Micah 7:2b-4a
Everyone lies in wait to shed blood;
they hunt each other with nets.
3 Both hands are skilled in doing evil;
the ruler demands gifts,
the judge accepts bribes,
the powerful dictate what they desire –
they all conspire together.
4 The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.
Today’s verses continue the theme of yesterday’s. Micah looks around him at the state of the nation and sees only evil and violence. It’s a depressing picture of any nation but it’s so much worse when you remember that this is a place where God is supposed to be worshipped, and his goodness and righteousness reflected in the behaviour of his people.
It would be easy to read these verses in isolation and think that the situation was hopeless. After all, God has spoken through Micah, warning of judgment to come and yet it appears that no-one’s listening. Everything looks much the same as it did in Chapter 1. Perhaps we sometimes feel the same. The world around us looks like it’s going from bad to worse. Evil goes unchecked. People we love steadfastly refuse to pay attention to Jesus. We might even despair of the state of our own hearts - we want to grow in godliness but sometimes we wonder if we’re any different to the say when we first believed. Why doesn’t God DO something?! But, of course, we’re only looking at a couple of verses out of a whole book. We need to take a step back and see the bigger picture. God IS doing something. For a start, he is speaking, addressing the people so that those who choose to listen have time to repent. And he is sending Assyria to act as his agent. And he has promised a greater salvation that will follow the exile. Micah might not have been able to see those things immediately in front of him. But he knows that they are real, as we’ll see over the next couple of days.
So when we feel overwhelmed by the evil around us, and the sin that remains inside us, let’s look up and remember that this isn’t the whole story. God is at work. He is always busy speaking, acting, keeping his promises and rescuing his people. So let’s pray today that he would help us to keep remembering that, whatever is going on around us.
