Micah 4: Love That Refused to Give Up

THIS is where it gets exciting.

In the first three chapters of Micah, we see that the heart of God is grieved because His chosen people have rejected Him, chosen to follow other gods instead of Him, and in the process, begun abusing each other. He views their sin not as simply something they've done wrong, but as something that is destroying the people He loves.

We noticed that His desire for the people is the same in the Old and New Testaments. He urges them through Micah to turn from the gods they are following, and repent of their evil deeds toward one another. And He urges them through John to turn from their self-righteous practices, and repent of the evil they have done each other by making it hard to find Him.

Since we (my little bible study) were talking about getting to know God, I pointed out to them that when you are getting to know a person, it helps to see them in different situations. I can talk to someone about lots of things and come to know them really well, but if I see them in a stressful situation, I may come to know a completely different part of them. "In these first three chapters," I told the girls, "we see God doing damage control. He's dealing with a stressful situation."

In Chapter 4, we see another side of God. Instead of dealing with brokenness, He's showing His rebellious people what He wishes. He lays before them His "hopes and dreams," if you will, but they aren't just words of wind, they are a promise. Before we even know what it is that God wants for His people, we can see that He loves them enough to give them promise of hope before they have even begun to repent. We see that He has their good in mind, even while He knows that they are bringing destruction on themselves.

It shall come to pass in the latter days
    that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
    and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
2     and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1-2)

His idea of a good situation for His people is that HE would be their ruler. Back in 1 Samuel, He made it clear that He never intended for His people to have another king, because He knew that they would inevitably follow their king into a mess like this. 

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:4-9)

Back to Micah, He starts to describe what sort of king He will be, or, looking at it from the perspective of what He wishes, what sort of ruler He wants to be theirs.

He shall judge between many peoples,
    and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war anymore;
4 but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
    and no one shall make them afraid,
    for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. (Micah 4:3-4)

I loved reading this for the first time, and realizing that what He promises to do for them, is address every problem He pointed out earlier.

Micah 1 - What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria?
Micah 4 - For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Micah 1 - Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all; in Beth-le-aphrah roll yourselves in the dust.
Micah 4 - ...and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord...

Micah 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 4 - and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore;

Micah 3 - Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice? you who hate the good and love the evil...

Micah 4 - He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away.

The judges and rulers ruling over Israel in the time of Micah were abusing power, violent, creating fear in the hearts of people. God makes sure to point out that when He is their king, people will desire to come to learn from Him. When He is king, they won't even need weapons, because there will be no violence. When He is king, no one will make His people afraid. (there is more in Micah 4 that I am drawing from than what I've cited, so please go look it up.)

Now, there is one verse that doesn't really seem to fit into the narrative very well, which is Micah 4:5. However, I don't really want to talk too much about the fulfillment of this prophecy, since I am looking for the character of God, not what the prophecy is specifically. I do think it's important to address though, so I am going to write a short separate page on that, which you can read HERE, if you're really curious.

In that day, declares the Lord,
    I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away
    and those whom I have afflicted;
7 and the lame I will make the remnant,
    and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion
    from this time forth and forevermore. (Micah 4:6-7)

It seems to me, that God is being very intentional about addressing everything He already said. He's talking about blessing, but He doesn't ignore the fact that He is telling them this right before they are going to be judged. He points out that His Kingdom will be the opposite of everything that was wrong with their rebellious kingdom, and when He says that He will gather them, He makes sure to mention that He was the one who "afflicted" them. The reason they are scattered and crippled is because of the sin that they STILL have a chance to turn from!

Imagine hearing this, and knowing you have a chance to turn away. Imagine you are still too stubborn, which is pretty typical of all of us, and so you don't. Micah's prophecy comes true, and your whole country becomes captives in Babylon, a displaced and disgraced nation. Now, as you experience the hardship and shame that God warned you about, you have His promise that even now, He has not forgotten you. The written words of the prophet you didn't listen to, all those years ago, are still there for you. Reminding you that someday, God will bring you out of captivity, and bind up the wounds that now are open and festering.

Doesn't that, in itself, show us something about God's heart, that loves more deeply than we can? That in the midst of rebellion, He would be thinking about when they are shamed and disgraced, and how they will need hope. So He provides for it.

Now many nations
    are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be defiled,
    and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
12 But they do not know
    the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan. (Micah 4:11-12a)

Other nations could "get on God's side," in bringing ruin to the people of Israel, but that is not what was on His heart.

The foresight that His people would be willing to turn back to Him, and the love He had for them that refused to give up, reminds me of another one of God's "prophets," who put it this way:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:6-10)

How Sickness Brought Me Back to the Basics

The stomach flu hit our house for the first time this week in a LONG time.

First the youngest, second my sister and brother in-law's whole family minus one, (them and two little kids) then the second youngest, then me, then my older sister, then my dad.

As I write this I am reflecting on the nightI got it, when I started to throw up at 2:00 AM.

I prayed a lot. It was all pretty repetitive, "Dear Jesus, please help." 

I don't even know what I was exactly asking for, because I wasn't expecting Him to take away the sickness.

Just strength, I guess.

My head hit the pillow when I got back from the bathroom, the only thought in my mind was gratefulness.

Not gratefulness that He had made it easier, cause He hadn't. Not gratefulness that I had been given strength, cause I felt really weak. Just gratefulness that He was there.

I could tell He was there, suffering with me in my suffering, being a reassuring presence.

I didn't articulate any thoughts in that moment, but the best way to express what I felt is in the quote by John Newton, "I remember two things very clearly. I am a great sinner and Christ is a great savior."

Grace has been a continuous word in my head.

Christ is full of grace.

Maybe I'm simple-minded or silly because I'm sick. But simple, old Christian phrases sound so wonderful to me right now.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

God is love.

Jesus came to save the lost.

I'm all warm and fuzzy. :)

Impossible Requirements

HELLO WORLD! :D

This past week I have been out of town at a dance camp in the Niagara/St. Catherine's area. I have been going to this camp for the past I-don't-know-how-many years, but for the past three or four years, it has been my favorite week of the year.

As a dancer, it's amazing. It stretches you, (literally) and pushes you to new levels of accomplishment. The teaching is amazing, the teachers are very uplifting and... Just awesome.

The best part about it in my opinion though, is that the week is focused on God. Every morning we gather for morning session in which the bible is taught, there is another hour set aside for bible study, we have some time for personal devotions, and often the evening session is focused on worship, prayer, etc. This year we had one day focused on sharing our testimonies.

In the end, I usually find that I have loved every minute of the week, but the most valuable thing to me is the way that God worked, and the ways that I have grown spiritually.

That was a little bit of a long tangent. The point I was trying to get to was something that I feel God has been teaching me through this past week.

It started on one of the days in bible study when our bible teacher, who is also my oldest sister, asked, "Do you feel like God requires something of you?"

Of course everyone said yes. The answers were things like Our lives, Obedience, Our trust, etc. For me, it was Faithfulness. All of the above, yes, but mostly Faithfulness.

She told us to make a list of the things that He required from us, but that was the only thing I could think of. In the end, I had only one thing on my list.

Then she asked, "Do you feel like you can't give God what He requires of you?"

YES.

This has been such a struggle for me. I always try to be faithful, I try to follow God, but it's like I am not strong enough and somehow I always fail. Eventually, I always feel like a untrustworthy servant, a disobedient child, and an unfaithful bride.

We had just been looking at John 4, where Jesus asks for a drink from the Samaritan woman.

Rachel, our bible teacher, pointed out something that I have never noticed in this passage before.

Jesus asks her for water. 

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (John 4:7)

Rachel pointed out something here that gave me even more understanding of her reply, and that was that this woman probably was sort of an outcast. Firstly, the Samaritans were looked down on by the Jews because they considered themselves to be part of God's chosen nation, but the Jews knew that they were not. So her answer at first, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" (vs. 9) is fairly defensive. 

If you add onto that what her position in society probably was, she had been married five times, which clearly says a lot of rejection. And also, women usually came to the well in groups, but she was alone, which means she was probably used to being an outcast.

In light of this, her reaction to His request basically shouts, NOTICE ME. I AM LEGITIMATE.

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." (vs. 10)

The point that Rachel was making in this, (which was also apparent in a few other passages we were looking at) was that God asks things of us, but whenever He requires something of us, it is because He wants to give it to us first.

In our own humanity and weakness, we cannot give God what He requires of us, unless we first receive it from Him.

That struck me in a new way. Jesus was asking of me faithfulness, because He wanted to be faithful to me. And He wanted to give me the power, through His faithfulness to me, to be faithful to Him.

After that realization, I pondered it for the rest of the week, and time and time again my eyes were opened to ways that He was being faithful to me.

At the end of the week, we had all of our stuff packed up and we were cleaning before we left. I was scrubbing a toilet, while thinking about God's faithfulness and singing a line in a song which said, "I believe everything that You say You are, I believe and I have seen your unchanging heart."

And as I sang and scrubbed, my cousin walked into the bathroom and said, "Oh Keturah, you're so faithful."

She could have said anything. "You're so diligent," "You're such a hard worker," "You're such a servant," any of which I would have been extremely encouraged to hear, but she said, "You're so faithful."

I believe God put those words in her mouth. After she left the bathroom I could only thank God saying, "Thank you for that! Thank you for making me faithful!"

I still don't feel faithful. But I know that God is working in me, and His constant faithfulness to me is proof that He wants to make me faithful in return.

