in every human scene. (Homilist.)
Arise ye
and depart: for this is not your rest; because it is
polluted
No rest
and the reason why
Above all lands the land of Canaan seemed most adapted for
a place of rest.
And the people whom God had so wondrously led into it
appeared most likely to
find a place of rest. Yet to this people
and in respect of this very country
God says
“Arise ye
and depart; for this is not your rest.”
I. Our territorial
position. “This is not your rest.” The body is not the resting
place of the spirit. It is a house of dust
a tenement of clay
and it is more
like to a tent than to a substantial dwelling. While we are in the body
and
while we are resident on the globe
there is very little permanent besides
change. If it is true that this is not our rest
no man should try to rest in
his temporal condition. And no man should suffer himself to rest. And no man
should murmur when he is disturbed. No man should live unprepared for change
and disturbance.
II. The echo of a
voice we often hear. “Arise ye
and depart.” In events that happen
in
circumstances that arise
we hear this voice. Hourly do we listen to it. Do not
neglect events. See that the voice calls you not only to submit to change
but
to acquiesce in it.
III. A reason for
such exposure to charge. “Because it is polluted.” The body is born in sin
and
is an instrument of unrighteousness
and this is the reason why the body is
doomed to die. God could
if necessary
have changed the body without death.
The earth has been the theatre of transgression
and it must be destroyed.
Everything we touch we pollute. Nothing is really right here. Everything must
be changed until everything becomes right. The removal of sin is essential to
rest. We may
from Jesus Christ
find rest within. And there shall be rest in a
glorious body
rest in a perfect paradise
rest in an incorruptible
inheritance
and rest in the eternal God. (Samuel Martin.)
This world is not a state of happiness
This world is not and never was designed to be the place of our
happiness or long abode; and it highly concerns us
whilst we are in it
to
raise our hearts above it
and prepare to leave it.
I. As this world
is not our rest
or the scene of our happiness
our souls should rise above it.
1. Prove the truth of this proposition. All men profess to believe
this proposition
and yet look at their pursuits
views
and cares
and you
would think they believed nothing less. The truth is that they do not attend to
what they believe
or pursue it into its proper and practical consequences. The
proposition is not the less certain for the inattention and disregard which
some men pay to it
or for their practical contradiction of it. That this world
is not and never was designed to be our state of rest or happiness
appears--
II. We must be
continually endeavouring after a heavenly disposition. To have our minds
habitually attempered to that blessed world. The true temper of the blessed
consists of love and purity. Then let us seek that the love of God may have a
prevailing influence on our hearts. The Divine image
or moral likeness to God
which consists in righteousness and true holiness
does in a degree enter into
the character of all true Christians now. The more we are fit for a better
world
the more we shall be out of love with this. (J. Mason
A. M.)
The soul’s exodus
This injunction does not mean either of the three following
things.
1. It does not mean the termination of our mortal life. Life is a
talent which we should guard.
2. It does not mean neglect of material interests and duties. We are
commanded to be “diligent in business
” etc.
3. It does not mean absolute retirement from the world.
1. There is no rest for the soul in a dominant materialism. “This is
not your rest.” There are four forms in which this dominant materialism exists
amongst us
and in neither of which can the soul find rest.
2. There is pollution for the soul in it. To allow the material in
any form to rule us is a sin.
3. There is danger to the soul in materialism. “It shall destroy
you.” “For to be carnally minded is death.” The work of soul destruction is
going on every moment; the soul decays in this state. Force of intellect
discrimination of judgment
freedom of will
sensibility of conscience
elasticity of soul
are being destroyed. “Arise
” then. The voice of
philosophy
the voice of history
the voice of the Bible
and the voice of
departed saints
all combine in the injunction
“Arise and depart.” (Homilist.)
Liberalism in religion
Cardinal Newman says that liberalism in religion is an error
overspreading as a snare the whole earth; it is sweeping into its own ranks
great numbers of able
earnest
virtuous men
elderly men of approved
antecedents
young men with a career before them. The Cardinal calls this
condition of things “a great apostasy.” He thus defines “liberalism in
religion.” “It is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in
religion
--that one creed is as good as another
--that all are to be tolerated
as all are matters of opinion; that revealed religion is not a truth
but a
sentiment and a taste.” But this condition of mind is not very widespread in
England. Take each mark of this liberalism in religion
and ask
“Does it
denote large numbers?”
1. The doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion. The
Cardinal says
“Every dozen men you meet in the streets represent one or other
of as many as seven religions.” Then
on this statement
we must conclude that
seven out of twelve profess a definite religion. These seven do not hold that
there is no positive truth in religion. And what may we say of the other five?
They may be indifferent to religion
but they do not disbelieve it. Positivists
are a very small class indeed
and even positivism has developed a religion.
