THE GOSPEL OF GOD
OUR TERRIBLE ENEMY
(Nahum 1:1-8)
SUBJECT:
F.C.F:
PROPOSITION:
INTRODUCTION:
A. There is an entire book of the Bible dedicated to gloating over the Lord’s destruction of an enemy. It is really an extended taunt to the tune of “Ha-hah! It serves you right!” The enemy to which they refer is the city of Nineveh, capitol of the cruelest and most brutal of the regimes of the ancient Near East. And much of the book of Nahum reads like a taunt, to paraphrase: “We told you so. You’re going to get it. You are in trouble now. You have it coming. It serves you right. What took so long? It can’t happen fast enough for us. We’re glad you will be destroyed. You will get what’s coming to you. Your chickens have come home to roost. Good-by, and good riddance!”
But isn’t this less than Christian? Isn’t this bloodthirsty desire for revenge unbecoming for the holy people of God? Not at all. This was the judgment of God upon their enemies. In fact, God’s people had nothing to do with it. Rather, it was the Babylonians who brought about their demise. But aren’t we to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? Yes we are. We are to love our human enemies, that is. But we have far worse enemies than people. Confused?
B. As we said last time, God’s Old Testament covenant was a fleshly or physical covenant. Their people, homeland, place of worship, and enemies were all based on physical connections. But God’s New Testament covenant is primarily a spiritual covenant. And our enemy is a spiritual enemy.
In the Old Testament, the people of God were a political entity, a state, with borders to defend. Their enemies were the non-Jews who sought to overthrow them. These enemies were undoubtedly prompted and inspired by God’s spiritual enemy, Satan. But the foe God instructed them to resist and to fight was a human enemy, the armies of the nations. So when they went to battle, it was with weapons of warfare: bows, arrows, slings, spears, and swords.
But the Apostle Paul writes: “we wrestle not against flesh and blood.” (Ephesians 6:10) “…The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ….” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
C. The main difficulty we have is that our true, spiritual enemy is invisible. It’s easy to identify people who may pester and annoy us, and to count them as our enemies, which they are not. It’s much harder to trace our troubles and temptations back to their true, spiritual, invisible source, and to see this as the field of engagement. Much of our life is spent battling the wrong enemy and waging the wrong war.
So first,
I. WE MUST APPRECIATE OUR ENEMY’S CRUELTY.
A. As we said, Assyria, the enemy of God’s people was legendary for their cruelty to those they conquered. Their intent was undoubtedly the same as that of the terrorism we have become familiar with in our day. It was to instill such fear in the people that they abandoned any hope of resistance and quickly capitulated to their invaders. Fear is a potent and remarkably effective weapon.
But the Assyrian army seemed to go beyond all that and took delight in cruelty, in wicked malice and brutality that went well beyond reason. Sometimes they took kings they had conquered and skinned them alive. Then they stuck hooks in their flesh to drag them to their horrific deaths. Some women the captured were enslaved into prostitution. If the women were pregnant, they were often disemboweled. They dashed infants to the ground and piled up their smashed bodies in the streets. Other men they beheaded, their heads arranged into pyramids, their bodies discarded like refuse. Some captives they impaled on stakes and left them slowly to linger and die. Others they mutilated by cutting off their feet, hands, ears, noses, or tore their tongues from their mouths.
This was the same Assyrian army that had laid siege to Samaria, the capitol of Israel, for three years, while the people starved and eventually turned to cannibalism. They were more terrified to surrender to these wicked barbarians, preferring to die. When they were finally overrun, countless thousands were slain, while 27,000 of their people were deported. An equal number of other peoples were imported, blending the nations and quelling any possible uprising.
B. And we need to awaken to the truth that our enemy is incomparably more ruthless and cruel than the Assyrian armies he inspired against Israel. Our enemy, our true, invisible, spiritual enemy is perfect wickedness, sheer evil, and unfettered cruelty. His method has not changed, but only intensified as he knows his days are growing shorter.
1. We see outbreaks of his schemings in our world from time to time. We see it in the horrors of abuse, in the actions of brutal, oppressive religions, of his relentless campaign against children, especially to exterminate children who have not yet been born, in his inspiration of sexual perversion and his assault against the holiness of marriage. And we see it in the increasing appetite for cruelty and wickedness for the sake of enjoyment.
I am troubled by the hideous violence that passes for entertainment today, the gruesome carnage, and curious delight in sheer horror and terror. I am troubled by the sick and twisted minds that produce it, but also by the sick and twisted minds that enjoy it. This is not to deny that this kind of evil truly exists, or that the horrors of hell infinitely surpass any vile imagination of depraved people. But the root and source of both the production and the enjoyment of this kind of amusement is clearly diabolical.
2. We see it in the day-by-day temptations by which he would disconnect you from the love and grace of God. This is most cruel; a soul under siege, separated from God’s goodness and favor, only to wither and starve and languish in misery and torment.
What did he promise you in temptation? Pleasure? Popularity? Power? “You shall be like God?” I assure you, this is all he will deliver: misery and torment. Why? Because he is most cruel. We must come to appreciate to our enemy’s cruelty.
II. WE MUST AWAKEN TO OUR ENEMY’S CONSPIRACY.
What does he hope to accomplish in all this cruelty? What is our enemy’s goal?
A. Once again, we can look to Israel’s enemy as a type, as an illustration of our true enemy. Why did the Assyrians love cruelty? Why did they seek to conquer and dominate, to terrorize others into submission by their shocking brutality? Their goal was simply this: conquer and consume. They loved what all sinners love: power, pleasure, and possessions. The fastest way to these objectives was simply to go out and take from others: conquer and consume.
First, you conquer and enslave people into subjection. And then, if any of them had anything to offer, like the service of slaves or prostitution or paying tribute or their soldiers joining their ranks, then you let them live. If they served no purpose, then they were expendable. Life was so cheap that sometimes captives would be made to crouch down as though ready to jump, and then they would be beheaded. Soldiers would place bets on which beheaded body they thought would jump the farthest.
Conquer and consume, for power, pleasure and possessions.
B. But what about our spiritual enemy? What can he possibly hope to gain by separating us from the love God and of duping us into his service? I think it instructive to bear in mind what Peter said of our enemy: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) We need to wake up: our enemy is conspiring to conquer and consume us.
That’s right! Peter warns that he is “seeking someone to devour.” What if that is more than a metaphor? What if we are meant to take this more literally? What if our enemy desires to feed off of us? I can, in fact, think of no other reason why he would bother to deceive us and tempt us and plunge us into misery and despair.
Let me ask you this: Why is a cruel person cruel? Is it not because he finds some perverse pleasure in cruelty? Is it not because he somehow finds happiness in cruelty, in inflicting pain on others? We could say that he enjoys the misery of others. We could even say that a cruel person somehow feeds off the suffering of others, couldn’t we?
C. And so does the arch-enemy of our souls. Conquer and consume. The perfectly evil one delights in evil and revels in cruelty. His happiness is the misery of people, or else he would not work so tirelessly and with such focus on separating us from the life and joy of God and keeping us in hopeless despair. Conquer and consume. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” No wonder our Lord Jesus came “to destroy the devil’s works.” (1 John 3:8) And please remember that when you play around with sin, when you think it is nothing, when you dismiss it as something small, and are convinced that it will not affect you, remember the enemy’s desire to feed off your folly. and find sustenance from your anguish, and take joy in your misery. Wake up! This is war! If you do not resist, you will be consumed.
So, “Be sober-minded; be watchful.” We must awaken to our enemy’s conspiracy.
III. WE MUST ANTICIPATE OUR LORD’S CONQUEST.
A. And now, I think, we can understand better the book of Nahum. This is war. This is the Great War. This is an insatiable enemy who will not stop until he sees all of us in hell—literally! This is not some football game, not even the Superbowl. It is not some bid for the state tournament title. This is not even a home invasion or a national emergency or even World War Three. No, this is the Great War, the true war, and this is for keeps, forever.
And God put an end to his enemy. Assyria was destroyed. Oh, he had given them warning. Nineveh was destroyed in 612 B.C. But over a hundred years before this, God sent Jonah to warn them of his impending judgment. God also granted them repentance so that they forsook their evil. But it was short lived. Perhaps the temptation to wicked gain and the love of evil ensnared them. For whatever reason, they once again grew in power and evil, and God had enough. And through the prophet Nahum, God called his people to celebrate the overthrow of their enemy. This was God’s justice. As always happens, the conqueror was conquered. And God removed the threat forever.
The prophet’s name, Nahum, means “comfort.” God’s devastated people were to take comfort in his coming to their aid and destroying their enemy.
And we must do the same. We are to look with anticipation and desire, we expectancy and delight, we bold joy and satisfaction, on the great hope that God will someday utterly defeat and overthrow our enemy as well. We see this so clearly in the book of revelation as we read it earlier from chapter 19. Did that shock you? Were you bothered by the holy saints’ taking delight in God’s destruction of the enemy? That’s only because you do not see the greatness of this war. “1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants." 3 Once more they cried out, "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever." 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!" 5 And from the throne came a voice saying, "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great."
What do you think is the purpose of gloating? What is the purpose of celebrating victory? Why did God give us hatred? It was for the enemy, our true, terrible, spiritual, and invisible enemy: the evil one. And we must anticipate God’s overthrow of the kingdom of evil. We must anticipate our Lord’s conquest. We must savor and hope and take our comfort in God’s ultimate victory.
This is the Great War, and this is our Terrible Enemy. And we must devote all our powers to the war effort. We must be watchful and sober-minded. We must be vigilant and hopeful in the Lord. We must pray and work and pray and work and pray.
CONCLUSION
After the MOC-Floyd Valley boys’ basketball team won a close match and the fans had been very enthusiastic, another pastor came as asked how many of these same fans would be so exuberant on Sunday mornings. But as I thought about it, I came to realize that something like that is taking place here on Sundays. No, there is not a lot of shouting and clapping and whistling. But there is, I believe, a spirit of earnestness. There is a stirring that I have not really seen before. There is a soberness of heart and mind, an intensity of seeking. I believe it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
And may God continue to pour out his Holy Spirit as we engage the foe and anticipate his utter destruction. May God give us hearts that are fit for the fight.
(
No wonder Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil!
Satan asks. God allows. Satan intends it for evil, and wants to get away with all he can. God intends it for good, his kindly, Fatherly, hidden purpose will eventually be revealed.
