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MICAH: Hope in the Face of Hardship Guilt & Punishment and God's

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MICAH: Hope in the Face of Hardship Guilt & Punishment and God's MICAH: Hope in the Face of Hardship Guilt & Punishment and God’s Mercy & Grace Micah chapters 6 & 7 Layne Lebo November 20, 2016 Your nation is in a difficult place. People have strayed far from God and many who do worship Him worship Him with words and with religious rituals, but not with their lives. Your leaders have failed you by not leading well. They’ve neglected the poor and oppressed. They lead because it benefits them and makes them prosperous, not because they want to serve those they lead. As a consequence for the sins of your people and your leaders judgment is coming. But don’t lose hope, God always has a remnant—a small group of devout followers who embrace righteousness when all around them people are falling away. Eventually God will bring deliverance through his promised leader. Those words summarize the prophet Micah’s message to Israel and Judah 2,700 years ago, but there is a lot of truth in those words that applies to the United States and to the church in the U.S. in 2016. This morning we’re wrapping up our 3 week study of this small book called Micah that is tucked into the back of the Old Testament. I suspect that few of us are familiar with Micah and its message, but it’s a powerful little book. In a commentary on Micah the authors Copass and Carlson say this about this book: “Of all the Old Testament prophecies, Micah’s is the most exquisitely ordered, the most compact. It has, in addition, eloquence and beauty of phrasing equal to the great Isaiah’s, and at times ever more simplicity, even more spiritual fervor and power of message.” Pp. 80 & 81 As we’ve done throughout this sermon series I’d like to give you an overview of chapters 6 & 7 of Micah by having you watch this video. Micah is filled with contrasts… God’s people aren’t worshiping Him faithfully, but there is still a righteous remnant. Things are bad and they’re going to get worse, but deliverance is coming. Their leaders had led poorly and behaved badly, but God’s promised leader is coming. Chapters 6 & 7 continue with the contrasts, highlighting the punishment that is coming 1 to God’s people as a consequence for their sin—on one hand—and God’s mercy and grace—on the other hand. I encourage you to follow along as I read verses 1-5 of Micah 6. As I read, note that Micah sums up God’s complaints against his people as if he is bringing charges against them in a court of law. And He calls on them to “plead their case.” “Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.” Micah 6:1-5 Micah challenges God’s people to consider all that God has done for them in the past. He reminds them that God was the one who brought them out of their slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land. He tells them to remember the story of Balak king of Moab and the false prophet Balaam. Moab’s King, Balak, wanted to stop the progress of the Israelites and so he hired a prophet, Balaam, to call down curses on God’s people. God tried to stop Balaam from attempting to curse the people of God, but Balaam was so stubborn in refusing to listen that eventually God caused Balaam’s donkey to speak words of warning to him. (It’s a great story and you can read it in the Book of Numbers chapters 22-24.) And Micah closes this section with the words, “Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.” I had to do some research on that statement, because I had no idea what this was referring to. Here’s what I discovered… Picture of the Jordan River Shittim was the last place God’s people camped after 40 years in the desert, just before they crossed the Jordan River and went into the promised land where they first established camp at Gilgal. To cross the Jordan God empowered Joshua to perform a miracle by dividing the water, just as He had done for Moses at the Red Sea, and the people walked into the Promised Land on dry ground. Micah’s words, “From Shittim to Gilgal” signified the fulfillment of God’s promises. But even this high point in Israel’s history was marred, because just before crossing into the Promised Land God’s people engaged in worshiping pagan gods and goddesses. We learn later that even though God had turned the prophet Balaam’s intended curses into words of blessing, God’s people were influenced by Balaam to worship idols. God’s 2 charge against his people is that even in the face of God’s amazing blessings his people have continually failed to follow Him faithfully. But in spite of his people’s faithlessness, God remains faithful. We read these words promising God’s comfort Micah chapter 7 verses 14-20. Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasturelands let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago. “As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders.” Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their power. They will lay their hands on their mouths and their ears will become deaf. They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the LORD our God and will be afraid of you. Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago. Micah 7:14-20 God uses the image of a shepherd who will lead his people to their inheritance. And Micah also refers again to God’s deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt and says that God will show his mercy to his people just as He did when he led them out of Pharaoh’s grasp. Just as God had promised Abraham and the Israelites throughout their history, people of all nations will be blessed through God’s people and will turn to God as their God. I want to read the last words of this book again, because they provide us with a wonderful picture of God’s character. Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago. Micah 7:18-20 Chapters 6 & 7 of Micah use different words and some new images from Israel’s history, but the message is the same as the first 5 chapters: in the midst of hardship, there is hope. But Micah chapter 6 also provides us with something that we don’t read elsewhere in this book— God tells his people what He expects of them. As I mentioned, chapter 6 begins with God presenting his charge against his people, as if He is an attorney in a court of law. And in this scenario God’s people are given a chance to respond. And in their question and in God’s response we see what God’s expectations of his people are in this interim period where they’re waiting for the promised deliverer. Verses 6 & 7 of Micah chapter 6 are framed as God’s people’s response to his charge against them. 3 With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Micah 6:6 & 7 Micah chapter 6 verse 8 contains God’s response to his people’s question. This verse is known as one of the greatest sayings in the Old Testament. The author Aldous Huxley calls this passage, “the perfect ideal of religion.” He has showed you, O man, what is good.
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