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The Book of Micah

Pastor David J. Taylor Guisborough Evangelical Church

The Book of Micah

Contents:

Micah:

Summary of the book of Micah page 3

Look out - God’s coming (1v1-16) page 11

Judgement, hope and promise (2v1-13) page 24

Good and bad leaders (3v1-12) page 36

War and peace (4v1-13) page 45

Messiah’s Kingdom and rule (5v1-15) page 58

What does God want? (6v1-16) page 68

Who is like the LORD? (7v1-20) page 78

References page 90

(Messages preached at Guisborough Evangelical Church during October 2013 and December 2013).

The Book of Micah

The Book of Micah:

The Holy Bible It is also referred to as God’s Word, or the Holy Scriptures. This book is made up by 66 books penned by various authors over a period of approx. 1600 years, although written by men; God is the ultimate author (2 Tim.3v16-17, 2 Pet.1v20-21).

The date and author of the book: a): The author of the Book of Micah was the Prophet Micah (1v1). The name ‘Micah’ is a shortened form of ‘Micaiah’, which means, ‘Who is like Yahweh’? We do not know much about him, except a few meagre details from the book. It tells us he or his family was from Moresheth, in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, on the south western border with Philistia.

Micah’s message was for the Northern Kingdom, Israel and its capital Samaria, (1v1-7) as well as Judah in the South (1v8-16). In his younger days Micah may have been a disciple of Isaiah. Isaiah was God’s prophet to the royal court while Micah preached among the common people rather than the Jewish aristocracy.

It is not surprising that there is a great deal of similarity between the Book of Micah and the first section of Isaiah. The book of Micah is sometimes called a miniature version of Isaiah. One passage (Micah 4v1-3 is almost exactly duplicated in Isaiah 2v2-4).

Since Isaiah of Jerusalem and Micah were probably contemporaries and shared many of the same perspectives, we simply do not know the origin of these verses, whether Isaiah or Micah. While we might want to know, it was simply not an issue in ancient Israel, because it was the word from and about God that was being preserved, not just the writings of individual people.

The Book of Micah

b): Date of Writing: The Book of Micah was likely written between 735 and 700 B.C. Micah’s prophecies take place ‘in the days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah’. He mentions the ‘decrees of Omri’ (c. 885-874 B.C.), the ‘works of the dynasty of Ahab’ (c. 874-853; Mic.6v16), and Assyria indicates that at least part of Micah’s ministry was before the fall of Samaria in 722-721 B.C.

The division of the book: The book can be divided into 3 sections: 1): The nations are called to listen to God (1v2 – 2v13). This covers

the impending judgment of the Lord, followed by an exposition of its causes, Israel’s sins, condemning Judah’s leaders for betrayal of their responsibility (Micah 1v1-3v12).

2): The leaders of Gods people are called to listen to God (3v1 – 5v15). The glory of the restored Zion. A prince of David’s house will rule over a reunited Israel. A remnant shall survive the chastisement of Judah and her adversaries shall be destroyed (Micah 4v1-5v14).

3): The people of God are called to listen to God (6v1 – 7v20). The case against Israel, the sombre picture closes with a prayer for national restoration and a beautiful expression of trust in God’s pardoning mercy (Micah 6v1-7v20).

It should be noted that each of these three divisions begins with reproach and the threat of punishment, and ends on a note of hope and promise.

Why the book was written: A): To warn the northern kingdom, Israel, of impending judgment

because of its covenant disloyalty. B): To warn the southern kingdom, Judah, of impending judgment

because of its covenant disloyalty. C): To confirm for Judah that they were just as guilty as was Israel,

so they would be judged like Israel.

The Book of Micah

D): To emphasise God’s justice and love in disciplining the nation. E): To affirm God’s future restoration of his people (not the major

purpose). F): To present God as the sovereign Lord of the earth who controls

the destinies of nations, including his covenant people Israel.

Some of the themes in Micah: Each of the three sections of the book begin with the key word ‘hear’ (1v2, 3v1, 6v1), and each of the three sections end with a note of hope for the future (2v12-12; 5v7-15; 7v18-20).

While there are various themes in the book, Micah the prophet is remembered as the prophet of authentic worship/service to God and social justice, with the classic definitive statement ‘He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God’? (6v8).

Micah tells the people that they are guilty of:

Idolatry (1v7; 6v16)

Covetousness and oppression (2v2)

Violence (2v2; 3v10; 6v12; 7v2)

Micah tells the leaders that they are guilty of:

Disregarding justice (3v1-3, 9-10)

Hating good, loving evil (3v2)

Oppression of the poor (3v2-3)

Obsession with money (3v11)

Assuming God would not judge them (3v11)

It is a picture of a corrupt nation, where the rich were getting richer – at the expense of the poor. The judges were influence by those who could pay the most; even the prophets and priests were putting money before God. The people were ignoring God and his laws, they tolerated and worshipped false gods – and believed that the LORD their God would not act in judgement against them but would rather protect them from their enemies!

The Book of Micah

The key verses are: Micah 1v2: ‘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’.

Micah 5v2: ‘But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times’.

Micah 6v8: ‘He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’.

Micah 7v18-19: ‘Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea’.

Brief summary of the outline of the book:

The message of the Book of Micah is a complex mixture of judgment and hope. The messages of hope and doom are not necessarily contradictory, however, since restoration and transformation take place only after judgment.

Micah presents his message in terms of a controversy between God and his people (1v1). We might say he takes the people of Judah into God’s courtroom where God is both the accuser and the judge. God is acting in judgement against his people, the reasons for this judgment are given (2v1-11), and the restoration of the remnant is promised (2v12-13). It was a time of prosperity but Micah denounces dishonesty and violence; he condemns the rulers, priests, and prophets of Israel who exploit and mislead the people. The prophecies announce judgment upon Israel for social evils, corrupt leadership, oppression of the poor and idolatry. Like Isaiah, he condemned the meaningless ritual of their sacrifices and ceremonies.

The Book of Micah

He emphasised that the people’s heart and conduct must match their professed allegiance and worship to God. They were performing their religious ceremonies but ignoring the kind of life their commitment to God expected from them. God does not seek burnt offerings for sins, but that people do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God (6v6-8). Micah sets forth a powerful and concise summary of Yahweh’s requirement for justice and loyalty and announces judgment upon those who have followed the ways of Omri and Ahab. This judgment was expected to culminate in the destruction of Samaria and Jerusalem.

In the last section he speaks about a vision of restoration, and proclaims deliverance for the people who will go from Jerusalem to Babylon. He declares not only the restoration of the nation, but the transformation and exaltation of Israel and Jerusalem. Micah pleads for repentance and looks forward to the day of the coming Messiah’s universal kingdom (4v1-3). God’s complaint against the people (6v1-16) leads Micah to lament the lack of righteousness in Jerusalem (7v1-6), confess the sins of the nation (7v7-17), and rejoice in the mercies of the Lord (7v18-20).

Micah concludes with an exhortation for Jerusalem to destroy the nations who have gathered against her. The ideal ruler would come from Bethlehem to defend the nation, and the prophet proclaims the triumph of the remnant of Jacob and foresees a day when God would purge the nation of idolatry and reliance on military might.

Seeing Jesus in Micah: Micah gives us a clear picture of the coming Messiah. He speaks about:

The place where he will be born: ‘But you O Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the One to be Ruler in Israel’ (5v2). This prophecy was quoted when the magi were searching for the king born in Bethlehem (Matt.2v6).

The Book of Micah

These kings from the East were told that from the tiny village of Bethlehem would come forth the Prince of Peace, the Light of the world.

The deity and nature of the work of the Messiah. ‘The One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting’’ (5v2). He will be the shepherd of his people ‘and he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and this One shall be peace’ (v4-5a).

The far reaching effects of Messiahs kingdom ‘they shall beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks ... they shall no longer learn war’ (4v1-5).

Micah’s message of sin, repentance and restoration finds its ultimate fulfilment in Jesus Christ who is the propitiation for our sins (Rom.3v24-25) and the only way to God (John 14v6). ‘Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever; because he delights in mercy he will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from days of old’ (7v18-20).

The reign of Christ would offer salvation to all nations alike. He promised a peace and prosperity that has its fulfilment in the spiritual life of the kingdom of God and not in the affairs of civil states.

Micah elsewhere in the Bible: Some important quotations from Micah are found elsewhere in the Bible. An interesting passage in Jeremiah informs us that the reform of

Hezekiah was influenced by the preaching of Micah.

The Book of Micah

It probably saved the life of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer.26v17-18 from Mic.3v12).

The priests and scribes quoted Micah 5v2 in answer to Herod’s question about the birthplace of the Messiah (Matt.2v5-6).

Christ quoted Micah 7v6 when he commissioned the disciples the first time (Matt.10v35-36).

Practical Application: God gives warnings so we will not have to suffer his wrath. Judgment is certain if God’s warnings are not heeded and his provision for sin in the sacrifice of his Son is rejected. For the believer in Christ, God will discipline us - not from hate - but because he loves us. He knows that sin destroys and he wants us to be whole. This wholeness which is the promise of restoration awaits those who remain obedient to him.

Micah raises some interesting questions for the people of God in every age:

What exactly did it mean to be God’s people? What kind of God did they serve and what exactly did

God expect of his people? And, of course, in the background were always the

questions of whether they would survive as a nation, and what they should become if they did.

Micah was certainly not the only prophet to struggle with those questions. Both Amos and Hosea had tackled the same questions in the Northern Kingdom. Their answer had been that the Northern Kingdom would not survive, even as they emphasised different aspects of relationship with God. By the time Micah began his ministry, Isaiah of Jerusalem had already been addressing the same questions for 20 years. The Northern Kingdom had already been destroyed, or would be in a matter of months. And as both prophets looked at the Southern Kingdom of Judah, they saw much the same conditions as had existed in the Northern Kingdom.

The Book of Micah

Judah’s future was not certain. But both Isaiah and Micah consistently proclaimed that a change, a return to faithfulness to God, was essential if the Southern Kingdom was to have any future.

Micah is a small book among the Scriptures, one of the ‘Minor’ Prophets, but it zooms to the heart of biblical faith. It is a book for serious Christians who want to grapple with how God wants men and women to live, those searching for God’s ideal criteria and standards for the ‘good’ life on earth.

Micah was a man who knew his God, the power of his God in his own personal life (3v8; 7v7), because of this he was ready and prepared to stand on his own against popular opinion and declare the truth about God.

The Book of Micah

‘Look Out – God’s Coming!’ Reading: Micah 1 v 1 - 16.

Introduction (v1): Micah is one of the 12 Minor Prophets – not because his message is not as important as the Major Prophets – but because it is a short book! The term ‘Minor’ relates to the length of each book (ranging from a single chapter to fourteen); even the longest is short compared to the three Major Prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

Micah has a divine message: Micah wants us to know that what he is going to say is the ‘word of the Lord that came to him’ (v1). The focus of the book is God’s message not the messenger! This is something Paul tried to enforce (1 Cor.3v5) and so should we today!

‘Some of the mightiest truths in the Old Testament are expressed in Micah. As our prophet relates the sovereignty of Jehovah to human life and history he recognises and emphasises resultant realities of immense importance’ (Sidlow Baxter). This little book is composed of three ‘sermons’ that Micah preached to the people, and each message begins with the word ‘hear’. He deals with three very practical and important themes:

Judgement is coming (1-2)

The Deliverer is coming (3-5)

Trust the Lord today (6-7)

These three sermons start with the call to ‘hear’ or ‘listen’ (1v2; 3v1; 6v1). They start with blame, the things which Micah warned about. Each section then continues from judgement to hope. At the end of each of these sections there is a message of hope (2v12-13; 5v7; 7v18-20), and ends with a promise.

Micah is the divine messenger: Micah was the last Prophet of the eighth century - a time that was filled with prophetic activity. Apart from Jeremiah (26v18) all we know of Micah is what is recorded for us in his book!

The Book of Micah

His name means ‘Who is like the Lord’? His home town ‘Moresheth’ (v1, 14) was almost 25 miles south west of Jerusalem near to the Philistine border.

Micah is in a time of crisis and change: Whereas Jotham and Hezekiah were good kings (some think that Micah may have been instrumental in the revival under Hezekiah) Ahaz was a wicked king. These kings covered a period of between 40-57 years. These kings ruled when Isaiah was ministering – so this places Micah’s ministry in the same period (approx.740 – 687 BC). Micah also mentions the ‘statutes of Omri’ and the ‘works of Ahab’s house’ (6v16).

There are some parallels between the two prophets. Both spoke of God’s plan for Zion (Jerusalem) and said that salvation would come through the line of David (Isa.11v1-5; Mic.5v2-5). There is even one shared prophecy: Is.2v2-4 is almost identical to Mic.4v1-3.

This book is called ‘Isaiah in miniature’ because it is a much briefer presentation of essentially the same message as the prophecy of Isaiah. Isaiah’s prophecies were directed more to the royal household and the people of Jerusalem, while Micah’s prophecies were directed more to the ‘common people’ of the land.

Micah is called to address the sins of the two capital cities: In this first message warning of the coming judgement Micah identifies the two capital cities (Samaria v6-7 and Jerusalem v8-9). Micah recognised that the declining standards had spread from the centre outwards.. He tells them that their sins are so great that God cannot hold back his judgement any longer.

The Sovereign God is Coming (v2-5): What Micah is about to declare is nothing less than the word of the living God to the whole earth! He says ‘hear O earth and all who are in it’ (v2). Jesus summoned the people to respond in a similar way he said ‘he who has ears to hear, let him hear’ (Matt.11v15). Just as manufacturers designed and promote logos and pictures to help us remember their products and services God in very graphic language gives us some remarkable word pictures we can remember!

The Book of Micah

They will help the people ‘picture in their minds’ the amazing fact that God is going to intervene in human history and act as its Sovereign Ruler – because that is who he is! The world and everything in it belongs to God (Ps.24v1). He is the sovereign judge over all nations and people (v1-2).

God reveals:

The first thing that God reveals is that the Lord is in ‘his holy temple’. Where was God when Isaiah began his ministry? God was in his temple (Isa.6v1-3). This I believe is not the Jerusalem temple – but heaven itself. It is from here that God sees and judges. It is from here that judgement is determined and measured by his holy standards.

People feel safe as long as God stays in heaven - but God’s not staying in his temple! God is pictured as leaving heaven and coming down to the earth. It is not a walk of joy. It is to bring judgment.

Then we see that God is all powerful and is able to shake the things that men think are unshakeable (v3-4). Similar descriptions of such awe-inspiring manifestations of Jehovah occur in Ex.19v18-19; Jud.5v5; Isa.64v1; Hab.3v6. The Lord can come in blessing or he can come in judgment. He is not distant (v3), or safe (v4). Micah doesn’t want you to feel better, but to tremble at the thought that God was coming!

Such things were not new to the Jews – they believed these things and looked forward to the Day when the Messiah would come, bringing judgement on the unbelieving Gentile nations. What a shock it must have been to them when Micah says that he is coming to judge them (v5)!

Two brothers are misbehaving, both equally at fault. But when Dad arrives he ignores one of the boys and heads for his brother, saying something like, ‘I saw what you did’! In the meantime, the first brother breathes a quiet sigh of relief, thinking dad was overlooking his part in the fiasco. His relief melts away when his father suddenly turns to him and says, ‘and now for you, young man’!

The Book of Micah

The people in Israel had a special relationship with God because they had made a covenant with him. But they had not followed the rules in the covenant. So Micah says God is going to be a witness against his own people (v2)! God calls both Israel and the other nations to a court of law. He asks them to defend themselves. Yes, God would punish Samaria and Jerusalem. But the whole world must hear this message and take heed! If God deals like this with his own covenant people what he do to them?

Why does a loving God have to judge and punish? 1. ‘Transgression’ (v5) – this means rebellion, breaking away,

apostasy. 2. ‘Sins’ (v5) – this means missing the mark (as when a marksman

shoots and misses) God sets up the target. 3. ‘High place’ (v5) – Idolatry. These are the locations for idolatrous

worship. The two capital cities are charged with being the focal point for the sins of the whole nation. (God had ordered King Hezekiah to destroy the high places 2 Kings 18v1-6).

Are we shocked by Micah’s message as his hearers would have been? We ought to be!

God has revealed these things and we should listen because: This is the ‘word of the Lord’ – the people must listen carefully to it and respond quickly – because God’s word is sure and certain, reliable and trustworthy!

We should listen and learn from history or you’re doomed to repeat it; human beings are notoriously bad at learning from other people’s mistakes.

We should listen because God is holy. There is a great gulf between our dwelling place on earth in sin and the habitation of God in his holy temple.

We should listen because God’s judgment is universal all the peoples of the earth are accountable to their Creator; Micah’s God was no less than ‘the Lord of the whole earth’ (4v13).

The Book of Micah

God in his judgement will judge the nations but his judgement will begin with the house of God – you and me (1 Pet.4v17)!

We should listen because God is sovereign - his judgment is accurate and certain; there can be no argument; there can be no escape.

We should listen because God is on his way – again! God did come and judge as he said he would, but he now reminds us that Jesus is coming again – not for temporary judgement – but the final judgement.

Quick look busy the boss is coming! Too many people think that the boss is fooled – but generally he knows what is going on! Sadly people have the same approach to God, if he is not present he does not see what they are doing – and if he does come they’ll just tidy up their lives a bit and everything will be ok. Micah shows that the people were fooling themselves then, and they still are.

The Finger of God (v6-7): Micah says ‘therefore’ which links the crime to the punishment. Here we find God himself addressing the people ‘I will make’ (v6-7) etc. The finger of God points clearly to the sins of the people:

a): Disregard for God’s word: Here in this chapter Micah identifies the main sin as idolatry (v7, 6v16) - ‘the high places’ (v5), worshipping the things that they had made with ‘their own hands’ (5v13). Today we have our cars and TV, our homes and gardens, our money and savings. Micah warned the people that the day was rushing upon them when God would destroy the things that they were trusting in (v6-7).

b): Unholy worship: Corrupt religious services included temple prostitution (v7) and compromised sacrifices polluted the true worship of God in both Samaria and Jerusalem and God says these can never be accepted by him or bring pleasure to him.

c): Moral corruption: They reduced their standard of living to that of the world around them.

The Book of Micah

When men depart from the standards of God’s word they soon fall down to the standards of the world – doing what is ‘right in their own eyes’ (Jud.17v6). The problem that accompanies all this is that there are consequences which are not apparent at first – but the end result is always the same – destruction (v6). The very things that are the ‘strong’ points of society, church or family will ultimately lead to its downfall (v7) if God is left out.

One example of this was Lachish (v13). This was the city where the strong, fast horses and chariots were kept (2 Chron.11v5-12). The people were trusting in their military ability to deliver them in times of war – instead of God. The Psalmist had warned of this very danger ‘some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God’ (Ps.20v7).

What is there in our lives (nationally, church, family or individually) that we are tempted to lean on instead of God?

Where are the true people of God (v8-16): Do you remember the story about the Greek philosopher, Diogenes? He went around with a lantern looking for an honest man all through the day. Even in broad daylight he carried his lantern around to arouse curiosity. When anybody asked Diogenes, ‘What are you doing with a lantern in broad daylight’? He would reply, ‘I am looking for an honest man’. This is like Micah’s search in his day for truly godly people!

Micah points out the seriousness of the situation. He is pointing out that he is addressing God’s own people – and that God knows where they can be found (v8-9). Micah’s point is simple – the same sins are found here as well (v9)! No wonder Micah was moved to tears (v8 see also job 30v29; Isa.22v4; Jer.8v21 9v1)!

Micah did not rejoice when he spoke about judgement, he did not gloat or say in a triumphant manner ‘you are getting what you deserve’ no he mourned and wept at the thought of their plight.

The Book of Micah

Where is the sorrow for sin among the people of God today? We are rarely moved by the sin of others or our own but Micah demonstrated a godly sorrow and urged others to be of the same mind. We need to know something of it for ourselves (2 Cor.7v10-11).

Micah seems to be trying to get people to take the situation seriously. We are to do the same whether we are talking about the church or the world. The church in many places is suffering terrible persecution and hardship – do we see that; are we moved by it?

The Lord is coming to judge all men – when we speak of such things the world laughs and says things like ‘you can’t be serious’! They immediately picture the man with the sandwich board declaring ‘the end is nigh’ and laugh (2 Pet.3v2-4)! Despite this the world faces a future that is heartbreaking and far worse than any ‘natural’ disaster that has struck this planet – are we moved by it? It is the responsibility of every Christian to encourage people to take God and his word seriously.

I was reminded of the film ‘The Day after Tomorrow’. In the film some are tempted to go off into the rapidly freezing weather to find a better place of safety. But one young man knows better and pleads with people to stay where they are safe – because the weather was going to get worse and people would not be able to survive the freezing temperatures. When asked what made him so sure he said that his father was a meteorologist and told him earlier to stay put. The people did not believe the son or the father. A police officer told the son to be quiet and stop unsettling the people and to go with them – he refused. So led by the police officer the people set out into the cold night. None of them survived. What stood out for me was how the young man reacted he climbed onto a table and shouted his message, pleading with people to stay with him – but they laughed at him, told him to shut up and get out of the way.

The Book of Micah

As Micah viewed the indifference of the people to God’s message to them he mourned over them, in this there is a picture of the one who was greater than he – Jesus, who pronounced God’s judgement then wept over them (Luke 13v34-354, 19v41-44).

We should thank God that he has an ‘early warning system’ in place. He warns us that he is going to do something before he does it! God uses men to proclaim his message. Here, through the instrumentality of a chosen man, some amazing details of future history are given to all who will hear. As always, God warns before he sends punishment so that all men will be without excuse.

The people should have listened and taken God seriously – they didn’t. Are we really any better? How often do we write off someone’s misfortune as being their own fault, when in fact we are not so very different?

The twelve cities: But it is not just the capital cities that need to listen carefully to Micah – he identifies 12 cities pointing out their sins – sins which were having a corrosive effect throughout the whole nation.

Micah now turns (v10-16) to mention some of the cities that will suffer at the hand of their enemies. Although this is hard to see in our English versions the meaning of the city names sound like what they symbolise. The Hebrew word for each town becomes a message about the future. At the mention of each of these towns a different aspect of the judgement of God is highlighted for the attention of Micah’s hearers.

1) ‘Gath’ (v10) sounds like the Hebrew word for ‘tell’. In the Hebrew language, ‘in Acco’ sounds like ‘weep’. In 701BC, King Sennacherib advanced towards Jerusalem. He attacked 46 towns and cities, and he took control of them. These included the ones that Micah mentions here. We can understand why Micah felt so much pain.

The Book of Micah

Micah now quotes from 2 Sam.1v20. ‘Tell it not in Gath’. Earlier, David wept and he spoke these same words. David was grieved over the death of Saul and Jonathan and saw it as a major catastrophe.

‘Gath’ was a town where people called Philistines lived. Earlier, David did not want the Philistines to be happy about their success. It is the same for Micah. He does not want the enemies (the Assyrians) to be happy about their success. Israel is like God’s light to the nations. When the light becomes dark, the nations have no light and no hope. Micah dreaded the outpouring of the scorn of these heathen cities when they should learn of the terrible judgment experienced by God’s own people.

2) ‘Beth Aphrah’ means ‘House of Dust’. The message might be, ‘Do not tell it in Tell town. Do not weep in Weep town. Roll yourself in the House of Dust.’ The army from Assyria will defeat the people in those towns. Then Jerusalem’s rulers will ‘roll themselves in the dust’. This was a custom that showed complete despair and signified hopeless mourning.

3) ‘Shaphir’ (v11) sounds like Hebrew for ‘beauty, pleasant’ contrasted with shame. ‘Shaphir’ was a beautiful city. But its people would soon be prisoners. The Assyrians will take its people away to another country. They will make its people walk through the streets. Then those people from ‘Shaphir’ will be naked and so they will be ashamed. Everyone will see their naked bodies. Their shame will be great. Their enemies will not care about them. But God sympathises. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, suffered the same shame.

4) ‘Zaanan’ sounds like a verb meaning ‘to go out’ or ‘go forward’, but the people in the town will not go forward, they are unable to escape; they will be terrified to go out of the house. They will not be able to go to help their neighbours in the battle. Instead, they will hide behind their walls of their town.

The Book of Micah

5) ‘Bethezel’ this sounds like ‘foundation’ and means ‘house where they take away’. They have no foundation because God ‘will uncover her foundations’ (v6) The Assyrian people will ‘take away’ their help. It means that they will not protect Judah any longer.

6) ‘Maroth’ (v12) like a word meaning ‘bitter’ or ‘to wait for good’. ‘Maroth’ is a town where the people were bitter. Bitter people need hope. They need to hope for something better. So the people in ‘Maroth’ hope for something good. They hope for help and peace. But there is no help from Jerusalem’s people. Jerusalem is the city whose name means ‘peace’. The Assyrians will march right up to the great gate of Jerusalem. God will use the Assyrians to carry out his judgement. By means of them, God will punish the people in Judah and Israel.

7) ‘Lachish’ (v13) and ‘horses’ sound similar in the Hebrew language. ‘Lachish’ might mean a team of horses. ‘Lachish’ was an important town. It was the strongest place in the region. It was about 4 miles from Micah’s home. There was an army there. The army’s job was to defend the western hills. The men in the army used chariots which would be fast and powerful in a battle. The people in ‘Lachish’ would have trusted in their strong army. They would have trusted in their chariots. The people thought that they were in no danger from the Assyrians. But they were wrong. In Micah’s message, God is telling the people to leave this strong town. They must leave as quickly as possible! This command probably made the people very afraid. The Assyrians would soon defeat the people in Lachish. Lachish’s people had caused Jerusalem’s people to stop trusting in God. The people of ‘Lachish’ did not trust God to defend them. They trusted their chariots. This is the sin of pride. Pride causes us to think that God’s rules for our life do not matter. We believe that we can do as we choose. We think that we do not need God. We think that we can live very well without him. The people in Lachish had the same sin as the people in Israel had. This sin was that they trusted their chariots instead of God. And Lachish’s people taught Jerusalem’s people to sin.

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So the people in Jerusalem and Judah had that same sin too. (The ‘Daughter of Zion’ is another name for Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.)

In our modern world, we too can be guilty of pride. Now we might trust machinery, computers and modern science. We might trust all those things when we should be trusting God.

8) ‘Moresheth-gath’ this is perhaps the full name of Micah’s home town. The name sounds like the Hebrew word for ‘betrothed’ but instead of receiving a dowry the town is given as a gift to the conquering army.

9) ‘Achzib’ (v14) place of deceit or ‘cheat’; this town was approx. 8 miles north of ‘Moresheth’. In this message, the Assyrians have defeated the people in ‘Lachish’. So the king must now pay money as gifts to the Assyrians. ‘Achzib’ is now under the Assyrians’ control. Therefore, Judah’s rulers cannot receive taxes from the people in ‘Achzib’. It was a wealthy town. There were many places where people could have jobs there. Now they will not be wealthy any longer. They will have nothing. That is the result of God’s judgement on the nation. Rather than serving as a defence against the invaders will be helpless or even turn traitor.

10) ‘Mareshah’ (v15) means ‘possession’. ‘People in Mareshah’ the Hebrew words here sound like ‘someone who takes possession’. It means the person that wins a battle takes possession of his winnings.

11) ‘Adullam’ means ‘justice of the people’ and is probably poetic justice - they will get what they deserve. In these two place names we see a people who have been taken as a possession by a conquering army. The statement about ‘Adullam’ refers to David when he was on the run from Saul. David hid in the cave of ‘Adullam’. David and his men were unhappy people. David and those with him were in trouble, they were weak and not considered to be very important people (1 Sam.22v1-2; 2 Sam.23v13).

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However, the people in ‘Mareshah’ were important people. They were men that had a high rank. They ran away and hid from the Assyrians. The two situations were alike, because there was little hope for improvement. In both events, it seemed that the end had come. There is a promise about a better future for Judah and Israel; but it does come later in this book (Mic.2v12-13).

The invading army will reach to the very ‘gate of my people – to Jerusalem’ (v9). In Isaiah 10 and Micah 1 we are given the battle plan that Sennecharib used to attack Jerusalem. You can only approach Jerusalem from the north or south. Sennacharib sent part of his army from the north (Isa.10) and part of his army came up from the south. The only thing which spared Jerusalem was the Angel of the Lord. Sennacharib records that he took 46 strong walled cities, and countless un-walled cities which really left only Jerusalem. He took 200,000 captives. Mysteriously 185,000 Assyrians were killed and they fled home and there is no record of that in Sennecherib’s chronicles.

Lessons for today: Why is God telling people disaster is coming? For Samaria there is no hope their situation is ‘incurable’ – but God does not say this of Jerusalem. The warning of disaster was to bring about true repentance (v8-9, 16).

The late Dr. A. J. Gordon gave the following anecdote in one of the last sermons he preached: “Dr. Westmoreland, an eminent army surgeon, tells of a soldier who was shot in the neck, the ball just grazing and wounding the carotid artery. The doctor knew that his life hung on a hair, and one day as he was dressing the wound the walls of the artery gave way. Instantly the surgeon pressed his finger upon the artery, and held the blood in check; and the patient asked, ‘What does this mean?’ ‘It means that you are a dead man,’ answered the doctor. ‘How long can I live?’ ‘As long as I keep my hand on the artery.’ ‘Can I have time to dictate a letter to my wife and child?’ ‘Yes.’

