Living Understanding, Pt 42: Trust God

Micah 7:7-10a                       7But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.  8Do not gloat over me, my enemy!  Though I have fallen, I will rise.  Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.  9Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD’s wrath, until he pleads my case and upholds my cause.  He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.  10Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame, …

I wish I could say that from the time of salvation everything goes well in the believer’s life, but we know that is not a view grounded in reality.  Hard times come for every person, believer or not, and it is best for the believer to remember that he or she lives in a fallen world.  The believer has a choice in those difficult times:  Will he respond in a way that reflects the righteousness of Jesus, or will he revert to his old way of thinking and respond as the world does.

Hard times come for individuals and upon nations.  Often the national hard times are the result of the collective individuals’ failure to follow Godly precepts, or even a collective decline of the nation into idolatry.  Micah lived about 700 years before Jesus during a time of extreme socio-economic affluence and success for Israel and Judah, but both nations were simultaneously experiencing a cancer of moral decay.  Idolatry and social injustice were rampant, and the prophet Micah wrote to address these issues.  Also, despite this apparent success, tensions on the international stage were rising.  The northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians towards the end of the 8th Century BC, and the southern Kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonians about 100 years later. 

Though I have fallen

During these national struggles, whether they be Israel’s or America’s, the Lord has been preserving a remnant of his people.  When we see our nation collapsing into idolatry and decay around us, or if we ourselves are experiencing struggle because of our own wandering away from God, what should our attitude be?  However dark it seems about us; we certainly can trust that God will not abandon his people.  He loves us enough that when we wander, He disciples, and when we reject, He punishes.  When our earthly fathers do such things, they do them because they want us to understand that such activity is not acceptable.  Similarly, God wants us to understand that idolatry must not continue, and rejection of Godly precepts brings consequence.

What is to be done then?  Grieve, mourn, and wail?  No, says Micah, trust your heavenly Father.  The faithful do have difficult times, but unlike the unrepentant who die in their sins and are lost, the faithful will one day rise to receive their reward.  More than that the remnant believers look beyond their circumstances to see what God is doing elsewhere.  When we see people changed by exposure to the Word or see them rise joyously from baptismal waters, we see God moving in peoples’ lives.  This helps us understand two things: (1) God is still active in the world; he lifts burdens from his children’s shoulders and brings peace to their hearts, and (2) God answers prayer.

Darkness and light

Darkness and light are metaphors for the way people lead their lives.  We don’t actually see ‘people of the world’ living in darkness 24 hours a day.  No, the term refers to people who deny God, or ignore Him, and therefore have no goodness or light in them.  They don’t acknowledge Godly precepts and they live their lives in an uncaring fashion.  They love conditionally, seek revenge, and are unforgiving.  Believers can be in darkness in the sense that they may live in a worldly community, but nonetheless God works righteousness in them such that they live in a caring manner.  They love the unlovable, forgive easily, and hold no grudges.  Even when people of the light sin, they strive to acknowledge it readily, repent easily, seek forgiveness and move on.  This is so different from worldly lives that people notice and wonder what makes them different.

Hope amid just consequence

The remnant, that is those who hold to their faith in the face of mounting opposition or increasing oppression, also hold firm to their belief that God will raise them up one day.  Sometimes difficult times are appropriate.  Perhaps the believer has been involved in an extended period of anger at God.  Maybe some horrible occurrence like the early death of a loved one caused the believer to question God or even deny His existence.  Sometimes things come to the believer with the intent to waken him to his error.  The remnant in this case trusts God even in the face of seeming evidence to the contrary.

One of the main themes of the Word is that Jesus will return one day to conquer Satan and to rid the world of lies, deception, and evil.  But that day is not imminent as time is required to bring God’s Son to all tribes and people groups.  The remnant trusts, hopes, and waits for that day, even amid difficult times.

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.  (Romans 8:22-23)

What about me?

It is easy to wallow in grief during difficult times and even easier to think that God has abandoned us.  When God calls to watch and hope in the LORD, it is not that we question if something is going to happen (English understanding of hope), but that we don’t understand how something is going to happen (Hebrew understanding of hope).  When times are hard, the question on our mind should be ‘why?’  We should pray not so much for the thing to end, but for God to help us endure it, and for God to help us repent for the things we have done and return to Him.

Sometimes the difficult times are not directly our fault.  Sometimes our corporate society has fallen into idolatry or denial or rejection of God.  The individual’s responsibility during difficult times, whether personal or corporate, is to raise their voice for God.  ‘Help us God,’ one might say, ‘to return to moral ways.’    I heard a quote the other day to the effect that 10% of Americans call themselves Christians.  Of those only 50% are registered to vote and of those only 50% actually do vote.  If this is true, then here is an opportunity for a believer to affect change.  Speak out!  Vote!  Testify to God’s greatness!  Help ones come to know Jesus!  There is much one can do.