“If a man should go about and utter wind and lies saying, ‘I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,’ he would be the preacher for this people.”
– Micah 2:11
What a verse, what a commentary on both the people in Micah’s day and false prophets in Micah’s day. God is saying through a faithful, true prophet, Micah, that his people just want to hear what they want to hear. They want to be encouraged and comforted to continue living for the prosperity of this world instead of being confronted and corrected in ways that would be pleasing to God. So, I read this and I think, what about us? Do we want to hear confronting correcting truth in God’s word? Do we welcome it in our hearts? Are we living with that kind of humility? I know I’m prone to not want to be corrected by God’s word, or even by people who are sharing God’s word with me, and people who care for me and love me and want to help me grow in holiness.
Micah 2:11 Shows Us that We are All Prone to Avoid Being Confronted
I can … I’m guessing we all can be prone to not want that and instead to just want comforting, encouraging words, even if we’re going in the wrong direction, in our sinful foolishness. We can want to be encouraged toward selfishness and sin. And at the same time, here’s a picture of Micah saying, “There are plenty of people who will do this, who will encourage you and point you towards sin.”
We live in a world where we are surrounded by people who are pointing us away from God. The danger is when there are even people who call themselves the people of God who are doing this. God, we pray for your help in our lives, for your salvation from our sinfulness today. Lord, we pray that we would not … God, we pray that we would not ignore your correcting rebuking, confronting Holy Spirit.
Micah 2:11 Reminds Us the Importance of God’s Correction
Your correcting, rebuking, confronting holy word. God, we pray for humility. Save us from pride that seeks to be comforted and encouraged in our sin and in living for ourselves. God, help us, we pray, to hear your word when it confronts us and rebukes us and corrects us, and to let your word do that work in our lives. And God, surround us with friends and counselors and preachers who will help us in this way. God, even as I preach, I think about other pastors. God, help any of us who teach your Word to teach it truly.
Praying for God’s Correction in our Lives
Keep me, keep us, we pray from compromising your word in order to make people happy so that people will like us. God, forgive us for any tendency to do that and keep us from doing that. God, please help us all to be good, wise, helpful counselors with your word, even when that involves correcting and confronting and rebuking. We pray with your grace and your love and your mercy in the way we do that. Oh God, we need your correcting, rebuking, confronting word and grace in our lives. We pray you’d help us to receive it in light of your word to us in Micah 2:11. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
