Restoration, Not Rejection (Micah 4:6-13)

God is in the business of restoration.  The enemy of humanity's soul would have us believe He's all about judgement and condemnation. But as you read through His prophets' and His Son's words, you find a balance presentation of both justice and mercy, judgment and restoration, discipline and obedience.  

His justice is motivated by His love.  If people are killing, exploiting, lying and destroying one another, who wouldn't intervene in something like that?  Love is not indifference; it is hands-on, making sure that evil doesn't continue to control people--those who are perpetrators and those who are victims.  

His mercy is motivated by His love.  He wants restoration, shalom and joy to be His children's place--all of us sitting under our "own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid" (4:4).

His judgment is motivated by love.  If He shows His people what is right, merciful and loving, and then people disdain His words and His ways, why wouldn't He then judge such rebellion?  If those standards did not have love behind them, people would descend deeper and deeper into sin, knowing that God will not act, that law has no meaning and that sin wins.

His restoration is motivated by His love. The Fall is not our permanent habitation--living in the debris of our first parents' fateful and endlessly damaging decision to not listen to God and follow His ways. He had hovered over the waters of chaos, and brought forth light. He seeks above all else to bring light to the darkness.  His Son called Himself "the Light of the World." Why? Darkness was never what His Father wanted.  

His discipline is motivated by His love. What kind of parents would allow their child to run in front of a car?  What kind of parents would never tell their child that moving cars are dangerous? What kind of parents would, after grabbing that child out of harm's way, act like it was no big deal?  The parents' disciplining that child would reinforce the serious nature of the child's disobedience, to prevent another incident. The parents might not be around the next time.  God is always there, but He wants us to obey Him and not be shattered by disobedient thoughts and actions. 

His demand for obedience is motivated by His love.  How often do we live with regret about something we knew we shouldn't do, but we did it anyway?  How often do our decisions mar and scar us, and even though we are forgiven, we still bear the consequences of what we did?  God wants a richness and peace in our lives and knows that what we do, outside of His ways, can steal our joy, rob us of peace and make us even despair of this life. 

So, let's look at the Lord's plan for His people--not judgement, destruction and chaos, but reconciliation, restoration and shalom: 

“In that day,” declares the Lord,

I will gather the lame;
I will assemble the exiles
and those I have brought to grief.
I will make the lame my remnant,
those driven away a strong nation.
The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion
from that day and forever.
As for you, watchtower of the flock,
stronghold of Daughter Zion,
the former dominion will be restored to you;
kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem. (6-8)

Do you see Jesus in this?  God's restoration is given to those who need it most: life has lamed them, in body, soul and spirit and God reaches deeply into their lives to heal them. Jesus came to those who needed God the most:  the hurting, the marginalized, the angry, the weary and those who knew God but somehow didn't know God. 

Why do you now cry aloud—
have you no king?
Has your ruler perished,
that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?
Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you must leave the city
to camp in the open field.
You will go to Babylon;
there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will redeem you
out of the hand of your enemies. (4:9-10)

Babylon/chaos/suffering/exile are never our permanent homes.  The enemy tells us that our brokenness is who we are and to take our identity from that. By joining with other similarly broken people, we feel we are not alone, because there are others who see themselves as we do. We couldn't all be wrong.  

But Babylon with cheers, beach tents, fancy hotels and lots of parties doesn't make it any less Babylon; it's still, underneath all that glamour, a place of lies, alienation and separation from the One who dearly loves us.

But the Lord redeems us. Rescues us. Hears our cries. Steps into our Egypt and leads us out. Goes into our Babylon and brings us back. Reaches into our brokenness and reminds us our true and unassailable identity is that we are His children, made in His image. He speaks over our chaos and says, "Let there be Light!  And it's My Son!" 

But now many nations
are gathered against you.
They say, “Let her be defiled,
let our eyes gloat over Zion!”
But they do not know
the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion,
for I will give you horns of iron;
I will give you hooves of bronze,
and you will break to pieces many nations.”
You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the Lord,
their wealth to the Lord of all the earth. (4:11-13)

Wow. In the darkest night of these children's soul God promises a glorious return to peace, prosperity and assurance that His time of judgment will end.  It will end, not leaving them alone and without knowing where they are going, but it will end with them gloriously returned to their beloved Jerusalem.  The very City of David will be restored, for God will not allow His children to live among the ruins. 

Do you see Jesus in this? 

For us, what stands between our sin and our Jerusalem is the cross.

The Message takes John 1:5 and makes it our clarion call:

Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.

Amen!