Micah 1:5
All this is for the transgression of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
Sermons
Sins in the MetropolisE.S. Prout Micah 1:5
God's Procedure in Relation to SinHomilistMicah 1:3-7
God's Procedure in Relation to SinD. Thomas Micah 1:3-7
God's Way of Taking VengeanceGeorge Hutcheson.Micah 1:3-7














God's interposition by judgment is threatened on account of the nation's sins. The greatness of their privileges involved special responsibilities and chastisements (Amos 3:2). These sins are traced to their sources in the capitals of the two kingdoms. A metropolis is a centre of influence for good or for evil. This may be illustrated by the histories of both the Hebrew kingdoms. The northern kingdom had in succession three capitals:

(1) Shechem, where the apostasy of Israel began (1 Kings 12:25-33).

(2) Tirzah, the home of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:17), the scene of civil strife (1 Kings 16:9, 17.18), and of the court of Omri of sinister memory (Micah 6:16), for half his reign.

(3) Samaria, the seat of monarchy for two hundred years. Among the sins specially charged by the prophets against Samaria we find pride (Isaiah 9:9), luxury and licentiousness (Isaiah 28:1 4; Amos 6:1-6), incorrigible treachery (Hosea 7:1), contemptuous disregard of God and his worship (Hosea 8:5; Amos 8:14), oppression of the poor (Micah 3.; Amos 4:1). In Judah the high places were an offence to God, which even good kings did not entirely suppress, so that Jerusalem may be said to have been responsible for them, and did not escape the infection (2 Chronicles 28:1-4, 23-25) nor the denunciations of the prophets (Isaiah 1; Isaiah 5; Isaiah 28:14-19). We are thus reminded of -

I. THE RESPONSIBILITIES ATTACHING TO A METROPOLIS. It is:

1. The seat of government, where kings and rulers live and exert great personal influence, and where laws are passed which, if bad, may corrupt the national conscience and deprave social life.

2. One chief centre of public opinion, where the most educated, and cultivated congregate.

3. The fountain of fashion.

4. The gathering place of the rural population, where the opinions and practices of the citizens may be speedily imbibed. Illustrate from the influence of Paris during the second empire, culminating in the craze for war, which brought ruin on the country in 1870; or from the influence of Constantinople and its pachas on the present condition of the Turkish empire. Such capitals are centres of corruption, like diseased lungs where the blood is deteriorated rather than purified.

II. LESSONS ARE SUGGESTED FOR ALL CLASSES OF RESIDENTS IN A METROPOLIS.

1. For the court, lest they be like Jeroboam, "who made Israel to sin."

2. For legislators. Illustrate from the demoralizing effects of many of our past licensing acts.

3. For editors of newspapers and other leaders of public opinion. It was these who were, to a large extent, responsible for the Crimean War.

4. For the leaders of fashion, who may foster habits of extravagance, of peril to health, or even of cruelty in matters of dress.

5. For men of business; the exchanges of the metropolis giving a tone to the commercial customs of the country.

6. For artisans, whose trades unions may help or injure their fellow workmen scattered in the provinces.

7. For preachers, whom many gather from all parts to hear, and who may give a tone to the preaching of the country.

8. For Church members. Heresy or worldliness in metropolitan Churches may soon spread among rural Churches maintaining a simpler faith and practice (cf. Matthew 5:14, 16; Romans 1:8). - E.S.P.

For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place
Homilist.
This is a highly figurative and sublime representation of the Almighty in His retributive work, especially in relation to Samaria and Jerusalem. He is represented as leaving His holy temple, coming out of His place, and marching with overwhelming grandeur over the high places of the earth, to deal out punishment to the wicked. "The description of this theophany," says Delitzsch, "is founded upon the idea of a terrible storm and earthquake, as in Psalm 18:8. The mountains melt (Judges 5:4, and Psalm 68:9) with the streams of water which discharge themselves from heaven (Judges 5:4), and the valleys split with the deep channels cut out by the torrents of water. The similes 'like wax,' etc. (as in Psalm 68:3), and 'like water' are intended to express the complete dissolution of mountains and valleys. The actual facts answering to this description are the destructive influences exerted upon nature by great national judgments." The reference is undoubtedly to the destruction of the king of Israel by Shalmaneser, and the invasion of Judah by the armies of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar, by the latter of whom the Jews were carried away captive. The passage is an inexpressibly grand representation of God's procedure in relation to sin.

I. As it APEARS TO THE EYE OF MAN. The Bible is eminently anthropomorphic.

1. God, in dealing out retribution, appears to man in an extraordinary position. "He cometh forth out of His place." What is His place? To all intelligent beings, the settled place of the Almighty is the temple of love, the pavilion of goodness, the mercy seat. The general beauty, order, and happiness of the universe give all intelligent creatures this impression of Him. But when confusion and misery fall on the sinner, the Almighty seems to man to come out of His "place," to step aside from His ordinary procedure. Judgment is God's strange work. He comes out of His place to execute it.

