“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Micah 4:1-2).
Do you ever get frustrated when you hear of corruption among political leaders today? This does not mean all politicians are corrupt, but most of us have heard of some politicians taking bribes or getting some kind of “bonus” from a lobbyist to gain their support for a particular piece of legislation.
Unfortunately, corruption among government leaders is nothing new. The prophet Micah ministered during a time when there was widespread corruption throughout the government circles and the evil that permeated the society in which he lived: “Woe to those who devise iniquity, and work out evil on their beds! At morning light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and take them by violence, also houses, and seize them. So, they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance” (Micah 2:1-2). He also adds regarding the corruption of the rulers: “And I said: ‘Hear now, O heads of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice? You who hate good and love evil; who strip the skin from My people, and the flesh from their bones; who also eat the flesh of My people, flay their skin from them, break their bones, and chop them in pieces like meat for the pot, like flesh in the caldron’ " (Micah 3:1-3).
God’s role for Micah was to proclaim God’s message to the people. Micah states, “But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8). Micah pronounces God’s judgment upon the rulers and people of Israel: “Now hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, who build up Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity: her heads judge for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.’ Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the temple like the bare hills of the forest” (Micah 3:9-12).
However, a better kingdom was coming. As the opening verses above indicate, God was going to establish His new House or Kingdom that would be comprised of all nations. It would also begin in Jerusalem or Zion and would be based on God’s Word (cf. Micah 4:2). This was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost following the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (cf. Acts 2:1-47). The Head or Ruler of this Kingdom would be God’s Son Himself: “"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).
As a Christian, I am blessed to be a part of the church which is this better kingdom of which Micah spoke (cf. Colossians 1:13; Philippians 3:20-21). Today, I will try not to let myself get weighed down by the politics of the day, but will remember that I belong to a far better kingdom!
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:20-21).