Micah is a truncated version of Michael: Mi – Who, cah – is like, El – God. The prophet bears in his name the important understanding that nothing and no one is like God.

When anyone thinks that he is comparable with God, that’s when trouble occurs. Lucifer thought so and was cast out of heaven (Ezekiel 28:13-17); Eve wanted so and was cast out of the Garden of Eden with her husband (Genesis 3); early man aspired so and their tower remained uncompleted because they could no longer communicate with one another (Genesis 11:1-9).

The philosophy of Humanism today rejects God as the centre of all. The vacuum is filled with the idea of ‘human rights’. It behaves almost like a religion with its own conception of morality and like all religions which are not founded on and guided by the revelation of God, it leads man astray from God his creator and from his spiritual salvation.

In the sharing on I Samuel 13, we highlighted the pride of the humanist Desmond Tutu in the report http://www.charismanews.com/world/40416-desmond-tutu-i-d-pick-hell-over-an-anti-gay-heaven where he said he would rather go to hell than to a heaven that “condemned homosexuality as a sin”. At a United Nations’ gay rights campaign function in Cape Town, South Africa, he said: “I would not worship a God who is homophobic, and that is how deep I feel about this … I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. ‘No,’ I would say. ‘Sorry. I mean, I would much rather go to the other place.’” Closer to our church, we have an ex-preacher who said something similar: “If God does not allow these adorable children into heaven because they do not have the Holy Spirit, then we as teachers would also not want to go to heaven – we would follow these kids into hell.” By rejecting God’s revelation through the Bible that contradicts their own views and interpretations, the bold statements of these persons show that they think that they are better than God.

Bible Passage: Micah 1

3 For behold, the LORD is coming out of His place;
He will come down
And tread on the high places of the earth

Reading the prophets in the Old Testament is sometimes a heart-stopping and stomach-churning experience. The wrath and the impending punishment of God are spoken clearly by the prophets. And yet, we should not avoid reading them if we want to avoid the reality of the punishment of those who defy the incomparable God. He is coming out of heaven!

5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob
And for the sins of the house of Israel.

And He comes because of man’s sin. To punish in the time of the Israelites and in the Last Day to come. But once, He did come to take the punishment on Himself instead …

Let us turn away from sin and pride, and humble ourselves before God. Jesus asked the proud Pharisee, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? … It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 9:4,5) Thinking that one is comparable to God and fighting against Him is like kicking against a hard and sharp object (goads are sticks with some sharpish protrusions used to guide sheep) – the only one to get hurt will be ourselves.

Let us respond like Paul the Apostle and living by true faith, really understand why this God is so remarkably incomparable:

So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”   (Acts 9:6)

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.                                                                                                                   (Galatians 2:20)