Micah chapter 1

Micah was just a countryman who lived in a small village in Judea, about 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem near Gath. He prophesied during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, at the same time that Isaiah was a prominent prophet in Jerusalem. He exposed the sins of both the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and boldly proclaimed the destruction of Israel (1:6-7), as well as of Jerusalem and the Temple (3:12). He also foretold Judah's restoration.

In this first chapter, Micah is telling the people that the judgement of God is at hand, to prepare themselves for the worst, because it is about to happen. I wonder how many actually listened to him? I'm sure I remember Ahaz telling another king that Micah never prophesied anything good about him, and you can understand why he had that opinion from just reading a few verses.

But the one thing that struck me was in verse 9, which in the NLT is translated as "For my people's wound is too deep to heal. It has reached into Judah, even to the gates of Jerusalem."

The sins of the people were so bad, so ingrained, so much a part of their nature, that the people of Samaria were incurable. Their sins had proved to be a mortal blow to their bodies. They had reached the stage that even though Micah was telling them what was going to happen, they would not, could not, change their ways. Their hearts had become so hardened, that they refused to even consider that Micah might be right, that he might be telling them a message from God, rather than just giving his rather forceful opinion on their lifestyle.

Look around today, and exactly the same things are going on now in the world as there were in the time of Micah, Isaiah and the other prophets. Man has a tendency to sin, and the world today is such a truly evil and wicked place. There are stories in the newspapers, on the radio and television, of murder, rape, crimes, child abuse, extreme poverty, famine, floods, earthquakes. Drugs are readily available on street corners (mind you, if you were to ask me to go get some, I wouldn't have a clue where to start). People are hungry for God yet are looking in all the wrong places - sex, drugs, work, tarot cards, spiritualism, witchcraft, Buddha, New age religions, Islam, and so on. The world is hurting, the people and the lands are crying out, yet many have hardened their hearts. They have deliberately turned their backs on God and ignored Him, gone their own ways to such an extent that like the people of Samaria, their wounds are too deep to heal.

And it is progressing throughout the world, like an infectious disease. As crime, poverty, and other things become more and more common place, we close our ears, we accept it as a way of life and disregard it, switching off the news, doing something else to avoid having to face the reality that God is missing in so many people's lives. Political correctness is commonplace, you cannot stand and say what you believe in, say something is wrong without being categorised as prejudiced, and the church has accepted all this. It was a gradual process taking many years, but now, the church seems to have no backbone, trying to appease everyone, to keep the peace and avoid giving offence to anyone.

We need to turn our hearts back to God, to repent of our sins, because we are all guilty even if it is the sin of omission, of not standing up and saying something.