Micah 5-7
Stage 4
It was coffee break time and the store owners in downtown Redondo Beach, California, were gathered in my parents' shop for coffee. Everyone was nervous and the conversations at the counter were centered around what the Surgeon General was going to say in his first report on the health effects of smoking tobacco. That was back on January 11, 1964. I was just a teen then but I remember how worried everyone was because they were all smokers. After all, having a cigarette hanging out of your mouth was cool. Turns out looking cool has a high price.
In Chapter 4 Micah begins speaking of the last days. In verse 6, of Chapter 4, the phrase “In that day,” is used. What is that day? It is the day when you find out that how you have been living has been hazardous to your health and welfare. It is like finding out that you have cancer and it is at stage 4. That brings us to Chapter 5. It’s time to muster the troops because there is a battle to fight.
In Chapter 5 we read of Jesus. His birthplace is identified and so is His mission. Though He is rejected as Savior in verse 2, Micah jumps ahead in verse 4 to His second coming where He leads the surviving remnant of Israel to defeat the antichrist symbolized by Assyria, and purges the land of the corrupting influences of the spirit of the Anti- christ.
After the warning of what is to come has been given, God confronts the things the people are doing that are going to be hazardous to their future. Their continual offerings and sacrifices could not heal the corruption within. Because of how the people were living, they had developed heart dis-ease and the cancer of idolatry was eating away at their core. One of the symptoms of the sickness, we are told in verse 14, is that they would not be satisfied no matter what they ate or did. Sounds like dis-ease to me.
Once the symptoms of the spiritual disease are known, Micah realizes the disease has spread throughout the nation and there is little hope. Everyone is sick and desperate including the family. No one can be trusted except God which is where Micah turns in Chapter 7 verses 7&8. The only place healing can be found for the spiritual cancer that is eating away at the core of man, is in the Lord. Even in stage 4, when the situation seems hopeless, God is able to heal and restore. This is the message from verse 9 on. King Jesus, who we struck on the cheek and rejected in Chapter 5:1, is our Surgeon General. Only He can heal us from our dis-ease.
Healing begins with repentance, which is a change of attitude toward God, we read in verse 9. Healing is followed by an observable change in one’s life that will be a witness to those around us in verses 10-13.
The healing begins when we make Jesus truly our King. This is the message that follows in verses 14-20. When Jesus is King, and only until we make Him King, will He heal us from our dis-ease and bring us into the place of rest. Are we in the state of dis-ease or rest? Let’s have a checkup.
As the gospel was spreading in the Book of Acts the first converts to Jesus were Jews. As time went on those converts were being pressured by the Jewish religious rulers of the day to turn back to the temple worship that they had left for Jesus. Times were tough on the new believers. They were thrown out of the synagogues which cut manyof them off from their support system. Some of the people were tempted to give up and go back to the old ways. It was to these people that the Book of Hebrews was written. Chapters 1-4, and especially Chapters 3-4, are a good place to go for a checkup to see if we are healthy in our spiritual life. So, for homework today, let’s at least read Hebrews 3&4, but really, the whole book is important. Let’s make an honest self-evaluation to see if we are suffering from a dis-ease.
Dis-ease------------------------------------Rest. Where do you fit in on this continuum?
May we heed the leading of the Holy Spirit as we boldly approach the throne of grace. Hebrews 4:16
Pastor Dave