Micah 7:1-20
The godly are able to look around and see things as they really are. This is the Holy Spirit’s doing. God opens the eyes of His children to see what sin really looks like. This dynamic often causes the godly to mourn and grieve, both, over their own sins, but over the sins of others, as well. Micah, the prophet, is being shown by God throughout the prophecy what rampant sin does to people on a larger scale. Micah tells the people what he sees--chaos. Sin takes God’s creation and what is holy and of God and shakes it up. Micah 7 demonstrates the chaos that is swirling around him. Perplexity shall ensue among the people because of the sin that Micah has been discussing in his prophecy. The hate, the thievery, the murder, the idol worship that Micah described in his book all leads to every man for himself. “Trust not in a friend; put not confidence in a guide; keep the doors of your mouth shut from her that lies in your arms”(vs.5). Everyone is against his neighbor. Micah grieves over this. He sees what it is doing on a corporate level. He prophecies God’s judgment for it. What can Micah do? How must he have felt? Where does one turn? Where can one flee? Micah had to wait it out. He knew what was coming. Rather than despairing, though, Micah ends the gospel with a liturgical hymn of praise to the Lord. This liturgical hymn is set within the context of Micah waiting. He looks to the Lord and waits for God’s promise to be fulfilled. This takes place while everyone around Micah is running about in anger and frustration, discord and contention. The picture that is painted in this book finds its true color in chapter 7. Micah sits in the midst of a disordered and disheveled world. The world around him is maddening. But in this picture that has been painted for us is one who resolves to look to heaven in the midst of it all. Micah has remembered the words of the Lord to His people, and he clings to them. He holds on to God’s word as a man who is holding on to a life preserver in the midst of a torrential sea. The word of God sustains Micah and he ends his book recounting the gospel which the Lord promised to Abraham: “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto you, and to your seed after you”(Genesis 17:7). Micah needs the gospel and He preaches the gospel to remind God’s people so that they, too, shall have the saving life-preserver that was cast into the midst of the deadly sea to save the lost. Micah was a realist. He wasn’t painting an untrue picture of himself or his situation. He knew tough times were ahead but, more than that, he knew that the Lord would bless whom He meant to bless. “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me”(vs. 8). Micah prophesies to the enemy of the church. Micah reminds all who will listen that when we fall into the sea, threatening to be swallowed up by Satan, the world, and the flesh, it is the Lord who shall pull us up. The world makes us afraid. Micah was afraid. Had he not the gospel, he would have despaired of himself and would have fallen prey to the chaos around him. We must be careful. The world and sin threatens to lead us to the conclusion that we might as well go on living like the world. We are tempted to live lives of unrepentant sin. On our own, we would sink. But it is Jesus who pulls us out of the sea as we sink like Peter. Micah is showing us in the midst of judgment that there is nothing else to hold onto. Chapter 7 is put forth for this very reason. When all is said concerning Israel’s sin, and the word of God falls on deaf ears all around, then there isn’t anything else to do but to look to heaven and gaze upon the Lord like Micah. Psalm 4 describes what Micah is doing: “Stand in awe and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still”(Psalm 4:4). Micah could do this because of what God had taught the people through His many prophets: God is merciful and forgiving. God is faithful. St. Paul reminds Timothy and the church of this very thing: “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, he also will deny us: if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: he cannot deny Himself”(2 Timothy 2:11-13). Micah tells us something in the Hebrew that is of great value. “Who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?”(vs. 18). God will not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will turn again. He will have compassion on us. Micah addresses God: “You will have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” Hidden in the Hebrew is the notion that God will take, both, our misdeeds and the punishment that would come to us. This can only refer to Jesus. He takes the punishment for our sins. Jesus completely removes the sins. He treads our sins underfoot, recalling to our mind the imagery from Genesis that the head of the serpent shall be bruised and dealt a death blow by the foot of the seed of the woman. This falling and rising of which Micah speaks due to sin is seen in Peter attempting to walk on the sea only to begin to sink. His sins cause him to sink and He knows it. Peter doesn’t trust himself, nor should he. It is Jesus who grabs Peter by the hand and pulls him out of the drowning sea. It is the way of the church to follow suit with Micah, to recall the gospel and look to that gospel which is proclaimed, thereby leading us to gaze upon the One who treads our sins underfoot. Micah is giving the church a painted picture of what faith and devotion looks like. Here sits a man who recalls the gospel and reminds himself of that faithful preaching from long ago. His prophecy ends: “You(The Lord) will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago.” The church looks to heaven in the midst of a dying world, a world of sin, a world of chaos, and she recalls the grace and mercy of God that comes through Jesus Christ. Jesus shall redeem her. Jesus shall grab her by the arm and pull her up out of the torrential sea and keep her close. The church shall come to worship the Lord in the tranquility and peace of Christ as He calms the storms that swirl, as we behold God in the flesh who has kept His promise and saved us. Amen. -- Rev. Chad Kendall Trinity Lutheran Church Lowell, Indiana www.trinitylowell.org http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=243282012833
