The God Who Brings Disaster

For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.Micah 1:3Micah begins with a terrifying scene: God rises up from His dwelling place and comes down to the earth. And He is coming to make His case against the peoples of the earth (1:2). We are given a description of the terror of what happens (1:4).Steven Spielberg would have a field day with the special effects here. What Micah describes is like a scene from a disaster movie—mountains melting like wax, valleys splitting apart, with great chasms opening up in the ground.Micah says, in effect, “Listen, people, the Lord is coming in judgement,” and his audience would be nodding their heads in agreement, “Amen. Amen. Finally, God is going to deal with our enemies—the Assyrians. Lord, come quickly!” That’s what his audience was thinking, but look at what Micah says next: “All this is for the transgression of Jacob” (1:5).“Sorry, Micah, what did you say?”This is “for the sins of the house of Israel” (1:5). Jacob and Israel were ways of speaking about the people of God in the Old Testament. They saw themselves as the true believers, the light of the world, the people bearing God’s name.But Micah says, “It’s not the mountains in Assyria that are going to melt. It’s our mountains. It’s our valleys that are going to be destroyed.” Talk about a knockout punch. “Micah, you cannot be serious.” But Micah is deadly serious. This is the Word of the Lord, and this is precisely what happened when the Assyrians invaded Samaria (during Micah’s lifetime) in 722 BC.How do you respond when personal tragedy, financial loss, or health issues hit close to home?