Micah 4:11-13
11 But now many nations
are gathered against you.
They say, ‘Let her be defiled,
let our eyes gloat over Zion!’
12 But they do not know
the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing-floor.
13 ‘Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion,
for I will give you horns of iron;
I will give you hooves of bronze,
and you will break to pieces many nations.’
You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the Lord,
their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
For the past few days we’ve been enjoying a look ahead to the glorious future that awaits those who trust in the Lord. But now Micah brings us back down to earth, to the danger that currently surrounds the people of his day. One day they will be totally secure .‘But now many nations are gathered’ against them. The situation itself hasn’t changed. But now the people have a different perspective. There’s a clear contrast between what they know and what their enemies know, because the enemies ‘do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan.’ Their enemies, primarily Assyria who is poised to invade, can only see what is visible to the human eye. They can see their own military strength and Israel’s weakness. They can’t see what only the eyes of faith can see. They can’t see God’s loving commitment to his people. They can’t see God’s unbreakable faithfulness to his promises. They can’t see the power and might of the creator and sustainer of all things. They can’t see that - in comparison to the Almighty - despite all their armies and achievements, they are as insubstantial as corn being gathered at harvest time.
It’s the same today. The world looks very different depending on whose eyes you see it through. For the person who doesn’t know Jesus, reality is all about the here and now, the material things that we can touch and own. But for the Christian, there is so much more to see. We see the plans of our heavenly Father. We see that he has chosen us and called us and saved us and is taking us to a far more real, solid, lasting home with him than anything we could experience in this world. Let’s thank him for that today, and let’s pray that he would help us to keep looking with the eyes of faith, when the hard things of this life threaten to take our focus off the future that he has prepared for us.
