Confiding Trust and Patient Submission

Next Part Confiding Trust and Patient Submission 2

"Rejoice not against me, O my enemy; when I fall I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause, and executes judgment for me– he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness." Micah 7:8, 9

"Do not gloat over me, my enemies! For though I fall, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord himself will be my light. I will be patient as the Lord punishes me, for I have sinned against him. But after that, he will take up my case and punish my enemies for all the evil they have done to me. The Lord will bring me out of my darkness into the light, and I will see his righteousness." Micah 7:8-9

The chapter begins with a note of lamentation– "Woe is me!" This mournful strain is a frequent one with the saints, and more especially with the servants of God. Thus Isaiah, when he saw "the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple," cried out, as if penetrated to the heart by a view of the glory of Christ (John 12:41), "Woe is me! for I am undone– because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips– for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." (Isaiah 6:5.) Jeremiah used the same mournful strain when he said, "What sadness is mine, my mother. Oh, that I had died at birth! I am hated everywhere I go. I am neither a lender who has threatened to foreclose nor a borrower who refuses to pay—yet they all curse me." (Jer. 15:10). So Ezekiel's roll was written within and without– and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe. (Ezekiel 1:10.)

But what was the immediate cause of this note of lamentation that the prophet Micah put up when he said, "Woe is me?" There were two–

1. One was an inward sense of his own barren, unfruitful condition.He says, "I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage– there is no cluster to eat." The children of Israel were expressly prohibited going a second time over the olive-yard and over the vineyard– "When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don't go over the boughs twice. Leave some of the olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. This also applies to the grapes in your vineyard. Do not glean the vines after they are picked, but leave any remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows." (Deut. 24:20, 21.) There was, therefore, more fruit probably left on the boughs in Micah's time and country than now in Italy or France in their corresponding olive harvest and vintage. Still, the best fruit was doubtless gathered first, and what was left was not only scanty in quantity, but poor in quality– hidden, it may be, under the foliage, so that it escaped the eye of the first gatherer, "or two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough, four or five on the outmost fruitful branches thereof," out of the easy reach of his hand. (Isaiah. 17:6.)

There is no more continual source of lamentation and mourning to a child of God than a sense of his own barrenness. He would be fruitful in every good word and work, yes, would be "filled with those fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God." (Phil. 1:11.) But when he contrasts his own miserable unprofitableness, his coldness and deadness, his proneness to evil, his backwardness to good, his daily wanderings and departings from the living God, his depraved affections, stupid frames, sensual desires, carnal projects, and earthy grovelings with what he sees and knows should be the fruit that should grow upon a fruitful branch in the only true Vine, he sinks down under a sense of his own wretched barrenness and unfruitfulness. It is then this feeling which makes him take up the language of the mourning prophet, "Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage." Is not similar language used by another man of God? "From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yes, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously." (Isaiah. 24:16.) So also felt Job when he said, "You have reduced me to skin and bones—which is a witness against me; and my leanness rising up in me bears witness to my face." (Job 16:8.)

2. But there was another cause for the utterance of "Woe is me!" closely connected with the preceding– the view which the prophet had of the general state of things around him.Not only had he reason for mourning over himself, as seeing and feeling the case within so deep and desperate, but the prospect without was as gloomy as the sight within. "The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men." He saw how few there were who really feared and loved God; and looking back to days past when he had had sweet converse with many highly favored saints of God, men of sincerity and uprightness, pillars of truth and ornaments of their profession, and compared with these godly men the generation of professors among whom his present lot was cast, it seemed to him as though the good man was altogether perished out of the earth, and none was upright among men. The envy and jealousy, the crafty policy and murderous intents of the professors of his day, as in ours, struck a solemn damp into his soul– "They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net."

But if he turned from the professing church to the profane world did he find matters any better? What example of good works was shown by those who clamored so loudly for them? And how did those in high places act who should at least have kept their hands clean from bribes, as well as from blood? "That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asks, and the judge asks for a reward– and the great man, he utters his mischievous desire." And all this under a cloak of hypocrisy– "So they wrap it up," or, as the word might be rendered, "twist it round," entangling and perverting all truth and judgment.

It is our mercy to live in a land where justice is fairly administered, and where the judge on the bench or the magistrate in the court cannot be bribed by the rich to give wrong judgment against the poor. The crying sin of oppression is not indeed dead in this land, but public policy has much stifled it from showing its hideous face on the seat of judgment.

But what a description does he go on to give of men generally– even of the very best, whether friend or foe, saint or sinner. "The best of them is as a brier– the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge." His own soul had been so torn and lacerated by some of the best of men– that is, apart from their infirmities which were inherent in and grew out of their very nature, as prickles in and out of a brier, that he felt to come into close contact with them was to be caught and scratched. No, the most upright, honest, and sincere of men had so pierced and wounded him by their words or ways that even they were "sharper to him than a thorn hedge," which is more pleasant to look at in spring than to fall into in winter.

