Micah 7: Near the Sinners

Woe is me! For I have become
    as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
    as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
    no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. (Micah 7:1)

Micah has written, "Woe" to many a person throughout his short book. "Woe to the oppressors..." "Woe to those who devise iniquity..." "Woe is me," is a decidedly new angle.

Micah is the voice of reason amidst voices of chaos, the voice of God in a land that has put its hands over its ears and turned its eyes away from heaven.

This barren vineyard is a picture of how spiritually dead Israel has become. It's like everything that was good about Israel is in the past, it's been harvested, and all that's left is a shrivelling vine. Micah makes this picture personal, using it in reference to himself. 

It reminds me of the way we sometimes pray for our country. "Lord, forgive us..." "God, we have sinned..." "We are sorry Father, for turning away from You." We take on the faults of those around us, knowing that a nation is made up of people; and as a part of it, we have, if not a hand in the problem by neglect, at least a responsibility to change it.

He goes on to say that there is "no one upright among mankind." The corruption, he reiterates, is about as bad as it gets.

Put no trust in a neighbor;
    have no confidence in a friend;
guard the doors of your mouth
    from her who lies in your arms;
6 for the son treats the father with contempt,
    the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
    a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
    I will wait for the God of my salvation;
    my God will hear me. (Micah 7:5-7)

I love this. Micah's words go into the homes of the people he's talking to, the people he just identified with. They show how rejection of God breeds the distrust they experience on a regular basis... and then declare that God is still trust-worthy.

While this vicious cycle of corrupted relationships goes round and round, one corrupted relationship is eager to be restored.

Micah started by identifying himself with these people, taking on the responsibility of their sins. When he speaks of broken relationships, these are relationships that he's in the midst of, that he's been burned by like everyone else. When he says that he will wait for the God of his salvation, and states with confidence that God will hear him, he is not far off from the people, and so neither is his God.

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
    when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
    the Lord will be a light to me.
I will bear the indignation of the Lord
    because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
    and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
    I shall look upon his vindication.
10 Then my enemy will see,
    and shame will cover her who said to me,
    “Where is the Lord your God?” (Micah 7:8-10a)

Here again, Micah declares with humble confidence that though he is deserving of God's judgment, he knows that his attitude of submission will be honoured by God, and He will save him from being treated unjustly.

For fear of repeating myself, I almost don't want to clearly outline my conclusion, but...for fear of not getting the point across, I will.

Because Micah started the chapter off in humility, taking the sins of Israel on himself, every confident statement he makes concerning God's willingness to work on his behalf and not against him, is an invitation to everyone else.

Now, I have a concern.

When I set out to learn more about the book of Micah and the prophet by that name, I first read through the whole book quickly. My impression was that it was all very confusing, boring at best, depressing at worst.

I was keenly aware though, that there was LOTS to be discovered under this surface. In writing this series, I wanted to point out to you a few themes that I "unearthed."

My first concern was that in reading the book of Micah, one might completely miss the implicit themes of grace and character amidst the more explicit themes of sin, wrath, and judgment. My second concern is that in reading my series, one might completely miss the contextual and historical themes (the explicit ones) amidst my musings over God's ever-faithful love for His people. (the implicit ones)

Both are very important in understanding this book, so I don't want to overpower one in an attempt to show the importance of the other. I hope, as you've been following along, that you have been reading the book for yourself.

That being said, I am jumping over a few verses now. (Which you will notice if you are reading Micah 7.)

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
    and passing over transgression
    for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
    because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us;
    he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
    into the depths of the sea.
20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob
    and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
    from the days of old. (Micah 7:18-20)

"Who is a God like you?"

Just think about that for a moment.

Remember the wickedness of Israel. Remember the stubbornness of Israel. Remember how God said that He wailed and lamented over their sin. No one else is a God like Him, Who never changes. Yesterday, today, forever, remember?

Now imagine Jesus, experiencing unimaginable pain, hanging by nails on a cross. Remember that next to Him hung a man who had earned that place? Remember what the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Holy One of Israel, Who visits the iniquities of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generations, said to him?

"Today you will be with Me in paradise."

To everyone who avoided associating with sinners because they were trying to be holy, that God would hang next to one, sharing in his suffering, and "pass over his transgression," was shocking.

But didn't Micah tell them? Jesus came and showed them what God was like, but they could have known before Him, if they had only bothered to understand what Micah and the prophets were saying when they said things like, "He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot."

I asked the girls in my bible study to recite John 3:16, a verse most of us know very well.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

"Do you think you understand what that verse means?" I asked.

All of the sweet and brilliant girls in my class nodded their heads, while one of their teachers, sitting in the back listening, shook her head.

I had to laugh. I'm pretty sure as a Christian, you inevitably reach points in your faith where you think you know everything, and then a little while later realize you know nothing. The very things you thought you understood end up meaning more and more, until you realize just how little your mind is able to comprehend.

"For God so loved the world," Stop.

How can God love the world? We just went through a brief, 7 chapter summary of how evil humanity can be.

They covet fields and seize them,
    and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
    a man and his inheritance. (Micah 2:2)

But lately my people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly
    with no thought of war. (Micah 2:8)

If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,
    saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”
    he would be the preacher for this people! (Micah 2:11)

you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
    and their flesh from off their bones,
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
    and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
    and chop them up like meat in a pot,
    like flesh in a cauldron. (Micah 3:2-3)

Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
    its priests teach for a price;
    its prophets practice divination for money;
yet they lean on the Lord and say,
    “Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
    No disaster shall come upon us.” (Micah 3:11)

Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
    the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
    thus they weave it together.
4 The best of them is like a brier,
    the most upright of them a thorn hedge. (Micah 7:3-4a)

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son," Stop.

