Saturday 2019.09.25
As I was reading through Micah chapters 5 to 7 today, I came across a passage that foretells a time when children will hate their parents, when daughter-in-law will oppose her mother-in-law, and when a person's enemies come from the very members of his family.
Micah 7:5 - 7 ESV
5 Put no trust in a neighbour;
have no confidence in a friend;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms;
6 for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
7 But as for me, I will look to the LORD;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.
When would this happen? What are these trying times that the prophet Micah of Moresheth was foretelling about? The answer is given by our Lord Iesous the Anointed One, recorded in the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 12:
Luke 12:51 - 53 ESV
Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
Such trying times were coming to the world, that the Gospel of Luke records for us two chapters later, in Luke 14:26 - 27, the warning given by our Lord Iesous to his disciples:
Luke 14:26 - 27 ESV
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we live in trying times when we may be opposed and even hated by our own family members for our faith in the Lord Iesous the Anointed One. Perhaps, one day some of us may even be called to choose between loving our Lord Iesous and holding fast to our faith in Him, or loving our family member who opposes us and abandoning our faith in the Lord.
If and when such a time of trial befalls us, let us say together with the prophet Micah in the passage above, "I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation."
P.S. Eleven years ago, I wrote a discussion on the words of our Lord in Luke chapters 12 and 14, in a devotional post, link below:
