Micah’s hometown of Moresheth-gath (1:1,14) in the lowlands of Judah was about twenty-five miles southwest of Jerusalem. The fact that his hometown is mentioned probably means that Micah ministered elsewhere, including Jerusalem, and since no genealogy is given we can probably assume that his family was not prominent. Micah was a skilled orator, a master of metaphors with a genius for wordplay and blunt, vivid imagery. Few prophets saw the future more clearly. Micah prophesied the fall of Samaria (1:5-9), Jerusalem’s destruction (1:1-16; 3:12), the Babylonian captivity and return from exile (4:6-10), as well as the birth of God’s future Davidic ruler in Bethlehem (5:2).
Micah’s ministry probably began late in Jotham’s reign and ended early in Hezekiah’s, dating between 730 and 690 BC. His reference to the future judgment of Samaria (1:6) shows that his ministry began some time before 722 BC. As such, Micah’s ministry overlapped Isaiah’s. The elders in Jeremiah’s day remembered Micah’s prophecy as having spurred Hezekiah’s religious reform (Jr 26:17-19).
Both Israel and Judah experienced affluence and material prosperity in the late eighth century BC In the south, King Uzziah’s military victories brought wealth for some. A wealthy merchant class developed, and many poorer farmers found themselves at the mercy of government-supported businessmen. As business dealings became more corrupt, God’s prophets spoke to the nation, confronting the ill-gotten wealth and accompanying godlessness. Amos and Hosea prophesied in the northern kingdom of Israel, and Isaiah and Micah prophesied in Judah to the south.
Judah’s commercial and secular culture replaced God’s covenant ideal. The rich became wealthy at the expense of the poor. The growing affluence in Micah’s day led to increasing callousness toward the weak (Mic 2:1-2) and a blatant disregard for God’s foundational laws (6:10-12). Judges and lawmakers became involved in conspiracy, bribery, and other corruption (3:1-3,9-11; 7:3). Religious leaders were concerned more about making money than teaching God’s Word (3:11). The wealthy learned to separate their worship from everyday practice.
At this time the ancient Near East experienced an international power shift. Assyria was ascending, becoming one of the most evil, bloodthirsty, manipulative, and arrogant empires of the ancient world. Four Assyrian kings made military inroads into Palestine during Micah’s ministry, taking Samaria in 722 BC. and making Israel an Assyrian province. In 701 BC Sennacherib took forty six Judean towns and villages and besieged Jerusalem. King Hezekiah had allied with Egypt and Babylon against Assyria, for which both Micah and Isaiah urged him to repent. God miraculously spared Jerusalem (2Kg 19:35-36; 2Ch 32:22-23; Is 37:36-37), and according to Micah the Jerusalem siege was both an act of God’s judgment and an occasion for God’s deliverance.
Judah never learned its lesson. The people wavered between faith and apostasy and suffered many crises. As the rulers proved increasingly unfaithful, Micah prophesied Judah’s destruction and exile by the Babylonians (586 BC). Beyond that, however, he saw a future restoration for a remnant of the people (539 BC).
Micah’s holy and just God demands holiness and justice from all people. This is the “good” he requires (6:8). The people had grown content with going through the religious motions while practicing very little genuine spiritual devotion. Even the religious leaders chose to speak popular messages in order to support their standard of living. Micah preached that true religion comes from a heart tuned to God, resulting in godly living. As such, religion and ethics are inseparable. People who refuse to repent will face his judgment, but the faithful will find his salvation and be led by God’s King, who would usher in his peace and prosperity.
Structured thematically as a balanced chiasm, the book highlights the central and final sections. Each matching section reflects on the other. This literary structure emphasizes Micah’s main themes of Judah’s social sins, the moral failure of its leadership, and the establishment of God’s kingship over the land.
Walking with God denotes an active habit, a communion in the common movements of the day. Some bow humbly before God in the hour of prayer. Others sit humbly in his presence at the time of meditation, and others work themselves up to draw near to God in seasons of religious excitement. But all this falls short of walking with God. Walking is a common pace, an ordinary rate of progress, and it does not seem to require great effort; but then it is a practical working pace, a rate at which one can continue on and on and make a day’s journey by the time the sun is down. So walking with God means being with God always.
