The Daily Fountain Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 13 October 2023 – God’s Righteous Judgement
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TOPIC: God’s Righteous Judgement
READ: Micah 1:1-10 (NKJV)
- The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
- Hear, all you peoples! Listen, O earth, and all that is in it! Let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, The Lord from His holy temple.
- For behold, the LORD is coming out of His place; He will come down And tread on the high places of the earth.
- The mountains will melt under Him, And the valleys will split Like wax before the fire, Like waters poured down a steep place.
- All this is for the transgression of Jacob And for the sins of the house of Israel. What [is] the transgression of Jacob? [Is it] not Samaria? And what [are] the high places of Judah? [Are they] not Jerusalem?
- “Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, Places for planting a vineyard; I will pour down her stones into the valley, And I will uncover her foundations.
- All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, And all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire; All her idols I will lay desolate, For she gathered [it] from the pay of a harlot, And they shall return to the pay of a harlot.”
- Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals And a mourning like the ostriches,
- For her wounds [are] incurable. For it has come to Judah; It has come to the gate of My people — To Jerusalem.
- Tell [it] not in Gath, Weep not at all; In Beth Aphrah Roll yourself in the dust.
THE MESSAGE:
Micah’s prophecy spanned the reigns of three kings in Judah: King Jotham -739-731 BC; King Ahaz-731-715 BC and King Hezekiah-715-686 BC. In our text today, we see the prophets prophesied against Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. God would come to execute His righteous judgment on Israel because of “the rebellion of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel” (verse 5). Israel’s sins of idolatry and immorality were making them lose their identity as the people of God, and thus God had to purify them through captivity in order to restore them to faith in Him.
Are we any different from the situation prevalent during Micah’s time? Have those of us named after the Lord not jumped ship and followed after the ways of the world? Today’s idolatry has moved upscale; it has improved upon the ancient carvings of woods and stones, to bowing down to the world’s possessions and lusts, and of course the “lusts”take the place of God! God’s righteous judgment is set to come upon this world and recent events point rather dangerously to the fact that we are closer to the doomsday than we can imagine. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). The only escape route is to confess and repent of your sins. Believe the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. Samaria and Jerusalem were destroyed in their sins because they failed to repent; why should you be destroyed in your sins?
PRAYER: Father Lord, look mercifully upon this generation, bring us to total submission to Your will, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
