God is Loving...                                                                                             So, He Tolerates Us?  

   On Friday, we wrote of Jonah explaining to God why he didn't want to preach to the wicked Ninevites: 

   I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Jonah 4:2

   If that's all God is, we're good to go. We can live and think as we wish.  ???

   Another prophet, Micah, living in the same century, helps us know also the judgment of the God we fear. 

   First, note that the Old Testament is more than the history of Abraham's children. God had much to say to the surrounding nations. The OT is a record of about 15 centuries when God gradually revealed himself to mankind, letting us know what pleases and what angers him. 

   Micah gives us a vision he received, of Samaria and Jerusalem, capitals of the northern and southern kingdoms. He wrote, Hear, O peoples, all of you, listen O earth and all who are in it, that the sovereign Lord may witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. v. 1:2

   The Lord would come down...mountains would melt...valleys would split apart like wax before the fire. You get the picture. Micah mentioned Jacob's transgression and sins of the house of Israel.  

   God is displeased with idolatry, immorality, crime and injustice. Incurable. v. 1:9 

His Larger Message

   Abraham's children were not worse than the world around them. They had just adopted the world's ways, after the Lord had taught them differently. 

   Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC, and Sennacherib captured the walled cities of Judah - 2 Kings 18:13.  Assyrian records list 46 cities. Then, our God "who relents" destroyed the Assyrian army and offered to renew the covenant - if the people would place their trust in him. 2 Kings 19  

          Jimmy