“But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, And of justice and might, To declare to Jacob his transgression And to Israel his sin.” – Micah 3:8
The power of God is against government corruption. God is the Creator of government. We see His creation of government begin with our first parents and the family unit (Genesis 2:18; 3:16). Humanity first corrupted government at the Tower of Babel where Nimrod led a rebellion against God (Genesis 11). God had instructed humanity to be fruitful and multiply and spread out over the earth (Genesis 1:28). Nimrod was the first corrupt politician (Genesis 10:8-9). He gathered people into a city named Babel where he oversaw the building of a ziggurat to the heavens. This structure was meant as an in-Your-face defiance of God.
God had judged the corrupt earth with a Flood (Genesis 6). This judgment gave God no pleasure. But humanity had become unredeemable (Genesis 6:5-7). The rains covered the world joined by the tears of God. At His heart, He desires none to perish but all to repent and be reconciled to Him (2 Peter 3:9). And so, God made a covenant with Noah and promised to never judge the earth with a Flood again (Genesis 9). God even provided a memorial sign in the rainbow to guarantee such judgement would never repeat. But the Tower of Babel was a gigantic distrusting human statement to God that, “Even if You break Your covenant made with Noah, we are able to build a structure to defy Your judgment and keep us safely out of reach.” For the first time government was aligned in opposition to God rather than as an instrument of enforcing the order of God.
God is not chaotic. The incredible order of His creation in the universe is evidence of this. God doesn’t endorse chaos but works by design, decency, and orderliness. Chaos and disorder are the consequences of sin and depravity. Injustice and loss of freedom is due to human rebellion against God. That was true with Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12-21: Ezekiel 28:11-19), and it proved true from the beginning with humanity (Genesis 3). Sin pits husband against wife (Genesis 3:16). Sin ruins sibling love and reduces it to jealousy and even murder (Genesis 4).
The government God ordains is meant to facilitate good. Government serves God’s purposes in that it provides societal controls against evil (Romans 13:1-7). Government ideally provides parameters to protect people and encourage love for one’s neighbor (Romans 13:8-10). As we draw closer to the culmination of God’s prophetic redemptive plan, we need to wrap ourselves in Jesus. We need to clothe ourselves with His righteousness through the gospel. Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). We can only reconcile with God and find order again through the gospel of His grace. It’s only through Jesus God’s Son and our Savior that order can be restored and reconciliation with God attained (Romans 13:11-14; see Romans 3 and 5).
But what can people do when governments cease being godly? What can we do when governments cease promoting or guarding which is good? What can we do when government and her agents give in to sin, thwart good, and side with evil? Those are the questions answered by the prophet Micah. The answers and solutions given by God through this Minor Prophet are very relevant to us today given the degree of corruption we see in our government on local, state, and federal levels.
in the present Trump Administration we have seen political efforts such as The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) created to try and root out corruption, misappropriation of funds, obscene spending, graft, foreign and corporate influence for pay, and waste, etc.. Payoffs for influence to the media and politicians appear to be commonplace. Despite discovering millions, billions, and even trillions of dollars of waste, DOGE is being opposed. It’s being opposed by those who are pilfering funds meant to minister to taxpayers. Fearmongering and false reporting and every political tactic in the book are being unleashed on those trying to identify and deal with corruption. When the misinformation doesn’t work, personal attacks and threats KGB style are implemented. It really is mind boggling to see the political and activist opposition to exposing wasteful government spending. It makes you think, “If such obvious corruption isn’t seen as worthy of being exposed and stopped, is there any way to deal with any corruption by political means?” There is a better, more efficient, more effective way to deal with corruption. There is a way to energize and empower political means to deal with corruption.
“Micah” means, “Who is like the LORD?” This book is given Divine authority in the phrase, “The word of the LORD . . ..” (Micah 1:1-2). These are words from the heart of God to the heart of Micah to the heart of the recipients that should motivate us to take these words seriously and pay close attention to them.
