Series in Micah - The Verdict and Sentence

 

The Verdict and Sentence

Micah 6:9-16

God is still holding court, but now He has come to the verdict and the judgment. People who follow court cases usually try to surmise or ascertain the outcome of the verdict and the length and weight of the judgment through their own reasoning. Not so with God, He is a just judge who weighed out the motives, the evidence, and the impact and damage of the case of the plaintiff, and then meted out the appropriate judgment. So let’s read the first portion of the text. “Fear the Lord if you are wise! His voice calls to everyone in Jerusalem: “The armies of destruction are coming; the Lord is sending them. What shall I say about the homes of the wicked filled with treasures gained by cheating? What about the disgusting practice of measuring out grain with dishonest measures? How can I tolerate your merchants who use dishonest scales and weights? The rich among you have become wealthy through extortion and violence. Your citizens are so used to lying that their tongues can no longer tell the truth.” NLT

Micah has seen the oracles and heard the truth as presented in God's case as the plaintiff. Now the verdict, God's response is critical to the lives of the people in Israel and Jerusalem. He says again to get wisdom, be wise in your next steps, Fear the Lord, for you have been given into His hands of judgment. God is calling to everyone in the nation. Take heed! Listen up! The verdict is in and the judgment is complete annihilation of all evil practices, complete desolation and demolition by the sword of God’s wrath upon sin. “The armies of destruction are coming; the Lord is sending them.” 

God in His verdict lays out the resulting judgment of their sinful acts. He has seen the resulting acts of the wicked and the wealthy, he has heard the cries of the widow and the poor. He knows about the treasures of ill gotten gain, the oppression of the people, “...the disgusting practice of measuring out grain with dishonest measures” He has seen the inflation of pricing, the dishonest scales of commerce and justice, He will not tolerate it. The rich have become wealthy on the backs of the people through oppression, violence, extortion, mendacious dishonesty, and outright deceitfulness. 

God has seen and heard enough, for the citizens of Israel had not only tolerated harlotry but led in it, They are clothed in deceit and transgression so much that they “are so used to lying that their tongues can no longer tell the truth.” The citizens had propagated it and had become habitual in their lying and nefarious in their actions.

Application - Again history is repeated or has a twin in our modern days. Many nations could be cataloged in the muck and mire of the same sinfulness that Israel and later Jerusalem were judged to have committed. And God is shouting through His few messengers, Listen Up! Take heed! Wisen up! We must fear God who is very able to and will judge our sinfulness against Him and our unjust practices. Again, get wisdom! God has been very patient as the apostle Peter stated in his second letter to the church and the world. He is going to judge this world, and his verdict and sentencing is the consuming fire of judgment. “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles…But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” (2 Peter 3:2,5-10)

I am not Micah, nor am I a prophet. I’m just forthtelling the prophecies and the word of God that were spoken for the last days. I am just a servant of God. God loves his creation, but He hates sin, and just as Jerusalem would be ravaged by Babylon for it ignoring the judgment of God poured out on its sister nation Israel. I believe we too are ignoring the Words of God for all nations today. For if Israel and Judah were judged because of their transgressions and harlotry of paganism, and their social inequities and iniquities, we are as guilty and are charged. For many countries have built their ill-gotten treasures and filled their bank accounts from wickedness and business ventures of cheating, extortion, using dishonest scales of justice or economic measures to pad the inflation of goods and services for the gain of riches for themselves. And we are so adept at lying that it is beyond habitual, if that were possible! For many of the laws and legal rulings today have been built on jurisprudence misrule or ochlocratic precedents and lawless enactments by executive orders. 

So that leads us back to the admonition, “Fear the Lord if you are wise! If not, then we will get the aforementioned resulting judgment just as these other nations received. 

