John Calvin Commentary Micah 5:10-15

"And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and will destroy thy chariots: and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and will throw down all thy strongholds. And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy hand; and thou shalt have no [more] soothsayers: and I will cut off thy graven images and thy pillars out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thy hands; and I will pluck up thine Asherim out of the midst of thee; and I will destroy thy cities. And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations which hearkened not." — Micah 5:10-15 (ASV)

A most necessary admonition is introduced here so that the faithful may know how they are to be preserved by the hand and favor of God, even when they will be stripped of all their supports, indeed, even when God will take away all those obstacles that would otherwise block the way to His favor.

The sum of the whole, then, is this: the Church will not be saved by God’s kindness except by being deprived of all her strength and defenses, and also by God removing her obstacles—even those that, in a way, prevented His hand from being extended to save His people.

For the Prophet mentions cities here, then fortified places; he mentions horses and chariots. These, we know, are not in themselves to be condemned. However, he means that because the people foolishly placed confidence in earthly things, the salvation of God could only come to them by stripping them of all vain and false confidence. This is one aspect.

Then, on the other hand, he mentions groves, carved images and statues, augurs and diviners. These were corruptions that closed the door to God's favor, for a people given to idolatry could not call upon God nor hope in Him as the author of salvation.

We now perceive the Prophet’s design. It now remains for me to examine the words.

He says first, It shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, that I will cut off thine horses. Here the Prophet lists those things that could not in themselves be ascribed to anything wrong, for as God has created horses for human use, so also He allows them to be for our service.

Why then does the Prophet say that the Church could not be delivered unless horses were taken away? It was due to an incidental fault, for when people abound in forces, they instantly fix their hope on them. Since such an abuse of God’s gifts had prevailed among the people of Israel, it was necessary that horses should be taken away.

God indeed could have humbled their minds or withdrawn their confidence from their horses and chariots. But it thus appears how deep the roots of presumption are in human hearts, so that they can only be torn out by cutting off the things themselves. To have horses and chariots is God's bounty, for how can we have chariots, horses, and other things, except through God’s kindness?

And yet God cannot find a way to do us good except by taking away His former gifts. Here then Micah touches the hearts of the people much more sharply than before when he says that salvation cannot proceed from the Lord unless their horses were destroyed. It is as though he said, “You see how great your wickedness is. God has until now dealt bountifully with you, since He has enriched you and has also given you horses.

Now, as He sees that you abuse these gifts, He complains that all ways of access to you are closed, as you do not receive His kindness. Because your horses and your chariots engross your attention, you, in a way, drive God far away from you. So that He may come to you, He will open a way for Himself by removing all the obstacles and hindrances.”

From this we learn that although all God’s benefits ought to raise us up to heaven, serving as kinds of vehicles, they are yet turned, through our wickedness, to another purpose and are made intervening obstacles between us and God.

By this, then, our ingratitude is proved. And thus it happens that God, when He intends to make His salvation known to us, is in a way compelled to take away and remove His benefits from us.

We now understand what the Prophet had in view when he mentioned horses and chariots. For he does not threaten here, as some think, that the people would be merely deprived of all God’s gifts so that they might see in their destitution and want only signs of a curse. By no means; rather, it is a promise that God will turn aside all obstacles by which He was for a time prevented from bringing help to His people.

This doctrine ought at the same time to provide no ordinary comfort. It is hard and bitter for the flesh to be brought down. Therefore, the people of Israel were little able at first to bear their lot with submission when they saw themselves stripped of God’s benefits.

But the Prophet sets before them a compensation capable of soothing all their grief. “This,” he says, “will be for your chief good—that God will deprive you of horses and chariots, for the way that your horses and chariots now occupy will be cleared. While you are filled with abundant forces, you drive God far from you, and there is no way open for Him. He will therefore prepare a way for Himself, and this will happen when your land is made bare, when nothing will intervene to prevent Him from coming to you.”

He afterwards adds, I will cut off the cities of thy land, and I will destroy all thy fortresses. This verse is to be taken in the same sense. That the people lived in fortified cities and had defenses and fortified places was not in itself displeasing to God. But because the people accustomed themselves to a false confidence, and, as it were, hardened themselves in it, so that this evil could not be remedied without taking away those things to which it was attached, the Prophet says here, I will cut off the cities of your land, and then, I will cut off your defenses and fortified places.

Is it so that they may be plundered with impunity by their enemies? By no means; rather, it is so that the favor of God may be made glorious in their deliverance. For they could not ascribe to their cities that they kept off enemies, but were compelled to acknowledge the hand of God and to confess Him to have been their only deliverer, for they were exposed to enemies, and there was no aid for them in the land.

God then will thus make His favor more evident when their cities and fortified places are cut off. From this we learn that the faithful today have no cause to murmur if they are without great riches, and if they are not formidable for the multitude of their horses, nor for the number and strength of their men.