Micah ministered in the eighth century BC and was a contemporary of Isaiah. His message was so powerful that a hundred years later Jeremiah referenced it (Jeremiah 26:18). Micah’s ministry was to a broad audience. At the end of verse one we see that God had called him to a ministry that focused upon Samaria, the capitol of the northern kingdom of Israel, and to a lesser extent, Jerusalem, the capitol of the southern kingdom of Judah. But in the second verse Micah is addressing, “O earth, and all that is in it!” Micah has a message for everyone, including us. What might that message be?
The Major Message of this Minor Prophet
The major message of this minor prophet can be focused upon via a single question stated by the prophet in the last chapter of this book. That question is found in the following verse, which states:
Micah 7:18 – “Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy.”
This is actually a play on Micah’s name which as we stated earlier means, “Who is like the LORD?” The major message of this minor prophet is that There is no one like the LORD; There is no other god like the LORD. What makes God unique, special, holy, and superior as well as incredibly magnificent is that God pardons the iniquity of the remnant, does not retain anger forever but prefers to act mercifully with people. He deals with corruption, but He does so in a constructive way. For that we can be hopeful, and thankful.
All People Have a Problem
Micah 1:2-4 – “Hear, all you peoples! 1 Listen, O earth, and all that is in it! Let the Lord God be a witness against you, The Lord from His holy temple.3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place; He will come down And tread on the high places of the earth.4 The mountains will melt under Him, And the valleys will split Like wax before the fire, Like waters poured down a steep place.”
These verses tell of a great cataclysmic judgment that is coming upon the whole earth. This likely refers to the Tribulation period spoken of in the book of Revelation (Revelation 6-18; cf. also Daniel 9:24-27). While Micah focuses on the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in this book, the way he begins tells us that the problems experienced by these two nations is universal. These verses also tell us that the problem is severe and serious enough that God finds it totally unacceptable and He will not allow it to continue without Him doing something about it. The first thing God does besides emphasizing the universal nature of the problem and the seriousness of the problem is to identify the problem.
The Problem of Transgression
Micah 1:5 – “All this is for the transgression of Jacob And for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?”
First notice that God pinpoints the capitols of the northern kingdom of Israel, “Samaria,” and of the southern kingdom of Judah, “Jerusalem.” The capitals are referred to as a barometer of the condition of the country. The capitol of a country usually houses the government and the government of a people usually is a good indicator of the spiritual condition of that country. This is especially true in a federal republic and democracy where the elected officials are supposed to be of the people and by the people and for the people. If a capitol is representative of a nation, a barometer of its spiritual condition, what did our capitol indicate on March 31st, 2024, Resurrection Sunday, when President Biden chose to celebrate LGBTQ with rainbow colors? Such symbolic representations are not accidental. It’s not accidental that the rainbow has been co-opted as a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community. It was and is an act of defiance on the level of Nimrod’s at Babel.
God identifies the universal problem of people as “transgression.” The word “transgression” is a translation of the Hebrew term PESHA. This word is used 93 times in the Bible and means, “Transgression, trespass, sin, rebellion, revolt.” Vine’s states, “Basically, this noun signifies willful deviation from, and therefore rebellion against, the path of godly living.” [1] Therefore, the rudimentary problem of people is that they rebel, revolt and reject God’s revealed way of godly living. The problem is not that people do not know what God requires of them. The problem is that people do not follow or obey what they do know about God and what He requires of them. And the governments of transgressors perpetrate transgression.
The Life of the Transgressor is Filled with Idols
Micah 1:6-7 – “Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, Places for planting a vineyard; I will pour down her stones into the valley, And I will uncover her foundations.7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, And all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire; All her idols I will lay desolate, For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot, And they shall return to the pay of a harlot.”
An idol is anything or anyone that takes the place of God in a person’s life. The life of the transgressor is filled with idols. Idols are mere substitutes which people use in an attempt to fill the God shaped void each person has (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Humanity was created to interact and have a relationship with God. Sin short circuited that. Lost humanity seeks to fill their God-shaped void with idols or substitutes for God.
In these verses God tells of destruction that will come upon the capitol city of Samaria because of the idolatry rampant within it (1:6). God’s people compared to a harlot (1:7) who gives themselves to suitors to meet a need. God’s people were going to idols like they would a harlot, to meet a need or craving. Idols can never fill the eternal void that every person has built into them by God. To rely on idols is to try to put a square peg in a round hole, it just doesn’t fit. Even if you can cram and hammer that peg into place, it just doesn’t fill the void.
