PT-1 God Speaks about sin and its Consequences (Micah 6:9-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/7/2016 11:37 PM

My Worship Time                                Focus:  God Speaks about sin and its Consequences PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Micah 6:9-16

Message of the verses:  “9 The voice of the LORD will call to the city- And it is sound wisdom to fear Your name: "Hear, O tribe. Who has appointed its time? 10 “Is there yet a man in the wicked house, Along with treasures of wickedness And a short measure that is cursed? 11 “Can I justify wicked scales And a bag of deceptive weights? 12 “For the rich men of the city are full of violence, Her residents speak lies, And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 13 “So also I will make you sick, striking you down, Desolating you because of your sins. 14 “You will eat, but you will not be satisfied, And your vileness will be in your midst. You will try to remove for safekeeping, But you will not preserve anything, And what you do preserve I will give to the sword. 15 “You will sow but you will not reap. You will tread the olive but will not anoint yourself with oil; And the grapes, but you will not drink wine. 16 “The statutes of Omri And all the works of the house of Ahab are observed; And in their devices you walk. Therefore I will give you up for destruction And your inhabitants for derision, And you will bear the reproach of My people.’”

We begin the second main point from the last chapter of Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on the book of Micah.  He entitles this second main section:  “Because of impending judgment trust the Lord” and it covers Micah 6:9-7:7, and after that there will only be one last point to go over as we look forward to finishing this wonderful book from the pen of Micah.

Dr. Wiersbe writes the following as he introduces this section:  “For the second time in this message, Micah cried out to the people, ‘Listen!’ (vv. 1, 9 NIV).  Like the crows that Jesus taught, these Jews had ears to hear His words, but they couldn’t hear God’s truth in those words (Matt. 13:9, 43).  They lacked spiritual discernment.”

 As we look at verse nine we see that the Lord is calling out to the people of Israel to fear His name and also to heed what He had to say, and without the fear of the Lord, they or anyone else could have neither wisdom or knowledge as seen in Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”  Now at this point Dr. Wiersbe writes an endnote that is most interesting:  “The phrase ‘Hear ye the rod’ (KJV) or ‘Heed the rod’ (NIV) is a puzzle to translators and expositors.  What or who is ‘the rod’?  Does it refer to the punishment God sent to the nation or to the nation that brought punishment?  Or does it refer to the Lord Himself?  According to Isaiah 10:5, God calls Assyria ‘the rod of My anger.’  In the Minor Prophets:  An Exegetical and Expository Commentary, Dr. Bruce Waltake suggests and alternate translation:  “Give heed, O tribe, and the assembly of the city’ (Grand Rapids, Mich.” Baker Book House), vol. 2, 736.  When the officials met in assembly to consider business, each tribal leader would have his official staff symbolizing his authority (see Num. 17).  God addresses not only the city of Jerusalem in general but also specifically the leaders who met to consider what to do.”

In verses 10-12 of Micah 6 we see that God specifically condemned the merchants of the city for being deceptive in their business practices as they were using weights and measures that we not honest in order to cheat their customers and God looks out for things like that. But we must answer why this particular sin grieved the Lord so much.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Because by doing these things, the businessmen were exploiting and abusing the poor and needy in the land for whom God has a special concern (Amos 8: 4-10).  The mosaic economic system provided for the care of the poor and needy, but the wealthy merchants in Micah’s time had abandoned the system.  They robbed the poor of both justice and the necessities of life, a son God could not overlook.”  We will look more at this thought in our next SD.

1/8/2016 12:08 AM