Ver. 1. Hear ye now what the Lord saith] Exordium breve est, sed plane patheticum, saith Gualther. This is a short, but pithy and pathetic preface, wherein he woos their attention: Audite quaeso, Hear, I pray you. Ministers are spokesmen for Christ, and must therefore give good words: and yet remembering on whose errand they come, it is required that they be found faithful, 1 Corinthians 4:2. Arise, contend thou] Surge, age, O Micah! Debate thou God’s cause against this rebellious and ungrateful people, as it were in judgment; calling all, even the insensible creatures, to be judges. See the like Deuteronomy 32:1 Isa 1:2 Mic 1:2 (for these two prophets have many things common), and be sensible, that some sit as senseless before a preacher still as the seats they sit on, pillars they lean to, dead bodies they tread upon; so that we have need (as one did once in my hearing) to call to the walls and windows to hear the word of the Lord. This heavy ear is meted for a singular judgment, Matthew 13:13,14 Isa 30:8,9. The philosopher was angry with his Boeotians: telling them that they had not their name for nought, since their ears were ox ears, and that they were dull creatures, and incapable of counsel. Demosthenes also, for like cause, called upon his countrymen of Athens to get their ears healed; and Diogenes used to tell his tale to the statues and images, that he might inure himself to lose his labour, as he had so often done, in speaking to the people. Let us, to the wearing of our tongues to the stumps, preach and pray never so much, men will on in sin, said blessed Bradford, in that excellent sermon of his of repentance. We cry till we are hoarse (saith another rare preacher), we speak till we spit forth our lungs; but all to as little purpose as Bede did, when he preached to a heap of stones. Asino quispiam narrabat fabulam: at ille movebat aures. But shall people thus carry it away, and God lose the sweet words? Never think of it. Those that will not hear the word shall bear the rod, Micah 6:9: and if they could but see their misery they would do as the prophet requires, cut their hair and cast it away, under the sense of the horror of God’s indignation, Jeremiah 7:27,29, they would beg of God a hearing ear (which is as an earring of gold, Proverbs 25:12), and beseech him to make the bore bigger, that his word might enter; yea, to draw up the ears of their souls to the ears of their bodies, that one saving sound might pierce both at once. Let him that hath an ear to hear, hear; or if yet any think good to forbear, let him forbear, Ezekiel 3:27, but he will certainly repent it. He that now gives God occasion to call to the hills, &c., shall one day tire the deaf mountains, saying, Fall on me, hide me, dash and quash me in a thousand pieces. Oh that I might trot directly to hell, and not stay to hear that dreadful discedite, Go, ye cursed!
Ver. 2. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy] Although the people would neither hear nor obey God, the prophet doth; and, according to command, he summoneth the mountains to hear and testify; the Lord seeming to say unto him, as once he did to Ezekiel, “But thou, son of man, be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house; but hear what I say unto thee, and do it.” It might seem to him a senseless thing to cite the mountains. But he knew that if God command a thing, to argue or debate upon it were bold presumption, to search the reason of it proud curiosity, to detract or disobey it flat rebellion. To the mountains and foundations of the earth he applies himself; haply with like mind and in like manner as the host of Nola did to the churchyard, and there called at the graves of the dead, Oh, ye good men of Nola, come away; for the Roman censor calls for your appearance; for he knew not where to call for a good man alive. And ye strong foundations of the earth] Those “roots of the mountains,” Jonah 2:7; yet not so strong but God can shake them, Job 9:5,6 Na 1:5,6; and that by so weak a creature as air, gotten underground, and seeking a vent. He can lift them off their foundations, Deuteronomy 32:22, and carry them to another place to hear his controversy, as he did the hill in Herefordshire, A. D. 1571, and that other in the territories of Bern, that removing out of his place in an earthquake, covered a whole village, that had ninety families in it. [See Trapp on “Am 1:1”] For the Lord hath a controversy with his people] [See Trapp on “Ho 4:1”] Learn to tremble before this great God, who “sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers,” Isaiah 40:22; which he can shake out of their place at pleasure, and send them packing to hell. O consider what a fearful thing it is to be at controversy with God, and to have him both our accuser, witness, and judge. O the terror of the Lord at that great and last day of the world! Utinam ubique de hoc iudicio differetur! “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us” (but they shall reply, We are witnesses against you for your detestable unthankfulness), “and to the hills, Cover us,” Luke 23:30, but they shall echo out, Cover us; for who can dwell with this devouring fire? who can abide these everlasting burnings? And he will plead with Israel] At which time they shall find that an empty title hath but an empty comfort; and that tribulation and anguish shall be on every soul of man that doeth evil: but of the Jew first, because of his privilege, and then of the Gentile, Romans 2:9. None so deep in utter darkness as those that once were angels of light. Let us all pray with holy David, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord,” Psalms 143:2. And with Job, “If thou shouldest contend with me, I could not answer thee one of a thousand,” Job 9:2,3. And with Daniel, “O Lord, righteousness belongs unto thee; but to us confusion of face, because we have sinned against thee,” Daniel 9:7,8.