Heading the wrong direction: the anatomy of sin.
The book of Micah begins with a trial of sorts. The sovereign Lord is coming from his holy temple to act as a witness against the people of Samaria and Jerusalem. Micah 1:2 (NIV) says, "Hear, O peoples, all of you, listen, O earth and all who are in it, that the Sovereign Lord may witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple." Nothing had escaped the Lord's notice. He had seen their many sins, including their acts of idolatry, their graven images, their exploitation of women, their greed, and countless other transgressions. Though they thought otherwise, nothing had been hidden from God’s sight.
Micah 1:3-5 (NIV) continues, "Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down and treads the high places of the earth. The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope. All this is because of Jacob’s transgression, because of the sins of the house of Israel." God’s people had been anything but holy and now God was calling them to account for their actions. Their land was about to, "melt like wax before a fire." God was poised to level their corrupted cities, break their idols to pieces, destroy their graven images, and engulf their temple gifts in fire. Their whole life and their worship was all a charade and God could see right through it.
But in Micah’s courtroom, the sovereign Lord is no ordinary witness. As the Lord lays out the case against Samaria and Jerusalem, he begins weeping. Actually, Micah is quite explicit about this. He says that the Lord begins weeping and wailing. We all know what it means to weep. But wailing isn’t something we see everyday. Wailing is a loud, inarticulate cry, like what you’d hear from mourners in a funeral procession. It sounds like howling. Wailing is a gut-wrenching cry of deep distress. It’s a cry that wells up from the depths of one’s soul.
In this case you would expect the defendant to be weeping and wailing, not the witness. After all, the defendant is the one who is going to pay the price for his sins. But in Micah it’s the witness who is most grieved. It’s the witness, the sovereign Lord, who most fully grasps the magnitude of the defendant’s sins! In Micah 1:8-9 (NIV) God says, "Because of this I will weep and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl. For her wound is incurable; it has come to Judah. It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself."
These verses in Micah reminded me of the days of Noah in Genesis 6:5-6 (NIV) which says, "The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain." In all of our frivolity, we forget that our sins offend God’s holy nature and fill his heart with immeasurable pain. From the depths of his soul, God weeps and wails when we sin.
Let me say this differently. God isn’t callous and indifferent. God isn’t filled with hatred. He doesn’t spew judgement out recklessly, as if lacking self-control. He doesn't take pleasure in doling out discipline. Ezekiel 33:11 (NIV) says, " 'As surely as I live', declares the Sovereign LORD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?' "
The prophet Micah has far more to say than we could ever consider on one Sunday. Allow me to hit a few highlights and to fuel some healthy self-examination. In your outline there is a section called "The Anatomy of Sin." Let’s take a few moments and flesh out the Lord’s testimony against Israel. Please take careful notes.
The anatomy of sin- taking steps in the wrong direction.
Obviously, the people of Israel had desensitized hearts. In Micah 1:8-9 we find the sovereign Lord weeping and wailing.Apparently, Israel is unmoved. They are unmoved even at the thought of their own children going into captivity. In Micah 1:16 (NIV) God tells the various cities, "Shave your heads in mourning for the children in whom you delight; make yourselves as bald as the vulture, for they will go from you into exile."
The first step in the wrong direction:a desensitized heart.
You can think of a desensitized heart as a first step toward disaster. A desensitized heart is a heart that no longer grieves with God. A heart that no longer shows remorse for sin. The first time you commit a sin, your body is physically filled with anxiety and stress. You have this sinking feeling in your stomach. Your conscience is stricken. Your mind is filled with regret. You have this profound awareness of God’s disapproval.
But then you sin again, a second time and a third time, and each time a part of you dies until that sin is woven into the fabric of your character. A desensitized heart shrugs off sin saying, "It’s no big deal, my sin doesn’t hurt anyone." A desensitized heart is just the beginning. Soon, Israel was flaunting her freedom.
The second step in the wrong direction: flaunting your freedom.
In Malachi 2:1-2 (NIV) God says, "Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance." Notice the Israelite’s justification for sin in Malachi 2:1. Why do they steal? Why do they take advantage of others? Why are they dishonest? Why do they do that evil thing? "Because it is in their power to do it."
The height of arrogance is sinning just because you can, because it’s in your power to do so. "I’m a big kid. I’m an adult. I can handle it." We reason all these things wrongly. So we say what we want to say. We do what we want to do. We see what we want to see. We go where we want to go. And we do so without any sensitivity to God. It’s more than irresponsible! Galatians 5:13 (NIV) says, "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love." It’s a short trip from a desensitized heart to flaunting our freedom before a holy God. When is the last time your flaunted your freedom before God?
The third step in the wrong direction:suppressing the truth.
