Friday after Rogate

Scripture: Micah 7:7-13 (NKJV)

7 Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me.

8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness.

10 Then she who is my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will see her; Now she will be trampled down like mud in the streets.

11 In the day when your walls are to be built, in that day the decree shall go far and wide.

12 In that day they shall come to you from Assyria and the fortified cities, from the fortress to the River, from sea to sea, and mountain to mountain.

13 Yet the land shall be desolate because of those who dwell in it, and for the fruit of their deeds.

Devotion

Micah, a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah, prophesied of “one who is to be ruler in Israel” being born in tiny Bethlehem Ephrathah and, inconsequential though it otherwise was, it was there the magi brought their gifts after the birth of Jesus (Matt. 2:6). Micah preached against the widespread shoddy treatment of the poor, commending justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. He prophesied the Assyrian invasion of the land for want of these qualities, the people’s exile and captivity, and the eventual deliverance of a remnant and their return to the land which had been promised to their forebears.

Unbelievers would mock the faithful remnant for their steadfast trust in the Lord’s salvation. The remnant would not waver, but would bear the indignation of the Lord. They were willing to accept the consequences for sinful actions. Unbelievers taunted them—”Where is the Lord your God?” Their derision was uttered in the same sour voices which, centuries later, would shout, “He saved others but He can’t save Himself.”

We live in a world which either jeers at the faithful or associates with churches that have caved in to worldly pressures. Similarly, Micah wrote that the people would select for themselves not men who would preach God’s untarnished truth, but who would laud the joys of wine and strong drink (2:11). But we cling to God’s promises in Christ and with the faithful in Micah’s day, and also with longsuffering Job, we know that we too will see with our own eyes the righteousness of God.

We pray: Heavenly Father, preserve us steadfast in the true faith, impervious to the siren call of worldly temptation, yet not callously unloving toward the people all around us who are dying for want of faith in our crucified, risen and ascended Lord Jesus. Amen.