SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/22/2015
10:01 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 Rebuke: The sins of the Leaders
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Micah 3:1-4
Message of
the verses: “1 And I said, "Hear now, heads of Jacob And rulers of the house
of Israel. Is it not for you to know justice? 2
"You who hate
good and love evil, Who tear off their skin from them And their flesh
from their bones, 3 Who eat the flesh of
my people, Strip off their skin from them, Break their bones And chop them up
as for the pot And as meat in a kettle." 4 Then they will cry out to the
LORD, But He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at
that time Because they have practiced evil deeds.”
“1 Then I said: "Listen, leaders of Jacob,
leaders of Israel: Don’t you know anything of justice? 2 Haters of good, lovers
of evil: Isn’t justice in your job description? But you skin my people alive.
You rip the meat off their bones. 3 You break up the bones, chop the meat, and
throw it in a pot for cannibal stew." 4 The time’s coming, though, when
these same leaders will cry out for help to GOD, but he won’t listen. He’ll turn his face the
other way because of their history of evil (Message).”
We will only look at the first four verses in this
SD for today and then see how far we can get in the next one.
When we were studying the book of Revelation
especially the second and third chapters when Christ was speaking to the seven
churches we heard at the end of each letter to the churches “’He who has an
ear, let him hear.” Christ wanted to
make sure what He was saying to them that they heard it, and so does Micah want
to make sure that the leaders and heads of Jacob hear what the Lord wants them
to hear. What Micah is saying is “Listen! God is speaking to you and you better hear
what He is saying to you. The author of
Hebrews writes the following in 12:25 “See to it that you do not refuse Him who
is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them
on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from
heaven.”
Let us look at a couple more verses from the book of
Hebrews that fit well with these: “7 Therefore,
as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not
harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness
(Heb. 3:7-8) One more verse and this
time from Proverbs “Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, And pay attention to
the words of my mouth (Pro. 7:25).”
In verses one through four Micah is rebuking the
civil authorities, and these are men who were not only permitting the wealthy
to take advantage of the poor but they were doing it themselves and this goes
completely against the Law of the Lord.
Leaders were suppose to love good and hate evil, but the opposite was
true of these leaders. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “If there was no justice in the cities, there could be no justice in the
land.” It was at the city gate where the
business was done as see in Ruth 4:1 and following.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “The description of these rulers’
actions reminds you more of ravenous beasts than of human beings. Instead of being faithful shepherds who
protected the flock (Micah 2:12; 7:14), they attacked the sheep, skinned them
alive, and butchered them, chopped them up, and made stew out of them! But the day would come when these wolves in
shepherd’s clothing would cry out for God’s mercy, but no mercy would be
given. ‘Then my anger shall be kindled
against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from
them, and they shall be devoured’ (Deut. 31:17).”
12/22/2015 10:25 PM
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