M
I C A H
CHAP. VII.
In
this chapter, I. The prophet, in the name of the church, sadly laments the
woeful decay of religion in the age wherein he lived, and the deluge of
impiety and immorality which overwhelmed the nation, which levelled the
differences, and bore down the fences, of all that is just and sacred, ver.
1-6. II. The prophet, for the sake of the church, prescribes comforts, which
may be of use at such a time, and gives counsel what to do. 1. They must have
an eye to God, ver. 7. 2. They must courageously bear up against the
insolences of the enemy, ver. 8-10. 3. They must patiently lie down under the
rebukes of their God, ver. 9. 4. They must expect no other than that the
trouble would continue long, and must endeavour to make the best of it, ver.
11-13. 5. They must encourage themselves with God's promises, in answer to the
prophet's prayers, ver. 14, 15. 6. They must foresee the fall of their
enemies, that now triumphed over them, ver. 16, 17. 7. They must themselves
triumph in the mercy and grace of God, and his faithfulness to his covenant
(ver. 18-20), and with that comfortable word the prophecy concludes.
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The
Sins of the People.
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B.
C. 700.
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1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have
gathered the summer fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage: there is
no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first-ripe fruit. 2 The
good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright
among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother
with a net. 3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the
prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man,
he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up. 4 The best
of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn
hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be
their perplexity. 5 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. 6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth
up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's
enemies are the men of his own house.
This is such a description of bad times as, some think, could scarcely agree
to the times of Hezekiah, when this prophet prophesied; and therefore they
rather take it as a prediction of what should be in the reign of Manasseh. But
we may rather suppose it to be in the reign of Ahaz (and in that reign he
prophesied, ch. i. 1) or in the beginning of Hezekiah's time, before
the reformation he was instrumental in; nay, in the best of his days, and when
he had done his best to purge out corruptions, still there was much amiss. The
prophet cries out, Woe is me! He bemoans himself that his lot was cast
in such a degenerate age, and thinks it his great unhappiness that he lived
among a people that were ripening apace for a ruin which many a good man would
unavoidably be involved in. Thus David cries out, Woe is me that I sojourn
in Mesech! He laments, 1. That there were so few good people to be found,
even among those that were God's people; and this was their reproach: The
good man has perished out of the earth, or out of the land, the
land of Canaan; it was a good land, and a land of uprightness (Isa.
xxvi. 10), but there were few good men in it, none upright among them, v.
2. The good man is a godly man and a merciful man; the
word signifies both. Those are completely good men that are devout towards God
and compassionate and beneficent towards men, that love mercy and walk with
God. "These have perished; those few honest men that some time ago
enriched and adorned our country are now dead and gone, and there are none
risen up in their stead that tread in their steps; honesty is banished,
and there is no such thing as a good man to be met with. Those that were of
religious education have degenerated, and become as bad as the worst; the
godly man ceases," Ps. xii. 1. This is illustrated by a comparison (v.
