By J.C. Philpot
Preached at Providence Chapel, Oakham, on Tuesday Evening, May 12, 1846
"The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them." Micah 2:13
I should not do justice to my conviction of the meaning of the Old Testament Scriptures if I did not state that I believe this passage has a prophetical as well as an experimental meaning. Let us give a glance at the context. We read in the preceding verse, "I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold; they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The breaker is come up before them." Now as to the prophetical meaning of this Scripture, it appears to my mind to point to a day not yet arrived, to "the latter day" of which the Old Testament prophets speak so much. When the Lord shall set his hand a second time to gather the remnant spread abroad on the earth, then this prophecy of Micah will be literally fulfilled: for there will be those difficulties in the way which none but "the Breaker" going before can remove. But the Scriptures are written with that mysterious wisdom that there is not only in the Old Testament prophecies what is strictly prophetical, but also experimental. We are not to discard the prophetical meaning as some do, for God has given it, and every word of God is pure. But on the other hand, it is the spiritual and experimental part which is food for the church of God. Therefore though we dare not pass by the literal meaning, yet we confine our attention chiefly to the spiritual. And in this way, with God's blessing, I shall view it this evening, taking the words much in the order as they now lie before me.
"The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them."
There are two main things here:
First. The people of whom these things are said.
Secondly. That wondrous Individual who is here pointed out by the expression, "The breaker."
I. The people here spoken of are the people of God, the remnant according to the election of grace, God's own beloved family. But we gather from the words used that they had great difficulties, for why need they to have a breaker go before them unless they were in such difficulties as nothing but an almighty hand could break down and remove? Thus we gather that the people to whom this promise is made are in such straits and difficulties, that they can never succeed in making a passage for themselves: but that this wondrous Person, this Immanuel, God with us, is to go before them; and for that reason he is called "the breaker," because with his almighty hand he breaks up and breaks down these difficulties that lie in their path, and which they themselves could not by any wisdom or strength of their own remove out of the way.
Let us look at this a little more closely, and open it a little more in detail. When the Lord is first pleased to quicken a soul dead in sin, he sets before him the narrow gate; he shews him that his sins merit eternal wrath and punishment, and he raises up in his heart a desire to flee from the wrath to come. However the circumstances of the new birth may vary, there will always be this leading feature accompanying the work of the Spirit in the heart--a fleeing from the wrath to come; a cry in the soul, "What shall I do to be saved? God be merciful to me a sinner." As Bunyan sweetly sets forth in the Pilgrim's Progress, a quickened soul, like Christian, immediately begins to run. All the difficulties that encompass him are nothing compared to the burden on his back. Wife, child, family, money, all are considered less than nothing compared with the salvation of his soul. Therefore he begins to run, setting his face Zionward, earnestly desiring to be found saved at last with an everlasting salvation.
But no sooner does he begin to run, and move onward in the heavenly way than he begins to find difficulties. The way to heaven is described as "a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen" (Job 28:7) . "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matt. 7:14). We must "through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." The Lord, therefore, knowing the difficulties of the way, on one occasion, when he saw great multitudes following him, turned and said to them, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26, 27). As though he would check this rash forwardness by shewing them that no one could run in that way except he denied himself and took up his cross; implying that the way to heaven is one of continual self-denial, a path of daily crucifixion. And what is the object of this? It is to teach a soul this great lesson--that he cannot by any wisdom, any strength, any righteousness, or any goodness of his own obtain eternal life. We are very slow learners in this school. The pride of our heart, our ignorance, and our unbelief, all conspire to make us diminish the difficulties of the way. But the Lord has to teach us by painful experience that the road to heaven is so difficult that a man can only walk in it as he is put in and kept in it by an almighty hand.
