Micah 5

12. They know not the thoughts of the Lord. When they are gathering together, and Providence favors them in it, they little think what God is designing by it, nor do they understand His counsel; they know what they aim at in coming together, but they know not what God aims at in bringing them together; they aim at Zion’s ruin, but God aims at theirs. When men are made use of as instruments of Providence in accomplishing its purposes, it is very common for them to intend one thing, and for God to intend quite the contrary. The king of Assyria is to be a rod in God’s hand for the correction of His people, in order for their reformation; howbeit He means not so, nor does His heart think so (Isa. 10: 7). And thus it is here; the nations are gathered against Zion, as soldiers into the field, but God gathers them as sheaves into the floor, to be beaten to pieces; and they could not have been so easily, so effectually destroyed, if they had not gathered together against Zion. H.

13. There was a terrible significance in these figures when the things they denoted became actual history, when God fired the souls of the heroic, lion-hearted Maccabees, and made “one of them chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight,” grinding to powder one after another the huge armies sent upon them by the enraged Syrian king. Remarkably, the Lord promised to turn the spoils of these wars to account toward the wealth of His own kingdom. So it is evermore the Lord’s purpose to make the wicked lay up treasures for the just, and coin money, to be consecrated under His providence, though against their intent, unto the Lord of the whole earth.

Chap. 5. As already indicated, this chapter records the third in the connected series of consecutive prophecies. It begins with the siege of Jerusalem and the dishonor done to her Judge; advances to the birth of the Messiah, and then to the character and results of His glorious reign on earth.

1. The descriptive points in this verse are few: the thronging of her own troops within the city, the siege, the extreme insult offered to the Judge of Israel. The Lord summons the armed hosts of Jerusalem together for battle, and probably of Judah as well; some hostile power besieges the city and inflicts utter disgrace on the head man of the nation, at that time embodying and representing the government, and called “the Judge of Israel,” with allusion to the judges who fell between Joshua and Saul, and were inferior to their kings—showing that already royalty had greatly declined. H. C.

2. The force of the verse is, that the Christ was not to have His birth on earth in “the city of David,” the capital of Israel, with its royal and glorious associations, but in the humble village of Bethlehem. B. C.—It is called Bethlehem Ephratah, both names of the same city, as appears Gen. 35: 19. It was little among the thousands of Judah, not considerable either for the number of the inhabitants or the figure they made; it had nothing in it worthy to have this honor put upon it; but Christ would give honor to the place of His birth, and not derive honor from it: Though thou be little, yet this shall make thee great; and, as Matthew reads it, Thou art not the least among the princes of Judah, but upon this account art really honorable above any of them. A relation to Christ will magnify those that are little in the world. H.

From of old, from everlasting. It is hard to imagine the prophet’s intention in using these words, if they mean anything less than the pre-existence of the Messiah. The very same words are used (Prov. 8: 22, 23) where they can have only the meaning which we ascribe to them here; and this the context evidently requires. The Messiah’s eternal goings forth are put into contrast with His coming forth from Bethlehem, His humble birthplace. B. C.

2-4. This prophecy marks the place of the birth of the Messiah—viz., Bethlehem. Bethlehem Ephratah, or Bethlehem Judah, was the native city of David, that great personal type, as well as the progenitor, of the Messiah. It was now declared to be the birthplace of David’s Son, who was also David’s Lord. The Jews would be given up to be harassed by their enemies until the time when she—the virgin spoken of by the prophet Isaiah—that was to travail with child should bring forth this deliverer, when the chosen remnant of His people should be united under Him as the Israel of God. This prophecy then marks also the end or destination for which the Messiah should come—viz., to be ruler in Israel—that is to say, over His Church. It declares His Divine nature and the ineffable majesty of His person, whose goings forth have been from eternity. In the former clause He was spoken of as coming forth out of Bethlehem according to His humanity; and in this latter clause, His everlasting coming forth from the Father signifies His eternal co-existence with the Father as His only begotten Son.

This prophecy proclaims also the stability and duration of His reign—“He shall stand and rule in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God.” It marks also the extent of His dominions—“He shall be great unto the ends of the earth.” The circumstance that afterwards led to the fulfilment of this prophecy respecting the birthplace of the Messiah was a decree published by Augustus Caesar for a general enrolment throughout the Roman empire. On this occasion the mother of Jesus, who then resided at Nazareth of Galilee, was under the necessity of going to Bethlehem with Joseph, to whom she was espoused, to be there enrolled, because they were of the house of David; and there she brought forth her son. Thus the Roman government, totally unconscious of it, was employed to minister, by its decree, to this accomplishment of the purpose of God. Haldane.