1): they were as when they have gathered the summer fruits; it was as
hard a thing to find a good man as to find any of the summer-fruits (which
were the choicest and best, and therefore must carefully be gathered in) when
the harvest is over. The prophet is ready to say, as Elijah in his time (1
Kings xix. 10), I, even I only, am left. Good men, who used to hang in
clusters, are now as the grape-gleanings of the vintage, here and there
a berry, Isa. xvii. 6. You can find no societies of them as bunches of grapes,
but those that are are single persons: There is no cluster to eat; and
the best and fullest grapes are those that grow in large clusters. Some think
that this intimates not only that good people were few, but that those few who
remained, who went for good people, were good for little, like the small
withered grapes, the refuse that were left behind, not only by the gatherer,
but by the gleaner. When the prophet observed this universal degeneracy it
made him desire the first-ripe fruit; he wished to see such worthy good
men as were in the former ages, were the ornaments of the primitive times, and
as far excelled the best of all the present age as the first and full-ripe
fruits do those of the latter growth, that never come to maturity. When we
read and hear of the wisdom and zeal, the strictness and conscientiousness,
the devotion and charity, of the professors of religion in former ages, and
see the reverse of this in those of the present age, we cannot but sit down,
and wish, with a sigh, O for primitive Christianity again! Where are
the plainness and integrity of those that went before us? Where are the
Israelites indeed, without guile? Our souls desire them, but in vain. The
golden age is gone, and past recall; we must make the best of what is, for we
are not likely to see such times as have been. 2. That there were so many
wicked mischievous people among them, not only none that did any good, but
multitudes that did all the hurt they could: "They all lie in wait for
blood, and hunt every man his brother. To get wealth to themselves,
they care not what wrong, what hurt, they do to their neighbours and nearest
relations. They act as if mankind were in a state of war, and force were the
only right. They are as beasts of prey to their neighbours, for they all
lie in wait for blood as lions for their prey; they thirst after it, make
nothing of taking away any man's life or livelihood to serve a turn for
themselves, and lie in wait for an opportunity to do it. Their neighbours are
as beasts of prey to them, for they hunt every man his brother with a net;
they persecute them as noxious creatures, fit to be taken and destroyed,
though they are innocent excellent ones." We say of him that is outlawed,
Caput gerit lupinum--He is to be hunted as a wolf. "Or they hunt
them as men do the game, to feast upon it; they have a thousand cursed arts of
ensnaring men to their ruin, so that they may but get by it. Thus they do
mischief with both hands earnestly; their hearts desire it, their heads
contrive it, and then both hands are ready to put it in
execution." Note, The more eager and intent men are upon any sinful
pursuit, and the more pains they take in it, the more provoking it is. 3. That
the magistrates, who by their office ought to have been the patrons and
protectors of right, were the practisers and promoters of wrong: That they
may do evil with both hands earnestly, to excite and animate themselves in
it, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh, for a reward, for a bribe,
with which they well be hired to exert all their power for the supporting and
carrying on of any wicked design with both hands. They do evil with both
hands well (so some read it); they do evil with a great deal of art and
dexterity; they praise themselves for doing it so well. Others read it thus: To
do evil they have both hands (they catch at an opportunity of doing
mischief), but to do good the prince and the judge ask for a reward; if
they do any good offices they are mercenary in them, and must be paid for
them. The great man, who has wealth and power to do good, is not ashamed to
utter his mischievous desire in conjunction with the prince and the judge, who
are ready to support him and stand by him in it. So they wrap it up;
they perplex the matter, involve it, and make it intricate (so some understand
it), that they may lose equity in a mist, and so make the cause turn which way
they please. It is ill with a people when their princes, and judges, and great
men are in a confederacy to pervert justice. And it is a sad character that is
given of them (v. 4), that the best of them is as a brier, and the
most upright is sharper than a thorn-hedge; it is a dangerous thing to
have any thing to do with them; he that touches them must be fenced with
iron (2 Sam. xxiii. 6, 7), he shall be sure to be scratched, to have his
clothes torn, and his eyes almost pulled out. And, if this be the character of
the best and most upright, what are the worst? And, when things have come to
this pass, the day of thy watchmen comes, that is, as it follows, the
day of thy visitation, when God will reckon with thee for all this
wickedness, which is called the day of the watchmen, because their
prophets, whom God set as watchmen over them, had often warned them of that
day. When all flesh have corrupted their way, even the best and the most
upright, what can be expected but a day of visitation, a deluge of judgments,
as that which drowned the old world when the earth was filled with
violence? 4. That there was no faith in man; people had grown so
universally treacherous that one knew not whom to repose any confidence in, v.
