The Pulpit Commentary — Micah — Section 118

Vers. 8, 9.-God the Vindkator of the penitent. The trn the here taught might be Rpplied to the people of Israel, with whom the prophet identifies himself, when bumbled before exulting foes like the Edomites (Obe.d. 8-16) or their Chaldean con- querors. Light came to them in Babylon, through the witness borne by Daniel and' his friends, the ministry of Ezekiel, the favour of Cyrus, and above all by their deliverance from the curse of idolatry before their restoration to their land, They may be applied also to a Church in a depressed or fallen state, A godly remnant could yet look forward to deliverance and revival. E.g. Saro.is (Rev. iii. 1-5). We may also use the words as describing the experience of a sinner humbled before God and man. Notice- I. Hrs PRESENT STATE. 1. He has fallen. Then he had stood before, He has been no hypocrite, but a pilgrim on the highway from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Like Christian in Dunyan's immortal allegory, he has been confronted by .Apollyon. In the struggle he has been wounded in the head, the hand, and the foot. " Then Apollyon, espying his opportunity, began to gather up close to Christian, and, wrestling with him, gave him a dreadful fall; and with that Christian's sword flew out of bis hand." Prostrate and powerless, he seems" drawn unto death and ready to be slain." 2. He sits in darkness. A hardened sinner in such a crisis may have a light, such as it is (" Walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled.," Isa. 1. 11). But the fa.lien Christian is heard bemoaning himself (Job xxix. 2, 3). The sun, the light of God's countenance, is gone. It is a night of mist. Not even a star or promise can be seen except when the mist is for a moment or two dispersed before a rising breath of the Divine Comforter, who, though grieved, will not depart. 3. He i8 exposed to the indignation of the Lord. He cannot attribute hie darkness to sickness or nervons depression. In the gloom caused by conscience he sees the shadow caused by the righteous anger of God (Isa. li.x. 1, 2). " Therefore we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness." "For our transgressions are multiplied," etc. (vers. 9, 12). 4. He has to bear the scorn of men. His enemies rejoice. This makes the cup of bitterness overflow. The self- righteous formalist thanks God he is not as other men, or even cu this Christian, The profligate man finds one more excuse for asserting that there is no such thing as real religion ( cf. Ps. xxxv. 15, 16, 21, 25). We can imagine the morbid curiosity in the streets of Jerusalem, when it began to be whispered that a dark deed had been com- mitted in the palace of King David, and that Uriab's death had been procured by foul means. W onld not the men of Belia! mock at the royal psalmist-seducer-murderer (2 Sam. xii 14)? How the soldiers and the servants round the fire within the judgment- hall must have chuckled while Peter was weeping without I The world may hold its most riotous carnival, not when martyrs are burning at the stake, or their dead bodies are lying in the street of Sodom, but when the Saviour is wounded in the house of his friends, and the Church is mourning over the lost reputations of its fallen members (Luke xvil. 1). IL THE GRoro.---os OF ms CONFIDENCE FOB THE FUTURE. The fallen Christian looks forward to rising again. He anticipates a new day when the Sun of Righteousness shall again rise on him. He speaks boldly (ver. 8). This is either the grossest presumption or the noblest faith. It is like Samson's boast, " I will go out as at other times;" or like David's trustful anticipation, "Then will I teach transgressors thy ways," etc. That these words are no vain vaunting we learn from the grounds of his confidence, 1. He resolves quietly to endwre God's cl1astening strokes. Such submissiou is one sign of genuine repentance. Illust.: The Jews in captivity (Lev. xxvi. 40-42, "and they then accept the punishment of their inquity; then will I remember my covenant," etc.); Eli (1 Sam. iii. 18); David, all through his long chastisement (see e.g. 2 Sam. xiL 20; xv. 25, 26; xvi. 11; cf. Job xxxiv. 31; Lam. iii. 39; Heb. xiL 5-7). 2. He puts his trust entirely in God. He has just before (ver. 7) spokeu of himself as sb ut up to God. .Again be returns to him and repeatedly expresses his faith, "The Lord shall be a Light unto me: he shall plead my cause: he will bring me forth to the light." His godly sorrow and cheerful submission are signs that there is a myetfo film, a spiritual cord that binds him, even in hie fallen state, to bis Father-God. Aod he bas promises to plead (Ps. :xxxvii. 24; Prov. xxiv. 16). Illust.: Jonah (ii, 3, 4), St. Paul (Rom. vii. 24, 25). Grievous as are the sins of God's adopted children. CIJ, VII, 1-20.] THE BOOK OF MICAH. 121