A Long-term God

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 11, 2015.  The Bible verses used are Micah 4:11--5:4.

We are about in the middle of our sermon series on the Minor Prophets, called “Who Are These Guys?”  Today we look at the prophet Micah.

            We don’t know just a whole lot about Micah.  We’re told he came from a place called Moresheth, but we really don’t know where that was.  Scholars think it was somewhere in the Jerusalem area, and that Micah’s ministry probably took place in and around Jerusalem.  Since Micah’s message is about Jerusalem that certainly makes sense, but we really don’t know that for sure.

            We’re told that Micah was given his message during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.  That’s not terribly exact, because those three kings had reigns that spanned fifty-five years.  Still, it means that Micah must have lived somewhere in the vicinity of seven hundred B. C., give or take thirty years or so.

            When we look at Micah’s message and compare it to the other Minor Prophets we’ve talked about so far, there’s a sense in which it’s kind of same old same old.  God, through Micah, is pronouncing judgment on Samaria and Jerusalem.  And when we say “pronouncing judgment”, of course, we mean telling them of their coming destruction.  That term “judgment”, in this context, is never something good or even something neutral.  God’s judgment, in the Old Testament, is never, “Hey, you guys are doing great!”  No, when God pronounces judgment through a prophet, the judgment is always going to be bad news for the people being judged.  The people have ignored God, they’ve worship other gods or not god at all, and now they’re going to have to pay the penalty.

            So we read God saying things to Samaria and Jerusalem like, “I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves.”  And, “I will pour her stones into the valley and lay bare her foundations.”  And, “Then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them.  At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.”  And, “Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.”

            That’s some tough stuff.  And there’s a lot more of it.  But then, in the middle of all that, in about the middle of the book, comes the part we read today.  God has told the people all these terrible things that are going to happen.  Jerusalem is going to be destroyed.  It’s going to look like the bad guys have won.

            But God says the bad guys will not win.  It may look like they’re winning, but they’re not.  They may think they’re winning, but they’re not.  God says, “They do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan.”  God says, never mind what it looks like.  I’m still in control here.  I have a plan.  Everybody’s going to think I’ve abandoned Israel, but it won’t be true.

            And then God says this, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel; whose origins are of old, from ancient times.”

            Do you recognize that?  I mean, not just because we read it a few minutes ago.  Did it sound familiar to you?  It should.  We read similar words every year at Christmas.  They’re from the gospel of Matthew.  The wise men come to see King Herod.  They tell him they’re looking for the king of the Jews that’s just been born.  Herod goes to the chief priests and teachers of the law and asks them were the Messiah is supposed to be born.  They tell him, “In Bethlehem in Judea, for this is what the prophet has written:  ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”’

            So think about this situation.  God is pronouncing judgment on Samaria and Jerusalem.  If you heard God’s message of judgment and believed it, what would your reaction be?  You’d pretty much give up, right?  You’d have no hope.  You’d think, it’s all over.  God is abandoning us.

And yet, at the same time God gives them that message, God says that it’s going to be okay.  God says, it may not look like it’s going to be okay, but it is.  God says, I have a plan.  It’s going to be bad for a while, but not forever.  There’s going to be a Savior, and he’s going to come from Bethlehem.

            Remember, we think this message came to Micah somewhere around seven hundred B. C.  So that means that seven hundred years before Jesus was born on earth, God already had it all planned out.  And not just in round numbers, either.  God had all the details planned out.  God knew, seven hundred years before it happened, that Jesus was going to be born, and that he was going to be born in Bethlehem.

            God told people about Jesus’ birth seven hundred years in advance.  We gloss over that time element sometimes when we read the Bible.  Seven hundred years.  Think about how long seven hundred years is.  Seven hundred years back from today was the year 1315.  There was no United States of America.  Christopher Columbus had not even landed yet here yet.  There was no such thing as electricity or indoor plumbing.  The printing press had not even been invented yet.  Seven hundred years is like thirty generations ago.  Our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents were around seven hundred years ago.

            What I’m trying to say is that seven hundred years is an incredibly long time.  And yet, seven hundred years before Jesus was born, God had everything all planned out.  In fact, God had it all planned out a long time before that, too.

            Here’s the point.  You and I look around at the world, and we see all kinds of things that seem to be going wrong.  And by the way, that’s true no matter what you’re political leanings are.  I have friends from all over the political spectrum, and they all see things happening that makes them think everything’s falling apart.  It’s different things, but they all see things that convince them that it’s all going wrong for the world and it’s all going wrong for our country and everything is in decline.

            And sometimes it seems like that in our own lives, too.  Sometimes we look out our lives and we see all kinds of things that seem to be going wrong.  It can feel like our lives are falling apart, that it’s all going wrong for us and that everything in our lives is in decline, too.

            But the thing about God is that God is a long-term God.  And sometimes, God’s plans take a long time to come about.  That can be hard for us to deal with, because as human beings, we tend to be short-term people.  We don’t want to hear about a seven-hundred-year plan, because we cannot really understand seven hundred years.  We can barely understand seventy years.  When things start happening that we don’t like, we don’t want to hear about seven hundred years or seventy years or even seven years.  We don’t even want to hear about seven days.  We want to see action now.

            That’s how the people of Samaria and Jerusalem felt, too.  That’s how they felt when this judgment God pronounced started actually coming about.  They did not want to hear about a seven-hundred-year plan.  They wanted to see things get better now.

            And God said, I know.  But it has to be like that for now.  These are things that have to happen.  But it’s not going to last forever.  I have a plan.  Eventually, it’s going to be okay.  That’s what God says to us, too.

            And we say, but God, look around.  It’s not okay.  Nothing’s happening.  The plan’s not working.

            And God says, it will.  Eventually, it will.  Trust me.

            And so, as so often happens, that’s where we are.  At a question of trust.  We have God’s promises in the Bible, the promises that say God is still active and that God is in control and that God will ultimately win and that eventually everything will be the way it’s supposed to be.  And then we look around and see things that don’t look right and things that don’t seem to be going the way they’re supposed to go.  And we cannot see anything happening to stop it.  We look for things.  We want to see them.  But we cannot.  And again, this is true whether we’re talking about the world, the country, our church, our own lives, or lots of other things.

            God is a long-term God.  God has had things all planned out for hundreds of years.  In fact, God has had things all planned out since the world was created.  That’s not to say that everything that happens is the will of God, because God allows us to make choices and those choices have consequences.  But God has a plan, and God is working to make God’s plan come about.  God has been working for hundreds of years, thousands of years.  God has been working ever since the universe was created.  In fact, God was working before the universe was created.  And God is still working now, today.  God has a plan, and God will do whatever is necessary to make sure God’s plan eventually comes about.

            God is a long-term God.  Can we trust God enough to be long-term people?  If we can, we’ll see all kinds of incredible and wonderful things happen.