The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, etc. Micah calls himself a Morasthite because he was a native of Moresheth-Gath, a small town of Judea. He prophesied in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and his prophetic mission commenced soon after that of Isaiah. He was contemporary with him, as well as with Hosea and Amos. His prophecies were directed to Samaria, the capital city of Israel, and also to Jerusalem. Hence we find denunciations against Samaria mingled with prophecies concerning Judah and Jerusalem. One of his predictions, it seems, saved the life of Jeremiah, who would have been put to death for foretelling the destruction of the temple, had not Micah foretold the same thing a hundred years before. The book is commonly divided into three sections - ch, 1. and 2.; ch. 3. to 5.; ch. 6. and 7. Each of these opens with a summons to hear God's message, and then proceeds with expostulations and threatenings, which are followed by glorious promises. His style is bold, fiery, and abrupt, and has not a little of the poetic grandeur of Isaiah. His sudden transitions from one subject to another often make his writings difficult to explain. "It is not," says Delitzsch, "a little remarkable that Micah should adopt as the first sentence of his prophecy that with which his namesake concluded his denouncement against Ahab" (1 Kings 22:28). Hengstenborg is of opinion that "he quoted the words designedly, in order to show that his prophetic agency was to be considered as a confirmation of that of his predecessor, who was so zealous for God, and that he had more in common with him than the bare name." We may take these words as suggesting certain thoughts concerning Divine revelation, or the Bible.

I. IT IS THE "WORD OF THE LORD." What is a word?

1. A mind manifesting power. In his word a true man manifiests himself, his thought, feeling, character; and his word is important according to the measure of his faculties, experiences, attainments. Divine revelation manifests the mind of God, especially the moral characteristics of that mind - his rectitude, holiness, mercy, etc.

2. A mind influencing power. Man uses his word to influence other minds, to bring other minds into sympathy with his own. Thus God uses his Word. He uses it to correct human errors, dispel human ignorance, remove human perversities, and turn human thought and sympathy into a course harmonious with his own mind.

II. IT IS "THE WORD OF THE LORD" MADE TO INDIVIDUAL MEN. It "came to Micah the Morasthite." It did not come to all men of his age and country in common. It came to him and a few more. Why certain men were chosen as the special recipients of God's word is a problem whose solution must be left for eternity. If it be said - The men to whom God made special communications were men whose mental faculties, moral genius, and habits specially qualified them to become recipients, and if all men had the same qualifications, all would have Divine communications, the difficulty is not removed by this; for it might still be asked - Why have not all men such qualifications? The fact remains that "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

III. IT IS "THE WORD OF THE LORD" MADE TO INDIVIDUAL MEN FOR ALL MANKIND. "Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is!" God did not speak to any individual man specially in order that the communication might be kept to himself, but that he might communicate it to others. He makes one man the special recipient of truth that he may become the organ and promoter of it. God's Word is for the world, and the man who has it should give it forth. God enlightens, renovates, and roves man by man. - D.T.

God never leaves himself without witness among men. He bears witness perpetually to them - by the gifts of his hand (Acts 14:17), by the still small voice within, and by the voice of his messengers. God has borne and still bears witness to us on behalf of Christ. This may be illustrated from John 5:31-39, where our Lord speaks of three ways in which the Father testified on his behalf.

1. By the mission of John the Baptist, representing preachers and teachers.

2. By his works (to us, miracles of grace, converts to Christ).

3. By the written Word. We have to add God's witness:

4. By the resurrection of Christ (Acts 17:81).

5. By the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:32).

In all these ways God is bearing witness for us. So even in his chastisements (1 Corinthians 11:32). But if we heed not these testimonies for us, we must be prepared at any time to hear the voice of God's providence calling for judgments (vers. 3, 4), and thus witnessing against us. When such judgments fall, God will be able to testify:

(1) That we have had abundant privileges. Illustrate from 1 Samuel 12:6-15.

(2) That we have had fair warning and have neglected it, as did Samaria (2 Kings 17), and Judah (2 Chronicles 36:11-21), and the later Jews (Acts 13:46).

(3) That his judgments are so righteous that God can summon all people to observe and justify them (cf. Deuteronomy 29:24 28). "It is a bitter case when our provoked Lord is provoked to go out of doors to the streets with his beloved's faults." They proceed from the very temple of his holiness (cf. Revelation 15:3-6, where the songs of vindication and the angels of vengeance are coupled together). God never hesitates to give reasons for his judgments (Proverbs 1:24-27; Jeremiah 29:23; Malachi 2:14; Malachi 3:5). Such judgments as fall now are but predictions and earnests of the great judgment awaiting the ungodly. God, who will then be a witness against us, warns us now of some of the ways in which he will then testify. He will bring as witnesses:

(1) The Law (John 5:45).

