Micah 7:1-20

Philemon 1-25

Micah 6:1-16

Micah 4:1-13

Micah 3:1-12

After addressing all the people (chapter 1:2), Micah now directs his words to the leaders of the people.  God provides leaders for his people to bring blessing and flourishing, but we see today how sin has entered into the civic and spiritual leadership through their unjust abuse of those under their care, even bragging about their righteousness as they received bribes.  As a result, Yahweh promises to bring his severe judgment upon them.  May we who are in Christ guard ourselves against abusing positions of authority in which we find ourselves, and speak out in defense of those whom society treats as commodities rather than bearers of the imago Dei.  Thanks be to God that, for those who are in Christ, God’s just judgment upon our sin has already been completely satisfied at the cross.

2 Timothy 4:1-8

Life and ministry are, by definition, full of challenges.  It’s important for us to lay a firm foundation on the facts, the propositional truth, of the gospel before moving to obedience to the call to be faithful in ministry.  Even as every member of the body is called in general to be at work building up Christ’s Church, so we each bring unique gifts with our individual call to faithfulness.  While our service in the body springs from an overflow of gratitude for what our Savior had done for us, nonetheless we do look forward the rewards we will enjoy as his appearing.

Micah 2:1-13

An orthopedic surgeon has to inflict additional controlled surgical trauma as he operates in order to allow true healing.  Similarly, our heavenly Father knows that we his children need to experience spiritual affliction to lead us to repentance, as we hear today in Micah’s preaching.  May we not hold wickedness in high regard and with itching ears seek out words of false comfort.   Rather, may we allow the preaching of God’s Word to offend us where we need to be corrected, with the goal of being once again assembled, gathered and set together under the covenant rule and reign of King Jesus.

Micah 1:1-16

God’s covenant people were stuck in a rut of their own making, having created their own institutions and religious practices rather than keeping their hearts focused on the living God.  In many ways, we today are also prone to do the same.  Yet Yahweh is the Lord of all creation and he will not not share his glory with created things, but will shake the whole earth.  Our appropriate response to this judgment is to wail and lament over our sin and pride, in humility and mourning.  This requires that our gaze remains fixed not on ourselves but upon the glory of our holy God, as we await the consummation of our redemption in Christ.

Obadiah 15-21

Mountains have a way of putting things in perspective, both our smallness and God’s majesty.  In today’s tale of two mountains, we are reminded of Mt. Gerazim and Mt. Ebal (Deut 27-30), of blessing and cursing, of life and death, of good and evil.  Although Yahweh still disciplines his children in order to refine us, and there may be seasons in life when it appears that evil is winning, we must become more confident in who our God is than in where he has placed us.  No longer confined to a single geographic area on earth, the “place-iness” of God’s covenant promises is now in the person of Christ, who is uniting his children from every tribe, tongue and nation.

Obadiah 1:2-14

In the Old Testament, the principle of reciprocal justice (lex talionis), exacted an eye for an eye and stripe for stripe.  In today’s text, the prophet comforts the people of Israel in their suffering in exile with the assurance that Yahweh will expose Edom as his enemies at the points of pride in their military, economic strength and wisdom.  Edom’s sins of omission, failing to come to the aid of their brothers, escalated to sins of commission through standing in the way of their brother Jacob.  May we examine our own hearts to repent of our own sins and learn to trust in the Creator rather than created things.  According to God’s perfect justice, we who are in Christ will escape his judgment and, by the stripes of the punishment for our sins laid upon Christ, we are healed.