SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/15/2016
1:32 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Voice of the Prophet
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Micah
7:16-20
Message of
the verses: “16 Nations will see and be ashamed Of all
their might. They will put their hand on their mouth, Their ears will be deaf. 17
They will lick the dust like a serpent, Like reptiles of the earth. They will
come trembling out of their fortresses; To the LORD our God they will come in dread And they will
be afraid before You. 18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the
rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging
love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our
iniquities under foot. Yes, You
will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea. 20 You will give
truth to Jacob And unchanging love to Abraham, Which You swore to our
forefathers From the days of old.”
I have to say that something comes out of the last
SD and this SD that is something that I have not looked at before and that is
when the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt as seen in the early chapters of the
book of Exodus that this was a picture of what He is going to do for them in
the end times. The Lord put fear into
the hearts of all of the nations that heard of how God brought Israel out of
Egypt, but as we look around at the world today there is little fear of the
Lord just like there was little fear of the Lord among the nations before God
brought Israel out of Egypt. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “But the wonders of the Lord will do for Israel in the last days will
startle the nations even more. The Gentiles will see the power of God and be
ashamed and unable to act. They will
come out of their hiding places to submit to the Lord. It will mean total victory for Israel.”
Wiersbe goes on to write “But the most important event
will not be Israel’s victory over her enemies but God’s victory over
Israel. The prophet was confident of the
unchanging character of God. ‘Who is
like the Lord?’ (Micah 7:18 NIV) reminds us of the meaning of Micah’s name ‘Who
is like the Lord?’ He is a God who
pardons sin, forgives transgressions, and delights in showing mercy. He shows compassion to His people and deals
with their sins with finality.”
It is possible that verse nineteen relates to when
the Lord buried the Egyptians under the debts of the sea showing something
similar to what God has done with our sins, that is those who have put their
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation.
Once again I have to say that these promises are for
the nation of Israel, and although the principles apply to the church as God
has also forgiven our sins, but what I am saying is that God will still deal
with Israel after the church has been taken out in the Rapture of the Church as
seen in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. God is
not done with Israel and these promises that Micah and the other OT prophets
write about Israel will still be fulfilled by Israel and if they were not then
God is not telling the truth through these prophets.
In conclusion to his commentary on Micah Dr. Wiersbe
writes “Few passages in Scripture contain so much ‘distilled theology’ as Micah
7:18-20. We see in them a reflection of
what God told Moses on the mount (Ex. 34:5-7).
The better we know the character of God, the more we can trust Him for
the future. The better we know the
promises and covenants of God, the more peace we will have in our hearts when
things fall apart. When Micah wrote this
confession of his faith, the future seemed hopeless; yet he had hope because he
knew God and fully trusted Him.
“No matter how dark the day, the light of God’s
promises is still shining. No matter how
confusing and frightening our circumstances, the character of God remains the
same.
“You have every reason to trust Him!”
With that we end the book of Micah and will begin
looking at the book of Nahum in our next evening SD.
1/15/2016 1:58 PM
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