"To Do Justice, To Love Kindness, and to Walk Humbly:" Waiting on the Lord

Introduction

What do you do when the weight of life starts to feel overwhelming? Billy Graham told a story of a stressed out secretary. in the middle of an especially-hectic work day, she went to her boss and said, “When this rush is over, I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. I earned it, I deserve it, and nobody’s going to take it from me.” How do you respond to overwhelm? We look at Micah today from an angle that has almost been forgotten in our story. In the Old Testament, faithful prophets often had to tell people things they didn’t want to hear. they weren’t too popular. They were often all alone. At one point, the prophet Jeremiah even says, “Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me.” In Micah, we move past his dealings with Judea and see the man. The Christian. We see his heart, and we see the pain he feels for the People he has been dealing with. At one point he even says, “Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.” It is such a cheery passage.

It is Micah stepping back from dealing with the people he is prophesying to. Instead, he laments to God. The Old Testament scholar, John Goldingay, puts it like this. “It becomes clear that he (Micah) isn’t merely bemoaning the situation to no one in particular, but lamenting it to God, as the one who has warned the city through his lookouts (the prophets) and who’s going to bring about the day he’s appointed for it.” Standing inside the city, Micah is reflecting on and lamenting to God what is about to happen to this city that he loves. There he stands waiting for the day to come. The day when the city would one day fall. The people would be taken away in exile, and another ruler would reign. For months now, we have listened to Micah’s prophetic voice as he has called the Judeans back to God. But now, the prophecy to Judea turns to the inner anguish of a prophet who loves the Lord and his people.

For us, we might not be awaiting the impending and promised doom as Micah. But nonetheless, we each go through seasons of waiting on the Lord. In our waiting, Micah teaches us to trust the Lord. As a foreign empire is at the city gates laying seige to the city, how does Micah wait on the Lord? What does he do? And in those times in our life when it feels like is Satan around us, in those times when we feel overwhelmed, how are we to handle it? Micah gives us three steps for waiting well, for handling overwhelm well.

Micah Pours out His Heart to God

Micah says in verse 2, “The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net.” So he says that no one is upright among mankind, but we we know that there is at least a few. So what’s going on here? Micah is exaggerating. Or, lamenting. Lamenting is pouring out your heart to the Lord as it feels deep anguish and grief. Be being upfront and real with the Lord. That’s what Micah is being here, even as he exaggerates some of what is going on around him. The Bible is full of lament. For example, the prophet, Jeremiah, even writes a book called Lamentations, which is conveniently placed just after the book that has his name on it. Then there are the psalms, which is the song and prayer book of the Bible. There are 150 psalms. 42 of the 150 are laments. They are believers pouring out their hearts to the Lord, knowing that God hears and answers not only their prayers, but also their tears. Here, Micah laments the Assyrian army that is besieging the city. He is lamenting its eventual downfall, and their eventual exile. But what does he lament more than anything else? He laments God’s people who have strayed from him. They have worshipped other gods. They have accepted the false gods in the land who were before they got there. They have bowed their knee to a wooden pole, despite having the one true God calling them back to him.

In seeing Micah’s tears, it almost reminds me of a parent. A parent who has finally had to let go and let their son or daughter make their own way in life. Let them stumble. Let them make mistakes. Let them through failure. We each have to go through it ourselves, and then we watch our kids through the process as well. The prayers and tears of that parent letting go, is similar to Micah’s prayers and tears as he watches the Judeans stumble and waits for God’s correction. But as Micah watches and waits. Prays and laments, his prayer returns to God. He says in verse 7, “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.” The first step God gives us for waiting well is to pour our heart to God. We do this knowing that in our waiting, God is listening. God is faithful.

Micah resists the comparison trap today in favor of God’s vindication tomorrow.

Nonetheless, Micah is trapped. He is in a city that is facing correction from God. A massive enemy army stands on the other side of the city walls. Provisions within a city are like a clock slowing ticking down to trouble. Micah is looking around, seeing the enemy succeeding while God’s People are crumpling under the weight of the sin. Yet Micah didn’t wish for a different call from God. Instead, he says in verse 8, “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.” Things aren’t looking good for the Judeans. Meanwhile, they’re looking pretty good for the Assyrians. Those who opposed Micah are well stocked. They have freedom. Oh, and they don’t have God directly telling them that they going to be defeated. But even as everything is going against him, Micah resists the comparison trap today in favor of God’s vindication tomorrow. He says in verse 9, “I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.”

