Category: Micah

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Our hope in what God will do with our church should be undaunted by our departure from Him. The day for building her walls shall come! (verse 11) Our lawless ways shall be hurled into the depths of the sea!

SJA Notes

* Father God, please show us today what You want for us to know from Your word.

“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?”

Micah has many a hard word for believers and unbelievers alike.

Here at the conclusion of this book we are turned to God’s grace and mercy.

Who is like our God?

What other god is both fully just and full of grace and mercy – Sending Himself to bear the punishment for His people so that we could be free from the deserved penalty for our rejection from God, our sin – There is no other god like our God!

“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.”

As Jesus will tread down the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty (Revelation 19), here we read that He will also tread our sins underfoot.

We see this foreshadowed (truth-told) here in Micah, many generations before God came to earth as a man.

We see this full and clear in Jesus.

God in the Person of the Son come to earth. Thirty years living humbly with His earthly family. Three years of ministry with twelve close friends, travelling through the country, preaching and teaching, healing sickness and casting out demons and stilling the wind and waves. One of the twelve sold him for thirty silvers. Completely innocent of wrong He was swapped out for a murderer and nailed to a cross between two thieves. At this time the perfect true man, God in the Person of the Son, voluntarily gave up His Spirit as the sacrificial lamb, slain for the salvation of His people, blood shed for the redemption of sins. Three days later He was raised from the dead, having defeated sin, the devil and death (our three great enemies).

This is how our King and Saviour trod our iniquities underfoot. This is how He cast our sins into the depths of the sea.

Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

* Gracious Father God,

Thank You for pardoning our iniquity, for passing over our transgressions, for treading them underfoot and casting them into the depths of the sea.

Please mark us as a people of steadfast love and faithfulness, as You have loved us, as You show us what faithfulness is.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

God addresses the whole church – in both ‘faithful’ and ‘unfaithful’ branches. Verse 6 is a call to accept God’s Messiah. This was Paul’s great hope for the Jews – that they would accept Jesus as the Messiah (Romans 11). Will our denomination heed the Rod that is Jesus? See Psalm 2.

SJA Notes

* Lord God, Yours is the voice of truth. Please help us listen and obey today.

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with Your God?”

In the midst of strong rebukes to people practicing false religion, and to an unbelieving world around us, we have these wonderful clears words of instruction.

These words speak directly to us, God’s people. Both us as individuals and together corporately.

One.

God has TOLD us. He speaks to us, gives us His word, His wisdom, His INSTRUCTION.

Two.

God has told us WHAT IS GOOD. We don’t need further wisdom from the world, we only need His word to tell us what is good, right, proper, wise, beneficial.

Three.

DO JUSTICE. This is important to the Lord, that we are a just people. That we work hard to right wrongs where we find them, when He points us to them.

Four.

LOVE KINDNESS. God wants us to be a kind people. A people that seeks the benefit of those less fortunate, but also of those “more” fortunate. To be in love with kindness.

Fine. Lastly.

To WALK HUMBLY WITH OUR GOD.

Our God is a personal saviour. And He is a King of His people. In both cases, in both frames, we are to walk in humility WITH HIM. Day by day, hour of hour. Submitting under His sovereign will, going about that will.

How good is this, our God has told us what He requires!

* Great Father Above,

Thank You that You have clearly told us what is good, what You want for us, how we are to act.

Please mark us as a people and as individuals that do justice, love kindness and mercy, and that walk humbly with You.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day quoted verse 5:2 in answer to Herod’s question as to where the Messiah would be born. The promise is given that Messiah’s greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth. Be assured!

SJA Notes

* Loving God, please show us today a little more of who You are, Your wisdom for us.

“And in that day, …”

We read today both the hope of salvation and the warning of judgement.

The Lord will cut off horses, chariots, cities, strongholds, sorceries, fortune-tellers, carved images, pillars.

The Lord will cut off our idols, our self-appointed human saviours, our power structures and our enshrined wealth, all of the outworking from our rejection of Him.

“And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance on the nations that did not obey.”

This is certainly a warning!

For God’s people it should serve as a coal blazing in the fire, to tell others! Because we believe that God will do as He says.

Alongside the warning comes a strong and steady hope.

“And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.”

JESUS SHALL BE OUR PEACE!

Amen to this.

* Gracious Father,

Thank You for Jesus – He is our peace!

Please put within us a desire to tell people about Him, to point people to Him, to proclaim Him to all the world around us.

Amen.