2. The doctrine that “one creed is as good as another.” Are there
many who hold this doctrine? Manifestly
if men choose one form of religion
instead of another
it must be because they think one better than another. It
is the deep feeling that a man has truer views of God to put before his fellows
which gives him power to push his way through obstinate dulness or obstructive
narrowness.
3. The doctrine that all creeds are to be tolerated because all are
matters of opinion. That all are to be tolerated is certainly now a very
widespread conviction. Yet for centuries coercion was the invariable custom
and not toleration. Why do the different Christian com munities now all approve
of toleration? Is it because they think the faiths of the sects are all matters
of opinion? They know that
in their own case
their faith is a matter of deep
conviction; and if they do justice to their neighbours
they know that their
faith is equally matter of deep conviction with them.
4. The doctrine that revealed religion is not a truth but a sentiment
or taste. Who is it that professes this? It is almost confined to a single
person
if indeed even he would admit it
--Mr. Matthew Arnold. If religion
fundamentally is a sentiment
it is a sentiment towards something; that
something is something we believe exists; we believe in that something
and
that is the beginning of a creed; the sentiment postulates an object; the
sentiment is love
and the great object is God. Religious liberalism does cling
to positive truth
but she will away with positive lies. It does teach that
though all creeds are not equally good
there is some good in all creeds
and
this is a very different thing. (W. Page Roberts
M. A.)
This is not your rest
Canaan was given to Israel on condition of their faithful
obedience. That obedience they had failed to render. It is allowed by
commentators that these words may be properly applied to the state of men in
the present world. Expand them thus--
1. This world would have been a rest had sin never entered it: but
since it is polluted
there is neither contentment nor continuance here
neither solid happiness in the enjoyments it offers
nor an abiding city in any
of its domains. It is no longer our permanent abode
but our passage to another
country; our inn
not our home.
2. To attempt to rest in the creature after God has commanded us to
give it up is sinful. To rest in a connection with unrighteous men--satisfied
with a world corrupt through “divers lusts”--is still more polluted.
3. Through the selfish passions and oppressive conduct of men
through the numerous troubles which beset this vale of tears
--the pilgrim can
find no rest on earth. It is a relief to think of departing to that world where
“the wicked cease from troubling
and the weary are at rest.”
I. This is not our
home. Our life is as a “handbreadth.” Regular and rapid
like the waves of the
sea
one generation sweeps off another into the gulf of oblivion. This is but
the threshold of your being
and all before you is a boundless eternity.
II. The world
cannot satisfy. Never were the things of the world intended to fill the human
mind. In the original formation of man he received a capacity which nothing but
God could fill: and though by the fall he lost his relish for God
the same
capacity still remains
and all creation cannot fill it now. Many minds
broken
loose from their centre
have wandered in search of rest in the creatures; but
none have ever found it.
III. An attempt to
rest in the creature is sinful. The first command is
“Thou shalt have no other
Gods before Me.” To make a God of anything
is to set the heart supremely upon
it
and to attempt to rest in it as a chief source of happiness. To love “the
creature more than the Creator.” and to look to that for our chief comfort
is
to idolise the creature. We may value the creature for the purposes for which
it is given to us. To attempt to rest in the creature is to seek a guilty rest.
IV. No alliance can
be formed with men of the world without hazard of pollution. “Evil
communications corrupt good manners.” A great part of the feelings
opinions
conversation
and customs of the world are opposed to the genuine spirit of the
Gospel.
V. No rest can be
found in a world full of injustice and oppression. The collisions of selfish
passions keep the world in a flame
and drench it in blood.
VI. No rest can be
found in a world inundated with the floods of affliction. Ever since sin
entered
this world has been a vale of tears
a house of correction
to break
stubborn spirits to submission
to drive wayward children to obedience by the
rod
to humble the proud
and to discover God’s severity against sin. Why then
should we wish to continue here? (E. D. Griffin
D. D.)
Rest
The prophecy of Micah stands conspicuous for the bright
anticipations it gives of Messiah’s days. It is to the desolation of the ten
tribes add their scattering among the nations that the text refers.
I. A truth which
we are all very reluctant to admit. “This is not your rest.” A just estimate of
human life is a very rare thing
and seldom attained but at the price of
painful experience.
1. It was never designed to be our rest. We are not forbidden to seek
happiness; we are only forbidden seeking it in the wrong direction. The grand
mistake of human nature is to suppose that there is some other good
some
higher path to happiness than that which God has made coincident with human
duty. God has given us on earth every requisite for our pilgrimage
but nothing
adequate to our home. Things on earth are too poor to make us rich; too low to
raise us to happiness; too limited and shortlived to fill the capacities of our
nobler nature. Life
there fore
is a scene of progress towards something
better.
2. It is never found to be our rest in actual experience. At our very
best estate the world is altogether vanity. All experience tells us
“This is
not your rest.” Every broken hope
every unsatisfied desire
every withered
rose
every opened grave
says
“This is not your rest.”
