Isn’t It Great When The Plan Of God Works!

Isn’t It Great When the Plan of God Works!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

By Rev. James May

God always has a plan that will not fail to bring about his will in the end. Though there are many times when we, as the people of God, cannot see what He is doing, God is always working in the background. Our job is to trust Him through it all; and then just keep on doing the work that He has called us to do until His plan finally comes together.

There was one of the minor prophet that isn’t really talked about much compared to some of the greater prophets like Moses, Elijah, Elisha and others. He wasn’t minor because he didn’t have the same anointing and Spirit that the big guys had. He wasn’t minor because he was smaller in stature than the rest. He was minor simply because he didn’t have much to say that is recorded in the letter he wrote. But what he did have to say had some very profound prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah of Israel.

Isn’t it great to be used by God to speak forth words under the anointing of the Holy Ghost? Isn’t it wonderful to know that, even in some small way, what you do as a Child of God, will really make a difference? I think it’s an honor and a privilege to be used by God even in the simplest of tasks; to somehow be a part, even a very small part, in the fulfilling of the magnificent plan of God in the earth! What a privilege just to be a part of God’s wonderful people! There’s no greater joy; no greater satisfaction; and I can think of nothing that will bring a greater meaning to life than to just be a part of what God is doing.

That’s the way this minor prophet of God in the Old Testament must have felt. It is obvious, through the name that he was given, that his parents truly loved God for they gave their child a name that means, “Who is like Yah”. Yah is a shortened version of Yahweh, so this child’s name means, Who is like the God of Heaven?

Slide 2

The prophet’s name was Micah and he lived and prophesied approximately 700 years before the birth of Jesus, at the same time that Isaiah, Amos and Hosea were also prophesying in Israel. He lived an prophesied before three of the kings of Judah; Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He foretold the coming destruction of Jerusalem and Samaria. He prophesied of the restoration of Judea. And like all prophets of old, he also carried a word from the Lord that was a stinging rebuke to the people of God in Judah for all of their hypocrisy, dishonesty and idolatry.

But there was one word of prophecy that he gave that I want to look at a little closer this morning.

Micah 5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

After this prophetic word was given along with the prophecies of the other prophets of his day, and a few prophets that would later give warnings of a coming time of calamity and destruction upon Israel, the Jews entered into a time of silence for 400 years when it seemed that God lifted his hand; shut up the Heavens, and no more is recorded of God’s dealings with Israel. The time of warnings had been given. God’s pleading was ignored, and now the course was set and there was no turning back.

Then, after many generations of Jews lived and died during that period of 400 years, there came a sound of a new prophet in the land. He came from the backside of the desert, wearing animal skins for clothes, eating locusts and wild honey; and he preached with a fire and an anointing that was greater than any other prophet before him. That great, long period of silence was shattered when John the Baptist stepped out preaching repentance and the coming of Jesus the Christ.

Had God been ignoring Israel through all those long years of silence? The answer to that question is NO! God had kept this hand upon Israel even in their rebellion. He had kept them together as a people. He continued to work in their midst, bringing about generation after generation of people, and among them, He was ever watching over the growth of two families in particular. Those families were the family of Mary, who would become the mother of God’s only Son; and the family of Joseph, who would be the earthly father and would play such an important role in the life of Jesus as he was growing up. God would leave nothing to chance. Everyday events, things that seemed so disconnected, so meaningless; would somehow all work together to bring about the perfect plan of God for the birth and life of Jesus Christ.