Micah 5–7
Micah 5
Again it is hard to blame the Israelites for thinking the Messiah was going to be a warrior or political figure to overthrow the governments that were oppressing them. Without the revelation of God's true focus of humanities liberation -- the freedom from sin -- it would be hard to see the prophesies fulfilled through Jesus Christ. I'm speaking for myself here but I bet i can peg these thoughts on the Israelites.
Micah 6
Oh the blame game! What an awful thing we do when we get angry at and bitter towards God and become rebellious towards Him. I imagine the shock (pretending God could be surprised) on His face when they charge God with wrongdoing when He has pilled blessings upon blessings on His people.
The section about sacrifices brings to mind a theme that I love! Sacrifices vs the heart. God doesn't want sacrifices... Do we really think that if we did actions, God would be pleased with our lives? Even godly men like David and here with Micah knew that this is not the case. God doesn't want meaningless things from us. If we sacrificed a thousand bulls or a thousand hours serving in ministries and missions trips and our hearts were concerned with what that meant for self-image or if that erased the guilt of sins we have committed, we'd be better off keeping our bulls and time and spending it on ourselves. We can't buy God's favor! ITS ALREADY OURS! All He wants is us to allow the truths of His love to penetrate our hearts and have our actions be a direct result of God's intentional ministry in our lives
Micah 7
I feel like Micah sometimes when I think about the fruit in ministry. It is a lot of work and a lot of fun but sometimes the evidence for why it's worth the effort is nowhere to be found. But Micah is not destroyed. His hope is in the Lord! Though he fails at turning the nation back to God, though no one heeds his warning, God will forgive their sins. It's a mystery why God is so patient with us. Who forgives and forgets so freely?











