Callous to the ways of God

Micah 1:3-9

For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.  All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel.  What is the transgression of Jacob?  Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah?  Is it not Jerusalem?  Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.  All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.  For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.  (Micah 1:3-9 ESV)

One must wonder if the people Micah was addressing were as callous to the ways of God as those living in 2016?  Coffman had this insight in his Commentary on verse 8; “No one goes around wailing about history; it was an approaching disaster that broke the prophet's heart; and he vainly tried to warn the people.”  If we looked at the timeline of the prophets living at this time, Isaiah would be in that window.  Isaiah preceded Micah, in that his time line was 740 - 698 and Micah’s was around 735 – 710.   In Isaiah 20:2, we discover Isaiah walked without clothes for 3 years in obedience to God’s requirement of him. The Scriptures state it was a sign of what was going to happen to Egypt.  As a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt.  But in has been stated that few prophets saw the future more clearly than Micah.  In verses 1:5-9 we have a clear picture of the fall of Samaria.

Do you recall Jesus telling the Pharisees and Sadducees that came to test Him the following, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.” (Matthew 16:4)  I’m very fearful that we are a generation like them, do you recall the eye witness John the apostle recording these last words of Jesus; “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30b)  Folks we are not going to see a new prophet give us new insights, it has all been done, it was finished at the death burial and resurrection of our mighty Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah and He is coming back as King of Kings and LORD of Lords.

He coming back as your judge; “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:31-34)  If I did not warn you of verse 46, it would be irresponsible on my part, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice