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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.
“What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer
fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none
of the early figs that I crave. The faithful have been swept from the land; not
one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each
other with nets. Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts,
the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire—they all
conspire together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse
than a thorn hedge.”
“The day God visits you has come, the day your watchmen
sound the alarm. Now is the time of your confusion. Do not trust a neighbor; put
no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace guard
the words of your lips. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up
against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies
are the members of his own household.”
Micah 7:1-6
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
We’re living in turbulent times right now. Political
discord, protests, violence in our cities, and consistent threats of terrorism
and war seem to run rampant. Our world seems to be in a declining flux, maybe
on the way to being fallen in many ways.
So what might a fallen world look like if and when we get
there?
We get a snapshot of it as we turn to the final chapter
of the Book of Micah and its opening six verses. Look again at these words
here:
“What misery is
mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there
is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. The
faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains. Everyone
lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each other with nets. Both hands are
skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the
powerful dictate what they desire—they all conspire together. The best of them
is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.”
“The day God
visits you has come, the day your watchmen sound the alarm. Now is the time of
your confusion. Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even
with the woman who lies in your embrace guard the words of your lips. For a son
dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.” Micah 7:1-6
First note the state of Micah the prophet, the voice
speaking here. It is a voice expressing misery, a voice feeling distress and
anguish. It is a voice in the midst of suffering, a voice grounded in
despondency and dejection. A fallen world will take somebody to this place in a
hurry. Maybe you are finding yourself feeling like Micah in the midst of our present
day national and global situations.
What was Micah’s melancholy and woe compared with?
He likened it to someone who went to the vineyard with
the excitement and expectation of gathering summer fruit only to find there is
nothing there. No grapes or figs to eat.
He goes on to further expound on the causes of his
misery. For all the faithful had been swept from the land and not one righteous
person remained. What was still around were people who were out for blood,
ready to take another’s life without remorse, hunting humans as if they were
animals.
Sound familiar as we look around us today?
Further, people were “skilled in doing evil” of all
types. Micah tells us the ruler demanded gifts, the judge took bribes in
dispensing justice, and the powerful abused their authority for their own gain,
all conspiring with each other for the cause of wickedness. Basically, you
couldn’t find anyone doing good anywhere.
In addition to all this, the time Micah was speaking of
was one when neighbors and friends couldn’t be trusted. Ditto for the woman a
man might hold in his embrace. It was a time of disrespect, especially in one’s
household as sons dishonored their father, daughters rose up against their
mothers, daughters-in-law raged against their mothers-in-law. Within a fallen
world, a “man’s enemies” would be “members of his own household”.
That may really look like a situation we find in play in
many places today.
There’s no doubt left in this scripture passage today
that the nation of Israel was in a fallen state. There’s also little doubt that
many of the symptoms we see within the nation of Israel in this state mimic ones
we see within our own nations and world today.
Where did it lead Israel?
To a day when the Lord would visit and exact His judgment
and as we know in studying Old Testament history, He did come and bring
punishment on Israel in a big way.
Today, we had better believe the Lord is coming back as
well on a day of His choosing, a day when He will intervene in the wickedness
within our fallen world and do whatever is needed to correct it and bring it
back to the kind of world He desires it to be, a world that is devoted and
dedicated to Him, a world that is full of righteousness, peace, and love, a
kind of world all of us should want to live in.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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