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And so the letter was written for him, full of tender farewell messages, and when all was finished he calmly closed his eyes and said ‘I am ready, doctor.’ The purple tide ebbed quickly away and all was over. What a parable is here of a far more solemn fact. Oh, unsaved one, you are by nature ‘dead through trespasses and sins’! But God keeps His hand upon your pulse, preserving your life that you may have an opportunity to repent and be saved” (9).

Outside of God our sin is ‘incurable’. How can we escape? Where can we run to for safety? We cannot if we reject Gods salvation in Jesus Christ. Christ has died and is risen again! Hallelujah what a Saviour!

Micah sees the events unfolding around him as a major catastrophe. The coming disaster would be so severe that the normal burial rites would have to be left out (v10a) – sorrow for sin will be too late (v10b) – they would be carried away into captivity by the nations around them (v11a). Israel would be deserted (v11b). In the face of battle they would be powerless to resist (v11c) because God would be fighting against them; it was God who was bringing the disaster upon them. The end was obvious – total ruin (v12).

There was no relief from the disaster anywhere. It has come down from God and there is no escape!

The people had strong, swift chariots and horses – but they had nowhere to run to. God tells his people that they need to fight? No - run! (v13a). Resistance in futile! We need to run to the one safe place - Christ! Christ has died for our sin and rebellion – but warns of the coming judgement we all face – he is warning us in advance so that we will listen and turn in repentance to the one sure place of safety – the sure mercies of David – God himself. Do not run not away from God – run to God, and all those that seek him will find him; all those that trust in Christ for free, full forgiveness shall not be turned away but shall receive the free gift of pardon, forgiveness and a new eternal life. Have you done this?

The Book of Micah

‘Judgement, Hope and Promise’ Reading: Micah 2 v 1 - 13.

The message of Micah can be broken down into three sermons:

Judgement is coming (1-2)

The Deliverer is coming (3-5)

Trust the Lord today (6-7).

These three sermons start with the call to ‘hear’ or ‘listen’ (1v2; 3v1; 6v1). They start with blame, the things which Micah warned about. Each section then continues from judgement to hope. At the end of each of these sections there is a message of hope (2v12-13; 5v7; 7v18-20), and ends with a promise.

The message came through Micah, as the God ordained man of the moment was commanded to tell the people of Samaria and Jerusalem that God was coming to judge them (1v3, 6-7). He warned the Northern Kingdom of the coming destruction and the Southern Kingdom of impending exile. God would no longer accept second place in the lives of those who professed to be his children. He called the world to see his judgment against his own. The nations would see that while God was loving and merciful, he was also just and righteous. The two kingdoms would see that only through repentance and the mercy of the Lord could restoration be found. God’s message to Judah was a warning of the coming exile. He had identified the general charges against the kingdom before the ‘court’. They were guilty of idolatry. These specific charges were laid at the capitals of the kingdoms: Samaria in the north, Jerusalem in the south. The judgment that was to fall on Israel would spill over onto Judah, just as was the case with the practice of idolatry.

Such a message was not good news for anyone – especially for Micah himself. How did Micah respond to this? We saw that when he delivered his message it was with a broken heart (1v8-9), he literally wept over the fate of Judah.

The Book of Micah

How can we live in the joy and truth grounded in the hope of the Lord’s coming and an eternity with him? How does this affect us daily?

This is the second part of Micah’s first sermon. In chapter 1 the people were guilty of distorting the worship of God (1v5, 7, 9), now there is seen a contempt for the needs of others. These things often go together.

The sin of covetousness (v1-2): Micah sees that it is necessary also to name particular sins. Otherwise it is not clear what they are. These sins begin as wrong ideas in the mind. Then the people carry out their plans. People’s wrong behaviour is against what God wants. Wrong actions affect our relationship with God. They affect our relationships with each other. We are introduced to one of Judah’s great sins: terrible injustice. Micah says that the people were also guilty of the sin of covetousness.

These rich people made their evil plans at night. They would lie awake at night thinking up new ways to get ‘things’ (v1), then in the morning, they would get up early to carry out the bad things that they had planned. The people were not only covetous in their thinking, but once their plans were set in their minds they would use every means – legal – or not – to get what they wanted: fraud, threats and physical violence (v2).

Isaiah seems to pick up on this practice as well saying that people ‘were adding house to house and join field to field’ (Isa.5v8). It seems that the widows and fatherless who were living in ‘their pleasant homes’ may have been the special targets of these people (v8-9).

People were saying, ‘I want it and I intend to get it.’ These words clearly express the nature of this evil behaviour. They had all the power over the poorer people. The rich people owned most of the land. They could do whatever they wanted. Nobody could stop them. They made plans against ordinary people.

The Book of Micah

The rich were taking advantage of the poor and the rulers were refusing to obey God’s word. If someone asked them why they were doing these things, they replied ‘because we can’. It was ‘in their power to do it’ (v1).

The ordinary people owned fields and houses. Maybe they had just one field and one house. It was all that they could pass on to their children. The evil people wanted fields. So they took them. They wanted houses. So they took them. That was not a good, honest occupation. Rich people were cheating the poor people. The rich people became richer. The poor people had nothing. But both God and Micah knew the rich people’s plans.

Micah says that those in power, both socially and in the government, defrauded their brother and sister Israelites of their land (3v1-4). Taking away a man’s land in an agricultural society meant sentencing him and his family to poverty. The coveting of the powerful for the land and homes of the powerless was a direct violation of God’s law.

The word ‘covet’ (v2) is the same as the one used in the tenth Commandment (Ex.20v17). To defraud a person of his land portion was also to rob his children of their future, because an Israelite’s land was his inheritance. To break the covenant was the height of sin against God. You can imagine these people turning up with eviction papers that had the stamp of the local governing authority on them. Their actions were heartless but legal.

In our own context, there are plenty of examples of people or companies who seek their own wealth at the expense of others. The context may change but the people do not. However when the people heard the message from Micah, they reacted in a different way to Micah. Micah was heartbroken – they refused to listen.

They demonstrated that they did not want to hear what the Lord had to say – if fact they did not believe what Micah was saying was actually from the Lord at all.

The Book of Micah

This means that they were also rejecting the message and ministry of Isaiah, Hosea and Amos as all these men were ministering around the same time.

Plans of Men and God (v3-5): God has said to the people ‘I know your schemes to ‘defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance’. I know all about it, and you should know that ‘I am planning [scheming] disaster against’ you’. God is saying that just as they are doing to others he will do to them! In calling them ‘this people’, not ‘my people’ God showed he was disowning them on account of their disobedience to his commandments, and because they had broken the covenant that he had made with them (Deut.26v17-18).

God’s disaster is going to be dreadful: ‘you cannot save yourselves’ from it (v3). It will be so humiliating for these people ‘you will no longer walk proudly [arrogantly]’ (v3).

Micah writes a sad song (v4). He suggests that the Assyrians might sing it. There is an example of a similar thing (Ps.137v1-6) where, Israel’s enemies would ask its people to sing a song from Zion (Jerusalem). This would be their reply. ‘We cannot sing the LORD’s songs while we are in a foreign country!’ The Assyrians would consider Micah’s idea to be funny. God’s disaster will also be frightening ‘they will have no one in the assembly of the Lord’ (v5). The punishment for these guilty people is that God will remove from them all that they had gained. This is typical of course because keeping our riches are not certain – they are not safe! If we place our hopes in riches and the things of this world we risk losing everything (1 Tim.6v17; Matt.16v26).

Here is the first word of hope (v4-5) for the people. God has warned that because of their sin God would take away from them all that they claimed as their own – but God would restore the land to his own people, but those who were ruthless, heartless men robbing the poor and vulnerable would have no future descendents in the land.

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This note of hope must not be missed. Judgement is sure – but restoration will come!

What Micah does in these verses is show the corruption of human hearts. We may well say that ‘I am neither rich or powerful. I have not behaved in the way that Micah describes in regard to the injustice of his day’. But before we walk away from these verses let us remind ourselves of where it all began. Micah began with covetousness – the sin that lurks in the heart of a man. He is talking about the God who sees us in the secret places, he knows what we plot in our bedrooms (see also Elisha 2 Kings 56v12). Sin is deceitful and we must beware that we are not fooled into thinking I’m ok – when God looks and says otherwise!

Refusing the truth (v6-11): The king objected to Amos and his message (Amos 7v10-17), the people rejected Isaiah’s message (Isa.53v1). Hosea faced the same obstacle saying ‘they delight the king with their wickedness, the princes with their lies’ (Hos.7v3). Much later Paul tells us that the time will come when people would turn their ears away from the truth (2 Tim.4v3-4).

Here the people don’t want Micah to continue preaching. The prophet Micah must have seemed like a ‘wet blanket’ in Judah, a stubborn naysayer who refused to paint a rosy picture of the nation’s future. The people want Micah and the other genuine prophets to stop preaching about repentance and judgement – after all not all prophets were saying the same things some were refusing to preach about judgement (v6). They people said to Micah ‘stop preaching such things; you know God won’t do that to us. We are his people’. There was no lack of prophets to say what the people wanted to hear. ‘Do not prophesy about these things’ the false prophets said. ‘Disgrace will not overtake us’ (v6). Those who prophesied good things for the nation were the people’s choice (v11). But God’s Word leaves no doubt about who was right. Judah was too much like her sister Israel for God to ignore her sins.

The Book of Micah

As in all ages people only want to hear the ‘smooth things’ (Isa.30v9-11) – only the things that make them feel good! They want to hear of the covenant blessings and promises but not the covenants warnings and curses! Those who give people a pleasant message that fits in with what they want to hear are always given a ready reception. This is true for all preachers of the gospel, but it is equally true of individual believers who want to share their faith with those who do not know Jesus.

It is so human to hear only the good things people have to tell us. But it’s a temptation we need to guard against. We all have those times when we hear only what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. Sometimes the refusal to admit the truth has relatively small consequences. At other times, however, it can be the prelude to disaster. One example that continues to stand out in history is the Flood during the days of Noah. Imagine the people jeering and laughing at Noah and his family as they built an ark - on dry land! They probably brushed aside his claims that there would be a flood. But in the end, all but Noah and his family were destroyed (Today in the Word). God through Micah is sternly rebuking his people. ‘You wear the name of my people but you have no resemblance to my people’! It’s the Old Testament version of the New Testament saying, ‘you have a name that you live, but you are dead’ (Rev.3v1). The words of Micah tells us that the descendants of Jacob were proud of the name ‘House of Jacob’, but they were not worthy of it. Hopefully, we who make up the ‘church of Christ’ will never degenerate to the point where the Spirit of God will be compelled to say, ‘O you are called the church of Christ, but you are not the church of Christ’! We may decorate ourselves with all kinds of religious glitter, but the truth is made known in our lives. Now, when God found his chosen people to be in such a state of wanting the name, but not the character of his people, he sent a preacher to teach them about the ‘Spirit of the Lord’, and I wonder why he did that?

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It must be that their restoration and revival must come from that direction.

When the church begins to decline, there needs to be much preaching on the truth of the Spirit of God. Consider: the Spirit is the very ‘breath’ of the church (John 6v63); we must worship in ‘spirit’ and truth’ (John 4v23-24); and, we must be born of the water and the Spirit (John 3v3-5). If the Spirit is withdrawn from the church, the vitality and energy of the church collapses (Eph.3v16).

David prayed ‘make me alive according to your word’ (Ps.119v25); Paul wrote, ‘God shall revive our mortal bodies by his Spirit’ (Rom.8v11); and Peter wrote, ‘though Jesus was put to death in the flesh; he was made alive by the Spirit’ (1Pet.3v18).

In Micah 2v6a, we hear the Israelites singing an old familiar song: ‘Don’t prophesy! We don’t want to hear what you have to say’! Of course, people today never say that - at least out loud – we’re too sophisticated for that! We just stay away from Bible studies! When we stay away from Bible study, it’s the same as saying, ‘God, we don’t want to hear what you have to say’! Or, more fitting for today, ‘God, we’re too busy with our lives to be concerned with what you have to say’!

God kept sending them messengers to warn them, but they kept killing them (Matt.21v33-41). The same continues today; not killing God’s messengers, but killing God’s message. This is done through rumours, gossip, innuendos, and sometimes outright rebellion. People can ‘quench the Spirit’, in themselves (Eph.4v30), and some are influential enough to quench the Spirit in others. The Israelites also tried to ‘handcuff’ the Spirit of God by only allowing certain persons to speak to them (v11). They wanted preachers who would tolerate their lusts and passions; preachers who would swell their pride with empty flatteries; preachers who would tell them they could sin with safety; and preachers who would tell them that commitment and sacrifice were unnecessary. For some reason, many think that God’s Word is like a wax nose that can be shaped to suit the face of the latest societal changes.

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The people ask two things: a): is God losing patience with us? b): is God really going to do what you have said?

They are asking these things with the false impression that if God should lose patience and sent such terrible things upon them he would be acting against his very nature. This is a bit like today where people ask would a God of love really condemn people to hell? Surely a God of love would never do such a thing! But that is only part of the truth. The whole truth is this. God will do what he promised to the nation of Israel. But he does good things only to those who do right things. It is true that God loves us. And he is kind to us. But the prophets warn these people because they are not loyal to their Lord (See also Matt.7v24-27; 1 Cor.6v9-11).

The people of Micah’s day and the people of today have much in common. They think that they can live as they please and God will continue to smile on them and bless them. Of course such thinking is seriously flawed! Here God is heard to speak ‘do not my words do good to him whose ways are upright’ (v7)? The important principle is made clear ... warnings of impending judgement are not merely to arouse the sinful and the careless, but especially ‘to do good to those who do uprightly. For the godly it encourages us to remember that evil will not triumph or prosper forever. God will put a stop to it. In other words Gods comforting and encouraging words of peace, joy and blessing are for those who know and love the Lord and keep his words. They are not comforting; neither will they be for the ’good’ of those who despise and reject God and his word (Deut.11v26-28; Jer.7v5-15). In the words of Jesus they are greatly mistaken – not knowing the Scripture!

Again Micah’s heart was stirred within him as he replies ‘I must preach – God’s Spirit compels me’ (3v8). The false prophets were mere ‘windbags’ full of words that mean nothing. Micah as the servant of God is moved by the Spirit and gives powerful life challenging words.

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This is pretty much how Paul felt when he said ‘woe is me if I do not preach the gospel’ (1 Cor.9v16).

‘Even My people have risen up as an enemy’ (v8). The worst enemies of God's church is not the infidels and atheists, they are those who call themselves God's people and yet fight against His Spirit; those who contradict His Word, and even try, at times, to apologise for it. Let the modern, broad-minded, liberal world do what they want with God's word; but the Truth is: God's Spirit cannot be locked up in a straight-jack (or a church building)! It will accomplish exactly what God intends for it to accomplish (Isa.55v11), for they can do nothing against the Truth (2 Cor.13v8).

