MICAH

Micah Chapter 7

• Micah 7:1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fruit. 

A famine of the word of God or a famine of the presence of God dwelling among us would be similar to a famine of food. A church sometimes will go through a dry season when nothing seems to be happening. At these times we need to start praying earnestly and seeking God for His presence to be with us again. Sometimes this may take fasting and prayer where two or three are gathered together to pray. Until revival happens we must seek Him and live by faith but we are never alone.

We read in accounts of the life of Jesus how many times He would go to a mountain alone to pray. If Jesus needed prayer, how much more do we. If we are a prayerless church, we will have no power. It takes the presence as the power of God among us to save the lost. If we see no one being saved, it could be that we have lost the power of the Holy Spirit working among us. We must fervently pray again like Jesus did. There could also be sin among us. Unbelief and doubt opens the door to sin that gets us in a place we should not want to be in. Faith works hand in hand with faithfulness. Rewards await the faithful that keeps on pursuing God and desires to share the gospel of good news to others.

The bible speaks of the times of the famine of the word.

• Amos 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 
• 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. 

How horrible that sounds. Yet I know God will answer those that diligently seek Him. If we seek we will find and if we knock it shall be opened. Pray without ceasing, continually seek the Lord and those that seek Him will have no famine of the word. 

• Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

In another place, I believe it may be the book of James, there is a verse that says you have not because you ask not, then it goes on to tell us that we ask and do not receive because we ask amiss and our desires are greedy and lustful instead of asking with the right motives. 

• Jeremiah 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 

We see in Jeremiah the right motive for seeking God. Seeking Him with all our hearts or with all our inner desires to be free from sin and right with Him.

• Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? 

Let us not make the mistake of just seeking God for things in this life that fail to satisfy the hungry soul that leaves us empty. Let us always seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit which is the way God made for us to have God dwelling in our midst. He (The Holy Spirit) will literally fill one who has repented of sins and believed in Jesus Christ to save them from sin. We are filled with God's presence when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. This is a gift from God along with His gift of eternal life and salvation from sin.  

• Micah 7:2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. 

Sometimes we feel like we are the only ones faithful to God and that we are all alone. Elijah felt that way once. God told him:

• 1Kings 19:18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. 

God always has a remnant of believers that are faithful to Him. Always. It may seem that we are alone but we are never alone. 

• Micah 7:3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up. 
• 4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity. 

In the days of backsliding and apostasy, this is how the faithful will feel. The best one will be as the unfaithful. Our trust must be in God in those times to hold fast until the end. 

The church in Sardis was ready to die spiritually for what they once had was lost. Here is what our Lord said to them:

• Revelation 3:4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. 

A remnant was among the faithful in the backslidden Sardis church.

• Micah 7:5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. 

Things were so bad that they could not trust anyone and had to be careful what they said to anyone. This is how it will be during the future tribulation period. 

• Micah 7:6 For the son dishonoreth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house. 

This is fulfilled in the future tribulation period and it probably was fulfilled in part many times since the days of Micah's prophecy as well as many times throughout history. 

Jesus warns of this also:

• Mark 13:5 And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you: 
• 6 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 
• 7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. 
• 8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows. 
• 9 But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. 
• 10 And the gospel must first be published among all nations. 
• 11 But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. 
• 12 Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. 
• 13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 

There is much more in that chapter in Mark concerning the future great tribulation. I didn't include it all here.

• Micah 7:7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 

Again the prophet reminds both the people of Israel and I believe this includes those who believe in Jesus Christ and have become children of God by adoption (Gentile believers) that we are to trust only in the Lord. 

• Micah 7:8 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. 

Christ, the light of the world is the only one who can bring in the light and reunite us with God. Enemies who rejoice over the destruction of Israel or who rejoice over the death of any faithful believer in Jesus Christ, do not realize what they are doing. If they do not repent, they will face eternal destruction as well as peril in this life.  

• John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 

There is a way to truth, a way of salvation, a way out of the mire, sin and misery of this world. All we have to do is reach out to God and receive the way God made for us to be saved.

• Micah 7:9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. 

This can be applied to Israel who has suffered for their sins and their rejection of Christ but this also can be applied to us as individuals who have not yet come to Christ and are yet in our sins.  Sin separates us from God and from God's protection. Jesus came to plead for all who believe in Him and pleads for Israel and for Gentiles to accept the offering for sin He made on our behalf. 

• John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
• 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 
• 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 
• 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 

Good news to all. Jesus the Son of God and the light of the world. Hope, salvation, peace and joy awaits those that receive Him.

• John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 
• 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 
• 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 

Isaiah foretells of Jesus Christ being the offering for the sin of all mankind. 

• Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

All need to be saved who have reached the age of accountability and has a free will to sin.

• Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 

This is explained in Hebrews

• Hebrew 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 
• 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 
• 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 
• 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 
• 5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 
• 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 
• 7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 
• 8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 
• 9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 
• 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 
• 11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 
• 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; 
• 13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 
• 14 For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. 
• 15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 
• 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 
• 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 
• 18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 

Oh how we should praise the Lord for not only redeeming Israel, His chosen and making a way for them to be free from sin and reconciled to God, but He made a way for the Gentiles also to be saved. 

• Micah 7:10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. 
• 11 In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed. 
• 12 In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 
• 13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings. 
• 14 Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. 
• 15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvelous things. 
• 16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. 
• 17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee. 

During times when God sent judgment to Israel they were humiliated among their enemies. God allowed that because of their sin and their forsaking Him and going into idolatry like other nations. When Israel repented God restored them and other nations were then confounded.

Because of their rejection of Christ the same thing happened all over again like the days of Babylon captivity. All Israel's troubles now is because they rejected the one who would have protected them from their enemies. Even now when Israel triumphs it is because of the mercy of God. Without God's help there would be no Israel. By His mercy alone they exist.

When Israel returns to God and acknowledges the Son of God, Jesus Christ and discovers the price He paid for their sins and the sins of all who believe, there is no nation on earth who could defeat them. As long as Israel rejects Jesus Christ, they can be defeated if God allows it. Once they turn to Christ, no one can harm them except perhaps individual martyrs who are killed for the cause of the gospel but even then their souls inherit eternal life. As a nation though they could never be defeated if they turn to Christ. 

• Micah 7:18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. 

God always prefers to save then to destroy. His judgment upon unbelievers are usually His last resort. He has no pleasure in the death of anyone. Those who kill thinking they are doing God a service are not pleasing God. God wants to save. Here is an example in Luke.

• Luke 9:52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 
• 53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. 
• 54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did? 
• 55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 
• 56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

The message of salvation comes first before judgment.

• Micah 7:19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 

Once we come to Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven and forgotten by God. 

• Micah 7:20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. 

All this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ who came to redeem all of Israel from their sins. He does the same for believing Gentiles. We who are outside of Israel need to be very thankful to have been adopted into the family of God by faith in Christ and not by our own works of righteousness. We are saved by His grace and His mercy. We did nothing to deserve it and the promise originally was given to Israel. As Israel is saved by faith so can we be if we believe in the one God sent to save us, who is Jesus His Son who has always existed with Him from eternity. DC