The Bible states:
Proverbs 29:1 – “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, 1 Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
One of the biggest problems of Israel and Judah was their presumption. They mistook the patience and longsuffering of God for His approval. The same is true in our day for many in our nation. We see this in our justice system which has been corrupted. The slow grinding wheels of justice often lead to no justice at all.
Solomon wisely pointed out the ill effects of a system that slow walks justice. In the book of Ecclesiastes he writes:
Ecclesiastes 8:11-13 – “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him.13 But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.”
We have built into our system a Sixth Amendment that is supposed to ensure swift justice. But when sentences are put off indefinitely and frequently plea bargained away entirely, it disheartens victims and encourages criminals. Delayed justice disheartens the nation as a whole.
The apostle Paul pointed out the need to respond to God’s patience with repentance not procrastination when he wrote:
Romans 2:4 – “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
Paul was writing to individuals. But there is an application for nations here as well. We would be foolish to interpret God’s patience with our nation’s sinfulness as approval or condoning or just not caring. Nothing could be further from the truth. And if we continue to slow walk our time of national repentance, we will suffer a similar consequence to that of Israel and Judah.
Sinful humanity is prone to procrastination with responding to God. The danger of presuming on God’s patience and continuing in rejecting God’s overtures is clearly expressed in the gospel of John where it states of the religious leaders who refused to recognize who Jesus was:
John 12:37-39a – “But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him,38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”39 Therefore they could not believe, . . .”
God’s people had been living a lie. This persistent life of lying had a deadening effect on the people. Micah was inspired to write, “The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel” (1:14). “Achzib’ literally means “lie” and so through Micah God is stating the people who practice idolatry are living a lie and are in dark delusion. This causes Micah to “wail and howl,” in sadness over the spiritual bankruptcy of the people (1:8). Where are the tears for our nation today?
The Life of the Transgressor is Spiritless
Micah 2:7 – “You who are named the house of Jacob: “Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted? Are these His doings? Do not My words do good To him who walks uprightly?”
The context states transgressors spend their time devising evil as they lay on their bed at night (Micah 2:1). They think covetously of how they can scheme and violently exhort and steal property and possessions which do not belong to them (2:2). All of this sin leads to a disastrous consequence because God will not let it go unpunished (2:3-5). Those who misused the Land God had given in Promise to the people would now lose the land (2:4). But this people didn’t want to be convicted or be confronted about their transgressions. They told the prophets of God, “Do not prattle” (2:6). This people were so deep into transgression that they didn’t want anyone disturbing them by proclaiming the truth. Those living in sin want to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season (e.g., Hebrews 11:25).
In effect, this people had “restricted” “the Spirit of the LORD” (2:7). They refused to listen to the correction of the Spirit, to His convicting them about their sins. This is what we see in the world today when God’s people are scorned and dismissed as Bible thumpers portrayed as out of touch with society when they resist the sins of society. What they are saying in effect is, “Shut up and let me sin! Don’t judge me! Don’t force your ways on me!” Ignorance is bliss for the sinner. They want to maintain a position of what they think is plausible deniability. They want to hide in the idea that if brought to judgment they will be able to defend themselves by saying, “I didn’t know any better.” Do you think the All-Knowing God won’t be able to see through such foolishness? Do you think the Holy Spirit won’t see right through such fakery?
The Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said there was one unforgivable sin. He referred to it as the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 12:31 – “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.”
The only way a sinner comes to know they are a sinner and doomed to eternity separate from God is because the Holy Spirit reveals that truth to them. That is a gift of God’s grace, to reveal our sinful predicament to us. The Holy spirit also reveals to gospel solution to our sin problem, repentance from our sins and faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. If we reject that revelation, and then die in our sins, our rejection becomes unforgiveable. There are no second chances once we die.
