In the opening verses of Micah’s prophecy we find that God’s people are in trouble again. The covenant between God and His people was being broken because the sins of their rebellion were once again before God’s eyes as He watched His people defiling the temple with false gods and idol worship. As we read this powerful book of God’s love for His people and we hear the plight of the Israelites who have once again turned their back on the living God and it can be depressing. Depressing because it seems like nothing will ever change and God’s people will always be walking in the darkness and evil of this world. We wonder if there will ever be a time when God’s people will stop abandoning their covenant relationship and worship of the Lord. We read this warning and we look around the world and wonder if there will ever be a time when we can find peace in the world.

When we are trying to find peace through the reading of God’s Word found in the Bible and we come to the truth found in Micah’s prophecy we might have a hard time finding comfort at first. We might have difficulty finding peace in the opening chapters of his book because Micah reminds us that God takes sin very seriously and if we chose not to listen to God’s warnings, if we chose not to repent, if we chose not to turn back to His heart, He will allow us to feel the pain of being exiled from His heart.

However, God’s love for us is always stronger and more powerful than His hatred of sin. God’s love for us always conquers and covers our broken rebellion because God is a faithful God who keeps His promises of the Covenant relationship between our hearts and His even when we don’t/can’t. So, we turn to Micah chapter 5 and we read of the promised Messiah – our Jesus – our Immanuel God who is with us always and we find hope. We find hope in the foretelling of the Christmas miracle when Jesus was born through the love of God who sent Him to be the hope and peace of the world. As we experience pain and chaos in this world let us look to Jesus who is the Prince of Peace. Let us cling to Jesus, the Lamb of God who was sent to take away the sins of the world. Let us place our hope and find our peace in Jesus, God’s plan for our forgiveness and redemption who will come again to save us from sin.