Untitled Sermon (10)

Intro: “Desert Greening” – Moral Desert

Since 1920, the Sahara desert has grown by roughly 10%, with desert sands covering once fertile and vegetated lands. Lands that produced life and food are drying up on the edge of the desert, reducing the farm-land and crop yield. In response to the growing Sahara desert, some ingenious techniques are being used to reclaim fertile farm-land. The process of reclaiming the desert is called “desert greening” as it transforms the desert from dry, sandy soil into green, fertile farmland.

Micah 7 tells us a similar story, where like the Sahara desert, sin, injustice and pride are taking over, leaving no fruit behind, no just, good, or godly people. The desert winds of sin are taking over Israel, stripping her of people who walk with the Lord in justice and humility. Where there was once fertile land, with love and kindness growing, now sits a dry, desert that only grows thorns and thistles of hate and selfishness. In the midst of this moral desert, the remnant of God finds experiences grace even in discipline and receives hope in a future restoration.

1. Look to the Lord from the desert of Sin (1-7)

In Micah 6, God announces his verdict, that Israel is guilty. They have failed to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with their God. We get God’s perspective, the God’s eye view of the situation in Israel. Israel has failed to keep the covenant, they have not been faithful and loving to Yahweh as He has been with them. They have not served him alone and have let injustice run rampant in the land. Micah 6 ends with the God’s condemnation of Israel. He will bring them to justice. But before this justice comes, we see the injustice in Israel from the eyes of Micah as he represents the remnant, the daughter Zion.

Israel is empty. They are void of good and upright people. If good people are grapes and ripe figs, then there are no grapes or ripe figs. Just like after harvest, when all the fruit has been gathered, all of the godly and just people are gone. All that can be seen is the dried stalk of where they once were.

The godly have perished and there is no one upright. This is not just in Israel, but all over the earth and among all mankind. Remember the word Hesed we learned last week. It is the Hebrew word for faithful or steadfast love. It is covenantal love. It is firm, it’s not supposed to go anywhere. It’s the love that God has for his people, and that his people were to show back to Him. Hesed is the word translated as godly or faithful in verse 2. In all of the earth there is not a person faithful to God, not a person who has been steadfast in their love for God. Although God has been faithful to his people, there is not a person left who remains faithful to God.

Instead, Society from the top to the bottom is evil. The prince and the judge ask for bribes instead of giving justice. Even the best of leaders is like a thorn, and all the leaders together are woven together in a thorn hedge. The leaders do not hold each other accountable as they ought to, but work together to commit injustice. The judges and the princes join forces to defraud people instead of offering justice.

1. Not just leaders, but family and friends

Sadly, we almost expect those in leadership, or in the government, or with wealth, to be corrupt. But what hurts the most is when we are hurt by family or friends. Sin, hatred, and selfishness are not just at the top of society, but amongst neighbours and family. It is so bad that Micah recommends not trusting a neighbour or listening to a friend. You even need to be careful of what you say to your own wife, as she may turn against you. Relationships have been broken between son and father, between daughter and mother, between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. A person’s enemies are not outside, but are in his own home. This is the state that Israel has come to. When the love of God disappears, the love for one other is quick to follow.

The result of the fall is that we would rather line our own pockets then see justice win. The result of the fall is family drama, and pain between friends. Many of us can resonate with this passage. We have had friends betray us or family members turn against us. Now we should not just say “that’s that” and let relationships and friendships blow up. In Romans 12:18, Paul says, “if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” As believers we need to try and live at peace with difficult family members and friends by loving and forgiving as Christ does. But sometimes, despite our best efforts a family member still turns on us. Sometimes, despite our love, a friend betrays us.

ii. Application both to our society and within our church

When we think of a failure to love God leading to a failure to love others, we may think about the society around us, maybe of those who don’t even acknowledge the existence of God. When the society around us does not remember God, they turn inward and care for themselves, often at the expense of others. However, this passage sadly speaks all to often of the affairs of the church, where anger and contempt reign instead of love and peace. How often does dissension and conflict in the church lead to sins of anger, gossip, slander, or even just a cold shoulder? The church can lose sight of who our God is. We can think he is only a God of justice, and begin judging our neighbours. We can think He is only a God of love, and forget to tell our brothers and sisters the truth. We can think He is only a God of wrath, and condemn people in the church who are doing their best to serve the Lord. We can forget that He is a God of forgiveness, and fail to give a second chance.

Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, flows out of the love we have received from God. Knowing God allows us to love others well, but when we lose sight of God, we quickly fall into selfishness and pride. When Israel failed to love their God, their society, their friends, and their families failed to love one another. When we lose sight of who our God is, and then we also forget how to love others well.

It is in this arid and dry desert of sin that Micah says, “But as for me, I will look to the LORD.” The word “look” is the same root word as “watchman” back in verse 4. Israel’s watchmen, the false prophets, failed to call out injustice, hatred and pride as it approached and infiltrated Israel. But Micah says, He will watch for the Lord, He will wait for the God of his salvation, God will hear him. It’s as if he is on a watchtower at the edge of Israel waiting for God to show up. A watchman watches the horizon waiting for something to come into sight, waiting to see something approach, to draw near. Israel is under siege by the armies of injustice, greed, and selfishness, when will God come to rescue them.

iii. This is the world Jesus steps into

1. His brothers didn’t believe in him, but mocked him

2. He was betrayed by one of his close friends

And this is the beauty of the gospel, while Israel is in the desert of sin, as the sands of injustice kill any green and godly person, this is the world that Jesus, who is our life, enters into. This world of evil and greedy leaders is the world Jesus steps into. The world of broken families and painful friendships. Jesus lives his whole life with none of his brothers believing him about who He is. Jesus experiences the betrayal of a close friend to death, and the denial of an even closer friend. In the end, he is abandoned by all his friends before the corrupt courts of Herod and Pilate. These two leaders, both are thorns, weaving together a crown of thorns, offering up an innocent man to death. Who can feel the weight of this passage like Jesus? Woe is me! Where are the godly people? Where is the fruit? Jesus knows what it is to experience corrupt leaders, betraying friends, and broken families, because that’s the very world he entered into.

2. Look to the Light of Grace in the darkness of discipline (8-9)

Here Micah is still speaking on behalf of the remnant. The remnant is ready to bear the discipline that they deserve. They know that they have broken their covenant with Yahweh, that they have failed to love Him and love others. The remnant understands that she will receive the consequences for her sin. When God gave Israel the blessing and the curses at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerazim, God laid out the curse, “if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and hist statutes that I command you today” (Deut. 28:15), then “the LORD will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known… and you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away… you shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity… (28:36, 37, 41). Israel knew the consequences for their actions, and yet they chose to serve other gods, let justice run rampant, and proudfully attempt to exalt themselves.

1. Mitigated justice

The remnant claims that they will bear the indignation of the LORD, because of their sin against him. They will experience the discipline for their sin. They are accepting that they have sinned and are willingly taking the consequences God laid out when He made a covenant with them. They will be taken out of their land by Assyria and later Babylon for 70 years as the consequence for their sin.

In the light of the cross, we see that the people did not bear the fullness of God’s indignation, of God’s wrath, because the fullness of God’s punishment for sin was poured out on the cross of Jesus Christ. Israel receives mitigated justice, a lesser sentence, meant to teach them who God is, his love, perfection and holiness, while the fullness of justice is laid on Jesus at the Cross. Though He Himself had not sinned, he took the sin of Israel and of the world and bore the wrath of God to the point of death.

i. The Remnant experiences the light in the darkness of sin

Here, in the darkness of their own sin, in the pain of the discipline of God, Israel catches a glimpse of the light of God. As Israel sees the desert they have made themselves by their sin, they look up to see the fount of life giving water. In the darkness of injustice the light of justice shines down from the Mountain of God. In the darkness of hate and pride, the light of God’s covenant kindness shines forth, becoming a humble infant.

In the darkness of our own sin is when the light of God’s grace shine’s brightest. While Israel is being disciplined for their injustice, they see the light of God’s justice. While Israel is being discipline for not showing mercy, they see the light of God’s grace. When we sit in the darkness of our lust, we see the light of God who loves perfectly. When we sit in the darkness of our pride, we see the light of the Father who glorifies the Son and the Spirit, and the light of the Son, as He glorifies the Father and the Spirit, and the light of the Spirit, as He glorifies the Father and the Son.

Discipline from the Lord is a tricky subject. For Israel, God made it clear, if you don’t listen to me, you will go into exile. It can be easy to fall into a guessing game of, am I experiencing this bad thing because of my sin? We need to be very careful of this, we should especially never tell someone else that a struggle or bad circumstance in their life is because they have sinned. The stories of Job and the man born blind in John 9 make this clear. The game of trying to match the blessings and the struggles in our lives to good and bad things we do is often fruitless, unhelpful, and even hurtful. Instead, we should continually have a posture of searching our hearts of sin. While in the darkness of our sin, we see the light of Christ, and we try to reflect that light, becoming more and more like Christ every day.

3. Follow the Shepherd into the Garden (10-17)

(Return to the desert analogy at the end.)

The nations, the enemy of the remnant that mocked them, asking, “Where is the LORD your God?” Will he save you from the Assyrians? Will he stop you from being destroyed? Actually, the LORD allows Israel to be taken by Assyria and later Judah to be taken by Babylon. This is the consequence for their failure to keep the covenant with God, the punishment that God laid out before they sinned against him. But God restores Isreal, He brings her back out of exile, and shortly after she is restored, her Messiah is born. Jesus lives, dies, and rises again, and the Gospel, the good news that Jesus has died to restore all people to God goes out into all the nations. People are brought in from Egypt and Assyria. Praise God, He does not just save those from Israel, but from people of all nations, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. Isaiah 19:23-25 says,

“In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

The People of God, both Jews and Gentiles are brought back into the garden. What was once a desert of injustice, pride, and selfishness, is not a forest, a garden land, green pastures of Bashan and Gilead. The desert has been reclaimed! In verse 11, it says that the boundaries are being extended! Not only is God restoring the land that was lost, he is making it bigger. Not only is God saving the Jewish people, but He is saving people from all nations. He is restoring the desert of sin back into the glorious garden as He originally designed. A garden where He walks with his people and shepherds them. The Lord is doing marvelous things, just like when he led Israel out of Egypt by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, and when he appeared in the tabernacle in the glory cloud. God is present among his people.

We await the day, when we will walk with Him again in the garden, but He is shepherding us now, leading us out of the wilderness. His presence is among us in his Holy Spirit, convicting us of sin, illuminating the Word to us, teaching us to pray. He has entrust overseers, elders, pastors over us, as under-shepherds to teach and to guide the church. He has given his body, the church, to encourage, to exhort, to bear one another’s burdens, and

to build one another up.

But not everyone will turn and believe in God, the Shepherd. No, many choose to stand in opposition to God and his people. Along with the serpent of old, they shall be left to lick the dust like a snake. They will not be allowed into the glorious garden, into the New Heaven and the New Earth, because they have chose their fate. In the end, all will fear the Lord. Some will fear God in love and belief and will spend eternity with Him, others will fear Him and dread the just punishment they deserve.

In the desert of your sin, will you look to God? Will you turn from your sin and believe in the one who died in your place? Will you follow the good Shepherd, leading you out of your pride and selfishness and into humility and love?