The people did not want God’s word or God’s messenger. They preferred their own prophets who were often drunk and lived in wickedness (v10-11).

The preaching of God’s word should always stir us up. It should bless and encourage us. It should rebuke us of our sins – but remind us of our Saviour. It should remind us that whereas God never changes – we are always to be changing moving forward, pressing onwards and upwards in Christ. It should disturb our complacency and our being ‘at ease in Zion’ (Amos 6v1). It should create a hunger and thirst for God to use us to change to ‘status quo’ and awaken us to a more lively walk with him. When God does these things let us not be found guilty of telling God we don’t want to hear these things!

The message of the cross is still struggling to be heard – even in many churches. People do not want to be made uncomfortable or guilty. But the message of the cross is that God sent his Son Jesus to take away his wrath against sin but dying in our place. If we do not hear about our sin, and that we stand guilt condemned sinners before a holy and righteous God – how can the cross and the sacrifice of Jesus mean anything to us at all? It becomes a sentimental charm – that shows the love of Jesus – but robs the cross of meaning and purpose.

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Praise God he is the God of love, but it is because of his love that Jesus is on the cross dying for sinners (John 3v16). However unless we see that we are guilty lost helpless sinners – we will not see the need to do anything about it.

Lessons for today (v12-13): These last two verses are often interpreted in two ways: a): as a confirmation of Micah’s message of doom, b): as a message of hope to the remnant of God’s people.

I believe that although these verses contain a sudden shift and focus, they direct our attention to the fact that God has warned of the imminent judgement – but now the love of God shines through the gloom of judgement! Micah has preached, the people are refusing to listen. This seems to be the end. There seems to be no hope. However, this first section of this book ends with a promise.

Twice God says ‘I will’ (v12). God will scatter the guilty, but he will gather his people up.

There will always be some people that love God. But there will not be many people like that. The Bible calls these few people the remnant. God will gather these together. The phrase ‘you all’ here is difficult to understand. God will cause the people in Israel to scatter to other countries. He will then gather together the few people that remain. ‘You all’ refers to the remnant. These are the few people that have kept their belief in God. And God will rescue the whole remnant.

God’s people will be like sheep that are afraid. They will be in a strange, foreign country. God’s people will be in a foreign country. They will need a strong leader to rescue them. Only the LORD can do that. Israel’s God is like a shepherd; in this special description, it is as if his people are his sheep. They are like his flock. Like a shepherd God will gather together his people like a sheep in a pen. The Good Shepherd at work!

The Book of Micah

There are other references to God as a shepherd. Some references are in the Old Testament (Psalm 23; Eze.34v1-31). There are also some references in the New Testament (John 10v1-30).

He will be like a shepherd to them. He will gather his sheep. He will bring them to a safe place. They will be noisy. They will be happy. They will all come home. This is a promise. They can be sure that it will happen.

Micah once again switches to a new picture; he goes from the shepherd to the king! ‘Their king’ goes before them – this is a personal hope for the people – behold you king is coming and will go before you!

Their escape happens in three parts: 1) The people try to escape from the city where they are. But they

cannot get through its gate. It is as if there is a wall in front of the gate. God is like Israel’s Shepherd. And he is their King. He goes forward. He breaks through the gate.

2) The crowds break out. They pass through the opening in the gate.

3) Their King takes the position that is his right. It is at their head. This is a sure and certain promise given here – but it is not immediate. The people will be scattered but not forever. At some future point God will collect his ‘remnant’ people again.

The hope is restricted to a ‘remnant’ it will nevertheless be a very sizable remnant. God is pictured as who comes to ‘break open the way’ for his people. He smashes and breaks down whatever holds, confines or imprisons his people.

Israel’s kings failed. Later, Micah will tell us more about the ultimate fulfilment of that restoration, and from where that ‘king’ shall arise who shall lead God’s flock (5v2-5). Their King from heaven will succeed.

We would do well to remember the preaching of Micah as we read in the New Testament: ‘For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

The Book of Micah

For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will’ (Heb.2v1-4).

How sad that many in Israel and Judah did not listen to the words of such men like Micah, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah - but are we listening to God today? Israel as a nation failed to heed the message sent to them; are we heeding the message for us today?

The Book of Micah

‘Good and Bad Leaders’ Reading: Micah 3 v 1 - 12.

This is the second message of the prophet Micah to the people of Judah. Although he speaks of Jacob, Israel, Zion and Jerusalem etc. It is likely that his message is just for the southern kingdom - Judah and its capital Jerusalem. Samaria and the northern tribes would by this time have been taken into captivity.

Micah’s second message covers chapters 3-5: Who has failed? (Chapter 3) What is coming? (Chapter 4)

Who is coming? (Chapter 5)

This chapter is comprised of three perfectly matched sections of four verses each. In each section, God calls the people to pay attention, then states the accusations – the indictments against each group of leadership - and concludes by pronouncing Judgment.

Each section has at least two points: a): Sin is exposed b): God’s verdict and spiritual application

Judgement against rulers, prophets and priests: In this first section of the message that Micah brings to the people, he speaks against the rulers, prophets and priests that have caused injustice to the poor people. Micah believes that prophets who speak about peace and then declare war on those who have nothing will have no answer from God about their prophecies and be disgraced (v5-7).

It is important to remember that Micah is not just condemning anti-social behaviour and unjust laws. He is condemning the ‘spirit’ in which people are applying the law. It seems that the spirit if the world was having a greater influence on Gods people than the Spirit of God. People could no longer distinguish right from wrong, good and bad.

The Book of Micah

The Spirit of God was no longer able to work through Israel who should have been a ‘light to the Gentiles’. Instead Israel was as bad, if not worse than the Gentiles. This means that there was no longer light for a dark world. God reprimands his people, calls them to repent and change their ways. But as we can see that is not something Gods people want to do.

The failure of the judges (v1-4): Micah has made a general warning to Samaria and Jerusalem concerning the sins which were destroying them. Then Micah was moved to identify particular sins which the people were guilty of (idolatry and covetousness). Now he identifies particular groups in the nation (v1).

Micah begins then by exposing sin in the hearts of the judges. He starts with the characteristic call to hear or listen – to pay attention – not to him but to the word of God! He tells them that

v1-4: Government leaders treat people like animals. v2: Confusion of morals.

The heads and rulers to whom Micah speaks here are probably the judges of the land – hence Micah’s question: ‘should you not know justice’?

God is a God of order and structure. He leads us through the authorities in our lives (Prov.21v1). We are all members of a collective whole as well as individuals. What does he say in this passage to the civic leaders? Micah mentions prophets, priests, seers, rulers, diviners, leaders. He is now turning his arrow at two types of leaders of two types of groups: those representing the civic community and those leading the religious communities.

The failure of religious and political organisations in his day and God’s indictment includes this fact. The ‘state’ has jurisdiction in certain areas of life and the ‘church’ has jurisdiction in other areas. Jesus talked about Caesar and God having differing realms (Matt.22v21).

The Book of Micah

God calls out to the rulers saying ‘you who hate good and love evil’ he calls them to hate that which is evil and love that which is good. Isaiah (Isa.1v16-17; 5v20) and Amos (Amos 5v14-15) obviously had to deal with this issue as well.

When leaders reverse the value system of God we have the moral obligation to follow the Lord, rather than the human leaders. Scripture frequently reminds us of the clear division between good and evil. All too often we, like the people of Micah’s day, prefer to fudge issues and consider all grey. But there is no middle ground in the divine evaluation, and we must be forced to come to a decision about the rights and wrongs of our conduct.

‘The description of these rulers’ actions reminds you more of ravenous beasts than of human beings. Instead of being faithful shepherds who protected the flock (Mic.2v12; 7v14), they attacked the sheep, skinned them alive, butchered them, chopped them up, and made stew out of them’ (Wiersbe).

We can’t read these words without being reminded of Shylock in Shakespeare’s play ‘The merchant of Venice’, who, in the name of justice, required a pound of flesh from his victim. The image communicates a ruthlessness that is prepared to stop at nothing in order to reach its goal. The point of ‘The merchant of Venice’ is that, while Shylock might be acting within the law, he is not being just. It is almost certainly the same here.

The flesh and skin in Hebrew thought the skin and flesh were a part of the essence of a person (Job 10v11). ... If the heads and rulers consume these bodily parts, they are taking away the very being of their victims.

b): God’s verdict and spiritual application:

What distinguishes a wise and righteous ruler from a foolish and

wicked ruler?

Justice should be paramount

Loving and practicing what is good (by serving the people) instead of

doing that which was is evil (by exploiting the people)

The Book of Micah

Enjoying the favour of the Lord and not his condemnation

These politicians not only have taken advantage of people and they’ve not loved the Lord God, but in v4 it says they don’t know how to get in touch with to God. They don’t know how to pray and have God answer their prayers.

They may be crooks, but they are always in church for the day of national fasting and prayer. It may shock you that there are so many places in the Bible God says, ‘Don’t bother praying to me. I’m not even going to listen’.

The ultimate response of God to the leaders is to cease giving them a fresh word of wisdom, of insight. He will no longer answer them when they call.

The day would come when these wolves in shepherds’ clothing would cry out for God’s mercy, but no mercy would be given. God simply promises judgment will come - the Lord will turn his back on his evil holy city with its evil rulers and false prophets who pervert justice. The Lord will hide his face and not answer. This is a sobering thought!

‘Regarding God’s judgment against crooked politicians: Isn’t it interesting? We have that ceremony where the President of the United States puts his hand on God’s Word and is sworn in. If they’d open it after that and read it, we’d be a lot better off’ (Kroll).

So often when we are faced with the ‘great men’ of the world, we feel intimidated and feel that somehow we need to be more careful about what we say to them about spiritual realities. Micah does not suffer from this condition.

Micah’s attitude is akin to that of Robert Bruce (died 1631), who when James VI rudely and repeatedly talked with his cohorts during the sermon cut him down to size with: ‘the Lion of the tribe of Judah is now roaring in the voice of his gospel, and it becomes all the petty kings of the earth to be silent’.

The failure of the priests (v5-8):

The Book of Micah

Once again Micah addresses the leaders – this time the priests and again he exposes sin in the heart of the religious rulers.

He tells them that they should be:

Motivated by truth rather than personal gain (v5)

Enlightened by the Lord not be darkened in their own vision (v6)

Commended by their intimacy with God and ashamed of their

separation from him (v7)

Empowered to proclaim the unpopular Word of Judgment (v8)

In v5 the leaders are said to ‘bite’ their victims, this word is often used in connection with a snake bite (Num.21v6, 8-9; Ecc.10v11; Amos 5v19).

‘Any theology that makes it easy for us to sin is not biblical theology. Had the rulers, prophets, and priests read and pondered Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28-30, they would have discovered that the God of the covenant is a holy God who will not countenance high-handed sin. They would also have learned that the blessings of the covenant depended on their obeying the conditions of the covenant, and that God punishes his people when they disobey’ (Wiersbe).

Micah’s condemnation of national spiritual leadership: A. Power at expense of people. B. Self-serving attitude (v5) C. Whole system corrupted. D. No power, sense of justice, or perception of God (v6-8) E. Better leadership is coming.

Micah and the power of God: It seems that Micah is the one speaking and he has a confidence that is stunning; v8 is set in contrast to the previous paragraph.

List the various sins that Micah mentions and list which leader seems to be held responsible for each. God promises to react to the sins of these leaders (v12).

b): God’s verdict and spiritual application:

The Book of Micah

In contrast to the false prophets who were full of greed (Acts 5v3), Micah claimed to be full of spiritual power (not ecstasy) as a result of God’s Spirit. He followed the will of God, and God’s Spirit filled him (Eph.5v18). Justice marked his pronouncements (v1-3, 5) and courage his ministry (v4, 6-7; Acts 4v13). He did not tailor his prophecies to his honorarium or fear what people might withhold from him if his message was negative (1 Thess.2v2-6). His ministry was to declare the sins of the Israelites (as well as their future hope), and he fulfilled it faithfully and boldly.

The priests it seems were ready to speak God’s word – if the price was right (v5).

We tend to think that we either speak God’s words or we don’t; we are either true messengers or false ones. This passage introduces another category of messenger: one who prophesies truly but for personal gain ... we need to be sure that we are speaking for the right motives. A true messenger of God not only speaks God’s words but speaks them for the right reasons.

God in calling Micah enables him to do the task, makes him more like himself, and then shows him the sin he has to condemn. It is good for us to remember that God never calls us to do something that we cannot do through his working in us. God in calling us to himself, and into his service equips us and enables us to fulfil our calling or ministry, he gives us his Spirit to make us more like our Saviour, and in so doing shows us the sinfulness of sin, which we must resist in ourselves and show up in others.

The consequences of failure (v9-12): Once again Micah addresses all the leaders, but this time his purpose is to show that there are consequences for rebelling against God.

So once again sin again is exposed. Micah gets to the heart of the matter saying ‘now hear this ... who despise justice and distort all that is right’. They make crooked what is straight (v9). When Messiah comes he will reverse this (Isa.40v3; Matt.3v3).

The Book of Micah

‘What troubled Micah (and God far more) was the sin in the courts, palaces, and temple. All three branches of government were corrupt. Worse yet they worked hand in hand. None of the rulers sought to correct the others – they were essentially all the same: they were serving their own interests not Gods. The politicians got their way in the courts, and the judges were paid for their destruction of justice. The prophets also benefited from this arrangement and supported the government in turn. ‘Is not the Lord among us’? they said. ‘No disaster will come upon us’ (v11)’ (Boice).

Micah’s prophecy takes on these bad leaders of Israel / Judah and their prophets; they prophesied prosperity falsely. So why did they do it? For the same reason so many people get off track with God today. While people will often justify their actions with spiritual-sounding rhetoric, very often their actions are motivated by prospective prosperity (v11). It’s the money, ‘the heads thereof judge for reward and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money’.

We have already seen how the prophets are in on the scam. The corruption is incredible, the unfaithfulness unbelievable. They are covering it all up with a false religiosity. That’s addressed in the last half of v11, where we see their arrogance: ‘Calamity will not come upon us’ they say. Both the religious leaders and the political leaders are acting on the basis of false theology which says, ‘Isn’t God here in our midst, in the middle of our government and our religious institutions? Isn’t he in our worship at the temple’? This is total hypocrisy because on one hand, they reject God’s justice, but on the other hand, they welcome his protection. The Bible is very clear, however, that God is not a protector of unjust people. All of the corrupt national leadership will suffer God’s judgment.

This is the great sin of complacency – ‘this will never happen to us’! Famous last words!

