Micah 2:7

Also, bearing the name which ought to remind thee of God's favors granted to thee because of His covenant with Jacob. is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?--Is His compassion contracted within narrower limits now than formerly, so that He should delight in your destruction (compare Ps 77:7-9; Isa 59:1, 2)? are these his doings?--that is, Are such threatenings His delight?

BROTHERS AND SISTERS, what a stern rebuke to the people of Israel is contained in the title with which the Prophet addressed them—"O you that are named the House of Jacob"! It is as much as to say to them—"You wear the name, but you do not bear the character of Jacob." It is the Old Testament version of the New Testament saying, "You have a name to live and are dead." They gloried that they were the seed of Israel! They vaunted the peculiar privileges which came to them as the descendants of God's honored and chosen servant Jacob! But they did not act in the same way as Jacob would have acted—they were devoid of Jacob's faith in Jehovah, they knew nothing of Jacob's power of prayer—and nothing of his reliance upon the Covenant. The words of Micah imply that the descendants of Jacob in his day were proud of the name, "House of Jacob," but that they were not worthy of it. Nothing is more mischievous than to cling to a name when the thing for which it stands has disappeared. May we never come to such a stage of declension that even the Spirit of God will be compelled, in speaking to us, to say, "O you that are called the Church of God!" To be named Christians, but not to be Christians, is to be deceivers or deceived! The name brings with it great responsibility and if it is a name, only, it brings with it terrible condemnation! It is a crime against the Truth of God if we dare to take the name of His people when we are not His people. It is a robbery of honor from those to whom it is due.

THERE may be some who think they can convert the world by philosophy; that they can renew the heart by eloquence; or that, by some witchcraft of ceremonies, they can regenerate the soul. But we depend wholly and simply and only on the Spirit of God! He, alone, works all our works in us and, in going forth to our holy service, we take with us no strength and we rely upon no power except that of the Spirit of the Most High. When Asher's foot was dipped in oil, no wonder he left a footprint wherever he went! But if his foot had not first been anointed, there would have been small trace of him and, unless we have the unction of the Holy One, and are endued with power from on high, in vain shall we seek to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, or to proclaim the opening of the prison to them that are bound! We need the Holy Spirit to prepare us for our work. He first gives the desire to go forth to the field of service and only He can equip us for the fight. "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord." Let us seek, then, to be charged with the Holy Spirit—to receive to the fullest the Divine influence—and go to our labor thus amply prepared. There is no preparation for the work of God like being with God! Go up into the solitude with Christ and then, when He calls you, you will be fit to go forth for Him and tell what you have seen with Him in the Holy Mount. When we get at the work, our need remains. We long to see the people saved, but in order to that, they must be born again and this we cannot, ourselves, accomplish.

Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? - This is the complaint of the Israelites, and a part of the lamentation. Doth it not speak by other persons as well as by Micah? Doth it communicate to us such influences as it did formerly? Is it true that these evils are threatened by that Spirit? Are these his doings? To which Jehovah answers, “Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” No upright man need fear any word spoken by me: my words to such yield instruction and comfort; never dismay. Were ye upright, ye would not complain of the words of my prophets. The last clause may be translated, “Walking with him that is upright.” The upright man walks by the word; and the word walks with him who walks by it.

O thou that art named the house of Jacob - As Isaiah says, “Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel - which make mention of the God of Israel, not in truth, nor in righteousness. For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel” Isa 48:1. They boasted of what convicted them of faithlessness. They relied on being what in spirit they had ceased to be, what in deeds they denied, children of a believing forefather.