Thursday, December 1, 2011

A meeting of sorts

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

So what did the people do that Micah is speaking to. They used unjust weights so as to cheat the poor. They were violent and they lied. But God describes their sin in large letters when he states through the prophet Micah that, “The statues of Omn and all the works of the house of Ahab are observed and in all their devices you walk.” (Micah 6:16)

I have been trying to think how to write it …
Impossible, that verse they are always quoting
Micah 6:8-his word, but is it really heard.

Omn and Ahab brought false fertility gods into the land of Israel. But the greatest sin of all was cheating someone out of their property. As the writers of the Tyndale commentary puts it, “Omri and Ahab, who lived more than a century before Micah, have become legendary and serve as a paradigm of apostasy (cf. 1 Ki. 16:30-33), turpitude, cupidity and injustice (cf. 1 Ki. 21). Ahab’s swindling and exhorting of property from others is in view here.”

He came last. The meeting was over. The pastor’s complaint and sorrow was of the insults uttered around him—I suppose toward those who were speaking. They even swore and said those churches had screwed them.
He stands at the door knocking—we should let him in.

In the Old Testament three sins are always the cause of Israel’s judgment; they seem to circle around each other.

Idolatry—the worship of other gods which includes the self
Sexual sin—perverseness that allows the self to flaunt the word of God
Greed—hoarding and spending what belongs to someone else

Carefully, some would say carelessly, I choose my words, winter is ahead, few will walk together in the cold wind, only Christ will give us warmth. Only in Him will love of his people grow.

God’s gifts are many but his wrath is also in the midst of a people’s persistent sin. It is he who purifies the church. Barth reminded the church of his day, the German Church, that God could take their candle away just as he took away the candle of the North African Church in Augustine’s day.


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