Which
Light?
Micah 7:7 “Therefore I will look unto the
Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my
God will hear me.
8 Rejoice not against me, O
mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit
in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.”
1. Look to God
2. Wait for God
3. You Will
Arise
1. Look to God
The first part of verse seven: “Therefore I will look unto the Lord;”
We have learned here that in those days, [Micah’s day] ones friends had failed him, their guides had lied to them, and that mutiny had prevailed in all the land of Judah.
Well, we have heard this said before: "What goes around … comes around."
Now, we have all come to this same place today in the United States of America.
We all see our friends failing us, our guides lying to us and that mutiny is now prevailing in our land and within our families.
We are now at this point in the book of Micah that anyone who hears the words of God through His prophet is going to do one of two things.
He will either, hearken to the words of the prophet, or obey God, or he will decide to throw the words of the prophet out, and disobey God.
Which way will you go?
Now, there are those that “will look unto the Lord”.
Now, mind you, they are the same ones who “feareth the Lord”. Proof text you say?
Read this [which is found in Isaiah chapter fifty]: “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” [Isaiah 50:10]
This is a good question with a good solution.
In contrast, there are those who will look anywhere else [for anyone else] but “unto the Lord”.
Now, in either case one needs light to operate in either path. Everyone needs some kind of light in order to see their chosen path. There is more. There are two sources of light and people will seek one or the other. There are some who will seek the light, which comes from God, and there are those who will seek their own light … a light of their own invention. These are they who seek the light of their own fire so that may have light to see their own set path.
To see this thing, we will need to return to Isaiah chapter fifty once again. This time it will be to the first of part of verse eleven, and read: “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled." [Isaiah 50:11a]
The solution for all rebels is this. After they have rejected the light of the words of God, they decide is to kindle a fire [a fire of their own invention] so that may have the light of their fire in order to see their self-determined path for life. This is the path for rebels!
Now, this turning away is so accurately described by the Spirit of God in Isaiah chapter fifty-three: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” [Isaiah 53:6]
For this path that they have chosen, God has determined a “set end” for them. The “set end” … is sorrow.
How can we know this to be a fact?
For this, we just need to finish reading our verse, [in verse eleven of Isaiah chapter fifty]: “This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” [Isaiah 50:11b]
Everyone who determines to walk by the light of the fire that they have kindled is doomed in the end to lie down in their sorrow. Do not go that way my friend. Look to God.
2. Wait for God
The last part of verse seven, we have this: “I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.”
Is not this marvelous? This is what true faith in the heart of a believer will do. It makes the believer in Jesus Christ willing to wait for God to do in His time what He is planning to do. It is all about waiting on God.
• Job did: [in Job 14:14] “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.”
• David did: [in Psalm 25:5] “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.”
• Again David said: [in Psalm 25:21] “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.”
• Again David said: [in Psalm 27:14] “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
• Again David said: [in Psalm 37:7] “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”
• King Solomon did: [in Proverbs 20:22] “Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.”
• The prophet Isaiah did: [in Isaiah 8:17] “And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.”
• Again Isaiah said: [in Isaiah 40:31] “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
• The Apostle Paul did: [in Romans 8:25] “But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”
• Again Paul said: [in Galatians 5:5] “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”
• And lastly, Paul said: [in 1 Thessalonians 1:10] “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
Wait on God!
3. You Will Arise
Verse eight: “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.”
Who is the Enemy to the Christian? Well according the BOOK [The King James Bible] it is the flesh, the world [1 John 2:16-17], and the Devil [1 Peter 5:8]. “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy”! All three of these enemies want you to fall and be destroyed!
But, if we fall, [good news] God is able to lift you up! And when we do fall, [and we will all fall] God in His grace and in His mercy will lift us up again. Though the Devil himself sets a trap for us, the Lord God will lift us up. This is a promise to us all!
Now, here is the promise that God gives to us all who belong to Him … the same are the humble [a noun]. [A true Christian is humble.] A Christian who falls will “humble” [a verb] himself, then God will lift him up again … according to James chapter four, verse ten: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” [James 4:10]
In Malachi chapter four, verse two, there is located there a promise to the believer that “the sun of righteousness” will ensure the perseverance of the saints: “But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” [Malachi 4:2]
Now, while we are here, there is one more enemy to consider, [besides the flesh, and the world, and the Devil] and it is called Death.
Now, God has a plan for him and this, according to First Corinthians chapter fifteen, verse twenty-six, is destruction: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." [1 Corinthians 15:26] “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” [Revelation 20:14]
[Psalm 112:4] “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.”
When the light arises then, we will all arise! Amen!