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)

Micah 2-3: God the Judge, or God the Lover?

Yay! We're back! This is Part 2 of my Micah observations, and please, if you would like to read the chapters I am talking about and add to my thoughts, feel free to do so! I would love to hear what you have learned/are learning.

In the overview I gave last time, I said that the tone of this book is judgment. God has a message for Micah to give to Israel, and His message is that destruction is coming to them because of their sin. However, even while God seems to be angrily telling them of the terror that is coming, He makes sure to mention that He is grieving with them, and for them. Their sin is not just an offence, but a wound, and it's killing them.

In Micah 2, He says,

Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
    Has the Lord grown impatient?
    Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
    to him who walks uprightly? (Micah 2:7)

As He is saying "Woe to those..." He makes sure to reasonably refute any injustice they might accredit to Him.

"Think about it," He challenges them. "Am I being harsh?"

What struck me especially was that He said, "Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?"

God wants them (and us) to understand WHY He is angry with their sin. Earlier He called it a wound, it's hurting the ones who are committing it. But beyond that, He calls them out for things like,

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)

He's not just against the perpetrators, but He is for the victims. To punish them for their sin is to give relief to the ones who have been suffering the results of it.

In Chapter 3, He specifically addresses the leaders of the people. 

And I said:
Hear, you heads of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice? (Micah 3:1)

If you read the rest of the chapter, He basically calls out the leaders, judges, and prophets, for lying, stealing, and mistreating the people they are supposed to be leading.

One of the main things I wanted to point out to my bible study when we read through this book, was that God is the same in the Old and New Testament.

When I was a kid, I heard stories about God bringing Israel out of Egypt, but what stuck in my mind was not the fact that He stepped in and saved Israel, it was that He brought plagues down on Egypt. I didn't think about the picture of salvation the Passover Lamb was for us, I thought about the fact that God killed every firstborn Egyptian. 

When I thought about their deliverance, I remembered the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. I remembered the sons of Korah being swallowed by the earth. I remembered Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. David and Bathsheba's baby.

This was my picture of God.

And then somehow, I was supposed to believe that the One who came as a baby, humbly born in a stable, the One who healed the lame and sick, the One who said, "Let the little children come to Me," the One who said, "Let the one without sin cast the first stone," somehow THAT One was the same God?

After all, wasn't GOD the one who made the law that she should be stoned?

I couldn't reconcile those two pictures of God in my mind until I was 13, when I felt the presence of God for the first time. When I felt so desperate, I knew that turning to God was my only option. In that moment, He showed me that I did not understand Him at all.

That moment began a journey for me of learning who God is. I gave Him control of my life, I accepted His sacrifice for me, and suddenly discovered that He wants me to learn to know Him as intimately as He knows me.

What I discovered, when I finally trusted Him and started learning, is that the story of "THAT One," does not begin in the New Testament. His story is told through the whole bible, beginning in Genesis, continuing through to Revelation.

In the Old Testament, you see the heart of God in the New, saying things like,

For this I will lament and wail;
    I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,    and mourning like the ostriches.
For her wound is incurable,
    and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
    to Jerusalem. (Micah 1:8-9)

The wound that Jesus knew wouldn't be healed by stones thrown by broken people. The wound that Jesus came to finally bind up and heal.

In the New Testament, you see the heart of God in the Old, saying things like, 

(Jesus talking about the Pharisees) They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. (remember how He reprimanded the leaders in Micah?)
....But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. (remember how He reprimanded the prophets in Micah?)
....O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" (remember how the wound is incurable because they refuse to stop drinking the poison?) 
(Matthew 23:4, 13, 37, commentary added)

In the New and Old Testament alike, God grieves over the sin of the people, and begs them to repent, because He WANTS them. If God really was just so angry that He didn't care to give them another chance, He wouldn't have given Micah anything to say. He was perfectly capable of ruining them without warning them first. The fact that Micah wrote a book of warning to the people is evidence that He wanted to give them another chance.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Micah 1: God's Grief and Places that Don't Exist

This past week, I had the privilege of teaching bible at an arts camp up in the Niagara area.

Every year since it started, I have gone as a camper. Dancing, learning, and trusting God to speak to me. Every year He has.

My first thought, when I was asked if I would be interested in teaching, was that if I have learned one thing from the leaders at dance camp, it's that the secret to success is hearing from Jesus.

Every year they impressed on me that they had asked God what He wanted to speak, and then they waited for an answer. Sometimes He gave an answer the night before the first day of camp, and they had the faith to just wait for it. That is the kind of faith I want to have, and since I already know He has been faithful to speak every year at this camp, I thought it would be a good time to start cultivating that sort of faith in myself.