When these difficulties first begin to rise, they startle him that is first running in Zion's way. For instance, the discovery of a broken law, and of the curse that flames from Mount Sinai is an obstacle insuperable in the way to glory; for if a sinner has to get to glory by the burning mount, he must be consumed as he passes over it, for from that mount nothing but wrath comes. Again, he is startled by the discovery of the corruptions of his heart, the workings of that inward iniquity, which before was hidden from him. He now becomes aware of secret sins that before he was utterly unacquainted with. He becomes aware too that there is such a thing as living faith, and that without faith it is impossible to please God; and he finds he has not this living faith, and is unable to raise it up in his own heart. He finds love also spoken of; and he finds he cannot by any power of his own raise up this love to God or to his people. He finds hope too spoken of; and he is sinking in the waves of despondency. He finds prayer spoken of; and he feels utterly unable to pour out his heart before God. He finds submission to God's will spoken of; and he perhaps feels little else but repining and hard thoughts of God. He finds an inward knowledge of Jesus spoken of, and the revelation of Christ to the soul; and he finds darkness and gloom within. He cannot bring this knowledge of Christ into the heart. A man may have all the religion of the world in his head, in the theory, and never meet with one difficulty. But if once he is put into the strait way by the hand of God, he will meet with difficulties; nay, he will feel the whole scene to be more or less a scene of difficulties. Now this prepares a man for the knowledge of "the breaker." "The breaker," we read in the text, "is gone up before them." But what use is the breaker if there be nothing to break down? no obstacles in the way? no rocks or stones in the road, all a smooth, grassy meadow with nothing to obstruct the course? The very circumstances of a breaker being wanted implies there are such difficulties in the way as nothing but an almighty hand can break down. There was a custom in primitive times which throws a still further light on the text. In those times there were no great highways as there are now. When kings wanted to go out on an expedition, men went before them to clear the way, to fill up the hollows, and dig down the mountains in order to make a path for the king. So this divine breaker has to go before, and as he goes before he breaks down those difficulties and obstacles that lie in the path.
II. But who is this breaker? Need I say it is the Lord of life and glory; Immanuel, God with us? Why is he called a breaker? This is one of his titles. But why is this title given him? Because he breaks down those obstacles that lie in the road. For you will observe if you read the text, it speaks of a people coming up, and passing through the gate, and journeying onward, and the king passing before them, and the LORD, that is Jehovah, being at the head of them. And you will observe also that this breaker is Jehovah: for it is the LORD in capital letters, which always implies Jehovah. The LORD that is Jehovah "is at the head of them," implying that the breaker is Jehovah, and he is called a breaker because he breaks down the difficulties that lie in the path. For instance, there is the law; and how are we to get by that obstacle? Bunyan represents this in that invaluable work, the Pilgrim's Progress. When Christian was drawn aside from the path through the persuasion of Mr. Legality, and was going to the city pointed out to him, he saw a mountain that overhung the road, and thunder and lightning flashed from it, and he was afraid it would fall on his head. There Bunyan shews that there will be these flashes of God's wrath from the law, and the mountain will appear as if it would fall upon him, so that he dare not go by that road. But the breaker has travelled that way; he endured the curse of the law for us. He so to speak broke down its curse against God's people. As the Scripture speaks: "He took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;" and thus he so removed it that it should not be a covenant of condemnation to his dear family. In this sense he is a breaker. But not only is the law against them, but also God's holiness, majesty, justice and purity, what God is as an eternal Jehovah--all these things have to be removed out of the way. But when Jesus died upon the cross, he satisfied justice, and all the claims of God's holy law. By suffering himself he made such a propitiation for sin as God the Father could accept.
But besides these external difficulties that lie in the road there are internal difficulties. The Lord's people find internal difficulties as great and heavy to grapple with as external difficulties. For instance, there is an unbelieving heart; and what a difficulty an unbelieving heart is! If you are one that is journeying Zionward, do you not know experimentally the workings of unbelief? And is not this sometimes the sincere cry of your soul?
O could I but believe,
Then all would easy be;
I would, but cannot; Lord, relieve,
My help must come from thee.
