The Pulpit Commentary — Micah — Section 130

God's great power. This delivel'ance, thus described, resembles the ultimate delivernuce or men from sin and ruin in two respects. I. IT Th-V0LVEB THE EXHIBITION OF THE MARVELLOUS. There were .. marvellous things" shown when the Hebrews were delivered from Egypt; marvellous things when they were brought out of Babylonian captivity; but these marvellous things are but mere shadows or the marvels displayed in the moral redemption of mankind. The incarnation of Christ; the wonders that his mighty hand performed; the extraordinary phenomena connected with his death, his resurrection, and ascension to heaven; the revolutions in the moral character and institutions of mankind ;-all these are, in truth the wonders of the wonderful, the marvels of the marvellous. IL IT Th"V0LVES TIIE CONFUSION OF ENEMIES. "The nations shall be confounded at their might, they shall lay their hand upon their mouth," eto. A.s Egypt and Babylon were confounded, humbled, and terrified at God's marvels in their deliverance, so will all the spiritual foes of Christ be ultimately overwhelmed at the wonders dis- played at the redemption of the world. Matthew Henry's remarks on this passage are worth quoting. " 1. Those that had exulted over the people of God in their distreBS, and gloried that when they had them down they would keep them down, shall be confounded when they see them thus surprisingly rising up; they shall be confounded il.t all the might with which the captives shall now exert themselves, whom they thought for ever disabled. They shall now lay their hands upon their mouths as being ashamed of what they have said, and not be able to say any more by way of triumph over Israel Nay, their ears shall be deaf too, so much so that they shall be a.shamed at the wonderful deliverance; they shall stop their ears as being not willing to hear any more of God's wonders wrought for that people whom they had so despised and exulted over. 2. Those that had impudently confronted God himself shall now be struck with a fear of him, and thereby brought, in profession at least, to submit to him. They shall lick the dust like a serpent; they shall be so mortified as if they were to be sentenced to the same curse the serpent was laid under (Gen. iii. 14). They shall be brought to the lowest abasements imaginable, and shall be so dispirited that they shall tamely submit to them. They shall lick the dust of the Church's feet (Isa. x.lix. 23). Proud oppressors shall be made sensible how mean and little they are before the great God; and they shall with trembling and the lowest submission move out of the holes into which they bad crept, like worms of the earth as they are, being ashamed and afraid to show their heads ; so low shall they be brought and such abjects shall they be when they a.re a.based. When God did wonders for his Church, many of the people of the land became Jews because the fear of the Jews and of their God fell on them (Esth. viii 17). So it is promised here that they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee, 0 Israel ! Forced submissions are often feigned submissions; yet they redouIJd to the glory of God and the Church, though not to the benefit of the dissemblers themselves."-D. T. Ver. 18.-Tl,e incomparablenesa of God illustrated in hiB forgiveness of sin: 1. The nature of huforgi,veness. "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage ? " The prophet here- anticipating the full deliverance, not only of the Jews from Bo.bylonian captivity, but probably of humanity it:;elf from the curse of sin through Jesus Christ-breaks forth in a sublime strain of praise and admiration in relation to the incomparable character of God. "Who is a God like unt-0 thee?'' The subject of the two verses (18, 19) is Divme forgivenest1, its nature, its BO'Urce, and its completeness. We shall confine ourselves now to the nature of Divine forgiveness. God's forgiveness here is represented in the words, he "passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage." This does not mean that God is unobservant of sin, for all things o.re naked and open unto him; nor that it is not an offence to him. for it is "an abomination in his sight," but that he regards it in no fault-finding spirit, but with a noble generosity. All loving parents are dispose_d to overlook much in their children of which they cannot approve, the great Father 18 disposed to overlook much. "He is not strict to mark iniquity." He pa888s it by, pursues his benevolent march as if it did not exist. Theology, which has thrown a haze over many of the bright things of revelation, has clouded this, one of its most gkrivw; orbs. Forgetting that the Bible is a popular book, using language in accom- 1JH, VII, 1-20.] THE BOOK OF MICAH. 133