Micah 7:8-13 - Israel will rise

So now we get Micah's response. Remember that he has just expressed his hope in God, despite the desperate situation. First he declares to his enemy that he should not gloat over him. Though he had fallen and was in darkness, the Lord would still save him, the Lord would be his light.

He knows the reason for his suffering, his sin against the Lord. See the complete acceptance of the reality of the situation. There is no pretence here. No pretence that things are not as bad as they seen, no pretence that it is not really his fault. So Micah looks to the Lord to hear his case. There are those who argue against "penal substitution", ie the concept that on the cross Christ was punished in our place. Such people do not know what they are talking about. We need to face up to the reality of our sin, and it is only the cross, only Christ taking upon Himself the punishment that should have been ours, that fully deals with the problem and the reality of our sin.

Christ did bear our sins, and He now pleads our case. So it is now our enemy who is covered in shame. So a time will come when we can rebuild. It is the rest of the world that will end up desolate. Indeed one day the nations will flock to Israel, but this will only happen when they turn to Christ.

Micah 7:1-7 - A desperate situation,but...

Before looking chapter 7 itself, let's remind ourselves of what has gone before. In chapter 5 we had promises of the Messiah. Then in chapter 6 we had God's judgement against Israel, and Israel's guilt.

Now we come to chapter 7. "What misery is mine!" There were great promises for Israel, but her sin means that seemingly she will never lay hold of them. Indeed, this is the condition of the whole human race. We were all created by God, created in His image, created to subdue the earth and have dominion. Yet we sinned against God and so cannot have any of this. 

There were no faithful people left in Israel, instead the land was run by blood thirsty men. The judges were corrupt and the rulers were out for their own ends. It does not need much imagination to see parallel to our own society in this!

So the day that God visits would be a day of alarm. The presence of God should be a day of rejoicing, we were created to live in fellowship with Him. Yes sin means that instead we are enemies of God, we by nature objects of wrath. 

Even the closest relationships, which should be a source of security, break down. No one can be trusted. Again we see this in society. One example is the high divorce rate. But generally, we are becoming a more litigious society, and more and more things are defined by law because trust has broken down.

Then we get a "but". Praise God for the "buts". Micah had not lost hope. Despite all that he sees, despite God's righteous judgement on the nation, he puts his hope in "God my saviour". See that Micah is not blind to the reality of the situation, rather he has faced up to it in full, yet still he hopes in God. This is how faith works.

Micah 6:9-16 - Discipline from the Lord

To fear the Name of the Lord is wisdom, or as it says in Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A respect for the Lord, knowing that He is all powerful, that He has the last word, and that He loves us is a solid foundation for life.

Israel was being disciplined. She had done much wrong, seriously wrong. So she was being punished. The key question was would she react to the punishment? Would she be resentful, would she try and ignore it? Or would she learn from it? Hebrews 12 reminds us that the Lord disciplines those whom He loves. God wants us to learn His ways so that we can have a harvest of righteousness and peace.

Israel had adopted corrupt and violent practices. For a time these had seemed to work, but now the Lord would judge her and everything would fail.

Along with the evil practices she had worshipped false idols as well. So she would be judged, and she would be scorned by other nations. The church too often tries to gain popularity by following the ways of the world, but this only leads to the church being scorned by the world. The only way for us to go is to follow the Lord, then He will exalt us in His ways.

Micah 6 :1-8 - Forgiven so we could be changed

Throughout the Bible the courtroom is often used as an analogy, right through to the effect of Jesus' work upon the cross. There is absolute right and wrong, we will all be called to give an account, especially God's own people. In fact it is a feature of the Bible that it is actually more concerned with how God's people behave, than how the rest of the world behave. It does not ignore how others behave, but its prime concern is with God's people. So our prime concern should be how we behave in the world. 

The Lord had a case against Israel. The Lord had done much for Israel. He had rescued them from Egypt, He had delivered them from various enemies.

Micah then responds to this. It is not more sacrifices that the Lord requires, but a change of heart. We are to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. This is how we should react in any situation we face. We should not fear the enemy, or the circumstances, but should instead seek to do what is right, to be merciful to others, and to trust in God. Then we will see the Lord act on our behalf. We are not meant to live life as if everything is dependent upon us, or as if we should be in total control. We are meant to live as if we are living in partnership, in fellowship, with God. And of course He is the senior partner!

Now Micah was not saying that the sacrifices were wrong, they were part of the Law, they were required. But the object was always that Israel should live right. In the same way, the gospel is not just about forgiveness, but is about forgiveness and transformation. We were forgiven so that we could be changed.

