15 "As in the days of your coming forth out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The Prophet here introduces God as the speaker; and he so speaks as to give an answer to his prayer. God then promises that he will be wonderful in his works, and give such evidences of his power, as he exhibited when he brought up his people from the land of Egypt. We now see that there is more force in this passage, than if the Prophet had at first said, that God would become the deliverer of his people: for he interposed entreaty and prayer and God now shows that he will be merciful to his people; and at the same time the faithful are reminded, that they must be instant in prayer, if they desire to be preserved by God. Now God says that he will show wonderful things, as when the people formerly came out of Egypt. [1] That redemption, we know, was a perpetual monument of God's power in the preservation of his Church; so that whenever he designs to give some hope of deliverances he reminds the faithful of those miracles that they may feel assured that there will be no obstacles to prevent them from continuing in a state of safety, provided God will be pleased to help them, for his power is not diminished. And this deserves to be noticed; for though we all allow the omnipotence of God, yet when we struggle with trials, we tremble, as though all the avenues to our preservation had been closed up against God. As soon then as any impediment is thrown in our way, we think that there is no hope. Whence is this? It is because we make no account of God's power, which yet we confess to be greater than that of the whole world. This is the reason why God now refers to the miracles which he wrought at the coming forth of the people. They ought to have known, that God ever continues like himself, and that his power remains as perfect as it was formerly; and there is in him sufficient support to encourage the hope of assistance. We now perceive the object of the Prophet. He indeed changes the persons; for in the beginning he addresses the people, according to the days of thy going forth, and then he adds, 'r'ny, aranu, I will make him to see;' but this change does not obscure the meaning, for God only means, that his power was sufficiently known formerly to his people, and that there was a memorable proof of it in their redemption, so that the people could not have doubted respecting their safety, without being ungrateful to God, and without burying in oblivion that so memorable a benefit, which God once conferred on their fathers. It follows --
1 - "The Prophet prayed that God would feed them, and do kind things for them; but God answers, that he will show them marvelous things, will outdo their hopes and expectations. -- Their deliverance from Babylon shall be a work of wonder and grace, not inferior to their deliverance out of Egypt, nay, it shall eclipse the luster of that, Jeremiah 16:14, 15. -- God's former favors to his Church are patterns of future favors, and shall again be copied out as there is occasion." -- Henry.
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt - God answers the prayer, beginning with its closing words . Micah had prayed, "Turn Thy people like the days of old; "God answers, "like the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt." Micah had said, in the name of his people, "I shall behold His Righteousness; God answers, I will make him to behold marvelous things" . The word marvelous things was used of God's great marvels in the physical world Job 5:9; Job 37:5, Job 37:14, or the marvelous mercies of His Providence toward individuals or nations (Psalm 9:2; Psalm 26:7; Psalm 71:17; Psalm 72:18, etc.), and especially of those great miracles, which were accumulated at the deliverance from Egypt Exodus 3:20; Judges 6:13; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 78:4, Psalm 78:11, Psalm 78:32; Psalm 105:2, Psalm 105:5; Psalm 106:7, Psalm 106:22, and the entrance of the promised land which was its completion.
The reference to the Exodus must have led them to think of actual miracles; since, in regard to the Exodus, it is used of nothing else. But there were no miracles at the return from the captivity. "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion" Psalm 126:1, Psalm 126:3, said a Psalmist of the returned people, we were like them that dream. The Lord hath done great things for us; we are glad. Great things, but not miraculous. The promise then kept the people looking onward, until He came, "a prophet mighty in word and deed" Luke 24:19, as to whom Peter appealed to the people, that He was "approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know" Acts 2:22; who gave also to them who believed on Him power to do "greater works than He did" John 14:12, through His own power, because He went to His Father; and when they believed, He shewed to him, namely, to the whole people gathered into the One Church, Jew and Gentile, yet more marvelous things, things, every way more marvelous and beyond nature than those of old, "the unsearchable riches of Christ, the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God" Ephesians 3:8-9.
According to the days - This is the answer to the prophet's prayer; and God says he will protect, save, defend, and work miracles for them in their restoration, such as he wrought for their fathers in their return from Egypt to the promised land.
