The
Perplexity In The Land
Micah 7:2 “The good man is perished out
of the earth: and there is none upright among men:
they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man
his brother with a net.
3 That
they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the
prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward;
and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous
desire: so they wrap it up.
4
The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is
sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen
and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their
perplexity.”
1. No Vision
2. Good Men Perish
3.
Visitation Comes
1. No Vision
A person needs hope.
[People need to have hope!]
This hope needs to be within a person so that what he [or she] puts forth by labor and by sweat … in the present … will bear fruit for him [or her] somewhere down the road to enjoy in the future.
This is called: having “vision”.
Now, VISION is the object of one’s sight. If you take away a person’s vision, it will cause that person to give up in utter discouragement.
This loss of vision will cause that person to “perish”.
Let me expand upon this. What is the KEY to health of the vision of any people? Here is the answer. The key to the health of the vision of any people is connected to, and wholly dependent upon, that same people … keeping the LAW of GOD.
Happiness comes to those who have vision!
How can we know this to be the very truth? We know this to be truth because the Bible tells us it is so. “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” [Proverbs 29:18]
To believe the Bible will set you free … so that you may believe the truth. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” [John 8:32]
Hope within a person comes from the happiness derived from keeping the law of God.
Therefore, it is hope that gives rise to vision, and it is vision that drives a people forward in their labors … to reach their reward.
2. Good Men Perish
Now, we are ready for verse two: “The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net."
Note: the good man perishes at a certain point, and who is left? It is the evil man that is left.
The bad apples always win. The good apples perish. The apples in the bag will all become rotten. It is, as the BOOK says it is, in First Corinthians chapter fifteen, verse thirty-three: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” [1 Corinthians 15:33] It is, as the BOOK says it is, in Galatians chapter five, verse nine: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” [Galatians 5:9]
Now for verse three: “That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.”
The judge and the prince are diligent in their mischievous desire. They are evil!
Evil proliferates under these conditions in a vicious circle. The judges of the land take bribes from the governors [leaders] to feather their own beds. They enact laws to cover their evil deeds. So “they wrap it up”. The governor then draws [or sucks] out the life of good men. The good men perish.
There was a time when the leaders of our country were known in the gates as statesmen and not as politicians. There is a difference. Statesmen had moral virtues [called old fashion character] and it was the statesmen who served the people [and not themselves]. Politicians are the ones who are steeped in the religious philosophy of pragmatism, and it is the politicians and the lawyers who always enslave the people.
It is today, as it was in Gideon’s day when the Midianites enslaved the people of a whole nation [Israel]. It was Gideon, back then, who was forced to conduct his commerce by night, in order to hide it from the Midianites. Gideon did this just to survive. Is not this where are today?
Read it, and see it for yourself, in the book of Judges chapter six, verse eleven: “And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.” [Judges 6:11]
The good people in Gideon’s day had their hope destroyed!
The good people in Gideon’s day lost their vision.
The good people in Gideon’s day perished.
Their vision was closed because the word of God was made “precious” [or scarce] in their land! See this thing for yourself in First Samuel: “And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision.” [1 Samuel 3:1]
Again, the bad apples always win. The good apples always perish. The apples in the bag will all become rotten.
What is the solution?
What is the remedy?
3. Visitation Comes
Verse four: “The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.”
Do you see what is left? These leaders are all as briers. These leaders are all like a “thorn hedge” and they hurt the people. For this … the visitation comes.
When the “visitation” of God comes to a land, or to the people of a nation, then “mischief” will always come. You can count on it! Look around you. The prophet tells us this much and more, in Ezekiel chapter seven, verses twenty-six thru twenty-seven: “Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.”
[Do you see that? There will be no vision, and there will be trouble! You do believe Bible, don’t you?]
“The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.” [Ezekiel 7:26-27] They will get what they deserve.
• When the vision of a people fails, then bad men will rise to the top of the roost.
• When bad men run the roost, then the good people will perish.
• When the good people have perished, then God will make a visitation to the land.
• When the visitation of God comes, then there will be nothing but “perplexity” in the land.
I ask,
“What is the solution?
What is the remedy?”
It is this.
The antidote to the rotten apples … is to throw them out, and for the people to keep the LAW of God, then, happiness will be in the land of the people.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
The people need their vision maintained through the word of God [The King James Bible]. Amen!