5. "Those that have any sense of honour, or spark of virtue, remaining in
them, have a firm regard to the laws of friendship; they would not discover
what passed in private conversation, nor divulge secrets, to the prejudice of
a friend. But those things are now made a jest of; you will not meet with a
friend that you dare trust, whose word you dare take, or who will have any
tenderness or concern for you; so that wise men shall give it and take it for
a rule, trust you not in a friend, for you will find him false, you can
trust him no further than you can see him; and even him that passes for an
honest man you will find to be so only with good looking to. Nay, as for him
that undertakes to be your guide, to lead you into any business which
he professes to understand better than you, you cannot put a confidence
in him, for he will be sure to mislead you if he can get any thing by
it." Some by a guide understand a husband, who is called the guide of
thy youth; and that agrees well enough with what follows, "Keep
the doors of thy lips from her that lieth in thy bosom, from thy own wife;
take heed what thou sayest before her, lest she betray thee, as Delilah did
Samson, lest she be the bird of the air that carries the voice
of that which thou sayest in thy bed-chamber," Eccl. x. 20. It is
an evil time indeed when the prudent are obliged even thus far to keep
silence. 5. That children were abusive to their parents, and men had no
comfort, no satisfaction, in their own families and their nearest relations, v.
6. The times are bad indeed when the son dishonours his father, gives
him bad language, exposes him, threatens him, and studies to do him a
mischief, when the daughter rises up in rebellion against her own
mother, having no sense of duty, or natural affection; and no marvel that then
the daughter-in-law quarrels with her mother-in-law, and is
vexatious to her. Either they cannot agree about their property and interest,
or their humours and passions clash, or from a spirit of bigotry and
persecution, the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the
father the child, Matt. x. 4; Luke xxi. 16. It is sad when a man's
betrayers and worst enemies are the men of his own house, his own children and
servants, that should be his guard and his best friends. Note, The contempt
and violation of the laws of domestic duties are a sad symptom of a universal
corruption of manners. Those are never likely to come to good that are
undutiful to their parents, and study to be provoking to them and cross them.
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Seeking
Comfort in God; The Sins of the People.
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7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD;
I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 8
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit
in darkness, the LORD
shall be a light unto me. 9 I will bear the indignation of
the LORD,
because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute
judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall
behold his righteousness. 10 Then she that is mine enemy
shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is
the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as
the mire of the streets. 11 In the day that thy walls are
to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.
12 In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and
from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and
from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 13
Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein,
for the fruit of their doings.
The prophet, having sadly complained of the wickedness of the times he lived
in, here fastens upon some considerations for the comfort of himself and his
friends, in reference thereunto. The case is bad, but it is not desperate. Yet
now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.
I. "Though God be now displeased he shall be reconciled to us, and then
all will be well, v. 7, 9. We are now under the indignation of the
Lord; God is angry with us, and justly, because we have sinned against
him." Note, It is our sin against God that provokes his indignation
against us; and we must see it, and own it, whenever we are under divine
rebukes, that we may justify God, and may study to answer his end in
afflicting us, by repenting of sin and breaking off from it. Now, at such a
time, 1. We must have recourse to God under our troubles (v. 7): Therefore
I will look unto the Lord. When a child of God has ever so much occasion
to cry, Woe is me (as the prophet here, v. 1), yet it may be a
comfort to him that he has a God to look to, a God to come to, to fly to, in
whom he may rejoice and have satisfaction. All may look bright above him when
all looks black and dark about him. The prophet had been complaining that
there was no comfort to be had, no confidence to be put, in friends and
relations on earth, and this drives him to his God: Therefore I will look
unto the Lord. The less reason we have to delight in any creature the more
reason we have to delight in God. If princes are not to be trusted, we may
say, Happy is the man that has the God of Jacob for his help, and happy
am I, even in the midst of my present woes, if he be my help. If men be
false, this is our comfort, that God is faithful; if relations be unkind, he
is and will be gracious. Let us therefore look above and beyond them, and
overlook our disappointment in them, and look unto the Lord. 2. We must submit
to the will of God in our troubles: "I will bear the indignation of
the Lord, will bear it patiently, without murmuring and repining, because