(2) The gospel (John 12:47).

(3) Our outward privileges. Illustrate from Joshua 24:26, 27. So there may be cited against us - the pulpit from which we heard the Word, and the preacher who in it "testified repentance towards God," etc. (Acts 20:21).

(4) The less privileged of our brethren (cf. Luke 11:31, 32).

(5) Our misused talents (James 5:1-4).

(6) Our words (Matthew 12:37).

(7) Our consciences (John 8:9; Romans 2:15). If true now, how much more then! Lest God should be a witness against us then, we must, by repentance, faith, and obedience, secure his testimony now, like Enoch (Hebrews 11:5; cf. Psalm 147:11). Then we shall have the testimony of our brethren (Romans 16:6-13 3John 3-6) and of our own consciences (2 Corinthians 1:12), and shall be able to anticipate without fear the final verdict of God (Romans 8:33, 34). - E.S.P.

For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth, etc. This is a highly figurative and sublime representation of the Almighty in his retributive work, especially in relation to Samaria and Jerusalem. He is represented as leaving his holy temple, coming out of his place, and marching with overwhelming grandeur over the high places of the earth, to deal out punishment to the wicked. "Behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him," ere, "The description of this theophany," says Delitzsch, "is founded upon the idea of a terrible storm and earthquake, as in Psalm 18:8. The mountains melt (Judges 5:4; Psalm 68:8) with the streams of water which discharge themselves from heaven and the valleys split with the deep channels cut out by the torrents of water. The similes 'like wax,' etc. (as in Psalm 68:2), and 'like water' are intended to express the complete dissolution of mountains and valleys. The actual facts answering to this description are the destructive influences exerted upon nature by great national judgments." The reference may be to the destruction of the King of Israel by Shalmaneser, and the invasion of Judah by the armies of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar, by the latter of whom the Jews were carried away captive. The passage is an inexpressibly grand representation of God's procedure in relation to sin. Let us look at this procedure in two aspects.

I. AS IT APPEARS TO THE EYE OF MAN. The Bible is eminently anthropomorphic: it presents God to man in human attributes and modes of operation. Two thoughts are suggested:

1. God, in dealing out retribution, appears to man in an extraordinary position. "He cometh forth out of his place." What is his place? To all intelligent beings the settled place of the Almighty is the temple of love, the pavilion of goodness, the mercy seat. The general beauty, order, and happiness of the universe give all intelligent creatures this impression of him. But when confusion and misery fall on the sinner, the Almighty seems to man to come out of his "place" - to step aside from his ordinary procedure. Not that he does so; but in man's view he seems to do so. The Immutable One does not change his purpose. His purpose is benevolent, though in carrying it forward it necessarily brings misery to those who oppose it. Judgment is God's strange work (Isaiah 28:21). He comes out of his place to execute it.

2. God, in dealing out retribution, appears to man in a terrific aspect. He does not appear as in the silent march of the stars or the serenity of the sun; but as in thunderstorms and volcanic eruptions. "The mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire." Though the Almighty is as benign and serene when bringing deserved suffering upon the sinner as he is when filling heaven with gladness, yet to the suffering sinner he always seems terrific. He seems to be rending the heavens, cleaving the mountains, and tearing the earth to pieces. God is evermore presented to an intelligent creature according to the moral state of his soul.

II. AS IT AFFECTS A SINFUL PEOPLE. In God's procedure in relation to sin, what disastrous effects were brought upon Samaria and Jerusalem!

1. God, in his procedure in relation to sin, brings material ruin upon people. "Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof." It means utter ruin. Sin brings material destruction upon a people, brings on commercial decay, political ruin, destroys the health of the body, and brings it ultimately to the dust. Sin brings material ruin.

2. God, in his procedure in relation to sin, brings mental anguish upon a people. "And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate." A disruption between the soul and the objects of its supreme affections involves the greatest anguish. The gods of a people, whatever they may be, are these objects, and these are to be destroyed. "The graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces." The divinities, the fanes, the priests - all shattered. Such is the ruin which sin brings on a people.

CONCLUSION. Mark well that God has a course of conduct in relation to sin; or rather, that God, in his beneficent march, must ever appear terrible to the sinner and bring ruin on his head. It is the wisdom as well as the duty of all intelligent creatures to move in thought, sympathy, and purpose as God moves - move with him, not against him. To move with him is to see him in all the attraction of Fatherhood; to move against him is to see him in all the horrors of an infuriated Judge. - D.T.

