Friday, January 15, 2016

The Voice of the Prophet (Micah 7:16-20)



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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