I’m sorry that I didn’t get back here yesterday to finish this post. If you were here yesterday, you can skip down to the diamond page break and read the rest of this post, or if you want you can re-read the scripture. It’s up to you…
Misery Turned to Hope
How miserable I am! I feel like the fruit picker after the harvest who can find nothing to eat. Not a cluster of grapes or a single early fig can be found to satisfy my hunger. The godly people have all disappeared; not one honest person is left on the earth. They are all murderers, setting traps even for their own brothers. Both their hands are equally skilled at doing evil! Officials and judges alike demand bribes. The people with influence get what they want, and together they scheme to twist justice. Even the best of them is like a brier; the most honest is as dangerous as a hedge of thorns. But your judgment day is coming swiftly now. Your time of punishment is here, a time of confusion.
Don’t trust anyone—not your best friend or even your wife! For the son despises his father. The daughter defies her mother. The daughter-in-law defies her mother-in-law. Your enemies are right in your own household!
As for me, I look to the Lord for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemies! For though I fall, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. I will be patient as the Lord punishes me, for I have sinned against him. But after that, he will take up my case and give me justice for all I have suffered from my enemies. The Lord will bring me into the light, and I will see his righteousness. Then my enemies will see that the Lord is on my side. They will be ashamed that they taunted me, saying, “So where is the Lord—that God of yours?” With my own eyes I will see their downfall; they will be trampled like mud in the streets.
In that day, Israel, your cities will be rebuilt, and your borders will be extended. People from many lands will come and honor you—from Assyria all the way to the towns of Egypt, from Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River, and from distant seas and mountains. But the land will become empty and desolate because of the wickedness of those who live there.
The Lord’s Compassion on Israel
O Lord, protect your people with your shepherd’s staff; lead your flock, your special possession. Though they live alone in a thicket on the heights of Mount Carmel, let them graze in the fertile pastures of Bashan and Gilead as they did long ago.
“Yes,” says the Lord, “I will do mighty miracles for you, like those I did when I rescued you from slavery in Egypt.”
All the nations of the world will stand amazed at what the Lord will do for you. They will be embarrassed at their feeble power. They will cover their mouths in silent awe, deaf to everything around them. Like snakes crawling from their holes, they will come out to meet the Lord our God. They will fear him greatly, trembling in terror at his presence.
Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love.** Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean! You will show us your faithfulness and unfailing love as you promised to our ancestors Abraham and Jacob long ago. Micah 7
I have pasted in the scripture that I read today, but right this moment, I don’t have the time to write my thoughts. I’m so swamped today…if I get time later, I’ll type in my notes, so check back later today or this evening. If I don’t get the time, I’ll simply marinate on it overnight, that should make for better commentary.
God bless.
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There are two things that stuck out to me when reading this 1) verse 5, “Don’t trust anyone – not your best friend or even your wife!” 2) verse 18, “…because you delight in showing mercy.”
Micah, according to the timeline in my study bible, was a prophet from 742 -687 B.C. I state this because he lived several hundred years before Jesus was born. Starting with point number one that I listed a moment ago (verses 5-6), Jesus used these words to bring scripture into all truth in Matthew 10:35-36. “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Your enemies will be right in your own household.”
Yesterday, I asked myself the question, “How can you love someone that is entirely self-absorbed and selfish?” I, of course, know the answer…give it over to God and allow Him to help you. That is good faith advice, but it isn’t very practical. How do you “give it over to God?” How do you “lay it at the foot of the cross.” How do you “wait patiently on the Lord?” The only answer that I can come up with is that if we fail, get up and try again. It is called perservance.
We went to my mothers last weekend and my two year old would trip and fall or some other mishap and my mom would say, “Uh-oh! Get up and try it again!” That is what we are like, tripping up, enduring mishaps or having some other calamity in our lives and that is what we are to do, get up and try it again. It isn’t because we are goofs or any such thing, but because we are created beings living and working under the pressure of our sin-nature. It is only when we “get up and try it again” that we are living and working under the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, therefore being made perfect in God’s eyes. God is the only one that is perfect, and therefore He is the only one that won’t ever have to do anything again because of a mishap.
