The prophet Micah was called to prophecy to Israel and Judea, exhorting them to repentance. He called out the disobedience of God’s people, especially in Jerusalem.  In Chapter 7:1-7, we find Micah walking around the city, absorbing, “both the appalling scale of the wickedness and the implications of the doom he has just declared” (Bible Speaks Today).  

Micah is overwhelmed by what he sees, “What misery is mine!” (7:1).  Evil was widespread and the very fabric of life was unravelling. “The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains” (7:2). The godly had lost influence, while the violent did as they pleased. “The powerful dictate what they desire – they all conspire together” (7:3).  God’s judgement would soon be announced by the watchman on the wall. “Now is the time of your confusion” (7:4).  Interpersonal relationships, even within families, were failing.  

Despite all this, Micah did not lose hope. He continued to pray and wait for God, who would eventually vindicate the remaining remnant. “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me” (7:6).  In contrast to the unfaithful leaders of the people, he would act like the watchman, “wait for God my Savior.”  Micah began in 7:1 with lament, but in the end expresses quiet confidence that God will act in due time.

What the prophet described in these verses (7:1-7) has a very contemporary feel to it.  Sin has affected government leaders and society in general.  “The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains” (v 2). Deceit and dishonesty have even ruined family life, the core of society.  “A man’s enemies are the members of his own household” (v 6). 

We are witnessing social disintegration in our culture.  Many of us can attest to divisions in our families due to cultural or political divisions.  “Micah would direct us all back to the way we have steadily ignored, and often directly flouted, the requirements of God for our personal, social and working lives, as well as for our nation.  Defiant rejection of God’s revealed truth is the fundamental reason for the social disintegration we see around us” (Bible Speaks).

Micah 7:7 can be an encouragement to us in the midst of cultural decay.  Like Micah, we need to declare that we aren’t giving up.  “But me, I’m not giving up.  I’m sticking around to see what God will do.  I’m waiting for God to make things right.  I’m counting on God to listen to me” (7:7 – Message).  Isaiah also spoke of waiting on the Lord during judgement. “Look, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he has saved us.  This is our God; we have waited for him.  Let us rejoice and be glad is his salvation” (Is 25:9). 

It could be that God wants us to wait for him to make himself known to us during this time. “Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt.  And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me” (Hosea 5:15).  Isaiah told the remnant, “Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by” (Is 26:20).

Could it be that the most important thing we can do at this time is to cry out to God for mercy?  Has his hand of judgment already come to our nation?  Could it be a time to seek God in confession and repentance?   

I appreciate the music of “MercyMe.”  I believe the band can relate to men with both lyrics and style, and their music affects me deeply.  They have a new song out entitled, “Say I Won’t.”  When I saw the word “rocket” in the lyrics and heard the song, the rest was history. Please listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2IHibLEYdI

The song opens with, “Today / It all begins / I’m seeing my life for the very first time / Through a different lens / Yesterday / I didn’t understand / Driving 35 with the rocket inside / Didn’t know what I had.”  My interpretation: this guy is seeing his life with Jesus in a new way.  He has a rocket inside.

The song goes on, “While I’ve been waiting to live / My life’s been waiting on me.”  But now the guy is learning to fly spiritually.  He dares others, “Say, I won’t” … “Not enough / Is what I’ve been told / But it must be a lie / ‘Cause the Spirit inside says I’m so much more / So let them say what they want / Oh, I dare them to try.” 

Men, there comes a time in your spiritual life when you need to come to terms with the rocket within you.  It’s your deepest longings for God. It’s your passions and desires. Yes, it even involves your sexual energy.  Visualize all this as “the tiger in your tank.”  Conservative, biblical guys like me sometimes have difficulty pointing the rocket heavenward and taming the tiger.  Like the song says, “Not enough / Is what I’ve been told / But it must be a lie.”

I must confess that I’m reluctant even to write about sexual passions and passion for God.  Why? Because of some of my own struggles, plus misconceptions Christian men tend to have about their own desires and fantasies.  For me, however, only love can tame the tiger.  I am coming to peace with this energy as I experience more of God’s deep love for me. “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps 63:1).   Like the song, “’Cause the Spirit inside says I’m so much more / So let them say what they want / Oh, I dare them to try…” 

You and I have sexual energy in our souls that is mingled with our spiritual desire for God.  Yes, passions have eros (erotic) energy.  But can you believe that God’s agape is able to come into your heart and redeem eros, purify it with resurrection power, and untwist all the distorted images?  “This is how God showed his love among us.  He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (I John 4:9 cf. Luke 4:4 MSG).  

Christopher West in his book “Fill These Hearts” has helped.  We have three choices:  1) Starvation diet: Pleasure is an evil to reject.  I have lived under this cloud for years, 2) Fast food diet: Pleasure is an idol to indulge.  Simply let the tiger roar.  3) Banquet: Pleasure is a beacon that points to heaven.  For me this has meant allowing Jesus to transform my soul, using agape love to direct eros.  

As I get older, I find more and more that my deepest desires are for God.  The more I die with Jesus to distorted eros, the more his agape purifies the eros: “While I’ve been waiting to live/ My life’s been waiting on me.”