Every person will face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). God desires all to repent or turn form their sins and be saved through faith in Jesus (2 Peter 3:9). But He will not force you to repent or trust in Jesus. You must respond in faith. If the Holy Spirit reaches out to you, and you refuse Him, you have in effect blasphemed the Holy Spirit by rejecting His offer of salvation. While you are alive, there is still hope for the sinner to respond with repentant faith in Jesus. But each rejection of the Spirit results in a hardening of the heart and if we persist, it leads to condemnation and being sentenced to hell eternally (Galatians 6:7-9).
The Role of the Holy Spirit in the World.
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the triune Godhead and is the One who reaches out to the lost. The Spirit is the One who strives with the unbeliever to awaken them to their need for salvation:
Genesis 6:3 – “And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
It is the Spirit that brings conviction on people for their sin and transgression:
John 16:8-11 – “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:9 “of sin, because they do not believe in Me;10 “of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;11 “of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
These verses from the gospel of John tell us that the Holy Spirit brings conviction upon the sinful world first because they do not believe in Jesus as their Savior. Secondly, the Holy Spirit convicts the world “righteousness” because all religious attempts to gain access to heaven outside of through Christ (John 10) are hopeless because Jesus is the perfect standard required by God to gain access to heaven. In other words if anyone wants to get into heaven apart from Jesus, they will have to live as perfect a life as Jesus did. Lastly, the Holy Spirit will convict the world and Satan because at the cross of Jesus has been victorious over death and Satan’s attempts to usurp the thrown of God.
The Spirit’s Regenerative Role
It is the Spirit who regenerates a person to give them new eternal life in Christ:
Titus 3:5 – “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,”
It is the Spirit who gives life to people when they put their faith in God. Jesus said that unless we are “born again” or spiritually birthed by the Holy Spirit, we will not enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:3 and 5). The Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead and gives us spiritual life (Romans 8:11). There is no salvation without the Holy Spirit giving spiritual life to a person. If you are relying on a religious affiliation of some kind, you will be turned away from entering heaven. What matters is if you have been spiritually born (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17).
The Inspiration of God’s Word by the Spirit.
It is the Spirit who inspires or literally breathes the word of God through people and onto the pages of the Bible. This is what Micah means when he is inspired to write, “Is the Spirit of the LORD restricted? . . . Do not My words do good to him who walks uprightly?” The word of God is breathed from His heart to ours. But God will not force His word upon us. He simply presents it to us to receive or reject. Without God’s word you can’t have eternal life. This is stated in numerous places in the Bible (cf., Ephesians 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:22-25; 2 Peter 1:19-21).
In Micah 2:7 the prophet is inspired to write that the transgressor has turned their back on the Spirit of God and His word. If they had heeded The Spirit and His word, they would have done “good” to the people. To blaspheme the Spirit then is to reject the overtures to be saved provided through the Spirit of God. This Spiritlessness dooms the transgressor and leads to the things mentioned in Micah because it is only through the Spirit that a person can learn of salvation and be saved (1 Corinthians 2:14). (See also John 14:16-26; 16:13; Romans 8:16; Hebrews 10:15; 1 John 4:1-6.)
Their Only Hope
Micah 2:13 – “The one who breaks open will come up before them; They will break out, Pass through the gate, And go out by it; Their king will pass before them, With the Lord at their head.”
But there is hope. This verse points us to Jesus our Savior. Jesus is the One who brings a breakout from the enslaving oppressive transgressive state of affairs. Jesus is the “king” mentioned here.
It’s interesting that in the life of David he too referred to God as one who enabled him to break through his enemies. David said, “So David went to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there; and he said, “The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim.” (2 Samuel 5:20). Oh LORD, give us another breakthrough!
What is so interesting here is that God is likened to One who, “like a breakthrough of water,” or a torrent. Jesus said: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes I Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). If you are caught in the darkness of transgression, your only hope is Jesus, and the powerful cleansing empowering waterfall of the Holy Spirit poured out upon you.