Why so? Because it is the Lord’s will that we should be like sheep, so that we might depend wholly on His power and know that we can only be safe under His protection. This reason then ought to comfort us, so that it may not be distressing to us when we find that we are in the midst of wolves and that we have no equal strength to contend with them. For even this destitution hardly extorts from us a real confession that our safety is in the hand of God.

We are always proud. How would it be if the Church today were in a flourishing state and all enemies subdued, if there were no danger, no fear? Surely earth and heaven could not bear the foolish self-confidence of humanity. There is therefore no wonder that God thus restrains us and that, while He supports us by His grace, He deprives us of all earthly supports and aids, so that we may learn that He alone is the author of our salvation.

This truth ought to be carefully contemplated by us. Whenever we see that the Church of God, though not possessing any great power, is yet diminished daily, indeed, and becomes, so to speak, like a bare land without any defenses, it happens so that God's protection may alone be sufficient for us. It also happens so that He may wholly tear away from our hearts all haughtiness and pride, and dispel all those vain confidences by which we not only obscure the glory of God but, as far as we can, entirely cover it.

In short, since there is nothing better for us than to be preserved by the hand of God, we ought to bear patiently the removal of all those obstacles that block the way to God and, in a way, keep His hand from us when He is ready to extend it for the purpose of delivering us.

For when our minds are inflated with foolish self-confidence, we neglect God, and thus a wall intervenes, which prevents Him from helping us. Who, seeing himself in extreme danger with help not far away, would not wish for an intercepting wall to fall down immediately? Thus God is near, as He has promised. But there are many walls and many obstacles, and if we would be safe from their ruin, we must desire and seek for God to find an open and free way, so that He may be able to afford us aid.

The Prophet now comes to the second kind of obstacles. We have already said that some things become obstacles, as it were, incidentally, when, through our wickedness and misapplication, we turn God’s benefits to an end contrary to what He has designed. If, for instance, horses and chariots are given to us, possessing them is not in itself an evil but becomes so through our blindness—that is, when we, blinded by earthly possessions, think ourselves safe and thus neglect God. But there are other obstacles that are, in their nature and in themselves, wicked. The Prophet now leads us to these.

I will cut off, he says, the sorcerers, כשפים (cashephim). Some render the word as jugglers, and others as augurs or diviners. We cannot know with certainty what kind of superstition it was, nor the other that immediately follows, for the Prophet here mentions two words that mean nearly the same thing.

There is no doubt that some in that age were called augurs or diviners, and others were called jugglers or astrologers, who are now called fortune-tellers. But there is no need for much labor on this subject, for the Prophet simply shows here that the people could not be preserved by God unless they were cleansed from these defilements.

These superstitions, we know, were forbidden and condemned by God’s Law, but the Law was not able to restrain the wickedness of that people, for they continually turned aside to these evils. God then shows here that until they had purged the Church, it could not continue safe.

Now, in these words, the Prophet reminds the Jews, and also the Israelites, for their benefit, that it was, and had been, through their own fault that they labored under constant miseries and were not helped by the hand of God. How so? Because, as God shows here, there was no room for the exercise of His favor, for they were full of auguries and divinations, and of other diabolical arts. “How,” He says, “can I help you, for I have no agreement with Satan? Since you are wholly given to wicked superstitions, My favor is rejected by you.”

One thing is that the Prophet intended to humble the people, so that everyone might know that it had been through their fault that God had not brought them help as they wished. But there is another thing: God promises a cleansing that would open a way for His favor. He says, I will take away all the diviners.

Let us then know that it ought to be deemed the greatest benefit when God takes away from us our superstitions and other vices. For since a reduction, however hard and distressing it may be at first, is useful to us (as we see when we willfully and openly drive God away from us), is it not a singular favor from God when He does not allow us to be thus separated from Him, but prepares a way for Himself to be connected with us, and always has His hand extended to bring us help? This covers these two kinds of obstacles.

He now adds, I will cut off thy graven images and thy statues from the midst of thee; and thou shalt not hereafter bend down before the works of thine hands. This verse is plain and contains nothing new, for the Prophet teaches that God cannot become favorable to His Church, to keep and make her safe, until He purges her from her filth—even from idolatry and other vices by which the worship of God was corrupted, or even entirely subverted.

I will, therefore, cut off thy graven images and statues from the midst of thee. We see that God anticipates us by His gratuitous goodness, not only by forgiving us but also by calling us back, when wandering, into the right way. Since then we have deviated from the right way, and God thus withdraws His hand so that it might appear that He has cast us away, it is certain that we ought not only to pray Him to have mercy on us but also to ascribe to Him a higher favor, because He takes away the very obstacles that separate us from Him and do not allow Him to come near us.

Thus we see that God is not only inclined to pardon when people repent, but that it is His particular role to remove the obstacles.

This ought to be carefully noticed, so that we may know that our salvation, from the very beginning, proceeds from the mere favor of God—and that we may also learn that all those things of which the Papists vainly talk respecting preparations are mere fabrications.

He then adds, thou shalt not bend hereafter before the work of thine hands. God expresses here the reason why He so much detests idols: even because He sees that His honor is transferred to them. This is one thing. He further accuses the Jews as guilty while He makes their defection evident.

For surely nothing could have been more shameful than to take away from God His honor and worship and to transfer them to dead things. And He says here by way of reproach that they were the work of their hands. What can be more insane than for people to ascribe divinity to their own inventions, or to believe that it is in human power to make a god from wood or stone? This is surely monstrous in the extreme. Then the Prophet, by this way of speaking, aggravates the sin of the people of Israel when he says that they bowed their heads before the work of their own hands.

He afterwards adds, I will take away thy groves. The groves, we know, formed a part of their idolatry; they are therefore mentioned here as an addition by the Prophet. For he is not speaking simply of trees but refers to the wicked practices of the people: wherever there were high and lofty trees, they thought that something divine was hidden under their shade; hence their superstition arose.

When, therefore, the Prophet mentions groves, it must be understood as referring to corrupt and false modes of worship, for they thought that those places acquired a sort of sanctity from the trees, just as they also thought that they were nearer to God when they were on a hill. Thus we see that this verse is to be connected with the last, as though the Prophet had said that the Church could not be safe and recover her original strength without being thoroughly cleansed from all the filth of idolatry.

For we indeed know that some pious kings, when they took away idols, did not cut down the groves. This exception to their praise is added: that they worshipped God, but the high places were allowed to remain. We see that the Holy Spirit does not fully commend those kings who did not destroy the groves.

Why? Because they were the materials of corruption. Furthermore, had the Jews been truly penitent, they would have exterminated those groves by which they had so shamefully abused and profaned the worship of God. The sum of the whole then is that when God has thoroughly cleansed His Church and wiped away all its stains, He will then become the unfailing preserver of its safety.

He afterwards adds, And I will destroy thy enemies. The word עריך (orik,) may be rendered as enemies, and many do so. Others translate it as cities, and the word “cities” would be the most suitable, if the Prophet had not previously mentioned cities. I do not, therefore, see that it would be proper to render it here by this term. The word עריך (orik,) then, ought doubtless to be rendered as “thy enemies.”

Let us inquire why the Prophet says that the enemies of the Church were to be destroyed. This sentence ought to be explained thus (I leave the former ones and take only this last one): And I will demolish thy groves from the midst of thee, that I may destroy thine enemies. The connecting word is then to be considered as a particle indicating purpose, and this meaning is the most suitable. It is as though the Prophet had said, as I have already often stated, that the door was closed to God, so that He could bring no aid to His Church and deliver it from enemies as long as it held to false confidence and was attached to the filth of idolatry, which was still worse.

“So that I may then destroy your enemies, it is necessary first that everything in you that prevents or hinders My favor should be taken away and removed.”

At last he adds, And I will execute vengeance in wrath and in fury. He continues with what I have just said about enemies: “I will then execute vengeance in wrath and in fury on the nations.” Here God mentions His wrath and His fury so that the faithful might feel greater confidence that, though their enemies now poured forth severe threats, this could not prevent God from aiding His people.

How so? Because if we compare the wrath and fury of God with all the terrors of humans, doubtless human threats would appear as nothing but smoke. We now perceive the Prophet’s meaning in these words.

And he says in the last place, I will execute vengeance on the nations who have not heard.

Almost all interpreters join the relative pronoun אשר (asher) with the preceding word גוים (guim,)—I will then take vengeance on the nations who have not heard, that is, who have been rebellious against God. Not to hear, as they explain, is obstinately to despise the power of God and not to be moved by His promises or by His threats.

But a more fitting sense may perhaps be obtained if we refer אשר (asher) to vengeance: I will then execute vengeance on the nations, which they have not heard—that is, I will take vengeance on all the nations in an unheard-of and incredible manner. And by “nations,” he understands indiscriminately all the enemies of the Church, as we have seen elsewhere.

Prayer: Grant, Almighty God, that since You so kindly invite us to Yourself, and promise that Your aid should never be lacking to us, provided we do not close the door against You—O grant that, though many earthly benefits may be granted to us, we may not yet trust in them and depart from You, but, on the contrary, rely on Your grace only. And then, should it happen that we are deprived of all supports, may our minds be awakened, and may we thus learn to hasten to You. May nothing impede our course, so that we may not fail, with the greatest haste and ardent desire, to long to deliver up and devote ourselves wholly to You, that we may be made safe under the care and protection of Your only-begotten Son, whom You have appointed to be the guardian of our safety. Amen.

Commentary on Micah