“Hear, O peoples, all of you; Listen, O earth and all it contains, And let the Lord God be a witness against you, The Lord from His holy temple. For behold, the Lord is coming forth from His place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. The mountains will melt under Him and the valleys will be split, like wax before the fire, like water poured down a steep place. All this is for the rebellion of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel.” (vv.2-5a)
Micah was a prophet to the people of God, a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. His messages were concerned with Samaria and Jerusalem, the capitals respectively of the Northern and Southern kingdoms of Israel. In his messages he denounced the false, and announced the true.
Here in our text Micah saw vivid images of the LORD descending from heaven to earth, and coming with judgment; "The LORD is coming out of His place." He goes on to say that, the mountains and valleys could not stand before Him. All this was for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel: Meaning, this dramatic, powerful descent of the LORD was only because of the sins of His people.
When Micah saw the judgment coming upon his brethern, it made him wail and howl like the jackals and a mourn like the ostriches (v.8). For “her wounds are incurable” (v.9). It is easy for us to imagine that the people of Judah and Israel thought this was unfair. They looked around at the pagan nations surrounding them and saw that they were even more corrupt than themselves.
Nevertheless, the principle of 1 Peter 4:17a stands, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.” And “if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17b)
Therefore the warning is to us all, Hear O People, Listen O earth, God’s judgment is real, you do not want to find yourself incurably lost when it comes. Our only incurable wounds are the ones we refuse to bring to God. With Him, all things are possible (Luke 18:27), but when we refuse to bring our sin to Him, then our wounds are incurable.
The Truth: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