This prophecy is peculiar in the definiteness with which it states an outward fact in the Messiah’s advent, and in the clear certainty with which we know its very early and unanimous interpretation by the Jews. As a link thus distinguished in the chain of Messianic prophecies, it deserves to be looked at in connection with those that had gone before it in the gradual setting forth of the personality of the Saviour. Step by step it was made known what manner of man He was to be. The rudimentary promise that a deliverer should be born of woman, made immediately after sin had intruded into the world (Gen. 3: 15), was followed by a succession of revelations, each more definite than the preceding one. A mysterious hint connects Him with the family of Shem (Gen. 9: 27). He was to come of the seed of Abraham (Gen. 12: 3; 22: 18); of the seed of Isaac (Gen. 26: 4); of the seed of Jacob (Gen. 28: 14); of the seed of Judah (Gen. 49: 10). A seer of alien race next proclaimed His regal dignity, that He should subdue His enemies, that He should have “the dominion” (Num. 24: 17-19). The law was now enlightening the conscience of the people, developing side by side the great fact of sin and its own weakness as a remedy (Rom. 3: 20). At the same time, the ceremonies of the law were giving an outline sketch of good things to come in the atonement to be wrought by the one Mediator between God and man, who, as at once priest and victim, was to make that sacrifice of Himself toward which every type in the services of the altar converged. The giver of the law himself, when he was bringing his own teaching to a conclusion, declared that He who was to come was to be the Teacher who would gain the hearts of the people (De. 18: 15; cf. Acts 3: 22, 23). The psalmist made known that He was to be the Son of David, one of that royal stock upon which every true-hearted Israelite looked as the centre of his hopes. And now, in the time of Micah, were unveiled in clear terms His eternal glory, His universal dominion, His supreme Godhead, His superhuman birth of a virgin; yet also His sufferings and humiliation (Isa. 7: 9; 51). His work also as the Redeemer of the whole race of man was made known. (Cf. Rom. 10: 11.) In this way the Spirit who moved the prophets was preparing the way for the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, of the Saviour who was the light to lighten the nations and the glory of His people Israel.

In the remarkable unveiling of the purpose of eternal love, which distinguished the time of Hezekiah, Micah joined his voice with that of his elder and more prominent contemporary, Isaiah. It is, however, as unreasonable as it is unjust to regard, as some have done, the prophecy contained in this chapter as an echo of Isaiah’s teaching. Its originality is singularly marked in both matter and manner. It stands quite alone in the indubitable evidence we have of the way in which the Jews regarded it before the birth of Christ. When Herod was startled by the inquiries of the Magi, he put the question as to the birthplace of the expected Messiah to the chief priests and scribes. These authorized teachers of the people at once turned to the words of Micah, Matt. 2: 4-6. (Cf. John 7: 42.) There appears no reason whatever to doubt that this agreed with the universal impression of the Jews in those early times. B. C.

3. He (Jehovah) gives up them (His covenant people) in the sense of leaving them to be scourged for their sins and purified under this discipline, until this great Ruler, the Messiah, should be born. “She that travaileth” must refer to the thought in the previous verse, the human birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem. Micah may have had before his mind what Isaiah wrote (7: 14), “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” The Divine policy seems to have been to let His apostate Israel sink very low as to its outward estate, and then by this means bring out the more prominently before all the world the great Deliverer.

4. The Hebrew verb “feed” belongs to shepherd life, and includes both feeding and ruling, supplying the want of food and the want of protection and government as well. The attitude of a shepherd is a standing one, hence “he shall stand and feed.” He shall fulfil this office, not in any merely human might and majesty, but in the strength and majesty of the very God. “And they,” His people, His flock, “shall abide,” in the sense of permanence and security, not driven about and away into captivity, as they then would have been so recently. One reason why they sit so securely is that their king is “great unto the very ends of the earth.” The range of His power sweeps far beyond Judea. It fills the wide world, and leaves no place for nations and armies hostile to the people of the Messiah. H. C.

