May 6, 2001 Micah 7:14-20
14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasture lands. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago.
15 “As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders.”
16 Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their power. They will lay their hands on their mouths and their ears will become deaf. 17 They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the LORD our God and will be afraid of you.
18 Who is a God like you, who pardons (lifts up) sin and forgives (passes over) the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not (hold onto) stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. 19 You will again have compassion on us; you will (subdue / enslave) tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. 20 You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago.
Dear friends in Christ,
About eight ago my brother was frustrated with life. He was tired of his job. Tired of his life. Most of all, he was tired of dealing with people. To make it worse - he was a postal worker. Since he is a Christian, I don’t think he ever dreamed of buying a machine gun and blowing people away. Instead of “going postal” - he thought, “there has to be another way.” After much consideration, he finally thought that he had found the solution. He would be a shepherd! So he rented a book from the library on how to be a shepherd. But, soon afterward, he met his wife to be - and decided to continue in the Postal Service. Now I refer to him as a “gruntled” postal worker.
I don’t know what finally dissuaded my brother from being a shepherd. But if you think about it - it wouldn’t be a very easy calling either. Sheep are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. They have no sense of survival. For that reason alone they require a great deal of patience and care. If you were a shepherd - especially back in the Old Testament - you would have to escort them from open pasture to open pasture and make sure they got from point a to b without ending up in a brook or killing themselves. That was and is the duty of a shepherd.
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Jesus is our Good Shepherd. And it is his calling to get us - His clueless and helpless sheep - from point a to point b - from this world to the next. Today, as we look at Micah, we will celebrate the fact that -
The Path to the Pasture of the Promised Land Is Prepared by the Good Shepherd
I. This was the prayer of God’s people
First of all, let’s look at the background of the book of Micah. It was a time of political instability, social injustice and moral filth. The Northern Kingdom had fallen to the Assyrians. 20 years later, God granted Jerusalem a huge victory over Sennacherib with His “angel of death.” After this, the people enjoyed great riches and prosperity under Uzziah. But this just made the people more greedy and less caring for the poor.
In their thirst for riches and wealth, they lost their thirst for God. Even the clergy joined the race for riches as priests and prophets served only for hire. Idolatry became widespread. Worship had become a mere formalism, an outward observance of ritual and sacrifice to get God’s favor. These were the people that Micah had to preach to. Fully confident of the Lord’s cause, he fearlessly denounced the corruption and heartlessness of the political and spiritual leaders of his day.
This text for today is taken from the very last part of the book. It reflects the fact that the people needed help - lot’s of help. It is a prayer which is fitting for Good Shepherd Sunday. Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasture lands. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago. Micah prayed that the Good Shepherd would prepare the path to the pasture of the Promised Land.
The prayer first of all reflects an acknowledgment of where the people were. They were like a flock of sheep, living by themselves in the middle of a forest. A forest is not a good place for a flock of sheep to be - especially by themselves. Many predators wait for their prey within the forest - whether it’s wolves, bears, tigers - you name it. These hungry predators find nothing easier than to have helpless sheep to eat. Also, the sheep would have nothing to eat in the middle of a forest. This was the condition of Israel at the time. Their country was going down the tubes. The Northern Kingdom had been wiped out by Sennacherib. Micah predicted that the Babylonians would come and take them captive. Whether it was the Babylonians or the Assyrians or the Moabites or the Ammonites - the Israelites always had enemies - and they were always right in the middle of the action. Israel was located as a major trade route between the east and the west, the north and the south. And worst of all, they had run away from God and His Word. They were like sheep in the middle of a forest.
That’s the way we feel too, don’t we? I suppose there are some of you who think you can handle all of the temptations of the world. You may go by a day without uttering a prayer to God. You may think that thanks to YOUR survival skills - your cunning - your savvy - you’ve been able to survive. You live your life thinking that God is ok to fit into your schedule - but you need to look out for number one - yourself - first. You’ll have your day. Sooner or later, your health will deteriorate. You’ll lose your job. You’ll lose a loved one. Then all of the sudden God will take those paper legs that you were standing on and knock them out from under you. Then you’ll realize - you’re like a sheep in the forest. You have no power to defend yourself. That’s what we need to remember as Christians as well. We’re just sheep in the forest of an ungodly world. If it weren’t for God’s protection - we’d be devoured in a minute.