The Life of the Transgressor Follows Spiritless Leaders
Micah 3:1-12 – “And I said: 1 “Hear now, O heads of Jacob, And you rulers of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know justice?2 You who hate good and love evil; Who strip the skin from My people, And the flesh from their bones;3 Who also eat the flesh of My people, Flay their skin from them, Break their bones, And chop them in pieces Like meat for the pot, Like flesh in the caldron.”4 Then they will cry to the Lord, But He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, Because they have been evil in their deeds.5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets Who make my people stray; Who chant “Peace” While they chew with their teeth, But who prepare war against him Who puts nothing into their mouths:6 “Therefore you shall have night without vision, And you shall have darkness without divination; The sun shall go down on the prophets, And the day shall be dark for them.7 So the seers shall be ashamed, And the diviners abashed; Indeed they shall all cover their lips; For there is no answer from God.”8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, And of justice and might, To declare to Jacob his transgression And to Israel his sin.9 Now hear this, You heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice And pervert all equity,10 Who build up Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with iniquity:11 Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.”12 Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest.”
In chapter three of Micah we see one consequence of a transgressing people is faithless leadership. These leaders preferred evil over good (3:2). They “abhor justice and pervert equity” (3:9). They are given to bloodshed and bribery (3:10-11). They use their position to extort money from people (3:11). They drag God’s name in the mud of their iniquity (3:11). They led the people astray much the same as leftist liberal woke CRT etc. activists do in our day. Thomas Sowell has said, “Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.”
Corrupt public “servants” run away from clarity and truth and live in obfuscation and peculiar irrationalities that perpetrate their crimes. They rely more on their own personal opinions to the exclusion and contradiction of laws and God’s word (3:5). God says these leaders are in “darkness” (3:6) and will ultimately come to shame (3:7). They and the people who follow them will be destroyed (3:12).
Our Only Hope – The Power of the Holy Spirit
How can such a quagmire of transgression be addressed. The government has all the power. Even when, such as in our nation, elections go the righteous way and people come to power who seek change for the better, the “system” of entrenched corrupters is nearly impossible to extricate. How can we deal with the infestation of corrupt vermin? Micah was dealing with the same problem. What solution did the Lord voice through him?
In the middle of this chapter Micah says:
Micah 3:8 – “But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, And of justice and might, To declare to Jacob his transgression And to Israel his sin.”
Micah is inspired to spontaneously bear witness to the power of the Spirit within himself. The prophet was infused with the power of the Spirit. Such anointing of individuals was how the Spirit worked in the Old Testament. But at Pentecost the empowerment of the Spirit was made available to all who repent of their sins and call on the name of the Lord.
The Minor Prophet Joel spoke of a time when the LORD would “Pour out My Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28-29). This was fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 1-2). Jesus insisted that those who serve Him experience the empowerment of the Holy Spirit so they could adequately and successfully and powerfully represent Him and serve Him. The ultimate objective is the Great Commission of making disciples, followers of Jesus. But along the way we expose deeds of darkness (Ephesians 5:11). That’s what disciples do when they are salt and light in this tasteless dark world (Matthew 5:13-16).
Religious alliances and associations are not enough. Jesus told the very religious and well educated Nicodemas that if he wanted to be right with God he needed to be “born again,” or “born of the Spirit. Just as we are physically born, we must be spiritually born (John 3:1-21). As mentioned above the Holy Spirit convicts or shows the sinner of their need of a Savior (John 16:8-11). When the sinner repents or turns from their sin trusting Jesus as Savior and receives the forgiveness of their sins, the Holy Spirit indwells them giving them spiritual life. The gracious work of redemption provided as a gift of His grace through Jesus, once received, is reason to rejoice and be thankful to God.
As we realize what God has done for us, we want to express our thanks in life. We want others, especially those we love, to experience what we’ve experienced. We want to serve the Lord. But we can’t do that with our own strength. Just as Micah didn’t serve the Lord in his own strength but in the power of the Spirit of the LORD, we too must serve in the power of the Spirit of the LORD. And since Pentecost, that is possible. God the Father is just waiting to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Luke 11:13). And if we are ever to resist government corruption, we will have to seek and receive from God the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We too must experience what Micah experienced. We too need to be able to say, “But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, and justice and might, to declare to Jacob [i.e., to corrupt government today] his transgression and to Israel [i.e., to our nation] his sin.”
