Monday, 6 July 2020 Micah 3 & 4
“….As for us, we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.” Micah 4:5
Micah who was a contemporary of Prophets Isaiah and Hosea, a workman who hails from an unknown village of Moresheth, prophesied at a time when the kingdoms of Judah and Israel became very prosperous. Although the rule of kings like Jeroboam II and Uzziah, made the people very prosperous, hand-in-hand with prosperity came increasing godlessness. The outward prosperity was only a façade masking the rampant social corruption and religious decay. Worship of the Canaanite fertility god Baal was increasingly integrated with the OT sacrificial system! (The MacArthur Bible Handbook).
John MacArthur further explains: Primarily, Micah proclaimed a message of judgment to a people persistently pursuing evil. He presented his message in law-suit/courtroom terminology. The prophecy is arranged in 3 oracles or cycles, each beginning with the admonition to “hear” (1:2, 3:1, 6:1). Within each oracle he moves from doom to hope. The NKJV Study Bible adds: The interplay of texts of wrath and mercy in the Book of Micah mirrors the character of God, for even in His wrath He remembers mercy. In our reading portion, chapter 3 describes the judgment on Israel’s leaders, however, chapter 4 describes God’s grand plan of RESTORATION!! Chapter 3 ends with a pictorial description of the doom of Jerusalem, but Chapter 4 begins with a glorious picture of the mountain of the house of the Lord.
The divine principles of restoration is inter- twined throughout the chapter 4. Our key verse Micah 4:5 states the first and foremost action for restoration- the prerequisite for anybody in any state to be restored – a solemn decision, a wilful act to walk in the name of the LORD God forever! To walk in the Lord’s name means true allegiance to the God of heaven; firm adherence to His principles. Actually the problem of the people was that they deviated from God’s Word – from His laid-down boundary. They became a law to themselves thereby replacing God’s rationale with human thinking – they lived for today forgetting all that God had done in their past and is capable to do in the future. In their prosperity they totally rejected God and that rejection is now allowing enemy nations to come and plunder them.
The only way of escape is restoring the lost relationship with God!!
A few blessings that follow a restored relationship are listed in Chapter 4:
You will receive Honour : 4:1
You will be a Testimony to others : 4:2
Peace will be established: 4:3 – Swords are made into plough shares. Weapons of warfare are converted into tools for agriculture. There is no more war.
Your weaknesses will be transformed to strengths: 4:6,7 - “In that day,” declares the Lord,“I will assemble the lame, and gather the outcasts, even those whom I have afflicted. “I will make the lame a remnant, and the outcasts a strong nation, and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion, from now on and forever.”
You will be endued with Authority : 4:13 “Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion,For your horn I will make iron, and your hoofs I will make bronze,”
If it is God’s plan that we be restored into that relationship with Him, can we offer our lives? There is only one unique way that our relationship with God is restored –through Jesus Christ! Ephesians 1:5 [AMP] says, “For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]—" It is the plan of God for the New Testament church and the believer that we become the praise of the GLORY of His grace!
PRAYER: "Dear GOD, we are sorry for wandering away from your ways; restore us and revive us again for the glory of Your name, Amen"