But as for me. I am filled with power. with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Micah 3:8 For twenty years Micah preached and prayed, and watched things move from bad to worse among the people that he loved, but he was faithful in doing what God had entrusted him to do. God called Micah to speak and pray, and that’s what he did. That’s the secret. He stuck with it—in season and out of season—and as a result, he lived to...
Jul 27, 2024•3 min
Therefore because of you [unfaithful leaders] Zion shall be ploughed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height. Micah 3:12 If you had heard Micah speak the words of this prophecy, you would have felt completely hopeless. But the wonderful thing is that it didn’t actually happen for another 100 years. If you want to know why, turn to Jeremiah 26. The city of Jerusalem and its temple were still standing 100 years after Micah said that they wo...
Jul 26, 2024•3 min
Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil. Micah 3:4 Here we come to another principle that runs throughout the Bible. “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (Jas. 5:16). Effective praying depends on right living. “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way… so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Pet. 3:7). Effective praying depends on ...
Jul 25, 2024•3 min
“Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?—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 lay 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 3:1-3 God is speaking here to the leaders among His people. The problem is that these leaders have betrayed their trust....
Jul 24, 2024•2 min
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.Hebrews 13:17 You are accountable for all that you have been given, and the more you have been given, the more accountable you are. That’s why the Bible urges us to pray for our leaders. Children, pray for your parents, because God has given them a big responsibility to lead you. Congregations, pray for your pastors and elders, because God has given them a big responsibilit...
Jul 23, 2024•2 min
“Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.”Luke 19:17 Jesus told a story about three servants who were trusted with investing money. Two of them did a good job. They were enterprising and showed themselves to be wise managers. In Matthew’s version, when the master returned, he said: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much” (Mat. 25:21). Jesus spells out the prin...
Jul 22, 2024•3 min
Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required…Luke 12:48 It is worth taking a moment to think about what God has entrusted to you. Here are some areas to reflect on. Relationships. Your relationships are a trust from God. Every wedding reminds us that one person’s happiness is largely entrusted into the hands of another. When a child is born, he or she is entrusted to parents. Friends influence one another. Your friends are a trust from God. Work. Your work is a trust from your e...
Jul 21, 2024•3 min
Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel!Micah 3:1 The Bible has a great deal to say about leadership. Some positions of leadership are elected. That is, people make a choice through a process of voting, by which they trust the task of leadership to people who are willing to take that responsibility. This is what happens in a democracy, and it is also what happens in many churches. Leadership is a trust given by the people. But even when there is no voting involved, leadership ...
Jul 20, 2024•3 min
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”Hebrews 4:7 God is speaking. And He says two things that He will do: Some time ago, Professor Don Carson was asked to speak at Cambridge University. When he had finished his presentation on biblical Christianity, one of the faculty got up and asked: “So what you’re saying is… if God is a talking God, that changes everything?” This highly educated man had obviously never encountered biblical Christianity before. The idea that there might b...
Jul 19, 2024•3 min
“Do not preach”—thus they preach— “one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.”Micah 2:6 When Micah spoke the Word of God, there were strong voices in the community that did not want to hear it. The first marker of the false prophet is that he or she brings comfort to people who are still in their sins: “Micah, you talk about judgement from God. How can that be? We are the most blessed people on the face of the earth!” So, the false prophets brought an alternative messag...
Jul 18, 2024•3 min
Therefore, thus says the LORD…Micah 2:3 “I am devising disaster.” He is explaining the action that He is about to take against those who take advantage of the vulnerable: “against this family I am devising disaster” (2:3). A society that follows the path of exploitation will not survive for long. God says that those who have taken the land will be removed from it, and that is precisely what happened. This is the New Testament principle: “whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Gal. 6:7)—thos...
Jul 17, 2024•3 min
Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds!Micah 2:1 These people are intentionally pursuing the wrong path. Their plan is to make money by taking advantage of vulnerable people: 'They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance” (2:2). In farming communities, the land is everything. If you lose your land, you lose your means of income. That’s why the Old Testament law made special provisions for pro...
Jul 16, 2024•3 min
For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.Galatians 1:11-12 “Revelation” is the word that we use to describe how the invisible, incomprehensible God has made Himself known. You can come to know God, not through your own ideas or feelings about what He may be like, but through His own revelation of Himself. And how has God revea...
Jul 15, 2024•2 min
I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, “My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.”Isaiah 48:5 A large part of the world’s religion is precisely this: speculation about the nature of God. Men (and women) have thought, talked, meditated, and written about what they think God is like. Twenty-first century secularists have picked up on this, and they point out that a large part of religion is only a projec...
Jul 14, 2024•3 min
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!Psalm 34:8 How can we come to know the sovereign God of the Bible? We can’t see Him, hear Him, taste Him, touch Him, or smell Him. God is invisible. More than that, He is incomprehensible. This really is about the most fundamental question a human being can ever ask: How can I know God? How could we, a small fragment of creation, in such a small window in time, ever expect to know the glory of the Creator who is eternal? Is that even possible? Imagine an A...
