Micah 6:9

The LORD'S voice crieth unto the city, and [the man of] wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

Ver. 9. The Lord's voice crieth unto the city] Or, shall cry, viz. by his prophets. φιλει ο θεος προσημαινειν, said the heathen. God loves to forewarn, to warn before he woundeth, to foretell a judgment before he inflicteth it. He had shown his people what was good, and what he required of them; but to little purpose, through their unteachableness and stubbornness. He threateneth, therefore, here to take another course with them.

And the man of wisdom shall see thy name] Gualther rendereth it, And the man of essence, &c., that is, qui revers vir est, non caudex aut truncus, he that is a man indeed, or not a stock, or trunk (such a one as was that sapless fellow Nabal, in whom all true reason was decayed and faded), will easily see God's name, that is, the Divine majesty of the word working powerfully upon his heart, as the sunbeams beat upon Jonah's head, and disquieted him. Danaeus rendereth it, And wisdom seeth thy name, that is, wisdom's children, as Luke 7:35, which will justify her, when others are either so froward that nothing can please them (neither John fasting, nor Christ eating, Matthew 11:16, &c.), or so dull that nothing can affect them, as these here; the word of God was worse than spilt upon them. Sure it is, that wisdom's children are not many. "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things," saith Hosea, Hosea 14:9, the very question imports a paucity; see the note there. Though a gun be discharged at a whole flight of birds, there are but a few killed; though the net be spread over the whole pond, but a few fishes are taken. Rari sunt qui philosophantur, saith Ulpian. It is with our hearers as it was with Jonathan's signal arrows, two fell short, and but one beyond the mark; so where one shoots home to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus, many fall short. Three sorts of four of those that heard our Saviour were naught, Matthew 13:4,8. And of those that heard Paul at Athens, some derided, others doubted, and but a very few believed; as Dionysius, and Damaris, and some others with them, Acts 17:34 .

Hear ye the rod] Since ye would not hear the word, and so redeem your own sorrows. All God's rods are vocal, they are speaking as well as smiting; they are not mute, but mingled with instructions. They are his free school teachers (Dιδασκαλοι αμισθοι); curst and crabbed, but such as whereby he openeth men's ears (till then uncircumcised, and stopped with the superfluity of naughtiness) to discipline, and commandeth them to return from iniquity, Job 36:10. By chastening men God teacheth them out of his law, Psalms 94:12. Hence Luther calleth affliction Theologium Christianorum the Christian man's divinity; and another saith, that Schola crucis est schola lucis, The school of the cross is the school of light. There shall be only fear to make you understand the hearing, Isaiah 28:19. As God is said to hold his peace when he punisheth not, Psa 50:21 Isaiah 41:14, so, to preach and teach when he doth. And look bow Gideon, by threshing the men of Succoth with thorns and briers of the wilderness, taught them, Judges 8:7; Judges 8:16, so here. "I have a message from God unto thee, O king," said Ehud, Judges 3:20. Lo, his dagger was God's message. Whence one well observeth, that not only the vocal admonitions, but the real judgments, of God are his errands and instructions to the earth, the inhabitants of the world. "For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness," Isaiah 26:9. Smart makes wit, and vexation giveth understanding.

And who hath appointed it] God, who hath not only a permissive, but an active hand in all our afflictions. Others render the text, Quis sit, qui accersat istud, Who is it that hath procured it, or sent for it, who, but yourselves? according to Hosea 13:9, see the note there. Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso. Men may thank themselves for all their sufferings; for God afflicteth not willingly, Lamentations 3:33. He cometh forth of his place to do it, Isaiah 26:21, and counteth it "his work, his strange work," Isaiah 28:21. He doth justice (when there is no other remedy), but he loveth mercy, and so requireth us to do in the verse next before going.