It is when we come close to others, get connected with them in business and even sometimes in church fellowship, that we really learn what they are; and we ourselves, let it be borne in mind, may have as many thorns and prickles to scratch and tear them as they may have to scratch and tear us.

But there was a sadder sight still to make him cry, "Woe is me!" There was a breaking up of all mutual confidence in the nearest and tenderest relationships, calling forth that sad and fearful warning, "Trust not in a friend, put no confidence in a guide– keep the doors of your mouth from her that lies in your bosom." What a state of things is here disclosed when no friend could be trusted, no guide confided in and the secrets of the heart to be concealed from the wife of the bosom. But I cannot enlarge upon this point. If you will read it for yourselves, you will plainly see how his soul was grieved and pained, not only with what he felt within but with what he thus saw without, as some of the worst features of human depravity.

Yet what was the effect produced by all this upon his own soul? To wean him from the creature– to divert him from looking to any for help or hope, but the Lord himself. "Therefore," he says, in the verse preceding the text, "I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation– my God will hear me." It is in this painful way that the Lord often, if not usually, cuts us off from all human props, even the nearest and dearest, that we may lean wholly and solely on himself. As, then, he was thus cut off from all other props, a sweet confidence sprang up in the prophet's bosom that God would hear his petitions.

But this brings us at once to our text, in opening up which I shall, with God's help and blessing, call your attention to four leading features:

First, the admonition that the prophet makes with his enemy– "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy."

Secondly, the confiding trust which he has in the Lord– "When I fall I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me."

Thirdly, his patient submission, and the reasons of it– "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me."

Fourthly and lastly, his firm assurance that all would be well in the end– "He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness."

I. The ADMONITION that the prophet makes with his enemy– "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy." When the Lord is pleased first to deal with our soul, in those early days of our spiritual youth when we are but little acquainted with the evils of our own heart, or the evils that lodge in other men's, we are often astonished at the sudden burst of persecution that arises against us from most unexpected quarters, and frequently from some of our nearest and dearest friends and relatives. In those days, eternal realities usually lie with great weight and power upon our mind– they occupy our waking and sleeping thoughts; and the whole subject being new, it takes fast hold both of heart and tongue; for we cannot be silent, and as we are made honest and sincere we speak as we feel. The things of eternity pressing with serious and solemn weight upon our hearts, press words out of our mouth, we at the time little anticipating the effect which those words produce upon the minds of those to whom they are addressed.

What is that effect? What we little expect– enmity. We anticipate some conviction of the truth which we lay before them, or, at least, some kind and favorable reception of it. We speak it honestly and sincerely, meaning it for their good; but instead of receiving it as we intended, they rise up in enmity and rebellion against us.

Why is this? Because their carnal mind, and they can have no other, is enmity against God. A veil, too, of unbelief and ignorance is spread over their heart, so that our meaning is misunderstood, our actions misrepresented, and our kindest words and intentions perverted to evil.

1. The WORLD, then, be well and thoroughly assured, will always prove an enemy to the saint of God; nor can the enmity ever be eradicated, for God himself has put it between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent; and under the influence of this enmity, "judgment is turned into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock." (Amos 6:12.) Be not surprised, therefore, if you have found the world, no, those of your own flesh and blood, your nearest and dearest friends, turned to be your enemies. It is meant to break off your own friendship with it, that you yourself may not be God's enemy; for "the friendship of the world is enmity with God; whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God." (James 4:4.)

Yet we may still keenly feel the enmity manifested; the coward flesh may and does shrink from the persecution often so severe, and usually so little anticipated. The servants too of God, such as was Micah, are especially liable to the manifestation of this enmity. The gospel they preach, the faithfulness they manifest, the holiness they display, the separating line which they draw when "they take forth the precious from the vile," stir up the deepest enmity of the profane and professing world; and, by a singular perversion of ideas, they are often viewed and called personal enemies. "Have you found me, O my enemy?" said Ahab to Elijah, viewing him as his personal enemy, because he denounced his sins.

When, then, as often happens, matters so fall out as to give the world cause for rejoicing; when any striking reverse in providence, or a painful and sudden calamity falls on the child of God, it is often viewed as a judgment upon him for his temper or spirit; and thus his very distress either of mind or circumstances affords a matter of ungodly triumph to his enemies. It is at best indeed but a blank source of joy, an almost fiendish delight soon to reap its own miserable reward, that any should take occasion to triumph and rejoice in the afflictions of the saints of God; but, such is the implacable enmity of the human heart against God as manifested in the persons of his saints, that many would rejoice even in their destruction.

We certainly see much of this in the scriptures, especially in those Psalms which speak of the persecutions of Christ and his people. How our Lord speaks in his own case, almost in the very words used by his enemies– "But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men and despised of the people. All who see me laugh me to scorn– they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him– let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." (Psalm. 22:6, 7, 8.) And again– "Draw near unto my soul, and redeem it– deliver me because of my enemies. You have known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor– my adversaries are all before you." (Psalm. 69:18, 19.) And so he speaks– "For they persecute him whom you have smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom you has wounded." (Psalm. 69:26.)