It took a lot of preaching - a lot of suffering - but finally the Holy Spirit cracked through the hearts of the Israelites. They finally realized that they were NOT the masters of their own fate. And so either they or Micah prayed to the Lord - Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance. . . in fertile pasture lands. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago. He prayed that the Shepherd would do what a shepherd does - use his staff to lead his people to safety - enable them to go to fertile pasture lands of Bashan and Gilead. These two areas were east of the Jordan - prime pieces of property that were given to the great fighters from the tribe of Manasseh. If we look at this from a spiritual perspective - they were asking that God would use his Word - his staff - to lead his people to the fertile pasture lands of heaven.
It’s quite a bold prayer, isn’t it? Why in the world would God want to care for and save a bunch of rebellious sheep who were prone to stray? And how could he in the first place? I find a great correlation here between this prayer and what God called on Moses to do. With just a staff in his hand God asked Moses to lead approximately two million people from Egypt to Israel. And these weren’t exactly willing people. At one point they were about to stone Moses! In order to do this - they had to go through a desert wasteland - pass by violent nations - cross rivers - and conquer peoples. All with just a staff in his hands. We are not facing good odds either. We - like the Israelites - are people who are prone to stray. We have sinful natures that love the temptations that TV and the internet have to offer. We love instant gratification. Our children love to be popular. We are surrounded by big bad wolves of temptation on every side. And so all we can do is ask that God would lead us through this valley of shadow of death into the promised land of heaven! Impossible? Yes! It would be easier to lead a camel through the eye of a needle than to keep us and our children from the devil - to get us filthy sheep from this vale of tears into a perfect heaven! But you know what? God likes challenges.
II. This was the promise of a faithful father
So how does God answer their prayer? “As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders.” Think about what God did with Moses. With just a staff in his hand God enabled Moses to do miraculous things. It was able to turn into a snake. It was used to turn the waters of Egypt to blood, to make frogs come out of the water, to turn dust into mites, and to blow away a massive amount of locusts. When it was placed over the Red Sea, God parted the waters in two. With that same staff Moses struck the rock at Meribah and waters gushed forth for the people. With a simple staff God demonstrated his power and his mercy - and delivered the two million Israelites though the desert. God made the impossible - possible.
God said to Micah and the Israelites - “if you thought that was awesome - wait til you see the wonders to come!” Now that we live in the fulfillment of that promise - we can see what God was talking about. Remember what He was asked to do - to take filthy sheep and lead them through the valley of the shadow of death - and usher them into His heavenly and holy kingdom. How could this be done? God would need to take care of three enemies! In order to bring us to heaven - he would need to REMOVE our sin. He would need to neutralize the enemy - the devil. And he would need to create an opening so that the valley of the shadow of death would not be the end all. You would think that it would take an army of angels to defeat an army of angels. You would think that God would need to somehow completely re-create us in order to make us holy. But God came up with a solution that was simply miraculous. Instead of sending an army of angels - God pulled out all the stops - and sent HIMSELF. But instead of coming in POWER, HE - GOD - was born as a tiny baby of the virgin Mary. You would think that God would just wipe the devil out. But instead, God sent his son to a CROSS - and punished HIM! And then, to top things off - God raised Jesus from the DEAD.
These were great wonders. But in sending Christ - He did everything He promised He would through Micah. Every one of these words is a sermon in itself. Micah proclaims, Who is a God like you, who (lifts up) sin and (passes over) the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not (hold onto) stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. 19 You will again have compassion on us; you will enslave our sins and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. 20 You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago. At the cross, God literally lifted your guilt off of your shoulders - and placed them on Christ. Instead of holding His anger in, God then proceeded to unleash ALL of His anger at YOU on Christ at the cross. Now God’s anger passes over you - because God truly holds no grudges against you. It is as if He took your sins and hurled them into the deepest depths of the sea. Unlike the Titanic, these sins will never be explored. Even though you may go back to the burial sight and remember past sins - in God’s eyes - your sins are dead and buried. Now, through God’s grace - God has enslaved your sins. At your baptism he took your sinful nature and put it to death. He locked it up. It no longer has control over you. You can say NO to what your sinful nature tells you to do. God - with the simple Word of God - has taken us from the forest of unbelief - cleaned us up - and led us to a fertile pastureland of forgiveness and love through the blood of Christ.