The Book of Micah

We need to remember that the church is never more than a generation or two from extinction. If we forget this simple point, it becomes all too easy to rest on our laurels when we are comfortable, and somehow lose sight of our mission, not to say of our Maker and Redeemer.

b): God’s verdict and spiritual application ‘therefore’. Micah (v12) once again states the consequences of their godless actions – judgment will be executed upon Jerusalem – the Lord will destroy Jerusalem.

History tells us that something over a hundred years later this did happen. Jerusalem was totally destroyed. The reason that the judgement foretold by Micah was delayed was because the people seemed to have repented and God, therefore, withheld his hand at that time.

Micah’s inspired preaching (v8) against injustice eventually brought Hezekiah to repentance and so saved Jerusalem (Jer.26v17-19; 2 Kings 18v5-6). ‘It is wonderful to know that the Scripture accomplishes God’s purposes. It can change the heart of a leader and thus change a city, region and nation’ (R. C. Sproul).

About 100 years later Micah’s prophecy that Jerusalem would be destroyed: ‘Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest’ (v12) would rescue Jeremiah from execution by his own people.

When Jeremiah was on trial (Jer.26v9-11) for saying such things, one of the elders of Jeremiah’s day makes reference to the fact that Micah had made the same prophecy during the days of Hezekiah; he had not been executed for making such a prophecy. As a result of this reasoning, Jeremiah was permitted to live. In that sense, it is obvious that this prophecy extends beyond the assault of the Assyrians all the way down to the Babylonian onslaught beginning in 605 B.C. and continuing until Jerusalem's demise in 586 B.C. (2 Kings 24-25).

The Book of Micah

Lessons for today: ‘Micah mentions four spiritual resources that God has given him to speak the truth. One is power, clearly the power of God. God has given him strength to persevere in the face of opposition and discouragement. Second, he says, the Spirit of the Lord fills him. In the Old Testament, one mark of being Spirit-filled was having a zeal for justice, his third resource. Third God had given him discernment to understand right and wrong, moral absolutes. He understood the plight of the poor and the plight of the powerful, and God gave him the ability to speak to these issues. He understood justice and he could speak to justice because his understanding came from God. Finally, God gave him courage. This great word is a military term which is always used for soldiers going into battle. Only God can give that internal fortitude to fight fear in the face of enemies and opposition’ (Goins).

How do we know whether a prophet (i.e. preacher) or ruler (i.e. politician) is of the Lord? We are all called as believers to be ‘filled with the spirit’. This command is not only for leaders like Micah. How can we know that we are filled with the Spirit? (Eph. 5:18-21 and Col. 3:15-17).

The consequences of failure by all the leaders are that everyone is affected. The whole nation will suffer. Our sin and failure has an effect on others.

The Book of Micah

‘War and Peace’ Reading: Micah 4 v 1 - 13.

In a speech made in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, ‘We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

This was Israel problem to and Micah was called to remind the people that God was their King and would deal very severely with his rebellious subjects. Chapter 4 is the second part of Micah’s second sermon to the people.

Micah’s second message covers chapters 3-5:

Who has failed? (Chapter 3)

What is coming? (Chapter 4) Who is coming? (Chapter 5)

In chapter 4, in a passage of wonderfully exalted vision, the prophet lifts up his eyes and looks across the centuries past the coming of Babylon, past the rise of the great eastern empire of Greece, past the Roman Empire and the days of the Caesars, past the Middle Ages with Martin Luther and the Reformation and John Wesley and even past our own day, to the coming of one who is Godlike.

This is one of the most beautiful Messianic passages in the Scriptures (4v1-4) ... The passage then narrows to a person (Micah 4v3-4.

The Book of Micah

All change: from ruin to blessing (v1-8): There is a great verbal similarity between v1–3 and Isa.2v2–4, and this raises the question of who quoted whom! Interpreters are divided, with no clear-cut answers on either side. Because the two prophets lived in close proximity to each other, prophesying during the same period, this similarity is understandable. Although we may not be able to say ‘who said it first’, what we can say is that God gave the same message through two preachers.

One of the most difficult things to teach a child is how to keep the right perspective on the present circumstances. A child has a bad day at school and then comes home saying, ‘The teacher hates me. I’ll never get a good grade if I even pass. I need to transfer to another school now’! Children often show this kind of black or white thinking - things are either great or horrible. And they don’t see that things could change significantly in a day, more so in a week, and even more in a month. As parents, we have to provide the perspective on life that will help our children get through the difficult days.

In our study of the book of Micah, the prophet brings the word of the LORD to the people of Israel during some very difficult days. Israel and Judah had strayed far from God and continued in idolatry and immorality. Through Micah, God provided ominous and certain judgments for Israel’s rebellion and corruption. In proclaiming the fall of Israel because of her persistent rebellion, God promised the nation would fall and her people scattered to the ends of the earth. Yet in this awesome judgment on his people, God provided Israel with a future hope that one day the nation would be reborn. The days ahead would be difficult indeed. But the future God has planned for Israel would far outweigh the judgment she would experience!

The end of chapter 3 and the start of chapter 4 are very different. As Micah opens this section of his message there is a big change in what God has to say.

The Book of Micah

a): In the last verse of chapter 3, Micah describes some terrible things. He has just dealt with the old Jerusalem. Because of evil leaders, its people would suffer exile from their own land while its enemies would enter the land and destroy it.

b): Now, in the first verses of chapter 4, there is a wonderful sense of joy. Micah now describes the New Jerusalem that someone will build in the future. The old Jerusalem suffered because of its wicked political and religious leaders who led the people astray, but there will be a New Jerusalem.

In a sense, the actual disastrous events are less important than what the prophet says about them. It is the prophetic interpretation of the events, not what actually happened, that is most important. The physical references to Jerusalem illustrate spiritual principles applied to the people of God in the future, and it is only in the return of Jesus that we shall see these things in their final perfection.

Verse 1: In the first sentence, Micah uses the phrase ‘in the last days’. This phrase appears many times in the Old Testament. It does not refer to any particular future date. It refers to a long period of time (i.e. Joel 2v28-32, Acts 2v17-21, Heb.1v1-2).

The verbs that Micah uses indicate that as Micah wrote centuries ago this would happen in the future; so Micah is looking forward into a future time. Sometime in the future God says that the waste that was Jerusalem shall become glorious once again. Mount Zion will soon be made a like a ploughed field. It would then be fit only for rubbish and wild animals. But Micah saw into the future. He saw a great change. He looked beyond the stones and rubbish that would be on the mountain called Zion, and in God’s bigger plan he saw that, ‘the mountain of the Lord’s temple shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills’ (Isa.2v1-5 is a similar passage). In Old Testament language the people often said that Mount Zion was higher than all other mountains - but it was not actually the highest mountain.

The Book of Micah

However, in the Psalms, the writer described it as the highest mountain because of its importance. This was the mountain where people worshipped the one true real God. This was where God chose to rule - from this mountain (Ps.11v4; 68v16-17). Anyone who has seen an ancient map will know that they were always drawn with of Jerusalem and the temple at their centre.

In Scripture the term ‘mountain’ is often used to signify a ‘kingdom’ (Dan.2v4-46).

Micah saw that the people from many nations will go to Zion (the kingdom of God – the Jerusalem from heaven Ps.87). The LORD’s house will be there. People will come to worship there. The LORD, Israel’s God, will be the God of the other nations too.

Micah’s prophecy included the few people that would return from Babylon (v9-10). It would include the Messiah’s birth (5v2). The Messiah will be there. He will overcome all his enemies. He will rule over them. However, only a few people will remain. The Messiah will save them. They will love God and they will obey him. It would include his rule which would never end. It would be a time when there would be an endless peace (v1-4; 5v3).

Verse 2: At one time, only Israelites went to Jerusalem. In the future, there will be a great movement of the world’s nations. Many powerful nations will go to Jerusalem ‘for the law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem’ (v2). They will go because they want to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4v21-24) – they want to live according to God’s word!

There will be faithful and godly priests there; they will teach people God’s ways. People will want to know God’s law. They will want to worship God. They will want to do what God says. They will want to know his way to live and because their worship is sincere, they will also do good deeds. It is not as tourists going sightseeing that the nations will come to Jerusalem. They are there as disciples who want to take full advantage of the teaching available in the Temple.

The Book of Micah

When they live like this the benefits in v3-4 will follow: Verse 3: There is a very great difference between the old Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem. Often in the old Jerusalem, the rulers and priests were evil. They did not teach people the right way to live. God’s message did not reach into society. Just a few people were loyal. But there is hope. In the end, God’s message will reach the nations. And so the people will hear his message about the right way to live. This will bring great changes in society.

God’s law will become the law for the nations (Gen.12v3). People will live by his laws. God will be active among the nations. World leaders will ask God for wisdom and instruction.

Here the idea is given of a people from all over the world coming to worship God. It is a reversal of the curse that came upon men at the Tower of Babel (Gen.11). Men were attempting to reach God by their own cleverness – now men are seeking to come to God and worship him because they know him to be the one true God. How is this possible? Only through Jesus Christ!

God himself will now be their authority, Jesus Christ, God’s Son; will have authority over the nations. He will be their king. This will affect the governments of strong nations. These distant nations will not need to fight each other. They will not need arms for war any longer. The people will destroy the arms that they had intended for war. ‘Swords’ and ‘spears’ refer to all military arms.

Many groups and organisations have used the picture of turning ‘swords into ploughshares’ as their motto for world peace. However Micah insists that for this to happen it must be based in God, and the desire to worship him in spirit and truth.

Verse 4: People will not love money any longer. They will not desire the goods that belong to other people (2v2). They will not need to fight in wars to obtain them. They will not need arms for war any longer. They will have no enemies. So they will not be afraid that an enemy might kill them. The word ‘sit’ gives the impression that there is universal peace.

The Book of Micah

This was partially seen in the days of Solomon (1 Kings 4v25; 5v4) – but it did not last. The time will come for its greater fulfilment when a greater King than Solomon will reign forever! People will be content with what they have. They will not want more than they need. That is one main thing that Micah writes about (2v2; 3v1-3, 11; 7v3). Each person will sit in peace under his own fruit trees.

What a wonderful world that will be! We might ask how we could be certain about this. Perhaps it is only the dream of a confident prophet. Micah is confident. But there is only one reason why he is confident. The LORD who has all power has said those things. He has said that they will happen. The LORD who commands armies has spoken it with his mouth. That is the reason why Micah is so confident. Micah uses a special name for God here. It is like a name that people would use in war. He calls God ‘the LORD almighty’. It can also be ‘the LORD who commands armies’. The powerful God is speaking. God gave the promise. And it is God who is important. Micah emphasises that fact, rather than the promise itself.

Verse 5: We now look again at the situation when Micah was alive. Only a few people remained loyal to God. They were waiting for God to perform his promises. In the meantime, they will ‘walk in the name of the LORD’. The Bible often uses the word ‘walk’. Often, as here, it means to ‘be firm’. It means to ‘have a sense of purpose’. It means to ‘go on and not stop’.

Other people get their strength from their religions. All the nations are now living ‘in the name of their gods’. (They are living by their belief in their gods.) Micah states his belief ‘but we will walk (live) in the name of the LORD, our God’. We will continue this walk (this way to live) always, for all time. This means that we recognise the LORD as our God. He is the only God. We do not give attention to other gods. We do not obey them. God has promised a New Jerusalem. To mix all the gods (or religions) is not the answer.

The Book of Micah

There are 2 interesting pictures given in v4-5. There is the picture of sitting under a vine or a tree, followed by the picture of walking in the name of the Lord. What do the two contrasting postures: sitting and walking mean to you and how can you apply them? Do you tend to be a sitter (one who is cerebral, a thinker, a contemplative) or a walker (an activist, a doer, a pragmatic person of action)? The kingdom needs sitters and it needs walkers. But we all need to fight the tendency toward extremism. We need to find the healthy balance for ourselves, realizing the particular gift mix that the Lord has given to us.

In v1-5 we have a place described as the place where God can be found and known personally. People from all over the world will know where to find him and seek him there. From that place God would speak and act on behalf of his people. At the moment this is the church – later it will be the New Jerusalem.

Verse 6-7: Once again Micah says ‘at that time’ (it is the same as in v1) referring again to ‘the last days’. Micah continues with the Messianic flavour reflecting back to the mountain/kingdom prediction of v1-5. Notice that there are promises from God regarding how he will care for his people. Look at the verbs: ‘I will, I will, the LORD will’ (v6-7).

In this verse Micah tells us that the LORD will bring his people back to Jerusalem, in so doing he describes the ‘remnant’ (v7). They are the people that God has caused to be scattered into Babylon and beyond. God will gather his people together again; he will be like a shepherd who gathers his sheep.

It is interesting to notice that Micah says that when God begins to build his new people he will gather ‘the outcast ... the afflicted ... the lame’ – the very people who were original forbidden to approach God and enter the temple (Lev.21v18-21; 2 Sam.5v6-8). All this reminds us of the ministry of Jesus! God reminds us that it is not necessarily the great the strong that he has chosen and called – it is the rejected and despised that he takes and uses for his glory (1 Cor.1v26-29).

The Book of Micah

These weak people; the remnant are those that God will make into a strong nation. This description may be a reference to Jacob. He struggled with God. God struck his leg. When God left him, Jacob had a permanent injury (Gen.32v22-32), but then Jacob became like a new man. His attitudes had changed. God was able to teach him. He became humble and God could then use him. It will be similar with Jacob’s descendants. God is allowing his people to become weak. But he will make them into a strong nation. It will be difficult for them to walk, as it was difficult for Jacob. They will always have this disadvantage. But the result will be that they will trust in the LORD. They will live in the ways that he wants them to live.

Israel of old was constantly looking for ways to make itself stronger, gaining more military strength than the armies of the nations around them. They did not just want to be like the nations around them wanted to be stronger and greater than them. This is why they wanted a king to rule over them. As time went by the king became more powerful – and God was pushed out. It is only when God is ruling supremely over the nation that Judah will receive the things it most craves: sovereignty, dominion (v8) and strength. We, like Judah, often seek strength in the wrong places. The nation of Judah mistook power for strength, and in their yearning to achieve it, turned away from the only source of true strength, God. We have a tendency to do the same. True strength does not lie in defeating our competitors or in being independent and self-sufficient. True strength lies in the peace of living under God’s reign and being dependent upon him.

Verse 8: God speaks another prophecy about Zion (Jerusalem). He calls the new capital a ‘watchtower’. God speaks to Zion (Jerusalem) as if it were a strong building. The Hebrew word for this building also means ‘a hill’ (the same Hebrew word appears in 2 Kings 5v24.)

The people of Jerusalem once possessed all the military arms that the people needed for war.

The Book of Micah

This old name (Zion) linked the hill with David. He was the strong king of Israel. From his descendants, the Messiah would come. God had often promised to David that the rule of David’s descendant (the Messiah) would never end. We find that promise in many Psalms (i.e. Ps.46; 48; 76; 84; 87 and 122). The old name for Jerusalem (Zion) made people remember David’s previous greatness. That would encourage the remnant. The city would again have the power and glory (greatness) that it had in the past.