Last, God makes a statement that brought fear to the heart of every citizen in Israel, the northern nation and probably an divine admonition to Judah, the southern nation. So let’s read the last portion of the text. “Therefore, I will wound you! I will bring you to ruin for all your sins. You will eat but never have enough. Your hunger pangs and emptiness will remain. And though you try to save your money, it will come to nothing in the end. You will save a little, but I will give it to those who conquer you. You will plant crops but not harvest them. You will press your olives but not get enough oil to anoint yourselves. You will trample the grapes but get no juice to make your wine. You keep only the laws of evil King Omri; you follow only the example of wicked King Ahab! Therefore, I will make an example of you, bringing you to complete ruin. You will be treated with contempt, mocked by all who see you.” NLT

God said that He would bless and curse those who obeyed and disobeyed the laws and commands He had Moses write in the Torah (Deut. 28-30). And Micah knew as well what God says He will do, and He will do it. “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Num. 23:19 NIV)

For God laid out his judgment in several steps. First, God will wound some of them and not outrightly kill them all because of all their sins. Second, God will ruin them financially, spiritually, and physically. They will not have enough food or money. The enterprising wealthy and religious, the uncompassionate landowners and hardhearted business owners will be ruined and will lose everything. All that will remain will be desolation, grimness, and an acidic smoke of the ruined nation that had once been fertile and flourishing, now it will be the haunt of owls and wild animals. Hunger and emptiness will be the people’s companions. Their gold, silver, and precious stones will have been booty for the conquering Assyrians. The crops that have not been ravished by the hunger of the invading army, will be trampled and burned. The olive oil from their groves will no longer soothe nor anoint any among them. As for their luscious and bountiful vineyards, it too will be ravaged and trampled under the wheels of the chariots of war, and the fires of God’s wrath. What wine that was stored and oil that had been processed will become plunder for the invading horde of Assyrians.  

And the Assyrains will carry away many of the Israelites to other countries as slaves, after they have ramsack, pillaged, and ravished the women and children. The only memories of their beloved wretched nation will be the evil laws of King Omri and his wicked son King Ahab, they will be a reminder to them of their iniquity and transgression against the Almighty and Holy God. 

God will use the Israelites as an example to Judah and Jerusalem, and to the other nations of the world. The just penalty for Israel will be the loss of all they thought precious and important, and the nations that they will be taken captive into will treat them with contempt, scorn, and mocking.” Thus God convenes court and the sentences will begin to be, but God still loves His people and will honor His covenant with Abraham and king David. He will restore Israel, and bring honor and glory to His name that has been downtrodden by the sins of mankind.

Application - It is interesting that many scholars of the Bible don’t see the Americas as a powerful nation of influence in the last days scenario written by God. They ponder if God has brought judgment like it did upon Israel. This makes me think of Jesus’ comments to the unrepentant towns, cities, and nations, “Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent…But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” (Matt. 11:20,24 NIV)

God will not tolerate sin at all. And it is sin and those who wallow in it who will face the wrath of Almighty God. They will see the annihilation of all that they put their trust and pleasure in. And they may watch as all they have stockpiled and treasured will be absconded by others. But the most horrendous of the judgment is the absence of God’s presence and their captivity in God’s place of judgment.

God is warning us through the prophets and the apostles of Christ in the early church. But will we listen and heed the warnings? As Paul told the Corithians, “For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers’ minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God.” (2 Cor.4:4 AMPC)

For Israel is an example of God’s grace, mercy, goodness. And just as God forgave and restored Israel numerous times, God also has given all of us today the same grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.

For Jesus Christ came into the world to save the world from sin, shame, and estrangement from God the Father. As John the apostle wrote by the Holy Spirit, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3:16-21 NIV)

There will be a day of reckoning and judgment by God for those of the light and those of the darkness. It is your decision and choice to which will you belong to, those of the light, the believers who listened and repented, or of those of the darkness who will not fear God, won’t heed His warnings, will not repent, and who are blinded to the gospel by Satan.

God has set before us His Truth, and His verdict and sentence will be everlasting, please “Fear the Lord if you are wise!

 As always, I want to end with presenting the gospel in the form of 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