BUT (AND) IN THE LAST DAYS IT SHALL COME TO PASS - God’s promises, goodness, truth, fail not. He withdraws His Presence from those who receive Him not, only to give Himself to those who will receive Him. Mercy is the sequel and end of chastisement. Micah then joins on this great prophecy of future m... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MANY NATIONS SHALL COME - Isaiah Isaiah 2:2 added the world all to Micah’s prophecy. So our Lord said, “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations” Matthew 24:14; and the elect are to be gathered out “of all nations and kindreds and people and to... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SHALL JUDGE AMONG MANY PEOPLE AND REBUKE STRONG NATIONS AFAR OFF - Hitherto, they had walked each in their own ways Isaiah 53:6; now, they sought to be taught in the ways of God. Before, they had been lords of the world; now they should own a Judge higher than themselves. They were no common,... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT - And THEY SHALL SIT EVERY MAN, UNDER HIS VINE AND UNDER HIS FIG-TREE - Palestine was a home of the vine and the fig-tree. Vineyards were a common property, possessed by all but the very poor , or even by them Nehemiah 5:4; Jeremiah 39:10. The land was “a land of bread and vineyards” 2 Kings 18:... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL PEOPLE WELL WALK, EVERY ONE IN THE NAME OF HIS GOD, AND WE WILL WALK IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OUR GOD - Hitherto unsteadfastness had been the very characteristic sin of Israel. It was , “constant only in its inconstancy,” ever “falling away like their forefathers, starting aside like a broken... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THAT DAY - that is, in that day of Christ and of His Gospel, of grace and salvation, the last days of which he had been speaking. Hitherto he had prophesied the glory of Zion, chiefly through the coming-in of the Gentiles. Now he adds, how the Jews should, with them, be gathered by grace into the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HER THAT WAS CAST OFF A STRONG NATION - The prophecy, that there should be a remnant, was depressing. Yet what a remnant should it be! A remnant, which should multiply like the stars of heaven or the sand on the sea-shore. Israel had never been “a strong nation,” as a kingdom of this world. At i... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THOU, O TOWER OF THE FLOCK - “‘Tower of Ader,’ which is interpreted ‘tower of the flock,’ about 1000 paces (a mile) from Bethlehem,” says Jerome who lived there, “and foresignifying (in its very name) by a sort of prophecy the shepherds at the Birth of the Lord.” There Jacob fed his sheep Genesi... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW - The prophet places himself in the midst of their deepest sorrows, and out of them he promises comfort. “Why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no King in thee? is thy Counsellor perished?” . Is then all lost, because thou hast no visible king, none to counsel thee or consult for thee? . Very re... [ Continue Reading ]
BE IN PAIN, AND LABOR TO BRING FORTH - (Literally, Writhe and burst forth,) as if to say, “thou must suffer, but thy suffering and thy joy shall be one. Thou canst not have the joy without the suffering. As surely as thou sufferest, thou shalt have joy. In all sorrow, lose not faith and hope, and “t... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW ALSO - (And now.) The prophet had already spoken of the future before them, with this word Now. Then, he distinctly prophesied the captivity to Babylon. Twice more he begins anew; as Holy Scripture, so often, in a mystery, whether speaking of evil or of good, of deliverance or of punishment, use... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THEY KNOW NOT THE THOUGHTS OF THE LORD, NEITHER UNDERSTAND THEY HIS COUNSEL - The pagan did, for their own ends, what God willed for His. The first step was the same; God willed that His people should be punished; they willed to punish them. But all which lay beyond, they saw not; that God wille... [ Continue Reading ]
ARISE - (It may be,) from the dust in which they were lying, “I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass.” Threshing in the East is partly with oxen, partly with wheels of iron, or with planks set with sharp flints on an open place made hard to this end. The prophet joins another i... [ Continue Reading ]