Nahum means “comfort.” That Nineveh would be destroyed brought comfort to Israel.
The Assyrian Empire was known for its cruelty. "Judged from the vaunting inscriptions of her kings, no power more useless, more savage, more terrible, ever cast its gigantic shadow on the page of history as it passed on the way to ruin. The kings of Assyria tormented the miserable world. They exult to record how 'space failed for corpses'; how unsparing a destroyer is their goddess Ishtar; how they flung away the bodies of soldiers like so much clay; how they made pyramids of human heads; how they burned cities; how they filled populous lands with death and devastation; how they reddened broad deserts with carnage of warriors; how they scattered whole countries with the corpses of their defenders as with chaff; how they impaled 'heaps of men' on stakes, and strewed the mountains and choked rivers with dead bones; how they cut off the hands of kings and nailed them on the walls, and left their bodies to rot with bears and dogs on the entrance gates of cities; how they employed nations of captives in making brick in fetters; how they cut down warriors like weeds, or smote them like wild beasts in the forests, and covered pillars with the flayed skins of rival monarchs." (Farrar, The Minor Prophets, pp. 147,148).
Besides massacring the enemy soldiers, Assyrians made mass deportations of the rulers (nobles, functionaries, craftsmen), so that the remaining people obeyed with humiliation (the most famous is that described in the Bible, of the Israeli to Babylon). Enemy kings were beheaded, and their heads hanged in trees and cities were destroyed. Women were made slaves. This cunning policy, the army and good administration maintained the empire for centuries. The conquered populations had to pay heavy annual tributes.
Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, was a great city on the Tigris River in what is now Iraq (ancient Mesopotamia). Willingly burning cities, the Assyrians's cruelty inspired hatred from those they conquered. Sample punishments they inflicted included skinning people alive, burning children, impaling enemies on stakes, and chopping off hands and heads.
In his commentary on Jonah,
Dr. Reed Lessing gives examples of Assyrian cruelty from archeological evidence. Read these excerpts from monuments that describe the exploits of Ashurnasirpal II, king of Assyria from 883-859 BC (about 100 years before Jonah’s time): “In the midst of the mighty mountain I slaughtered them; with their
blood I dyed the mountain red like wool… I carried off their spoil and their possessions. The heads of their warriors I cut off, and I formed them into a pillar over against the city; their young men and maidens I burned in the fire… I flayed all the chief men who had revolted… some I walled up… some I impaled… and others I bound to stakes...”
“1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
“2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. 5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.
“6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. 7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.”
It is a celebration of God’s utter destruction of his enemies. If that offends you, then you do not understand the holiness of God nor the wickedness of his enemies.
The wrath of God is an aspect of his glory. God is glorified by the display of his justice and wrath.
The Assyrians did terrible things, but their greatest offense was against the majesty of God.
Israel deserved those terrible things because of their rebellion and spiritual adultery.
A. Men were made to go to war. Men will not be satisfied unless they go to war. Men, if they are prevented from engaging in the war, will find other less satisfying and less productive forms of simulated or imitation war. But men were made to go to war.
B. As we read this brief book of Nahum, we are undoubtedly shocked. Our “Christian sensibilities” are offended, and we are a bit embarrassed. We may feel that we must make some excuses about or corrections to what Nahum wrote. We may even wonder how this could be part of the Bible!
I assure you that there is nothing wrong with the book of Nahum. No, the problem lies with us. We have been tamed. Our faith has been domesticated. Christianity has been captivated by a diabolically-inspired “peace movement,” a spiritual fifth column that has slipped in to undermine the war effort. We have believed the false report of the armistice. “The war is over!” we were told. “You can lay down your weapons. Peace is on the horizon!” But we have been lulled into a false sense of serenity. We want the culmination of the kingdom before its time.
C. Historians have long noted the “feminization” of the American church during the last century and a half. War-like language, battle songs, even war Scripture passages have been banished from the church, and what has replaced them is the quest for calm, tranquil, soft and sensitive personal peace. That has become the rule of the day. That’s why we read a book like Nahum, and we are disturbed. We need to be disturbed! But all this denial and rejection of the pervasive war theme and language of the Bible and our hymns have not made the war go away.
What is has done is to make the men go away—from the church. Men have fled the church in droves. We may not hear it spoken, but it is certainly thought and felt with regularity: “Church is for women and children.”
Why this common sentiment? Because war is for men. Men were made for war. And if the reality of the war is denied and every trace of it is carefully excised from the church, then the men will largely go away with along it, for men were made for war.
D. But men will not remain warless. They will find other ways to assuage this deep and insatiable urge to fight. And it will not work. It will only distract and deflect this God-given desire to engage in the battle. And the result will be that this precious resource, this will to fight and conquer, will be wasted, and that is a deeply regrettable shame.
How is this war-like urge distracted and deflected?
1. Well, have you ever noticed how so many of our games simulate warfare? Mild manner chess, for example, is simulated war. There are knights and castles, a precious queen and king to protect, and pawns to be sacrificed, all on the quest to conquer and dominate the field, and capture the king.
It’s war. So is “Battleship,” “Stratego,” and “Risk.” Even a deck of playing card has kings and queens and jacks some of which can “trump” others. For entertainment, men especially, play war— “Call of Duty” video and fantasy games, or they watch war movies on television. Even the popular crime dramas pit the detectives waging a controlled war against the criminals, and vice versa.
2. Spectator sports are immensely popular, a multi-billion dollar industry in our nation. Of course the whole realm of sports and sporting events is bathed in militaristic and war-like imagery and terminology, using the language of “rivalry,” “struggle,” “battling it out,” “offense and defense,” “victory,” “championship,” “conquer the enemy,” and “subdue,” “defeat,” and “prevail” over them. All of that is military vocabulary. And isn’t it interesting that the same men who have fled the non-warlike churches on Sundays have on that same day embraced the merely simulated and purely imitation warfare of professional football.
3. And for some men, this godly desire to engage in the war is fulfilled in the even more literal war-like activity of military service for their nation. This is an honorable vocation in and of itself, and we thank God for those who serve us in the military. But it is still a sublimation of, and it can even become a distraction from the true and Great War of the ages, to which all are called to do service.
4. Sadly, many men sinfully misuse this war-like urge by turning to violence against others. They allow their sinful cravings to usurp their desire to prevail. James writes: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (4:1)
E. What I’m saying is that this warlike instinct which is in all of us, and especially in men, is not a mistake. It is not an evil effect of our fall into sin. It can certainly be and often is corrupted and misused for the sake of evil, but this was not originally so. Rather, it is intuitive for us all now as the Great War is being waged around us. We long to engage in the conflict, but left to ourselves, we cannot find even find the battle line, let alone to identify the enemy. And I believe that red-blooded men need to stop wasting their God-given zeal for conquest and channel it into is proper place. We were made to fight this war, and we are restless until we engage in the battle.
“1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
“2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. 5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.
“6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. 7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.”
I. WE MUST UNDERSTAND THE GREAT WAR.
What is this Great War that we instinctively know is real and long to engage in?
A. It is the war that is a major theme of the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It began before our race was created, but in Genesis 3 we learn that the Adversary, the enemy of God who was created good but rebelled against the Lord, tricked and coaxed our race to do the same. God immediately set out to rescue our ruined race. He announced that the war would continue perpetually between the Adversary and the human descendants, and that God would send a special “Seed of the woman” who would ultimately conquer and crush the serpent’s head. This war has been underway ever since. And it will only cease when that conqueror, the “Seed of the woman” and Son of God returns to finally vanquish the foe and set all things right again.
B. The problem is that most of our race is still deceived and duped and on the wrong side, following the way that will lead to destruction. But there is a minority, a remnant, a select group of people who have surrendered to God, and joined his resistance, and are fighting back. This is the Great War. This is what we long to take up. This is the root of our war-like desire, and here is where we will find true and lasting satisfaction.
C. God will utterly vanquish and destroy his enemy. He will ultimately win the war. No one can challenge his power or resist his authority. “6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. 7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.”
This is the Great War. This is what you have been longing for. So have you enlisted? And are you fully committed to the war effort?
II. WE MUST KNOW OUR ENEMY.
A. Here is an important truth that we must grasp fully if we are to get this all straight. The Old Testament or Old Covenant was a “fleshly” covenant. The people of God became so by birth, the chosen people of Israel. They were to live in a specific, chosen land, Palestine, the Promised Land. They were to worship in a single location, the Temple in Jerusalem. And the blessings and curses of the covenant were also fleshly, material prosperity and productivity if they were faithful, material poverty and disease if they were unfaithful. And their enemies were likewise a physical enemy, the wicked nations at their border who longed to attack them and conquer their lands. So in the Old Testament, they could see their enemy.
B. In the time of Nahum’s writing, the enemy that was the personification of evil, was the Assyrian army, the most ruthless and cruel nation of the ancient world. It was an army that delighted in murder, the barbarous treatment of women and children, even of dead bodies, and who sought utterly to terrorize their opponents. Their goal was the complete conquest and subjugation of the known world. And when they came to oppose and overthrow Israel, they became the enemies of God.
The New Testament or New Covenant is a spiritual covenant, not a fleshly covenant. One becomes a part of the New Covenant people of God not by birth but by the new birth. The New Covenant people of God are now from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue. We are not required to live in any one place, but instead are to fill the whole earth with the knowledge of God. And we do not worship in physical temples, but the people of God ARE the Lord’s temple. When we gather to worship, he dwells in our midst.
C. Our enemy is also a spiritual enemy, not a physical enemy. No longer do we fight against human beings: our warfare, this Great War, is entirely a spiritual battle waged with spiritual weapons of God’s truth and prayer. People are never the enemy, but only the beloved prisoners of war we long to rescue and liberate unto the blessing and favor of God. Paul writes in Ephesians 6:10-12: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
So the Great War is far more terrible and far more difficult than we may imagine, but it is no less real. Let me repeat, we are at war with no human beings, but instead, only, with these “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Elsewhere Paul makes this explicit in Romans 12:17-21: “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." 20 To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
III. WE MUST ENGAGE THE ENEMY.
So if people are not the enemy, if people are never the enemy, then what’s this Great War all about? Who is the enemy? John tells us in 1 John 3:8: “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” So the enemy is the devil, and Jesus came to destroy his works.
