I don’t need to tell you we are in a dark time.
You don’t need reminding our world is a dark place.
In these days surrounding an election with two less-than-perfect options, following a global pandemic and unjust murders of God’s children, the world seems darker than ever before.
But I assure you this is nothing new. Scripture has been talking about dark times long before any of us were here.
Micah wrote the following words that sound eerily familiar to our current days:
“The godly have been swept from the land;
not one upright man remains.
All men lie in wait to shed blood;
each hunts his brother with a net.
Both hands are skilled in doing evil;
the ruler demands gifts,
the judge accepts bribes,
the powerful dictate what they desire—
they all conspire together.
The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright worse than a thorn hedge” (7:2-4).
And yet Micah saw the world through God’s eyes and viewed time through His perspective.
He saw light amidst the darkness, and he had a hope that transcended the circumstances.
What he knew was to come filled him with the confidence to say:
“But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might” (3:8).
He knew of a Savior to come who wouldn’t only BRING peace to His people but would BE peace for His people (5:5).
Chapter 6 is set up like that of a courtroom—God asking Israel to plead their case.
God’s argument against His wayward children? A reminder of how He had redeemed them from slavery and to the Promised Land.
And His requirement of them? Not sacrifice or offerings but rather:
“To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (6:8).
It may seem like this world is barren of those who are seeking to walk with God. But I assure you it is not. For God has spoken:
“I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob;
I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,
like a flock on its pasture;
the place will throng with people.
One who breaks open the way will go up before them;
they will break through the gate and go out” (2:12-13).
Micah knew of a God who had written a triumphant ending to His Story by way of One who would lead His people there. This truth filled Him with hope in the midst of the darkness to say:
“But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,
I wait for God my Savior;
my God will hear me.
Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light” (7:7-8).
May we echo Micah’s words.
May we share Micah’s hope.
May we be light in darkness through the peace we have in Jesus.
And may we answer the call of our gracious God to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.
. . .
Clay has been talking for a while about how he wanted to put this verse up in our home. I finally got around to ordering the images, ordering the frames, and printing the images for his birthday.
A few Sundays ago we hung them together as a family, right there in between the two lights in our family room.
I think of those two lights as the light of what God has already done and the light of what He is yet to do. And I view these two verses as our assignment as we faithfully walk this in between–this messy, beautiful, complicated but oh-so-simple in between.
Would you join us as we strive to answer this call from our God?
