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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Micah describes the condition of the nation. The godly and upright people had vanished and he compared seeking them and not finding them to going into the vineyard after the grape harvest to find that there were no clusters left for him to eat. No one could be trusted. Everyone waited in ambush for one other. This was true even within families, for "A person's enemies are the people in his own home." But Micah was determined to remain faithful to the Lord. He knew God was his only hope for salvation.

Speaking in verses 8-13 as a representative of the nation, Micah addressed the enemies who God used to bring judgment on them. These enemies should withhold their rejoicing over the fall of Judah for her condition would not last and the fall of her enemies will come. Judah's fall was due to her sin, but once God was finished punishing her He would restore her and she would "see His salvation."

At that time those who had taunted Judah saying, "Where is the LORD your God?" would be put to shame when they saw the Lord restore the nation. But their shame will be even greater when God's judgment is turned on them and the earth becomes "a wasteland because of its inhabitants, and as a result of their actions."

Micah concluded the book exalting God for what He will do for Israel in the future. Yes, the nation will go through a time of suffering but God will restore her and will do "wondrous deed" in the process such as He did "in the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt." Those nations who caused Israel to fall will see this and be put to shame for they will be powerless to stop this restoration of Israel. Furthermore, they will be powerless to stop God's judgment of themselves.

Micah praised God for there is no other like Him whose anger does not last and He delights more in "faithful love" than in anger. God has not forgotten His promise to Abraham, for He will "show loyalty to Jacob and faithful love to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from days long ago."