So I guess I will end with restating that God does not require something of you that He does not first want to give to you. And that is awesome.

END NOTES:

The dance camp that I talked about really is all and more than I said it was. If you are a dancer, want to be a dancer, or just feel like it might be fun to try out for a week, here is the website which has more information. http://www.one11ministries.com/artscamp/

My sister Rachel is awesome! She is an author, editor, and speaker with 1:11 Ministries. If you are interested in reading some things she wrote, finding out about her career, or even getting to know her, here is her website. http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/

Does the Law Have a Purpose Anymore?

Now that we are under grace, does the law still have purpose?

Confusion has always been my reaction to this question.

"YES!" I would respond, in light of verses like Matthew 5:17,

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."

But when it came to verses like Hebrews 10:9,

then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

He TAKES AWAY the first. Doesn't that sound like it is done with?

How then did He not destroy the law?

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)

There. It's done. The law's purpose was to bring us to Christ, so now that we are under grace, the law is done.

Isn't it?

Of course, I understand that the law still has purpose in the lives of the unbelievers. They still need to be shown their sin, their need for a savior, so the law still is needed. But for the believer, for the one who has already been saved, who has already repented of their sin and are now under grace...what is the law for?

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” (Romans 7:7)

I used to just believe that the law still had purpose, because it says so in Matthew 5:17, without fully wrapping my head around it.

But now that's changed! :D

In my personal devotions a few days ago I realized a clear way of understanding what I already had believed, a new way of seeing it that made sense in my mind.

I was reading in Psalm 19, and I particularly noticed verses 7-8,

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; (Psalms 19:7, 8)

Normally, when I read in the Psalms about "the law," I make a subconscious switch in my mind to, "things that God/Jesus has said."

This isn't a bad thing, I don't think, but I think I deprived myself of this realization by doing that.

This time, for whatever reason, I decided to read it the way it was written, as, "The law."

(Okay, side note: Bible journals are AWESOME! I have some of the greatest insights sometimes just by writing down my thoughts on a passage. It is amazing.)

It didn't click right away, but I wrote my thoughts out until I saw it, this is what I wrote.

I think as Christians, we often put so much emphasis on grace that we neglect the law. (emphasis on grace is good, don't get me wrong, but we sometimes overlook the law) The bible tells us that the law was like a tutor to bring us to Christ, but that doesn't mean we forget it. Jesus said He did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. God made the law to show us who He is, how perfect and holy He is.

If we are striving to be like Him, what better place to look than the law? We shouldn't use it as a means for salvation, but it has rewards in itself. To look at these verses, you see that the law does not just condemn without grace, but with grace it frees.

That is where it clicked.

"...The law does not just condemn without grace, but with grace it frees."

The law and grace were designed to work together. In the old testament, the law was without grace, and all it was good for was to bring us to Christ, because all it could do on its own is condemn.

But when Jesus died, He opened a door for grace and the law to work together, a door where we could be saved without having to die for our own sins, and we could benefit from the law.

The law, we are told in Psalm 19, "Makes wise the simple," "Rejoices the heart," and "Enlightens the eyes." There is more still, if you read the rest of the chapter.

These things are there for us to have, because Jesus died for us, uniting grace and the law.

The Things We Do

I came to a lovely realization a while ago. Actually...I'm not sure if I thought it was lovely at the time, but now that I have thought about it more, I love it.

This is it in a nutshell, What we do does not define who we are.

I have known this to be true for a long time. Having struggled with self worth I realized a long time ago that what I do does not make me who I am, but Who I believe in.

My identity is in Christ, He says I am righteous and so I am, because what the world sees in me is fault, but God sees who He has made me to be, which is faultless.

This has been enormously helpful for me, and still will continue to be I am sure, but there is another side of it that I had not thought about until recently.

I love it because it builds me up, it shows me that I am more than I think I am sometimes. But now I love it too because when it needs to it breaks me down, it makes me humble.

If the bad things that I do do not make me bad, then surely the good things I do will not make me good.

I made some notes after first thinking about the second side of this, and here is some of what I wrote.

"We lay uncovered before God and He sees our hearts, and He sees who believes. He does not count us "good" or "bad" based on our actions, but based on who we put our trust in.

The world likes to label everyone based on what they do. If you paint pictures for a living, they call you "An artist." If you rule a kingdom, they call you a "king" or a "queen," if you do a lot of good things, they call you a "good person," but this is all external stuff."

If I can as easily say, "I am nothing because I have done wrong," as I can say, "I am better than other people because I have done right," then isn't judging based on what I do or achieve a flawed judgment?

Again, it points me back to Christ.

The only way I can be good is through Christ, I am shown this by both ways of thinking, whether it is that Christ defines who I am or...I guess they both are that Christ defines who I am. And that is it, plain and simple.

For by grace ye are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8)