But the worst cause of their malicious joy which our Lord never gave them, but which we too often give, is when they can rejoice over our slips and falls; when by some unguarded word, or some unbecoming deed, we put before them a sweet morsel on which to feed, enabling them to say, "Ah, ah, so would we have it." This made, and still makes, David "the song of the drunkards;" this lowered the man after God's own heart below the basest man in Jerusalem, and thrust the exalted king of Judah and Israel among the criminals worthy of death by the law of Moses. May we never give joy to our enemies in this way.

2. But it would be well for the saint of God if he had no other enemy than what he finds in the world, or amid the ranks of the professing church, or even in the bosom of his own family. He has an enemy more watchful, more implacable, and more continually at hand than they; an enemy who cannot only see outward reverses and slips and falls, but can come to close quarters and attack and harass the mind night and day. I need not tell you who this enemy is, and that his name is SATAN, which means enemy. Now when the soul of a child of God is cast down, as it often is by seeing the Lord's hand going out against him in providence, or is suffering under his chastising hand for any slip or fall inward or outward, Satan, the enemy, is almost sure to urge on the calamity. Joining hand in hand with his foes, he cries aloud as the battle word, the signal for a combined attack of earth and hell, "God has forsaken him; persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him" (Psalm 71:11.)

Now if a little helped and blessed, the child of grace can expostulate, as we find the prophet here, with this enemy– "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy." The enemy, the arch enemy, will rejoice at anything that causes the soul distress. The sighs, the tears, the sorrows of the saints are the serpent's food. He rejoices to see them in distress, because he hates anything like heavenly joy or spiritual confidence. Thus when the soul mourns he rejoices. Feeling this, the child of God says– "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy," which leads us to our second point–

II. The prophet's CONFIDING TRUSTin the Lord– "When I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me."

A. "When I fall." The fall here spoken of is not necessarily, nor does the prophet seem to imply, a fall into any gross sin or into any such evil as would make the world rejoice, or gladden our implacable foe. It is a mercy for the saints of God that the Lord for the most part hedges them round with strong restraints in providence, and still stronger in grace; that he plants his fear deep within their heart as a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death. But though the Lord's people are for the most part– I will not say invariably, for we have strong scriptural examples to the contrary– preserved from falling into those gross and open sins which open the mouth of the enemy, yet they do fall into many deep, dark, and desolate spots, where the foe seems to rejoice over them.

1. They fall, for instance, into many afflictions, into great providential reverses. Now when the world sees affliction after affliction, and reverse after reverse, pursue the saints of God; when they perceive that nothing, as is often the case, prospers with them, but whatever they take in hand a blight is upon it; that they sink lower and lower in the world, descending from one stage of poverty to another; in this their calamity, their foes rejoice. It is a matter of infernal triumph to them, proportionately as it is a matter of distress to the saint of God; for his mind being in darkness, he misreads these signs, and views these dispensations of God in providence as so many marks against him; or, instead of receiving them as fatherly chastisements to wean him from the world; he rather reads in them the angry frowns of God, or even judgments for his sins and transgressions.

2. But he falls also into many temptations, as James says– "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations." These "diverse temptations" into which the people of God fall, include all those multiplied and various trials and temptations into which sometimes suddenly and sometimes gradually they slip and sink. Peter calls them "manifold;" indeed it is just the same word in the original as "diverse" (1 Pet. 1:6), and thus points to their number as well as their variety. It is surprising how the trials and temptations of the Lord's people differ. Wherever I go I find them a poor, afflicted, tried, and tempted people; but scarcely any one of them suffering under the same trial with an afflicted brother or sister. Some are afflicted in body, and yet hardly two exactly alike in bodily suffering; some are exercised in mind, and yet widely differing in the nature and degree of their exercises; others cast down with temptations, and yet few with precisely the same. Thus their trials and temptations are manifold, diverse– many and various.

But it is more peculiarly when they are under the power of temptation that the enemy rejoices, for he knows that temptation usually precedes a downfall. A man is "tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed." Then it is that there is a conception and a birth of the monster sin. "When lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin when it is finished (or accomplished) brings forth death." (James 1:14. 15.)

But these temptations are not, for the most part to open sin; there are internal temptations confined to a man's own breast, such as to doubt the goodness of God, to distrust his mercy, to rebel against his dealings, and be filled with fretfulness, murmuring, and self pity. Now when they sink into those spots where the Lord hides his face, (for he will not encourage rebellion, and "the rebellious dwell in a dry land,") they walk in great darkness and see no light; and thus are often led to question whether there ever was a work of grace upon their hearts at all, and whether their experience has not been a delusion. It is then at these seasons when they fall into these temptations, that Satan begins to rejoice over them with infernal triumph; for he takes advantage of these temptations to aggravate the malady, to increase the distance between God and their souls, to egg them on and incite them, as he did Job, Jonah, and Jeremiah, to burst forth into rebellious and peevish expressions, or may even urge them to such gloomy, wretched extremes as despair and suicide.

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