Reflections on Micah 7

Micah 07 (Contemporary English Version)


1. I feel so empty inside-- like someone starving for grapes or figs, after the vines and trees have all been picked clean.
   
2. No one is loyal to God; no one does right. Everyone is brutal and eager to deceive everyone else.
   
3. People cooperate to commit crime. Judges and leaders demand bribes, and rulers cheat in court.
   
4. The most honest of them is worse than a thorn patch. Your doom has come! Lookouts sound the warning, and everyone panics.
   
5. Don't trust anyone, not even your best friend, and be careful what you say to the one you love.
   
6. Sons refuse to respect their own fathers, daughters rebel against their own mothers, and daughters-in-law despise their mothers-in-law. Your family is now your enemy.
   
7. But I trust the LORD God to save me, and I will wait for him to answer my prayer.
   
8. My enemies, don't be glad because of my troubles! I may have fallen, but I will get up; I may be sitting in the dark, but the LORD is my light.
   
9. I have sinned against the LORD. And so I must endure his anger, until he comes to my defense. But I know that I will see him making things right for me and leading me to the light.
   
10. You, my enemies, said, "The LORD God is helpless." Now each of you will be disgraced and put to shame. I will see you trampled like mud in the street.
    
11. Towns of Judah, the day is coming when your walls will be rebuilt, and your boundaries enlarged.
    
12. People will flock to you from Assyria and Egypt, from Babylonia and everywhere else.
    
13. Those nations will suffer disaster because of what they did.
    
14. Lead your people, LORD! Come and be our shepherd. Grasslands surround us, but we live in a forest. So lead us to Bashan and Gilead, and let us find pasture as we did long ago.
    
15. I, the LORD, will work miracles just as I did when I led you out of Egypt.
    
16. Nations will see this and be ashamed because of their helpless armies. They will be in shock, unable to speak or hear,
    
17. because of their fear of me, your LORD and God. Then they will come trembling, crawling out of their fortresses like insects or snakes, lapping up the dust.
    
18. Our God, no one is like you. We are all that is left of your chosen people, and you freely forgive our sin and guilt. You don't stay angry forever; you're glad to have pity
    
19. and pleased to be merciful. You will trample on our sins and throw them in the sea.
    
20. You will keep your word and be faithful to Jacob and to Abraham, as you promised our ancestors many years ago.
    

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The third and last message of Micah continues in this 7th and last chapter of the book. Micah states his sadness at looking around him and being unable to find godly people. He compared it to going to the field to pick fruit but finding that all the fruit has picked. From the leaders on down, everyone was intent on doing evil. One could not depend on a friend or even family members for they might turn against him for their own benefit. Because of this state of affairs, punishment was coming their way.

Unfortunately, their was a remnant who, like Micah, looked to the Lord, but who would be caught in the punishment that was coming to the nation. No, Micah and this remnant were not innocent, for as Micah confessed, they had sinned. None of us are totally innocent of sin. But for Micah and this remnant, they were more inclined to "look to the Lord" than to sin. Would God have planned punishment for Israel had the nation as a whole been like this remnant? Unlikely. But the remnant would suffer along with the others. Micah, however, states what separates the godly from the ungodly, the faithful from the unfaithful. Though he must "endure the Lord's rage" he knows the Lord will argue his case and establish justice for him. Micah also knows a day will come when the enemy will no longer gloat over their defeat of Israel but will instead be "covered with shame" when the Lord restores Israel. This restoration will not occur until the Messiah's second advent when He will rule the world. (chapter 5 addresses this more) "On that day people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, even from Egypt to the Euphrates River and from sea to sea and mountain to mountain." These people will come to Israel to learn about and worship God.

Comments of the previous paragraph about the godly remnant suffering along with the ungodly will undoubtedly raise questions with some about God's justice or how a loving God could allow such suffering for good people. These are age-old questions. But for those who, like Micah, "look to the Lord," they are not deterrents to following God. Why not? Because they trust God even when they don't understand what He is doing. After all, He is God and we are not. Once the issue is settled concerning one's trust of God to care for those who put their trust in Him, they can endure even when they don't understand. They know, as did Micah, that one day God will again lift them up and bless them. Those who trust the Lord come to understand that in diversity our faith and character are strengthened even more than in good times, and as the psalmist says, "Weeping may spend the night, but there is joy in the morning." (Psm 30:5) This joy surpasses any we know under normal conditions. But one can only accept this by faith until they experience it and can then understand it. In John chapter 16, Christ compares suffering His followers endure to the pains of childbirth. But once the child is born, the woman no longer remembers the pain because of the great joy over the child that has been born. In verse 22 of that chapter, Christ says, "So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will rob you of your joy."

Verses 15-20 of this last chapter of Micah conclude the book with a description of the ultimate joy Israel will have following her suffering. God will show them "wondrous deeds as in the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt."