John Calvin Commentary Micah 7:13

"Yet shall the land be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings." — Micah 7:13 (ASV)

The Prophet, as I have already said, seems to be inconsistent with himself. For after speaking of the restoration of the land, he now abruptly says that it would be deserted, because God had been extremely provoked by the wickedness of the people. But, as I have stated before, it was almost an ordinary practice with the Prophets to denounce at one time God’s vengeance on all the Jews, and then immediately to turn to the faithful, who were small in number, and to encourage them with the hope of deliverance.

We indeed know that the Prophets dealt with the profane despisers of God; it was therefore necessary for them to fulminate when they addressed the whole body of the people. The contagion had pervaded all ranks, so that they had all become apostates, from the highest to the lowest, with very few exceptions, and those hidden among the great mass, like a few grains in a vast heap of chaff.

Then the Prophets did not without reason mingle consolations with threats, and they addressed their threats to the whole body of the people. Then they whispered, as it were, in the ear, some consolation to the elect of God, the small remnant: “Yet the Lord will show mercy to you; though he has resolved to destroy his people, you shall still remain safe, but this will be through some hidden means.” Our Prophet then does, on the one hand, as here, denounce God’s vengeance on a people past remedy; and, on the other hand, he speaks of the redemption of the Church, so that by this support the faithful might be sustained in their adversities.

He now says, The land shall be for desolation. But why does he speak in so abrupt a manner? To drive hypocrites from that false confidence with which they were swollen, though God addressed no word to them. For when God pronounced anything, as they covered themselves with the name of the Church, they then especially seized upon anything that was said to the faithful, as though it belonged to them. They would ask, “Has not God promised that he will be the deliverer of his people?”—as if he was indeed to be their deliverer, who had alienated themselves from him by their perfidy. And yet this was a very common practice among them.

Hence the Prophet, seeing that hypocrites would greedily seize upon what he had said, and by using this as a pretext would become more audacious, now says, The land shall be for desolation. This means, “Be gone! For when God testifies that he will be the deliverer of his Church, he does not address you, for you are the rotten members. The land shall be reduced to a waste before God’s favor, of which I now speak, shall appear.” We now, therefore, perceive the reason for this passage, why the Prophet so suddenly joined threats to promises: it was to terrify hypocrites.

He says, On account of its inhabitants, from the fruit, or, on account of the fruit of their works. Here the Prophet closes the door against the despisers of God, to prevent them from breaking forth, as was their custom, and maintaining that God was, as it were, bound to them. “See,” he says, “what you are; for you have polluted the land with your vices; it must therefore be reduced to desolation.”

And when the land, which is in itself innocent, suffers judgment, what will become of those despisers whose wickedness it sustains? Hence we see how emphatic this way of speaking was. For the Prophet here summons all the unbelieving to examine their life, and then he sets before them the land, which was to suffer punishment, though it had committed no sin. And why was it to suffer? Because, as I have said, it was polluted by their wickedness.

Since this was the case, we see that hypocrites were very justly driven away from the false confidence with which they were inflated, while they still proudly despised God and his Word.