Who Is Like God (Micah) Series

As 29-year-old Neha Wright checked her mailbox and brought in the latest batch of bills, she realized the moment had finally arrived: Her childhood love of receiving a letter in the mail had officially been replaced with a very adult fear of receiving a letter in the mail.

Neha’s parents recall that as a kid, she would teem with excitement when she got a letter addressed to her and would run to open it. Neha’s mother said, “Most of the time it was something boring like a postcard from a cousin or a school paper. She’d check the mailbox every evening after school if she knew a letter was on the way.”

Now that she’s reached adulthood, seeing a letter in the mail sends a chill down Neha’s spine, and its sort of up in the air whether she will open it at all. She says, “It’s almost always my electric bill or a notice from my bank, two of the scariest things a girl can receive.

Neha said, “It’s hard to imagine there was once a time where I loved receiving mail, because it meant $20 from my grandparents. Imagine opening mail and gaining money? That must’ve been awesome!” (Freddie Shanel, “Childhood Love of Mail Replaced with Adult Fear of Mail,” Reductress, 10-10-23; www.PreachingToday.com).

I don’t know about you, but I can relate to how Neha feels about getting mail these days. As a kid, it was fun! As an adult, I’d be content just to let it sit in the mailbox, because it’s usually just junk mail or bills.

More often than not, the mail threatens my sense of well-being. So, what do you do when that happens? What do you do when you feel threatened? What do you do when a letter, a doctor’s report, or even world events jeopardize your sense of well-being?

That was the case in Jerusalem 800 years before Christ. The Assyrian empire was on the march, getting ready to overtake Israel just north of them and threatening Judah with total annihilation. They were prosperous days for Judah and Jerusalem, but the Assyrian empire jeopardized their sense of well-being.

That’s when Micah, the prophet, preached three messages of warning and hope to his kinsmen fearing for their lives. They are messages that still apply today, 2,800 years later, to anyone, who is concerned about their future. So, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Micah towards the end of your Old Testament, the book of Micah,

Micah 1:1-7 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem [the capitals of Israel and Judah]. Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth [i.e., the places where people worshipped idols (Psalm 78:58)]. And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return (ESV).

God will judge Israel and Judah for their idolatry.

Micah 1:8-9 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem (ESV).

When you’ve lost your sense of well-being, the first thing you do is…

WEEP BECAUSE JUDGMENT IS COMING.

Cry, because God is punishing you for your sin. Mourn, because God’s jealous wrath burns against your idolatry, and you are about to lose everything you looked to for security.

Oh, you may not have carved little statues, praying to them for prosperity and protection. But you may have coveted houses and lands and wealth, hoping that they will secure your future. If that’s the case, then God will take all that away.