Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
We tend to pay closer attention when multiple voices are saying the same thing, especially if it’s a serious warning, isn’t that true? In the past few days we’ve been looking at Isaiah’s remarkable vision encounter with God in the year that King Uzziah died, 740bc. Isaiah was given a very clear commissioning by God to become God’s prophet warning the leaders, of both the northern kingdom Israel and the southern kingdom Judah, of the soon coming judgment of God if they did not repent of their wickedness and lead their nations back to God.
At the very same time God was raising up another voice of warning to be heard by those kings, his name was Micah and today let’s hear how similar the prophet Micah’s words were to that of Isaiah. When God speaks a clear message through multiple voices we need to pay attention, do you agree?
Look around your city, your country and ask yourself: who are the voices calling the people to honor God’s way of thinking & living? Are there any voices warning us of God’s judgment if we continue down the path of rebellion against God?
Micah writes this in his first major message of warning: “Hear, you peoples, all of you, LISTEN earth and all who live in it, that the Sovereign LORD may bear witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.” (Micah 1:2) Did you notice this message from Micah is NOT singularly focused on Israel, but is a global warning, to all people of every nation in every generation? That includes us, 2700 years later, do you agree?
Do you hear Micah declaring the Sovereignty, Supremacy and Holiness of Almighty God? Do you hear Micah calling us to HONEST self reflection? So we listen to Micah with attentive ears, don’t we, no matter if we live in North America or Africa, Asia or South America. We listen with attentive ears no matter if we read this in the year 1776 or 2024 or even in the first century! Ok, God has our attention, what is His message to us through MICAH?
“Look! The LORD is coming from His dwelling place; He comes down and treads on the heights of the earth. The mountains melt beneath Him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.” (Micah 1:3,4)
What does that sound like to you my friends? Could it be the description of a volcano exploding hot lava running down the mountain like water and consuming everything in its path? Have you seen pictures of that happening in various places around our world in your lifetime? Does it also sound like major earthquakes which split the ground open and swallow up houses and even villages? Does it sound like landslides of rain soaked hillsides which bury entire villages or avalanches cascading down snow filled mountains?
Yes my friends, what we call ‘natural disasters’ happen under the watchful eye of Sovereign God who has the power to stop them or divert them to uninhabited places, right? But if God doesn’t and those ‘natural disasters’ devastate places where people live, should we be looking closely to see if it may be God’s discipline or judgment against unrepentant wickedness in that place? Is that what the prophet Micah is telling us?
With global information and communication, is God calling all peoples, in every part of the world to take careful note of His power and His ability to ravage this planet if He so desires? As you can tell my friends, I’m recording this in a thunderstorm!
Micah continues in his first message from God: “All this is because of Jacob’s transgression, because of the sins of the people of Israel. What is Jacob’s transgression? Is it not Samaria? What is Judah’s high place? Is it not Jerusalem? Therefore I, the LORD, will make Samaria a heap of rubble, a place for planting vineyards. I will roll the stones of her walls into the valley and lay bare her foundations. All her idols will be broken to pieces; all her temple gifts will be burned with fire. I will destroy her images…” (Micah 1:5-7)
We know Samaria was the wicked city which became the capital of the northern kingdom Israel. Yesterday I showed you that Israel was led by 20 different kings from the time of the death of King Solomon in 930bc till the invasion and conquest of Israel by the Assyrian Empire in 722bc. Most of those 20 kings were vicious, immoral, idol worshiping men who led the people of Israel away from God!
As we saw yesterday, 2 Kings 17 records for us the final demise of Israel, exactly as the prophet Micah describes it! By the way did you know Samaria has survived over the centuries and is today a town in what is known as the “West Bank” area of Israel, under Palestinian control?
The great city of Jerusalem, of course, was the capital city of united Israel, but after the death of King Solomon when the northern 10 tribes broke away forming the northern kingdom Israel, leaving only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the southern kingdom, Jerusalem remained their most important city, with the great Temple as the centerpiece of life for Israelites in Judah. But did you notice Micah also includes Jerusalem in his harsh prophetic warning?
That’s because God could foresee the future days when kings of the southern kingdom Judah would also turn the people away from God and God would bring disaster upon Jerusalem! In 586bc King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army finally conquered the southern kingdom Judah and destroyed Jerusalem, including that great Temple! Now watch this my friends: it’s a picture of the CONTAGIOUSNESS of sin and wickedness!
Have you noticed how wickedness spread from one person to another, one place to another, it’s contagious isn’t it? Have you also noticed wickedness is never satisfied and always searches for deeper, uglier, more destructive wickedness! The wickedness which brought the devastation of God to the northern kingdom Israel, spread into the southern kingdom Judah and eventually God ravaged even Jerusalem!
That is what Micah also predicted in this first warning message: “Because of this I will weep and wail… For Samaria’s plague is incurable and it has spread to Judah. It has reached the very gate of My people, even to Jerusalem itself.” (Micah 1:8,9) God knew many of the people in Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah were watching the terrible wickedness up north in Israel and feeling self-righteous as they proudly boasted of the great Temple of God in Jerusalem and especially during the early years of King Uzziah, such a wonderful time of God’s blessing upon them. (2 Chronicles 26) But God also knew there was a growing spirit of wickedness and idolatry in Jerusalem, perhaps not prevalent yet, but growing. (2 Chronicles 27:1,2)
Let’s pause right here friends and contemplate Micah’s warning. Remember his first message began with a GLOBAL warning! Do we see the contagiousness and deepening growth of wickedness in our cities, our countries, even in our own extended families? As we look around the world, do we see evidence of the great natural disasters God is permitting, but also do we understand the power of God’s judgment and how near it might be?
Here’s a song that might help us reflect on all this, and I’ll meet you right back here tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Micah 1:1-7.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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