A. Our enemy is the Devil and especially his temptation to sin. It was on this battlefield that our first parents met the enemy, in the garden, and lost. This battle is re-fought billions of times around the world every day. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, his temptation to sin. And so here is where we will most often face our foe. This is the very heart of the Great War.
B. We struggle also against the Devil’s strategy of deception. Jesus explained in John 8:44: “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Our first parents were deceived. And so this Great War involves exposing these lies and revealing God’s truth. This is how Paul understood the conflict in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”
C. And our struggle is also against another of Satan’s weapons: the enemy of death. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” The devil “was a murderer from the beginning.” He enticed our race into sin and so introduced death into our world, both physical death, but, more seriously, spiritual death and hell. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:26 “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” So the Great War also consists in the promotion of life, both physical and spiritual, protecting and preserving human life, and evangelism and Christian nurture to the goal of eternal life.
CONCLUSION
You were made for war! The Great War is raging all around you! It is the war for holiness and righteousness. It is the war for truth. It is the war for the promotion of life, both physical life and eternal life. And you may have been missing the war your whole life long.
You may have been sitting on the sidelines. You may have been spending your life, wasting your energies in a play war, a simulated war that is of no account. Or you may have been in the wrong war altogether, fighting and struggling for self.
But no more! You come to Christ. You surrender to the Great King, and throw all your powers into his service: for holiness, for truth, and for life. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
And then, someday, you will join in the ultimate victory celebration:
“6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. 7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.”
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Death. Physical death, but especially spiritual death in hell. This is the sobering, shocking stakes in the Great War.
Which works? Well, certainly the temptation to sin. But to destroy his other works as well. So
1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
2The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.
3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.
6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9 What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time.
10 For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
11 From you came one who plotted evil against the LORD, a worthless counselor.
A. Do you know the meaning of your name? Your parents selected a name for you for some reason. Perhaps it was a family name, some uncle or aunt or grandparent. Perhaps it was a famous name to which they hoped you would aspire, like George (for George Washington) or a biblical name like Abraham or Sarah or Mary or Joseph or David, John, or Paul. Perhaps it was simply a popular name at the time, or maybe just a name that sounded good to them.
Of course names were originally words, sometimes borrowed from other languages, bearing some significance. “Theodore,” for example, is from the Greek meaning “God’s gift.” “Dorothy” means the same thing, Theodore in reverse.
We’ve been studying the prophecy of Micah, and his name is a shortened form of “Micaiah,” and his name does in fact have a specific meaning. His name, Micah, really asks a rhetorical question: “Who is like the Lord?” Now it is quite possible that Micah spent his younger years trying to answer that question for himself. “Who is like the Lord? What is so unique and unrivaled about the Lord our God?”
At the end of his prophecy, he has found the answer to the question of his own name: Who is like the Lord? And his answer is that God is truly and ultimately unrivaled in his steadfast love. “18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.”
That is very good news to us today, and so very encouraging for us every day. Who is a God like the Lord? There is no God to match him in his steadfast love. Even after the dreadful mess his people have made for themselves, a quagmire of sin and misery in which they are trapped, even after all of that, they can still lift up their hearts to hope in his steadfast love.
We must be careful, for our text clearly does not declare that God has this steadfast, loyal love for everyone. The text is specific, even exclusive. God will only pardon the iniquity and pass over the transgression “for the remnant of his inheritance.” There is a double specification here.
Who is his “inheritance”? It is the Old Testament people of God, Israel. So this does not apply to the Egyptians or the Assyrians or Babylonians, or to any Gentiles, but only to the Jews. And even then, God’s steadfast love is not to every last Jewish person, but only to “the remnant of his inheritance.” It is only to a limited number of the Jews of that day.
God’s steadfast love is not some mild general partiality for everyone, but a strong and undying affection for the remnant, a select group of the Jews. They are the apple of his eye, his dear ones. And now, this side of the cross and resurrection, the circle has been widened to include all the peoples of the earth, Jews and Gentiles alike, from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue. But this special, steadfast love of God still does not apply to every single person, but only to the remnant. We call them the “elect,” those whom, according to Ephesians 1:4, God has chosen to be saved in Christ before the foundation of the world. So…
I. WE MUST HOPE IN GOD’S STEADFAST LOVE.
A. This is the unchanging constant to which we can lay hold, the solid ground upon which we can stand. It is God’s steadfast love. In the Hebrew, it is God’s “chesed.” In the New Testament Greek it is the Lord’s “charis” which comes over into our language simply as “grace.” We must hope in God’s steadfast love or his grace.
And what we must realize is that this steadfast love is a part of God’s essential nature. Rarely does the Bible flatly declare that God IS something or other, with respect to his essential nature. But it does speak in this way sometimes. For example, Jesus declares in John 4:24 that “God is spirit.” So God is not a part of this creation. He has no physical being which this creation shares. Rather he is spirit, and not subject to the limitations of time and space. And John tells us in 1 John 1:5 that “God is light,” and “in him there is no darkness.” God is absolutely pure in a moral sense. There is no evil or wickedness in him. This is an aspect of his holiness.
B. But John also tells us in 1 John 4:8 that “God is love.” This steadfast, loyal love, the grace of our God is a part of his essential nature. God cannot be a physical being because he is spirit. That’s why God is immortal and invisible, because he is not subject to the ravages of time nor can he be apprehended by our physical senses. And God cannot do evil, nor think evil, nor can he tempt anyone to do evil. There is no shadow of evil in him because God is light. Light is his essential nature.
And happily for us, so is his steadfast love. God could no more waver in his love for his people than he could do evil, or deny himself, or die, because God is love. Not that God sometimes feels great affection for people, or sometimes lets a sin slide. His love, his grace is as infinite and as everlasting as he is, because it is who he is.
B. My favorite prof from seminary was Dr. S. Lewis Johnson. He had a delightful, North Carolina/Billy Graham accent, only thicker. Sometimes he would stop lecturing and write a word on the board because he was sure we could not understand his accent.
He had taught for many years in a seminary in Dallas, but through his studies, he became a convinced Calvinist and was persuaded toward covenant theology. The school in Dallas was opposed to covenant theology, and so he resigned. And every week he made the commute from Dallas to Chicago so that he could keep on teaching. But he still taught in his church in Dallas, and his sermons and lectures were all recorded. Even though he died several years ago, a radio station in Omaha still plays his messages.
He retired from Trinity Seminary the same year I finished my coursework there. And since he was retiring, they gave him the last chapel service, a last word to aspiring pastors from one who had served so long and so faithfully. What would he say to those who would scatter and seek to build the kingdom of God, facing the onslaught of the enemy and the various trials of body and soul? He preached on the steadfast love of God. It was only this hope, he assured us, that would carry us through discouragement, trial, failure, and temptation. Only the steadfast love of God.
Well, of course, the whole Bible agrees, but Micah in particular. Micah declares: “I finally know the meaning of my name. God is unrivaled in his grace, his steadfast love.” “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.” We must hope in God’s steadfast love.
Which also means that…
II. WE MUST HOPE IN GOD’S COMPASSION.
Micah speaks with great confidence: “He will again have compassion on us….” And the reason he can be so sure that God will again have compassion on the remnant of his inheritance is because God’s steadfast love is a part of his essential nature. So God’s grace has a practical effect. It leads to God’s compassion. God pities us in our distress and comes to our aid.
A. We should quickly note that God’s chastening is a part of his steadfast love. We continue to sin, even though we may have come to know his love in Christ. And his love is not only rescuing love, but it is transforming love. He pities us in the messes we continue to make for ourselves. But he doesn’t give up on us. And so in his compassion, he disciplines his people. God becomes angry at our disobedience. It displeases him.
This discipline does not seem pleasant. In fact, Hebrews 12 says this explicitly: “11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” So this also is a part of his steadfast love. Our heavenly father would not have us fruitless, or much worse, producing bad fruit. So he disciplines us, training us to yield “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Who would doubt that the father who pulls his young daughter from playing in the traffic loves her dearly, even though he swats her on the behind and it stings, and she cries? This is a part of his steadfast love, his compassion.
B. But then God also pities us. “He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. 19 He will again have compassion on us….” God feels for us in our distress. That’s because he is our Father, do you understand? He is not the father of all people, but only the remnant of his inheritance. He will be the impartial, unbending, and unyielding Judge of sinners who will not repent, and they will meet his justice to their everlasting horror and regret. But he is the Father of his people, and he has compassion on his people.
My best friend in high school was the son of a liberal pastor. This pastor once explained to me why he did not believe in hell. “I am a father to my children,” he said, “and I could never send any of my children to hell. How could I be more compassionate than God?” Of course, his logic was impeccable, but he started in the wrong place. He started with the assumption that God was the Father of all people. If that were true, then he would be right. God could never condemn anyone. But the Bible nowhere declares that God is the Father of all people. In fact, Jesus declared in John 8:44 that the devil, not God, was the Father of unbelievers. And he was referring specifically to certain unbelieving Jews. God is the Father only of “the remnant of his inheritance.”
C. But, you see, if you belong to him, if through faith in Christ, God has adopted you out of the devil’s family and into his own dear family, then God is your true father, and he will have compassion on you. Yes, he will chasten you, but it will be for your own good! And yes, he will have compassion on you in your distress, and he will come to your aid.
Whatever your circumstance right now, your Father knows what you need and he is delivering it to you because he loves you. That’s what a father does. He has compassion on his children, even when they run off and get lost or skin their knees or face a dark and lonely road. And so we must, you must, right at this moment and in all moments to come, we must hope in God’s compassion.
Which means…
III. WE MUST HOPE IN GOD’S FAITHFULNESS.
A. The good news is that God is not all talk, but that God is action as well. He not only promises; he delivers. God is faithful to his promises, and so we can hope in his faithfulness. Listen to the actions that God will take on our behalf due to his steadfast love which moves him to compassion. “18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. 20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.”
God is not all talk. I was asked to write a couple of devotionals for those going on this spring’s Putting Love Into Action or PLIA trips with Dordt College. The theme verse is 1 John 3:18: “18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” I think we must assume a silent “merely” in this verse. “Little children, let us not (merely) love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” John, of course, is not opposed to loving with words. After all, he loved his readers by writing them an important letter which was composed of words. And God’s Word is not opposed to loving with words, since it also is composed of words. Rather, we must love, not merely with words, but with appropriate actions, with deeds also.
