Micah 2:7 O you that are named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings?… (marg., "shortened"): — The meaning is, not limited, bound, restrained, but free to work and bless at all times, and in unlimited measure. We pray and act as if God were subject to metes and bounds, — confined to times and seasons — unable or unwilling to do for His cause and people on a scale commensurate with His own infinite grace and power and purpose. I. GOD THE SPIRIT IS NOT STRAITENED IN HIMSELF. This were impossible, as His nature and all His attributes are infinite; His love, mercy, grace, power are unbounded. II. HE HAS NOT TIED HIS OWN HANDS, by His decrees, or in any other way, so that He cannot work to save even to the uttermost all that will come to Him. His arm is never shortened that it cannot save. If the Church is in a feeble state, the fault lies at her own door. III. GOD IS NOT STRAITENED BY REASON OF ANY LACK OF PROVISION IN THE GOSPEL ECONOMY, or efficacy in the atoning sacrifice, or fulness of the Spirit's power. IV. NEITHER IS THE SPIRIT STRAITENED BY REASON OF THE UNBELIEF AND OBSTINACY OF SINNERS. OR THE ABOUNDING INFIDELITY AND WICKEDNESS OF THE TIMES. The power that could change Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle; that could plant and maintain flourishing Christian Churches in such corrupt heathen cities as Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome; that could resurrect the Church of the Reformation from the grave of the dark ages and the corruptions of Rome; that is achieving such glorious conquests today, not simply in heathen lands, is equal to any emergency, any work, that prayer and Christian endeavour can compass. If God is ever straitened, it is in His people. Their unbelief, supineness, inaction, serve to restrain the Spirit's power, and block the wheels of salvation. What a tremendous responsibility! Who is willing to share it? (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? |
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