The Pulpit Commentary — Micah — Section 34

Vera. 8, 9.-Sin an antagonist. "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. The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever." This chapter refers to the character and doings of Israel during the last nine years of Ahe.z. A very dark period in lsraelitish history was this. "We are told in 2 Chron. xxviii. 24, 25 that Aha.z shut up the doors of the temple, and erected altars in every corner of Jerusalem. We may safely conclude, from the language of Micah (ii.) and Isaiah (xi.), 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 (vii., viii.) bad borne no fruit; the fruitlessness of invoking the aid of Assyria had taught him no better. Aha.z 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 Chron. x:i::viii 27). The prophet here, in denouncing the sine 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- L THAT IT IS ill ANTAGONIST TO THE DIVINE. "Even of late [margin,' 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. We are told that the carnal mind is at enmity with God; it is not only alienated from him, but in deadly opposition to him. 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. What though a. man may say that he has no unkind feeling towards me, on the contrary, that he has some a.mount of respect; if he pursues a course of conduct that he knows is in direct opposition to my wishes, interests, and reputation, can I believe him? I judge his state of hea.rL towards me, not by his words, but by his habitual conduct. Thus men prove their enmity to God; they pur~ue a course of life which they know is repugnant to his natnre, hostile to his government, aad injurious to the order and happiness of his universe. 1. This enmity is most unjustifiable. Enmity sometimes admits of jw,tification, but never in this case. "They hated mo without a cause." There is nothing in his character or procedure to justify one spark of animosity in any intelligent creature in the universe towards him. 2, This enmity ia most wicked. It is against OU, n 1-18,] THE BOOK OF MICAH. 88