Micah 7
COMMENTARY:
: 2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. (3477 “upright” [yashar] means straight, righteous, just, correct, pleasing, fitting, proper, level, or smooth.)
DEVOTION: There is a verse in Romans that states that there is none righteous no not one. Every human that enters this world is prone to sin. We are all born with a sin nature. That sin nature manifests itself in our selfishness and laziness. We want to do what we want to do when we want to do it. We also want to go along the easiest path to get to where we want to go.
Micah is stating that all the good men are gone. There is none that is straight. What does it mean to be straight? The other meanings for this word are righteous, just, pleasing, etc.
The book of Hebrews in the faith chapter informs us that “without faith it is impossible to please HIM.” Micah is warning those who he is ministering to that they are not pleasing the LORD. They are all heading in the wrong direction. They are all going down the wide road that leads to destruction.
No one can be trusted. Many people fake being a Christian. They really don’t want to be a follower of the LORD. What they want is people who they can take advantage of for their own personal gain.
Not only are these people strangers but even family members. Other family members enjoy seeing family members fail. They enjoy taking advantage of family members. They make fun of family members. Some even want to kill family members.
Our biological families many times don’t make things easy for us to serve the LORD. Our Biblical families many times are better to us than our biological family. Who are we going to spend time with for eternity? Who are lying in wait to shed our blood?
CHALLENGE: Micah is warning those who listening that the only one they can really trust in is the LORD. All others are sinners. God will never let you down.
: 7 Therefore I will look to the LORD: I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. (6822 “look” [tsaphah] means watchman, to keep watch, to spy, examine, to view, or to observe attentively.)
DEVOTION: What a statement. Micah has just given reasons for all the children of Israel to not trust their families or their neighbors. In the first six verses he informs those who are listening that no one is sinless. No one just. No one is going to act correctly toward anyone else. Families mean nothing. Teachers mean nothing. You can’t even trust those who are supposed to love us the most, our spouse.
If no one is trustworthy, what are we supposed to do? Micah figured it out. He was going to look to the LORD alone for guidance. HE was confident the LORD was going to deliver him. HE was confident that the LORD was going to hear his prayers.
We should have the same confidence in the LORD. People will let us down but the LORD will build us up.
Does that mean we can’t trust or listen to anyone that is human? NO!! We have to filter all that we hear and all those who want to teach us through the Word of God and prayer. God will give us the direction we need. HE will send the right people into our world to give us proper instructions.
CHALLENGE: Discernment is important to every believer. Don’t be fooled by fakes.
: 18 Who is a God like to YOU, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of HIS heritage? HE retains not HIS anger for ever, because HE delights in mercy. (2388 “retains” [chazaq] means to prevail, have courage, grow firm, to secure, overpower, strengthen, or grow rigid.)
DEVOTION: Those who have studied world religions understand what the false gods of the world required of their subjects. These false gods expected many things that the God of the Bible would never expect. These false gods had their priests who wanted possessions. They build everything around dread of an angry god. They were never offered peace just more rules. False religion is based on external rules not an internal life. Many today are based on chanting or recited prayers.
Our God wants to listen to our heart. HE is more concerned with our internal life than our obedience to external traditions. Our God wants to pardon iniquity. Our God has a remnant that knows that HE is going to forgive their transgressions. HE will chasten or correct us when we go down the wrong path but HE delight or is happy to show mercy.
Think about the difference between the God of the Bible and the gods of our world today. How do the people who follow false gods treat others? Can people see the difference between them and us? They should.
Our God is a merciful God. Our God expressed HIS love toward us through the death of HIS Son on the cross. There is no other belief system that has a living Savior.
CHALLENGE: Spread the news of our great God who loves to show mercy to those who repent of their sins.
: 19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. (3533 “subdue” [kabash] means to subject, force, keep under, bring into bondage, dominate, tread down or make subservient.)
DEVOTION: Micah presents the fact that there are none upright among men in Israel. Everyone is turning from the LORD. The members of a person’s family are going to be his enemies.
Micah promises to wait on the LORD. He might fall but the LORD will raise him up. He will suffer the consequences of his sin but the LORD will bring him to the light. He will behold the righteousness of the LORD.
People will see his circumstances and ask him where his God is. They want to know how the LORD can allow one of his servants to suffer. He gives them the assurance that the LORD will rescue him out of all his troubles.
Micah presents a picture in these final verses of this book that should quiet our minds if we are in Christ. The children of Israel have been bad. They have been plotting evil against one another. They have been plotting evil against those of their own households. Relatives were enemies to each other. Families were hurting each other. All the units of society were falling apart. The leaders of the community were looking for bribes from everyone. Yet, in all of this the final verses give us hope.
The LORD is described as wanting to show mercy to HIS people. HE is one who wants to show compassion to HIS people. HE is going to tread down the sins of HIS people. HE is going to thrown HIS peoples sins into the sea. How can HE do this? The blood of Christ is going to cleanse them of their sins. HE will no longer look on their sins but on the blood of HIS son. Only the blood of Christ on the cross can pardon our sins. We can be forgiven. Praise the LORD. Israel will have a remnant that will be forgiven. Let’s spread the word of the availability of forgiveness of sin through Christ. Micah shared his HOPE in the LORD to everyone in Israel. He looked to the future for the coming of the Messiah. He knew he was a sinner who looked to the LORD for forgiveness.
CHALLENGE: Where are the sins of those who are followers of Jesus Christ? If the answer is buried in the deepest sin, then we need to act according to the statements of Scripture and not on our feelings.
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