When shepherds are looking after their sheep, they watch. They watch to see if there are wild animals. They watch in case someone would steal their sheep. The sheep are like the nation’s citizens. These are the people to whom Micah refers in v6-7.

Mount Zion is the place from which the LORD will look out for his sheep. King Jesus, the Great Shepherd will watch over them. Just as David was king over the undivided kingdom, the unity of God’s people will be restored under one head, King Jesus. At the time when Micah was alive, the people were not able to see these things happen. But Jesus, the Messiah, has now come to this earth. Now people from all the nations ask him to help them. They recognise him as their Saviour and Lord. They do not still worship any other gods. They get to know the power of God’s Holy Spirit (Isa.61v1-4). But more is still to come. Jesus, the Messiah, is the great Shepherd of the sheep. Nobody can steal the sheep out of his hand (John 10v28). He promises to be with his people always (Matt.28v20).

Trust the true King (v9-13): The prophecy develops in two parts (v9-10; 11-13). Both parts start from the word ‘now’. The word ‘now’ could mean the time when the present troubles were happening or looking forward 100 years and seeing the events unfolding before the eyes of the people. The second part refers to a wonderful future. In it, Micah uses the phrase ‘Daughter of Zion’ (Jerusalem).

The Book of Micah

In the Hebrew language, the word for ‘city’ is a female word. Jerusalem is therefore called a ‘daughter’.

Verse 9-10: ‘Why do you now cry aloud’? It is as if God is taunting the people. He asks surely you don’t need my help? You have said you can manage on your own! And God has left them to it! It is easy to go from day to day without consciously placing our trust in God. Then, when something goes wrong, we turn to God and beg for help. Micah reminds us that this is not on. Either we trust in God or we do not. He is an all or nothing kind of God – calling him in for an emergency back-up is not acceptable.

In the Hebrew text, God tells the people that they must shake themselves about. They have to shake themselves because they are suffering so much pain (v10). This refers to a mother’s pains when her child is born. Later, God tells the same people to ‘get up’ or ‘arise’ and he tells them to ‘break’ these people (the enemies) (v13). For that, the Hebrew has a special description, like a picture. It means when people break wheat to separate the inner grains from the rest. After that, Micah describes what the future will be like.

God has a secret plan. The ‘Daughter of Jerusalem’ (its people) must not forget their King, who is also their ‘Counsellor – ‘ruler’ [NIV]. ‘Wise helper’ in Hebrew also means ‘Adviser’, another name for God. The people’s pains will be like the ones when a woman gives birth. There is a reason for these pains – it is to bring new life. God plans to free Zion’s (Jerusalem’s) people by means of the exile (v9-10).

Interestingly God is going to rescue his people from ‘there’. Micah repeats the word ‘there’. He uses it twice. This shows that it is important. So where is ‘there’? It is not Jerusalem – it is Babylon. The strange thing is that God tells them, not that they will go to Assyria (the country that was threatening them at that time), but to Babylon. The word ‘Babylon’ also refers to the worst level of spiritual darkness. In other words, it will feel as if God has left his people. But in fact, God still has a plan for them.

The Book of Micah

The LORD will save the remnant from ‘there’. He will save them from their enemies. God will save his people from the darkness – while they are still in it. He will ‘redeem’ his people while they are helpless. God will ‘redeem’ his people – literally God will send someone a redeemer who is close to you – a kinsman redeemer.

God has planned the defeat of the Assyrians (v11-13). Certainly God will punish his people. But the punishment will not damage them forever. That is not God’s intention. He wants the punishment to help them. Punishment has a purpose. It will provide a way to bring the people back to God. Jeremiah also refers to a woman’s pains when she is having a baby (Jer.4v31). Jesus, too, used the same example (John 16v21). Jesus was leaving this world to be with his Father. Because of that, his disciples would be sad for a while. So Jesus encouraged them by promising to give ‘the Helper’ (the Holy Spirit) to them as a gift (John 16v16-22). It is the same for us today. It may seem that people continue to suffer. It may seem that troubles never end. It may seem not to mean anything. But our King, Jesus, is with us. Our Helper, God’s Holy Spirit, brings strength and help to us. He supports us at the times when we need his help.

In the end, the message is a message that brings hope. These troubles will end. Afterwards something better, something new will come.

Verse 11-13: ‘Now’ in v9-10 refer to the exile but ‘now’ in v11 refers to the present situation. It refers to the army from Assyria. The Assyrians want to make the city spiritually unclean (unholy). The foreign armies maybe plotting against the Lord and his people (Ps.2) but they do not have the last word or action – the sovereign God does! The people are being encouraged to see things from heavens perspective – to see Gods bigger picture! Micah mentions the ‘thoughts’ of the Lord (v12). So many presume that they understand his ways, his thoughts and discover they are wrong.

The Book of Micah

These armies do not understand what God is doing. God is gathering these armies together. They are like bundles of wheat. They do not realise that God is using them. He is causing their defeat. They gather against Jerusalem. But it is the LORD who gathers them. They plan to destroy the Temple. But the LORD will destroy them. They are part of God’s plan for Israel (Isa.10v5-12).

God defeated the devil by means of the wooden cross where Jesus Christ died (1 Cor.2v7-8). The world did not understand what that event meant. It is the same today.

The world does not know Gods plans – but he has revealed it to his people! We need to remember this! God does have plans for us (Jer.29v11). Micah in writing these things wants to look at God and think big! The prophet wants you to get a large view of the Redeemers Kingdom and to delight in it.

There is a shift back to the tone of judgment (v9). Here is what the NIV Study Bible states for v9-13: “In v9-10 Micah foreshadows the collapse of the monarchy and the impending exile in 586 B.C. as well as the restoration beginning in 538. V11-13 are a prophecy of judgment against the gloating enemies of Jerusalem”. Babylon for the captivity is prophesied and in v10b God promises to redeem them out from the exile in Babylon.

The Lord is our Shepherd, our Ruler. He serves and cares for his flock. What can you do to deserve his care? Nothing at all. The only response to this care is joyful worship, joyful surrender of heart, joyful giving of time, talent and treasure to the kingdom.

Lessons for today: So Micah speaks to the few people that remain (v13). God has gathered them in Jerusalem. Israel’s enemies have laughed at God. God orders his people to get up and he orders them to go out. The LORD is the king not only over Jerusalem, God is the Lord over all the Earth. In chapter 4 Micah has been taken up with the wonderful new theme: one day there will be peace on earth and righteousness will reign.

The Book of Micah

Mount Zion will become the capital of the world; all the armies will be dismissed and the weapons destroyed. How can this happen? It will come through the promise in chapter 5.

These are very precious promises relating to the gospel church, which will be more and more fulfilled, for he is faithful that has promised. There shall be a glorious church for God set up in the world, in the last days, in the days of the Messiah. Christ himself will build it upon a rock ... and the reign of Christ shall continue till succeeded by the everlasting kingdom of heaven. Let us stir up each other to attend the ordinances of God, that we may learn his holy ways, and walk in them, receiving the law from his hands, which, being written in our hearts by his Spirit, may show our interest in the Redeemer’s righteousness.

The purpose of prophecy is not to fill our minds with endless possibilities of what will or might be. The purpose is to remind us that God cannot be defeated by the sinful actions of people – even his own people. God’s kingdom will come no matter what! However such knowledge should stir our hearts and give us the incentive to press on in the face of opposition and hardship, so that we can love him and serve him more now, and to become more like him from day to day until we see him face to face!

The Book of Micah

‘Messiah’s Kingdom and Rule’ Reading: Micah 5 v 1 - 15.

In the previous section we considered the second section of Micah’s second message:

Micah’s second message covers chapters 3-5: Who has failed? (Chapter 3) What is coming? (Chapter 4)

Who is coming? (Chapter 5)

Micah has condemned the sins of politicians and religious leaders. He has warned of impending, dreadful judgement. Yet in those dire warnings Micah has given hope and reassurance to God’s people that ultimately they will ‘know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him’ (Rom.8v28). He has told them that Jerusalem is facing utter ruin – but that was not the end of the story because God would rebuild Jerusalem and once again it would become the centre or focus of the whole world.

In chapter 4 Micah has been taken up with the wonderful new theme: one day there will be peace on earth and righteousness will reign. Mount Zion will become the capital of the world; all the armies will be dismissed and the weapons destroyed.

Some see this as a literal re-establishment of the physical Jerusalem, the temple etc. Others see the physical references to Jerusalem only illustrate spiritual principles which are applied to the people of God in the future, and it is only in the return of Jesus that we shall see these things in their final perfection.

These are very precious promises relating to the gospel church, which will be more and more fulfilled, for he is faithful that has promised. There shall be a glorious church for God set up in the world, in the last days, in the days of the Messiah. Christ himself will build it upon a rock ... and the reign of Christ shall continue till succeeded by the everlasting kingdom of heaven.

The Book of Micah

Let us stir up each other to attend the ordinances of God, that we may learn his holy ways, and walk in them, receiving the law from his hands, which, being written in our hearts by his Spirit, may show our interest in the Redeemer’s righteousness.

How will this new world and the hope of universal peace going to be brought about? God will ‘redeem’ his people (4v10) – literally God will send someone a redeemer who is close to you – a kinsman redeemer. Who will this be? How will he achieve it?

That is the theme of chapter 5!

1. The siege and the smitten judge (v1) 2. The smitten judge: Who he is (v2) 3. The events of the future (v3) 4. The Rejected One, the Shepherd of Israel (v4-6) 5. The remnant of Jacob and the kingdom (v7-15)

The siege of God’s people (v1): ‘Now’ not in NIV but sets the scene: right now the city is under siege! The men of Jerusalem are here commanded by heaven to marshal their troops and to prepare for battle, since the enemies are outside their walls.

The ruler or king of Israel will be stuck down. Here is what looks like the total demise of the Davidic dynasty. This is so often where God begins – in our abysmal helplessness. Judah desperately needs a new start ... the future will be like all the glorious events of the past rolled into one.

Jerusalem will be humiliated at the loss of her king. Some see it as Gentiles smashing the rulers of Israel. This could be referring to Hezekiah’s humiliation by Assyria or maybe of Zedekiah’s defeat by the Babylonians 100 years later. Others understand it to be God is besieging his city – and God calls the people to stand together to resist him – if they can! God is continuing his work to humble this proud people and bring them back to himself.

The Book of Micah

As Jerusalem was a military city containing a great body of soldiers within her walls, so is the Church on earth, it is military. The life of all true men here is that of a battle; all are soldiers, bound to be valiant for the truth. They are commanded to fight the good fight, to war the good warfare. The warfare is spiritual, righteous, indispensable and personal.

This last invader, the king of the north (Joel 2v1-32), besieges Jerusalem. And the reason of it all, their long history of trouble, culminating in the great tribulation, is the rejection of the judge of Israel. It is the Messiah, our Lord. They despised him, insulted him and struck him with a rod upon the cheek. He is called the Judge of Israel, because the judge held the highest official position in Israel; the king of Israel held this office. The striking of the cheek was considered the greatest disgrace; thus Zedekiah smote the prophet Micaiah upon the cheek and asked him, ‘Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you’? (1 Kings 22v24 and Matt.26v67-68).

The coming Messiah (v2-5a): In stark contrast to the scene of v1 comes a reassuring ‘but you’ (v2).

This passage has always been regarded as one of the clearest and most striking of the ancient prophecies of the Messiah. It was regarded by the Jews as a prophecy of Messiah’s birthplace and was quoted by the chief priests and scribes (v2, Matt.2v6) in response to Herod’s query about the birthplace of the Messiah. This great prophecy was therefore known when our Lord was born to predict the birth of the Messiah, in fact, the Jews always believed this. But after he was born and lived among them and was rejected by them they attempted deliberately to explain it away, and invented fables to accomplish this. It was Tertullian, and other prominent teachers of the early Church, who argued with the Jews, that if Jesus was not the promised Messiah, the prophecy given by Micah could never be fulfilled, for none of David’s descendants was left in Bethlehem.

The Book of Micah

Micah, though a prophet of Divine wrath, is also a prophet of Divine promise. Next to Isaiah, he is richest in Messianic prediction.

Bethlehem Ephratah (v2): Prophecies relating to the future had to be grounded in the ’now’ in order to give hope to those hearing the message, and hope for those who would live to see it happen. So Micah distinctly refers to a town where in the future a king – the Messiah - will be born - Bethlehem – but the person foretold by Micah would not be born until seven hundred years later!

The littleness of Bethlehem, and the greatness of Christ: The prophet marks with wonder its insignificance ‘though you are small’. It was too remote ever to become a place of importance. Micah also addresses the village by both its names, ‘Bethlehem Ephratah’. ‘Bethlehem’ is identified as little, and ‘Ephrata’ as being fruitful. There were two Bethlehem’s – the other was in the tribe of Zebulon. That was the old name of the place which the Jews retained and loved (Gen.35v19; 48v7). The patriarchal name means ‘fruitfulness’ or ‘abundance’. It was one of the most fertile parts of Israel, and its natural fruitfulness was a prophecy of its spiritual fruitfulness. Jesus born in the house of fruitfulness! ‘Bethlehem’ means the ‘house of bread’, and points to its specific form of fertility, its rich corn land. Jesus is the Bread of Life (John 6v35).

The name ‘house of bread’ reminds us of the great Sacrament. The prophetic description helps us to realise the two natures in one Divine Person. We cannot select our birthplace and circumstances, but Christ could. The Saviour came to teach humility, and to reverse the maxims of the world. Bethlehem was the city of David, and Christ was to be of the seed of David. But here is more than an announcement of the birthplace of Christ. We have a wonderful description of his person.

The Messiah was born according to the Divine plan: ‘Out of you he shall come for me who will reign’. Will come for who? - God!

The Book of Micah

The fact of his birth, the scene of his birth, the reason for his birth, were all according to a divine plan!

When we consider what the Kingdom of God is about we must remember that it is first of all about God and his glory that is at stake. The Messiah here is said to come out of Bethlehem for God – but that coming would also be for the blessing of his people.

Micah is telling us that in this little town of Bethlehem – a King would be born. It is a human birth that is foretold. The place where David was born was to be the birthplace of a second David; he is to be the Son of David, coming out of David’s city, destined to be the ‘Ruler over Israel’. He came to establish a Kingdom. But he is more than a descendant of David, his ‘goings forth are from of old, from everlasting’ [NKJV]. ‘Whose origins are of old, from ancient times’ [NIV] he will be the Saviour of the world.

Micah’s prophetic voice declares that though Jesus came from Bethlehem, he did not begin there. His ‘goings forth are from eternity past’. ‘Whose goings forth have been from everlasting’. To those who first heard this language, how strange it would appear! Something more than human is here described. Words like these are never applied to any creature; but to God the Creator they are frequently applied. The language of Micah gives the twofold character of the Messiah.