B. And here’s the point: God is no hypocrite. He does not command us to love with both words and deeds, but he does so as well. God does not love his people with mere promises, but he keeps his promises. And central to his promises is the forgiveness of sins. Our Father in heaven really forgives our sins. He promised he would, and he faithfully does forgive our sins. And he gives us powerful images to explain this.
“He will tread our iniquities under foot….” What does that mean? Well, useless junk and refuse would be thrown on the road where it would be trampled under foot and become a part of that road. Why? Because it was worthless, because it meant nothing any more. God no longer counts our sins as anything any more.
Even better: “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea….” The sea is another good place for useless junk that you don’t want any more. Toss it overboard into the fathomless depths of the sea, and it will sink to the bottom, and I guarantee you will never see it again. Or as one preacher said, God drops your sins into the sea and posts a “No fishing sign.”
Even better: “As you have sworn to our fathers from days of old.” Almost 1,500 years before Micah’s day, God had solemnly sworn to be faithful to Abraham’s descendants. God did not forget his promise. I was being fulfilled in their day. The book of Hebrews notes that God swore by himself to keep his promise Abraham, “since he had no one greater by whom to swear….” We might swear to tell the truth so help me God. But God swore by himself to be faithful to us. And, full circle, we know he will keep his promise because of his “steadfast love,” because “God is love.”
C. And there is that failure on your part that intrudes upon the quiet moments of your life. All may be well, and you suddenly remember your sin, and you eyes drop, and your spirit sinks, and the hot shame rises, and your life drains away. In those times, in all times, you must hope in God’s faithfulness. “18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance…? he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
CONCLUSION
Because he is your Father, and your Father loves you. He knows what you need, and he is right now delivering it to you.
Do you know him as your Father? Are you sure? Don’t delay another minute if you are unsure. Come to him through Christ. Admit to him your sin and guilt, remind him of his promise to save all who trust his Son, and then ask him to forgive you and to make you his child. He promised he would! He always keeps his promises.
So we must hope in his steadfast love, in his tender compassion for us in our distress, and in his faithfulness.
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. 20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
Micah means “who is like the Lord?” Perhaps he was wondering all his life the answer to the question posed by his name. And now here it is. Who is like the Lord? Who is a god who pardons our sins?
Grace: God’s riches at Christ’s expense.
“The vilest offender who truly believes,
that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.”
But it’s more than a pardon, for in Christ, the whole record is expunged.
Justified-just as if I’d never sinned.
ALSO “just as if if I’d lived a perfect life!
the
Micah means “who is like the Lord?” Perhaps he was wondering all his life the answer to the question posed by his name. And now here it is. Who is like the Lord? Who is a god who pardons our sins?
Grace: God’s riches at Christ’s expense.
“The vilest offender who truly believes,
that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.”
But it’s more than a pardon, for in Christ, the whole record is expunged.
Justified-just as if I’d never sinned.
ALSO “just as if if I’d lived a perfect life!
A. Several years ago, a submarine went down off the east coast of the United States. Navy ships quickly located it, but it was resting on the bottom in water too deep for rescue to be possible. Technicians lowered cameras, lights, and microphones to see if there was any way possible to raise the ship. Apart from the tiny streams of bubbles and diesel fuel, no movement or signs of life were visible. Microphones did, however, detect a steady tapping sound. It was Morse code. They were able to decipher the message repeated over and over, a question: “Is there any hope?”
We sometimes wonder the same. Life continues at an alarming rate, and we don’t really detect ourselves improving. Our situation grows more unpromising the longer we live. Time swiftly passes. And we wonder: will things get any better? Can there be lasting change for the good? Is there any hope?
B. And the situation was very grim for the people of Micah’s day. First they turned to idols and found themselves empty and miserable. Then they turned on each other seeking to alleviate their misery. And finally, they turned from God’s Word, their only hope for recovery. It seemed hopeless. The enemy was at the gate.
And in the eleventh hour, Micah issues the invitation to turn from sin and self and return to the Lord their God. As we saw last time, it would be a lonely, perilous, and treacherous path to return to the Lord, but infinitely better than the alternative. Jesus said in Matthew 7, “13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Yes, the broad way is easy, but it leads TO DESTRUCTION! And the narrow way is hard, but it leads to life.
C. Last time we considered the perils and trials. But this week Micah shows us the surpassing glory of returning to the Lord and finding real hope as we sail on the sinking ship of this age which is passing away. So let your heart be encouraged by what God is doing through his Son, Jesus Christ.
I. WE MUST HOPE IN GOD’S GIFT OF REPENTANCE.
A. God grants the gift of repentance. It is not our work. It is not our finally wising up, coming to our senses, or becoming smart enough to read the handwriting on the wall. Repentance is a gift of God. According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, a portion of which appears in every Sunday bulletin, “Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.” Notice that repentance, turning to God from sin and self is “a saving grace.” It is “saving” in that it is required for salvation, and it is a “grace” meaning it is a gift of God.
And of course the Bible teaches this truth clearly. In Acts 11, Peter preaches the gospel to a group of Gentiles who should not be able to believe, they think, because they are not Jews. But they do believe and surrender to Christ, much to the astonishment of the Jews with him. And, according to verse 18: “When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “’Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.’” God granted them repentance unto life. It wasn’t their choice or decision, but it was God at work in them first, quickening them, making them alive so that they could see the horror of their sin and flee to Christ for salvation.
B. Micah vocalizes the repentance that God gives to those who will return to God and be saved. “8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. 9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. 10 Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.”
He has come clean to God. He knows the reason for his misery: “I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him….” Repentance, returning to the Lord, is where life begins again. Repentance is coming clean to God, and so there is a cleanness and relief and freedom about it that is unparalleled in this world. You’ve been running from God and the life that is in him, and you quit, you surrender, you cannot endure the emptiness and hopelessness any longer. God in mercy pursues you until he overtakes you. And you say, “I’ve had enough. I’ve made such a dreadful mess of my life—but no more.”
C. What relief! What joy and gladness! What peace when we cease striving and submit to our Maker, when we complete the work that he sent his Son to accomplish at the cross for us! What rest and strength of life and new vitality as we realize the purpose for which God made us, and as we take our place among his exalted Sons and Daughters, reclaimed from the harried haunts of the hunted, and reinstated into the house of the great King!
And it is all God’s gift! We did not suddenly wise up. We would still have refused the feast had not God graciously granted his saving grace of repentance unto life. Is there any hope? Yes, there is, in God’s gift of repentance. If it were left to us, there would be no hope. But there is hope in God’s gift of repentance.
II. WE MUST HOPE IN GOD’S GIFT OF RESTORATION.
A. Yes, it can be true! The prodigal son who returned to his father and asked only to become his servant having forfeited any right to sonship, was denied his request. That’s right, his father refused to allow him to become one of his servants. He already had plenty of servants. What he really wanted was his son back, and he freely granted him this exalted status.
That’s the great good news of the gospel. God will not receive you back begrudgingly to some second-class or third-rate status of slave. He really wants his sons and daughters back. He really gave his only-begotten Son so that he might bring many sons and daughters to glory. As you return to the Lord, even though it is a narrow way and it may be lonely, perilous, and treacherous, you will be a part of God’s restoration of a broken and fallen creation. “11 A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended. 12 In that day they will come to you, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. 13 But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds.” Yes, the world will continue in its desolation and misery for their sins. But God’s people will be a part of his glorious kingdom which will have no end. God is inviting you to abundant and eternal life. It is life that is not mere unending existence, a continuation of the trials and decline of this world, but fullness of life like you have never known, and this robust and glad life everlasting.
B. The outcomes could not be more dramatic. Apart from Christ, your life is meaningless. And not simply to you, but truly, utterly meaningless and irrelevant. People like to imagine themselves to be of great importance, of serving some great purpose, of fulfilling some great end. But the truth is that, apart from Christ, there is only futility and emptiness, uselessness and meaninglessness: desolation.
C.S. Lewis wrote a fantasy book called The Great Divorce. In it he describes hell as a vast, endless gray city where everybody thinks they are important and are always talking about it, and nobody is listening. In the story, residents of hell may take a field trip to the outskirts of heaven, and they may even stay, if they want to. Most do not, unwilling to give up their first place of self-importance. Near the end, the main character who has gone on the field trip is shocked to find that the vast gray city is so small an inconsequential compared to heaven that it is all contained in a microscopic crack in the ground at the edge of heaven. All of hell and all of its self importance is so small as to be imperceptible next to the glories of God’s restoration in Christ.
C. Apart from Christ, your life is irrelevant. That’s why you must get in on the restoration before it is too late, and you are as forgotten as a dream that dies at daylight. You will be forgotten. Apart from Christ, your life is a desolate waste, and all that is so urgent and pressing to you right now will pass away into nothing.
But God is doing a great thing in Christ! He is restoring a fallen world, a broken and fading age, replacing it with the age to come. You have no future here. So come, join God’s restoration!
III. WE MUST HOPE IN GOD’S GIFT OF REVERSAL.
A. God will turn the tables on our enemies. “14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. 15 As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things. 16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf; 17 they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God, and they shall be in fear of you.” Though once our enemies prevailed over us, when we return to the Lord he will reverse our situations.
B. Let me remind you that the Old Testament was a fleshly covenant. “Enemies” referred to physical enemies, the wicked nations around them. God had warned Israel that if they forsook him and turned to other gods, then he would no longer be their protection, and they would be overrun by their enemies. And now it is taking place.
On the New Testament side of history, we know that our true enemy is a spiritual enemy, Satan, the evil one. All the world in sin is under his dominion, and he hates people whom he taunts and torments as his willing slaves, and seeks to keep deluded until he captures them forever in hell.
C. And so we must realize that this enemy, like the nations around Judah, is mocking us. He will taunt you, make sport of you, and have his way with you. You think you are so smart, sneaking around, stealing your sinful moments, hiding your pride and unrighteousness, relishing your jealousy, harboring your bitterness. But all the while, Satan is laughing and sneering at you. You are under his employ, doing his bidding, serving his wicked ends, and he spits on you as a fool.
But wait, in an instance, his countenance falls and the scornful laugh is turned to dread. This is the reversal. God gives you the grace of repentance. You humble yourself before the Lord, hate your sin, turn in faith to Christ, and then turn to defy the evil one. He has seen this before, he knows the sting and the rising terror as the Son of God confronts him and casts him away, and he runs whimpering and fleeing.
