Daily Blast - Minor Prophets: Day 17
Scripture
““Someday, O Israel, I will gather you;
I will gather the remnant who are left.
I will bring you together again like sheep in a pen,
like a flock in its pasture.
Yes, your land will again
be filled with noisy crowds!
13 Your leader will break out
and lead you out of exile,
out through the gates of the enemy cities,
back to your own land.
Your king will lead you;
the Lord himself will guide you.””
Reflection
The book of Micah is similar to a lot of the other prophets we have been looking at. Micah has been sent to speak on God’s behalf to the people of Israel to deliver a warning about how they are choosing to live. Chapter 1 and the majority of 2 are the accusations Micah makes of the people, leaders, and prophets and how they are living against God’s will.
Micah 2 v 2 says “when you want a piece of land, you find a way to seize it. when you want someone’s house, you take it by fraud and violence. You cheat a man of his property, stealing his family’s inheritance”. Micah is accusing the leaders of Israel of using their power and position to make themselves rich through theft and greed. This is just one example he gives and because of all this corruption and abuse of power God withdraws His protection over Israel.
However, in a similar way to other prophets, Micah also brings a few verses of hope for the future. He describes how God will gather His flock and bring them back to their pastures, and how He will send a leader to bring them out of exile and captivity, leading them back to their own land. Micah 2 v 12 and 13.
This section is again outlining how God is a loving parent. He has to punish for the good of the people in the long run, the judgement God shows Micah might seem harsh and nasty, but we have to remember that God does not punish for the fun of it. Everything He does is for a reason and the punishment He showed Micah was appropriate to teach the Israelites as a nation that what they were doing was wrong.
Challenge
I would like to encourage you all to take some time this week to communicate with Jesus about whether there might be something standing in the way of your relationship with Him, and how you can remove this obstacle. It could be something that has started since lockdown. I know that isolation has opened up time in my day, but I am having to intentionally set time aside for Jesus, to worship/pray/whatever it is, otherwise my day will become “too busy” or I will “run out of time”. With all this extra time it is a great opportunity to grow in your relationship with Jesus, try not to put other things first as the Israelites had with money and greed!