So, to answer my question yesterday, I just have to simply keep trying. I’ve had to do this at different times in my life with different people and different types of relationships. I’ve done it with my father, my mother, my step-father, my sister, my grandma, my friend(s) and now my husband. Which, this leads me to another thought. If I’ve had to “learn to love” even when I didn’t feel like loving all these people, then it shouldn’t surprise me that 1) I am entirely self-absorbed and selfish to some people out there and 2) those people that get that impression about me also have to “learn to love” me. In other words, I’m no different than anyone else both on the giving and the receiving end.
All this leads me to this thought, because we are all the same and have different levels of frustration towards different people in our relationships because of selfishness we really aren’t any different than the people that Micah and all the other prophets and great men of the bible wrote about. We are just like the children of Israel and because we can identify with them, we can also realize how great God’s mercy really is. As a nation, Israel was more often turning from God than turning to God and yet, each time, God would always call them back to Himself and re-instate them with His forgivenes and extend His mercy to them. He still does the same thing for us today, everytime we “get up and try it again.”
That is such calming thought. The other thing that comes to mind is that, as unruly and selfish we are, God still loves us. And since we are to emmulate God, we should “still love” the ones in our lives that are so selfish and self-absorbed.
Okay, lets move on to point number two before I start to bore you to death. I have already spoken a little bit about this point, but I want to move away slightly from the standard, “God’s mercy is for all and it is eternal and bottomless” thought and speak about something that doesn’t get said often. This verse says that God delights in showing mercy.
What does the word “delight” mean? To paraphrase dictionary.com, “it means to take or give great pleasure or joy.” God takes great pleasure to extend to us mercy. It also gives God great pleasure to offer mercy to us. So in another way of looking at it, we give God great pleasure and God takes great pleasure in us. We are the object of God’s great pleasue. How does that make you feel. Each one of us individually and corporately have an active part in God’s pleasure. That out of all of God’s creation, we have the wonderful position to give our God pleasure is sucha thrilling thought. I’m nothing more than a speck of dust and yet I can give pleasure to my God and He takes pleasure in me by offering me mercy. It is an astounding, jaw dropping thought isn’t it?
Tomorrow, I think I may talk more about this thought, but think about this even if I don’t, “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” Psalm 37:23-24 This gives me a picture of a doting, loving father who is thrilled with every new and exciting thing that his little child has learned or who cries with that child when it falls down and gets an “ouchie.” Bottom line, God cares. He is intimately intersted and involved with our daily lives, every second of our lives. Not even a thought of ours escapes Him. To me, that is comforting, even though I know that He knows all my ugliness and sin that still resides within. It is comforting because I know that He still loves me and even delights in me and wants to take that ugliness and sin and trample [my] sins under [His] feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean! How can I not be thrilled about that? How can I not have an ever present, burning desire to turn to God and allow Him in to my heart to cleanse me?
Well, I think I’ll stop for now on the delight thing and let you ponder these thoughts for awhile. I’ll see you tomorrow if it is to be…So let it be.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Psalm 139:23-24
May God provide the increase.
**(As you probably know, I use www.biblegateway.com as my concordance while I’m writing each day, but I always have my bible right in front of me too. (It is easier to copy and paste than it is to type in scripture each day.) My bible was printed in the mid-90’s (my daughter got a hold of the first few pages) and I’m sure that they have revised it since then so there are some slight word differences, such as in my bible, it says “mercy” and on the online version it says “unfailing love.” I guess they are the same, you can’t have one without the other.)
To me the key thought or answer, in the above scriptures is “As for me, I look to the Lord for help.” I believe God delights in our “looking to Him” for help. And since He is always just “a prayer away” that is how we connect to Him. We look to Him, then “get up and try again” over and over. No matter how bad things get or how discouraged we are the important thing is to “Look to the Lord for help!” He is a very present help in time of trouble!
Many good thoughts in that scripture. Thanks again for reminding us!