This is precisely what we read of in James 4: “6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Repentance is the victory. Surrender wins the battle. Satan has been laughing at you, mocking you as a patsy, and holding you up for derision and scorn. But no more. “16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf; 17 they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God, and they shall be in fear of you.”
“7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
CONCLUSION
Is there any hope?
Not in this world. In the world there is only the continued rebellion and separation from God and the life that is in his Son.
In the world, there is only unending brokenness and ruin.
In the world, there is only the hopeless slavery and abuse of the enemy as he taunts and torments.
There is no hope in the world. So hope in Christ!
Hope in God’s gift of repentance—sanity at last in a world of evil.
Hope in God’s gift of restoration—everything that was lost to sin has been retrieved by Christ.
Hope in God’s gift of reversal—submit yourself to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Is there any hope? There is true hope, sure and solid hope, in Christ alone.
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III. WE MUST HOPE IN GOD’S GIFT OF REVERSAL.
8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. 9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. 10 Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.
11 A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended. 12 In that day they will come to you, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. 13 But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds.
14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. 15 As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things. 16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf; 17 they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God, and they shall be in fear of you.
A. Few things are more dangerous than false expectations. Marriages have often been torpedoed by grandiose thoughts of a storybook romance borrowed from the fairytales. The problem, of course, is reality, far different from what a couple may have imagined.
More importantly, false expectations about the Christian faith and life can likewise be disillusioning. Our Lord Jesus warned people ahead of time to “count the cost” of following him, before we ever start, otherwise we may be in for a rude awakening and may give up before we reach the finish line. And so we make a mistake when we pitch the Christian faith to others as something easy, something that will make us always happy and popular in the world today. Read Hebrew 11, the hall of fame of the faithful. All of those heroes of the faith faced opposition and persecution, and many of them died for that faith in Christ. The first hero listed is Abel, killed for his righteousness by his wicked brother. He was just the first. He won’t be the last.
And we certainly make a grave mistake if we believe this same nonsense for ourselves. We must never forget that we follow and call “Master” one who was condemned to death and nailed to a cross.
B. Micah has been warning and pleading with God’s people in his three sermons. He warned of the judgment to come for covenant violators who turned to other gods, turned on the poor, and then turned away from God’s Word.
But now Micah issues the invitation. As did Moses before him, he sets before the people the way of life and the way of death. The way of life will be difficult, he concedes. He has been walking this path himself for many years and knows its many sorrows. But, as he testifies at the end of our text, it is worth it; there is no comparison.
C. So here we go with a bit of truth-telling and cost-counting. What can the Christian expect as he or she lives faithfully in a ruined world?
I. PREPARE TO BE LONELY.
Listen carefully to Micah’s lamenting cry:
“1 Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. 2 The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net.
A. Micah first gives an analogy and then draws the application.
The analogy is that of a vineyard and a field stripped bare. Israel was to be fruitful, producing the fruit of righteousness. But when Micah went out to look, there were no righteous people any longer. Imagine the disappointment of going out to pick your tomatoes, and a thief has gotten them all, even the green ones! Imagine the disaster of going to combine your field, and a thief has already passed through the field and absconded all the grain.
And so the application is that there are no godly any more. “2 The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net.” Scholar Tom McComisky writes that this is a “vivid representation of the believer’s need for fellowship with others of like faith.” What a blessing is true fellowship with other believers!
B. But there are many times when such fellowship will be unavailable, when you walk through the vineyard of this world, and the godly, those who know the Lord and passionately pursue him, are not around.
1. Most all of the Old Testament prophets complained of loneliness, of being the solitary voice against the multitude. Many of them, like Jeremiah, like Micaiah, were arrested and placed in solitary confinement—not so hard to endure, perhaps, because they already knew it so well. John the Baptizer, the last of the Old Testament prophets, was called “a voice crying in the wilderness.”
2. Our Lord Jesus suffered great loneliness, perhaps the most painful being the loneliness of no one understanding him. Even after he had risen from the dead, his disciples still did not fully understand him. Have you forgotten, after the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, Jesus, like Micah, turned to a fig tree and looked for fruit on it? Like Micah, he was longing for fellowship with one who was righteous—but the tree was bare.
On the night he was betrayed, do you recall how he pleaded with Peter, James, and John to stay awake with him: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here and watch with me.” (Matt. 26:38) But they all slept as he watched and prayed alone. They all abandoned him when came the time for arrest, no one stood with him at his trial, and he died on the cross alone. He is our Master, and we follow in his steps. Do you get it?
3. Or think of the loneliness of the Apostle Paul. At the end of his life, from the dank dungeon cell of his last imprisonment (not the warm, easy, house arrest of Acts 28), he writes to Timothy. “9 Do your best to come to me soon. 10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Luke alone is with me.” At least he had Luke with him. “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.” And you recall how Paul had formerly rejected Mark for missionary work because of an earlier failure on his part. Now he longs for reconciliation. “12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.” He could have kept Tychicus with him, but Paul was always thinking of others.
But note what he says in verse 16: “16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them!” Years earlier, in the Acts 28 events, when his trial finally came before Caesar, Paul stood alone, his life in the balance.
C. Do you get it? Do you understand? Have you counted the cost? Do you know what to expect? Are you ready? Prepare to be lonely. And…
II. PREPARE FOR GREAT PERIL.
A. Prepare for hostility for your faith in Christ. All true believers will face it. God’s Word is very clear. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:12-13: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Read it carefully. “All who desire to live a life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Not, all who go to some church. Not, all who go to a Christian college. Not, all who listen to Christian music. But “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus.” That will cause the sparks to fly. That will bring collision and conflict.
Micah confirms it in his day. He describes the hostility of the powers that be. “3 Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together.” There is a conspiracy among those in power. Forget about care and compassion from those who were supposed to be the servant-leaders of Judah. If you turn to them, you will not find concern or compassion, but only a sharp and stinging hardness: “4 The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge.” Micah interrupts himself: “The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand.” They will come to naught, for the day the watchmen, the prophets, have foretold is at the doorstep.
B. I know, this might not be too tough of a cost to count. The poor worldlings also suffer at the hands of the wicked in this life. Nobody will escape it. But in every age, the godly seem to be the special targets of the ungodly. There is a particular delight among the wicked in skewering the godly. This is an especially perilous world for those who “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” For God says that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted….” All. All.
C. If your life is smooth sailing, if you do not face the taunts and sneers of others, if you are well liked and nobody speaks ill of you, then you need to do some self-examination. It is likely that you have struck a truce with the world and you are not really living a godly life in Christ Jesus. Jesus said, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26)
Prepare for great peril. That’s the normal Christian life. That’s what it’s like. Do you get it? Do you understand? Are you ready? Have you counted the cost? Prepare to be lonely, for great peril, and
III. PREPARE TO ENDURE TREACHERY.
A. There is no real security in this world. One would expect that the safest place of all is one’s home and family. “A man’s home is his castle,” right? Not really. “5 Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; 6 for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.”
B. One of the frequently unclaimed promises of Jesus is from John 16:33: “In the world you will have tribulation.” How could we have missed this? And that tribulation will often be close to home, so close that it arises from our homes.
In Matthew 10, Jesus sends out the twelve to preach the kingdom of God in the neighboring towns. Yet he forewarns them of the trouble they will be stirring up as they go out “as sheep in the midst of wolves.” This is the explosive power of the Gospel as it confronts a world gone wild. As some respond and believe and begin to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, those who do not will lash out and strike against them. Jesus came to upset the sleepy, so-called “peace” of this world as it lay unknowing in the enemy’s grip awaiting God’s terrible judgment. Jesus came to wake the sleeping and break the spell of this deadly “peace.”
Jesus said, “34 Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” He quotes Micah. But Jesus is the one who is disturbing the worldly illusion of peace. There is this kind of peace, perfect peace, in a cemetery. When the resurrections start taking place that “peace” goes out the window. This is what Jesus is doing in the world.
C. And you see what folly you have embraced. You had settled for that sleep-of-death kind of peace. You were happy with a low-stress life, with tolerating but not really loving your neighbors, with falling in step with the easy way of the world, and joining in the pursuit of worldly goals. You were asleep in the dust of death, and the Spirit has awakened you to the alarm of your doom. You must rise up with Christ and flee to him, no matter the cost. You have wasted much precious time, but now you must rise up and flee, as the Pilgrim in Bunyan’s tale fled his home and the City of Destruction with his fingers in his ears, deaf to their cries to settle down and be reasonable and to do the sensible thing. He only knew that he must flee, his everlasting soul depended on it.
Jesus warned us, “37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
CONCLUSION
Do you get it? Do you understand? Do you now see that you have been sleeping as your spiritual casket was slowly being lowered into the depths of God’s judgment? Will you awaken? Will you count the cost? Will you conclude, whatever the cost, that Christ is worth it? Micah declares his loyalty: “7 But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”
Will you awaken? Will you hear God’s alarm? Will you say, “Yes, it will be a lonely road, yes, there will be peril, and yes, I will suffer heart-rending treachery as former friends leave me. But I will follow Christ no matter the cost! I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”
You say, “But can all this be true? Can it really be this way?” You forget that we are at war. Christ has struck the decisive blow and he will prevail, but the spiritual battle rages all around until he returns.
Dr. John Piper notes: “Most people do not believe this in their hearts. Most people show by their priorities and their casual approach to spiritual things that they believe we are in peacetime not wartime.
In wartime the newspapers carry headlines about how troops are doing. In wartime families talk about the sons and daughters on the front lines and write to them and pray for them with heart-wrenching concern for their safety. In wartime we spend money differently—there is austerity, not for its own sake, but because there are more strategic ways to spend money than on new tires at home. The war effort touched everybody. We all cut back. The luxury liner becomes a troop carrier.”
Very few people think that we are in a war that is greater than World War II, or any imaginable nuclear war. Few reckon that Satan is a much worse enemy than any earthly foe, or realize that the conflict is not restricted to any one global theater, but is in every town and city in the world. Who considers that the casualties of this war do not merely lose and arm or an eye or an earthly life, but lose everything, even their own soul and enter a hell of everlasting torment?” (Let the Nations be Glad, p. 44)
The war is not over! The enemy has not surrendered, nor has he been vanquished. So you must rise up, and declare your side, for the day is at hand. (
1 Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. 2 The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. 3 Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. 4 The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand. 5 Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; 6 for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. 7 But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
A. In his third sermon, Micah begins by asking what the Lord requires of us. The answer is that the Lord requires that we come to him with gratitude for his benefits, that we honor and respect him as the great King and Maker of all things, and that we therefore walk with him in humble, joyful obedience. Then he goes on to condemn those who have rejected all this and who have exploited the poor, amassing personal wealth which Micah calls “the treasures of wickedness.”