III. This is a miracle that leaves us in awe of our God
When the surrounding nations saw how God protected the Israelites through the desert - they were filled with fear at the sight of the Israelites. Egypt drowned in the depths of the Red Sea. The mighty kingdoms of Sihon and Og were conquered in no time at all. When the Israelites came across the Jordan to Jericho, their hearts melted with fear at the sight of them. Micah knew that this would be an amazing sight - whatever God would do to cleanse His people. And so Micah predicted the same thing would happen when God would come to the rescue of His people. 16 Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their power. They will lay their hands on their mouths and their ears will become deaf. 17 They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the LORD our God and will be afraid of you. When God would send a baby to save the world - when God would save the world through a death on a cross - that would evoke a response of awe and fear.
Now, I know there are some wiseacres out there who are musing, “where is this silent awe of the world?” The world continues to speak about it’s latest inventions. They still talk about the foolishness of Christianity. They still boast about their great buildings and actions. What world are you living in?” You might think to yourselves, “I’ve heard this story of Christ’s birth and death a hundred times. It doesn’t impress me. Actually, it kind of bores me. I’m still waiting to see this ‘power’ of the Word in my life.” That doesn’t surprise me either. For God’s Word says that the world is born dead in sin. When you’re dead, you can’t be impressed by anything. I might expect this reaction.
The miracle is that God actually does bring ANY to LIFE - that he moves some to FEAR him and stand in AWE of His mercy. Isn’t that what brought you here today? Doesn’t that make us say with Micah, “who is a God like you?” I might compare it to watching a Jackie Chan movie. This man is very innovative in the way that he makes fight scenes. Instead of just using normal karate chops and the like, he will use common every day items and create unbelievable fight scenes with them. In one scene, he fights off dozens of men with a common every day step ladder. I suppose some would be unimpressed with his action scenes. But when I saw that, I couldn’t believe how he orchestrated the action. In a sense, that’s what’s so amazing about God! But a hundred times more! He creates salvation through the birth of a boy - something that we see every day. He decides to save the world and bring life - through all things - an instrument of death - a cross! You would expect God - a powerful God - to use power to save the world. You would expect God to try and impress us with powerful miracles to convert us. But instead, He uses weakness! He uses the staff of His Word! With this simple tool - words - God converts us! He gets us to put our hands over our mouths - crawl on our knees before Him - and turn in fear to HIM for forgiveness. When we see God take us out of this sinful world and plant us into HIS kingdom - it brings us out of our dens of self righteousness and into the light of his SON! That’s exciting! If that doesn’t at least bring some joy to your heart - you’d best pinch yourself - because you must be dead!
When Lewis and Clark traveled across America, it took two years, four months, and nine days. They had traveled about 6,000 miles. They brought back much new material for map makers and specimens of previously unknown wildlife. American settlers and traders soon began to travel over the route they had blazed. After they blazed the path, it made it much easier for those who followed to go across America. Now we can travel all across America - from point a to point b - in air conditioned and heated cars without bumps, partly due to their work. Someone had to blaze the path.
The same rings true of our salvation. Someone had to blaze the path. If we had no Shepherd, we would be lost in this forest of sin with no way out. We would have no protection from Satan. We would have no cure for death. We would have no hope in this world. But thankfully, our Good Shepherd came and conquered death. He buried our sins. He defeated Satan. He blazed the path to heaven and provided a ride for us free of charge. The Path to the Pasture of the Promised Land Is Prepared by the Good Shepherd. Now, with his Words of grace, our Shepherd is leading us through the valley of the Shadow of Death to the Land of the Living. Thank God for your Good Shepherd today and always. Amen.