3. Our religion tells us that this is not our rest
for it is
polluted.
II. A change for
which we are most reluctant to prepare.
1. Our love of life induces us to linger. Like Lot’s wife in Sodom.
Trials
disappointments
bereavements
and the heaviest personal afflictions
instead of teaching us to take wing
by a perverse alternative seem to root us
faster to the soil.
2. Our fears of death induce us to linger. We aim to put the subject
far from us. Because the future is dreadful
and the realm unknown.
3. Our neglect of the great salvation heightens our reluctance.
III. It is a command
which it is our interest to obey. Because the command comes from One who is the
Lord of both worlds
and who has the highest interest in our welfare. He knows
us better than we know ourselves
as He loves us better too. He knows how poor
is this world
and how rich is the next. (Homiletic magazine.)
The true resting place
The land of Canaan is here spoken of as a land not designed for
the rest of the people that dwelt in it. Apparently
if any land was properly
designated a “land of rest” Canaan was. It is evident that the land had been
defiled
polluted by the people
by their idolatries
and by their rebellion
against the Most High; and therefore it could no longer be their rest. We may
apply the text to ourselves in regard to our own land. Life upon this earth
cannot be regarded as man’s rest or resting place.
1. Because man’s life on it is brief and short. Scripture images
are--fleeting as a shadow; vanishing as the vapour; unsettled and shifting as a
pilgrimage; swifter than the transit of a weaver’s shuttle
or the arrow that
is directed to its mark; transient as a tale that is told
as a dream when one
awaketh. To the young
entering upon life
it presents an interminable
vista--something in their eye like a little eternity that will hardly ever be
passed; and before they have time to realise it
the frost of age is upon their
heads
and they count the graves of the companions of their youth.
2. Because even that short life is so changing. External circumstances
and relationships are ever changing.
3. Look at the images by which life is repre sented
and we come to
the same conclusion. A pilgrimage
a journey
a warfare
a voyage.
4. Look at man’s pursuits
what do they bring? Do they satisfy the
wants and cravings of man’s immortal soul? One man’s pursuit is wealth; another
man is bent on enjoying life. Another man’s desire is fame. Where then shall
rest be found? There can be no consistency between sin and real rest or
happiness. The text says the land was polluted
therefore it was not a place of
rest. There can be no rest--true
real
abiding rest--except that which is
found in God
its only source. (Joseph Bardsley
M. A.)
Rest indeed
In deep anger Amos intimated that the Lord would command
Israel to arise and go forth into a land of captivity; their own land should no
longer be their rest and quiet habitation
for they had polluted it by their
idolatry
excess
and iniquity. He would bring upon them enemies who should be
His instruments for removing them from their then quiet habitation. Canaan is
when spiritually applied to the condition of the children of God
a very apt
type of the heavenly country; and the rest which the children of Israel therein
enjoyed
is a type of that “rest which remaineth for the people of God.” Regard
then the text as addressed to every one of us in reference to our present
condition in this fallen world
and our future condition in the kingdom of
glory.
I. The meaning of
rest. By rest we understand cessation from labour
accompanied with peace
quiet
ease
and everything that can mark and constitute comfort
happiness
security. When in a state of rest we do not expect to be troubled with the
ordinary perplexities of life. To enjoy rest is to enjoy quietness
security
ease
and peace.
II. The certainty
of not finding rest here. How stands the case with us in this world
fallen
and shattered
and disorganised as it is
beautiful though it be in its very
ruins? Can we be said to find substantial
solid rest in this world? Has the
world no disappointments to meet our best laid schemes? Nothing here is
certain. And should worldly possessions and worldly enjoyments remain
undisturbed
yet to the man who sets his heart on them
and wishes to be
satisfied with them
there is one evil ever near and calculated to mar his
enjoyment
and that is the fear of death
which is to such an one a monster
evil
which he can find no means of averting.
III. The promise of
rest to the people of God. The rest is complete and substantial; it is rest from
sin. The departed saint is at once removed from the influence of sin and the
power of Satan; nothing can then disturb his tranquillity; no counteracting
agency can then affect him; he is in God’s keeping
he is safe and safe
forever. This rest the redeemed soul is capable of enjoying.
IV. The way in
which this rest is to be obtained. The Israelites had one leader given to them
to lead them into the land of Canaan. A Joshua has been given to us. He leads
those who will submit to His guidance into the heavenly rest prepared for the
people of God. To effect this He condescended to take our nature upon Him
and
to become man. As such He went in and out among His creatures; and after a life
of self-denial and active benevolence
died upon the Cross to make atonement
for man’s sin. The door to this rest has been thrown wide open by Him. (T.