1The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Moreshite — what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2Listen, all you peoples;
pay attention, earth A and everyone in it!
The Lord GOD will be a witness against you,
the Lord, from his holy temple.
3Look, the LORD is leaving his place
and coming down to trample
the heights B of the earth.
4The mountains will melt beneath him,
and the valleys will split apart,
like wax near a fire,
like water cascading down a mountainside.
5All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellion
and the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the rebellion of Jacob?
Isn’t it Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Isn’t it Jerusalem?
6Therefore, I will make Samaria
a heap of ruins in the countryside,
a planting area for a vineyard.
I will roll her stones into the valley
and expose her foundations.
7All her carved images will be smashed to pieces;
all her wages will be burned in the fire,
and I will destroy all her idols.
Since she collected the wages of a prostitute,
they will be used again for a prostitute.
8Because of this I will lament and wail;
I will walk barefoot and naked.
I will howl like the jackals
and mourn like ostriches. C
9For her wound is incurable
and has reached even Judah;
it has approached my people’s city gate,
as far as Jerusalem.
10Don’t announce it in Gath,
don’t weep at all.
Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphrah.
11Depart in shameful nakedness,
you residents of Shaphir;
the residents of Zaanan will not come out.
Beth-ezel is lamenting;
its support D is taken from you.
12Though the residents of Maroth
anxiously wait for something good,
disaster has come from the LORD
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13Harness the horses to the chariot,
you residents of Lachish.
This was the beginning of sin for Daughter Zion
because Israel’s acts of rebellion can be traced to you.
14Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib are a deception
to the kings of Israel.
15I will again bring a conqueror
against you who live in Mareshah.
The nobility A of Israel will come to Adullam.
16Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair
in sorrow for your precious children;
make yourselves as bald as an eagle,
for they have been taken from you into exile.
1:12 “Though the residents of Maroth anxiously wait for something good, disaster has come from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.” At the time when the Assyrians invaded the land, the inhabitants expected that deliverance would come to them from some quarter or other. From the context I judge that they placed some sort of reliance on the Philistines. They possibly had some hope that the king of Egypt would come up to attack Sennacherib. Evidently they looked for help everywhere except to God; and, consequently, as no good came to them from the men on whom they had relied, trial and overwhelming distress came to them from the hand of God. He was angry at their trust in men and their lack of trust in him; and, therefore, he punished their unbelief by their total overthrow. The Assyrian swept over them and did not stop until he reached the gate of Jerusalem, where Hezekiah’s faith in God made the enemy pause and retreat.
2Woe to those who dream up wickedness
and prepare evil plans on their beds!
At morning light they accomplish it
because the power is in their hands.
2They covet fields and seize them;
they also take houses.
They deprive a man of his home,
a person of his inheritance.
3 Therefore, the LORD says:
I am now planning a disaster
against this nation;
you cannot free your necks from it.
Then you will not walk so proudly
because it will be an evil time.
4In that day one will take up a taunt against you
and lament mournfully, saying,
“We are totally ruined!
He measures out the allotted land of my people.
How he removes it from me!
He allots our fields to traitors.”
5Therefore, there will be no one
in the assembly of the LORD
to divide the land by casting lots. B
6“Quit your preaching,” they C preach.
“They should not preach these things;
shame will not overtake us.” D
7House of Jacob, should it be asked,
“Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient?
Are these the things he does? ”
Don’t my words bring good
to the one who walks uprightly?
QUOTE 2:7
Whenever the church of God declines, one of the most effective ways of reviving her is to preach much truth concerning the Holy Spirit.
8But recently my people have risen up
like an enemy:
You strip off the splendid robe
from those who are passing through confidently,
like those returning from war.
9You force the women of my people
out of their comfortable homes,
and you take my blessing E
from their children forever.
