Micah 3:1-4
Could
it be that the words of Micah to the priests, prophets and rulers need to ring
into the ears of our priests, pastors, teachers and leaders? “And I said: Hear, you heads of
Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?” (Micah 3:1 ESV) And if they will not hear
does that excuse you and me? Unfortunately
no, God is not going to change because so-called spiritual leaders have
compromised God’s message for profit and to fit into the worldly crowd. So be known as one who loves the ones God
loves and you are going to be very surprised it includes those who hate you,
those who hate God and yet the hope of the world is Christ in you.
If you read
yesterdays “Back Porch” then it looks as if I’m repeating and I confess I put
the last paragraph of that paper back into this one. If for no other reason than I need to be
reminded that I can’t use others, even so-called spiritual leaders as an excuse
for my sinful life.
Picking up in verse
two, these so-called spiritual leaders had so conformed or been molded by the
desire of wealth and power that they hated the good and loved the evil. It has been reported by a person whose job it
was to protect President Carter, that he was a phony, his public image was not
in keeping with his private image, and he gave many examples in the book he
wrote. That was the image of these
leaders, priests, and prophets, and they hated the prophet Micah for he spoke
the words God put into his mouth. It is
also the image of many whose message is how to be prosperous and win friends
for self and not for God. Micah compares
them in cannibalistic terms, such as; “you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin
from off my people and their flesh from off their bones, who eat the flesh of
my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and
chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron. (Micah 3:2-3 ESV)
These evil men, yes the leaders of the people, the priests,
and the prophets were like so many who go by the name “Christian” they live
sinful lives in the work place and at home in private, and yet they go to
church, sing in the choir, teach and go to Bible Studies, believing God will
overlook their counterfeit life. So many
do as these men did and cry out to a holy God when things were out of their
control. And this was God’s reply then
and now: “Then
my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and
hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles
will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils
come upon us because our God is not among us?’ And I will surely hide my face
in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have
turned to other gods.”
(Deuteronomy 31:17-18 ESV)
If you have been deceived, believing God has changed
wake-up! God is the same today as He was
yesterday; He is a holy and jealous God, who is patient, kind, loving and
forgives anyone who will confess sin.
Confess is best defined as agreeing with God, that He is God and you are
not, that He is pure and you are sinful to the core.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
"When your memories are bigger
than your dreams, you're headed for the grave" [Author unknown].
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