Post by Lee on Dec 7, 2014 15:33:15 GMT
Ch. 3:1-3: Those commissioned to administer the Law of Moses did not themselves obey that Law. How typical! This is a universal failing. We so easily fall into the same pattern. So quick to criticize and apply the Law of Christ to the sins of others. So slow and so blind to see its deep and searching application to every activity of our own lives. If we judged ourselves as eagerly as we judge others, what a loving, wonderful, spiritual, unearthly community we would be!
We would be at all the meetings, instead of seeking our ease elsewhere. We would put aside everything of the world, everything of our own pleasures; and every thought and moment would be consecrated to the service of God in love! Let us take care of the INNER part first, so we may stand some chance at the judgment seat of Christ.
"Let him that is without sin cast the first stone." Truly none are completely sinless, but we are sinless in God's sight if we are covered by Christ, and if we strive to put away all the things of the world. But if we are willing to condone and justify in ourselves any worldly activity or affiliation, for pleasure or for profit, then we are blind hypocrites when we condemn others.
V. 4: "They shall cry unto the Lord, but He will not hear them."
We assume that, when we have had enough of the flesh and the world, we can just run back to God at any time and He will be happy to receive and take care of us.
Truly He is infinitely merciful, and He extended mercy and patience to Israel time after time. For this we can be thankful. But any beforehand, calculated presumption upon His mercy is the utmost of folly, and doomed to sorrow. God is not mocked— "As a man soweth; so shall he reap."
Vs. 6-7: "Night shall be unto you . . The sun shall go down over the prophets . . There is no answer of God."
The ministry of the prophets was one of God's greatest blessings to Israel. Here were inspired men of God, living right among them, whom they could follow and be safe. But they always sought false prophets and persecuted those who told them the Truth. At last, 300 years after Micah, in the days of Malachi, the prophetic ministry ceased. It shone brilliantly and briefly 400 years later in John, Jesus and the apostles, then went out again, and left Israel and the world to 2000 years of darkness and evil Gentile night.
V. 8: "But truly (says Micah) I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin."
A very powerful verse. A verse for us to consider deeply. We have the words of the prophets—let us heed them.
Vs. 9-11: The heads and rulers abhor judgment and pervert equity, the priests teach for hire, and the prophets divine for money. This (we remember from the words of Jeremiah) was in the days of the good king Hezekiah, for this was the very prophecy of Micah to which Jeremiah refers. How could this be in Hezekiah's day?
It gives us a revealing picture of the entrenched and deep-rooted corruption in high places with which Hezekiah had to contend—of the largely single-handed battle he fought.
V.12: "Therefore shall Zion be plowed as field."
And it HAS been—for 2000 years.
Rene - 1972 Berean 16
We would be at all the meetings, instead of seeking our ease elsewhere. We would put aside everything of the world, everything of our own pleasures; and every thought and moment would be consecrated to the service of God in love! Let us take care of the INNER part first, so we may stand some chance at the judgment seat of Christ.
"Let him that is without sin cast the first stone." Truly none are completely sinless, but we are sinless in God's sight if we are covered by Christ, and if we strive to put away all the things of the world. But if we are willing to condone and justify in ourselves any worldly activity or affiliation, for pleasure or for profit, then we are blind hypocrites when we condemn others.
V. 4: "They shall cry unto the Lord, but He will not hear them."
We assume that, when we have had enough of the flesh and the world, we can just run back to God at any time and He will be happy to receive and take care of us.
Truly He is infinitely merciful, and He extended mercy and patience to Israel time after time. For this we can be thankful. But any beforehand, calculated presumption upon His mercy is the utmost of folly, and doomed to sorrow. God is not mocked— "As a man soweth; so shall he reap."
Vs. 6-7: "Night shall be unto you . . The sun shall go down over the prophets . . There is no answer of God."
The ministry of the prophets was one of God's greatest blessings to Israel. Here were inspired men of God, living right among them, whom they could follow and be safe. But they always sought false prophets and persecuted those who told them the Truth. At last, 300 years after Micah, in the days of Malachi, the prophetic ministry ceased. It shone brilliantly and briefly 400 years later in John, Jesus and the apostles, then went out again, and left Israel and the world to 2000 years of darkness and evil Gentile night.
V. 8: "But truly (says Micah) I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin."
A very powerful verse. A verse for us to consider deeply. We have the words of the prophets—let us heed them.
Vs. 9-11: The heads and rulers abhor judgment and pervert equity, the priests teach for hire, and the prophets divine for money. This (we remember from the words of Jeremiah) was in the days of the good king Hezekiah, for this was the very prophecy of Micah to which Jeremiah refers. How could this be in Hezekiah's day?
It gives us a revealing picture of the entrenched and deep-rooted corruption in high places with which Hezekiah had to contend—of the largely single-handed battle he fought.
V.12: "Therefore shall Zion be plowed as field."
And it HAS been—for 2000 years.
Rene - 1972 Berean 16