ILLUSTRATION 2:10
Suppose the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt and were on the way to Canaan, instead of living in tents and moving as the pillar of fire and cloud guided them, had taken it into their heads to build houses and cities and temples wherever they stopped—as if they were to stop in the wilderness forever? Would they not have missed much by such a plan? In the wilderness not only would all who came out of Egypt have perished, but their children and their children’s children would also have found graves in the desert and would never have seen the land promised to their fathers. On the contrary, as you know, they lived in their canvas cities; and when the cloud moved, every tent was struck, and they began the march. When the cloud halted, they rested under canvas, never knowing how long they would continue in any one place, always expecting that they would be on the move again, seeing that they had not yet come to the land that flowed with milk and honey. They knew well that there was no abiding place for them in the wilderness, for the sand all around them yielded no meat—and if their food had not dropped from above, they would have had no supply from the barren desert. They were strangers and pilgrims with God—and sojourners—as were their fathers.
10Get up and leave,
for this is not your place of rest
because defilement brings destruction —
a grievous destruction!
11If a man comes
and utters empty lies —
“I will preach to you about wine and beer” —
he would be just the preacher for this people!
12I will indeed gather all of you, Jacob;
I will collect the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,
like a flock in the middle of its pasture.
It will be noisy with people.
13One who breaks open the way
will advance before them;
they will break out, pass through the city gate,
and leave by it.
Their King will pass through before them,
the LORD as their leader.
2:7 “House of Jacob, should it be asked, ‘Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these the things he does?’ Don’t my words bring good to the one who walks uprightly?” When the Lord found his chosen people to be in such a state that they had only the name and not the character of his people, he spoke to them of the Spirit of the Lord. Was this not because their restoration must come from that direction? Was not their evil spirit to be removed by the Lord’s good Spirit? I believe that whenever the church of God declines, one of the most effective ways of reviving her is to preach much truth concerning the Holy Spirit. After all, he is the breath of the church. Where the Spirit of God is, there is power. If the Spirit is withdrawn, then the vitality of godliness begins to decline, and the energy is near to dying out. If we ourselves feel that we are backsliding, let us turn to the Spirit of God, crying, “Give me life!” If we sorrowfully perceive that any church is growing lukewarm, let it be our prayer that the Holy Spirit may work graciously for its revival. Let us direct the attention of our fellow Christians to the Spirit of God. He alone can make us alive and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die. I admire the wisdom of God here, that when speaking by the prophet he rebukes the backsliding of the people, and he immediately directs their minds to the Holy Spirit who can bring them back from their wanderings and cause them to walk worthy of the vocation to which they were called. Let us learn from this divine wisdom, and in lowly reverence and earnest faith, let us look to the Spirit of the Lord.
2:10 “Get up and leave, for this is not your place of rest because defilement brings destruction—a grievous destruction!” Some people have a miserable tendency to cling to things that are seen. Though what we behold is only temporal and shadowy, lacking any true substance or permanence—though the things around us can only endure for a little while and then will vanish away—yet we give our hearts to them and are ensnared by their false glitter and glamour. Like the poor birds that light on birdlime and cannot get away, we are entangled by the things of time and the senses, instead of rising, as on eagle wings, to a higher sphere. Forgetting that the soul cannot be satisfied with the poor trinkets of earth, we often put away from us the things that are unseen and eternal.
B 2:5 Lit LORD stretching the measuring line by lot
3Then I said, “Now listen, leaders of Jacob,
you rulers of the house of Israel.
Aren’t you supposed to know what is just?
2You hate good and love evil.
You tear off people’s skin
and strip their flesh
from their bones.
3You eat the flesh of my people
after you strip their skin from them
and break their bones.
You chop them up
like flesh for the cooking pot,
like meat in a cauldron.”
4Then they will cry out to the LORD,
but he will not answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time
because of the crimes they have committed.
5This is what the LORD says
concerning the prophets
who lead my people astray,
who proclaim peace
when they have food to sink their teeth into
but declare war against the one
who puts nothing in their mouths.
6Therefore, it will be night for you —
without visions;
it will grow dark for you —
without divination.
The sun will set on these prophets,
and the daylight will turn black over them.
7Then the seers will be ashamed
and the diviners disappointed.
They will all cover their mouths A
because there will be no answer from God.
