Micah 2:7 O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?
All of us probably know the feeling of going to church and having someone thrust their phone in your face to show you all kinds of pictures about their family vacation or whatever. You are friends with this person, so for the first three photos you are interested. For the next fifteen, you endure, and for the next twenty-five, you are bored. The reason for that is because you and I are the heroes of our own stories. While we may be interested in people, at some point that interest naturally gives out if we are left on our own. We are not interested in the pictures of other people. We are interested in our pictures.
If we were to write a book about today, it would be self-centered in the sense that to us the universe revolves around the earth, and the earth revolves around us. I don’t need anyone to remind me that at 12:10 in the afternoon I am hungry. My body tells me that. I am worried about myself, but I may not know if you are hungry. In short, we are self-centered.
Now, that can be a problem because we miss out on so much. Other people are just corollaries to our own story. They are distant. We know they are out there and we may even care about them, but the reason they are important is because they contribute to our story. This has always been the case.
When God sent a prophet named Micah to God’s own rebellious people, they were shocked about the warnings they were receiving from God that Assyria was coming. God’s people were living for themselves. They were coveting what belonged to others. They were mistreating others of their own people, and they were shocked that judgment was coming.
Micah 2:7 says, “O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” The house of Jacob is the house of the man whose name was changed to Israel. It is the country of Israel. He is asking, “Is God stingy now? Is He confined? Are these judgments to come His doing?” The answer is no! “Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” God asked His people. The answer is yes!
So, who is being mistreated? God’s people were mistreating God’s own people. Whose possessions were the farms, the property, and land that they had? It belonged to God. They expressed shock that they would ever lose it, yet they were coveting the farm of their neighbor. Who was merciless? They couldn’t conceive of this merciless Assyria, God’s judgment coming upon them, yet they were merciless to each other.
The point is that we mistreat others when we misjudge God. When we forget Who God is, we forget how to treat other people. Who is God? God is holy. He always does the right thing. If I am set apart to Him and exhibit that in the way I treat other people, I am going to do right by them. God is the Owner. Israel doesn’t own Palestine. Babylon didn’t own Palestine. God owns Palestine. God is the Possessor.
What about you and me today? What are you worried about right now? God owns it! What was your grand success? God owns that. God owns both your fears and your successes. When you believe that to your core, it totally changes the way you see the world.
God is merciful. God does not delight in the destruction of His people or any other. He delights in righteousness. So am I being as merciful as I want to be treated myself? While by nature I am the center of my story, when I focus on God and know Who God is, it helps me to treat other people as I should treat them.