Micah: Justice + Mercyনমুনা

When Walls Come Down

By Gary Adyniec

“For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. The mountains will melt under Him, and the valleys will split like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? ‘Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, places for planting a vineyard; I will pour down her stones into the valley, and I will uncover her foundations. All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire; all her idols I will lay desolate, for she gathered it from the pay of a harlot, and they shall return to the pay of a harlot.’”  Micah 1:3–7 (NKJV)

Solomon said, “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV). When I first read Micah’s prophecy, it sounded like the beginning of the exodus from Egypt. God was warning the nations living in the land He was coming and will be cleaning up the land to make room for His people. When taking a closer look, we see it’s His people being warned. 

I always thought if I had been there and watched God perform all the plagues, and then part the Red Sea, I would have been another Caleb wholly following God. Truth is, I’ve proved myself wrong more than once. After seeing the things God has done in my life, and like the Israelites, I went off and did my own thing again until I was so bad off I needed God again. 

God was speaking to the descendants of Abraham who were brought out of Egypt and given the land flowing with milk and honey, a land with houses they didn’t build and vineyards they didn’t plant and toil over, yet it seems they were doing the same thing as those God had moved out so they could live there. Sin by God’s people is still sin, and God will deal with it ever so severely as to make sure His children are done with it. 

Once again, because there’s nothing new under the sun, God is coming to clean out the nation that was planted there. Only this time, the walls are coming down. No wall means no protection from the enemy, and that’s something we need to realize. Proverbs 25:28 (NKJV) says, “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” 

We need to learn to rule our spirits and have self-control over our bodies, so the walls stay up and the enemy stays out. What God is doing should have been done by those children living in the land. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23 NKJV), but God, “not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) will come out of His place to destroy everything that is destroying us. 

Friend’s, He’s that serious about us! But in His love for us, He will never force us to accept His love and love Him back, that is a personal choice we all have to make. God didn’t force the children of Israel to keep Him as their King, He let them have the king they asked for so they could be like other nations (1 Samuel 8:4-7), and He will not force us to keep Him as our God either. 

Pause: Take a moment and reflect on your own life and see if you’re in danger of having the enemy enter in because your walls are broken down. Are you letting Satan have a foothold in any area of your life? 

Practice: Confess the sin that has you snared, confirm your devotion to God, and rebuild that wall to keep the enemy out. 

Pray: Holy God, I want You to be my King and my God. I will continue to confess my sin to You and ask You to help me rebuild the walls to keep Satan out. I thank You for Your love for me and thank You for any discipline I need to bring me back to You. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.