His two natures are described: ‘as Man from Bethlehem; as God from everlasting’. Here we have his deity fully revealed as well as his humanity; he is the God-Man. In this passage Micah’s testimony harmonises with Isaiah’s (Isa.9v6-7). The Bible tells us that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End (Rev.22v13). This means from the very beginning, Jesus was there. There was never a time when the Jesus did not exist. It shows him to be the Ruler and the Judge, the Redeemer and the King. He was to be great (v4)!

The Book of Micah

The Messiah is: 1. Our Ruler (v2). 2. Our Redeemer and peace (v3, 5). 3. Our Shepherd (v4).

‘Israel will be abandoned until’ (v3): God’s Messiah will come – but Israel will still suffer the consequences of its sin. God’s plans will be fulfilled despite the sinful failure of God’s people.

‘He will shepherd his flock’ (v4): Yes God will scatter his people but God will gather them up again.

Christ’s reign in his Church is that of a shepherd-king. He has supremacy, but it is the superiority of a wise and tender shepherd over his needy and loving flock; he commands and receives obedience, but it is the willing obedience of the well-cared-for sheep, rendered joyfully to their beloved Shepherd, whose voice they know so well. He will ‘feed’ [NKJV] his sheep. The expression ‘feed’, in the original, means to shepherd-ise, to do everything expected of a shepherd: to guide, to watch, to preserve, to restore, to tend, as well as to feed. He rules by the force of love and the energy of goodness.

Who are his sheep? First the Jews, then the Gentiles. As a shepherd his care is constant - he does not change. It is tender and discriminating care.

‘In the strength of the Lord’ He will rule over and protect his people by the invincible power of God!

‘In the majesty of the name of the LORD’ He will proclaim and glorify the God of heaven. Can meekness and majesty exist in the same person? Amazingly, they co-existed in the God-man, Jesus.

‘They will live securely’ The Shepherd will stand - the people shall sit - securely.

The Book of Micah

They are secure because God is great!

‘He will be their peace’ (v5): How beautiful is this sentence! This Man shall be peace (or our peace). Isaiah also spoke of him, as ‘the Prince of Peace’, and that ‘of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end’ David in his great prophetic psalm (Ps.72v7) concerning these coming days speaks of ‘abundance of peace’. Zechariah likewise in predicting the future says, ’he shall speak peace to the nations’ (Zech.9v10).

Warning to Israel’s enemies (v5b-15): The Messiah will be peace (v5a) – yet be involved in military action to deliver his people from the tyranny of the oppressive forces surrounding and controlling the people of God in captivity.

How can he be a man of peace and a man of war? Peace does not mean that you never fight – it means that after you have fought and gained the victory you can have and enjoy peace. This is what Jesus demonstrates. At his birth ‘peace’ was proclaimed by the angel, Jesus promised to give his peace to his disciples, but that peace was not realised until Jesus had fought the battle with Satan (Rom.16v20), died on the cross, and risen from the dead victorious! His kingdom of peace will have no end!

He made peace in the blood of his cross and for all who trust in him he is peace, ‘for he is our peace’.

‘The remnant of Jacob’ (v7): These verses (v7-8) tell about the future time when God’s people will be strong again. This time is the ‘last days’ (as in 4v1).

The blessing and the problem (v8): The blessed remnant of Jacob will possess a double character. The remnant as seen to be both a blessing and a problem to the nations. ‘The remnant of Jacob shall be ... like dew from the Lord’. When God delivers Zion it won’t be a ‘small’ deliverance. It will spread as wide as the dew and showers on the grass. For some they seem like the dew – to others they seem to be wild animals. They are a refreshing and dangerous people!

The Book of Micah

They will be used in blessing and refreshing among the nations ‘as dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass’. Jacob’s people can bring life to people from other countries as water brings life to plants.

On the other hand, when God delivers Zion, it won’t be a ‘weak’ deliverance. Some of the other people may not want to obey God. God will strengthen Israel so that she will triumph over her enemies like a lion against sheep. To them, Jacob’s people will bring death, as a lion kills other animals, they will be in the midst of many people as a lion and as a young lion, to avenge unrighteousness and opposition.

The better rendering of v15 is, ‘And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations which hearkened not’. That is, during the end of the age God sent forth a testimony to the nations and those who refused to listen will fall under the wrath of the lion of the tribe of Judah.

The divine source of the existence of God’s people (v10-15): God says 6 times ‘I will’. This speaks of certainty – what God says he will do – he will do it!

God’s warning to Israel: God says he will remove the worldly sins of his people (v10-11). These include disobedience, and self confidence. God will be their strength. This includes the removal of human weapons and fortifications. These are the things that Israel had always depended on. God was going to have to take these things away so they would depend on him.

God also says that he will remove all the religious sins of his people (v12-14). Anything that was used in their worship that did not come from God himself would be taken away from them.

Asherah. They used the poles to worship Asherah ‘the mother-god’ of the Canaanites. But God had told Israel’s people not to worship any other gods.

The Book of Micah

One lesson we must learn is that if we will not put things right, God himself will do so, but to our cost! This includes the removal of occultism (v12) and all forms of idolatry (v13-14).

In other words, God is going to remove anything that people of Judah to believe that they could do without him ... God will destroy them all, so that the remnant can learn true reliance on the one, true God.

From this we must learn that today we must trust God and not people or things around us. Everything else is flawed and will let us down. God will never fail us.

Lessons for today: In January 1835, Andrew Jackson was walking through the Capitol rotunda and was nearly cut down by a would be assassin. Richard Lawrence approached the President and levelled a pistol at him, which misfired. Jackson was now coming on, cane raised, to whip his would be assailant, when Lawrence produced another pistol – which also misfired! Both of these pistols were subsequently fired. Someone estimated the odds of two consecutive misfires at 1 in 125,000. It looked like the end but it wasn’t.

Dr. Charles Ryrie says that according to the laws of chance, it would require two hundred billion earth’s, populated with four billion people each, to come up with one person whose life could fulfil one hundred accurate prophecies without any errors in sequence. Yet the Scriptures record not one hundred, but over three hundred prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ’s first coming alone.

Concerning Micah 5v2, where it states the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem Ephrathah, Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College, Peter Stoner and his students determined the average population of Bethlehem from the time of Micah to the present; then they divided it by the average population of the earth during the same period. They concluded that the chance of one man being born in Bethlehem was one in 300,000, (or one in 2.8 x 10^5 - rounded).

(http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/radio034.htm).

The Book of Micah

Old Testament

Prophecy

New Testament

Fulfilment Probability

Christ to be born

in Bethlehem

(Micah 5:2)

And Herod asked where

Christ had been born ...

they answered Bethlehem

(Matt 2:4-6)

2.8 x 105 or 1 in

280,000

(http://www.goodnewsdispatch.org/math.html).

Jesus is the Prince of Peace on whose shoulder the government is laid. He is the Ruler. Not a temporal ruler, temporal rule is but a shadow. He is the greatest King who governs the mind, thoughts, intelligence and soul. No one has obtained such a government as he who, ‘came forth out of Bethlehem Ephratah’. His kingdom continues and is increasing every day.

God is going to save his people (the remnant) and they shall be a purified and faithful people. A people that would declare the praises of God and proclaim the salvation of God to the world. These people would experience the ‘purifying’ work of the Lord. This would be unpleasant and painful. God would strip away all that stands between him and them. God says that is what he is doing in the church. We will be changed

‘Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee; Changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place’.

(From the hymn ‘Love Divine’ by Charles Wesley).

We are being changed now. We are being made holy, we are being sanctified (Eph.5v26).

Jesus goes before us; he is our guide and protector. He is our Good Shepherd who not only leads, but also provides and feeds us.

The Book of Micah

‘What does God want?’ Reading: Micah 6 v 1 –16.

This is Micah’s third and final message to the people of God and takes the form of a ‘lawsuit’ (chapter 6) and ends with ‘victory’ (chapter 7).

The Lord’s Charge - chapter 6 Micah’s Pleading - chapter 7

Like the other to sermons it begins with the command or summons to ‘listen’ or ‘hear’ (v1, 1v2, 3v1) – not to Micah but to ‘what the LORD says’.

This chapter is a bit of a ‘shocker’ isn’t it? The last chapter dealt with the coming of the Messiah – what better ending could there be? But of course as real as that is it is not the present circumstances of the people. Micah brings them back to earth with a bump!

Does God ask for too much (v1-5): ‘Listen to what the LORD says: ‘stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me’ (v1-3).

This section gives the appearance of a scene from the law courts. The mountains and hills have stood over the centuries, and have ‘seen’ all that God has done – and all that the people have done; so Creation is called to be the witness to the Lord’s judicial case against the people, and how they might excuse themselves.

The question is simply ‘is God being unreasonable’? Or are the people behaving in an unreasonable way? The answer should not be too difficult! God has stated his case against the people and now they are given the opportunity to present their case against him. God invites his people to tell him what he has done wrong! Has he done anything to let his people down?

The Book of Micah

God wants to know what he has done to them to make them weary, worn out or exhausted. It’s as if God is saying is my service such a hardship? What have I done to make you so bored?

Which of you can point out the failures of God? This is a serious thing to do – if you dare! Jesus asked a similar question (John 8v46).

God asks ‘Israel’ (using the covenant name for the nation) to remember his historic deeds for them, bringing to mind some of the key turning points for them. Twice God calls them ‘my people’ (v3, 5) – he is not so much accusing as appealing.

Micah gives just four examples of the righteous acts of God towards his people: 1. Redemption from Egypt (v4; Ex.13-15): ‘I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery’. God is his infinite mercy and goodness delivered his people from the cruel taskmasters of Egypt. He acted in sovereign power to set his people free by ‘redeeming them’. He brought them through the Red Sea and destroyed the pursing Egyptians.

2. Aaron and Miriam’s co-leadership with Moses:

‘I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam’. God gave to Israel these three leaders to help them enjoy the freedom and to guide them in God’s ways – both in matters of law and justice as well as religious and ceremonial.

3. Balak, king Beor (v5; Num.22): ‘My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counselled and what Balaam son of Beor answered’. Along the route to the Promised Land God again overruled the wicked intentions of men like Balak and Baalam and refused to allow anyone to curse them. Instead God insisted on blessing them more and more!

4. Shittim and Gilgal (Num.25v1; Josh.5v9-10; Josh.24v1-15): ‘Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD’. These two places refer to all that happened from their release from Egypt to their arrival in Canaan.

The Book of Micah

It covers all that God did for them, protecting and providing for all their material needs, speaking to them and instructing them in all matters of worship. Even then they rebelled - think about the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years (Num.13-14), we find why their stay in the wilderness was so long was due to disobedience and rebellion. They did not trust God to do what he said he would and could do. Yet God did not destroy them all, eventually though God did bring his people into the land that he had promised; a land flowing with ‘milk and honey’.

God – and only God had done all this and more for his people! Was all that boring? Was all that tedious? Why did he do all these things - because he loved them!

But why does God keep taking them on a tour of their history? Why does he not remind them of more recent things? Well if God is able to deliver Israel from Pharaoh’s grip, shield them from the dark arts in Moab, and dammed up a raging Jordan, then isn’t he able to carry them through any peril history can throw at them?

In these examples from their history God is showing them [and us] how God was able to affect historical events of which the people had no knowledge, in order to achieve their best interests.

The Lord is a good and wise guide for his people. Are you a good follower? Do we get bored or weary in our Christian life? The answer is yes. Our problem as human beings is that we do get bored with good things. In part, this has always been the tension in the relationship between God and his people. We think we want something good from God, and when we get it we become easily bored and look for something more exciting, though less good, elsewhere.

This is what the New Testament writers say as well, seeking something new, itching ears etc. (i.e. 2 Tim.4v3).

The Book of Micah

The picture of the Exodus and God’s dealings with his people are things that we should remember as well. However, these events themselves are but pictures of the greater work of God on our behalf – Calvary! Let us remember that! We do that every time we meet around the Lord’s Table – we ‘remember him’.

What steps of faith are before you? How might God desire that you step out in obedience, trusting him to give you success against the giants you face? Remember the words of Rom.8v31-39. We need to pray for understanding, so that we can see what God wants us to do and that we will have the faith to do it.

What does God want (v6-8): ‘With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good and what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’. Through his entire book Micah has been telling the people that their fellowship with God has been broken – and something needs to be done about it.

Judah now makes its defence, and Micah anticipates what the people will say in response to this. He expects them to say ‘we’ll make more sacrifices and offerings – that will please God’.

Perhaps they were ready to acknowledge that God had done much for them, but they were ready and willing to go to any lengths in their worship of him.

They consider increasing their offerings to God: burnt offerings with calves a year old thousands of rams ten thousand river of oil their firstborn child

The Book of Micah

The scene that we have here is that of a deeply religious people. Happy with their rites and offerings – but a people who do not know God personally. On this misunderstanding of true religion they base their assurance of faith – God is happy with them – even though God clears says ‘Oh no I’m not’! This is something that they do not want to hear God or his people say (2v6).

Although sin in referred to by the reference to burnt offerings (v7), it is not something that they are taking seriously. At this time the people were still not convinced that they had done anything that had really offended God at all.

Most of the gifts are not bad – they are simply not necessary. Micah tells them that God has no pleasure in any sacrifices that are not accompanied by a repentant heart and a godly lifestyle. He wants us, ourselves to be the ‘living sacrifices’ which are offered to him! The right heart with the wrong ritual is better than the wrong heart with the right ritual That meant doing what was right, this is not something we have to guess at. God has made this known – we just need to find out what God’s will is (Eph.5v10 NIV) and then do it!

Let us not think that doing more and more ‘spiritual’ things will make God pleased with us – or that we will be happier in ourselves. True joy and happiness comes through knowing God and having a living relationship with him. It is not based on our works – the things that we do for God – it is based on what he has done for us in Christ.

We do not need to bring an offering to appease God. We simply make a once-and–for-all act of faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. We seek to live a life that pleases God. Why? Why is obedience important? We often try to ‘save ourselves’ by seeking to earn more of God’s love through obedience. Is there any evidence as you look at your own heart, that you have done this? This stands in opposition to the gospel which declares us to be righteous before God even when we are not truly righteous. If so, confess it to God and rest in his grace.

The Book of Micah

What is worship? Micah in v6-8 seems to be describing Old Testament worship. The question is what pleases God as we enter into worship (i.e., how can I, a sinner, enter into God’s presence in a worthy manner)?

This is always a good question to ask, given the person and nature of our God. We need to remember who we are worshipping – while God is our friend and brother – he is also the great King! The sacrifices Micah mentions pointed to the work of Jesus Christ at Calvary.