He warns of judgment coming for the greedy, the rod of discipline: “9 The voice of the LORD cries to the city— and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!” And he describes these people and their deceptive ways: “10 Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? 11 Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? 12 Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.”
B. You get the picture. By hook and by crook these folks have cheated, swindled, stolen, exploited, and confiscated by force what wealth was remaining in this broken nation and were sitting upon their hoard—the treasures of wickedness. And they were facing the swift and terrible judgment of God.
C. Now let me ask a really dumb question, but one that may tell us more than we may suspect. Why did these people exploit their neighbors and seek to amass “the treasures of wickedness?” Why did they cheat using a scant measure, a wicked scale, and a bag of deceitful weights? Why the lies and deceit so that they could get rich? Why did they want to be rich?
It looks like the sagging economy will be the major issue in the upcoming elections this November. The economy: not national security, not public morality, not even the besieged and beleaguered family, the most fundamental unit of any society. In yet another election cycle, “It’s the economy, Stupid!” One could argue that national security and even the well-being of families depends upon a solid economy. But is that really the issue?
D. The answer to both questions, why God’s Old Testament people sold their souls for wealth and why the major issue in the upcoming elections is the economy is the love of money and trusting in wealth. Judah could have found true help and relief in an instant if they had turned back to the Lord. I would argue that families would be better off and people would be happier if they were not so wealthy, and instead looked to the Lord for their hope and joy.
I. WE MUST NOT TRUST IN WEALTH.
A. Judah began to exploit the poor because they no longer looked to the Lord as their protector and provider. They then had to make their own way, and the false god they fled to was wealth. Now it is true that worldly wealth can purchase privilege and pleasure. You can buy most any experience or any worldly happiness. And worldly wealth can purchase prestige and popularity. At every stage of life, money can buy the advantages that will put you in the forefront. And worldly wealth can purchase power and persuasion. Most of the influential lawmakers in Washington have great wealth. Most of them have used their wealth to buy influence. A billion dollars will be spent this year by candidates in pursuit of the presidency. Money talks.
We should recognize that all this of is true—in reference to this world alone. The people of this world respect, adore, and fawn over wealth. So if your goal is worldly success in your brief life, but utter failure and disaster in the everlasting age to come, then go ahead and pursue worldly wealth.
B. But we should also take to heart the Apostle Paul’s solemn warning: “9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” Really? Who believes that today? Who wouldn’t trade their soul to win the hot lotto mega millions?
In his book called Fathers and Sons: Stand Fast in the Way of Truth, Douglas Bond writes: “In 1973, psychedelic Cambridge band Pink Floyd created a hit that included a paraphrase of Paul’s condemnation of money, ‘Money, so they say is the root of all evil today.’ Accompanied by cash-register sound effects chink-chinking ominously, song writer Roger Waters leads off with the line, ‘Money, get away.’ Pink Floyd’s hit song seems to be an attempt to grapple with the superficiality of modern man’s love of money.”
The irony is that the song “Money” sold over forty million copies, making them rich. There is no indication that the group refused the cash or gave it to the poor. The wealth they decried and condemned ensnared them as well.
C. Did you notice that Paul did not distinguish between those who desired to be rich through deceitful and illegitimate means and those who sought wealth legally? Money can become our god even if we pursue it honestly.
What’s disturbing about the parable Jesus told in Luke 12, the one where he ends calling the rich farmer a fool, is that the man became rich legally, even with the Lord’s blessing him with a rich crop. He worked hard, he deserved his return, and then he became ensnared by it and lost his soul.
We must not trust in wealth. Rather…
II. WE MUST REALIZE WEALTH’S LIMITATIONS.
A. Does money buy happiness? We’ve conceded that it can buy privilege and pleasure, prestige and popularity, power and persuasion. But happiness? These are not the same things. Here’s a family in their big house with all their gadgets and toys. Dad’s in the den watching the big game on the plasma, Mom’s in another room chatting on Facebook, little Jimmy is in the basement playing video games, and little Susie is in her bedroom texting her friends. “The good life!?” Really? Is that even life at all? Is that really a family?
The more things you own, the more things you have to take care of. Actually, the more things you own, the more those things own you. It is not uncommon to be possessed by your possessions, not by a long shot.
B. But the real tragedy is that God is coming to call on each one of us, and we will be forcibly removed from everything we have accumulated in this life. Judah’s experience serves as a forewarning to us. God says: “13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins. 14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. 15 You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine. ” Why not? Because the enemy will soon be at the gate. They have forsaken the Lord as their protector, and the enemy will overrun them. The robbers will be robbed. The treasures of the wicked will be confiscated by those who are even wickeder. Judgment is coming, and they cannot buy their way out of it.
C. The Bible is very clear that wealth will not help us on the day of death. Here is what really makes the illusion of worldly wealth collapse. Here we see clearly that wealth is only the bait of the trap as it closes upon us. Jesus told the parable we read earlier:
“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” His plan was perfect up until the moment he died, and then the plan was to no avail. And you also have an appointment with death.
Likewise the Apostle Paul: “7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.” Do we really believe this? If we read the newspapers, watch the slick advertisements, look around at our neighbors, and browse through our own checkbook ledgers and credit card statements, we would probably conclude that, no, we do not really believe this. And this fact exposes that we are compromised as well. We are hoping and trusting in wealth, and it will fail. We will be bitterly disappointed if we proceed on our course.
D. For Judah, it was the invasion of the enemy. They would conquer the city, loot all their wealth, and either kill or enslave all the people. What will their treasures of wickedness do for them then? And for us it is the invasion of the last enemy. One second after death, all this will be drawn into sharp focus, and we will see it all clearly. But then it will be horribly too late.
Instead…
III. WE MUST TRUST IN THE LORD.
What if we really took all of this seriously? What if we finally woke up to see how worldly wealth had woven itself into our hearts and affections, and sought to escape its iron grip?
A. What if we began to seek another kind of riches, to be rich in kindness and good deeds to others? Those who have great wealth tend to enjoy the admiration of others. As the wealthy pass by, others step aside, bow their heads, and look on with wonder and amazement. But it is not really the look of love so much as that of envy: “If only I were in their shoes!”
There is another kind of respect that people receive and it is the look of love and affection. It is the love of those you have counted as friends and helped and blessed. In the day of the Lord, it will be the lines of those you have cheered and ennobled and edified. That is a legacy that will go quietly unnoticed in this life, but will be heralded in the life to come.
B. What if we realized the great treasure we already possess in the righteousness of Christ? This is the righteousness that Christ has won for us by his living an absolutely perfect life, the perfection that God requires from people if we are ever to enjoy eternal life. The astonishing wonder is that Christ has enough righteousness for all, and he will freely give it to all who come to him and put their hope in him alone. The most precious and essential commodity is freely given by the Son of God. If we already have everything in Christ, then the deadly attraction of worldly wealth will be overthrown.
C. And what if instead of fading worldly wealth we sought the great and lasting gain of godliness? Godliness is character and living that pleases God because it is in keeping with his own character. And here is true beauty: a miserable life transformed, a greedy, grasping, guilty soul made new by the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, so that we are overflowing with love and joy and peace. Everybody, so it seems, wants a makeover of their outward appearance. That is usually quite expensive, sometimes painful, and with mixed results, and it is always temporary. Every body will eventually become a loathsome corpse. But godliness lasts forever.
Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6: “6 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.” While we cannot take worldly wealth out of this world, we can take godliness along with us. Call me crazy, but it would seem wiser to give attention to that which will last forever.
D. What if we really believed what our Lord Jesus said about not worrying at all, not at all, about our daily needs, but rather trusted God to be our heavenly Father and to provide for us? There is no indication in Scripture that we should ever stop working and just live off the land. In fact, the Bible is decisively against it and declares that “If a man does not work, he shall not eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10)
It is, rather, a matter of trust. Are you trusting yourself to provide your daily bread, or are you trusting your heavenly Father to do so, even if he does so through the strength and the job that he gives you? Jesus said we should trust our Father.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”
E. What if we sought instead to practice the grace of gratitude and contentment? What if we learned to live on less and to practice contentment instead? What if we stopped disobeying the Bible’s command in 1 Timothy 6:8: “But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content”? What if we cared more about people than things? What if we built relationships instead of monuments to ourselves?
F. And finally, what if we knew our highest treasure to be the Lord himself, and not anything he could give us? What if we looked to the Lord deeply and lastingly and gazed upon his glory until we were blinded to the false and fading glitter of the world?
What if we became really astonished, not at the latest technology breakthrough, nor the Black Friday, doorbuster sales, nor the glossy, pandering, smiling advertisements, but at the Son of God and his love for sinners?
CONCLUSION
What if the love of Christ captivated us and constrained us? I think, then, the things of earth would grow strangely dim. It’s not really a matter of the rejection of the things of this world, not even of worldly wealth itself. This was the mistake of the monasteries. God has given us all things for our enjoyment.
It is, rather, to look to the Lord always, with gratitude, with amazement, with deep love and respect. It is to trust in him and rest in him and to find all our hope and happiness in him. It is to count these as true treasures and pursue them with all the energy God gives us. It is to “seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”
(
“9 The voice of the LORD cries to the city— and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it! 10 Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? 11 Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? 12 Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins. 14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. 15 You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine. 16 For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”
13 ¶ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
22 ¶ And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
6 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
A. So what does the Lord require from us? There’s no use trying to deny this or to pretend that we do not owe anything to God. They tried that tactic in Micah’s day, but it left them speechless. God made us. He owns us. He doesn’t owe us anything, but we owe him everything.
Nor does it do any good, as we’ve seen, trying to bribe God, to pay him off, to think that we have anything that God needs, that God could become beholden to us. God made all things and owns all things. We have nothing that we did not already receive from him. What could we possibly give him that he does not already have?