8As for me, however, I am filled with power
by the Spirit of the LORD,
with justice and courage,
to proclaim to Jacob his rebellion
and to Israel his sin.
9Listen to this, leaders of the house of Jacob,
you rulers of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
and pervert everything that is right,
10who build Zion with bloodshed
and Jerusalem with injustice.
11Her leaders issue rulings for a bribe,
her priests teach for payment,
and her prophets practice divination for silver.
Yet they lean on the LORD, saying,
“Isn’t the LORD among us?
No disaster will overtake us.”
12Therefore, because of you,
Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become ruins,
and the temple’s mountain
will be a high thicket.
4In the last days
the mountain of the LORD’s house
will be established
at the top of the mountains
and will be raised above the hills.
Peoples will stream to it,
2and many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about his ways
so we may walk in his paths.”
For instruction will go out of Zion
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3He will settle disputes among many peoples
and provide arbitration for strong nations
that are far away.
They will beat their swords into plows
and their spears into pruning knives.
Nation will not take up the sword against nation,
and they will never again train for war.
4But each person will sit under his grapevine
and under his fig tree
with no one to frighten him.
For the mouth of the LORD of Armies
has spoken.
5Though all the peoples each walk
we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
forever and ever.
6On that day —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
I will assemble the lame
and gather the scattered,
those I have injured.
7I will make the lame
into a remnant,
those far removed into a strong nation.
Then the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion
from this time on and forever.
8And you, watchtower for the flock,
fortified hill A of Daughter Zion,
the former rule will come to you;
sovereignty will come to Daughter Jerusalem.
QUOTE 4:9
One reason many of us are slow to seek the Lord’s counsel is this—we are not thoroughly emptied of our own pride.
9Now, why are you shouting loudly?
Is there no king with you?
Has your counselor perished
so that anguish grips you like a woman in labor?
10Writhe and cry out, B Daughter Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you will leave the city
and camp in the open fields.
You will go to Babylon;
there you will be rescued;
there the LORD will redeem you
from the grasp of your enemies!
11Many nations have now assembled against you;
they say, “Let her be defiled,
and let us feast our eyes on Zion.”
12But they do not know the LORD’s intentions
or understand his plan,
that he has gathered them
like sheaves to the threshing floor.
13Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion,
for I will make your horns iron
and your hooves bronze
so you can crush many peoples.
Then you C will set apart
their plunder
for the LORD,
their wealth for the Lord of the whole earth.
4:1-2 “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. Peoples will stream to it.” Some of the mountains of which we read in Scripture were such that, if they were accessible, no one would desire to climb them. Boundaries were set around Sinai, but had there been no boundaries, who would have wished to ascend it—a mountain that burned with fire and on which there was a sound as of a trumpet? No, we are not come to a mountain like Sinai with its supernatural thunders. We are not come to a hill bare and barren and bleak and difficult to climb, like the mountains of earth. But the hill of God, though it is a high hill, is a hill that the humble penitent may readily ascend on hands and knees. And the God who invited us will give us the grace to come. If he has given us the will to come, he will give us the grace to climb the sides of the hill until we reach its upper glories and stand on its summit transported with delight.
4:9 “Now, why are you shouting loudly? Is there no king with you? Has your counselor perished so that anguish grips you like a woman in labor?” This question—“Has your counselor perished?”—suggests a reproof. It is a reproof because the child of God does not believe doctrinally that his counselor has perished, but he does so practically. He at times runs of his own accord instead of waiting for God’s guidance. At other times he is afraid to move forward, even when the finger of him who “is wonderful in counsel” has clearly pointed the way and made the vision so plain that “one may easily read it” (Hab 2:2). How often does the child of God nurse his difficulties as Asaph did when he said, “When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless” (Ps 73:16). But then he adds, “Until I entered God’s sanctuary. Then I understood their destiny” (v. 17). Habakkuk, in a time of danger, stood at his guard post and stationed himself on the lookout tower to see what the Lord would say to him (Hab 2:1). And we remember what Hezekiah did with the letter he received from the hand of the messengers of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. When he had read it, he entered the temple and “spread it out before the LORD” (2Kg 19:14). It would be regrettable that our lives should be constantly vexed with trifling cares instead of casting all our care on God. The knowledge that he cares for us ought to drive all our anxious cares away.