"Lord," I prayed, "Please tell me what you want me to teach on." And just like that, I felt a gust of wind, and my bible fell off of the shelf into my lap, opened on John 3.

Just kidding.

I prayed, and I got nothin. Which was cool, that's what I expected at first. I have been around prayer long enough to know sometimes you have to wait.

After a few days of waiting, I realized that I had had the book of Micah in the back of my head every day. I decided to start reading through it, and if I got some inspiration, take that as my answer. So I did, and Micah it was! I had such a fun time reading Micah and then teaching about Micah, that I decided to write a blog post (or maybe a few) about it! So here we go. :)

So, Micah was given a message to bring to Israel, and his message was this, "Hear, all you peoples! Thus says the Lord: Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks. (but) He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy."

That's a really short paraphrase of his message, taken from several parts of Micah.

Alright, so Chapter 1.

The vibe of this whole chapter is, "I am coming to destroy you because of your sin."

But then there is a really interesting section which says,

For this I will lament and wail;
    I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
    and mourning like the ostriches.
9 For her wound is incurable,
    and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
    to Jerusalem. (Micah 1:8-9)

I had to explain to my bible study class of 8-12 years that "I will go stripped and naked," is not necessarily literal, but is representative of grief. It's similar to the many times the bible says that people tore their clothes in mourning, it was a physical representation of the inner turmoil the person was experiencing.

That being understood...is God grieving?

This puts into a different perspective how God feels about sin. We always talk about how God hates sin, which is true, but in His own words, "I will make lamentation like the jackals." His sobs are loud, His grief is audible.

But wait. He said "For this," referring back to what He just said about judgment. He is not saying He's grieving over sin, He's saying He's grieving over the punishment He's bringing on Israel.

"For her wound is incurable."

Now we discover how He feels about their sin. Their "wound." I don't think I need to elaborate on that. God sees sin as a wound, a detriment both to the one sinned against and the one who committed it.

God hates every part of this. He doesn't enjoy punishment, but he can't continue to watch the people He loves suffer.

But isn't God powerful enough to heal any sickness? Why is punishment the only option? 

Because there is a difference between finding an antidote for a poison you drank once, and a poison you keep drinking every time you get the chance. No matter how much medicine you take for it, if you keep drinking the poison, it's going to be fatal.

There is lots more to this chapter than what I am getting into, but there were two parts that I found the most interesting, and spent the most time teaching on. The second one is a few verses later, where Micah gives a list of cities.

Pass on your way,
    inhabitants of Shaphir,
    in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
    do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
    shall take away from you its standing place. (Micah 1:11)

What?

I love doing that. :D So often I read the bible, and if things are a little confusing, or I don't have enough context, I'll just be like, "Yeah, I get it." But I really don't. Since I was going to be teaching this book to a bunch of smart kids, I had to actually look into things like this.

I thought, at first, that this was probably what this meant: 

Shaphir is probably a place in Israel, and Micah is saying that the inhabitants of it are going to be disgraced by the punishment of God. Zaanan, (another place in Israel) is going to be so desolate, there will be no more inhabitants to come out. Beth-ezel, (another place in Israel) will lament the ruin of everything she knows, and...the people will have no more place to stand?

The first thing I tried to find out about this verse, is where these places are, and if they have any significance. What I discovered was that none of them actually exist! Shaphir, Zaanan, and Beth-ezel are not places in Israel.

Shaphir means "Pleasantness," or "Splendid."

Zaanan means "Going out."

Beth-ezel means "House of nearness."

The "standing place," as I looked into the meaning, could mean a stage, standing place, or state of being. "Take away from you," could mean "take from you, as in "follow your example."

A couple disclaimers, I don't claim that this is definitely what Micah meant by this list, but this is what I noticed emerge when I looked at all three of them together. Also, if you read other translations of the last part, there are a bunch of different meanings this could take on.

"Pass on your way, inhabitants of Splendor, in nakedness and shame; (The ones that were splendid are now disgraced) The inhabitants of Going Out do not come out; (The ones who went out do not go out anymore) The lamentation of the House of Nearness shall take away from you its standing place. (the House of Nearness will do the same.)"

What is Beth-ezel, the House of Nearness?

Since what is being said is that they have fallen away from God, and thus, will be punished by God, I think the House of Nearness may refer to the temple, or even a metaphor for their relationship with God as a nation.