R. Redwar
M. A.)
This world not our rest
Human beings seem universally characterised by a spirit of
restlessness. This spirit
existing either as an obvious passion or as a smothered
feeling
is inseparably connected with our fallen state
and though very liable
to abuse
is yet very capable of producing excellent effects. It excites a
propensity to look forward
and to go forward. Hence
the soul refuses to
settle into inactivity
and is ever pressing on to the attainment of some
future good
real or imaginary. It is very desirable
then
that this
restlessness should always be excited by a right cause
and always urge us
forward to a right end.
I. Why we never
can have our rest in this world.
1. Because our continuance on earth is short and uncertain. “What is
our life? It is even a vapour
that appeareth for a little time
and then
vanisheth away.”
2. Even while life lasts it is full of trouble--it has many changes
labours
disappointments
and sorrows. To what changes are we exposed here
below! This is not a place of rest but of labour. Think
too
of the
disappointments and reverses of life. In view of these various forms of bodily
distress
how foolish it appears to look on this state as a state of rest! Can
it be said that though we are exposed to trouble ourselves
we may find rest in
our friends? But though it is our duty to love them
and to be grateful to
them
we shall suffer for it severely if we idolise them as the authors of our
happiness
or look to them as our ultimate resource. Instead of finding rest in
them
we may suffer doubly in sympathising with them
and the time is coming
when we must part.
3. Though our whole life were steady
prosperous
honourable
and
pious in the highest degree
still it would not be a satisfying portion to the
soul. Some seem to be
almost through life
free from trouble. But we cannot be
sure of this. “Each heart knoweth its own bitterness.” And when there are no
real troubles men are sure to find imaginary ones. And he who lives many days
and rejoices in them all
yet fears at times that the days of darkness will be
many. To be altogether at rest we must be sure that our rest will never be
disturbed. Nor can the continuance of positive prosperity and ever-increasing
wealth satisfy the mind. Equally unsuccessful is the pursuit of mental
tranquillity in scenes of frivolity and mirth. Nor is the more rational pursuit
of human knowledge found to secure rest to the soul. As speculation and theory
cannot satisfy the mind
so neither can great works
in their undertaking
progress
or accomplishment. It is necessary to add that even the people of
God
however spiritually-minded and however advanced in the Divine life
cannot
find rest here. However happy they may be
they are still subject to some
uneasiness; however calm they may feel
their quiet is sometimes disturbed.
4. We never can have our rest in this world because of the prevalence
of sin
because “it is polluted.” By an unalterable decree of heaven
sin is
inconsistent with happiness. As this is a world of rebellion
it cannot be a
world of peace. How can they whose minds have been enlightened to see the evil
of sin
and in whom its power is in a great measure broken
be at rest while
living in such a world as this?
II. Address to you
the exhortation
“Arise ye
and depart.”
1. Arise and depart in the spirit of your minds. Depart from the idea
that the world can give you rest. From all trust in others. But the mind must
have something whereon to rest. Without some prop it would sink down into utter
despondency. Arise and depart and seek rest directly from God in Christ. Set
your hearts on heaven. So depart in the spirit of your minds as to be willing
to depart literally from this life
whenever God shall call you. Cultivate that
spirit of faith and hope which
when death is comparatively at a distance
will
sometimes fill you with a desire to depart and to be with Christ
which is far
better.
2. Arise and depart in the tenor of your conduct. Depart from all
such pursuits as interfere with the concerns of eternity. Cease from excessive
eagerness in the pursuit of worldly gain. Be found at last actively engaged as
becomes those who profess that this is not their rest.
III. Address three different
classes of persons.
1. Congratulate those who have ceased to seek their rest in the
world--who have arisen and gone to God through Jesus Christ for rest. Recollect
that you are only on the way to perfect happiness. Endure
without murmuring
the hardships of the way.
2. Speak to those who are still seeking rest on earth. Boast not of
your happiness. The outward appearance is not always the genuine index of the
heart.
