epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Micah 2

What does it take to oppress the poor? You need an imagination, and you need the ability to follow through on an evil scheme. The people of God in the time of Micah had both. They devised wickedness at night, and when they woke up in the morning they used their power to accomplish their designs. One other thing is needed in order for this kind of oppression to take over a society. There must be no fear of God. The absence of that fear brings about the erosion of character among a people.

The Lord has an answer for those who lead His own nation into this kind of social disobedience. As they have done to others, it shall be done to them by their enemies. He is bringing a disaster that will show the powerful what it feels like to be helpless. They will learn what it is like to be the subject of insulting taunts. They will find out what happens to people when their inheritance is taken away from them. They will feel utterly ruined. What they counted on as a stable possession will be completely removed from their charge, for foreigners will take their properties and there will be no judicial process by which they can justly plead their case. As they have done to the poor among their own people, foreign powers will do to them.

This was the prophecy that Micah brought to his people, but they did not want to hear it. Such an attitude toward the Word of God, seeking to silence the Lord’s preachers, is a sure sign that the disaster about which God would warn his people is now coming to them. They do not want to hear about their future disgrace, but silencing the Lord’s prophets will not change the facts of what God is going to do. It feels unseemly to the rich to hear upsetting messages from the Lord, so they will do what they can to stop the announcement of the Lord’s judgment against them.

Is it the Lord’s fault that the descendants of Jacob are in so much trouble? Can their problems really be solved by attempting to silence the truth? Is there some character flaw in God that has led to the danger that the nation faces? No, it is the people who are at fault and not their God. They steal the clothing off of innocent men, and destroy families by unjustly removing their possessions from them.

The Promised Land is no longer a particularly safe place for the Lord’s people because of their pervasive iniquity. Yet those who should be the most discerning and gifted among the people, those who should be leading others in the way of righteousness, they would rather have prophets that speak to them of strong drinks than true representatives of God who would expose their sins that they might truly repent.

Despite the sin of the powerful and their abuse of the poor in their midst, the Lord speaks of an assembly of deliverance for “all.” This all is qualified. It is the remnant of the descendants of Jacob. The Assyrians will bring great trouble upon the northern kingdom of Israel and upon the countryside of Judah. Many will die. Others will be exiled. Some will flee to Jerusalem, and the Assyrians will not be able to destroy this remnant of the Lord’s people.

This flock of the Lord will have a head. Their will be a king that they will follow in order to have life again. Ultimately this king will be more than a Hezekiah who will be treated mercifully by God as the Assyrians are amazingly sent back home by the Lord’s power. The ending verse in the chapter insists that the true King who delivers His people is the Lord who is at their head.

The people of God throughout the ages are a disappointing lot. Especially their leaders seem to be experts at oppression and immorality. They dream about it on their beds, and they use their reasoning and all their resources to accomplish their unrighteous desires. They lead many astray and they abuse others who cry out to the Lord for help. They too often become undistinguishable from the world around them.

Nonetheless there is one King who will never abandon His sacred charge. He is the fulfillment of every merciful prophecy of the real Leader who would rule in righteousness. He accomplishes His great aims through His own suffering. On His bed at night He dreams of those things that will bring the greatest glory to His heavenly Father. When He rises in the morning He walks closer to the cross with every step that He takes. He has had compassion upon us in our great poverty, and His unparalleled leadership is the root cause of any well-being that we enjoy, now and forever.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 12:00 AM

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