God's interposition by judgment is threatened on account of the nation's sins. The greatness of their privileges involved special responsibilities and chastisements (Amos 3:2). These sins are traced to their sources in the capitals of the two kingdoms. A metropolis is a centre of influence for good or for evil. This may be illustrated by the histories of both the Hebrew kingdoms. The northern kingdom had in succession three capitals:

(1) Shechem, where the apostasy of Israel began (1 Kings 12:25-33).

(2) Tirzah, the home of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:17), the scene of civil strife (1 Kings 16:9, 17.18), and of the court of Omri of sinister memory (Micah 6:16), for half his reign.

(3) Samaria, the seat of monarchy for two hundred years. Among the sins specially charged by the prophets against Samaria we find pride (Isaiah 9:9), luxury and licentiousness (Isaiah 28:1 4; Amos 6:1-6), incorrigible treachery (Hosea 7:1), contemptuous disregard of God and his worship (Hosea 8:5; Amos 8:14), oppression of the poor (Micah 3.; Amos 4:1). In Judah the high places were an offence to God, which even good kings did not entirely suppress, so that Jerusalem may be said to have been responsible for them, and did not escape the infection (2 Chronicles 28:1-4, 23-25) nor the denunciations of the prophets (Isaiah 1; Isaiah 5; Isaiah 28:14-19). We are thus reminded of -

I. THE RESPONSIBILITIES ATTACHING TO A METROPOLIS. It is:

1. The seat of government, where kings and rulers live and exert great personal influence, and where laws are passed which, if bad, may corrupt the national conscience and deprave social life.

2. One chief centre of public opinion, where the most educated, and cultivated congregate.

3. The fountain of fashion.

4. The gathering place of the rural population, where the opinions and practices of the citizens may be speedily imbibed. Illustrate from the influence of Paris during the second empire, culminating in the craze for war, which brought ruin on the country in 1870; or from the influence of Constantinople and its pachas on the present condition of the Turkish empire. Such capitals are centres of corruption, like diseased lungs where the blood is deteriorated rather than purified.

II. LESSONS ARE SUGGESTED FOR ALL CLASSES OF RESIDENTS IN A METROPOLIS.

1. For the court, lest they be like Jeroboam, "who made Israel to sin."

2. For legislators. Illustrate from the demoralizing effects of many of our past licensing acts.

3. For editors of newspapers and other leaders of public opinion. It was these who were, to a large extent, responsible for the Crimean War.

4. For the leaders of fashion, who may foster habits of extravagance, of peril to health, or even of cruelty in matters of dress.

5. For men of business; the exchanges of the metropolis giving a tone to the commercial customs of the country.

6. For artisans, whose trades unions may help or injure their fellow workmen scattered in the provinces.

7. For preachers, whom many gather from all parts to hear, and who may give a tone to the preaching of the country.

8. For Church members. Heresy or worldliness in metropolitan Churches may soon spread among rural Churches maintaining a simpler faith and practice (cf. Matthew 5:14, 16; Romans 1:8). - E.S.P.

Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. These verses have been thus translated: "Therefore will I lament and howl; I will go spoiled and naked; I will keep lamentation like the jackats, and mourning like the ostriches. For her stripes are malignant; for it comes to Judah, reaches to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem." Micah's intention is not only to exhibit publicly his mourning for the approaching calamity of Judah, but also to set forth in a symbolical form the fate that awaits the Judaeans. And he can only do this by including himself in the nation, and exhibiting the fate of the nation in his own person. "Wailing like jackals and ostriches is a loud, strong, mournful cry, those animals being distinguished by a mournful wail." We shall take these words as suggesting the subject of moral incurableness. Samaria and Jerusalem were, in a material and political sense, in a desperate and hopeless condition. Our subject is moral ineffableness, and we make two remarks concerning it.

I. IT IS A CONDITION INTO WHICH MEN MAY FALL.

1. Mental philosophy shows this. Such is the constitution of the human mind, that the repetition of an act can generate an uncontrollable tendency to repeat it; and the repetition of a sin deadens altogether that moral sensibility which constitutionally recoils from the wrong. The mind often makes habit, not only second nature, but the sovereign of nature.

2. Observation shows this. That man's circle of acquaintance must be exceedingly limited who does not know men who become morally incurable. There are incurable liars, incurable misers, incurable sensualists, and incurable drunkards. No moral logician, however great his dialectic skill, can forge an argument strong enough to move them from their old ways, even when urged by the seraphic fervour of the highest rhetoric.

3. The Bible shows this. What did Solomon mean when he said, "Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words" (Proverbs 23:9)? What did Christ mean when he said, "Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine"? And again, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes"? We often speak of retribution as if it always lay beyond the grave, and the day of grace as extending through the whole life of man; but such is not the fact. Retribution begins with many men here; the day of grace terminates with many before the day of death. There are those who reach an unconvertible state; their characters are stereotyped and fixed as eternity.

