Series in Micah - The Coming of God's Wrath

 

The Coming of God’s Wrath

Micah 1:1-7

As I begin a new book to teach the timeless truths from God’s Word. I prayed and the Lord led me to the Old Testament book of Micah. It has a very pertinent theme to the times we live in now as it was in the time that Micah spoke to the nations in his lifetime. The correlation between nations that had God at their beginnings and those nations that have not are seen in their relationship to God in obedience and disobedience, in their lust for the world and its harlotry ways and the desire of a people who devoted themselves to the disobedience of the morals and directives of Almighty God. So let’s read the first portion of the text. “The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 

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. 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 was not a man from the hierarchy of Israel, but a humble man raised up by God from the common people of a small town called Moresheth. He was also a contemporary of Isaiah. Micah begins this book with an exhortation that this is a Word from the Sovereign Lord, Yahweh. And he came as a witness to the depravity and sinfulness of the kings, rulers, and the common people of his country. 

He begins with Israel, the northern kingdom after the split of the country into the reigns of Jeroboam and (the southern kingdom) Rehoboam. For both had fallen into the sin of idolatry and prostrated themselves to foreign gods and the alliances with the ungodly which literally lead them away from their relationship and devotion to God Almighty and the One who loved them and gave life to them as a people and as a nation. 

God gives a vision to Micah that encompasses not only Israel and Judah but the whole earth. For He sees that the sin committed by them would literally lead to the judgment and destruction of all on the earth. Micah begins with the clarion call to all peoples of the earth. “Listen, earth and all who live in it, that the Sovereign Lord may bear witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.” 

Micah sees the vision of the coming judgment upon the whole of earth because of the rebellion, harlotry, and hard-heartedness of a depraved sinful world. God has a view from His throne room in Heaven, and had seen, heard, and smelled the debauchery of his creation, and especially those who were His chosen people who were to be a light, a witness to the world of God’s grace, mercy, and compassion. Micah, like Isaiah, saw the sovereign hand of a just God and the heart of lovingkindness of God. “The Lord says, ‘I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name. All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes. All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens. They burn incense on pagan altars. At night they go out among the graves, worshiping the dead. They eat the flesh of pigs and make stews with other forbidden foods. Yet they say to each other, ‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me! I am holier than you!’ These people are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away.”’ (Isa. 65:1-5 NLT)

Micah now sees in an anthropomorphic vision of the Lord Almighty coming down in judgment from on high. God is beyond mad, He comes with his full wrath against sin and all who commit it. He begins with His creation, the earth. He starts with the highest places, the mountains, for mankind had used these places as their idolic sanctuaries of debauchery and harlotry against God. Mankind built their shrines of abomination upon the high places for they symbolized dominion, sovereignty and paramountcy (being of greatest importance). 

In the vision, God melts these mountainous places as wax melts before a flaming fire, then He moves down into the valleys where the people have built their homes and cities from the wealth acquired through their sin and alliance with the ungodly. God brings the quaking of the earth to level the mountains and split the valleys. He brings upon them a torrent of water, flooding everything, demolishing all the sin-filled homes, altars, and high places of harlotry and idol worship. “The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.”

Application - I don’t know how to describe the sensational cataclysmic portrayal of this kind of a disaster. I have been through earthquakes, hurricanes, and deep snow. But nothing in my personal life could prepare me for the cataclysmic judgment of God as pictured by Micah from His vision. But I believe I can understand and have seen the debauchery of mankind to such an extent to emulate the sinfulness that Samaria and Judah did before their Sovereign Lord and God. For we in this world are experiencing and propagating evil that out rivals the sins of the country of Israel. 

It would be just for Almighty God to come and judge this world, and especially my country of birth who has its beginning in the moral statutes of the Holy Scripture from God to govern them in righteousness and truth. 

Saying all this, God is compassionate, merciful, and gracious to those who will repent (turn from their wicked ways), seek Him in order for Him to relent of His wrath. It was the prophet Jeremiah who would come later after Micah to the same people; who heard from the Lord of the coming judgment and saw the full wrath of God on these very same people that Micah had spoken about. “But I am full of the wrath of the Lord; I am weary with holding it in. ‘Pour it out on the children in the street and on the gathering of young men together; For both husband and wife shall be taken, the aged and the very old.’” “You who have forsaken Me,” declares the Lord, “You keep going backward. So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am tired of relenting! “I will winnow them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people; they did not repent of their ways.” (Jer. 6:11; 15:6-7 NASB) 

Yes this happened, but God is also patient and desires for all to repent today, as Peter wrote to the churches, “But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Pet. 3:7-9)

As it was in Micah’s day, so it is in ours. Will we turn from our wickedness, harlotry, debauchery, and depravity of mind, spirit, and soul? Will we listen to God, who said, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chr. 7:14)?

