XIX.]

THE SHEPHERD.

333

Lord, neither understand they His counsel, for He shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass, and thou shall beat in pieces many people." We have here some of those phrases which remind us so powerfully of Isaiah, and make us feel that Micah may have studied in his school. And it is not merely an outward resemblance. The actual Assyrian invasion led Isaiah to meditate upon the Babel power generally; the news of a revolution in the city of Babylon and the embassy from Merodach-Baladan led him to foresee the perils to which Jerusalem would afterwards be exposed from that land. Micah in like manner connects all that is hereafter to befal Zion, with the crisis she was passing through in his time. He evidently anticipates that her travail will even then issue in a glorious birth, that the King of Judah shall even then be great unto the ends of the earth.

But there is one passage in this part of Micah's prophecy, to which there is nothing corresponding in Isaiah. It is that which I have chosen for my text. "And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." The humiliation of Jerusalem has been especially present to the mind of our seer. Though it calls itself the city of David, he believes that there will be a stain upon its glory. He is taught to remember that David's own birthplace was not that city, but a little village, insignificant amidst the thousands of Judah. He is led to anticipate that this place, celebrated besides as that in which Rachel travailed and died, will in some way be connected with a ruler and de

334

BETHLEHEM AND JERUSALEM.

[Serm. liverer, who should "stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the Name of the Lord his God,—who should be the peace when the Assyrian should come into the land,-who should waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof." Such expressions sufficiently shew, that Micah looked to this Ruler as a present helper and deliverer, as one who should set Judæa free from the enemies who were then oppressing it. And yet this same Person was also to do works which could not be accomplished in that generation, which must spread through many generations. The prophet could hardly suppose that the enemies of Judah would then be completely destroyed; for he had spoken of a terrible discomforture and captivity as preceding the emancipation. And even if he had such a thought, the last words refer to a gradual influence which his countrymen were to exert over other lands. "The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men." This is precisely the kind of influence which the Jews in the Babylonian empire, or elsewhere, might exert, when they were no more united in a holy city, but when they became conscious of another more mysterious unity in a Divine King who made their apparent dissolution the means of binding them more effectually and inwardly together.

the grass,

I apprehend that Micah was divinely appointed to speak of this unity, especially in opposition to that other artificial and material unity which his countrymen were resting in. In this sense he contrasts Bethlehem with Jerusalem. He may not have perceived in what way the ruler or Shepherd he spoke of would be connected with Bethlehem. The

XIX.]

THE KING FROM EVERLASTING.

335

name may have been a seed dropped in the ground to die and bear fruit some other day. Nor may he have had as distinct and full a view of the Shepherd himself as Isaiah had. Yet he saw as clearly that he could not be confounded with any temporary earthly prince. "His goings forth were of old, from everlasting." He had been the King in the days of David and Solomon, He had not been deposed among the ten tribes because Jeroboam set up calves in Bethel. Whether Ahaz stooped to Assyria, or Hezekiah shook off its yoke, He remained the same. All great days of the Lord were days which revealed His presence. Material earthquakes, invasions of Sennacherib, all forms of evil and confusion, were proclaiming Him as the only rock upon which that nation could stand. Its high calling was to declare Him as the rock upon which all men must stand.

A very memorable chapter of Micah's prophecy follows that of which I have been speaking; it is the one which our Church has chosen as a specimen of the whole book. I believe the selection has been rightly made, and not only on account of its sublimity. "Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth for the Lord hath a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Israel." This chapter contains all the great characteristics of Micah's prophecy, and leads us to the innermost heart of it. A God whose voice is echoed by the hills and mountains, caring to reason with His people, explaining to them His own ways and judgments, beseeching them to listen to Him!-think of such a Being presented to the mind of a man who is bowing down to a mere God of power, whom he fancies that by some means or other he is to appease. And such a God, was the God of the priests and

336

BALAAM'S WISDOM.

[Serm.

prophets of Samaria and Jerusalem whose falsehoods Micah had been laying bare. An utterly dark and false notion of Him lay at the root of all their contrivances and impostures. Till they thought otherwise of Him, they must be self-deceivers and deceivers of their brethren. And yet there was nothing new in Micah's view of the divine character it was precisely the one which the law and history of Israel had been setting forth. “O my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” Nay the false prophet, the very type of false prophets, himself had been brought in an hour of humiliation and revelation to confess that this was the Being with whom he had to do. "O, my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord." This was the answer of the man whose eyes were opened, who saw the vision of the Almighty. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings and calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" God uses Balaam as a teacher of the prophets and priests and people of Israel. These words explain the cause of the judgments which He is bringing upon them. There are wicked ba

XIX.]

DARK HOURS.

337

"The rich

lances, there are bags of deceitful weights. men are full of violence; the inhabitants of the cities have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Therefore is He making them sick in smiting them, and making them desolate in their sins." A wonderful passage surely,―proving, I think, that all substantial practical morality must have its basis in a substantial theology;-how needful it is that we should confess a righteous God if we would be righteous ourselves;-what a mockery it is to call upon men to be just and honest, if we do not present God to them as One who is seeking to make them what He is; -how utterly vain and vague all spiritual teaching is, merely tending to pamper spiritual pride and produce spiritual wickedness, if it does not connect the commonest outward acts with all inward and mysterious principles.

The last passages in Micah describe a tremendous struggle in his own mind, when he looked round and saw the faithlessness, heartlessness, selfishness of the people among whom he was dwelling, of that people with whom God was holding this controversy. "The best of them is as a briar; the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of thy visitation cometh." There is a dark moment in which he exclaims, "Trust ye not in a friend. Put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom." But that hour passes away. "I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me." His anger against others ends in a confession of his own evil. "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause and execute judgment for me." And then comes a vision of blessedness for his land as well as for himself. "Who is a God like unto

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