II. IT IS A CONDITION FOR THE PROFOUNDEST LAMENTATION. At the desperate condition of his country the prophet is brought into the most poignant distress. "Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls." Christ wept when he considered the moral incurableness of the men of Jerusalem. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" etc. There is no sight more distressing than the sight of a morally incurable soul. There is no building that I pass that strikes me with greater sadness than the Hospital for "Incurables;" but what are incurable bodies compared to morally incurable souls? There are anodynes that may deaden their bodily pains, and death will relieve them of their torture; but a morally incurable soul is destined to pass into anguish, intense and more intense as existence runs on, and peradventure without end. The incurable body may not necessarily be an injury to others; but a morally incurable soul must be a curse as long as it lives. Were we truly alive to the moral state of wicked men around us, we should be ready to break out in the words of the prophet, "Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked," etc. - D.T.

Bind the chariot to the swift beast. These words are addressed to the inhabitants of Lachish. "This place appears to have formed the link of idolatry between Israel and Judah. Lying in the Shephelah, a fortified place of great importance, she was the first city in Judah that was led away by the sin of Jeroboam; and from her the infection spread till at length it reached Jerusalem itself. In the prospect of a sudden attack, it behoved the inhabitants to use all despatch in removing their families and what property they could take with them to a distance. Lachish was besieged by Sennacherib before making the threatened attack on Jerusalem" (2 Kings 18:14). Our subject is promptitude in action. "Bind the chariot to the swift beast."

I. BE QUICK IN YOUR MATERIAL ENGAGEMENTS. Man has material duties; these are as sacred and as binding as spiritual ones. Indeed, the distinction between the secular and the spiritual is not real, but fictitious. A man should be quick in all his legitimate temporal engagements, whatever they may be. Whatever is to be done must be done at once. "Be diligent in business." By quickness I do not mean the hurry of confusion, but adroit expertness, skilful promptitude. As Shakespeare says, "What the wise do quickly is not done rashly."

1. The quicker you are, the more you will accomplish. An expert man will accomplish more in an hour than a slow man in a day.

2. The quicker you are, the better for your faculties. The quick movement of the limb is healthier than the slow; the quick action of the mental faculties is more invigorating than the slow. As a rule, the quick man is in every way healthier and happier than the slow.

3. The quicker you are, the more valuable you are in the market of the world. The skilful man who cultivates the habit of quickness and despatch increases his commercial value every day. Those trades unions that enact that all of a craft should be paid alike, however they work, enact an absurdity and an injustice. One quick and skilful man may accomplish as much in one day as six slow men, though equally clever. Be quick, then, in business. "Bind the chariot to the swift beast."

II. BE QUICK IN YOUR INTELLECTUAL PURSUITS. You have an enormous amount of mental work to do, if you act up to your duty and discharge your mission in life. You have manifold faculties to discipline, numerous errors to correct, vast and varied knowledge to attain. "The soul without knowledge is not good" (Proverbs 19:2). No, not good either to itself or others. Be quick.

1. The quicker you are, the more you will attain. The more fields of truth you will traverse, the more fruits you will gather from the tree of knowledge. Some men in their studies move like elephants, and only traverse a small space. Others, like eagles, sweep continents in a day. The quick eye will see what escapes the dull eye; the quick ear will catch voices unheard by the slow of hearing.

2. The quicker you are, the better for your faculties. It is the brisk walker that best strengthens his limbs, the brisk fighter that wins the greatest victories. It is by quick action that the steel is polished and that weapons are sharpened. Intellectual quickness whets the faculties, makes them keen, agile, and apt. "Bind the chariot to the swift beast."

III. BE QUICK IN YOUR SPIRITUAL AFFAIRS.

1. Morally you have a work to do for your own soul. It is in a ruined state, it is like the "field of the slothful" and the "vineyard of the man void of understanding" of which Solomon speaks; it needs cultivation. The work is great and urgent.

2. Morally you have a work to do for others. There are souls around you demanding your most earnest efforts, etc.

(1) Be quick; the work must be done during your life here, if ever done.

(2) Be quick; your life here is very short and uncertain.

(3) Be quick; the longer you delay, the more difficult it is to do.

Be quick: "Whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with your might; for there is no knowledge nor device in the grave whither we are all hastening." "Bind the chariot to the swift beast."

Oh, let all the soul within you
For the truth's sake go abroad;
Strike! let every nerve and sinew
Tell on ages - tell for God."

(A.C. Coxe.) D.T.