THE SHORT COURSE SERIES

Edited by Rev. John Adams, B.D.

The Prophecy of Micah

By Rev. Arthur J. Tait, D.D.

Chapter 5 THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD

Micah 3.

THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD

Man may prove faithless, but God's purpose will not fail. His power and sovereignty will be vindicated even if accommodation to man's sin requires that His glory shall be temporarily hidden. This is the triumphant message introduced by the but which stands at the beginning of the fourth chapter of the prophecy. The mountain of the house shall be as the high places of the forest. But in the latter days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow unto it.

1. Faith and Hope.

It is the confidence that God's word will not return to Him void that enables the believer to triumph in the hour of apparent defeat, and to be a man of hope in the midst of circumstances which seem to preclude hope. It was in the strength of this confidence that Abraham was able in hope to believe against hope, being fully assured that what God had promised He was also able to perform.1 It was the same confidence which rendered him willing to offer up Isaac at God's bidding; for he was persuaded that God's promise in Isaac would be fulfilled even if it involved a resurrection from the dead.2

This faith of Abraham, which is presented to us as the example for all time,3 was not blind credulity, but an attitude towards God which was based upon experience. From the first recorded exercise of his trust in God, when he left his home and kindred, Abraham advanced from faith to faith, until he was able to face that supreme trial when God proved him by the command to offer up Isaac. Each step involved an experience which prepared him for the next.

We do not know enough of Micah's early life to be able to say that his faith was similarly based upon his own experience: but in so far as it was exercised in respect of his nation's future, we can well believe that he found the ground of it in the nation's history. Israel had not been chosen out from among the nations of the world for nothing. The birth of the nation had been as clearly the fulfilment of Divine promise as the birth of Isaac had been. Moreover, the history of the nation had been one long record of the manifestation of Divine purpose and power. And it was impossible for one who believed that, to think of Zion as destined for permanent destruction, or to regard Israel as marked out for permanent rejection. Chastisement there might be, but not annihilation. The destruction could only be a stage in the process of evolution, the pulling down could only be a condition of building up, the ploughing could only be the prelude to harvest.

The same assurance underlies Isaiah's doctrine of the remnant. Even though God's chastisement of His rebellious people should result in their decimation, and though the remaining tenth should again be eaten up, there would still be left the holy seed to be the stock from which the nation should revive.4 Similarly St. Paul was able to distinguish the institutional Israel from the true Israel of God; and he never lost his confidence that God's promises would be fulfilled for the remnant according to the election of grace.5

Whether it be Abraham or Micah or Isaiah or St. Paul, such was the confidence in the faithfulness of God that they one and all in hope believed against hope; they kept their eyes fixed steadfastly upon God's revealed purpose; they measured possibility by the standard of Divine power.

It is not surprising therefore to find the dark pictures of sin and judgment lit up by bright visions of the future. We are not prepared to rule out chapter ii. 12 f. of this prophecy as involving an impossible sequence of thought with ii. 1-11. On the contrary, the picture of judgment appeals to us with all the more force as a message from God because it ends with the vision of hope. Precisely the same phenomenon is presented in this fourth chapter, and in Isaiah's use of the same language.6 We meet it again in the seventh chapter. In each case there is the juxtaposition of disappointment and hope, judgment and mercy, denunciation and promise: and

that juxtaposition cannot be rightly interpreted unless allowance is made for the prophet's religion. It represents the triumph of faith over circumstances, and that triumph is the privilege and the right of every man who honestly trusts in the Lord.

2. The Vision of the Future.

We turn now to the actual picture which the Prophet gives of the ultimate destiny of Zion. The city is to become the centre of worship for many peoples, and the Word of the Lord is to be the light of their life. The glory of the city is to be such that it will attract to itself the nations of the world, eager to learn its secret. The result will be that the God of Israel will be acknowledged as the light of the world, war will cease, peace and safety will be the happy lot of all mankind. By a bold imagery the nations of the world are represented as a river flowing upwards to the mountain of the Lord's house. Is this the prophet's vivid and picturesque equivalent of the Gospel word, the things which are impossible with men are possible with God? It may be so.

When the vision is compared with the later conception of Zephaniah, men shall worship him, every one from his own place,7 and with that of Malachi, From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense is offered unto my name, and a jure offering: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts;8 when viewed in this relation, Micah's vision is seen to be a limited one. And yet it was a distinct advance towards the Gospel revelation of the Catholic Church, and the worship which was to be in spirit and in truth. Micah perceived the fundamental truth that the Lord was not the God of Israel only, but the God of all the earth; and that therefore all men must come to know Him, and Jerusalem, in spite of her faithlessness and failure, was destined eventually to fulfil her mission to the world.

Let us pause here to inquire how far our conception of the faithfulness of God to His word carries us in our outlook upon the world at large. When the Lord Jesus gave His last command to His church, He gave it not as something entirely new and unforeseen, but as the fulfilment of Old Testament prediction. It is written was the ground upon which He based it.9 As truly as His Death and Resurrection had been foretold, and as surely as they were realised in fact, so truly was the evangelisation of the world foretold, and so surely will it become a reality. Confidence in the faithfulness of God should make us fervent in the missionary enterprise of the Church. But the believer's outlook upon the world is determined by reason as well as by faith. For just as revelation is an essential element in our conception of God, so evangelisation is an essential consequence of belief in revelation. As long as there is true faith in God and joy in believing, for so long will believers communicate the good news to others. The command of the Lord Jesus is an appeal to the reason as well as a challenge to faith. But reason must go hand in hand with faith and love. Reason by itself might be deterred by the difficulties, silenced by the disappointments, dismayed by the cost. The incentive rests ultimately with faith and love: faith in God whose word shall not return to Him void, love for the Master who gave the command.

3. Fulfilment through Suffering.

Micah's conception of the faithfulness of God enabled him to interpret suffering as part of the process by which the sure mercies of God were being fulfilled. The very disaster which was to come upon the nation was to be the birth-pangs of the new era of life and prosperity. True, it would inevitably call forth taunt and blasphemy from the enemies of the Lord: that was part of the sacrifice which sin involved. But the revilings would be uttered in ignorance: the time would come when the Lord would vindicate His truth and manifest His glory. A new theocracy would arise out of the afflictions of the nation. In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven away, and her that I have afflicted; and I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever.10

If Babylon was to be the instrument of the chastisement, it was Babylon which was also to be the place of deliverance. Thou shalt come even unto Babylon: there shalt thou be rescued; there shall the Lord redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.11 And the deliverance would affect not merely the daughter of Zion, but her oppressors as well. The city which has been ploughed as a field on account of her sin is now summoned to arise and thresh (magnificent paradox!): the harvest is gathered not by those who did the ploughing, but by the city which was ploughed. They know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they His counsel: for he hath gathered them as the sheaves to the threshingfloor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples: and thou shalt devote their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.12

So may we learn the secret of Micah. The ways of the Lord are past finding out, but His purposes will find a sure fulfilment. The supreme facts in life are the faithfulness and the sovereignty of the Lord.