He shall be a glorious prince, and His subjects shall be happy under His government. He shall stand and feed, He shall both teach and rule, and shall continue to do so, as a good Shepherd, with wisdom, and care, and love; so it was foretold, He shall feed His flock like a Shepherd, shall provide green pastures for them, and under-shepherds to lead them into these pastures. He is the good Shepherd, that goes before the sheep and presides among them. He shall do this, not as an ordinary man, but in the strength of the Lord, as one clothed with a Divine power, to go through His work and break through the difficulties in His way, so as not to fail, or be discouraged; He shall do it in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God, so as plainly to evidence that God’s name was in Him (Ex. 23:21), the majesty of His name, for He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes. The prophets prefaced their message with, Thus saith the Lord; but Christ spake not as a servant, but as a Son; Verily, verily, I say unto you. This was feeding in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God; all power was given Him in heaven and in earth, a power over all flesh, by virtue of which He still rules in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God, a name above every name. H.

5. “This man,” the Messiah, “shall be peace,” the fountain and author of peace, and of peace in a sense involving not only the absence of war, but the presence of all the best earthly good and even heavenly good besides. H. C.—Christ is our peace as a priest, making atonement for sin, and reconciling us to God; and He is our Peace as a King, conquering our enemies, and commanding down disquieting fears and passions; He creates the fruit of the lips, peace. Even when the Assyrian comes into the land, when we are in the greatest distress and danger, and have received a sentence of death within ourselves, yet this man may be the peace. In Me, says Christ, you shall have peace, when in the world you have tribulation; at such a time our souls may dwell at ease in Him. H.

This prophecy of Micah is perhaps the most important single prophecy in the Old Testament, and the most comprehensive respecting the personal character of the Messiah and His successives manifestations to the world. It crowns the whole chain of prophecies descriptive of the several limitations of the blessed “Seed of the woman” to the line of Shem, to the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to the tribe of Judah, and to the royal house of David, here terminating in His birth at Bethlehem, “the city of David.” It carefully distinguishes His human nativity from His eternal generation; foretells the rejection of the Israelites and Jews for a season; their final restoration and the universal “peace” destined to prevail throughout the earth in “the regeneration.” It forms therefore the basis of the New Testament, which begins with His human birth at Bethlehem, the miraculous circumstances of which are recorded in the introductions of St. Matthew’s and St. Luke’s Gospels; His eternal generation, as “the Word,” in the sublime introduction of St. John’s Gospel; His prophetic character, and second coming, illustrated in the four Gospels and epistles, ending with a prediction of the speedy approach of the latter in the Apocalypse (Rev. 22:20). Dr. Hales.

7-15. Glorious things are here spoken of the remnant of Jacob; that remnant which was raised of her that halted (chap. 4:7). And it seems to be that remnant which the Lord our God shall call (Joel 2:32), on whom the Spirit shall be poured out; the remnant that shall be saved (Rom. 9:27). God’s people are but a remnant, a small number, in comparison with the many that are left to perish, a little flock; but they are the remnant of Jacob, a people in covenant with God, and in His favor. This remnant shall be as dew from the Lord. They shall be of a heavenly extraction, as dew from the Lord, who is the Father of the rain, and has begotten the drops of the dew (Job 38:28). They are born from above, and are not of the earth, savoring the things of the earth. They shall be numerous as the drops of dew in a summer’s morning; Ps. 110:3, “Thou hast the dew of thy youth.” They shall be pure and clear as the water of life. They shall be produced silently and without noise, as the dew that distils insensibly, we know not how; such is the way of the Spirit. They shall live in a continual dependence upon God, and be still deriving from Him, as the dew, which tarries not for man nor waits for the sons of men; they should not rely upon human aids and powers, but on Divine grace; for they are, and own that they are, no more than what the free grace of God makes them every day. They shall be great blessings to those among whom they live, as the dew and the showers are to the grass, to make it grow without the help of man, or the sons of men. Their doctrine, example and prayers shall make them as dew to soften and moisten others and make them fruitful. H.

8. As a lion.** Yet the blessing from above, gently as it came, would have the irresistible strength and vigor of a lion in fulfilling the purpose of Jehovah. What characterizes the Messiah, as well as His works, is the perfect union of force with gentleness. He was the Lion of the tribe of Judah, yet the Lamb of God. B. C.

10,11. These statements show that God’s people are not thought of here as fighting with carnal weapons, for if they were, then horses and chariots would come into use. “Cities” must be here thought of in the military sense, parallel to “strongholds.” The idea is that the Lord will be Himself their Refuge and Strength, and will take away their confidence in human sources of help. H. C.