Shaphir and Zaanan have brought backwardness on themselves. They did the opposite of what they should have done, inviting the consequence, that splendour would become shame, and going out would become staying in. If their modus operandi was backwardness, then the House of Nearness would also fall in line, and nearness to God would become separation from Him.

I guess I will be writing a sequel to this, since I only got through one chapter today. Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on my insights, and any additional insights you have! Thanks for reading!

Is God Really in Control?

I have always had a hard time with the saying "God is in control."

A few months ago I had a conversation with a young man, who had dealt with issues I wouldn't have imagined, experienced things most people won't talk about, and arrived at a place of brokenness foreign to most broken people.

I looked sheltered, protected, and pampered, even to myself. I was almost afraid to speak for fear of saying something like, "God is in control." I put myself in his shoes, or at least I tried, and realized that those words that are meant to be a comfort would only be an insult to a hurting heart, even one that trusted Him. 

That night I read a story about a Rwandan woman whose son was killed during the Rwandan genocide, and how she faced his killer. Forgave his killer. And blessed his killer.

I put myself in her shoes, or at least tried to, and realized that though she trusted God, (unlike the aforementioned man) to say, "God is in control," would be nothing more than empty words, echoing in the mind of a person trying desperately to cling to something with meaning.

The next morning my dad got violently sick, and although I was concerned about him, I didn't realize til later he thought he wasn't going to make it. It awoke to me again the reality that I try not to think about, that my family consists of mortals, and eventually, someone I really love will die. I put myself in that place, and realized that though I would cling to Christ with everything I am, if someone told me, "God is in control," I would have a hard time not becoming angry with them.

“I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are you all! Shall words of wind have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? I also could speak as you do, If your soul were in my soul’s place. I could heap up words against you, And shake my head at you; (Job 16:2-4)

I read a book shortly thereafter called Making Sense Out of Suffering, and an article about the Armenian genocide, and I just find myself thinking, what is it about the phrase that I hate so much? It doesn't seem to comfort, though it should, it doesn't even seem to convict, though I would expect it to.

Do I not believe it? Am I actually so faithless that I cannot find comfort in God's sovereignty?

But then I realized that the word control implies initiative.

You can't be given control over a situation, nor can you just have it, control is taken. 

Authority is different.

I was at McDonalds one time, (where I work) and my coworker paid an order out wrong. My manager had authority over the situation, but I was the one who took control and told my coworker how to handle it. Together we solved the problem, and the manager didn't even have to get involved. 

If, when my coworker had started to freak out about it, I had said, "Don't worry, Manager S. is in control," this would not have comforted, since she barely seemed to be aware of the issue, much less doing anything about it. She certainly had the authority to step in and take charge, but she didn't, and it would have been useless to try to be comforted by the thought.

When a Team Leader is promoted to a Manager, they are given new authority in their workplace. They are not given control. You might say they are given the authority to take control.

Once given authority, an insecure manager might take control in every situation, but a discerning manager will, more often than not, equip people to handle hard situations by themselves.

I think the reason "God is in control," feels like such an insult both to suffering and to faith, is because it seems to say that God orchestrated every tragedy that occurs, and somehow had a hand in bringing about horrific pain.

Does it seem good to You that You should oppress, That You should despise the work of Your hands, And smile on the counsel of the wicked? (Job 10:3)

It is not God's way to give His people the ability to will and act, and then control their lives. 

So no, I suppose you could say that I don't believe God is in control. But only because I do not believe He always takes control.

God is not insecure, nor power hungry, nor uncaring. Like a good manager He stands close by, ready at a moment's notice to assist, but also like a good manager He teaches rather than takes over.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5)

He may let us be pushed further than we think we can bear, but (unlike a McDonalds manager) He made us, and so knows much better than we how much we can take.

For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment. (Psalm 66:10-12)

But that too is a hard thing to hear when life seems to have fallen apart. "He will not give you more than you can bear." It sounds more hopeful than truthful, and we're actually pretty skeptical creatures when it comes to hope without cause.

The truth behind the hope is not that He has control, but that He has authority, and if He sees that you are pushed too far, stretched too thin, or are falling too deep, He'll be right there to take control until He's satisfied that you can handle it again.

And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land..." (Exodus 3:7-8a)

Dispair and blame come with the assurance that God is in control.

Comfort comes with the assurance that God is present, and He has authority.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)

Of course, this is my interpretation of the bible and what I have seen and experienced. If you have a different point of view, I'd love to hear it!

As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. (Proverbs 27:17)