No, as we have seen, we owe God our thanks. We owe God our honor and respect. And as we find in our text for this morning, we owe him our trust and faith, our loyal and steadfast love. And here in verse 8, Micah answers the question directly: “8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
B. He has already told us what to do. Where? In the rest of the Bible. In the Ten Commandments. In the summary of the Law which is re-stated here by Micah in a different form: to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love neighbor as self.
C. Remember the downward spiral we’ve already seen described in Micah. First, they turned away from God and turned to idols. Then, when their false gods failed them and they wound up empty and in misery, they turned on each other, and the wealthy began to exploit the poor. And finally they foolishly turned away from God’s Word, the only thing that could have saved them by leading them to repentance and faith.
So God’s requirement is that we return to him and let him restore us. It is to retrace the steps that led us away. We turned away from God’s Word—we must turn back to God’s life giving Word once again and listen to his voice. We turned on each other, looking to others, exploiting them for our own satisfaction, and we must turn instead to love others in kindness and fairness. But supremely, we must turn away from our idols and return to the Lord himself as our only hope and happiness. Micah describes this as doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God. So first,
I. WE MUST DO JUSTICE.
A. I spent 20 years in the liberal church. As I attended numerous presbytery meetings and several general assembly meetings, I was constantly struck by an assumed agenda that seemed to have little to do with the Bible. That’s because the liberal church had been captured by a progressive social agenda that owed more to liberal philosophy, mainly Marxism or socialism, than it did to the Bible. This philosophy was almost entirely horizontal—it had to do with rebuilding social structures according to a new ideology that said that the rich were bad and the poor were noble, that the wealthy must have become so through the misuse of power, that government was fundamentally corrupt, and that most of the world’s population were victims who should rise up against their oppressors.
But these were church gatherings, and so for their worship services, they couldn’t just quote Karl Marx. They had to read from the Bible, and so they looked for scripture texts that seemed to fit their message. And Micah 6:8 was a favorite. I heard it invoked numerous times, it became the motto for several events, and I heard many “sermons” on this verse. Actually, the focus was on only two words, “do justice.” And the word justice was not defined as it is in Scripture, but was always re-cast to fit a progressive, socialist agenda. We were clobbered by this phase “do justice,” while the rest of the verse was ignored, especially that part about “walking humbly with your God.”
B. We cannot take the words that God uses in his Word and imagine they mean whatever we want them to mean. The word “justice” refers to that which is in accordance with God’s law as revealed in the Bible. Let me give you some examples.
1. In the Old Testament, if someone committed a deliberate murder, his life was forfeit—he must be put to death. That was justice. But the “justice” of the liberal church always tended to side with the killer, no matter how shocking or brutal the murder was. In their view, capital punishment was always wrong. But what about justice for the victim?
2. In the Bible, if someone worked hard and got ahead and became wealthy, if they did not steal or defraud, then justice said that they should be able to keep what they earned, and to take it from them would be unjust. It would be stealing. But the “justice” of the liberal church constantly condemned all rich people and continually worked to empower government to take their wealth from them and give it to the poor through high taxation, the very opposite of biblical justice.
3. Or if a woman became pregnant, biblical justice recognized that child in the womb as a new human being, a precious life to be nourished and protected. But the “justice” of the liberal church considered all women to be victims and demanded that all women have the absolute right to keep or to kill those children for any or no reason.
4. And with respect to sexual immorality, Old Testament justice required that the adulterer and the homosexual offender be put to death. That was justice, the kind of justice that Micah wrote about here when he said that God required them to “do justice.” Of course, the “justice” of the liberal church would faint dead away at this, and I witnessed time and again the “justice” of the liberal church actively promoting such sexual immorality and resisting any attempt to condemn it as biblical justice requires.
C. To do justice is to obey all of God’s commands, not just the ones we find convenient or politically correct. It is to submit to God and to obey him his way, according to his Word, for he is our Maker.
Secondly, God requires that we “love kindness, or mercy, or steadfast loyalty and faithfulness.”
II. WE MUST LOVE KINDNESS.
A. To the liberal church, loving kindness or mercy is constantly viewed in horizontal terms as a soft-headed, permissiveness that gave its approval to any behavior and was allergic to saying “no.” This is to confuse kindness with cowardice. It is to be completely non-judgmental, to capitulate to any demand under the mistaken notion that people are basically good and will always do the right thing.
I would argue that biblically speaking this is completely wrong-headed, and that to assume that people are basically good, always know best, and will do the right thing in the end is ridiculous folly. Several years ago I was riding a bus near Atlanta and we drove through mile after mile of identical homes. None of them had any windows in them any more, and the whole compound was surrounded by a high fence topped with razor wire. I was dumbfounded, but my seat mate explained that these were former government housing projects where poor people were allowed to live for free at the cost of billions of dollars of taxpayer money. Every house was trashed and unlivable, every one. This is the outcome of the brand of kindness that assumes everyone is good at heart, that is completely non-judgmental, that supplies whatever is demanded, no questions asked. This is not kindness, but the most cowardly kind of cruelty that seeks not the other’s best, but seeks to feel good as a do-gooder, yet with no true care or compassion.
C. I think of true Christian social reformers like John Wesley. While I have serious problems with some of his theology, I would give him high marks as an evangelist and social reformer. This kind of reformer understands that people are fundamentally sinners at heart, in rebellion against God, and enslaved to sin. So the reformation of the relationship with God must come first. The gospel of the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God through the blood and righteousness of Christ is the beginning of true life, the fundamental turnaround when the sinner is born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Wesley then placed converts into small groups for Bible Study, prayer, fellowship, and mutual accountability. The goal was to build solid character so that the converts would forsake drunkenness, become hard working and thrifty, and provide for their families.
This kind of personal investment in another’s life strikes me as exceedingly kind. That’s real kindness—not lobbying Washington to raise taxes on productive people and throwing money at the poor. That kind of impersonal kindness using other people’s money seems most unkind to me.
D. But the word that is translated “kindness” or “mercy” here is not primarily a horizontal word, but a vertical one. It means steadfast, loyal, or covenant love. It refers first of all to our love for God and faithfully keeping covenant with him. This faithfulness to our promises to God then becomes the foundation of covenant loyalty and faithfulness in all of our horizontal relationships. One Bible scholar notes that this is: “covenant loyalty and covenant love…which involves honouring the commitment of loyalty and love subsisting between husband and wife, parent and child, subject and king, and, most especially, between the believer and his God.” (NIV Commentary, 759). And thirdly,
III. WE MUST WALK HUMBLY WITH OUR GOD.
A. And here is the part that the liberal church seldom addresses. Again, that’s because the liberal church is almost exclusively horizontal. Socialism is about changing things on earth, not really about relating to heaven or preparing for heaven. It is utterly this-worldly. It looks to solve the problems of this world by using the remedies of this world, sometimes dressed up in religious language, but it is from this world nonetheless.
But it is here that we find our solution. It is here we must begin, not end. As we found before in Micah, God’s people first ran into trouble by turning from the Lord to idols. They thought that the idols of this world could do better than their Maker. They sought their help and hope and happiness in gods of their own making, and cut themselves off from the source of abundant and eternal life. They were the prodigal sons who would only find life if they turned back and came home to their Father’s love.
B. The reason the liberal church is so enticing, even though it is utterly barren, is that it allows people to ignore all this stuff about God and obedience and submission to your Maker. It does so by constantly examining the faults of others: the wealthy, the powerful, the exploiters. And while you are focusing on the speck in your brother’s eye, it is impossible to see the log in your own. The liberal church prides itself and reassures itself that it is superior to all others because it is seeking to do justice, or at least its own version of justice, and gives the appearance of loving kindness. And so by imagining that it is fulfilling what God requires, it can safely ignore what God actually requires, namely repentance from sin and self, and surrendering to Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Savior. A Bible scholar defines walking humbly with your God as living all of life “in fellowship with the Lord Himself, in utter dependence upon His enablement to lead a godly life, and in full recognition of the total lack of personal ability or merit which might furnish a base for pride, or self-justification.” (Ibid.)
C. And here again is where it all begins. Why did God’s people in Micah’s day begin to exploit the poor as they certainly did? It is because they were in misery themselves. And why were they in misery? Because they were empty. And why were they empty? Because they had abandoned the Lord, the fount of all joy and life. They did not love kindness or mercy or steadfast love, but rather broke covenant with God, and as a result everything fell apart. So in their emptiness caused by turning away from the Lord, they turned on others, seeking to steal what little they had in order to stuff themselves with that which was not ultimately fulfilling.
But as they walked humbly with God, they knew and enjoyed his covenant blessings. And from the position of fullness, they could reach out and give freely to all in need. Here is the answer to a world in misery due to its rebellion against God. It is for God’s people to be so completely enriched and satisfied in him, that they personally reach out to the lost in their distress and hold forth Christ, the Word of life, the good news of the Gospel by which they too can be reconciled to God and restored to life and gladness in this world and the next.
CONCLUSION
What does God require from us? That we come to him in gratitude. That we honor him as our Maker, who has absolute right over us. And that we surrender to his Son, being reconciled to God through what Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross and by the empty tomb. God requires repentance from the folly of sin and the slavery to self, and faith in Christ, who will enter the life of everyone who comes to him and will ransom, regenerate, reclaim, repair, renew, and restore the banished sons of God until we become like him.
That’s what God requires from you. Now you can still wander out in the cold, enslaved to sin, defending your indefensible self, and trying to find life in the dead things of this world. Or you can come to Christ, and let him break you, and then remake you. Let him fill you to overflowing and set you free to love others and serve to their best needs. This is what God requires from you, as is his absolute right. And this is what God offers you, as is his absolute and loving gift of grace. What are you waiting for?
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6 ¶ “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God
1 ¶ Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. 2 The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. 3 Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. 4 The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand. 5 Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; 6 for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
7 ¶ But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. 8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. 9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. 10 Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.
A. A good artist knows that there always has to be a focal point. A painter will select one object that will be placed in such a way as to draw your immediate attention and keep it transfixed. A composer will build a song around a single line of music. And a playwright will enlist every character and employ every scene toward the delivery of that one speech. The key to every work of art is to know where to look or listen.
And the Christmas story that comes to us from God’s Word is no different. In every account, and every scene in each account, the focal point is on Christ, the long-awaited Baby. Mary is amazed at the birth of her Son. Joseph is first troubled then overjoyed at the news of his Stepson. The angels have only one message to deliver, and it is about him. The shepherds, once they hear the news, forget about the angels and hurry off to see him. The Magi are drawn to him, for they have seen his star. And even Herod is dismayed by him, rightly sensing him to be his rival and then plotting his murder.
