Micah 2:8-9
Lately my people have risen up
like an enemy.
You strip off the rich robe
from those who pass by without a care,
like men returning from battle.
9 You drive the women of my people
from their pleasant homes.
You take away my blessing
from their children for ever.
Here’s another one of the shocking statements that we’re coming to expect in this book. God describes his people as ‘like an enemy’. And so he is going to treat them like enemies, driving them from their homes and taking away the blessings that come from being his people. Why would he do such a thing? Has he suddenly decided to turn his back on his promises to them? Of course not. The coming judgement may be God’s doing, as we saw back in Chapter 1. But it’s not his initiative. Verse 8 is clear - it is the people who have ‘risen up’. They are not innocent victims. They have brought this ruin on themselves. They are, as the saying goes, their own worst enemies. But why? It seems so self-defeating! Don’t they know that living as God’s people is vastly better in every possible respect than living as his enemies? Haven’t they paid any attention to the centuries of Bible story that have gone before, where the blessings of covenant relationship, and the hopelessness of life apart from Yahweh, have been vividly illustrated?
But we are just the same. We have that same history to read, plus the example of Micah’s generation, and the exile that followed. We can’t claim ignorance of the consequences of failing to live the way God calls us to. Yet the perverse nature of sin is that it is never, ever truly good for us and we still chase after it. Sometimes we’re unaware of the consequences to come, but sometimes we KNOW, deep down, that what we’re doing is a very bad idea but we do it anyway. It's just so foolish. We're just like the Israelites. Our hands are full of all the rich treasures that God graciously gives us, and we’re so quick to throw them out of the window, so that we can grab hold of a cheap, tarnished imitation instead. We rob ourselves of God’s blessings - not to mention stealing from our children, and from all those who watch what we’re doing and decide to follow in our footsteps.
So today, let’s admit our foolishness to God, asking for his forgiveness and for his help to increasingly choose the blessings of obedience in place of the destructiveness of sin.