One reason many of us are slow to seek the Lord’s counsel is this—we are not thoroughly emptied of our own pride. When the children of Israel came to Kadesh, Moses sent spies to bring in their report of the land. And of the twelve only two brought in an encouraging report. The other ten discouraged the hearts of the people with a pitiful tale of walled cities and their giant population. In vain Moses tried to admonish them, “Don’t be terrified or afraid of them!” (Dt 1:29). In vain he assured them, “The LORD your God who goes before you will fight for you” (Dt 1:30). In vain he reminded them of the wonders the Lord had done in Egypt before their eyes. But they were fainthearted and would not believe the Lord their God.
5Now, daughter who is under attack,
you slash yourself in grief;
a siege is set against us!
They are striking the judge of Israel
on the cheek with a rod.
2Bethlehem Ephrathah,
you are small among the clans of Judah;
one will come from you
to be ruler over Israel for me.
His origin A is from antiquity,
from ancient times.
QUOTE 5:2
Not only when we were born into the world did Christ love us, but his delights were with people before there were any of them.
3Therefore, Israel will be abandoned until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of the ruler’s brothers will return
to the people of Israel.
4He will stand
and shepherd them
in the strength of the LORD,
in the majestic name of the LORD his God.
They will live securely,
for then his greatness will extend
to the ends of the earth.
5He will be their peace.
When Assyria invades our land,
when it marches against our fortresses,
we will raise against it seven shepherds,
even eight leaders of men.
6They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
the land of Nimrod with a drawn blade. A
So he will rescue us from Assyria
when it invades our land,
when it marches against our territory.
7Then the remnant of Jacob
will be among many peoples
like dew from the LORD,
like showers on the grass,
which do not wait for anyone
or linger for mankind.
8Then the remnant of Jacob
will be among the nations, among many peoples,
like a lion among animals of the forest,
like a young lion among flocks of sheep,
which tramples and tears as it passes through,
and there is no one to rescue them.
9Your hand will be lifted up against your adversaries,
and all your enemies will be destroyed.
10In that day —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
I will remove your horses from you
and wreck your chariots.
11I will remove the cities of your land
and tear down all your fortresses.
12I will remove sorceries from your hands,
and you will not have any more fortune-tellers.
13I will remove your carved images
and sacred pillars from you
so that you will no longer worship
the work of your hands.
14I will pull up the Asherah poles from among you
and demolish your cities. B
15I will take vengeance in anger and wrath
against the nations that have not obeyed me.
5:2 “Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times.” If we were to ask if Christ has always existed, we answer yes, for our text says, “His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times.” Christ has had his goings forth in his Godhead. He has not been a secret and a silent person until his birth in Bethlehem; that newborn child has worked wonders long before now. That infant slumbering in his mother’s arms was the infant of that day but also the ancient of eternity.
He served his people as their representative before the throne of God even before they were begotten in the world. It was from everlasting that his mighty fingers grasped the pen, the stylus of ages, and wrote his own name, the name of the eternal Son of God; it was from everlasting that he signed the compact with his Father, that he would pay blood for blood, wound for wound, suffering for suffering, agony for agony, and death for death on the behalf of his people; it was from everlasting that he gave himself up without a murmuring word, that from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet he might sweat blood, that he might be spit on, pierced, mocked, torn asunder, and suffer the pain of death and the agonies of the cross. Pause, my soul, and wonder! We had origins in the person of Jesus from everlasting! Not only when we were born into the world did Christ love us, but his delights were with people before there were any of them. He often thought of them; from everlasting to everlasting he had set his affection on them.
