In this last chapter of his book, in Micah 7:1-4, the prophet is discouraged about the evil that he sees in the land. The cluster (of grapes ) that he doesn’t see means that there is no love of the neighbor there. ¹ The firstfruits that his soul longs for mean the upright kind of ordinary life ² , which he can’t find: “the faithful man has perished from the earth”.

The net in verse 2 is the twisting of truth into falsity and the other way round, to deceive. Those who should be faithful leaders are diving into evil, and take bribes. All this hellish behavior will in the end lead to punishment.

In Micah 7:5, 6, these two verses are really not talking about other people; friends, companions, wives or husbands, or in-laws. When Micah refers to a “man’s household” he is talking about the evil loves that live in our own will. That’s where the evil is that we must fear and stamp out. ³

Micah 7:7-9 shows the path away from evil. God will hear us. But we must see that we have sinned and admit it to the Lord ⁴ , and ask for His help in stopping. He will be a light in our “darkness”. Micah admits his own weakness and admits that only the Lord’s power can "bring him forth to the light".

In Micah 7:10, "She" represents the affection for doing some kind of evil. Everyone has some sort of affections that way. ⁵ Those affections will try to persuade us that Jehovah can’t help, but if we persist in calling on Him for help, those affections can be shamed and eventually be trampled into the mud.

Micah 7:11, 12 says that when the Lord comes to found a new church, it will spread. Assyria here means reasoning, and Egypt means natural science. Cities mean doctrine from truth, and mountains mean goods, so the picture is of the spreading of both truth and good from one boundary to the other, all the way from natural truths to reasoning about spiritual things -- our whole mind. ⁶

But the old church will be desolate, according to Micah 7:13.

In Micah 7:14,15, to pasture means to feed the flock as a shepherd ⁷ , or to teach the truths that the Lord provides. The forest means the church as to truth, and Carmel means the church as to good. ⁸ Bashan and Gilead mean the same ideas from the stories of the Word, the literal sense.

Nations, in Micah 7:16, 17, mean people outside who don’t know, and don’t want to hear. They will stay focused on physical and sensory things, and will be in dread about knowledge of God.

Then, in Micah 7:18-20, Micah ends on a positive note: God will continue to have compassion on everyone and try to bring them to walk in His ways. Although we are all in freedom to be evil, He will never stop trying to lead us out of it if we will listen.

Poznámky pod čarou:

511. Was cast into the sea, signifies into the natural man. This is evident from the signification of the "sea," as being the knowledge [scientificum] in general which is in the natural man, consequently the natural man in respect to its knowledge there (See above n. 270, 342). This is the signification of "sea," because "water" signifies truth, and truth in the natural man is called knowledge [scientificum]; but truth itself is in itself spiritual, and in the spiritual man makes one with the affection of truth, for it is a form of affection there; consequently so far as this affection with its form is therefrom in the knowledges that are in the natural man, so far the knowledges contain in themselves truths, and are true knowledges; for the knowledges of the natural man, viewed in themselves, are not truths, but only containing vessels of truth, therefore "vessels" in the Word signify knowledges.

[2] That the "sea" signifies the natural man can be seen from passages in the Word cited above (n. 275, 342, which makes clear that the "sea" in reference to its water signifies knowledge [scientificum] in general, while the "sea" in reference to its waves signifies disputation and reasoning, which are maintained by knowledges; and as both knowledges and reasoning are in the natural man, therefore the "sea" signifies the natural man itself. But the state of the natural man is wholly in accordance with the affection of man's love. When spiritual affection, that is, affection of good and truth for the sake of good and truth, is dominant in man, and when this affection flows in through the spiritual into the natural man, then the natural man is a spiritual-natural man, for it is subordinate and subject to the spiritual, and as they thus act as a one, both are in heaven. But so long as a merely natural affection is dominant in man, there is in the natural man no truth, but everything therein is knowledge [scientificum] not true, it is dead knowledge and false knowledge, for the reason that the knowledges therein then conjoin themselves with affections merely natural, all of which spring from the loves of self and of the world, while truths themselves, because in themselves they are spiritual, conjoin themselves only with spiritual affections, as has been said above. When truths conjoin themselves with affections merely natural, they are no longer truths but falsities, for affection merely natural falsifies truths. Conjunctions of truth with affections merely natural correspond to whoredoms and adulteries of various kinds, and in the spiritual sense are meant in the Word by various kinds of whoredoms and adulteries. There are conjunctions of the truths of the Word with the love of self and the world that correspond to these.

[3] That the "sea" signifies the natural man with the things that are in it is also from correspondence; for in the spiritual world seas appear in various places, especially about the outmost boundaries where spiritual societies or heaven itself ends. There are seas there because in the boundaries of heaven and beyond them those dwell who have been merely natural men, and these appear there in deep places, where they have their abodes; the natural men there, however, are not evil, but the evil natural men are in the hells. The seas there seen also make evident what those are who are in them, especially from the color of the waters, as verging towards darkness or clearness; if towards darkness those therein are sensual spirits, who are the lowest natural, and if towards clearness those therein are the interior natural. But the waters of the seas that are over the hells are dense, black, and sometimes ruddy; and the infernal crew therein appear like snakes and serpents, and like such monsters as are in seas.