Micah 6:9-7:7

God is calling the people to repentance.  What must take place for this Israel to experience true repentance and not just an external transformation?  Pay attention as we continue in Micah because the answer is true to the rest of Scripture.

God has called them to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God (6:8).  For this to happen Israel must reckon with what is currently happening in their nation. 

·        6:9-12: What God sees is injustice, like the proverbial finger on the scales.  People are getting a short measure from those whose measuring weights are deceitful.

·        6:13-16:  Therefore, as we saw in Micah 1, the law of the harvest is in operation.  Those who oppress will find that they will not get what they hoped for, what they expected they should get.  They will sow but not reap; the olives will be on the tree but they will not benefit from the oil; the grapes are on the vine but they will not drink the sweet wine.  The reference in v16 is to the time of Omri and Ahab (father and son), kings in the Northern Kingdom, when the worship of Baal became commonplace (1 Ki. 16:25-26; 21:25-26).

How should those who wish to repent respond to this?  Paul said, For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death (2 Cor. 7:10).  In Micah 7:1-7 we see godly sorrow.

·        7:1: The prophet says, woe is me.  In this he speaks for the LORD and thus as all who desire to repent.

·        7:2: The sin is prevailing and the godly feel it deeply. The faithful man has perished from the earth!

·        7:3-4: It is evident among the rulers.  The best of them, the upright, those who seem to be righteous are flawed.

·        7:5-6: You can’t trust anyone, your friends, your family, even your closest family members.  Micah 7:6 is quotes in Matt. 10:36 of Christ.  The situation in Micah’s day would be the situation in the days of the Incarnation.

·        7:7: In the end ONLY God could be trusted.  This is the only hope for Micah.

This is godly sorrow, when we are brought to the place where the only One to whom we can look to is the LORD.  This is not someone who is just depressed or who is critical, who can’t see the good in humanity, who is just full of negativity.  This is someone who sees accurately.  They see what God sees.

Let us ask God to give us this same honesty, not only about our society but even more, about what we see in our own hearts and lives.  The sorrow of the world leads to death; it doesn’t lead us to what is good (Micah 6:8).