3. Address those who have lost their former rest and have not found
another. We would not have you look again to the world for rest. We would not
have you remain where you are. Why not proceed another step and lay hold of
those consolations that never fail? In order to this
it is necessary that you
do indeed receive the Gospel
and positively join the company of pilgrims. If
you would be happy
be decided. Yield yourself up
without reserve
to the Lord
Jesus Christ
and He has pledged His Word that He will give you rest. (James
Foote
A. M.)
No rest here
This was the drum beat of a prophet who wanted to arouse his
people from their oppressed and sinful condition; but it may just as properly
be uttered now as then. Our great want is rest. God did not make this world to
rest in. This world would be a very different world if it were intended for us
to lounge in. It does right well for a few hours. You and I have seen men who
tried to rest here. In trade. In seeking fame. If there is no rest on earth
there is rest in heaven--perfect rest
unending rest. (T. De Witt Talmage
D. D.)
The economy of renewal
The arising and the departure
as the passage stands
referred to
a visible residence; there was to be a literal change of place. But even there
the act was required as part of a religious discipline and for a Divine
purpose. The national condition that made such a migration necessary was one
incident in a peculiar providential history. The outward removal was the result
of an inward state
--a state of moral deterioration and danger. Domestic
comfort must be abandoned for the sake of the spiritual safety
purity
and
progress of a corrupt
imperilled people. The call is made in the name and by
the Spirit of the Lord God. There is no violence in transferring it from a
Hebrew to a Christian age. The need that a self-absorbed heart should bestir itself
and arise--should go forth and follow God’s call
should be moulded into a new
form and born into a new life
through separation
travail
and sacrifice
is
as independent of the differences of time and country as any attribute of
humanity. Indeed
this permanence of the essential realities of life through
all social changes
wherever a human soul lives
sins and suffers
furnishes
the starting point in this subject.
1. The true growth of every really progressive character is made
through a succession of decided departures out of positions
habits
estates of
thought and feeling
which have once been familiar
into untried territories.
There is the passage from the com paratively irresponsible
and dependent
period of early childhood
into the greater self-determination of youth. Within
the safe enclosures of a guarded external innocence the moral purposes will not
stay any longer. They would not be fulfilling the Creator s design if they did.
That is not their rest; they must arise and depart. Youth must see its visions
dream its dreams
and taste its awful liberty. Again
later
there is a
transition from youth into maturity. The dream is broken. That graceful
airy
tent which the uncommitted thought reared for itself at will is dissolved. A
more real habitation
of severer shape
supplants it. Or rather
it is now a
field of outdoor service. Chilly as the future looks
the least enterprising
must go to meet it. In some vague
indefinite way this decree of departure
makes itself felt in all thoughtful souls. Beyond these early and successive
departures
from one period of our age to another
there are a great variety of
other changes
having the same general purpose and illustrating the same plan
of God. Sometimes the dissolution of our former order of life is made
unavoidable by conditions beyond our control. A particular line of employment
is found to have furnished all of opportunity
or stimulus
or trial
that the
great former of our characters intended
and it is broken off. A particular
place of residence has exhausted all its helps and ministries upon us: and we
must take up the little parcels that we call our goods
and go to be schooled
in some new neighbourhood
etc. In other cases
with less visible signals
but
not less effectually
we are moved out of our moral and mental habitations. So
long as we are in them nothing seems more fixed than our opinions
tastes
and
estimates. But they may become too fixed. Estimates of men and things stiffen
into prejudices. And hence by one process and another we are led to give many
of them up
or to modify them. Events are ordered to that end.
2. These turns of the inner life will often be painful
demanding
something more than a natural
or Stoic courage. Religious indifference wishes
only to be let alone. But no. Pain comes. The insensible heart must be
startled. The earthly and the Divine fight together within us
and we suffer
under the conflict. Sometimes this separation from familiar evil is a struggle
as between life and death
shaking the whole soul
and tearing its shrinking
quick in torture. And yet
such is the power of the conviction of the spirit of
truth when humility has once begun its holy and honest work within us
how many
even go out to meet that saving sorrow! Blessed is the mind that springs with
alacrity and thanksgiving to its better ministry!
3. All true souls
really touched with the Spirit and consecrated to
the fellowship of Christian obedience
will be ready for this sacrifice. Not
all equally. This
in fact
is the test of the sincerity of faith: the
willingness to give up all that has been precious
but not holy
and launch out
upon the future
trusting only to an unseen hand. So
through familiar
analogies
we are led to see how the sacred provision is made
in our fallen
but still aspiring nature
for that one only radical and complete
transformation which changes the governing motive of life
--the “regeneration”
of the Gospel. It has been said that no period of our life becomes quite
intelligible to us till we quit it for the next. And there is certainly truth
here. But retrospect is not all our outlook: Our best wisdom is not gained from
what is behind us
but from what is above. When the heart is really made new
and is filled with all the holy life of its Lord
it matters nothing what the
outward place or scenery may be. To this
then
we are brought
that there is
one migration of the soul more complete and adventurous than all besides: that
which takes it over from every kind of self-direction into a pure
self-renunciation to the Spirit of God; one “going forth” more decisive and
sublime than all journeys and discoveries--from the miserable effort to satisfy
ourselves into the liberty of the sons of God; one central and all transforming
change--that which refashions us
by a new principle of life
from the likeness
of sinful men into the likeness of God’s Son. All other transitions touch us at
certain points or parts of our nature: this transfuses another spirit through
the whole; old things pass away
because the old evil is gone
and all things
are new. (F. D. Huntington
D. D.)
A resting place for the soul
Years ago there came to the late Canon Hoare
of Tunbridge Wells
a rich man
then in his old age
to arrange with him about his burial place
and after they had gone carefully over the churchyard
and had chosen the spot
where he was to lie
Canon Hoare turned to him and said: “You have chosen a
resting place for your body
but have you yet found a resting place for your
soul?” Turning round
and looking him full in the face
the old man answered:
“You are the first clergyman who ever asked me that question.” He went with
Canon Hoare into his study
and
to make a long story short
he gave his heart
to Christ
and found his resting place
and in Canon Hoare’s study to the day
of his death a well-known picture representing the saving of a life from a
wreck hung. It was the gift of the grateful man
who had found a resting place
not only for his body but for his soul. Ask yourself the question now
before
you turn to another page: “Have I found a resting place for my soul?”
