Passage Read: Micah 5 - Nahum 1
Meditation Verses: Micah 7:9-10
Thought
Jesus quotes from this passage, just a few verses earlier, to describe the days in which His apostles will preach the Gospel of the kingdom. God is speaking about Israel and the judgment coming her way, but He is also speaking about our latter days. The godly have perished from the land, children will dishonor parents and rise up against them. Even a man's own wife cannot be trusted. Micah knows he is not perfect; he deserves and accepts the Lord's discipline, with confidence that the Lord will forgive and restore and deliver him because he doesn't merely trust in the Lord but seeks to learn from the discipline and conform himself to the ways of the Lord. He knows one day the Lord will justify him and honor him for his faithful though imperfect service. Then all his enemies who mocked him and attacked him and ridiculed and rejected him, they will see the Lord's deliverance and exaltation of him and be ashamed. They will be ashamed because he was right and they were wrong! He is beloved and they are cast out. Not merely cast out, but trampled down in the mire. They will be destroyed, even she who like Job's wife said, "Where is your God?" He will see her downfall and apparently have no grief.
Application
It sounds as if Micah's own wife became or always was his enemy, harassing him as he served the Lord, belittling him, cutting him down, continually reminding him of his failures and imperfections, unable to see his righteousness, his victories, his growth and the love that the Lord had for him. She didn't see him as the Lord saw him or judge him according to the Lord's standards, but by her own standard and by the standard of the world. She became one he withdrew from, he could not share his heart because she was always ready to turn his words against him, always looking for opportunities to criticize him. So when the Lord shows her to be rejected and him beloved, he feels no remorse at her downfall, but is rewarded and comforted and justified and exalted by God with seeing her crushed. And Jesus uses these words, this passage to describe our day, when men go out to preach the Gospel. They will be hated by all on account of Him. Families will be divided and attack and betray one another. Even wives will oppose husbands. Though their criticism may be right at times, it will be unjustifiable, because they attack one who earnestly seeks to know and conform their likeness to that of Jesus Christ, however incompletely or imperfectly. Yet Jesus is pleased by their progress and growth, so much so that He will raise him up above all his enemies and allow him to watch the downfall of even those closest to him who should have honored and respected and learned from him. If this is what Jesus promises His followers, should I be surprised if it comes on me? I cannot back off my pursuit of Christ in order to be acceptable to and honorable in the eyes of my family. I need to make sure I'm truly in Micah's camp, putting Christ first and living to advance His kingdom, not seeking my own preferences or comfort or wishes. Let God find me worthy of justifing; I know I don't deserve it. Let me not give up because those closest to me consider me a fool, and I may have to watch them be trampled in the mire because they set me as their enemy instead of as a worthy example to follow.