Return of the King
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Micah 7: 1-20
Woe is me! For I have become
as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat,
no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. The godly has perished from the earth,
and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood,
and each hunts the other with a net.
Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand. Put no trust in a neighbor;
have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms;
for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
But as for me, I will look to the LORD;
I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness,
the LORD will be a light to me.
I will bear the indignation of the LORD
because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication.
10 Then my enemy will see,
and shame will cover her who said to me,
“Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will look upon her;
now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.
11 A day for the building of your walls!
In that day the boundary shall be far extended.12 In that day they will come to you, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
and from Egypt to the River,
from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.13 But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds.
14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
in the midst of a garden land;let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old.
15 As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things.
16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf;
17 they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth;
they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God, and they shall be in fear of you.
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.
19 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.
20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. 1
A few weeks ago I shared this from Chuck Colson, former hatchet man
for Richard Nixon, then prisoner, then redeemed Christian and brother.
Where is the hope? I meet millions of people who feel demoralized
by the decay around us.
It is the question for the ages, is it not? “Where is the hope?”
“Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.” – Legolas... J.R.R. Tolkien, The
Return of the King
This word we have from God is a word of hope, of rescue, of salvation. It is a word to the undeserving that the God of grace and goodness has not abandoned them, but provides a way. The word is a way. It is the way of hope and it is God’s redemption story to a people living in comfort and self-reliance, yet drowning in their sin in a location in the Middle East thousands of years ago and to a people living in comfort, self-sufficiency, the American Dream, and temporal security today. Right here.
There is hope. There is a way to peace. There is a way to holiness. That way is revealed.
Micah prophesied in an era when the message was needed, but the hearers were few. Along with his contemporaries such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others, he spent years telling the people of God that though they wore his name for convenience sake and for prideful acknowledge, the Lord would no longer allow their sin to go unpunished. Yet, this gracious God saw fit to warn, to tell, to declare a way, for his glory and the people’s good.
But Micah was not a celebrity pastor. He was not lifted high. Neither were his fellow prophets. Why? Because what they had to say was not desired.
They would have been destroyed on social media today, becoming hateful memes shared among friends of opposing political viewpoints and declared idiots at best from the elite.
To grade the success of Micah with our American evangelical grading scale that elevates church size, conference attendees, book sales, Instagram followers, and influence trends...these guys would be failures.
Yet, he persisted. Why? Because he was not called to be a celebrity, but to be God’s mouthpiece to an unrepentant people. So he spoke. They heard...but many did not listen.
Let’s just say that Micah spent around three decades with the crowds ignoring the invitation. “Good message prophet,” but no change.
So, the prophet begins this chapter with a bit of self-loathing. “Woe is me” = “How sad for me.”
The lament is real and in the second verse he declares that every godly person on the planet must be gone. It’s too far gone. Depressed? Maybe. Frustrated? Absolutely. At this point Micah was more like Elijah than he knew – reminiscent of when Elijah just “knew” he was the only follower of God left since he was continually surrounded by rejection and sinfulness. Yet, God reminded him in 2 Kings that there were 7,000 others in the nation who had not bowed the knee to the idols of Baal and had not forsaken the Lord. Even when it seems that you are all alone in your devotion to God...you are not.
Some of you need to hear that today. Some of you students need to know that right now.
Out of Micah’s lament comes God’s words of hope. It follows the declaration of a pandemic to encompass the world unlike any in history. Suddenly, we all understand this concept of epidemics and pandemics.
There will come a
pandemic of prejudice (the opposite of justice)
pandemic of persecution (the opposite of kindness and mercy)
pandemic of pride (the opposite of humility)
Yet, even with all of this to come...and all of this currently happening, there was and is hope.
Micah is a prophet. He tells the truth. He is a realist. He states that it will get worse before it gets better. But...it will get better. He shares the hope in this chapter.
Salvation is promised. God is not changing plans. He is not abandoning his image-bearers...but he will not ignore sin.
The hope is in Christ. Christ alone who as God the son, Son of God would come as promised. He will reign as king of kings and lord of lords.
The end of the chapter gives a peek into how this earthly story ends. The promises of God are fulfilled. Eternity for the redeemed is clear. Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The covenant promise with Abraham is complete.
Marvelous things, unimaginable goodness, graciousness will be poured out upon God’s people and that small, overwhelmed, seemingly hopeless remnant of a people will see the worth of a life centered on faithfulness.
Some of you live with hurts so deep, from those whom never should have hurt you that you wonder if God is even real. Others who bear his image have shown such falseness, you are like those Chuck Colson quoted and you say “Where is the hope?”
“Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.”
And our hope is here. Today. Do you know him?
End Notes
1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mic 7:1–20). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