5:4 “He will stand and shepherd them in the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD his God. They will live securely, for then his greatness will extend to the ends of the earth.” There can be no doubt the prophet here is referring to the Messiah—our Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, this does not mean Jesus Christ will be any greater than he always is essentially and naturally. As the Son of God, he is infinite in glory and can be no greater. As King of kings and Lord of lords, his glory fills immensity. Before him all intelligent spirits that are obedient to God pay their constant homage. He is so great that as we look up to him, we can both rejoice in him as our brother and be humbled in his presence when we reflect that he is our God. Jesus Christ is not to be greater, then, essentially than he now is. The greatness here spoken of is not one of essence but of manifestation. Christ is to be made great in the judgment, hearts, and understandings of men, as he is at all times great in himself. When we read in the text, “Then his greatness will extend to the ends of the earth,” we may remember that he is already great in heaven. Although man rejects him—painful as the thought is that multitudes in this world have not even heard his name and that multitudes more only know it to revile it—yet there is a place where his name is great.
In every golden street that name is celebrated. The strings of every holy harp in heaven are set to the melodies of his praise. All “the melodious sonnets sung by angel hosts above” (from “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”) are to extol and magnify him. They delight to do him service. We may comfort ourselves with this thought when blasphemy abounds and the love of many grows cold. There is at least one shrine where he is always adored—one happier and better land where the sound of blasphemy never profanes him—where he is loved, adored, and reverenced by every creature.
6Now listen to what the LORD is saying:
Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your complaint. C
2Listen to the LORD’s lawsuit,
you mountains and enduring foundations of the earth,
because the LORD has a case against his people,
and he will argue it against Israel.
3My people, what have I done to you,
or how have I wearied you?
Testify against me!
4Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt
and redeemed you from that place of slavery.
I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam ahead of you.
5My people,
remember what King Balak of Moab proposed,
what Balaam son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from the Acacia Grove D to Gilgal
so that you may acknowledge
the LORD’s righteous acts.
6What should I bring before the LORD
when I come to bow before God on high?
Should I come before him with burnt offerings,
with year-old calves?
7Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams
or with ten thousand streams of oil?
Should I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the offspring of my body for my own sin?
8Mankind, he has told each of you what is good
and what it is the LORD requires of you:
to act justly,
to love faithfulness,
and to walk humbly with your God.
QUOTE 6:8
May the Holy Spirit teach us what a broken and contrite spirit means and keep us always low before the Lord.
9The voice of the LORD calls out to the city A
(and it is wise to fear your name):
“Pay attention to the rod
and the one who ordained it. B
10Are there still C the treasures of wickedness
and the accursed short measure
in the house of the wicked?
11Can I excuse wicked scales
or bags of deceptive weights?
12For the wealthy of the city are full of violence,
and its residents speak lies;
the tongues in their mouths are deceitful.
13“As a result, I have begun to strike you severely, D
bringing desolation because of your sins.
14You will eat but not be satisfied,
for there will be hunger within you.
What you acquire, you cannot save,
and what you do save,
I will give to the sword. C
15You will sow but not reap;
you will press olives
but not anoint yourself with oil;
and you will tread grapes
but not drink the wine.
16The statutes of Omri
and all the practices of Ahab’s house
have been observed;
you have followed their policies.
Therefore, I will make you a desolate place
and the city’s A residents an object of contempt; B
you will bear the scorn of my people.” C
6:8 “Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Walking with God denotes an active habit, a communion in the common movements of the day. Some bow humbly before God in the hour of prayer. Others sit humbly in his presence at the time of meditation, and others work themselves up to draw near to God in seasons of religious excitement. But all this falls short of walking with God. Walking is a common pace, an ordinary rate of progress, and it does not seem to require great effort; but then it is a practical working pace, a rate at which one can continue on and on and make a day’s journey by the time the sun is down. So walking with God means being with God always, being with him in common things, being with him on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday—as well as on the Sabbath. It means being with him in the shop, with him in the kitchen, with him in the field, feeling his presence in buying and selling, in weighing and measuring, in plowing and reaping—doing as for the Lord the most common acts of life.
