Micah 3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? None evil can come upon us.
Dependence or Presumption?
I hope you know that you can trust God with your life. What does that include? The answer is—anything and everything. Can you trust God with your future? Yes. Can you trust God with your home? Yes. Can you trust God about your health, your finances, and your friends? Yes. Can you trust God to cover for you when you do what’s wrong and rebel against Him? Uh, no. The Bible tells us that when we confess our sin, God’s forgiveness covers it, but to live in rebellion and think that things will turn out well is not trusting God. Quite to the contrary, it is presumption. It’s not trusting God. It’s being presumptuous against God. There’s a profound difference.
Micah seems to highlight this difference in Micah 3:9. Micah has strong words for the leaders of God’s people. He says, “Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.” He’s talking to the leaders who were rebelling against God’s authority and thinking that it was ok.
Verse 11 shows that the judges didn’t care about justice, but took bribes. The priests had no passion for God’s truth, but just had a desire for money. The prophets didn’t want to hear from God, but wanted to be paid by men. Despite all this sin, their attitude was that they were God’s people and God wouldn’t allow anything bad to happen to them. That’s not dependence; that’s presumption.
The key difference between trusting in God and presuming upon God is our obedience to Him. In verse 8 Micah is confident of power, discernment, judgment, and might because these thing belonged to God, and he was acting on God’s orders. Let no one think that because they serve God in some way, they can do whatever they wish and it doesn’t matter. That’s not trusting God. That’s rebellion, presuming against God. Trusting God is living in obedience to Him, and depending upon Him for the result that will come.