Walking in Darkness

We live in a world that is dark world and if you don’t believe that all it should take is a few moments of looking around. There is the fact that we have had a pandemic going on, and the deaths from other illnesses that take place every day. Consider the riots that we witnessed for 6 plus months last year. The battles that are taking place all over the world, and other civil unrest. How about tornadoes that hit nursing homes, or work places killing and injuring people? It’s no wonder we are left questioning, as one author does, “Where Is God When We Suffer?” Or again as another asks “If God, Why Evil?” In fact, I looked at my digital library 20 other titles I came across in a cursory perusal of titles, and I could think of a could think of 7 more that I have in my library here at church.

At Christmas we like to think of things as good, but what about when they aren’t? After all, we live in a world, that while we might take a day off to celebrate the birth of Jesus, doesn’t take the day off. People get sick on Christmas, people die on Christmas, children are born with birth defects on Christmas, accidents happen on Christmas, people’s homes burn down on Christmas

While we like to believe that we are alive in the darkest of darkness in history I am reminded that we likely are not. There was a dark situation for Israel and Judah in the 8th into the 7th century BC. There was another dark situation on Judea from the mid 20’s BC – 70’s AD including the time around the birth of Jesus with Herod’s execution of young boys in the area around Bethlehem and the killing of his opponents in Jerusalem and the area around Jericho just before and at his death. And, yes, we are in a dark situation in our world today. If you want to turn to the Old Testament prophet Micah that is what morning we are going to look at and learn from this morning. As you turn there let me inform you that the prophet Micah, an 8th century BC prophet to the nations of Israel and Judah. Micah 3:9 – 12

Micah 3:9–12 NIV84

Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.” Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

I. Dark Things Happen

A. We can cause them our-self – though the prophet isn’t speaking about these issues

B. They can happen because there is sin in the world

C. They can occur because other people are sinning

- this is the major reason the prophet mentions

D. They can happen because God is judging a group that we happen to be a part of

- this is what was going to happen to many of the oppressed when captivity came

- through the hands of the Assyrians for the northern tribes

- eventually through the hands of the Babylonians, though to some extent through the Assyrians, for the southern tribes.

II. God Knows

A. We are not suffering alone

B. God will act

III. God Will Bring Judgment

A. In His time

B. According to His wisdom

C. If not now, in eternity

1. Revelation 21: 3 – 8 (Actually all of 20 through 22)

Revelation 21:3–8 NIV84

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

While this may not always be what we want to hear in the midst of the darkness, it is a message the God consistently made/makes through the message of the prophets, and Micah is no different. I like what Glenn Pemberton says in one of my favorite books on suffering, Hurting With God: Learning the Lament with the Psalms “Faith does not require us to ignore the scars from our losses; even the resurrected Christ still had his wounds. Nor daoes faith promise memory erasure so that we can live and act as if nothing happened. Something has happened – death in all its forms: abuse, pain, grief, rape, aggression, divorce. Nonetheless, in the rhythm of resurrection, God’s work in our lives becomes part of our faith story and integral to our new language of thanksgiving.”

Broken world? Yes! Alone in the darkness? No! Will the authors of the darkness get away with it? Well, it may seem so, but ultimately God will deal with those who are responsible.