If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie
. . .he shall
even be the prophet of this people
Israel’s popular preacher
This is Micah’s idea of the kind of prophet (or
as we should say
pulpit) the men of Israel would willingly and unanimously accept.
The sketch is marked by two things which always tend to make a preacher
generally acceptable to thoughtless men in every age.
I. By emptiness of
mind. He has nothing in his mind but wind
vain conceits
vapid notions--no
deep thought
no rich store of information
no well-digested belief or profound
conviction.
II. By ministering
to please. “I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink.” These
prophets would accommodate themselves to their tastes and habits
and sanction
their indulgences. They would not disturb their consciences nor strike against
their prejudices
but talk to them in such a way as to leave them satisfied
with themselves. (Homilist.)
I will surely assemble
O Jacob
all of thee
Gospel work
The prophet here passes from threats to promises.
The future was to embrace two things.
1. A grand gathering. Jacob and the remnant of Israel was to be
‘gathered’ as a mighty flock in the fruitful and lovely region of Bozrah.
2. A triumphant deliverance. “The breaker is come up before them.”
Who is the breaker? If reference is here made to Jewish bonds
it was to Moses;
if to Babylonish captivity
it was to Cyrus; if to the bondage of the devil
it
was Christ. We shall apply the words to illustrate the grand work of the
Gospel. “The fulfilment of this prophecy
” says Delitzsch
“commenced with the
gathering together of Israel to its God and King by the preaching of the
Gospel
and will be completed at some future time
when the Lord will redeem
Israel
which is now pining in dispersion
out of the fetters of its unbelief
and life of sin. We must not exclude all allusion to the deliverance of the
Jewish nation only out of the earthly Babylon by Cyrus; at the same time
it is
only in its typical significance that this comes into consideration at all
namely
as a preliminary stage and pledge of the redemption to be effected by Christ
out of the spiritual Babylon of this world.” Taking the words
then
as an
illustration of Gospel work
two thoughts are suggested.
I. Unification. “I
will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah.” Men are morally divided; there
is a schism in the great body of humanity. Men have not only lost interest in
their fellows
but an antipathy prevails amongst them. They are scattered
abroad in different countries
under different governments
and in connection
with different religions and interests. The great work of the Gospel is to
bring men together
to gather them together in some moral Bozrah
to unite them
in the fold of Christ. There is only one way
and that is the presentation of
an object of supreme moral attraction to all men. That object the Gospel
presents: it is Christ. And He Himself said: “I
if I be lifted up
will draw
all men unto Me.” As a mater of philosophy
I proclaim that there is nothing
but the Gospel that can hush the discords
heal the divisions
and terminate
all wars and strifes amongst men; and historically.
II. Emancipation.
“The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up and passed through the
gate.” Men everywhere are in moral bondage. They are the slaves of sin and the
devil. “Carnally sold unto sin.” Moral bondage is the worst of all bondage; it
is a bondage--
Who shall free us from this bondage? There is One
and but One
who can. Christ
the Breaker. (Homilist.)
Verse 13
The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up
and have
passed through the gate
and are gone out by it
Christ
as the Breaker
opening all passes to glory that were
impassable
It is agreed not only by Christian
but even by some Jewish
interpreters
that these words have a principal and ultimate view unto the
glorious Messiah
and the great work of salvation that lie was to accomplish in
the fulness of time.
The prophet here prophesies that Christ should rid the way
and clear the
passage
and make mountains as a plain.
I. The way of the
Lord’s ransomed opened up by the great Redeemer. “The breaker is come up before
them.”
1. The designation given to the glorious Messiah. “The breaker.”
Cyrus was an instrument in the hand of God for breaking the Babylonish yoke.
Herein he was a type of Christ
by whom the yoke of our spiritual captivity
under sin and Satan is broken.
2. We have the courageous appearance of the glorious Redeemer in His
breaking work. He “comes up
” He appears upon the field with an undaunted and
heroic courage.
3. The party that He heads
or those in whose quarrel this Breaker
appears. Enquire upon what account Christ is called the Breaker.
6. He may be called a Breaker because of the breaking trials He
brings on His own people
and the judgments and calamities that He brings on an
offending Church or nation.
II. The upcoming of
Christ as the Breaker. Understand of His coming up to avenge the quarrel of His
children and people. Like a mighty champion He takes the field. Tell of some
seasonable upcomings.