(o) According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous [things].
(o) God promises to be favourable to his people, as he had been before.
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt,.... This is an answer of the Lord to the prayer of the prophet, assuring him, and the church he represents, and on whose account he applies, that there would be as great a deliverance wrought for them, and as wonderful things done, as when Israel was brought out of the land of Egypt, which was effected with a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm, and was attended with amazing events; as the plagues in Egypt; the passage of the Israelites through the Red see, and the destruction of the Egyptians in it:
will I show unto him marvellous things; that is, unto the people of the Lord, the flock of his heritage, the solitary and peculiar people, fed and preserved by him: as the deliverance out of Egypt; was the Lord's work, so the deliverance from Babylon; as the one was the work of his power upon the heart of Pharaoh to let the people go, so the other as great an act of his power working upon the mind of Cyrus, stirring him up to let the captives go free, without price or reward; yea, to furnish them with necessaries by the way, and to rebuild their city and temple: and as Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red sea, so the kingdom of Babylon was swallowed up by the Medes and Persians; yea, in some respects the latter deliverance exceeded the former, and erased the remembrance of it; see Jeremiah 16:14; and that redemption by Christ, which both these were typical of, was greater and more marvellous than either, being a deliverance from, and an abolition and destruction of sin, Satan, the law, hell, and death, and attended with things the most wonderful and surprising; as the birth of Christ of a virgin; the miracles done by him in life, and at death; the doctrines of the Gospel preached by him and his apostles, and the amazing success of them, especially in the Gentile world, being testified and confirmed by signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost. This passage, both by ancient and modern Jews (k), is applied to the times of the Messiah. So in an ancient (l) book of theirs, speaking of the times of the Messiah, they say,
"from that day all the signs and wonders, and mighty works, which the Lord did in Egypt, he will do for Israel, as it is said, "according to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt", &c.''
It is also said, by a modern writer (m) of theirs,
"because of the miracles and wonders which shall be in the days of the Messiah, such as the gathering of the captives, the resurrection of the dead, and the destruction of Gog and Magog, besides other miracles and wonders, the end of the redemption is called the end of wonders in Daniel 12:6; and this is that which God has promised by his prophets, particularly Micah, Micah 7:15; "according to the days", &c. and from what follows, with the rest of the verses to the end of the book, it is manifest that these promises are not yet fulfilled, but will be fulfilled in the days of the Messiah.''
From whence it appears, that it was the sense of the ancient Jews, as well as some modern ones, that miracles would be wrought in the days of the Messiah; though some of them reject them, and look not for them; particularly Maimonides (n) says,
"let it not enter into thine heart that the King Messiah hath need to do signs and wonders; as that he shall renew things in the world, or raise the dead, and the like; these are things which fools speak of; the thing is not so.''
But however, certain it is, the ancient Jews expected miracles to be done by the Messiah; hence some, in the times of Jesus, said, "when Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?" John 7:31; and accordingly the miracles Jesus did were full proofs of his being the Messiah, and were wrought for that purpose, and owned as such; wherefore the above Jew, though he is right in the application of this passage to the times of the Messiah, yet is wrong in saying these promises are not yet fulfilled, since they have had a full accomplishment in the Messiah Jesus; nor is another to be looked for, or such miracles to be hereafter wrought.
(k) Zohar in Genesis. fol. 16. 1. 2. & in Exod. fol. 4. 2. & in Deut. 99. 2. & 118. 3. Chizzuk Emunah, par. 1. c. 32. p. 277. (l) Zohar in Exod. fol. 4. 2. Vid. ib. in Genesis. fol. 16. 1. 2. & in Numb. fol. 99. 2. & in Deut. 118. 3. (m) R. Isaac Chizzuk Emunah, par. 1. c. 32. p. 277. (n) Hilchot Melachim, c. 11. sect. 3.
thy . . . him--both referring to Israel. So in Micah 7:19 the person is changed from the first to the third, "us . . . our . . . their." Jehovah here answers Micah's prayer in Micah 7:14, assuring him, that as He delivered His people from Egypt by miraculous power, so He would again "show" it in their behalf (Jeremiah 16:14-15).
*More commentary available at chapter level.