Soon it wasn’t enough for Israel to flaunt her freedom. In order to justify her sins, Israelhad to suppress the truth. They had to quiet the voice of God. In Micah 2:6-11 (NIV) you’ll notice how Israel surrounded herself with false prophets. The false prophets counteracted the true prophets of God, prophets like Micah. They would dismiss any notion of God being angry, or wailing, or sending judgment.
Micah 2:6-11 (NIV) says, "Do not prophesy, their prophets say. 'Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us. Should it be said, O house of Jacob: Is the Spirit of the LORD angry? Does he do such things? Do not my words do good to him whose ways are upright? Lately my people have risen up like an enemy. You strip off the rich robe from those who pass by without a care, like men returning from battle. You drive the women of my people from their pleasant homes. You take away my blessing from their children forever. Get up, go away! For this is not your resting place, because it is defiled,it is ruined, beyond all remedy. If a liar and deceiver comes and says, 'I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,' he would be just the prophet for this people!"
In this passage the false prophets tell Micah, "Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us." "Is the Spirit of the Lord angry? Does he do such things?" Micah chides the Israelites, "If a liar and deceiver comes and says, 'I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,' he would be just the prophet for this people!" In other words, the Israelites want their prophets to only prophesy the things they want to hear.
One of the ways we cope with sin is by quieting the voices of correction around us, just as the people of Israel quieted their prophets.Here is the pattern. We stop praying to God. We stop reading our Bibles. We stop going to Bible studies and stop hanging out with godly people who may question our actions. We begin moving from church to church, never staying at any one place long enough to be known. We never become accountable, never having to truly change. Or we stop going to church altogether.
Instead we surround ourselves with voices of confirmation. We surround ourselves with people who understand our sins, who refuse to call out our sins for what they are. People who soothe us with false assurances of cheap grace. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NIV) says, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
The final step in the wrong direction: hating good and loving evil.
In Micah 3:2 (NIV) Israel reaches a really dark point. They hated good and loved evil. What more needs to be said than that? In Micah 3:1-3 (NIV) God addresses the leaders of Israel, likening them to depraved cannibals! "Should you not know justice, you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones; who eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?"
Let’s reconsider Galatians 5:13-15 (NIV). "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other." As you consider the path the Israelites were on, is there any resemblance between their path and the path toward sin that you find yourself travelling this morning?
Turning around- the discipline of pursuing a better path.
In Micah there is a shift in thought as God speaks of his people one day pursuing a better path. One day they would pursue a path of respecting God, in his majesty and holiness. One day they would pursue a path of hearing God and being taught his ways fully.
The first discipline:respecting God.
In Micah 4:1 (NIV) we read, "In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it."
The second discipline:hearing God.
Micah 4:2 (NIV) continues, "Many nations will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths."
The third discipline:obeying God.
One day, they would obey God’s commands and would surrender to his rule! Micah 4:7 (NIV) says, "…The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever."
The fourth discipline:living for God.
One day, they would begin living for God fully, loving good and hating evil. Micah 6:8 (NIV) says, "He has showed you, O Man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Use the four disciplines to turn your life back toward God.
God’s plan was to turn his people around. He wanted to turn them away from walking down a path that led to destruction and turn them toware walking the path of life. Instead of being desensitized to God, they would again respect God and fear him. Instead of flaunting their freedom, they would hear God and be taught his ways. Instead of suppressing the truth, they would obey the truth and surrender to God’s rule. Instead of hating good and loving evil, they would live for God and walk humbly with God.
God's ultimate solution.
This complete transformation would not be the result of sheer willpower. God’s ultimate solution for the people of Israel was to send his Son Jesus Christ into the world. Israel wouldn’t be able to find her way back to God on her own. In Micah 5:2-5, God promises to raise up a shepherd who would guide them. In the New Testament we discover that the shepherd God sends us is Jesus Christ. Micah 5:2-5 (NIV) says, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace."
Christ's ultimate sacrifice.
In Micah 6:6-7 we have a foreshadowing of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice for sin. No matter how hard Israel might try, she would never be able to overturn her guilty verdict or offer a offer a sacrifice sufficient to atone for her sins. Micah 6:6-7 (NIV) says, "With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" God’s one and only son would become the sacrifice that forever satisfies God’s justice. Through Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ alone, Israel would experience ultimate deliverance.
Israel's ultimate deliverance.
Micah 7:9 describes how Israel would see God’s righteousness and be reestablished in the blessings of God. Micah 7:9 (NIV) says, "Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the Lord’s wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness." Jesus Christ would become the key to the spiritual reformation God desired of his people.
Who is a God like this?
Interestingly, Micah's name means "who is like Yahweh?" As Micah contemplates the coming Christ, he marvels over God’s goodness. In Micah 7:18-20 (NIV) he asks, "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago."
Just as God promised forgiveness to the Israelites, he promises forgiveness to us today. We can trust that what the prophets said was true and that the scriptures speak the true intent of God. 2 Peter 1:19-21 (NIV) says, "And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."