_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 swi... [ Continue Reading ]
_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 hei... [ Continue Reading ]
_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. (1)... [ Continue Reading ]
_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, that Ahaz shut up the doors of the temple and erected altars... [ Continue Reading ]
_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 peopl... [ Continue Reading ]
_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... [ Continue Reading ]
_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 trium... [ Continue Reading ]
_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... [ Continue Reading ]