Because God had been wronged, He decided to be the one to endure the pain of loss.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. (Hebrews 2:10)

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life." ....Stop.

Throughout the summary of the wickedness of humanity, we have also seen a summary of the constant longing that God has to be in relationship with His people. The same longing that caused Him endless grief over sin, caused Him to go so far as to create a way for us to simply come to Him.

His way to come to us was not simple, nor was it easy. But He did it "that whosoever believeth..." Can you hear the emphasis on the word that? Somehow, that had to be accomplished. 

Can you imagine the joy that God has when someone decides they will be like Micah, the lone voice in chaos, simply trusting in God? When He has worked so hard, the least we can do is what He calls us to, trust.

"Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)

'For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. (Luke 15:24)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)


I hope you enjoyed this series, thanks for reading!

Micah 5: A Way Forward

Hello again!

I don't know if anybody is even reading these Micah posts, but I sure am enjoying writing them. I was commenting to some of my sisters recently that I love social media and my blog because I find myself so entertaining. Hehe. It's pretty silly, but I feel like it's better than having the comparison problem. That was a COMPLETE rabbit trail, it has nothing to do with Micah. Alright, let's start.

So...there are a million things I want to say about Micah 5, but I'll just avoid the semi-obvious ones, and cut straight to the chase. When I read Micah 5 with the purpose of studying it so that I could learn all there is to know, I was very confused when I came upon verses 10-15.

Let's recap really quickly.

Micah 1 - God is bringing judgment on Israel.
Micah 2 - Israel is oppressive and deceptive, pretending they have favour with God when they have rejected Him.
Micah 3 - The leaders of Israel have corrupted justice.
Micah 4 - Someday God will reign over Israel, and bring peace to the world.

In Micah 4, God is just getting started about how He will bring peace and prosperity to Israel. He describes how He will reign in Jerusalem, and people from all over the world will respect His authority. In Micah 5, God promises that Israel will be a strong nation that cannot be defeated.

Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,
    and all your enemies shall be cut off. (Micah 5:9)

Then we get to the confusing part.

And in that day, declares the Lord,
    I will cut off your horses from among you
    and will destroy your chariots... (Micah 5:10)

Wait. Isn't He in the middle of blessing them? How are they supposed to be a strong army if they don't have horses and chariots? What will take them into battle?

...and I will cut off the cities of your land
    and throw down all your strongholds... (Micah 5:11)

Certainly doesn't sound like a strong nation to me. Homeless, weaponless... Verse 12 gives us a little more insight,

and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
    and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes; (Micah 5:12)

So they aren't following God? I'm confused. He just said He's going to gather the lame and afflicted back to Himself, so they will all follow Him again, and He is going to be the ruler that even other nations are going to look up to! Yet His own people will be listening to fortune tellers and using witchcraft?

and I will cut off your carved images
    and your pillars from among you,
and you shall bow down no more
    to the work of your hands;
14 and I will root out your Asherah images from among you
    and destroy your cities.
15 And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance
    on the nations that did not obey. (Micah 5:13-15)

That's when I realized, God didn't say He would come and make them all perfect. He just said He was going to rule. He said that He would come to deal JUSTLY with the people, both inside, and outside of Israel. Justice implies that there is a law that has been broken.

In my last post I said that I want to see the heart of God in His message to Micah, and here is a perfect example of it.

His heart was to "assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away," His heart was to give His people the freedom to "sit under their own vine and fig tree," and that "no one shall make them afraid." His heart was to rescue the people, and redeem them from the hand of their enemies, but He knows that it was the people themselves who created their wound in the first place, and that they made it incurable. He knows their tendency is to go right back to it.

As He gives them a vision of a peaceful time when all of their fears and sorrows are gone, He shows them that in order to keep that peace, their sin would have to have no way to get back in.

He didn't say He would cut off their hands, He's not talking about judging them anymore. He said He would cut off the sorcery FROM their hand. He's talking about a way forward.

He says that He will cut down their idols, destroy their cities, cut off their horses and their chariots, He is not saying He will cut down THEM.

It reminds me of back in 1 Samuel, (as mentioned in my last post) where we see that God didn't want them to have a king. Why? It wasn't that God didn't want them to have good reputation among other nations, or that He wanted them to be leaderless, He had provided them with both. 

He didn't want them to have someone who could easily lead them away from Him. Who needs horses when God is your king? Who needs chariots when God is your king? Who needs sorcery when GOD is your KING?

From the perspective of someone who wants to be close to God, this is a very reassuring thought. I've often thought things like, "NOW I've done it. God couldn't possibly love me after this. I've pushed the limit TOO far."

But Israel would push the limit past warning after warning, past judgment, past captivity, past redemption, past blessing. Even while God would be king of Israel, they would build an Asherah pole. And God would cut it down, but He wouldn't cut them down. Instead, He would show them how to let go of the Asherah pole as it crashed to the ground, and pick up a cross and follow Him.

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me    one who is to be ruler in Israel...
...and he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth.
5 And he shall be their peace. (Micah 5:2, 4-5a)