Priorities

 

READ Micah 1–4

Like the other prophets, Micah’s message contains both warnings and hope. He denounces sin in the lives of God’s people yet tells of a coming day when there would be peace among all nations. While he brings both good news and bad, I find his words and language less plain than most of the other OT minor prophets. However, these words are blunt and severe:

Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.” Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height. (Micah 3:9–12)

God is exposing their greed and their love of money. Financial gain has become more important than justice, spiritual instruction, and honest seeking of God’s will. These leaders claim to be protected by the LORD, but Micah tells them their fate. Yet he also offers hope, not for the near future but for the ‘latter days’ that most understand to be a future time when the current way of life will come to an end:

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. (4:1–4)

This is not utopia but at least much better than their sinfulness at that time, and the life they will soon experience in exile. In those ‘latter days’ they will return to the Lord and, as the phrase about sitting under their tree indicates, each will study the word of God. Micah says, “For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.” (4:5)

The exile will happen, and the people will be dismayed, not realizing God’s purpose for it. Those who take them into captivity will be oblivious to God’s plan also:

Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, “Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.” But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth. (4:11–13)

It seems that the way God works is often a mystery to us as well. Christians are being “gathered as sheaves to the threshing floor” and this seems a terrible thing, yet in the process, the people of God are being made stronger. Our victories do not make the evening news, yet thousands are “sitting under their tree” learning the will of God and becoming fearless in the face of persecution and deadly threats. Greed is being changed to generosity as God’s people realize time is short and our bank accounts  and possessions will not pass the tests nor go into eternity with us.

For me, simply purging the excess seems wise — in contrast to my earlier days of accumulating stuff, more stuff than a person needs. I’m also motivated to giving, not hanging on to possessions and funds that God graciously provides.

We are in those ‘latter days’ and Jesus has proven His promise:

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31–33)

The ‘exile’ of Covid, the power of God’s Word, and the grace of God makes His priorities clear: seek Jesus, seek to be like Jesus. Don’t be concerned about this life and its stuff. Instead, devote all that I am and have to Him and His kingdom.