The Pulpit Commentary — Micah — Section 62

iu t<-nts (contrnst their former "ease in Zion," Amos vi. 1-7, etc.); without the pro- tection of the old towers and bulwarks in which they had prided themselves (Pa. xlviii. 12, 13); without weapons or leaders, and thus exposed to any indignities that these conquerors choose to inflict upon them. Thus may it be with those whose way God "turneth upside down," stripping them of all their old sources of security-money, position, friends; turnin~ them out of the "nest" in which they expected peacefully to spend the remainder of their days. Illustrate from contrasts in Job xxix. and xxx. 3. They are carried captive" even to Babylon.'' Babel in early days had been a symbol of o. godless world-power. It does not rise again on the Hebrew horizon till the dl\ys of Isaiah and Micah. Making friendly overtures to Hezekiah, it is presented to his Yiew, by his faithful seer, as a distant, mysterious, but formidable foe of the future- ig11otttm pro mirifioo (Isa. xxxix.). .As the ten tribea bad been carried captive to Halah and Hahor and adjacent districts, so should Judah be taken "even to Babylon." Thus is it in God's discipline with his prodigals now. They may find themselves in "a far country," brought down to the lowest depth of humiliation, shut out from all c-arthly help, shut up to God. .And oven now, iu the midst of the pleasures of sin, prophetic voices within may warn them: "Thou sbalt go forth ... thou shalt go even to--." The dreadful possibilities of judgruent, whether in this world or another, may at times mar their peace. For, unlike the servants of God, they dare not say, "Things to come . • . are ours." 4. In the house of bondage pangs of sorrow must mi borne. "Seventy years! "-a long lifetime of captivity. "Tribulation ten days!" a time of discipline indefinite to us, though fixed by the counsel of God. Those pangs ,vill be "resistless, remediless, doubling the whole frame, redoubled till the end for which God sends them is accomplished, and then ceasing in joy" (Pusey). For the very term "daughter of Zion " suggests hope. It is a term of friendliness, like "Father of spirits" (Heb. xii 9), which reminds us of the essential relations betwee11 us and our God, and gives us a pledge that in wrath he will remember mercy (cf. Isa. lvii. 16). II. "THE END OF THE LORD." Then and there the end for which the trials are sent will be reached, and deliverance will come. .As with their king Manasseh, so shall it be with the nation. In their affliction they will seek the Lord (Jer. xxix. 10-13). 1. They shall be delivered. Set free from the burden of their sins, a burden too grievous to be borne; purged from idolatry; blessed with a revival of religion, as shown by a renewed regard to God's Law through the gracious work of his own "free Spirit" (Ezek. :xxxvi. 16-27). 2. They shall 'be redeemed from the ltand of their enemus. God will visit them as their Goel, their Kinsman-Redeemer, who has not forgotten or forsaken them (Jer. xu. 8-11). By the manifestation of his righteous grace and irresistible power they shall be "redeemed without money" (Isa. Iii. 3), restored to their land and to the enjoyment of ancient privileges. Such is "the end of the Lord" in the disci}'line of life. The revelation of the Fatherhood of God in the Person of Christ and in his sacrificial death for the redemption of sinners assures us that he chastens "for our profit, that we may be partakers of hie holiness." But it is only by sitting at his feet and learning of him, and thus being "exeraised" by our trials, that we can hope to wiu from them "the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (Heb. xii. 9-11).-E. S. P. Vera. 1-4.-The gospel age. "But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains," etc. "The last days" is an expression frequently used in the Old Testament. It points to the future, beginning with the Christian dispensation and running on to its close. It meaDB the times of the Messiah. The patriarchal times had passed away, the Mosaic epoch was on the wane, and would soon vanish. 'fhe times of the Messiah, or "the last days," would succeed, and run on to the end of time. 'fhis prophecy, with scarcely any variation, is found in Isa. ii. Whether faaiah borrowed it from Micah, or Micah from Isaiah, or both from some older prophecy, does not appear. One thing seems ce, ta.in, tLat the propheW has never yet been fulfilled in the history of the wurl<l, and that its accomplishment must be in some distant period-" the last days." It enables us to make eertain remarks concerning the true religion of the gospel nge. l. THE 'f!lOE RELIGIO!i: OF 'l'HE GOSPEL AGE WILL DKCOME A GREAT POWEil. " The rn<mutain of the house uf the Lunl." Referring particularly to the temple that was OH, IV, 1-18,] 'rHE BOOK OF MICAH. 63