Micah 5 - Prophecy

We now get another prophecy of the coming Messiah, namely that He would come from Bethlehem. Assyria would marshal her troops against Israel and Judah, and would experience a degree of victory. But another leader would come, this time from Bethlehem, an out of the way place. God has a habit of choosing the insignificant to do significant work. In saying that the ruler would be one "whose origins are from of old, from ancient times", Micah is signifying that this would be no ordinary ruler, and is an allusion to the deity of Christ.

Verse 3 is very interesting. Israel has, to a large extent, been abandoned since that time. She did experience a return from Babylonian exile, but Israel recognised that this was not a full deliverance, for they spent much of the time under the rule of other nations (eg Rome). Then after Christ came Israel as a whole rejected their Messiah. But once the "full number of the Gentiles" has been brought into the kingdom (ie the "rest of his brothers"), Israel herself will return as a whole to Christ.

Jesus shepherds His flock Himself, and He does this in the strength of the Lord, and we live securely. And His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. We have a great Messiah!

While Christ is the complete fulfilment of the prophecy, there would be a partial fulfilment in the time of Assyria. For Assyria would get to the walls of Jerusalem, but no further. This partial followed by complete fulfilment is a common pattern in the Bible.

Then we read of the remnant of Israel being "in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord". Again we see that this has actually happened. Many famous people in history have been Jewish and have benefited mankind as a whole, and individual nations (Einstein, Disraeli, Richard Feynman, Henry Kissinger, even Ed Miliband is the son of Jewish immigrants). They are also a very independently minded people. Despite the circumstances the Jews will ultimately triumph.

The chapter closes with a declaration of God's intent to judge the sin of the people. It is not clear whether this is directed against just the nations, or Israel as well, for Israel was guilty of many of these things as well.

Micah 4 - The Lord's Plans

The end result of all things will be that the Lord's name will be exalted. As it says in Philippians 2, at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.

It may be that at the moment nations scoff at the name of Jesus, it may be that they rubbish the church, it may be that they show no respect for the ways of God. But a day is coming when people will recognise who the Lord is. They will want to learn from Him. Verse 2 is partially fulfilled through the growth of the church. Before Christ came the Law was restricted to the nation of Israel, but after the resurrection the gospel spread from Jerusalem to all of the world, and has continued to do so ever since. But an even greater fulfilment will come at the millennium. Verse 3 is reminiscent of the similar verse in Isaiah. 

Other peoples may choose to go their own way, but we will walk in the ways of the Lord.

The Lord will gather the needy to Himself and take care of them. Jesus healed the lame, and He spoke of Himself as the good shepherd. He also said He had sheep in other fields to go and look for. Kingship will come to the daughter of Jerusalem. Notice the mixture of genders here: kingship and daughter. The restoration God brings includes a restoration of authority.

But first there must be a time of captivity, of exile. Micah foresees the Babylonian exile, just as Isaiah did. But the exile would be so that they could be rescued. It would not be final.

So we see how God's plans work out. They do not follow a nice neat pattern, but seem at times to be going in the complete opposite direction. The nations thought Israel had been abandoned, but they "do not know the thoughts of the Lord". In the same way people may sometimes look down on you , thinking your life is going nowhere. But they do not know the plans that the Lord has for you. In the end we will be exalted to a place of authority.

Micah 3 - Judgement on leaders, prophets and priests

A repeated failing in Israel was that of leaders failing to be the leaders they were meant to be. The primary purpose of a leader is to "embrace justice". Instead Israel's rulers were hating good and loving evil. Of course, we see this pattern repeated time and time again, whether it be at a national level, or on a smaller scale in organisations and companies. When people see power as an opportunity to get their own ends they start to treat people as objects to be exploited. Then a time would come when these same rulers would cry out to the Lord, but He would not answer them, and the reason he would not answer is because of the evil they had done.

The prophets were no better. A leader is meant to rule on God's behalf, a prophet is meant to speak on God's behalf. This does not mean every single word a prophet says is a direct communication from God, but that what the prophet says is based on God's word, not on human thinking. But the prophets of the day were  speaking for money, not for God. All prophets, preachers and teachers need to beware of falling into the same trap.

So a time of darkness would come when there would be no revelation. This indicates that there is a time when they could hear God, but chose to speak out of the flesh. So the revelation would be stopped.

Micah, on the other hand, was a true prophet of God. He was filled with power and the Spirit, and with justice and might.  So he declared the sin and transgressions of the nation. Today society wants to silence the church, but it is part of the role of the church to declare a nation's sins to it.

The leaders, prophets and priests were utterly deluded. They thought that God would still be with them, that He would still protect them. If we turn away from God, He will turn away from us.

So Jerusalem would be come utterly desolated.