Micah 2

Ver. 3—5, 10. The Assyrians, and after them the Chaldeans and Romans, shall invade, plunder and desolate your country, murder, and carry you into captivity, and give your inheritances to others, because of your wickedness

Micah 2:6

Ye attempt to silence my faithful prophets, who declare to you your transgressions, and warn you of my judgments, that ye may repent; and therefore quickly no more pains shall be taken with you, to render you sensible of your sins. But ye encourage those lying impostors, who, to obtain a good living to themselves, prophesy to you of nothing but peace and plenty, answerable to your luxurious inclinations

Micah 2:7

Ye who glory in your descent from the patriarch Jacob, but are very unlike to him, can ye stop the revelations of my spirit? or is the work of threatening a pleasure to me? Do not all my messages work for the real good of penitent and upright persons?

Micah 2:8-10

Lately, you Israelites, under Pekah, fearfully ravaged Judea, without any provocation, plundering the very poor, abusing the very women and children, and, by enslaving and selling them to the Heathens around, ye have for ever deprived them of my worship, privileges, and country: therefore shall ye in a little time be murdered in, or carried from, your own country, which ye have so much defiled by your wickedness. 12, 13. These verses, as connected with the preceding, seem to import, that God would gather the Israelites and Jews into their cities for the slaughter; and that the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Romans, would break into them, and carry them and their kings into a dismal captivity. But, taking them as a promise, they mean that God would not only bring back the Jews and Israelites to Canaan, but would render his scattered people one flock under Jesus Christ, who, in consequence of his resurrection and ascension, would, in the apostolic and millennial periods, conquer both Jews and Gentiles, and bring them at last to eternal glory

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. II.—In vain do men think that they may do whatever they can, since no power is given for destruction, but for edification. And, if covetousness reign in men’s hearts, compassion will be banished from it. The more design and deliberation men discover in their sinning, the more will God manifest his wisdom and power in the certainty, severity, notoriety, and answerableness, of their punishment. And no injuries does God more fearfully resent than those which are done to the harmless, the fatherless, and widows, who have least help in man. They who have used others fraudulently and violently, shall be so used themselves. And nothing can be more dreadful than to be cut off from the church of God and its exalted privileges. They, who were most haughty and secure in their prosperity, are generally the most dejected and desperate in their adversity. They who hate holiness hate reproof, and reckon faithful ministers a nuisance and a burden: and, being vicious and debauched, they wish to have ministers, and even a god, like themselves. But upright men delight in God’s messages, whether promises or threatenings. Blessed be God that Jesus is our chief Shepherd; and, notwithstanding all the rage of hell and earth, he will gather the outcasts of Israel, render his gospel church extensive as the earth, and her members numerous as the sand by the sea shore; and, without losing one, bring them from sin, from death, and the grave, to the mansions above!