Micah 7:1-2, 15-17 (ESV)

[1] Woe is me! For I have become

as when the summer fruit has been gathered,

as when the grapes have been gleaned:

there is no cluster to eat,

no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.

[2] The godly has perished from the earth,

and there is no one upright among mankind;

they all lie in wait for blood,

and each hunts the other with a net.

[15] As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

I will show them marvelous things.

[16] The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;

they shall lay their hands on their mouths;

their ears shall be deaf;

[17] they shall lick the dust like a serpent,

like the crawling things of the earth;

they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;

they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God,

and they shall be in fear of you.

When wickedness seemed to have taken over the world and evil appeared to reign, the prophet Micah pointed people back to God’s past faithfulness, and then assured them of God’s future faithfulness. Sometimes all we can see is the pain, the evil, the darkness that surrounds us. Whether it is the wickedness of the world around us, the unfaithfulness of our brothers and sisters in Christ, or the hopelessness of our own life, it is easy to lose hope. In that context Micah reminds the people of God of three truths. First, God will discipline his people. Second, God will restore his people. Third, God will never abandon his people.

God loves us too much to allow us to continue living is easy, self-righteous, comfortable faith. He wants us to understand what it means to live by faith. “My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” (Heb 10:38). He wants us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus (see Heb 12:1-2). When we are not walking by faith we tend to fall into apathy, self-sufficiency, and self-focused worship. When we make worship about us we have fallen into idolatry. We begin to redefine God’s Word and God’s standards of holiness to conform to our own desires. Unholiness creeps in and we don’t even recognize it. But God loves us too much to leave us there. “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.“ (Prov 3:11-12).

God not only disciplines those he loves, he also promises restoration. When the world seems dark and hopeless we need to look back to past times of God’s faithfulness, remind ourselves of the faithful nature of God, and trust him. He never leaves us in the dark. His timing might not be our timing. He rarely works in the way we expect him to work. But his discipline is not forever, and there is future hope. Now is not forever. This life is not forever. This world is not forever. God disciplines those he loves. He also restores those he loves. There is light beyond the darkness.

There is not only light beyond the darkness, “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise” (Mic 7:8a), but when we walk by faith there is light in the darkness. “When I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me” (Micah 7:8b). When we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus there is light even in the darkest night of the soul. Great joy can be found in the depths of despair. Great faith can be found in the most hopeless of times. Great peace can be experienced in the most anxious situations. As a people of faith and a people of God we are never limited by the experience and conditions around us. Our light is not found in comfort and affluence. It is found in a faithful God who never abandons us in the darkest of times. He is always there.

God loves us too much to not discipline us. God loves us too much to leave us in eternal despair. God loves us too much to abandon us in the darkness. God is faithful. We can trust him in the darkest of days. Look to his past faithfulness, fix your eyes on Jesus, and live in hope. God is faithful.