Micah’s Lament and Confidence
[Read Micah 7:1-7]
It doesn’t matter how often you hear the story of the crucifixion, the brutality and wickedness of it all is always shocking. We see the complete wickedness in the fact that Jesus was continually mocked throughout the entire situation. It didn’t matter how beaten and bloodied he was, they continued to mock him: Prophesy! Hail King of the Jews! This guy thought he could rebuild the temple and can’t even save himself! If you are really the Christ come down from the cross! If you want us to believe in you, do a miracle now! Even the men hanging on the cross on either side of him mocked him. The entire story reeks of evil and wickedness.
It only gets worse as we hear their screams of “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” That even shocked Pilate, causing him to question them, “Why, what has he done?” They didn’t even have a good answer for him, they just screamed louder, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Wickedness and Evil. It gets even worse, I think, when they cry out “We have no king but Caesar!” and not only reject Jesus, but blatantly reject their God and Father. Wickedness and Evil.
It makes you wonder how they got into this position. What led them to the place where they could unashamedly mock an innocent man who was beaten and bloodied, hunger for his death, and reject their God? There are a variety of ways to answer that question, but I want to point out that Micah sees a similar level of wickedness and evil in his day. He says things like, “The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind…” (Micah 7:2, ESV). Not only have the godly disappeared, but he says, “Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well…” (Micah 7:3, ESV). It’s not just that the godly have disappeared and there’s malaise in regard to righteousness—or an apathy toward it—but they are skilled at doing what is evil. They have honed and perfected it to the best of their ability. It’s become an art-form to them.
Not only that but Micah says, “…they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net.” (Micah 7:2, ESV). They are hunting one another. All they are worried about is themselves and what they can take from those around them. So, they lurk and stalk the people around them, calculating how much they can take from them—even their life if necessary.
Doesn’t that sound like the scene leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion? People who have perfected wickedness and evil, people who have greased the wheels of justice so that they can get done what they want to get done, people who have stirred up false testimony and applied pressure on the judges and politicians. They have perfected evil. And they are hunting those around them, looking for blood, crying out “Crucify! Crucify!” We see this situation in Micah’s day, in Jesus’ day, and sadly we continue to see it in our own day. The question is, how do we respond in the midst of it?
Micah responds by crying out, “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.” (Micah 7:1, ESV). Now, we’ve transformed the “Woe is me” language into something that is geared more toward self-pity. It’s something we tell our children when they complain about having to do a chore around the house—don’t be so “woe is me” about this. However, when you see the broader context, that’s not what is happening with Micah. He’s not complaining about how bad things are around him. He’s also not angry and bitter about how bad things are. Instead, he says that he is like a vineyard that has been emptied. He is lamenting the wickedness he sees around him. He’s weeping and weary over it.
Jesus responded to this rampant wickedness in the same way. Jesus looked out over wicked and evil Jerusalem and said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.” (Matthew 23:37–38, ESV). When Luke tells us this story, he fills in what Jesus was feeling, “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,” (Luke 19:41, ESV). Jesus wept over the city that he knew was about to kill him.
This is such an important reminder for us as we live in the midst of a culture where we look around and it seems like the godly have perished, and we’re surrounded by people who have perfected evil and wickedness, who are hunting the people around them seeking to take advantage of them. It’s easy to become very angry—and that is not entirely wrong. It’s easy to become very bitter. It’s not always our natural tendency to weep. To weep over the destruction that we see happening throughout the culture. To weep over the destruction that we see happening in the lives of these people. Both Micah and Jesus remind us that we are called to weep and lament when the godly perish from the earth and when we’re surrounded by evil and wickedness.
Yet, we’re not called only to lamenting and weeping. We’re called to live. As he lives in the midst of a wicked generation he says, “But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.” (Micah 7:7, ESV). When Micah says, “But as for me…” he’s taking a bold, counter-cultural stand in the face of the culture. It doesn’t matter if they have perfected evil and are hunting people down, he is going to live differently. He is going to shine like a light in the midst of the darkness. He is going to do what the Lord requires of him—do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with his God. He says that a little differently here. He’s going to look to the Lord, wait for the Lord, knowing that the Lord will hear him and be his salvation. It didn’t matter how unfaithful the culture was around him; he was going to be faithful to his God.
We see the same out of Jesus as he enters Jerusalem and as he begins the long, suffering path toward the cross. You can almost put these same words in Jesus’ mouth, can’t you? In the midst of all of the wickedness that Jesus faced on that night he said, “But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.” (Micah 7:7, ESV). He looked to the Lord in Gethsemane and cried out, “Not my will but yours be done.” He waited for the Lord and didn’t defend himself before his false accusers and didn’t fight back. He knew his Father would hear him as he cried out to him on the cross, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46, ESV).
It’s no coincidence that the world went dark in the midst of Jesus’ death on the cross. It truly was a dark day when the light of the world was put to death. In the midst of the evil and wickedness, in the midst of the darkness, Jesus remained faithful and trusted in God to the point of death—and beyond.
This night—Good Friday—the night we remember the death of Jesus Christ, is the epitome of darkness. It’s the epitome of a situation that seemed like the darkness had overcome the light, like those who had perfected evil had won, and that everything was hopeless. And if the story ended here, that would be the case.
Yet, we know that Sunday is coming. And because we know that Sunday is coming, we also know that we can have hope in the midst of our deepest darkness. Because we know that Jesus overcame the darkness, and defeated sin and death and Satan, we have confidence that we will overcome as well.
Therefore, as we live in the midst of wickedness and evil, we should cry out and lament the destruction we see all around us. We should also live and act and speak with a “But as for me…” mentality. As we live our lives surrounded by darkness, we must not get angry and bitter with God, but we must look to God and watch for him and trust him with our lives. We must live and act and pray like we KNOW he is our God and we KNOW that he will hear us. Ultimately, we must wait for God. Because we love and trust our God, and we know he doesn’t work on our timelines, we wait for him and trust him in the midst of it all. We can do all of these things—and have this kind of faith and hope in the midst of darkness and evil and wickedness—because Jesus Christ was faithful to the end, died on the cross for us, was buried, and after three days overcame it all.