The name Micah means "Who is like God?" or "Who is like Jehovah?" Therefore, this is his repeated question. Everywhere this man went, apparently, this is what he said: "Who is like Jehovah?" "Who is like God?" -- until people began to call him this.
There is some suggestion that this may even have been a nickname that was given to this man. You can imagine people looking around as Micah comes up the street and saying to themselves, "Here comes old Who is like God."
Since this is what Micah is talking about in this book, the theme of this book is God-likeness and the great message of God to the world today is how to be like God. This is also the theme of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, and I think it is very instructive to put these two messages together so that we can see that the New Testament and the Old Testament teach the same truths in different ways. That is what makes the Old Testament so enlightening to us, and if you do not understand the New Testament, read the Old Testament.
IN THIS VERSE:
Christ's reign in His Church is that of a shepherd-king. He has supremacy, but it is the superiority of a wise and tender shepherd over His needy and loving flock; He commands and receives obedience, but it is the willing obedience of the well-cared-for sheep, rendered joyfully to their beloved Shepherd, whose voice they know so well. He rules by the force of love and the energy of goodness.
His reign is practical in its character. It is said, “He shall stand and feed.” The great Head of the Church is actively engaged in providing for His people. He does not sit down upon the throne in empty state, or hold a scepter without wielding it in government. No, He stands and feeds His flock. The expression “feed,” in the original, is like an analogous one in the Greek, which means to shepardize, to do everything expected of a shepherd: to guide, to watch, to preserve, to restore, to tend, as well as to feed.
His reign is continual in its duration. It is said, “He shall stand and feed”; not “He shall feed now and then, and leave his position”; not, “He shall one day grant a revival, and then next day leave his Church to barrenness.” His eyes never slumber, and His hands never rest; His heart never ceases to beat with love, and His shoulders are never weary of carrying His people's burdens.
His reign is effectually powerful in its action; “He shall feed in the strength of Jehovah.” Wherever Christ is, there is God; and whatever Christ does is the act of the Most High. Oh! it is a joyful truth to consider that he who stands to-day representing the interests of his people is very God of very God, to whom every knee shall bow. Happy are we who belong to such a shepherd, whose humanity communes with us, and whose divinity protects us. Let us worship and bow down before him as the people of his pasture.
What do you want of me God? Isn't that what people say so many times? What are you asking of me anyway? Now listen to God's gracious answer, one of the most beautiful verses in all the Bible (verse 8):
He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8 RSV)
That is the answer, isn't it? That is the way to God-likeness: to walk humbly with your God. After all He is the only one who can restore us.
References: Charles H Spurgeon Sermon - The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington in1866.
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