Table of Contents
Micah 7:8
We live in confusing and troublesome days so troubling at times that even the strongest and most biblically grounded believer is at a loss of words for explanation and overwhelmed. As a whole, people are more insensitive, angered, unafraid to share their opinions and thoughts even if they are baseless. With more frequency we witness criminals preying upon the weak and the unsuspecting. They are remorseless with the injuries or death they cause. We witness on nightly news broadcasts of gangs beating, raping, battering others caught on cell phone videos with people cheering them on and then refusing to name those involved to the authorities.
1 Churches are being attacked politically
Churches are being attacked politically, socially, philosophically with greater frequency with little restraint and support from the communities. On the contrary, many communities and cultures within the borders of our country rejoice at the attacks being made on churches and Christians. To many, it is a day of celebration and victory over the “far right.” Sin is renamed, repackaged, and offered as the new norm while godliness, righteousness, faith is repugnant and repulsive and not to be tolerated.
Nothing that is happening today ought to surprise the men and women of God. It is not new. Because what we see unfolding here, today, now in our nation happened as well to Israel and Judah in the days of the prophets and their prophecies to the Northern and Southern Kingdoms addressed the sins of the people and the coming judgment, which included the godly remnant. The godly lived among the ungodly and unfaithful and the godly remnant would suffer alongside of the wicked as God meted out His retribution on Israel and Judah.
2 This study will look at Micah
This study will look at Micah and one particular thought that he expressed on behalf of his people. The instrument of judgment was the cruel and wicked Assyrians who rejoiced at the fall and collapse of the Jewish people. Mocked, ridiculed, decried for their faith in YAHWEH, the prophet Micah speaks on the behalf of the godly remnant in the midst of the judgment saying, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.”
Micah is a difficult book as the prophet cried out against the ongoing wickedness throughout the land. The messages of Micah, Isaiah, his prophecies, and later those of Jeremiah fell on deaf ears. In hearing they heard not. In seeing they saw not. Sin, hardened-hearts, deaf ears had made the Jewish people calloused, numb to the many warnings and the moving of the Spirit of God. In one of the strongest cries against the land, the prophet declared the Sovereign’s controversy with them. He said, “Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel” (Mic. 6:2).
3 Israel and Judah
Israel and Judah, the whole house of Israel, had withdrawn themselves from serving YAHWEH, the LORD JEHOVAH, to follow after graven images, to embrace the false religions of their neighboring countries, to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a moment. What more could He do? What more can He say than what He has already said? He had shown them grace in raising up prophets of God: Isaiah, Micah, and later Jeremiah. He had shown them mercy by withholding deserved judgment. He demonstrated His lovingkindness like a parent in pleading with them.
He had done everything that was necessary to make them wise, and holy, and happy; they had uniformly disobeyed, and were ever ungrateful. It was not consistent with either the justice or mercy of God to permit them to go on without reprehension and punishment. Adam Clark wrote, “Their ingratitude and rebellion are sufficient to make the mountains, the hills, and the strong foundations of the earth to hear, tremble, and give judgment against them. This, then, is the Lord’s controversy with his people, and thus he will plead with Israel.”
Why did the LORD have so strong a controversy with Israel? The better question perhaps is, what had they done that caused the controversy? The root cause was their spiritual collapse. Obviously, it was not just one thing, rather it was an accumulation of many sins for which they were unconcerned, which they left unconfessed and were unrepentant. The house of Israel had serious spiritual issues, and the spiritual issues affected the social life as well. Her sins could be grouped into spiritual sins, social sins, and sensual sins. It is impossible to list everything for which she was guilty, but her spiritual sins were the influence of false prophets, idolatry (1:7), all of which led to practical unbelief and into apostasy. Micah prophesied against social sins of extreme injustice, wickedness in high places, proud and unscrupulous and cruel leaders, and that the leaders were careless of the civil rights of others.
4 The sensual Sins
The sensual sins, or immorality, were sexual in nature that were a direct product of the low spiritual climate throughout the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Immorality was rampant with idolatry. Promiscuity was high. Whatever was wrong was seen as right, and whatever was right was wrong as they could define sin as to whatever they wanted it to be. The nation refused to “hear” Micah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Therefore, Jehovah God raised up the cruel and wicked Assyrians and Babylonians as agents to bring His people (the Lord speaks of them as ‘my people’ nine times in Micah) back to Him through imprisonment (captivity) of thousands of their people, and the indifference, impudence, and incivility shown to them by their captors. The Assyrians were known to be barbaric and the Babylonians were ruthlessly cruel to them.
Recently the world watched as Israel was attacked by the terrorist group Hamas and later from an organization from Jordan and others. The world watched on TV the laughter of those who hate Israel. The world watched as Americans and Islamic people of various nations danced in the street and mocked the Jewish people and laughed with reports of deaths and casualties in Israel and hoping for the complete fall of the Jewish nation. It did not happen. It will not happen. The One True God will not permit it to happen. They are His people.
5 Times and Conditions have changed.
Times and conditions have changed some from the days of Micah, but the attitude of the world toward the people of God has not changed. Israel’s neighbors rejoiced to see her stumble and fall to the Assyrians and later to the Babylonians. And though she fell, she would not remain in that condition. Micah speaking for himself and on the behalf of Israel said, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me” (Mic. 7:8). She would be judged by her God. She would fall, but she would arise from her fallen condition. The immediate prophecy had a near fulfillment as the Jewish remnant taken captivity by the Babylonians were allowed to return home and the returning remnant experienced a national resurrection.
But Micah’s prophecy looked beyond the return from Babylon to a future day and fulfillment when the scattered Israel will be called home from the graves of this world seen by Ezekiel and experience not just a national resurrection but a spiritual one when the last part of verse 8 is fulfilled. Israel will then sing with Micah, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.”
Micah 7:8 King James Version
8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.
