The Pulpit Commentary — Micah — Section 92

•• mnn convinced of sin ie Te&dy to sacrifice what is dearest to him rather tho.n give up his own will o.nd give himsdf to God" (W. Robert~on Smith). It is easier to offer "to come bt>fore him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old," than to lay our proud wills at his feet and to yield to him our hearts. But aa we contemplate the obedience of Christ and his yieldin~ himself up for us, and see in him expressed the great Father's love, that which WM-difficult becomes light-we own ourselves subdued, we ,iew sin now in the light of tbe cross, and see its loathsomeness, aud desire to be more Pntirely delivered from its practice, whilst as we contemplate God's Law, under the influence of tbe feelings and emotions thus excited within us, we are impelled to cry in all the fulness of a consecrated heart, "I delight in the Law of God after the inward man I" (Rom. vii. 22); "0 how I love thy Law I" (Ps. cxix. 97). Vers. 9, 13-15.-Divine chastisement. I. A SOLEMN DECLARATION OF COMING CHASTISEME~"T. (Vers. 13-15.) The form this chastisement would assume is suggestive of the thought of utter disappointment. Their gain should he turned into loss; their €Xpectations should be completely frustrated; all that they hoped to realize as the result of their deceptions and extortions should fail them, even as the brook fails tl,e parched traveller when coming to it to slake his burning thirst, lo l he finds it dried up. They should be made desolate because of their sins (ver. 13). Surrounded for a time, and through their ill-gotten gains, with a.11 material comforts, they should no more be satisfied by these than he can be upon whom disease has fastened its deadly grasp (ver. 13). Nor should these material comforts abide. Internal conflicts and foreign invasion should result in their impoverishment. The toil of the sowing had been theirs, but they should not experience " the joy of harvest; " they had trodden the olives and had pressed the grapes, but they should not rejoice in the oil -that makes the face to shine, or the wine that makes glad the heart of man (vers. 14, 15). They had broken God's Law, a.nd the judgml'nt threatened in that Law they must now inevit- a.bly experience (Lev. xxvi. 16 ; Deut. xxviii. 30, 38). II. Tms CHASTISEMENT APPOIKTED BY GoD. (Ver. 9.) "The Lord's voice crieth unto the city," bidding men hear him who had "appointed" the judgment (ver. 9). "I will make thee sick," etc. (ver. 13). Their sin was allowed to work out its evil consequences upon them, that they might he led to see how evil a. thing it was. God turns events into teachers, aud sorrows into discipline. He allows the reeds upon which men were leaning to break, and the earthly pleasures upon which their hearts were set to yield only the bitterness of gall and wormwood, that thus they may be led to look to him, the unfailing Spring. It is not by chance that trials meet the children of men in the path- way of life. It is the Divine arrangement that men should be thus met, if perchance they may be impelled to turn away from an unsatisfying world, and.be led to seek in him their -chief good. Sometimes we are so wayward that we will not pa.use in our wandering until God reveals tLe peril that is in onr path. The prodigal had to feel shame and hunger before"' he came to himself." So we need at times to be startled and chastened into obedience. Even God's chastisements are love. "Whom the Lord loveth· he cltastenetb," etc. (Heb. xii 6-8); "A1I many as I love I rebuke and chasten" ('Rev. iii 19). ' ' I Ill. THE WISDOH OF BEOOGNIZING GOD IN THESE ADVERSE EXPERIENCES ·OF Lill'E. "And the men of wisdom," etc. (ver. 9). We show the possession by us of this wisdom when we (1) accept our life--sorrows as coming to us with this wise and loving intent; {2) when we c&lmly and trustingly bow to the Divine will in the seasons of grief; (3) When we cherish solicitude that the gracious ends designed:may be fulfilled in us 1 and (4) when, our bonds" loosed," and the sorrow overpast, the grateful acknowledg- ment, springing from our inmost 110uls, breaks forth from our lips, " It ie good for me that I have been afflicted" (Ps. cxix. 71); "Before I was afflicted I went astray," ~tc. (Pa. cxix. 67). Vers.10-12.-" Weighed in the balances, andfo'/1/lla wanting." Ha.vingexpounded the nature of true piety, the prophet proceeds in these verses to apply the principles thus enunciated to the case of his people, endeavouring by means of searching inquirlea to bring home to their hearts a sense of their guilt and depravity. L WE HAVE HERE A.N lLLUBTBATIVE EXAMPLE OF HUMAN CONDUCT WHEN TEST.ED B~ -cu. VI. 1-lG.] TllE UOOK OF MICAII.