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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
“Because of this I will weep and wail; I will go about
barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl. For
Samaria’s plague is incurable; it has spread to Judah. It has reached the very
gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself.”
“Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all. In Beth Ophrah, roll in the dust. Pass by naked and in shame, you who live in Shaphir. Those who live in Zaanan will not come out. Beth Ezel is in mourning; it no longer protects you. Those who live in Maroth writhe in pain, waiting for relief, because disaster has come from the Lord, even to the gate of Jerusalem. You who live in Lachish, harness fast horses to the chariot. You are where the sin of Daughter Zion began, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moresheth Gath. The town of Akzib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel. I will bring a conqueror against you who live in Mareshah. The nobles of Israel will flee to Adullam. Shave your head in mourning for the children in whom you delight; make yourself as bald as the vulture, for they will go from you into exile.”
Micah 1:8-16
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
Have you ever watched a movie that is about the breakout
of an epidemic, an illness that begins at a certain source and then is spread
from person to person with deadly results?
It is a very scary and realistic scenario, made even more
terrifying by the fact that usually there is no immediate cure for the illness
once it starts.
In other words, it is a fast moving illness, infecting
more and more people every day, without any way to stop it.
Why open with this scene?
Because it is central to what the word of God is relaying
through His prophet Micah as He describes the malady that has contaminated the
Israelites in Samaria and Jerusalem, a plague He labels as “incurable”. Look
again at these closing verses from chapter 1:
“Because of this I
will weep and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a
jackal and moan like an owl. For Samaria’s plague is incurable; it has spread
to Judah. It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself.”
“Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all. In Beth Ophrah, roll in the dust. Pass by naked and in shame, you who live in Shaphir. Those who live in Zaanan will not come out. Beth Ezel is in mourning; it no longer protects you. Those who live in Maroth writhe in pain, waiting for relief, because disaster has come from the Lord, even to the gate of Jerusalem. You who live in Lachish, harness fast horses to the chariot. You are where the sin of Daughter Zion began, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moresheth Gath. The town of Akzib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel. I will bring a conqueror against you who live in Mareshah. The nobles of Israel will flee to Adullam. Shave your head in mourning for the children in whom you delight; make yourself as bald as the vulture, for they will go from you into exile.” Micah 1:8-16
First off, we need to get to the center of what the Lord
is talking about here. He isn’t speaking about a real plague, similar to the
ones sent in judgment before the days of Micah. Rather, He is using the plague
analogy to represent how sin had infected His people and spread to other parts
of His beloved nation of Israel, the sin of course being the worshiping of false
gods and idols.
Note that God identifies the source of the illness (sin) as
Samaria and then laments how the transgressions were transmitted to the south
to infect the people of Judah to include the divine, holy city of Jerusalem.
None of the Judean towns avoided the disease of iniquity and many of them are
mentioned in this passage (Gath, Beth Ophrah, Shaphir, etc.). They would all be
impacted by the wicked disease of sin, all would be left to mourn the things
they had done, and all would face judgment for their actions, the north
attacked and defeated by the Assyrians while the south would be destroyed by
the Babylonians. In both cases, the Israelites who were fortunate enough to
survive the onslaught would be hauled off into exile. Only the Judeans would
find themselves allowed to return to rebuild their nation, their cities and
towns, their homes, and their relationships with God.
Yes, God was sending punishment on His people for their
sins but this was not the cure. That would come some 700 years later when God
sent His only Son Jesus to earth to be a living sacrifice, the Lamb of God who
would take away the sins of the world, the final atonement for the sins of
mankind.
You see, the disease that plagued the Old Testament
Israelites of Micah’s time is the same disease that plagues us today. We are
all afflicted and the only cure for that affliction is Jesus and His blood that
washes us white as snow. Through Him, we are justified when we believe in Him
as Savior. Or put another way, when we have received Jesus as Savior, we are
pardoned from sin because Jesus has already paid the penalty we deserved. He is
the remedy for sin; nothing else can do it but Him.
This is why Jesus made it clear that He and He alone is the Way and the Truth and the Life, and no one can come to God the Father except through Him.
Yes, we’re all very sick, all of us. We have no hope to
escape perishing if we rely on ourselves or any other person of the world for
that matter. It’s a hopeless situation unless we find someone who can save us.
God did not wish that we die like that, with no hope for
a better life, an eternal life free from the afflictions we face in this one.
He loved us and did not wish for us to have no chance of survival and so He
offered up His Son to die in the place we should have. All we have to do is
place our trust in Him as Our Savior.
It is only amazing grace and mercy that would lead God to
do this, to offer us an opportunity to be cured of our incurable illness so we
can live with Him and Jesus now and forever.
Have you received the cure God has offered through Jesus
in your life?
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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