SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/20/2015
7:48 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Consolation:
Hope for the Future
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Micah 2:12-13
Message of
the verses: “12 "I will surely assemble all of you,
Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together
like sheep in the fold; like a flock in
the midst of its pasture They will be noisy with men. 13 “The breaker goes up
before them; They break out, pass through the gate and go out by it. So their
king goes on before them, And the LORD at their head."”
“12 “I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I
will surely bring together the
remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like
a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people. 13 One who breaks
open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go
out. Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head.’” (NIV)
It is always the job of the true prophet of God to
speak the truth even though at times it is not the most pleasant thing to say
and to have the people hear. We have
mentioned many times as we have been studying the prophets both the Major and
Minor Prophets that there is much judgment in them, but also hope in them and
those who hear the prophets message and believe what he is saying is true can
then take comfort in the truth that there will be coming a time when God will
restore Israel to their land and then eventually bring about their true Messiah
as head in what will be their promised kingdom and our study in the book of
Revelation has taught us that this King will be the Lord Jesus Christ and the
length of the time of the kingdom will be 1000 years. Dr. Wiersbe writes “But conviction without hope
creates hopelessness, like performing surgery without providing healing.”
In verse twelve we read from the NIV that the Lord
seems to calling all of Israel, both Northern and Southern Kingdoms and so this
leads us to believe that this time will be looking forward to the Millennial
Kingdom as mentioned. Verse thirteen
could well be referring to the Messiah who “breaks open the way.”
In verse twelve we see a familiar word the “remnant”
and we know that this speaks of those whom the Lord chooses to be a part of the
Kingdom, but this also speaks of those who He will bring back from the
Babylonian captivity to return to the Promised Land to rebuild the city and the
temple. In the letter to the Romans Paul
speaks of the remnant to show that God has not forgotten the children of
Israel, but as Paul puts it has laid them aside for a while in order to bring
the Gentiles into the kingdom. Paul also
says of the Gentiles that they are grafted into the real Olive tree, which is
Israel. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Though the
nation of Israel might rebel against God, there would always be a faithful
remnant that would trust Him and seek to do His will and God would work because
of the faith for this remnant. (This is
also true of the professing church). The
hope of the nation lies with the remnant.”
Dr. Wiersbe concludes this fourth and last main
section of his first chapter on Micah with the following words: “Micah’s first message aroused the opposition
of the false prophets, but it didn’t change the hearts of the people. Thus he gave a second message, announcing
that ‘the Deliverer is coming.’
“But we today need to deal with our sins of
covetousness, selfishness, and willingness to believe ‘religious lies.’ We must abandon ‘soft religion’ that pampers
our pride and makes it easy for us to sin.
Why? Because ‘our God is a
consuming fire’ (Heb. 12:29), and ‘The Lord shall judge His people’
(10:30). Remember, judgment begins in
the house of the Lord (1 Peter 4:17).”
12/20/2015 8:13 PM
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