Peter Barnes | Micah 7:1-7
SERMON NOTES
HOPE IN THE MIDST OF DISINTEGRATION
Micah 7:1-7
Micah describes eighth century B.C. Israel as like a gleaned crop where there is nothing left (7:1).
1. Sin causes disintegration in society.
– there is violence and corruption (7:2-3).
– it is the law of the jungle, Herbert Spencer’s ‘survival of the fittest’. Society has lost its light and salt (Matt.5:13-16); see Ps.12:1.
– Calvin on the leaders of his day: ‘they want to be hailed as angels of paradise, even though everyone knows that they are worse than devils.’
– Isa.1:23.
2. Sin causes disintegration even amongst friends and family.
– 7:5-6. This is even worse than what has preceded. Peter Hitchens (the brother of Christopher) lived for two years in the USSR before he became a Christian. He describes as a coarse society with no manners. Informers were everywhere, and there was no shared morality.
– Augustine’s masterpiece, the City of God.
3. Stand firm in the Lord.
– all this could be a recipe for despair, or to shutting one’s eyes to reality, but see 7:7; also Josh.24:15; Ps.18:46; 38:15; 55:16-18).
When weary in this earthly race,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every wild and storm gale
My anchor holds within the veil (Edward Mote).
Micah looks to the Lord, he waits for the Lord, and he prays.