But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. Micah 7:7 God may seem hidden to us, but He is never absent. He may seem far away, but He is always at work. Micah knows God is near, and that is why He watches and waits. Fishermen know about this. You don't see any fish, but you know they’re there, so you watch and you wait expectantly. God may hide His face from you for a time, but not forever. If you find yourself in great darkness, watch to see what God will do...
Aug 26, 2024•3 min
Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” Micah 7:10 All Micah can say is that things will be different in the future, but as he writes, he has no compelling answer to offer the cynic who says, “Where is your God?” Micah is surrounded by trouble and God is nowhere to be found. He doesn’t know where God is, or what God is doing. This is wonderfully helpful, because surely all of us have been there—an illness strikes, a church splits, a business...
Aug 25, 2024•3 min
Woe is me! Micah 7:1 In order to understand Micah’s misery, we must look at three things that were happening among God’s people. The loss of godly character. Micah says, “The godly has perished from the earth” (7:2). He is talking about a loss of godly character: “I look at how people are living, and all I can see is godly character being swept away. I look for models of upright living, but I’m not seeing them.” The rise of self-interest. “As I look across the country,” Micah is saying, “here is...
Aug 24, 2024•3 min
He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19 When Jesus came preaching the message of the gospel, He said, “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). But too often we’ve cut that in half. We sometimes drop the “repent,” and go strictly with “believe the gospel.” The result is “believers” who are little different from the world around them. Dr. Alan Redpath used to...
Aug 23, 2024•3 min
What does the Lord require of you but… to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 If you want to walk with God, you need to get on the path where He is—the path of justice and mercy. God says to us: "If you get on that path, you will find me there." God is the God of justice and mercy. This is what the cross is all about: God’s justice was poured out on Jesus so that God’s mercy could be poured out on us. There is a story about a devoted monk from the tenth century. All his life, he longed for Chri...
Aug 22, 2024•3 min
What does the Lord require of you but… to love kindness? Micah 6:8 The second dimension of our calling is to love kindness or mercy. To love mercy is not merely to show mercy, but to love it. People who love mercy look for any opportunity to show it. We’ve talked about ways in which you may have wronged other people, but there are also situations in which other people have wronged you. Is there anyone in the business world who has not been treated unjustly? If someone has wronged you, it is very...
Aug 21, 2024•3 min
What does the LORD require of you but to do justice? Micah 6:8 To “do justice” means you do what is right even when it is costly. You pursue integrity rather than convenience. It means asking, “How can I give full value?” rather than wondering, "What can I get away with?" It means refusing to take advantage of someone who is vulnerable. It means treating the weak the same way you would treat the strong. Acting justly means standing up for someone who is vulnerable, the person who is bullied at s...
Aug 20, 2024•3 min
With what shall I come before the LORD… Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Micah 6:6 These are the words of someone who holds up his hands and says, “You got me. I’m guilty. Now what do I do?” Our first instinct when we feel guilty is to become religious (burnt offerings). “This doesn’t feel right. Maybe we could give something to the church? Or do some work around the church?” Notice the ascending scale in the plea bargain. It starts with a few year-old calves...
Aug 19, 2024•3 min
The voice of the Lord cries to the city…"Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked?" Micah 6:9-10 Some folks had become pretty wealthy, but God has some questions about how they made all their money. This hits pretty close to home. Maybe you have done well in business, but you feel uncomfortable about how you made your money. You look back at the things you did, the decisions you made, and your conscience isn’t clear. God gets specific: "Shall I acquit the ma...
Aug 18, 2024•2 min
“I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” Micah 6:4 God was saying to His people: “Your parents were slaves. If it had not been for me, that would have been your life too. But I stepped in and brought them out of Egypt. I made them my own and brought them into an entirely new position—freedom and blessing.” The Exodus was the definitive act of God that changed everything for His people in the Old Testamen...
Aug 17, 2024•2 min
What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 If you want to know the kind of life that God is calling you to lead, you won't find a better summary than Micah 6:8. The best way to understand this verse is to get the big picture of the whole chapter. What God says to His people here is clearly a response to what they had been saying about him: “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!” (6:3). ...
Aug 16, 2024•3 min
Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. Jonah 2:8 How does a person turn from his or her idols? There’s a one-word answer to this question—“love.” Maybe you are drawn to God, and yet something inside you holds back. We want to draw near to God, but how can we overcome this impulse to avoid Him? That’s why Jesus has come into the world. He came to seek and save the lost. Jesus told a story about a lost sheep. The sheep wandered off, hiding from the shepherd, and t...
Aug 15, 2024•3 min
You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. 1 Thessalonians 1:9 You were made for a God-centred life. You were made to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. “Turning from idols” means that you let God be God. It means that you worship God and love Him for who He is, and not as a means to some other end. John Piper makes this point well: I cannot say to my wife, “I feel a strong delight in you so that you will make me a nice meal.” That is not the way that delight works. It ter...
Aug 14, 2024•2 min
I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots; and I will cut off the cities of your land… and I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes; and I will cut off your carved images and your pillars from among you, and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands; and I will root out your Asherah images from among you and destroy your cities. And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance on the nations that did not obey...
Aug 13, 2024•3 min
“I am the LORD, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:6 Everything in the created order belongs to a class— planets, fish, birds, animals, and humans-but God is in a class of His own. That’s what we mean when we say, “God is holy.” He is set apart from everything else. John Piper says, “Diamonds are valuable because they are rare and hard to make. God is infinitely valuable because He is the rarest of all beings and cannot be made at all, nor was He ever made. If I were a collector of rare treasures...
Aug 12, 2024•2 min
“In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots.” Micah 5:10 Dr. Walter Kaiser points out four dimensions of idolatry that can be found in Micah 5: Self-help. “I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots” (5:10). This is about self- confidence: "We can do it!" What room is there for God if there is nothing you cannot do? “Believe in yourself. You’ve got the horses.” That’s idolatry. But the truth is, your ne...
Aug 11, 2024•3 min
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” John 5:39-40 There is no better place to hide from God than religion. Being religious allows you to think you’re spiritual even while you are avoiding God. It is possible to tell yourself that you are seeking God, while what you are really doing is hiding from Him. That’s what the Pharisees did. They were big on moral va...
Aug 10, 2024•2 min
"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 Why do idols exist? Here are two reasons: Our attraction to God. Every human being is made in the image of God. That’s true of the most messed up, dysfunctional, twisted person you can think of. It is also true of you. That's why wherever you go, you will find that human beings are engaged in some kind of spiritual search. It cannot be stamped out. Communism tried to eliminate religion, and it was a total failur...
Aug 09, 2024•3 min
“You shall bow down no more to the work of your hands.” Micah 5:13 It’s dangerously easy to turn God’s good gifts into idols. Adam was made to enjoy a relationship with God. Adam had that relationship before he had a home in Eden, before he had work in the garden, and before God gave him a wife. The order is important. God gave Adam the gift of marriage. But he was not made for marriage. Marriage is not the ultimate purpose; it is a good gift from God in which you can pursue the ultimate purpose...
Aug 08, 2024•3 min
“I will cut off your carved images and your pillars from among you.” Micah 5:13 Notice the word “your” in verse 13. Idolatry had taken root among God’s own people. Micah is talking to the church crowd. Idolatry is worshipping and serving created things rather than the Creator. The apostle Paul speaks about this: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25). Idolatry is when a person says, “I can play the role of God.” I...
Aug 07, 2024•3 min
For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever. Micah 4:5 God sits exalted on the throne of the universe, the sovereign Lord over all creation. Nothing can touch Him. No one can usurp Him. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God is adored in heaven, and one day He will be confessed by every tongue on earth. He is incomparable, in a class of His own. He has no peers, no rivals. The Bible speaks about “one God,” but our w...
Aug 06, 2024•2 min
“Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.” Micah 5:9 If you are walking by faith in Jesus Christ, then over the noise of your enemies’ voices, you are able to say: “I am a child of the King. I have a place at His table. I have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. I belong to the Shepherd-King. My life is secure in His hands.” What will happen when the banquet is finally ready and the king returns? He will put on his royal robes, the trumpet will...
Aug 05, 2024•2 min
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Psalm 23:5 Imagine a great banquet hall in the king’s palace. The king is dressed in common clothes, and he is doing the work of a servant, preparing the table for a great banquet. All of us are gathered in this vast hall. We would like to help the king, but he will not allow it. He wants us to watch as he prepares the table for us. The only problem is that our enemies are there too. Fear comes to a few of us and says, “There’s no plac...
Aug 04, 2024•3 min
From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Micah 5:2 David was the greatest king God’s people ever had. But he had his own sins and flaws. You will never find a leader who is everything you think a shepherd should be. The good news of the gospel is that God Himself has come to be your shepherd. Other shepherds may disappoint you. But those who trust in Christ will not be put to shame. If your trust has been betrayed, y...
Aug 03, 2024•2 min
“The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11 The common image of a biblical shepherd is an older man with a beard walking slowly through the countryside. He is wearing a flowing robe and carrying a long stick with a hook on the end. If that’s how you think about a shepherd, then it’s time to change the image. Think about a cattle rancher and you’ll get a picture that is much closer to reality. Jesus said, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (10:11). Now, why ...
Aug 02, 2024•3 min
“And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God,” declares the LORD God. Ezekiel 34:31 Whenever we come to this theme of shepherds and sheep in the Bible, we have a problem. Animals tend to make us sentimental, and most of us have a remarkable capacity to project an image onto animals that is a long way from reality. Take bears, for example... Some children get anxious at night and have trouble sleeping, so what do we do to comfort them? We put a bear in their beds. Now, how ...
Aug 01, 2024•3 min
“It shall come to pass in the latter days...” Micah 4:1 How will God establish peace on earth? It begins with God judging. Here are three more things Micah tells us: God will gather. “I will assemble the lame” (4:6). These people have been injured by others’ cruelty. They have difficulty getting where they want to go. Imagine the Lord saying this to you. He will not allow your wounds to keep you from the blessing He wants you to enjoy. He is gathering His community: “Come to me, all you weary an...
Jul 31, 2024•3 min
He shall judge between many peoples... Micah 4:3 Peace on earth sounds great, but how will God deal with the problems around us and the problems within us? The first thing Micah tells us here is that God will judge, and that this judgement will have two parts. First, God will resolve disputes among His own people. So many disputes among God’s people never get resolved. But here we read that Christ will resolve them. Second, God will judge the enemies of His people: “Many nations are assembled ag...
Jul 30, 2024•3 min
It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it. Micah 4:1 “The house of the LORD” is the temple, and the temple in the Old Testament was the place where God’s presence came down on the earth. God had said that He would meet with His people at the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25:22). The ark was housed in the temple and when Solomon’s te...
Jul 29, 2024•3 min
“They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Micah 4:3 Micah is describing total disarmament—something that’s never been seen in world history—all bombs exploded, all weapons eliminated, all training camps closed, all prisons emptied, and all national defence budgets reallocated. Now, of course, we find this almost impossible to imagine, because the only world we have ev...
Jul 28, 2024•3 min