1. He appeared in our quarrel in the council of peace.
2. He came seasonably immediately after the fall of man.
3. Really and personally in His incarnation.
4. In the power of His Spirit in the dispensation of the Gospel.
5. In the outward dispensation of His providence.
6. When He revives His own work in a backsliding land and church.
7. In every display of His grace and love to a particular believer;
when He seasonably interposes for the relief of a poor soul sinking under the
burden of sin
temptation
affliction
and desertion.
8. At death.
Question--In what manner doth He Come up in our quarrel
to the
help of the weak against the mighty?
1. All His appearances for the help and relief of His people have
been well-timed.
2. He comes up solitarily. He alone comes up. It is His own arm
brings salvation.
3. With the greatest alacrity and cheerfulness.
4. Speedily
with no lingering or tarrying.
5. Courageously.
6. Victoriously.
7. His coming to His breaking work is irresistible. And--
8. It is with much awful greatness and majesty.
III. What is implied
in His “coming up before them”?
1. It imports that He has them and their case deeply at heart.
2. It implies that their way is hard and difficult.
3. It implies His authority to rule and govern them.
4. It implies strength and ability to support authority.
5. It implies their inability to break up their own way.
6. As the Breaker is gone up before them
it implies that He has
paved the road
and travelled the way before them. He goes before His people in
obedience
in suffering
in going through death into glory.
7. It implies His routing and discomfiting all the enemies that stood
in the way of our salvation: Satan
sin
the world
death.
8. It implies that the way to heaven is patent.
9. It implies that
whatever dangers
difficulties
or opposition be
in their way
they are in absolute safety under His conduct.
IV. The grounds and
reasons of this dispensation
or why doth Christ break up the way to His
people?
1. Because they were gifted to Him of the Father
as a heritage and
possession.
2. Because they are the purchase of His blood.
3. Because His faithfulness is engaged to lead them in their way.
4. Because He has to give an account of them to the Father.
5. Because they cannot break up their own way.
6. Because they trust in Him as Leader and Commander.
7. Because of the near and dear relation that He has come under unto
them. (E. Erskine.)
The Breaker
Micah lived near the time of the Babylonish Captivity. It is a
prominent subject in the prophetic writings. Resembling
as it did
the
spiritual captivity of God’s people
it is made the groundwork of many glorious
predictions relating to the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation. In this light
commentators regard the prediction of the text. It has a reference to the
captive Jews
and their liberator Cyrus; but it looks further. In Christ and
His ransomed people it has its real
complete fulfilment. It sets forth the
Lord Jesus--
I. As interposing
for His people in a peculiar character. “The breaker.” The demolisher. One who
beats down before them all barriers and impediments that obstruct their way.
The figure places us where we really are
far off from God and His kingdom
with many obstructions lying in between God’s kingdom and us; with more than
distance to be got over--with barriers and obstacles to be surmounted. What are
these? Some of them lie out of us
some within us. Out of us is--
1. The judicial displeasure of God. It is our guilt which has
subjected us to His wrath.
2. The opposition of Satan. By Satan is meant
not one being
but a
numerous host of beings in the spiritual world opposed to our happiness.
Through this difficulty Christ breaks. Not
as we might have supposed
by
exterminating these enemies of our salvation
scattering them out of our path;
but in first making His own way to heaven in man’s form through them
and then
by communicating strength to His people to do as He has done--withstand these
enemies
force their way through them
and tread them down. Within His people
what is there to impede them in their way to heaven? We may say that everything
within them is an impediment to them in their way. There is nothing within
fallen man
naturally
that does not tend to carry him away from God
rather
than to lead him to God.
See--
1. The natural self-sufficiency and pride of heart
which we may call
self-righteousness. But Christ comes
and touches the proud heart of man
and
this barrier in it falls down.
2. There is the unGodliness of the heart. Almost as stiff a barrier
in the way of our salvation as its pride. Here too the heavenly Breaker comes
in. He opens the sinner’s heart
communicates to it a holy principle; and this
principle
warring against the unholiness in him
gradually breaks its
strength
masters and dethrones it.
3. The unbelief of our hearts. This leads to hesitation and delay
under one excuse after another.
II. The escape of
God’s Israel in consequence of Christ’s interposition for them. Two remarks.
1. A great change has taken place in the spiritual condition of
Christ’s people
in consequence of what He has done for them.
2. The people really delivered by Christ cooperate with Him in their
deliverance. You must be warned against imagining that you have one particle of
spiritual ability or strength of your own. But you must be warned as earnestly
against taking up with what may be termed a passive religion.
III. The high
privilege of these escaped liberated men after their escape. “Their king shall
pass before them
and the Lord on the head of them.” This is more than saying
we shall have the Lord for us
we shall have Him with us. It indicates
not merely the presence
but the near presence of the Lord. It may be a figure
taken from the cloudy Pillar hanging over Israel
overshadowing them. It is an
assurance at once of discipline and of safety on our way to heaven. (Charles
Bradley
M. A.)
The Breaker
Names appropriate to the offices which He was afterwards to fill
were bestowed upon the promised Messiah. This is one of them. The name answers
to what we call a “pioneer
” one who clears the way before an army in its
march.
1. It is appropriate to the Lord Jesus
because it was through His
agency alone that the power of sin was broken. Our redeemed broke the strength
of the law
by obeying its rigid requirements in our stead.
2. This title marks the character and office of the Messiah when
by
His death
the destruction between Jews and Gentiles was forever removed.
3. The title is appropriate
since by His death Christ destroyed
death
and by His triumphant resurrection He has given an earnest of what He
will one day accomplish for all who fall asleep in Him.
4. Appropriate also when we notice the steady inroads which His
kingdom has made upon the widespread dominions of the Prince of Darkness. In
vain does infidelity attempt to account for the improvement in morality and
refinement by attributing them to the advance of civilisation alone. Stubborn
facts
drawn from the history of nations
contradict the assertion.
Civilisation
unless animated and directed by the religion of Christ
has
uniformly corrupted and deteriorated public morals. We must look to a higher
source than the wisdom or ingenuity or strength of man for the agency which has
vanquished the powers of darkness
and redeemed the world from bondage; and we
need not look for it in vain. (John N. Norton
D. D.)
The Breaker
I. In what
respects may Jesus Christ be called a Breaker? Because of the great opposition
He had to break through in the work of our redemption. Because He breaks up a
new and living way
by which we may have access to God and glory. Because He
breaks the enmity of our hearts against Him. Because of the breaking judgments
He brings on the world
and the breaking trials on His people.
II. In what
respects may He be said to “come up”? When our first parents sinned
He came up
in the promise. He came up really and personally in the incarnation
etc. In
the chariots of a preached Gospel. In every display of His grace and love to
such as believe.
III. What may be
implied in His coming up before them? He comes before them as a Shepherd
as a
General
as a King. It imports that the way to heaven is patent.
IV. The escape of
the ransomed by this way. They have broken up
etc.
out of darkness into
light
out of bond age into liberty. They have passed through the law gate of
conviction
and the gospel-gate of conversion. (T. Hannam.)
The Lord Jesus as the Leader of His people
I. The Lord Jesus
in the character of a Breaker. By breaker understand one who burst through all
obstacles.
1. What are the difficulties to be broken through?
2. Jesus
as the Breaker
has burst through every difficulty.
II. His people
following in His steps. Allusion is to the entrance of a victorious captain
with his troops following. Every act of Christ was done for His Church. How
great will be the final glory of the Saviour! How blessed is the lot of the
people of God! How awful it must be to be a stranger to Christ. (J. G.
Breay
B. A.)
The matchless beauty of Jesus
Apply the words to the spiritual and eternal salvation of the
Israel of God. Consider--
I. The captivity
implied in the promise of deliverance. The people are described as sheep
but
their salvation is spoken of in language which implies they are captives
and
such captives that no other than the Lord Jehovah can effect their freedom. It
is a captivity to sin. It is a willing captivity. They have sold themselves.
II. Their glorious
redemption. Who is it that undertakes their cause
and as their Redeemer is
mighty to set them free?
III. The making
effectual of the redemption thus obtained in the release and liberty of the
captives. They break through their unbelief; they break through the barriers of
sin
guilt
and death
and lay hold on eternal life. They break
also
from
their sins
from the world
from its ungodly ways
and from whatever would
withstand them in their following their glorious Lord and King
who goes before
them
and whom they obey as their Leader and Commander. A threefold application.
1. Warning to such as go on still in their trespasses.
2. Encouragement to all that are sensible of their sins
and
concerned about their souls.
3. Comfort for all such as are following after the Lord. (J. T.
Parker
M. A.)
Christ the Breaker
I. The great work
of our Divine Redeemer
by which He has broken for the captives the prison
house of their bondage. Many of us know not the bondage in which we are held.
We are chained by sin
chained by the habit of evil with a strength of which
you never know till you try to shake off.
II. Jesus Christ as
the Opener
and the Path
to God. Our condition is not only one of bondage to
evil
but also one of separation from God. We do not know God as He is
except
by Jesus Christ. It is only the God manifest in Jesus Christ that draws men’s
hearts to Him. That God that is in Christ is the only God that humanity ever
loved. He
by the fact of His Cross and Passion
has borne and borne away the
impediments of our own sin and transgression which rise forever between us and
Him
unless He shall sweep them out of the way.
III. Christ is the
Breaker as the Captain of our life’s march. “When He putteth forth His sheep
He goeth before them.”
IV. He is the
Breaker for us of the bands of death. Christ’s resurrection is the only solid
proof of a future life. It is not possible that we should be holden of the
impotent chains that He has broken. (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》