Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Micah 4:1-4 – In the days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills.  Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”  For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. (NRSV)

The vision of God’s shalom that is present by the prophet Micah is so lovely, and so instructive.  It’s not that there is no longer any conflict, or that suddenly everyone just naturally does the right and good thing.  But rather than solving conflicts with violence, the people turn to God to arbitrate their disagreements.  That alone would be a substantial improvement over the way we’re doing things currently.

But that’s not all.  It’s not just that everyone has given God the final word.  All the weapons have been turned into tools for cultivating food, instruments of death transformed into instruments of life.  What could motivate such a shift?  The next verses make it clear.  Everyone has what they need – their own vine and fig tree – and nobody is living in fear any longer.

Fear and scarcity are truly the demons of every age.  It is not just the ancient Israelites who knew these two scourges drove them to violence; we see it happening every day in our own time.  The people of God must continually remind ourselves and our world that we cannot afford to be ruled by fear and scarcity.  We must continually remind ourselves and our world that there is abundance for all, if we can only share the resources of our earth justly.  We must continually remember that God is our help and refuge, so we need not fear.