READING FOR JANUARY 12, 2026: MICAH 2, JOHN 7, PSALM 140 MICAH 2 This chapter may seem difficult to understand on first reading because it’s hard to discern who is speaking to whom about whom. One possible approach is to read the chapter using several different translations in biblegateway.com or checking a reputable bible commentary such as enduringword.com. This writer confesses to consulting both sites this time.
As with our legal system, God finds greater guilt for those sins that are premediated. Also, God particularly judges those who practice violence merely because they are more powerful than their victims. Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an international example of this. Perhaps predatory businesses practice a form of this against their employees or customers. Certainly, those carrying guns often do so against those without them. The examples are likely endless today.
Just as evil doers, in this case Israel, implement evil plans, God is devising judgment against them in response. This is not exactly karma as described in eastern religions, but it certainly reflects the concept of reaping what you sow (Gal. 6:7). Putin’s future, for example, is not good unless he receives Jesus as Lord and Savior. Let’s pray that he does. God confirms that Israel of the eighth century BC would later see their fields taken by Assyria. And they did.
Israel had long rejected the words of prophets such as Micah and Isaiah. Israel acted as if the Almighty God is limited in His knowledge and power. They robbed the innocent and mistreat- ed women and children. They listened to and followed those false prophets preaching a false message of prosperity and pleasure. To whom do we listen to and follow? Is it the totality of God’s word or those “prophets” who preach a message that is more agreeable to us?
Amazingly, all hope is not gone. The chapter concludes with God promising to lead a remnant of His people out of captivity. This finally happened after the 70-year exile in Babylon, the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the first coming of Jesus to atone for our sins. An ultimate gathering of His people is still to come for us: “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24: 30-31).
JOHN 7 Chapter 7 takes place in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles, a fall feast that begins five days after the Day of Atonement, a stark contrast to that solemn season of repentance. It was a time of rejoicing, feasting, and dancing often referred to as “The Season of Our Joy”, a 7-day celebration followed by a day of rest. Its roots were in Leviticus 23 and in Deuteronomy 14, where Moses instructed: “Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always. . . Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.” (Deut 14:22-26)
READING FOR JANUARY 12, 2026: JOHN 7, PSALM 140 The holiday is a time for the Jews to rejoice in God’s bounty – his deliverance out of bondage in Egypt, his provision of food and water in the desert then, and a plentiful harvest now (the festival coincides with the end of the harvest season). Ultimately, though, Sukkot celebrates Israel’s trust in God and reliance on their relationship with Him. (Do you find it surprising that God would take joy in his people gathering for a giant week-long party? It was his idea!!) Part of the festivities was to remember the days in the wilderness after leaving the slavery of Egypt by living in booths/tents/tabernacles during the feast, simple structures made with branches. By the time Jesus came, some 1500 years after Moses, the hills outside of Jerusalem would have been covered with these booths, as every Jew who could would gather to celebrate God’s presence and provision during the Exodus so long ago. Two elaborate ceremonies had developed to celebrate and remember God’s presence and provision in the Exodus and to look toward his messianic deliverance in the future. These ceremonies create the backdrop for Jesus’ teaching and declarations in John 7 & 8.
Every day of the feast, the high priest in all his regalia would lead a parade through the streets of Jerusalem to the pool of Siloam where he would fill a gold pitcher, march back to the temple, approach the altar in front of the temple, march around it one time, and then climb the ramp and pour out the water before the Lord. While he was doing this, the crowd would wave palm branches and sing from the Psalms. And they would shout from Isaiah 12:3, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation!” The seventh day of the feast was the greatest day. On that day, the priest marched back with his water and circled the altar seven times. Then the crowd would draw silent as the moment arrived and the priest poured out the last water offering.
The Water Ceremony served as a reminder to Israel that God had provided water for them in the desert wilderness of the Exodus and that they could trust him to provide for them in their day. It also served as a prophetic reminder, looking forward to the longed for day when God would pour out his Spirit: For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. (Isaiah 44:3) And today we read that it was on that last day of the feast – perhaps at that climactic moment of silence – that Jesus cried loudly, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me. . . streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit. . .” Jesus declared himself to be the fulfillment of this festival. He is our provision! All that the world has needed in the past and all we will need in the future, are given to us in him. With joy we will draw water from Jesus, the eternal well of salvation!
PSALM 140 Is David paranoid or a realist? He really believes there are people who spend their time thinking up ways they can harm him (vs.2-3). David actually was often opposed by enemies, even by his own son. What about those of us today who in trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior? How could anyone so dislike us? Jesus warns otherwise: “You will be hated by all because of My name” (Matt. 10:22). Yet David also could be considered an ultimate optimist because, as he says at the end (vs. 13), he dwelt in God’s presence. Those who choose not to dwell in God’s presence are truly the ones whose view on reality is distorted and whose life is “cast into the fire” (vs.10). Jesus agrees: “If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” (John 15:6).