One of the purposes of the empowerment of the Spirit in Micah was to present a contrast between these faithless leaders and himself. The politicians of Israel were unjust (3:1). They hated good but loved evil (3:2). They were mutilators (3:2b-3). They fed off people much the same as the abortion industry does today. Those who were in a position of spiritual influence led God’s people astray because of their own spiritual blindness. The people were deceived by “seers” and “diviners” or the occult (3:4-7). People were groping for eternal meaning in all the wrong places and charlatan hirelings were all too eager to profit from these seekers.
Micah goes on to say these leaders and the people were all corrupt (3:11). When they did call on God, they did so in duplicity and insincerity. They presumed they could always go to God as a last resort. But God who knows the heart would not be their patsy (3:4). All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, but it should be understood, such calling must be sincere with a truly repentant heart (Romans 10:8-13). All of this was because of their rejection of the Spirit of God. And only a Spirit empowered prophet could address the infested corruption. The same is true for us today.
Today we are more like Israel at her lowest of low points described as:
Judges 21:25 – “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Today, like then, “truth” is based on subjective feelings more than absolute truth. Society is shallow and serves only superficial desires, lusts. Concerning Micah 3:1-3 Pastor Chuck Smith stated:
What a tragic time for a nation, when the leaders, and the lawmakers of the nation, hate the good and love the evil! . . . A nation cannot exist or continue very long, once this happens, when . . . leadership becomes so corrupt that they hate the good and love the evil. I wonder just how far we are from that being applicable to our nation today, and the leadership of the nation. When I read of some of the laws that are being enacted, and some that are being proposed, it would appear that those that are in power hate the good, and love the evil. [2]
What makes these words even more concerning, is that they were said in 1982! Today our government promotes and legislates laws contrary not only to the protection of citizenry, but to sound reason and logic itself. The rule of the day is that there are no rules that can’t be broken. The seeming collective reason of our day is that there just isn’t any reason. Reason is any afterthought if it is thought of at all.
Is It Too Late?
Micah 3:4 – “Then they will cry to the Lord, But He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, Because they have been evil in their deeds.”
Micah 3:4 is a scary verse. Why is it scary? Because it says that it is possible to proceed in transgression to a point where God will no longer listen to your cry, it will be too late. There are people who proceed in their transgressions with the strategy that they will call on the LORD when they see death coming. The same can be said of nations, their governments, and their politicians. People play a dangerous game of presumption.
The presumption game is one where a person lives godlessly. They have no care or concern for God, His law, holy living, knowing Him, pleasing Him, nothing. They live as though they are their own god. They break all the rules. They narcissistically abuse those around them for their own selfish purposes. Then, in the end, just in case it’s true, they call out to “God” for one last selfish act. Living like that will lead to a rude awakening. Micah tells us here that a time can come where God will not listen.
That is true for us personally as individuals. But it is also true for us as a nation. There is a time when the sun sets on the opportunity to be saved. Don’t let that sun set on you (3:6). Don’t let the sun set on our nation. Seek the LORD. Seek the power of the Spirit of the LORD. Seek the Spirit for yourself. Seek the Spirit for sinners around you. Seek the Spirit for our nation.
Is it too late for us? Thankfully, in the closing verses of the book of Micah we receive hopeful words from the LORD through this prophet. “Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy.” (Micah 7:18). If it weren’t for those words, we would have no hope. But we do have those words! Wonderful words! A Wonderful promise from the LORD. These words are the climactic message from the prophet who was empowered by the Spirit of the LORD. We should adopt and own those words too. We should take them to heart.
The power of the Spirit of the LORD is against government corruption. The power of the LORD is against corruption, period. Have you heard what the Holy Spirit said through the prophet Micah? What are you going to do about the message of Micah? Be thankful that there is no God like our God. Be thankful and then seek Him about what He desires to do in and through you. Join me in praying: Oh LORD, put in us the power of the Spirit of the LORD. For the sake of our nation. For the sake of lost sinners. For us. Make us what we need to be, so we can do what you call us to do, for Your glory, until Jesus returns. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
[1]W.E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger and William White, Vine’s complete expository dictionary of Old and New Testament words [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1996.
[2] Chuck Smith, Word For Today (P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, CA 92628) Audiotape #7360.