2. God, in dealing out retribution, appears to man in a terrific aspect. He does not appear as in the silent march of the stars or the serenity of the sun; but as in thunderstorms and volcanic eruptions. "The mountains shall be molten under Him," etc.

II. As it AFFECTS A SINFUL PEOPLE. In God's procedure in relation to sin what disastrous effects were brought upon Samaria and Jerusalem!

1. God, in His procedure in relation to sin, brings material ruin upon people. Sin brings on commercial decay, political ruin; it destroys the health of the body, and brings it ultimately to the dust.

2. God, in His procedure in relation to sin, brings mental anguish upon a people. A disruption between the soul and the objects of its supreme affections involves the greatest anguish. The gods of a people, whatever they may be, are these objects, and these are to be destroyed. Conclusion — Mark well that God has a course of conduct in relation to sin, or rather, that God, in His beneficent march, must ever appear terrible to the sinner, and bring ruin on his head. It is the wisdom as well as the duty of all intelligent creatures to move in thought, sympathy, and purpose, as God moves — move with Him, not against Him.

(Homilist.)

The justice of God taking vengeance on enemies is further described from the way of manifesting thereof, which is slowly but certainly; the Lord forbearing, neither because He purposes to give, nor because He wants power; as may appear from His majesty and state, when He appeareth environed with whirlwinds and tempests raised by His power. Doctrine —

1. The Lord, even toward enemies, is long suffering, and slow in executing of anger, that their destruction may be seen to be of themselves, that in His holy providence they may stumble more upon His indulgence, and fill up their measure; and that His Church's faith and patience may be tried.

2. When the Lord spareth His enemies, it is not because He is not able to meet with them, nor ought we to judge from any outward appearance that they are invincible; for, how unlikely soever the destruction of enemies may be in the eyes of men, yet the Lord who is "slow to anger" is also "great in power."

3. As the Lord is able to reach His enemies when He pleaseth, so His forbearing of them is no evidence that they shall be exempted altogether; but He will undoubtedly give proof of His power, in dealing with them as their way deserveth.

4. The Lord is able by His power speedily to bring to pass greatest things, and can, when He pleaseth, overturn, confound, and darken all things which appeared to be stable, well ordered, and clear.

5. The Lord, manifesting Himself in His great glory, doth but, so to say, obscure Himself in respect of our infirmity, which cannot comprehend His glory in its brightness; for so much doth His manifestation of Himself environed with dark storms or tempests and thick lowering clouds teach.

6. God's dispensations, even when they are most dreadful and terrible in effects, may yet be deep and unsearchable, and His purpose and counsel in them hard to discern; for so much doth His way in whirlwinds, storms, and clouds (which involve and darken all) teach.

(George Hutcheson.)

People
Ahaz, Hezekiah, Jacob, Jotham, Micah, Ophrah
Places
Achzib, Adullam, Beth-ezel, Beth-le-aphrah, Gath, Jerusalem, Lachish, Mareshah, Maroth, Moresheth, Moresheth-gath, Samaria, Shaphir, Zaanan, Zion
Topics
Aren't, Disobedience, Isn't, Jacob, Jacob's, Jerusalem, Judah, Judah's, Places, Rebellion, Samaria, Sama'ria, Sin, Sins, Transgression, Whence, Wrongdoing
Outline
1. The time when Micah prophesied.
2. He shows the wrath of God against Jacob for idolatry.
10. He exhorts to mourning.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Micah 1:5

     6021   sin, nature of

Library
A Holy Life the Beauty of Christianity: Or, an Exhortation to Christians to be Holy. By John Bunyan.
Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.'--[Psalm 93:5] London, by B. W., for Benj. Alsop, at the Angel and Bible, in the Poultrey. 1684. THE EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. This is the most searching treatise that has ever fallen under our notice. It is an invaluable guide to those sincere Christians, who, under a sense of the infinite importance of the salvation of an immortal soul, and of the deceitfulness of their hearts, sigh and cry, "O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Micah
Micah must have been a very striking personality. Like Amos, he was a native of the country--somewhere in the neighbourhood of Gath; and he denounces with fiery earnestness the sins of the capital cities, Samaria in the northern kingdom, and Jerusalem in the southern. To him these cities seem to incarnate the sins of their respective kingdoms, i. 5; and for both ruin and desolation are predicted, i. 6, iii. 12. Micah expresses with peculiar distinctness the sense of his inspiration and the object
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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