Tue, 28 November, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.
1 And I said:
Hear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice?–
2 you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
and their flesh from off their bones,
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.4 Then they will cry to the LORD,
but he will not answer them;
he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.
In Micah’s day, there were leaders who did not care about the welfare of the people they were supposed to serve. Instead, all they cared about was themselves. They took advantage of the people under them, to their own benefit and to the detriment of the people in their charge. They did not care about justice. In fact, they hated the good and loved the evil. They abused the people in their care to the extent that Micah tells us they were tearing the skin off the people and eating their flesh.
But their treatment of God’s people does not escape God. When they face trouble and cry out to God, God will not listen to their cries for mercy. He will turn His face away from them.
What do we learn from this?
Those who are entrusted with leadership take on a great responsibility. God sees how they treat the people under them. He knows if the leaders are truly trying to do what is best for the people in their care, or if they are simply using the people for their own benefit and pleasure. Leaders who abuse their position of authority will be judged by God.
Great responsibility comes along with authority. Leaders who misuse their authority will be held accountable to God. This is true of our political leaders who care only about enjoying the benefits of office and making sure they are continually reelected. It is also true of our spiritual leaders, for they will be held accountable to an even greater degree than our political leaders. For in abusing the people in their care, the political leaders are only harming the temporal lives of their constituents. But when spiritual leaders take advantage of the people in their care, they are harming the souls of those entrusted to them.
They have made their deeds evil, and God will not answer them.
Where is Christ in this passage?
Does this mean that if a leader abuses the people in his care, he can never be saved? When he cries out to God for salvation, God will hide His face from their cry for mercy?
Absolutely not. If anyone comes to God, trusting in Jesus Christ for their salvation, they will be saved. If they cry out to God for mercy, trusting in His substitute that was provided for them, God will meet them with favor. This is not talking about someone who truly trusts in Jesus Christ. This is speaking of someone who has abused their position of privilege in rebellion against God, and then cries out to God when difficult times come. They are not repentant of their sins, and they aren’t trusting in Jesus Christ. They only want to save themselves from further difficulties.
Jesus Himself has promised that He will savingly greet everyone who comes to Him in faith.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
There are not qualifications on what sins can and will be forgiven. There is no hedging about who will have eternal life. Whoever believes will never hunger or thirst. Everyone who looks on the Son and believes shall have eternal life. That includes these wicked leaders. If they repent of their sins and turn to God, trusting in Jesus Christ for their salvation, they too shall have eternal life.
There is no sin so heinous that God can not cleanse us from it, provided we come to Him repenting of it and trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation.