And you also must keep your eye on the Baby, on Christ. Don’t even blink, because it’s all about him, and it really is of utmost importance. If your eye is not on him right now, then you have completely missed the point, not merely of Christmas, but of your whole life. Apart from him, your life is truly meaningless and irrelevant.
B. Last time we found that Micah introduces us to Christ over 600 years before his arrival. He is the true King, the leader we have been longing to follow. He is our Brother, someone like us, whom we can trust. He is our Shepherd whose sole object is to care for the sheep, to protect and provide for his people. And he is our Peace, who gave his life that we might be reconciled to God and live at peace with others.
C. But now Micah tells us what he came to do, and it may be surprising. Christ came to save his people, everybody knows that. What’s more, he came to save his people from their sins. Joseph was told to “call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) What’s surprising is how he would save his people from our sins. Jesus was born to save us from the penalty and power of sin.
I. HE CAME TO RAISE THE DEAD.
Micah tells us: “7 Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man. 8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver. 9 Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.”
A. Micah looks long into the future when Messiah will come. He will form “the remnant of Jacob,” the people of God who will be scattered in the midst of many nations. This refers to the people of the Messiah or Christ, those who follow Christ, the church. On the one hand, they will be like the dew and showers of rain to the people, always a sign of life and blessing. On the other hand, they will be like a lion, a predator among the peoples. So what does this mean?
The Messiah, Jesus Christ, was born to save his people from the penalty of sin. All people have broken faith with God, wickedly breaking his good laws and storming off in rebellion. As a nation of law and order, we understand clearly that when we commit crimes, we incur penalties. God’s penalty for rebellious lawbreakers like us is always the same: rebels deserve death, physical death, spiritual death, and everlasting death in hell. That is the grave and desperate situation of every person born into the world: guilty lawbreakers before God who deserve death and hell.
B. And I am sure that deep down you know this in your heart of hearts. If you would honestly search your heart, you would recall many times when you clearly knew what was right, but you did what was wrong. In fact, the more you search your heart, the more you will find this, even if you try not to remember it, even if you do everything you can to expunge it from your memory. And the guilt and shame you feel when you recall those times is an indication from God that he knows about it as well, that he will call you to account for these acts of disobedience, and that you will not survive the encounter. If you think about it long enough, you will know that this is true. Everybody knows this deep down inside.
C. And that’s why God sent his Son into the world. He came to save his people by paying the penalty for our sins. From the very beginning, the great Judge of all people decreed that the penalty for sin could be paid for by another, and then he came in Jesus Christ to pay it himself. I recall the story of a judge, whose sixteen-year-old daughter came before him in court, clearly guilty of a serious traffic violation. As a judge, he had to find her guilty and require a stiff fine for her violation. As a father, he loved his daughter and hated to penalize her. So, as a judge, he pronounced sentence; and then as her father, he stepped down from the bench, pulled out his checkbook and paid her fine himself.
That’s what Christ did for his people! He was born as a baby, lived a truly human life, a perfect, sinless life, and then willingly died, offering his life to pay the sentence of death we deserve for our sin.
D. And now he has entrusted this remnant of Jacob, the church, with the saving message of the Gospel. And the church, his people, are scattered among the nations announcing this hope. The people of the Messiah will bring the good news of the gospel to the nations, as I am doing right now, and many will find life in Christ. But the same message of good news spells doom to those who will not surrender to the Lord. All enemies of Christ will be vanquished. The Apostle Paul describes this dramatic effect of the gospel message in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16: “15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.”
So the mission of the Messiah, of Christ born in Bethlehem, is to send forth his people announcing the benefits of his salvation, the peace he came to bring, and inviting the nations to surrender to him as Brother, King, and Shepherd.
E. And here’s where you come in. You must surrender your life to Jesus. You must confess yourself to be a sinner, a rebel against God, deserving his displeasure, and throw your life on Christ who came to save sinners like us. This is what we celebrate today, the birth of the One who came to die, to take the punishment we deserve so that we can be forgiven and reconciled to God. Jesus came to raise dead sinners like us, to rescue us from the penalty of our sin. And he is your only hope.
Oh, you can pay your own way. You can pay the penalty for your own sins. Billions are already doing so, suffering unimaginable torment in hell. But you will pay forever, with no hope of reprieve or relief. Or you can trust Christ, surrendering to him, and he will have already paid your way in full, having himself suffered death and hell on the cross for sinners like us. So why not trust him today? Why not complete the mission he began at Christmas, by accepting his gift of eternal life?
But it gets even better!
II. HE CAME TO RESTORE THE REBEL.
A. Jesus came to save us not only from the penalty of sin but from the power of sin as well. Did you ever stop to consider why all people sin? The Bible is unequivocal: “All we like sheep have gone astray.” For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Why do all people break God’s law and rebel against him?
One man named Pelagius long ago insisted that people sin because of all the bad examples around them. People are born basically good, he said, but fall into sin because they have poor role models. Of course this is nonsense. If people are born basically good, then where in the world did all these poor role models come from? You would think that sin would be quite rare, that people would tend to follow their true natures and live holy lives. But the truth is that everybody sins, everybody! The truth is that gang bangers and scoundrels are a dime a dozen, while Mother Teresa’s are exceedingly rare.
The church has consistently recognized that Pelagius’ view is completely unbiblical nonsense, and has condemned his views more than anyone else in history. The Bible plainly teaches that there is in all of us this root of rebellion, passed down from generation to generation, inherited from our first parents. This root of rebellion grew so quickly from them, that the ancient world was overrun with violence. The situation was so deplorable that God selected the best man and his family, Noah, and started over, drowning all the rest, attempting to destroy this deadly root of rebellion. But it lived on in Noah and his family. It lives on in you and me.
B. The good news is that the Baby in the manger came to save us, not only from the penalty of sin, but from the power of sin as well, to destroy this root of rebellion in us. This root is the spring of every evil; the true source of all tears, pain, and death. This, along with the coming judgment of God, is the most sobering reality you will ever face, for it lives within you and it is killing you as we speak, cutting you off from the life of God, poisoning your very soul. And God says he will destroy this root of rebellion in his people.
Here’s how Micah describes it: “10 And in that day, declares the LORD, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots; 11 and I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds; 12 and I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes; 13 and I will cut off your carved images and your pillars from among you, and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands; 14 and I will root out your Asherah images from among you and destroy your cities.”
C. What is this deadly root of sin and self? It is the root of unbelief. It is refusing to trust the Lord and instead trusting in some other for help. Micah describes here the other sources of help the people had been trusting, and declares that the Lord will remove them one by one.
1. They were trusting in human protection: “10 And in that day, declares the LORD, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots; 11 and I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds….” God had said that he would be their refuge, their safety, but they carefully built up a security system of military might and fortified cities for their self-protection. This is that root of rebellion on display, trusting self instead of God.
It’s subtle, but we easily fall into the same. We trust national security, social security, health insurance, property insurance, life insurance, our investment accounts and retirement accounts, we strive to insulate our lives from every possible calamity, and suddenly find ourselves trusting ourselves and our security measures instead of Christ, the source of our life. Do you think this is not true? Remember what happened in the latest economic downturn when many lost a great portion of their retirement savings? What was the response? Nobody minded, everybody said, “It doesn’t matter at all! We have everlasting hope in Christ!” Right? Not at all. There was shock, desperation, outrage! And suddenly what people were trusting and hoping in became crystal clear.
2. And they were trusting in human wisdom, instead of the Word of God. “12 and I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes….” Why would they look to sorcery and fortune telling when they had the very Word of God? Here is the root of rebellion on display again. They didn’t like the answers they got from God, so they looked to others to tell them what they wanted to hear.
Here’s a simple question: how much do you read the Bible? What would you say, an hour a day? An hour a week? Ever? And how much do you turn to other sources of information: newspapers, books, magazines, radio, television, internet? Do you see the root of rebellion on display in your own life that says, “I will consult every source, I will listen to every voice except the Word of the Lord my God”?
3. And they were trusting in human religion: “13 and I will cut off your carved images and your pillars from among you, and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands; 14 and I will root out your Asherah images from among you and destroy your cities.” Again, the root of rebellion. God’s religion leads to holiness and righteousness—boring! We want something with a little spice, something edgy and mysterious.
The January 2012 issue of Popular Science magazine described an archeological find on the arid northern coast of Chile. It was the 900-year-old remains of 43 children whose bodies were arranged in formation facing the sea, a sacrificial site. Most likely they were killed as a group offering to an ocean deity, perhaps an attempt to control the weather. Here is a graphic example of murderous, superstitious nonsense as a result of man-made imaginary religion.
In a religiously diverse nation like America, all are welcome, and all are free to practice whatever religion, as it should be. But many Christians then mistakenly assume that therefore all religions are valid, even equal. To my knowledge, no religion in America advocates child sacrifice. But any religion other than Christianity, the biblical faith, is actually far worse than that. All other religions guarantee that their followers, especially their most devout, will spend eternity in hell. If Christ alone saves, as the Bible everywhere declares, then those who turn to Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, or to the ten million gods of the Hindus will surely not be saved. All these false religions condemn their followers to everlasting destruction.
Micah tells us the problem. All of these rivals, human protection, human wisdom, and human religion, teach us to trust in self, not God. They are all subtle outbreaks of this root of rebellion, “your horses… your chariots…your strongholds…sorceries from your hand…your carved images…your pillars…the work of your hands…your Asherah images.”
And Christ came to save from the power of sin. He came to restore the rebel. He came to rip up this root of rebellion, and subdue us in righteousness. So we must submit to him. We must put away our sin and self and humbly come to him, turning to his life-giving Word and following the Shepherd-King.
CONCLUSION
He’s the focal point of the Bible. Every eye is upon him. Is your eye upon him constantly?
Come to him as Savior. You cannot save yourself. There is no hope of life apart from him, but only the stench of death. So come to the sweetest aroma of the good news of hope and reconciliation with God through him.
Come to him as Lord. Ask God to open your eyes to the subtle ways this root of rebellion is breaking out in your life, and ask Christ to pull it up, to eradicate it, that you may fully trust in him and walk in his ways.
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