I have sinned against him." Note, Those that are truly penitent for
sin will see a great deal of reason to be patient under affliction. Wherefore
should a man complain for the punishment of his sin? When we complain to
God of the badness of the times we ought to complain against ourselves for the
badness of our own hearts. 3. We must depend upon God to work deliverance for
us, and put a good issue to our troubles in due time; we must not only look to
him, but look for him: "I will wait for the God of my salvation,
and for his gracious returns to me." In our greatest distresses we shall
see no reason to despair of salvation if by faith we eye God as the God of
our salvation, who is able to save the weakest upon their humble petition,
and willing to save the worst upon their true repentance. And, if we depend on
God as the God of our salvation, we must wait for him, and for his salvation,
in his own way and his own time. Let us now see what the church is here taught
to expect and promise herself from God, even when things are brought to the
last extremity. (1.) My God will hear me; if the Lord be our God, he
will hear our prayers, and grant an answer of peace to them. (2.) "When
I fall, and am in danger of being dashed in pieces by the fall, yet I
shall arise, and recover myself again. I fall, but am not utterly
cast down," Ps. xxxvii. 24. (3.) "When I sit in darkness,
desolate and disconsolate, melancholy and perplexed, and not knowing what to
do, nor which way to look for relief, yet then the Lord shall be a light to
me, to comfort and revive me, to instruct and teach me, to direct and
guide me, as a light to my eyes, a light to my feet, a light in a dark
place." (4.) He will plead my cause, and execute judgment for me,
v. 9. If we heartily espouse the cause of God, the just but injured
cause of religion and virtue, and make it our cause, we may hope he will own
our cause, and plead it. The church's cause, though it seem for a time to go
against her, will at length be pleaded with jealousy, and judgment not only
given against, but executed upon, the enemies of it. (5.) "He will
bring me forth to the light, make me shine eminently out of obscurity, and
become conspicuous, will make my righteousness shine evidently from under the
dark cloud of calumny, Ps. xxxvii. 6; Isa. lviii. 10. The morning of comfort
shall shine forth out of the long and dark night of trouble." (6.) "I
shall behold his righteousness; I shall see the equity of his proceedings
concerning me and the performance of his promises to me."
II. Though enemies triumph and insult, they shall be silenced and put to
shame, v. 8, 10. Observe here,
1. How proudly the enemies of God's people trample upon them in their
distress. They said, Where is the Lord their God? As if because they
were afflicted God had forsaken them, and they knew not where to find him with
their prayers, and he knew not how to help them with his favours. This David's
enemies said to him, and it was a sword in his bones, Ps. xlii. 10, and see
Ps. cxv. 2. Thus, in reproaching Israel as an abandoned people, they reflected
on the God of Israel as an unkind unfaithful God.
2. How comfortably the people of God by faith bear up themselves under these
insults (v. 8): "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy! I am
now down, but shall not be always so, and when my God appears for me then she
that is my enemy shall see it, and be ashamed" (not only being
disappointed in her expectations of the church's utter ruin, but having the
same cup of trembling put into her hand), "then my eyes shall behold
her in the same deplorable condition that I am now in; now shall she be
trodden down." Note, The deliverance of the church will be the
confusion of her enemies; and their shame shall be double, when, as they have
trampled upon God's people, so they shall themselves be trampled upon.
III. Though the land continue a great while desolate, yet it shall at length
be replenished again, when the time, even the set time, of its deliverance
comes. 1. Its salvation shall not come till after it has been desolate;
so the margin reads it, v. 13. God has a controversy with the land, and
it must lie long under his rebukes, because of those that dwell therein;
it is their iniquity that makes their land desolate (Ps. cvii. 34); it is for
the fruit of their doings, their evil doings which they have been
themselves guilty of, and the evil fruit of them, the sins of others, which
they have been accessory to by their bad influence and example. For this they
must expect to smart a great while; for the world shall know that God hates
sin even in his own people. 2. When it does come it shall be a complete
salvation; and it seems to refer to their deliverance out of Babylon by Cyrus,
which Isaiah about this time prophesied of, as a type of our redemption by
Christ. (1.) The decree shall be far removed. God's decree concerning
their captivity, and Nebuchadnezzar's decree concerning the perpetuity of it,
his resolution never to release them, "these shall be set aside and
revoked, and you shall hear no more of them; they shall no more lie as a yoke
upon thy neck." (2.) Jerusalem and the cities of Judah shall be again
reared: Then thy walls shall be built, walls for habitation, walls for
defence, house-walls, town-walls, temple-walls; it is in order to these that
the decree is repealed, Isa. xliv. 28. Though Zion's walls may lie long in
ruins, there will come a day when they shall be repaired. (3.) All that belong
to the land of Israel, whithersoever dispersed, and howsoever distressed, far
and wide over the face of the whole earth, shall come flocking to it again (v.
