THE LORD SPOKE (December 20)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Micah 1-3

To start with, he ministered during the same time as the great Prophet Isaiah. Then there was the story of Tiglath-Pileser and the sack of Samaria by the Assyrians. Now they were back. King Hezekiah was facing them in Judah and all the headlines were filled with Sennacherib and the siege of Jerusalem. Who could ever forget the front-page pictures of 185,000 dead bodies outside (!) Jerusalem’s walls? And if you’re talking about grabbing people’s attention and getting a hearing, Hosea’s on-going saga made it hard to compete.

So who would listen to little ol’ Micah, nestled away in the Shephelah hills? Who’d even heard of Moresheth Gath (Mic. 1:1,14)? But with a word from the Lord burning inside, he begins his prophecy by saying:

Hear, O peoples, all of you,
Listen, O earth and all who are in it.... (Mic. 1:2)

His initial prophecies come to pass quickly. Samaria is made “a heap of rubble” (Mic. 1:3-7). The Judean towns get it next (Mic. 1:8-16). Here’s that story in Sennacherib’s own words:

As for Hezekiah the Judahite, who did not submit to my yoke: [I destroyed] forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small towns in their area, which were without number, by leveling with battering-rams and by bringing up siege-engines, and by attacking and storming on foot, by mines, tunnels, and breeches, I besieged and took them. 200,150 people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep without number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil. [Hezekiah] himself, like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city. From “Sennacherib’s Prism” (c. 689 BC)

Micah next turns his guns on the politicians (Mic. 3:1-4) and the clergy (Mic. 3:5-7). In both cases God will refuse to answer their phony cries for help (Mic. 3:4 and Mic. 3:7). In desperation the false prophets will tell Micah, “Stop talking that way!” (Mic. 2:6).

In the end Jerusalem, just like Samaria, will become “a heap of rubble” (Mic. 3:12; c.f. Mic. 1:6) and they already knew what that looked like. Even harder to think of and worse than they wanted to imagine, the Temple Mount would become “a mound overgrown with thickets” (Mic. 3:12). That destruction was temporarily averted in the days of good king Hezekiah but it too came to pass.

. . . . . . . .

Only by peeking ahead to the next chapter can we find hope. “In the last days” the situation will be reversed. Then all Israel will stream to Jerusalem. In fact, we’re told that “many nations” will come to hear “the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Mic. 4:1-2). Others may do as they please but “we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever” (Mic. 4:5).


Proverbs 20

Does the Bible condemn all consumption of alcoholic beverages? No, it does not. But it does condemn all drunkenness at all times under any circumstances.

It’s because drunkenness is a form of losing self-control or, as our passage today says, “whoever is led astray by [alcoholic beverages] is not wise” (Prov. 20:1). Proverbs associates drunkenness with gluttony, which leads to poverty (Prov. 23:20-21); with woe, sorrow, and strife (Prov. 23:29-30); and with lawlessness and injustice (Prov. 31:4-5). It leads to no good!

From the first instance of drunkenness (Gen. 9:21), when Noah drank wine and lost his self-control, ugly sin was the result. He lost more than just his self-control. He lost his family. Isaiah describes the ugliness that results from being “befuddled with wine” (Isa. 28:7-8). The drunkard “staggers around in his vomit” (Isa. 19:14). With the loss of self-control goes self-respect and also the respect of others.

The New Testament is unequivocal in its condemnation of drunkenness and places it alongside some of the “worst” sins:

• Galatians 5:19-21 - Drunkenness is put in the same category with sexual immorality, idolatry and witchcraft, and orgies. “Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
• Ephesians 5:18 - Getting drunk on wine “leads to debauchery” which Webster defines as “corruption of fidelity”.
• Romans 13:13 - “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.”

Given the deceptive power of drink, if you have any weakness in the area of self-control (and who doesn’t?), teetotalism is not a bad policy.

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. [KJV = “make no provision for the flesh”] (Rom. 13:14).