SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/15/2015
2:07 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Covetousness
PT-1
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Micah 2:1-5
Message of the verses: “1 Woe to those who scheme iniquity, Who work
out evil on their beds! When morning comes, they do it, For it is in the power
of their hands. 2 They covet fields and then seize them, And houses, and take
them away. They rob a man and his house, A man and his inheritance. 3 Therefore thus says the LORD,
"Behold, I am planning against this family a calamity From which you
cannot remove your necks; And you will not walk haughtily, For it will be an
evil time. 4 “On that day they will take up against you a taunt And utter a
bitter lamentation and say, ’We are completely destroyed! He exchanges the
portion of my people; How He removes it from me! To the apostate He apportions
our fields.’ 5 “Therefore
you will have no one stretching a measuring line For you by lot in the assembly
of the LORD.”
Let’s
begin with a quote from the MacArthur Study Bible on verses 1-11: “As chapter 1 denounced sin against God;
chapter 2 denounces sin against man. In
vv. 1-5, Micah decried the corrupt practices of the affluent; in vv. 6-11 he
attacked the false prophets and those who would silence the true prophets.
“2:1-2
The courtroom scene continues, with the accusations being read against the
affluent; they had violated the tenth commandment (Ex. 20:17; cf. 22:26;
23:4-9). The poor, unable to defend
themselves, were at the mercy of the wealthy.
“2:3-5
As a result of sin, God would allow foreign invaders to divide their land; none
of them would have the inheritance apportioned to them. As the rich took from the poor, so God would
take back that which He gave as judgment on the nation.”
I
think that I have mentioned that the word “therefore” is used some 900 plus
times in the Word of God, and it is one of my favorite words because when you
see it the direction of thought is changed and in the case of our text today
the therefore shows that God will take action because of what the wicked have
planed in their covetousness plans that they had.
When
one goes back to the Mosaic Law it required that the land remain with families
and within the tribes. We know that the
land actually belongs to the Lord as the Lord owns all things, it is just that
many people, believers, and non believers have a hard time realizing it. On a personal note, that is hard for me to
admit, and that is that I have owned far too many cars in my lifetime,
something that I seemed to have gotten from my father. A few months ago the lease from my car came
up and so we leased another one, and then our car that we own had some problems
and so we thought about getting a different one, and then it seemed to me that
this was not the right thing to do because I did not really need to get rid of it
as the problems seemed to just go away.
What did I do? Well I had a talk
with the Lord and told Him that this car was actually His and if I needed to
get rid of it because it was broke down or something like that then He would
have to show me, so the end result is that I gave it to the Lord who owns everything
anyway. I felt much better after that.
The
rich people of Israel should have remembered that the Lord owns everything and
then they would not have been coveting the things that they did not have. There is a story in the OT book of Kings, not
sure which one but I will find out, and that story is about a woman named Jezebel
who was married to the king of Israel named Ahab. This story, to me, shows just how far
covetousness can go and with this story we will end this SD and pick up with
more on our verses in Micah in our next SD.
I will quote the story and just read and think about how awful this
woman was, and in the end she got what was coming to her, as it was from the
Lord to punish her for all the wrong things that she did, and one of them was
to bring Baal worship into the Kingdom of Israel.
“1 Now
it came about after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard
which was in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 Ahab spoke to
Naboth, saying, "Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable
garden because it is close beside my house, and I will give you a better
vineyard than it in its place; if you like, I will give you the price of it in
money." 3 But Naboth said to Ahab, "The LORD forbid me that I should give you the inheritance
of my fathers." 4 So Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed
because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he said,
"I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." And he lay down
on his bed and turned away his face and ate no food.
“5 But Jezebel
his wife came to him and said to him, "How is it that your spirit is so
sullen that you are not eating food?" 6 So he said to her, "Because I
spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ’Give me your vineyard for
money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you a vineyard in its place.’
But he said, ’I will not give you my vineyard.’" 7 Jezebel his wife said
to him, "Do you now reign over Israel? Arise, eat bread, and let your
heart be joyful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." 8
So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and sent
letters to the elders and to the nobles who were living with Naboth in his
city. 9 Now she wrote in the letters,
saying, "Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people;
10 and seat two worthless men before
him, and let them testify against him, saying, ’You cursed God and the king.’
Then take him out and stone him to death." 11 So the men of his city, the
elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to
them, just as it was written in the letters which she had sent them. 12 They
proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the people. 13 Then the two
worthless men came in and sat before him; and the worthless men testified against
him, even against Naboth, before the people, saying, "Naboth cursed God
and the king." So
they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. 14
Then they sent word to Jezebel, saying, "Naboth has been stoned and is
dead." 15 When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead,
Jezebel said to Ahab, "Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth,
the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not
alive, but dead." 16 When
Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of
Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
“17 Then the word of the LORD came
to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 18
"Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria;
behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth where he has gone down to take
possession of it. 19 “You shall speak to him, saying, ’Thus says the LORD, "Have you murdered and
also taken possession?"’ And you shall speak to him, saying, ’Thus says the LORD,
"In the place where
the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth the dogs will lick up your blood, even
yours."’" 20 Ahab said to Elijah, "Have you found me, O
my enemy?" And he answered, "I have found you, because you have sold
yourself to do evil in the sight of the LORD. 21 “Behold, I will bring evil
upon you, and will utterly sweep you away, and will cut off from Ahab every
male, both bond and free in Israel; 22 and I will make your house like the
house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of
Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked Me to anger, and because you
have made Israel sin. 23 “Of Jezebel also has the LORD spoken, saying, ’The dogs will eat Jezebel in
the district of Jezreel.’ 24
"The one belonging to Ahab, who dies in the city, the dogs will
eat, and the one who dies in the field the birds of heaven will eat." 25
Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of
the LORD, because Jezebel
his wife incited him. 26 He acted very abominably in following idols,
according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the
sons of Israel. 27 It came about when Ahab heard these words, that he tore his
clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth and went about
despondently. 28 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
29 “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled
himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but I will bring the
evil upon his house in his son’s days."”
All
of the things written here happened just as the Lord said, and Jezebel was eaten
by the dogs after she was pushed out of a window and was killed just at the
Lord said would happen. Covetousness is
something that we never want to fall into.
12/15/2015 2:43 PM
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