Last, Micah now exposes and addresses the sin of Israel and Judah. So let’s read the final portion of the text. “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 will make Samaria a heap of rubble, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour her stones 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 all her images. Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes, as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used.’”

For it  was from this one nation Israel that God chose to bless the world through them. “He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”” (Isa. 49:6 NLT)  And it is from these two fractured nations that God demonstrated to the world His righteous anger and holy displeasure and hatred of sin. Micah uses two words for wickedness, transgression and sin. For God had brought these people out of bondage into a place that he gave them to dwell and prosper. He gave them the law and commandments and His very presence in the country and city that He chose to put His name, a place where God will dwell with man. But they went against God and forsook and disobeyed His commands for the world’s ways and their idolic promiscuity, and in their sins they strayed far away from God, ignoring His voice to return.

For Israel, the northern kingdom was the first to seek and follow after the nations around them through the leadership of its people, both political and religious. Because of their debauchery and harlotry to idol worship and its depraved practices, God gave them into the hands of the nations around them. And it was in this relationship and alliance with the world, that Judah and its capital Jerusalem, the city of God also entered into the same transgression and sin as did its sister nation Israel. 

God plainly reveals to Micah that He is bringing His judgment and wrath upon both nations. Samaria (Israel) will be nothing but a pile of rubble, a place that would be a haunt for the wild beasts of the earth. And God is going to bring fire as His instrument of destruction to strip Samaria bare before the world as a witness on how God deals with transgression and sin. All of the deplorable idols and every image of false gods will be destroyed. And God stripped the people of everything and placed them in bondage to the nations around them. The wages of idolatry and its harlotry that Samaria had used to build their cities and homes and their lifestyles would now be given to those who would control and have bondage over them.

Application - This is a gloomy epitaph of a nation of people who God chose and loved, and still loves. But they wouldn’t listen or obey His warnings and suffered the consequences of their lifestyle of rebellion and disobedience (transgression) and their heart’s condition of sinfulness. Much like many nations today, God has reachout with grace and mercy, with His invitation of salvation, to be among His chosen people in His kingdom in Heaven for eternity through repentance through grace by faith in His Son Jesus Christ. There seems to be no turning to Him by most of the world, they have given themselves over to the idols of pleasure, profit, power, and pride. They celebrate the death of the innocent and crave the violence of domination. They wallow in a state of entrancement to an alternate reality in order to deal with the ordeals of sin through alcohol, drugs, and illusory and delusional practices. 

But there is a remnant who is striving to reach out as a light in a darkened world. They are carrying a message of hope, of peace, and of a God whose love is eternal. Because He is patient beyond any man’s imagination, he longs for the reconciliation and fellowship of the people he has created, in a world that he created especially for them. But He is also just and righteous, who must discipline and finally judge sin, its author, and all who will not heed His call. A day will come when He will intervene in a costly and devastational way. But like Israel and Judah he longs to redeem them and will at the end of the time of this world. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Pet. 3:9 NLT) 

As the Psalmist wrote, “For he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today! The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts.” ““Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Ps. 95:7; Heb. 3:15 NLT) 

In closing this lesson, if you know Him rejoice for He has a purpose and a plan for you, if you don’t know him as Savior and Lord, please hear the words of the prophet, for God doesn’t desire the death of anyone. “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die…” (Ezk. 18:32 NIV)

I’m again including the ABC’s of salvation for all those who have not yet received Jesus Christ for salvation. For Jesus, God the Son, came to this world to save all who would believe and trust in him. He desires to reveal himself to you, He is the Light that overcomes the darkness of this lawless world. He hears your prayers, and all authority in heaven and earth have been given to him. He will answer you if you will truly believe. If you haven’t asked him to be your Lord and Savior, today could be that day.

 First, A - Admit that you are a sinner. This is where that godly sorrow leads to genuine repentance for sinning against a righteous God and there is a change of heart, we change our mind and God changes our hearts and regenerates us from the inside out. Romans 3:10 - As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (We are all born sinners which is why we must be born spiritually in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven). Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The bad news is that the wages of sin is death, in other words our sin means that we have been given a death sentence, we have the death penalty hanging over our heads, that's the bad news. But here's the good news: The good news is that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Second,

 B - Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is trusting with all of your heart that Jesus Christ is who he said he was. Romans 10:9-10 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Third, 

C - Call upon the name of the Lord. Every single person who ever lived since Adam will bend their knee and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Romans 14:11 - For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." Don't wait until later — do this now. Romans 10:13 - For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." "O God, I am a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son; I believe that He died on the cross for my sin and that He was buried and You raised Him to life. I have decided to place my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, trusting only in His shed blood as sufficient to save my soul and to take me to heaven. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Amen."

Please share this with someone this week, the Lord knows that we and they need it.

If you would like other lessons, please go to http://pmdinhisservice.blogspot.com 

Until next week, In His Service Mike Davis

I have revised my webpage on Spiritual warfare. Please give it a look. Thank you. http://uss-warfare3.webnode.com