Daily Devotional | False Securities

In this modern age, we do not typically put our trust in things like horses and chariots. But maybe those “horses” and chariots” represent other things. How often have you felt secure because of the balance of your bank account or the strength of your investment portfolio? And how often have you trusted that a financial strain will turn out okay because you have a steady job? These things are all fine and good, but like the Israelites in Micah’s day, it is all too easy to look for comfort and security from the gift instead of the Giver.

In today’s passage, God tells His people through Micah that He will take away all of their false securities, those things other than God in which they put their hope. Verse 11 lists horses and chariots, typical symbols in that time for military might. Today we might liken this to tanks and fighter jets. In the following verse, God promises to remove defensive measures as well: “cities” and “strongholds.” The Lord wants His people to trust in Him, not in their military strength, to protect them from enemies.

Verses 10–11 speak of trusting in physical strength instead of the Lord, and verse 12 promises that God will also remove spiritual boundaries to trusting in Him. The witchcraft and spell casting that this verse mentions refers to practices that attempted to manipulate God and others into doing what the people wanted. That is, rather than trusting in God to take care of and provide for them, God’s people resorted to foolish attempts to bend Him—and others—to their own will through ritual and incantation that had no actual effect.

These verses show that God is imminently concerned for His people, and therefore He will remove all barriers to and worshiping and trusting Him.

>> Sometimes we are tempted to trust in the wrong things. Today, turn away from those things and instead put your trust fully in the Lord!

Pray with Us

Some cultures value independence, while others encourage interdependence. Whichever way we lean, we put our trust first and foremost in You, Lord, the Giver and Sustainer of all good things.

BY Dr. Russell L. Meek

Russell Meek teaches Old Testament and Hebrew at Moody Theological Seminary. He writes a regular column on understanding and applying the Old Testament at Fathom Magazine, and his books include Ecclesiastes and the Search for Meaning in an Upside-Down World and the co-authored Book-by-Book Guide to Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary. Russ, his wife, and their three sons live in northern Idaho.