John Calvin Commentary Micah 7:14

"Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy heritage, which dwell solitarily, in the forest in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old." — Micah 7:14 (ASV)

Here the Prophet turns to supplications and prayers, through which he shows more intensity than if he had repeated what he had previously said about the restoration of the Church. For he shows how dreadful that judgment would be when God would reduce the land to solitude. This prayer undoubtedly also contains what was prophetic.

The Prophet does not simply promise deliverance to the faithful, but at the same time, he further intensifies that terror, through which he intended to frighten hypocrites. It is as if he said, “Most surely, unless God miraculously preserves His own people, it will be all over for the Church. Then there is no remedy, except through the ineffable power of God.” In short, the Prophet shows that he trembled at that vengeance, which he had previously foretold—and indeed did foretell—lest hypocrites, in their usual way, should mock him.

We now see why the Prophet resorted to this kind of comfort, why he so arranges his discourse as not to offer immediate hope to the faithful, but addresses God Himself. Feed then Your people; as if he said—“Surely that calamity will be fatal, unless You, Lord, will be mindful of Your covenant, and gather again some remnant from the people whom You have been pleased to choose: Feed Your people.”

The reason he called them the people of God was because they all would have perished, unless it was necessary that what God promised to Abraham should be fulfilled—In thy seed shall all nations be blessed (Genesis 12:3).

It was then the adoption of God alone which prevented the total destruction of the Jews. Hence he says emphatically—O Lord, these are still Your people; as if he said—“By whom will You now form a Church for Yourself?” God might indeed have gathered it from the Gentiles, and have made foreigners His family; but it was necessary that the root of adoption should remain in the race of Abraham, until Christ came.

Nor was there then any dispute about God’s power, as there is now among fanatics, who ask, Can God do this? But there was reliance on the promise, and from this they learned with certainty what God had once decreed and what He would do. Since then this promise, By thy seed shall all nations be blessed, was sacred and inviolable, the grace of God must have always continued in the remnant.

It is indeed certain that hypocrites, as has already been stated, indiscriminately abused the promises of God. But this truth must always be kept in mind: that God punished the ungodly, though relying on their great number, they thought that they would be always preserved. God then destroyed them, as they deserved; and yet it was His purpose that some remnant should be among that people.

But it must be observed that this distinction should not be extended to all the children of Abraham, who derived their origin from him according to the flesh, but is to be applied to the faithful, that is, to the remnant, who were preserved according to the gratuitous adoption of God.

Feed then Your people by Your crook. He compares God to a shepherd, and this metaphor often occurs. Though שבט, shebeth, indeed signifies a scepter when kings are mentioned, yet it is also taken for a pastoral staff, as in Psalm 23 and in many other places. As then he represents God here as a Shepherd, so he assigns a crook to Him, as if he said, O Lord, You perform the office of a Shepherd in ruling this people.

How so? He immediately confirms what I have recently said—that there was no hope of a remedy except through the mercy of God—by adding, the flock of Your heritage. For by calling them the flock of His heritage, he does not consider what the people deserved, but fixes His eyes on their gratuitous adoption.

Since, then, it had pleased God to choose that people, the Prophet on this account dares to go into God’s presence and to plead their gratuitous election—“O Lord, I will not bring before You the nobility of our race, or any sort of dignity, or our piety, or any merits.” What then?

“We are Your people, for You have declared that we are a royal priesthood. We are then Your heritage.” How so? “Because it has been Your pleasure to have one peculiar people sacred to You.” We now more clearly see that the Prophet relied on God’s favor alone, and opposed the recollection of the covenant to the trials which might have otherwise caused every hope to fail.

He afterward adds, Who dwell apart, or alone. He undoubtedly refers here to the dispersion of the people when he says that they dwelled alone.

For though the Jews had been scattered in delightful, fertile, and populous countries, yet they were everywhere as if in a desert and in solitude, for they were like a mutilated body. The whole of Chaldea and Assyria was then truly a desert to the faithful, for there they dwelled not as one people, but as members torn apart. This is the dispersion intended by the words of the Prophet.

He also adds, that they dwell in the forest. For they had no secure dwelling place except in their own country, as they lived there under the protection of God; and all other countries, as I have already said, were like the desert to them.

He adds, In the midst of Carmel. The preposition כ, caph, is to be understood here: As in the midst of Carmel, they shall be fed in Bashan and Gilead, as in ancient days. That is, though they are now Your solitary sheep, yet You will gather them again that they may feed as on Carmel (which we know was very fruitful), and then, as in Bashan and Gilead. We know that the richest pastures are in those places.

Since the Prophet compares the faithful to sheep, he mentions Bashan, Carmel, and Gilead, as if he said, “Restore, O Lord, Your people, that they may dwell in the heritage once granted them by You.” Why he says that they were solitary, I have already explained. There is a similar passage in Psalm 102:17, though a different word, ערער, oror, is used there, but the meaning is the same.

The faithful are said to be solitary there because they were not gathered into one body. For this was the true happiness of the people: that they worshipped God together, that they were under one head, and also that they had one altar as a sacred bond to cherish unity of faith. Therefore, when the faithful were scattered here and there, they were justly said to be solitary, wherever they were.

He afterward adds, according to ancient days. Here he places before God the favors which He formerly showed to His people and prays that He would, consistent with Himself, continue to the end—that is, that He would continue His favors to His chosen people to the end.

And it greatly helped to confirm their faith when the faithful recalled how liberally God had dealt from the beginning with the posterity of Abraham. They were thus made to feel assured that God would be no less kind to His elect, though there might be, so to speak, a sad separation.

For when God had banished the Jews into exile, it was a kind of divorce, as if they were given to utter destruction. Yet now when they recall that they had descended from the holy fathers, and that a Redeemer had been promised them, they justly entertain a hope of future favor from the past benefits of God, because He had formerly kindly treated His people.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since we have so provoked Your displeasure by our sins that a dreadful waste and solitude appear everywhere—O grant that a proof of that favor, which You have so remarkably exhibited towards Your ancient people, may shine upon us, so that Your Church may be raised up in which true religion may flourish and Your name be glorified; and may we daily entreat You in our prayers and never doubt that, under the government of Your Christ, You can again gather together the whole world, though it is miserably dispersed, so that we may persevere in this warfare to the end, until we at length know that we have not hoped in You in vain and that our prayers have not been in vain, when Christ shall exercise the power given to Him for our salvation and for that of the whole world. Amen.