Then comes in the qualifying word of “humbly.” When our walk with God is closest and clearest, we must be overwhelmed with adoring wonder at the condescension that permits us to think of speaking with the eternal one. To this reverence must be added a constant sense of dependence—walking humbly with God in the sense of daily drawing all supplies from him and gratefully admitting that it is so. We are never to indulge a thought of independence from God, as if we were anything, or could do anything apart from him. Walking humbly with God involves a profound respect for his will and a glad submission to it—yielding both active obedience and passive submission. Humble walking with God cries under cutting afflictions, “It is the Lord! Let him do what seems good to him.” When the Lord bids me serve him, I must plead for grace to run in the ways of his commandments. And when the Lord chastens me, I must beg for patience to endure his appointments. Walking humbly with God implies all this and much more. May the Holy Spirit teach us what a broken and contrite spirit means and keep us always low before the Lord. The practical result of all this inward humbling will be an acting toward others and a moving in all matters as under the influence of a humble spirit.
B 6:9 Or attention, you tribe. Who has ordained it? ; Hb obscure
D 6:13 LXX, Aq, Theod, Syr, Vg; MT reads I have made you sick by striking you down
7How sad for me!
For I am like one who —
when the summer fruit has been gathered
after the gleaning of the grape harvest —
finds no grape cluster to eat,
no early fig, which I crave.
2Faithful people have vanished from the land;
there is no one upright among the people.
All of them wait in ambush to shed blood;
they hunt each other with a net.
3Both hands are good at accomplishing evil:
the official and the judge demand a bribe;
when the powerful man communicates his evil desire,
they plot it together.
4The best of them is like a brier;
the most upright is worse than a hedge of thorns.
The day of your watchmen,
the day of your punishment, is coming;
at this time their panic is here.
5Do not rely on a friend;
don’t trust in a close companion.
Seal your mouth
from the woman who lies in your arms.
6Surely a son considers his father a fool,
a daughter opposes her mother,
and a daughter-in-law is against her mother-in-law;
a man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
7But I will look to the LORD;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.
8Do not rejoice over me, my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I will stand up;
though I sit in darkness,
the LORD will be my light.
9Because I have sinned against him,
I must endure the LORD’s rage
until he champions my cause
and establishes justice for me.
He will bring me into the light;
I will see his salvation. D
QUOTE 7:9
Therefore, let’s possess our souls in patience and wait quietly before our God.
10Then my enemy will see,
and she will be covered with shame,
the one who said to me,
“Where is the LORD your God? ”
My eyes will look at her
in triumph;
at that time she will be trampled
like mud in the streets.
11A day will come for rebuilding your walls;
on that day your boundary will be extended.
12On that day people will come to you
from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
even from Egypt to the Euphrates River
and from sea to sea
and mountain to mountain.
13Then the earth will become a wasteland
because of its inhabitants
and as a result of their actions.
14Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock that is your possession.
They live alone in a woodland
surrounded by pastures.
Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
as in ancient times.
15I will perform miracles for them A
as in the days of your exodus
from the land of Egypt.
16Nations will see and be ashamed
of B all their power.
They will put their hands over their mouths,
and their ears will become deaf.
17They will lick the dust like a snake;
they will come trembling out of their hiding places
like reptiles slithering on the ground.
They will tremble in the presence of the LORD our God;
they will stand in awe of you.
18Who is a God like you,
forgiving iniquity and passing over rebellion
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not hold on to his anger forever
because he delights in faithful love.
19He will again have compassion on us;
he will vanquish our iniquities.
You will cast all our C sins
into the depths of the sea.
20You will show loyalty to Jacob
and faithful love to Abraham,
as you swore to our fathers
from days long ago.
7:9 “Because I have sinned against him, I must endure the LORD’s rage until he champions my cause and establishes justice for me. He will bring me into the light; I will see his salvation.” This is the testimony of the prophet, a tried child of God. Even when in our own household we find enemies, we are to place our trust in God, for he will deliver us. Let this be our joy! Let us sit still in humble patience and “endure the LORD’s rage,” for even though trouble comes, it is not so heavy as it might have been, and it is not so severe as it would have been if the Lord had dealt in strict justice. Therefore, let’s possess our souls in patience and wait quietly before our God. Let us not be without hope. Let us expect him to plead our cause and execute judgment for us. Let us watch for his light, which will most surely come, and in which we will behold not our own righteousness but his!