12): He shall come even to thee, having liberty to return and a heart
to return, from Assyria, whither the ten tribes were carried away, though it
lay remote, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress,
those strongholds in which they thought they had them fast; for when God's
time comes, though Pharaoh will not let the people go, God will fetch
them out with a high hand. They shall come from all the remote parts, from
sea to sea and from mountain to mountain, not turning back for fear
of your discouragements, but they shall go from strength to strength till they
come to Zion. Thus in the great day of redemption God will gather his elect
from the four winds.
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Encouraging
Prospects; Encouraging Promises.
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14 Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of
thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of
Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of
old. 15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of
Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things. 16 The
nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their
hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. 17 They
shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like
worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD
our God, and shall fear because of thee. 18 Who is a God
like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of
the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he
delighteth in mercy. 19 He will turn again, he will have
compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all
their sins into the depths of the sea. 20 Thou wilt perform the
truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto
our fathers from the days of old.
Here is, I. The prophet's prayer to God to take care of his own people, and of
their cause and interest, v. 14. When God is about to deliver his
people he stirs up their friends to pray for them, and pours out a spirit
of grace and supplication, Zech. xii. 10. And when we see God coming
towards us in ways of mercy, we must go forth to meet him by prayer. It is a
prophetic prayer, which amounts to a promise of the good prayed for; what God
directed his prophet to ask no doubt he designed to give. Now, 1. The people
of Israel are here called the flock of God's heritage, for they are the
sheep of his hand, the sheep of his pasture, his little flock in the world;
and they are his heritage, his portion in the world. Jacob is the lot of
his inheritance. 2. This flock dwells solitarily in the wood, or forest,
in the midst of Carmel, a high mountain. Israel was a peculiar people, that
dwelt alone, and was not reckoned among the nations, like a flock of sheep
in a wood. They were now a desolate people (v. 13), were in the land of
their captivity as sheep in a forest, in danger of being lost and made a prey
of to the beasts of the forest. They are scattered upon the mountains as
sheep having no shepherd. 3. He prays that God would feed them there
with his rod, that is, that he would take care of them in their captivity,
would protect them, and provide for them, and do the part of a good shepherd
to them: "Let thy rod and staff comfort them, even in that
darksome valley; and even there let them want nothing that is good for them.
Let them be governed by thy rod, not the rod of their enemies, for they are
thy people." 4. He prays that God would in due time bring them back to
feed in the plains of Bashan and Gilead, and no longer to be fed in the woods
and mountains. Let them feed in their own country again, as in the
days of old. Some apply this spiritually, and make it either the prophet's
prayer to Christ or his Father's charge to him, to take care of his church, as
the great Shepherd of the sheep, and to go in and out before them while they
are here in this world as in a wood, that they may find pasture as in Carmel,
as in Bashan and Gilead.
II. God's promise, in answer to this prayer; and we may well take God's
promises as real answers to the prayers of faith, and embrace them
accordingly, for with him saying and doing are not two things. The prophet
prayed that God would feed them, and do kind things for them; but God answers
that he will show them marvellous things (v. 15), will do for
them more than they are able to ask or think, will out-do their hopes and
expectations; he will show them his marvellous lovingkindness, Ps. xvii.
