notes

Main point summary

It is God who raises us up after we fall

Arc

editing

OT

Micah 7:7-9

net

mine

But I will keep watching for the Lord;

When i sin and fall, i will look to the LORD God who is both righteous and merciful

I will wait for the God

i will not look elsewhere or try and resolve my sin and fall in any other way, through my own and others' help, but i will wait for God to respond.

who delivers me.

this God is the only One who can help me in my sin and fall. He is able to and wants to. This is my hope.

ideaexplanation

My God will hear my lament. 18

God will hear me. He will not be so angry that He will refuse to listen to my cry. Why is this so? On this side of the Cross, i know why. It is because of Jesus Christ. It is because i am in Christ. It is because in Christ, my sin is no longer getting in the way of God hearing me.

progression

My enemies, 19 do not gloat 20 over me!

ultimately my enemy is the accuser. he would really love it if my sin and my fallenness would so overwhelm and destroy me. he makes the accusation and claims to want justice. he doesn't want me to know that i do have a divine legal defence in the cross. he does not want God's salvation to save me. he wants me to think my sin is so great i have no salvation. in this he gloats and uses all supernatural and earthly means to get me to think and believe this way. BUT i can say to the accuser, and to any of his followers, that he and they are not to think they can triumph over my sin and fallenness.

Though I have fallen,

have i fallen? absolutely. have i done something grievous? truly. have i offended God? ultimately. Even then, even then, i am not undone entirely.

I will get up.

i will rise. not because the sin is so small or my fall isn't serious. yet, yet i will rise again.

negativepositive

Though I sit in darkness,

in sinning, in falling, in acting against God, in having no trust and faith in Him, i am in darkness. Oh how great the darkness, the confusion, the despair, the tragedy is. This is the most fearsome thing i can fall into.

the Lord will be my light. 21

yet there is light. i need not be in darkness or remain in it forever. i can be in light, in truth, in goodness, in purity, in righteousness. i can be with the LORD, i can be with this LIGHT. i need not be alone, isolated, cut off from His LIFE.

I must endure 22 the Lord’s anger,

oh though there is such hope in God, yet i cannot determine when His anger will stop. when His hand upon me to discipline me will end. i am not free and independent to stop His displeasure. i am to endure it, to wait under the weight of this. in one sense, God's anger is fully satisfied at the Cross. in another sense, He can still be angry, but on this side of the Cross, it is for discipline Hebrews 12:7-11.

for I have sinned against him.

ultimately my sin is against God, Psalm 51. any wrong i have done, even against other people, it is ultimately God that i have sinned against.

ground

But then 23 he will defend my cause, 24

how amazing this is. God will defend me, the very one who was against Him. Oh may this be to His glory, and may i glorify Him when not only He defends me, but He defends others who i would like to accuse.

and accomplish justice on my behalf.

Micah did not know entirely how God would accomplish this justice in the midst of such mercy. 1 Peter 1:10-12. but we know how this can be so, it is the Cross. The Cross accomplishes justice and justifies sinners. What true love and justice is met on the Cross.

He will lead me out into the light;

and with the reconciliation of the Cross, God will lead me into all truth, into all LIFE. this is how i will rise after sinning. it is not by my will, my determination, my repentance, my discipline. It is all by Him and Him alone. Praise be to this God, the LORD, the LORD, a GOD merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. . . but WHO will by no means clear the guilty.

I will experience firsthand 25 his deliverance. 26

the broad wide angle lens of this great salvation is not just an overarching magnificent deliverance to be marvelled from afar. It is to be experienced, tasted, live through by me.

discourse

Notes

Study Questions: 1. Do the themes or principles that I identify in the Old Testament passage or narrative apply today? And if not, why not? All themes and principles in the OT apply today The main reason for me is that the NT fulfills and completes the OT 2. What can I learn about God from this passage? Do I see these attributes in Jesus’s life? About God I am learning: God is to be turned to He is my God of salvation God hears, listens He knows when I fall He gives darkness He gives light He is my light He does get indignant at my sins My sins are against Him, He cares whether I sin or not He nevertheless will defend me(!) as a lawyer would in court He is also my Judge He will lead me to light, purity, truth He is the One who vindicates Through His vindication, He will respond rightly to my enemies The attributes I see in Jesus' life: How Jesus turned to the Father for vindication with regards to the Cross, 1 Peter 1:23 How Jesus endured the darkness of God's judgement, Hebrews 12:2 3. How does this section contribute to the overall story about Jesus? It lays the background to the seriousness with which God takes sin God's wrath and judgement against sin is a fearsome thing It contributes to the degree of wrath Jesus bore on the Cross At this point in Micah, it anticipates how God will defend and vindicate us guilty sinners, that is through the Cross 4. When was the last time you were broken over your sin? What did you do when you felt trapped in your guilt? There has been an issue for me in these last years that I have struggled over It is a battle for me to look to God and trust His wisdom, judgement and deliverance At other times, I fall into confusion and anguish. 5. Read Micah 7:7–9 . How does the prophet handle the Lord’s discipline? He recognises that he has fallen, he has sinned He sits in darkness, he accepts the hardness of the situation, the consequence of this sin He recognises that this situation is from God and accepts the LORD's indignation in response to the sin He hopes in God to resolve his sin and the judgement He hopes in God's legal defence He hopes in God's judgement He hopes in God's bringing out of darkness into light He hopes in God's vindication 6. What verses can you think of in the New Testament instruct us on how to deal with our sin? 1John 1:5-2:2 is the passage that comes to my mind when I think of how Micah 7:7-9 deals with sin. It seems to me a close parallel To recognise sin To look to God, for defence as in Jesus the Advocate To trust in His deliverance, which is the propitiation for our sins To recognise that God's wrath and judgement has been satisfied not by us, but by God Himself To hope in God's deliverance and cleansing of our sins