Today's Scripture Reading (March 17, 2023): Micah 5
Life seldom turns out just as
we planned it. We could never have predicted the twists and turns that our
lives have taken, yet we have to find our way through anyway. I believe that
what we do today sets up what we will have to do tomorrow, but not all of the
conditions are under our control. We can save for tomorrow, but when we invest,
we have no way of knowing what the markets will do or how much we will need
when retirement finally arrives. I have had several friends who never planned
on retirement; they stressed that they were planning to keep working until the
day they died. But then health changes made working in their sixties impossible,
let alone staying employed into their seventies and eighties. It is the one
piece of advice that I try to give to anyone who asks. Start saving for your
retirement in your twenties. If you can keep working and that is what you want
to do, great. You can use the money for other things in your senior years, but
if health issues force you to retire, you will have the ability to do just that
because none of us know where the twists and turns of life will carry us.
I am not sure that Israel
ever believed that they would be abandoned by their God, even though the
prophets repeatedly came to them with precisely that message. The nation would
return to God before God would ever decide to leave them. That moment of
repentance might not be today, but soon. But Micah and the other prophets
understood the truth; repentance was not coming, and God would have to do the
unthinkable.
The first kingdom to fall
would be Israel, barely fifteen years in the future from the time of Micah's
prophecy. And then Judah would fall. It was a message that seemed to be carried
by all of the prophets of this era. But the Prophets also bore a message of
hope. God would seem to turn his back on the nations, but he would also bring
them back. Micah said that that time would arrive "when she who is in
labor bears a son." It is a fairly generic statement; after all, every
day, women in labor give birth to sons.
Prophecy is often like that.
It is easier to see the answer to the prophecy in reverse after it has been
fulfilled. From our vantage point, we understand that the woman was Mary, and
the son was Jesus of Nazareth. He would call the remnant and bring God's presence
back to the nation. However, this Messiah would not come as a conquering hero
but as a child born to a woman in labor. Micah said so. But that was also an
unexpected plot twist that the people just couldn't understand.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
Micah 6
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