What Micah does is similar to what E. Stanley Jones says about prayer. Stanley says, “Prayer is surrender - surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boat hook from a boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.” While many would fall into the comparison trap in verse 8, Micah instead declares that the Lord will bring him light and vindication. Someone else would likely suffer from what we call “the grass is greener syndrome.” The syndrome where everything else looks better than what we have. As a former fellow manager at Bob Evans used to say, “the grass always looks greener on the other side. But do you know what happens when they get there? They mow it.”

Micah gives us an example of how not to suffer from it. Instead of “gee, I wish I was on their side,” he points to the great God who is caring for them even in this worst of time. It reminds me of what the Old Testament prophet, Joel, says in chapter 2, verse 25, “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.” The second step Micah gives us for waiting is to resist comparison, knowing that one day we will experience the Lord’s vindication and redemption.

Micah trusts in the Lord.

So Micah pours out his heart to the Lord, then he resists the comparison trap, knowing that that one the Lord will bring vindication. This also relates to the final step. Micah says in Verses 11-12, “A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended. In that day they will come to you, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.” As believers, we know that what we see isn’t all that there is. We look to tomorrow, knowing that a day will come when Christ will return in glory. A day when every wrong will be made right. A day when every tear will be dried, and the body of Christ will dwell with Christ in his redeemed Heaven and Earth. This is the kind of hope that Micah is looking to, and the Micah really needs as he is trapped in a besieged city with an army outside the walls trying to conquer them. As Micah waits upon the Lord, Micah trusts that a day will come when all people will flock to the Mountain of the Lord.

John Ortberg tells of the Flying Roudellas, who were trapeze artists. In an interview, they said there is a special relationship between flyer and catcher on the trapeze. The flyer is the one who lets go, and the catcher is the one who catches. As the flyer swings high above the crowd on the trapeze, the moment comes when he must let go. He arcs out into the air. His job is to remain as still as possible and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to pluck him from the air. Imagine what could happen in this moment. The flyer must never try to catch the catcher but must wait in absolute trust. Let’s say that the trapeze artist freaked out and panicked because nothing is holding them up. They would actually create a bigger problem if they attempted to grab the catcher who has his hands outstretched ready to grab him. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait. In a similar way, we can create a bigger problem as we are waiting on the Lord. We can lose patience and try to do things in our own will and our own power. Have you ever done that? Micah managed to wait upon the Lord, knowing that what is directly in front of him is not all that there is. He waited knowing that one day, all of the earth would flock to the mountain of the Lord. The third step Micah takes is trusting in the Lord as he looks to the day of redemption.

Conclusion

Micah shows us three steps for waiting on the Lord. He pours out his heart for the Lord. He resists the comparison trap today in favor of God’s vindication tomorrow. Lastly, Micah hopes in the Lord.

Tony Evans tells the story of a couple who went to the airport to catch their flight. When they arrived at the gate, they were told by an agent to wait to board. So they made their way to a spot in the waiting area and took a seat. They were put to the side but didn’t know why. People began boarding and as even more people boarded and time passed, the couple began getting frustrated. They were waiting and didn’t know why. After awhile, they started to get mad. They thought the airline was treating them very poorly by making them wait with no explanation and no time frame. Plus, everyone had now boarded the plane but them. They were going to be last to board the plane even though they were one of the first passengers there. All kinds of things were going through the couple’s minds. “What’s going on here?” “This is not right.” “We were here early!” Finally, after everybody else was on, their names were called and they were told they could board. The couple walked down the Jetway and looked at their boarding passes to find their seat assignments. Unbeknownst to them, they had been upgraded to first class! This is similar to how the Lord works in our life as we wait.

What are you waiting on today? As I think about this, I think of all the prayer requests we’ve had lately for people suffering from health conditions. People waiting for test results and diagnoses. People waiting to see if the treatments worked. But that’s not the only example. What are you waiting on today? For whatever it is, use this time to pour out your heart to the Lord because it will draw you closer to the Lord. Don’t fall into the trap of comparison wishing for some greener grass, because God is working through whatever situation you are in. Lastly, a day of redemption is coming. So as you wait, remember that what we see isn’t all there is.

When I was growing up, our church had us memorize Proverbs 3:5-6. Which says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Just as Micah faithfully waited in the city of Jerusalem, let us also wait faithfully. And as we wait, we trust in the Lord.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6