#DailyDevotion The False Prophets In Micah’s Time Are With Us Today
Micah 2 6“Men shouldn’t preach about such things. And the insults don’t stop.” 7People of Jacob, if you ask, “Is the LORD impatient? Are these the kind of things He does?” “Are not His words kind to those who live right?
It’s like Micah is living in our days. I cannot tell you how many people have told me on the internet, “I can’t believe you are a pastor,” because I have held fast to the Christian faith handed down to us from the apostles. I have been told I am unloving and unkind since I have proclaimed the law of God as it has been given to me. My bones, my body and my mouth force me to cry out when I’d rather remain silent.
Micah cannot help but preach and proclaim what was given to him. What are the things the people here, probably the false prophets, are saying he shouldn’t preach about? What insults keep coming from his lips? That would be Micah’s preaching the judgment and wrath of the LORD coming upon His people because of their sins. He preached against their idolatry in chapter 1. Here in chapter 2 he has been preaching against their wickedness. So far he has preached against their covetousness. This has raised the hackles of the people and the false prophets who preach to them. They are the ancient antinomians. They know only of God’s promises but they refuse to look at the law of God and preach that.
So we can see by the questions they are focused solely on the name of the LORD in Ex. 34:6. They point only to the patience, long-suffering and kindness of the LORD. They seem to forget the rest of what the LORD had given them there, “but disciplining children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their fathers.” They seemed to have forgotten the curses they LORD had them proclaim in Deuteronomy and the song of Moses. Everything is nothing but roses for them.
We have the same thing happening to us in our day. “Love is love,” they say. All that matters is love for them. But their love is not the love the LORD speaks about as it does not warn the wicked of the coming judgment. The only word of the LORD they know as law is, “Do not judge,” for anyone who tries to correct them with the admonitions of the LORD. They, like the Israelites here, are using the “positive” aspects of the LORD as a cover for their sin, and not in the manner the LORD Jesus would have our sins be covered by Him. No, they do not confess their sins as sin. They proclaim their darkness is light and they are on God’s side. But God is not on their side and their light is truly darkness.
So the last question here is supposedly the LORD responding to their questions. He speaks kindness to those who live right. The first step in living right is confessing our sin and our sinfulness. It is to have a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. The first steps of living right it to be a smoldering wick or a bruised reed. Then the kindness of the LORD Jesus Christ can be spoken to them.Then He covers us with His blood and righteousness. Then He gives us His Holy Spirit that we would live according to His holy will. If we are using the LORD’s forgiveness, kindness, patience and the like to cover our sins so we may continue in them, we will find ourselves on the side of the LORD’s alien work which is wrath, judgment and condemnation. If these cause us to repent of our sins all the more, then we will know these things in abundance.
Merciful, kind, long-suffering and forgiving Father, for the sake of Jesus give us hearts that repent of our sin, trust in Christ’s merits, and do Your will. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.