Jul 13, 2024•2 min
Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair, for the children of your delight; make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they shall go from you into exile.Micah 1:16 Shaving the head was an act of mourning before the Lord. When one sees a disaster happening in the land that he loves, that person will mourn for himself and for his loved ones. Disasters will always have one of two effects in your life: Either you will shake your fist, or you will shave your head. Job's wife shook her fist at God: "...
Jul 12, 2024•2 min
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.Deuteronomy 29:29 In America, where I have been a pastor for many years now, some people are confident that they know why God sends disasters. Some would say it is because of abortion. Some would say it is because of America’s policy towards Israel. Some would even say that it is because of NASA space initiatives! We need to remember the difference between us and Micah: He was ...
Jul 11, 2024•3 min
“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.Job 2:10 Job was the righteous man who suffered incredible loss in a terrorist attack and a natural disaster on the same day. We know Satan’s hand was behind what Job suffered, but the Bible does not allow us to think for a moment that Satan operates as a free agent. Martin Luther once said, “Even the devil is God’s devil.” His point was that Satan’s best effort to destroy God’s work ends u...
Jul 10, 2024•3 min
Disaster has come down from the LORD.Micah 1:12 We must affirm that God is in control not only of good things but also bad. This isn't easy. In fact, it is so difficult that some Christians have felt that it would be better to keep God at a distance from disasters altogether. Back in the eighteenth century there was a movement called deism. Deists believe that God created the world but then He stepped back, like a watchmaker who makes a watch, winds it up, and then lets it run on its own without...
Jul 09, 2024•3 min
For this I will lament and wail...Micah 1:8 Notice Micah’s response to his own message! Here is a man with the Word of God, who also shares the heart of God. Micah says that the wound in the Northern Kingdom is “incurable” (1:9), and that Samaria’s resistance to God has essentially reached the point of no return. Micah cannot change the course of these events, but his tears show that he really cares. There may be times like that in your life. Things reach a point where they cannot continue as th...
Jul 08, 2024•3 min
For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.Micah 1:3 Micah begins with a terrifying scene: God rises up from His dwelling place and comes down to the earth. And He is coming to make His case against the peoples of the earth (1:2). We are given a description of the terror of what happens (1:4). Steven Spielberg would have a field day with the special effects here. What Micah describes is like a scene from a disaster movie—mounta...
Jul 07, 2024•3 min
The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah…Micah 1:1 Who is Micah? What education does he have? What does he understand about the complexity of city life, or business, or international politics? What does he know about the psychological roots of dysfunction in the family? What does this country bumpkin think he has to say to the nation? There is only one answer. This man has been given the Word of God. That Word brings life. Tha...
Jul 06, 2024•3 min
The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah…Micah 1:1 In Old Testament times, Micah was a common name, rather like Smith today. We are told that Micah was from Moresheth, a tiny little farming village about 20 miles from Jerusalem. It was about as obscure a town as you could imagine. And who was Micah? At the beginning of the prophetic books, we are usually told the name of the prophet and then the name of his father, presumably ...
Jul 05, 2024•3 min
He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.2 King 18:5 Some people have been blessed with a wonderful upbringing. Your father loved you, spent time with you, and was a role model for you. But others have had a very different experience. Perhaps your father was a picture of what you do not want to be. There are tender wounds when you think about your father. And for some of us, this is an o...
Jul 04, 2024•2 min
The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth…Micah 1:1 If you had lived at the time of King Ahaz, you would probably have felt everything was lost. But God did a new thing through King Hezekiah. You can apply this to any great crisis in your family, your business, or your nation: God can bring a great revival from the worst disaster. A resurrection can only happen when something is dead. And God has a way of stepping in when there seems to be no other hope. You never see this more clearl...
Jul 03, 2024•2 min
The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.Micah 1:1 Micah’s ministry spanned a period of about 50 years (750-700 BC). He lived and preached at the same time as the prophet Isaiah. During this time, Israel was divided in two—the Northern Kingdom (often called Samaria), and the Southern Kingdom (Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem). Micah’s focus was on the south, where he spoke the...
Jul 02, 2024•3 min
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.Job 1:1 Job was the most righteous man of his time. Yet he suffered a terrorist attack and a natural disaster on the same day. The Sabeans came and murdered his servants and animals, and then a hurricane came and flattened the house where all of his children were throwing a party. The Bible never suggests that if you keep God happy nothing bad will happen to ...
Jul 01, 2024•3 min
“The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.Isaiah 65:25 The great promise of the Bible is not just that God will restore His people, but that He will restore creation. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. Old hostilities will be reconciled: “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together” (65:25). Wolves destroy lambs. But now they feed together....
Jun 30, 2024•3 min
“They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be.”Isaiah 65:21-22 The important point here is that people will settle down in heaven. In this world, many people find a home, but oftentimes they don’t get to enjoy it. As you get older, you find that you cannot maintain the family home you have loved for so many years. ...
Jun 29, 2024•3 min
“No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.”Isaiah 65:20 Taking the last part of this verse first. Isaiah is telling us that death will be no more. He is using the analogy of what we can understand to point us toward what, right now, is beyond our grasp. It’s hard to get your mind around living for eternity, but you can underst...
Jun 28, 2024•2 min