7. 1. He will do that for them which shall be the repetition of the wonders
and miracles of former ages--according to the days of thy coming out of the
land of Egypt. Their deliverance out of Babylon shall be a work of wonder
and grace not inferior to their deliverance out of Egypt, nay, it shall
eclipse the lustre of that (Jer. xvi. 14, 15), much more shall the work of
redemption by Christ. Note, God's former favours to his church are patterns of
future favours, and shall again be copied out as there is occasion. 2. He will
do that for them which shall be matter of wonder and amazement to the present
age, v. 16, 17. The nations about shall take notice of it, and
it shall be said among the heathen, The Lord has done great things for
them, Ps. cxxvi. 2. The impression which the deliverance of the Jews out
of Babylon shall make upon the neighbouring nations shall be very much for the
honour both of God and his church. (1.) Those that had insulted over the
people of God in their distress, and gloried that when they had them down they
would keep them down, shall be confounded, when they see them thus
surprisingly rising up; they shall be confounded at all the might with
which the captives shall now exert themselves, whom they thought for ever
disabled. They shall now lay their hands upon their mouths, as being
ashamed of what they have said, and not able to say more, by way of triumph
over Israel. Nay, their ears shall be deaf too, so much shall they be
ashamed at the wonderful deliverance; they shall stop their ears, as being not
willing to hear any more of God's wonders wrought for that people, whom they
had so despised and insulted over. (2.) Those that had impudently confronted
God himself shall now be struck with a fear of him, and thereby brought, in
profession at least, to submit to him (v. 17): They shall lick the
dust like a serpent, they shall be so mortified, as if they were sentenced
to the same curse the serpent was laid under (Gen. iii. 14), Upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat. They shall be brought to the
lowest abasements imaginable, and shall be so dispirited that they shall
tamely submit to them. His enemies shall lick the dust, Ps. lxxii. 9.
Nay, they shall lick the dust of the church's feet, Isa. xlix. 23.
Proud oppressors shall now be made sensible how mean, how little, they are,
before the great God, and they shall with trembling and the lowest submission move
out of the holes into which they had crept (Isa. ii. 21), like worms of
the earth as they are, being ashamed and afraid to show their heads;
so low shall they be brought, and such abjects shall they be, when they are
abased. When God did wonders for his church many of the people of the land
became Jews, because the fear of the Jews, and of their God, fell
upon them, Esth. viii. 17. So it is promised here: They shall be afraid
of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee, O Israel! Forced
submissions are often but feigned submissions; yet they redound to the glory
of God and the church, though not to the benefit of the dissemblers
themselves.
III. The prophet's thankful acknowledgment of God's mercy, in the name of the
church, with a believing dependence upon his promise, v. 18-20. We are
here taught,
1. To give to God the glory of his pardoning mercy, v. 18. God having
promised to bring back the captivity of his people, the prophet, on that
occasion, admires pardoning mercy, as that which was at the bottom of it. As
it was their sin that brought them into bondage, so it was God's pardoning
their sin that brought them our of it; Ps. lxxxv. 1, 2, and Isa. xxxiii. 24;
xxxviii. 17; lx. 1, 2. The pardon of sin is the foundation of all other
covenant-mercies, Heb. viii. 12. This the prophet stands amazed at, while the
surrounding nations stood amazed only at those deliverances which were but the
fruits of this. Note, (1.) God's people, who are the remnant of his
heritage, stand charged with many transgressions; being but a remnant, a
very few, one would hope they should all be very good, but they are not so;
God's children have their spots, and often offend their Father. (2.) The
gracious God is ready to pass by and pardon the iniquity and transgression of
his people, upon their repentance and return to him. God's people are a
pardoned people, and to this they owe their all. When God pardons sin, he
passes it by, does not punish it as justly he might, nor deal with the sinner
according to the desert of it. (3.) Though God may for a time lay his own
people under the tokens of his displeasure, yet he will not retain his
anger for ever, but though he cause grief he will have compassion;
he is not implacable; yet against those that are not of the remnant of his
heritage, that are unpardoned, he will keep his anger for ever. (4.) The
reasons why God pardons sin, and keeps not his anger for ever, are all taken
from within himself; it is because he delights in mercy, and the
salvation of sinners is what he has pleasure in, not their death and
damnation. (5.) The glory of God in forgiving sin is, as in other things,
matchless, and without compare. There is no God like unto him for this;
no magistrate, no common person, forgives as God does. In this his thoughts
and ways are infinitely above ours; in this he is God, and not man.
(6.) All those that have experienced pardoning mercy cannot but admire that
mercy; it is what we have reason to stand amazed at, if we know what it is.
Has God forgiven us our transgressions? We may well say, Who is a God like
unto thee? Our holy wonder at pardoning mercy will be a good evidence of
our interest in it.
2. To take to ourselves the comfort of that mercy and all the grace and truth
that go along with it. God's people here, as they look back with thankfulness
upon God's pardoning their sins, so they look forward with assurance upon what
he would yet further do for them. His mercy endures for ever, and
therefore as he has shown mercy so he will, v. 19, 20. (1.) He
will renew his favours to us: He will turn again; he will have compassion;
that is, he will again have compassion upon us as formerly he had; his
compassions shall be new every morning; he seemed to be departing from
us in anger, but he will turn again and pity us. He will turn us to himself,
and then will turn to us, and have mercy upon us. (2.) He will renew
us, to prepare and qualify us for his favour: He will subdue our
iniquities; when he takes away the guilt of sin, that it may not damn us,
he will break the power of sin, that it may not have dominion over us, that we
may not fear sin, nor be led captive by it. Sin is an enemy that fights
against us, a tyrant that oppresses us; nothing less than almighty grace can
subdue it, so great is its power in fallen man and so long has it kept
possession. But, if God forgive the sin that has been committed by us, he will
subdue the sin that dwells in us, and in that there is none like him in
forgiving; and all those whose sins are pardoned earnestly desire and hope; to
have their corruptions mortified and their iniquities subdued, and please
themselves with the hopes of it. If we be left to ourselves, our iniquities
will be too hard for us; but God's grace, we trust, shall be sufficient for us
to subdue them, so that they shall not rule us, and then they shall not ruin
us. (3.) He will confirm this good work, and effectually provide that his act
of grace shall never be repealed: Thou wilt cast all their sins into the
depth of the sea, as when he brought them out of Egypt (to which he has an
eye in the promises here, v. 15) he subdued Pharaoh and the Egyptians,
and cast them into the depth of the sea. It intimates that when God forgives
sin he remembers it no more, and takes care that it shall never be
remembered more against the sinner. Ezek. xviii. 22, His transgressions
shall not be mentioned unto him; they are blotted out as a cloud
which never appears more. He casts them into the sea, not near the shore-side,
where they may appear again next low water, but into the depth of the sea,
never to rise again. All their sins shall be cast there without
exception, for when God forgives sin he forgives all. (4.) He will perfect
that which concerns us, and with this good work will do all that for us which
our case requires and which he has promised (v. 20): Then wilt thou
perform thy truth to Jacob and thy mercy to Abraham. It is in pursuance of
the covenant that our sins are pardoned and our lusts mortified; from that
spring all these streams flow, and with these he shall freely give us all
things. The promise is said to be mercy to Abraham, because, as
made to him first, it was mere mercy, preventing mercy, considering what state
it found him in. But it was truth to Jacob, because the faithfulness of
God was engaged to make good to him and his seed, as heirs to Abraham, all
that was graciously promised to Abraham. See here, [1.] With what solemnity
the covenant of grace is ratified to us; it was not only spoken, written, and
sealed, but which is the highest confirmation, it was sworn to our fathers;
nor is it a modern project, but is confirmed by antiquity too; it was sworn from
the days of old; it is an ancient charter. [2.] With what satisfaction it
may be applied and relied upon by us; we may say with the highest assurance, Thou
wilt perform the truth and mercy; not one iota or tittle of it shall fall
to the ground. Faithful is he that has promised, who also will do it.
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