Anglican Daily Fountain 13 October 2023 (Devotional Today)
Welcome to Today’s Daily Fountain Devotional of the Anglican Church of Nigeria. Daily Fountain is a daily reading devotional for all Anglicans and Non-Anglicans to read, study, share and discuss the Word of God on a daily basis.
TOPIC: GOD’S RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT
TEXT: Micah 1:1-10(KJV)
1:1. The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
1:2. Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the LORD from his holy temple.
1:3. For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.
1:4. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.
1:5. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?
1:6. Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.
1:7. And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.
1:8. Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.
1:9. For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
1:10. Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.
Anglican Daily Fountain 13th October 2023 STUDY:
Micah’s prophecy spanned the reigns of three kings in Judah:King Jotham -739-731 BC; King Ahaz-731-715 BC and King Hezekiah-715-686 BC. In our text today, we see the prophets prophesied against Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. God would come to execute His righteous judgment on Israel because of “the rebellion of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel” (v.5). Israel’s sins of idolatry and immorality were making them lose their identity as the people of God, and thus God had to purify them through captivity in order to restore them to faith in Him.
Are we any different from the situation prevalent during Micah’s time? Have those of us named after the Lord not jumped ship and followed after the ways of the world? Today’s idolatry has moved upscale; it has improved upon the ancient carvings of woods and stones, to bowing down to the world’s possessions and lusts, and of course the “lusts”take the place of God!
God’s righteous judgment is set to come upon this world and recent events point rather dangerously to the fact that we are closer to the doomsday than we can imagine. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). The only escape route is to confess and repent of your sins. Believe the Lord Jesus as your saviour. Samaria and Jerusalem were destroyed in their sins because they failed to repent; why should you be destroyed in your sins?
PRAYER: Father Lord, look mercifully upon this generation, bring us to total submission to your will, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
