Micah 7:1-2a
1 What misery is mine!
I am like one who gathers summer fruit
at the gleaning of the vineyard;
there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
none of the early figs that I crave.
2 The faithful have been swept from the land;
not one upright person remains.
Although we’re reading a book called Micah, there’s very little of Micah in it. Because he is a prophet, the spotlight is not on himself, it’s on his Lord. Most of the book is rightly taken up with what God has to say. But just occasionally we do get a glimpse of Micah himself. One of those was back in Chapter 1, when Micah responded personally to the destruction that he has been told is coming, saying. “I will weep and wail”. And here in Chapter 7 we see something similar. “What misery is mine!” he says. Micah is not just the postman delivering a message from God to the people, which has no personal significance for him. The land is his land. The people are his people. His country’s rebellion against his God troubles him.
In today’s verses, and again tomorrow, we get to see Micah responding personally to the message he has been given.He’s miserable. And he is right to feel that way. The faithful have gone from the land, none are left. Israel in the Old Testament is sometimes likened to a vineyard, but right now there’s not a single grape to be seen. We’re right back in the depths, as we have been often in this book. And Micah doesn’t hide from that. He faces up to the reality of the situation and laments before God. There’s no putting a brave face on it. He doesn’t have to pretend to be happier than he is. Because he knows that God has a plan that extends beyond what he can see right now, he can afford to face up to the harsh reality of the present.
A believer living in a broken world is always going to be miserable, to some degree, because the world isn’t the way it was meant to be. When we’re prepared to look honestly at how life is there is always something to mourn over, whether it’s the pain of suffering or the ugliness of our own sin. Even when our circumstances are good, the world at large is still living out its opposition to God. The lack of good fruit and right worship in the word God has made will be a cause for lament every day until Jesus returns. So let’s not require ourselves, or each other, to pretend that we’re only ever happy, smiling people. Instead, let’s thank God that he invites us to come to him with our laments as well as our joys. And let’s ask for his help to learn how to lament well - expressing our pain honestly to him without losing sight of his goodness and care for us.
