The
Day of Dishonor
Micah 7:5 “Trust ye not in a friend, put
ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy
mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the
daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter
in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies
are the men of his own house.”
1. Friends Fail
2. Guides Lie
3.
Mutiny Prevails
1. Friends Fail
Verse five a: “Trust ye not in a friend, …”
Is this not this an extreme thing to hear from the prophet?
Then, who can we turn to in the time of need? Good question.
A friend is defined in the Bible as one who is “as thine own soul.” [See Deuteronomy 13:6]
A friend is one who sticks “closer than a brother”. Proverbs chapter eighteen, verse twenty-four: “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” [Proverbs 18:24]
It is a true friend that will stick with you through thick and thin while he, or she, is building you up.
This building up is otherwise called sharpening you up.
In the Bible this mutual sharpening process is perfectly described in the book of Proverbs in chapter twenty-seven, verse seventeen, as this: “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” [Proverbs 27:17]
Now, there is something else to consider about a friend. There are people in our lives that we “use” as our friends. We “use” one another! Does this surprise you? It shouldn’t. We “use” certain of others around us as our friends.
For example, this certainly was the true in Samson’s life. Do you remember what was said concerning Samson’s companion, which thing is found in Judges fourteen, twenty? Samson’s companion was “used as his friend.” Let me read it to you. “But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.” [Judges 14:20]
Now, understand this. Samson’s friend was no real friend at all, which matches the old adage, that with a friend like that, who needs an enemy? Therefore, a person USED as a friend may, in fact, be no real friend at all to you. Even a “familiar” friend may in the end … lift the heel against you. See Psalm chapter forty-one, verse nine: “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” [Psalm 41:9]
Now consider Job. These are the same kind of friends that Job had for friends as shown in Job chapter six, verse twenty-seven: “Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend.” [Job 6:27]
2. Guides Lie
Verse five b: “… put ye not confidence in a guide:”
Is not this this strange thing what the prophet is telling us not to do? Micah is saying: “… put ye not confidence in a guide:”
Now, let me digress here? Who is the guide in your life? Who is it that you can trust? In the end every one of us will need to come to the very same conclusion. It is God! He knows are our very frame!
It is the Spirit of God [Who is inside the believer in Jesus Christ] that will bring you into line with what HE is written through David … in Psalm forty-eight, verse fourteen: “For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.” [Psalm 48:14] God promises those … who put their trust in Him … to guide them from their very birth to their very death. Amen!
[But here is the big BUT.]
“But” not everyone trusts in God, and not everyone has Him for their guide! So we are left with this general promise to all men everywhere.
It is this. In the absence of a personal trust in God by any individual, there can be a trust placed by this person in the guidance offered by the many. This mode of guidance has worked in the times past, but the times have changed!
In the time past, which now can be described as a time before this present visitation of God [of judgment], we enjoyed the general safety that comes to any people from the guidance offered from “the multitude of counsellers”. This is in the book of Proverbs chapter eleven, verse fourteen: “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellers there is safety.” [Proverbs 11:14] This is the general rule as promised to us [to all men, everywhere].
But now with the visitation, [now upon us], our counsel has failed. The guide has failed. The guidance has gone totally bad. With that, our enemy wins and we are defeated.
It is for us, what happened to the soul found in Psalm chapter fifty-five, verses twelve thru fourteen: “For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.” [Psalm 55:12-14]
We are now living in a time when we ought not place any confidence in a guide “ … put ye not confidence in a guide:”
3. Mutiny Prevails
Verse six: “For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.”
This is a very sad scene. Even in the family there is no trust.
See our mothers and our fathers sinking down. The families are breaking down.
We see the son against the father and we see the daughter against her mother … all across our land in the DAY of the VISITATION.
The DAY of VISITATION will be a day of suspicion, and for good reason. This visitation is called the judgment of God.
The visitation indeed has come. It is the solitary person who is the one who is wise in this day. Why?
Look all around you, and see all the human casualties in this day, which everywhere abound.
Their wounds are … in their backs. These are the wounds that come from being “stabbed in the back” by their friends and their guides.
Friends will fail us ... in this day.
The guides in our lives will lie to us ... in this day, and mutiny will prevail all around us ... in this day.
How tragic!!!
Do you cry out for a solution???
There is a solution.
Here is the solution!
It is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
He will be a friend that will never fail you!
He will be a friend that will stick closer to you than a brother!
He will be a faithful guide … who will lead you to your right end! Amen!
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” [John 1:12]