VER. 13.] This is not your Rest 103 6. Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame. 7. 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? 8. Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war. 9. The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever. 10. Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. True Prophets are blamed and silenced, yet their God has to be reckoned with. He is the same in justice and mercy as He was in the days of old. He has promises and rewards for faithful servants, chastisements for the disobedient. He Who had set His people in a pleasant land is now for their manifold sins about to remove them from it. He bids them arise and leave their home, for it is all polluted by sin. One day He will say to me, 'Arise and depart, for this is not your rest.' From my pleasant home, my secure place, my manifold duties, a voice will summon me. I shall have to leave all that I know and journey forth into the unseen. May there be a shadow of the Rock to fall across my path then! II. If a man, walking in the spirit and falsehood, do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people. False Prophets are praised and listened to; their drunken excitement is taken for a token of God's Spirit; their false promises of comfort for a consoling message from Him. I suppose all true Prophets have had false Prophets to contend with. Bible history tells me so, time after time. If I find none such in my path, no one to contradict me, no one to ridicule me, may it not be because I do not declare God's message with that straightness, force, and sincerity which wakes up the opposition of Satan's messengers? 12. I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. 13. The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: 104 Oppressive Princes [MIC. III. and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them. Think not, says Micah, that I have only woes to foretell while the false Prophets speak of plenty and of joy. No, I too have good news, but to be fulfilled after chastisements. I look forward to a gathering together of God's scattered people. Exiles shall come from afar, sinners from their godless ways: the few and scanty worshippers shall swell into a great host. He comes Who is the good Shepherd, Whose voice the sheep hear. Nay, He is the Victor, all barriers fall before Him; where He goes His rejoicing people follow. O Lord and King, I recognise Thy presence here dimly foreshadowed. I behold intimations of Thy winning love, Thy invincible power, Thy sure guidance. I see here the followers of Thy Cross, 'a great multitude which no man can number.' I pray that as they overcame the world by following Thy footsteps, so I in my day may be guided safely along the royal road of the Cross. Nothing can hinder the salvation of those whom Thou callest to follow Thee. CHAPTER III AND I I ND I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? 2. Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; 3. Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. 4. Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. God's Prophets had a passionate regard for the poor. They saw the extortions under which the poor groaned, they knew the injustice with which they were treated. God gave His Prophets a sharp tongue and fervent spirit to speak for those who had no tongues to speak for themselves, but groaned in dumb anguish. In our modern days there are those who consider the poor and strive to remedy the evils which weigh on their condition. May God multiply these workers and bless their efforts. It has been said very boldly by a good Christian, that God considers in great people chiefly this one thing, whether they care for justice, whether they have sympathy with the oppressed; and if they have this, He will pardon all other shortcomings in them. VER. II.] Misleading Prophets 105 5. Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. 6. Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. 7. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God. 8. But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. Here is a contrast between false Prophets and true. Even in God's own city, under the light of His holy law, false Prophets abounded. They flattered and encouraged those who supported them, they had denunciations for those who gave them no presents. As regards sacred truth, and the right path, and the counsels of God, they were absolutely dark and dumb: they had not a word of real enlightenment as to faith or duty. The true Prophet, on the other hand, spoke plainly and spoke bravely. He knew what was amiss, and blamed it. He knew what was coming, and announced it. By intercourse with Divine realities he drew down illumination and courage. Grant us, Lord, in Thy New Testament Church a succession of true Prophets who shall be fearless, wellinstructed, enlightened by Thy Spirit, able to tell us our faults and the remedy for them. 9. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. 10. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. II. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us. Have Could these woful words ever be found true of Christians? iniquity and untruth ever found shelter in the high places of Christ's Church? Have Christians ever hugged themselves in the faith of Christ's Presence with His Church, and vainly hoped it would be security against the disasters they were bringing on themselves? The Old Testament Church had most glorious and seemingly infallible promises, and yet they were all conditional upon God's law being kept; and I know what the end of that Church was. Many well-instructed Christians have thought that though 106 God's House destroyed and restored [MIC. IV. the universal Church shall never fail, yet the existence of particular branches of it is absolutely dependent upon their faith and obedience. If any Church neglects the poor; dares not rebuke vice in high places; vaunts of holy sacraments, holy orders, holy promises, without attempting to redress evil,-then it may be that old Prophets declare her doom. 12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. This was the startling and well-remembered prediction which took hold of the hearers, and was handed down to coming days (Jerem. xxvi. 18). To this should come the glorious promises which God made to Solomon after the Temple was built, saying, 'I have hallowed this House, to put My Name there for ever, and Mine eyes and Mine heart shall be there perpetually.' In this should end those yearnings of love, those devout prayers and affections with which believers during many centuries had clung round the Holy House. Indeed, it arose again from the Babylonian destruction, but fell under the Romans never to rise again. Nor can I think that any portion of God's Church below, any sanctuary constructed on this earth, has any more infallible security. Yet my heart may be founded and settled by Divine grace even amidst shocks of time. If I cannot see God's Church stand perpetually here on earth, I know it will be rebuilt in a better country. BUT CHAPTER IV UT in the last 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 people shall flow unto it. 2. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The Lord's House and mountain are restored and glorified again, after the degradation spoken of just before. Nay, they have broadened into the Catholic Church that gathers all nations, teaches all truth, enjoys all spiritual blessings. Yet the Church and faith here set forth are not contrary to the old Revelation which Israel enjoyed. It is Jacob's God Who is worshipped, it is VER. 7.] Fearless Peace 107 from Jerusalem that His word goes forth. The old covenant has expanded and become new; the worship of Israel's God has passed into the worship of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is Christ the Lord Who broke down the barriers, made old things new, set hearts free. Grant, O Lord, that as I have been by Thy mercy made a member of Thy Church, have learnt Thy holy Catholic Faith, so by Thy help I may die in the same Church and faith. Let assaults of unbelief, temptations to despair, fall harmless upon me. Do Thou sustain me in that dark hour. Thus I shall pass safely through the shadow of death and see elsewhere the full reality of what was manifested here in type and figure. 3. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 4. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. 5. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. O victory, O peace, O saving Name, O perpetual security! Did all this ever come true here on earth? Not wholly, but in a measure. The Restoration of Israel from captivity was a partial fulfilment the setting up of the Catholic Church in the first ages a much better fulfilment. But Heaven has more to show us. Meanwhile, and as to what we know and can see, it is true that a believing Catholic Christian, even in this tumultuous world, cultivates his own heart and the ground where God sets him, lives in inward peace (if not always in outward), walks right on by the straight road. He says, 'I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day' (2 Tim. i. 12). Thus believing, thus trusting, he walks by a good road, with a good guide, towards a good end where all will be made plain. 6. In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; 7. And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. Here is a Divine King Who shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end' (S. Luke i. 33). |