The warning that Micah is given is that they had a kind of ‘saving faith’ that supposedly had absolutely no ethical or behavioral implications for the one who believed. They believed that it was possible to have a solid orthodox mind about God but have a heart that has no sense of love, justice and humility before God and men. The message is that a true faith issues forth in a transformed heart that seeks justice and mercy in the world. The opposite is an arrogant, ‘I have my salvation and hope you can get yours’ attitude.

Some have called v8 the ‘Micah Mandate’. This is the title of a book by George Grant. He writes: ‘Bridging the gap between activism and devotion, the Micah Mandate” describes a comprehensive and integrated world view of vital faith and meaningful activity for the church. It presents what C.S. Lewis called ‘Mere Christianity’, what John Stott called ‘Basic Christianity’, and what William Wilberforce called ‘Real Christianity’. It delineates the ingredients of a balanced Christian life. It provides us with an incentive to walk in the footsteps of those commonly common heroes who have gone before us - to get our priorities straight, to put first things first, and to emphasise what really matters most. It outlines a strategic plan for us to begin to do what God wants us to do and to be what God wants us to be’ (page 219).

There are three simple commands of this mandate:

Act justly (Why? because God is just)

Love mercy (Why? because God is merciful)

Walk humbly with your God (Why? because God is Holy and awesome).

The Book of Micah

Micah tells us that we are not just to act in mercy – we are to act in ‘loving mercy’; that is in unfailing love, we are not merely to do justice we are to delight in doing it.

Pray that as God’s people we will be a people who act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

What does the Lord require of you (v8)? The same enquiry is addressed to every fellowship of God’s people today. Churches should not be asking ‘what do we want’ or even ‘what should we do’? It is more definite than that. The question is: ‘what does the Lord require of you’? It is what God demands from his people which matters more than anything else in the life of local Christian churches.

The longer a church has been in existence, the more its resources go toward its own preservation rather than toward outreach and evangelism. Our tendency is to design ministries that meet our own needs as opposed to the needs of those who have not yet entered the kingdom.

Unsatisfied and hungry (v9-16): What God wants and requires from his people - and what he gets are two different things, they are poles apart! The people do not seem to have responded to Micah or God’s call. So once again Micah speaks to the people and calls them to listen to God. ‘Listen! The LORD is calling to the city - and to fear your name is wisdom – ‘Heed the rod and the One who appointed it. Am I still to forget, O wicked house, your ill-gotten treasures and the short ephah, which is accursed? Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights? Her rich men are violent; her people are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully’ Micah again lists the sins of the people (v10-12). What are the sins of the city that Micah highlights here? Notice carefully the socio-economic nature of this list. Unfortunately a false notion about city life is that the problems begin within the hearts of the poor. However Micah’s words here remind us that when God looks to the city he first looks at those with money and power.

The Book of Micah

What responses to these sins do you see from God? God asks ‘shall I acquit her’? The ‘I’ is emphatic, God cannot turn his back on the greed, dishonesty, violence and deceit that was not part of their mainstream political and religious life.

Micah once again refers to Jerusalem as ‘her’ (v12; 4v11). The city of the great King has been corrupted and it is time for judgement to begin at the house of God (1 Pet.4v17).

In our modern world how do the sins of the poor and the rich differ? We now live in a more urban society. The agrarian nature of the retributions given are not easily felt by moderns. Yet we still have those who are the ‘haves’ and those who are the ‘have-nots’. Which are you? As God looks at your life, your bank account, the value system that you have, will you be listed on the side of the poor or the rich? As you look at Guisborough, do you see any signs that this, our town needs to address issues arising from the sins of the upper class or the ‘rich’? James 5v1-6 reminds us of the social obligations of our faith; so does Prov.31v8-9.

Caution: Middle class people in Britain, one of the richest nation in the world, often have a distorted view of themselves. What are you doing, can you do, to make Guisborough a better place to live?

The people may not be responding to what God is saying, but Micah insists that God is going to respond!

‘Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins. You will eat but not be satisfied; your stomach will still be empty. You will store up but save nothing, because what you save I will give to the sword. You will plant but not harvest; you will press olives but not use the oil on yourselves, you will crush grapes but not drink the wine. You have observed the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab's house, and you have followed their traditions. Therefore I will give you over to ruin and your people to derision; you will bear the scorn of the nations’.

The Book of Micah

The very things that people had devoted their time, energy and resources to make sure they got the best of everything for themselves – these very things would be taken from them and would be enjoyed by others.

The result of such an ungodly lifestyle is that the ‘curses’ of the covenant are being put in place (v13); evidences of God’s judgement will be a failing bank rate (v14), war (v14), crop failure (v15); the result of rejecting God’s ways is that there is no satisfaction with what we have (v14).

‘Therefore’ (v13, 16) is the natural consequence of turning away from God. If God punished Israel – he will also punish Judah! God does not have double standards! Their ruin and ultimate fall was that they had followed the wrong example. Instead of listening to God and doing what he said was right they chose instead to follow in the ways of Omri and Ahab.

They refused to walk humbly before God choosing instead to walk in the ways of Omri and Ahab! Both of these kings had been wicked men (1 Kings 16v25, 33). Both had led the people into ungodly ways; ways that the people of the Northern tribes had not abandoned – and eventually were removed by the Assyrians and taken away into captivity. The warning that Micah sounds here is that that people of Judah should have learnt a valuable lesson from their now ‘lost’ brothers.

God makes it clear to us all – and he has done for a long time now – that there is always a choice for us. There is a right way and there is a wrong way. ‘There is a way which seems right to a man – but in the end it leads to death’ (Prov.14v12). God calls us and says ‘this is the way – walk in it’ (Isa.30v21). Ultimately of course Jesus himself is ‘the way’ (John 41v6). It is the rejection of God’s way that leads us into trouble. This is true in regard to the way of salvation for unbelievers, and how we live as believers. The question we need to keep asking ourselves is ‘which way are we going?

The Book of Micah

Lessons for today: Judgement and grace: This warning of judgement is the flip side of grace. God continues to show grace to his people as he gives this warning. It is an unpleasant aspect of grace – but it is still grace. God does not have to warn us – he could in justice, just act – we could not argue. Instead he lovingly calls to us to listen and respond in repentance and faith.

Sometimes when we think of God’s judgements we often think of them in terms of the earthquake, the storms and the fire (), but this need not always be the case. Here it is monetary loss, it is dissatisfaction, it is crop failure etc. We must be alert – God speaks in many ways and circumstances. These things are not always signs of God’s displeasure but we need to pray that when they are we will see it for what it is and seek the Lords help to put things right in our lives, responding in repentance and faith!

The Book of Micah

‘Who is like the LORD?’ Reading: Micah 7 v 1 - 20.

This is the second part of Micah’s third and final message to the people of God. It started in the form of a ‘lawsuit’ (chapter 6) as God summons his people to account for their rejection of him, and will end with God’s ‘victory’ (chapter 7) over sin and the nations.

The Lord’s Charge - chapter 6 Micah’s Pleading - chapter 7

God my Saviour (v1-7): Micah, as the servant of God tells us that his desire is that the people of God would believe and practice the standards of the Lord their God; so that true fellowship with him could be resumed; but the people at this stage seem intent on ignoring him and his message.

What misery is mine (v1)! ‘Woe is me’! Micah sees himself as being like a farmer who at the time of harvest goes to his vineyard but instead of finding fruit – he simply finds leaves (Matt.21v19). This causes him much pain and anguish.

As in the New Testament God looks at his people with a certain expectation. He expects them to be a people who will produce spiritual fruit. He does not expect them just to have a show of godliness – but to have godliness. Micah sees the people of God who have such promise – to be nothing but an empty show. They should have been a blessing to the world. They were despised and rejected. They should have been a people declaring the praises of God. They were a people taken up with the gods and standards of the nations and their testimony was not taken seriously. However, despite his personal longings in this area, he continues to see the ongoing sins of the people and their absorption into the world. As a consequence of this society continues to crumble, as standards of morality and godlessness slide into lawlessness and selfishness.

The Book of Micah

This of course is something that should be a continuous cause of sadness to the true people of God in every age, and raises the question ‘how do godly people live in an ungodly and hostile world’?

The godly have been swept from the land (v2): Micah knows that when society seeks to silence the voice of God – whether through the prophets as sent by God – or in the refusal to read or listen to the written word of God – disaster will follow. Here we see that the influence and impact of God’s people has been undermined and finally rejected. The people were no longer tolerating those who wanted to speak up or live for God. They have been ‘swept from the land’.

When God’s word and people are removed what is left? ‘If the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do’ (Ps.11v3)? Micah speaks plainly saying ‘not one upright man remains’! There is no one righteous; no not one (Rom.3v10). These people were not just guilty of the occasional lapse into sin they had become skilful in doing evil (v3)!

When Gods influence is removed what is left? What is left is described in v2b-6: Chaos and corruption are all around. People would deceive and betray one another, but God would do exactly what he said he would do!

We need to remember that the problem is a spiritual one, and this is a problem that only God has the answer to – knowing this it should drive us to prayer!

This was written primarily to the ‘covenant people’ of God – not particularly to the unbelieving world in general. God’s people must live like God’s people! They were to live in a way that demonstrated that God’s way was better than the way of the world. We are to be salt and light! We have lost our savour and the light has been blown out!

The Day when God visits (v4): Because of their ungodly ways, and refusal to listen to God, God is going to visit [NIV] them.

The Book of Micah

This is not the picture of a friendly gathering, but of a superior inspecting the affairs of a subordinate. To ensure that all is well, and to act appropriately if it is not (Zeph.1v8).

When Jesus came he wept over the fact that the people did not know the day of their visitation (Luke 19v44). On that occasion Jesus, God the Son came not to judge, but to save, but they wanted nothing to do with him and rejected him (John 1v10-11).

For Micah and his people, God will come and it will be a time of great confusion – but still they will not be able to trust anyone.

Don’t trust anyone (v6): Everyone is not trustworthy. No employer, no politician, no relative – they are all enemies together! In the eyes of the prophets and Jesus, the betrayal of one family member by another is the ultimate sign of a society in crisis.

This verse is quoted by Jesus (Matt.10v35-36) when he commissioned his disciples, and is seen in the gospels as the condition of things produced by the presence of Christ among the people.

People respond to Jesus and his disciples in one of two ways: 1): They accept him 2): They reject him

The presence of Christ is always the dividing line in society, and because the world rejected Jesus it will also reject his people (Luke 10v16). This ultimately is the reason that the people of God should live holy and godly lives – to be like Jesus, not the world. This also means that the world will not like us very much, and will seek to silence or get rid of us. In the light of this how should we live?

God my Saviour (v7): Micah says ‘But I’ – in contrast to the rest of society he will stand for God. He will keep his eyes on God. He will trust God.

The Book of Micah

Perhaps Micah was thinking of the psalmist when he said ‘I hear the slander of many; fear is on every side; while they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life. But as for me, I trust in you, O LORD; I say, ‘you are my God’. My times are in your hand’ (v7; Ps.31v13-15)!

This is what the life of faith is all about; sometimes it means standing against the flow, and standing alone. Let us like Micah renew and rededicate ourselves to God.

Micah says his eyes are looking to God to save him (v7). The salvation that is spoken of is not only personal rescue from sin but divine deliverance from any threatening situation.

Micah also indicates that God is not helping or answering him straightaway. He says that he ‘will look to the Lord’ and ‘wait for the God of my salvation’. God may or may not answer us speedily; but by faith we praying knowing that God hears us, God sees us, God understands us – and he will act in the right way and at the right time.

God pleads for me (v8-13): These verses seem to look forward to the time when God is once again going to respond to the prayers and longings of God’s remnant people. Though once despised and rejected by society, they like Micah have been looking and waiting for God to act on their behalf.

Though the church looks as though it’s done for – yet there is hope! The world may think that the church is on the brink of extinction – a future that is irreversible – but God does not!

Do not gloat (v8)! The persecuting world is warned – don’t gloat! If God has punished his own people for their sins – he will surely punish the ungodly!

God’s people may have suffered at the hands of their enemies – but it was not because they were greater than God or his people. No they suffered loss because they ‘have sinned’ (v9).

The Book of Micah

Here the people show how their thinking has changed towards God. They now say:

‘I have fallen’ (v8) - ‘I sit in darkness’ ‘I have sinned’ (v9) – ‘I bear the Lords wrath’

However, now they seem to be humbly trusting in God to plead their case. They are trusting God to ‘establish what is right’ and to bring them ‘into the light’ – to ‘see his righteousness’ (v9). Perhaps at long last they have considered their status as Gods people in the right way, and seen their failure to live in the way that God wanted them to and as a consequence they now understand that their calamities were not because there was anything wrong with what God had done, but with them. They had sinned and failed God. They could see his righteous acts towards them (6v5). They understood that they needed to ‘walk humbly before God’ (6v8).

They would endure hardship, shame and exile only ‘until’ the Lord acts for them (v9). The church continues to suffer only ‘until he comes’ again!

Where is the Lord your God (v10)? The world needs to remember that the story has not finished yet!

In one chapter of the history of the world the church of God may seem to be on the brink of extinction, but in another chapter it ‘bounces back’ as God revives and restores his people. There is no enemy that will have a lasting victory over the true people of God. God will be the final victor – he will tread down his enemies and God’s people will share in his victory!

‘From victory unto victory, his army shall he lead, ‘Til every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed’.

(From the hymn: ‘Stand up, stand up for Jesus’ by George Duffield).

The destiny of God’s people is that nothing but good awaits them, even though the pathway to it is often painful. The destiny of the world is that nothing but ruin awaits them, even though the pathway to it seems to be nothing but pleasantness.

The Book of Micah

It is very easy to get discouraged when we work our heart out for the Lord and yet we do not seem to get rewarded. I have heard of and seen many people who quit their service unto the Lord because they seem to feel that all their work is in vain and there were no results of the work they did. God never promised that trumpets would sound because we would preach his word but he did promise that his Word would not return void (Isa.55v11).

An old missionary couple had been working in Africa for years and were returning to New York to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they were defeated, discouraged, and afraid. They discovered they were booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions.

No one paid any attention to them. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President’s entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the great man. As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, ‘Something is wrong’. ‘Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us’.

‘Dear, you shouldn’t feel that way’, his wife said. He replied ‘I can’t help it; it doesn’t seem right’. When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the President’s arrival. No one noticed this missionary couple. They slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East Side, hoping the next day to see what they could do to make a living in the city. That night the man’s spirit broke. He said to his wife, ‘I can’t take this; God is not treating us fairly’. His wife replied, ‘Why don’t you go in the bedroom and tell that to the Lord’?

The Book of Micah

A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, ‘Dear, what happened’? ‘The Lord settled it with me’, he said. ‘I told him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put his hand on my shoulder and simply said; ‘but you’re not home yet’.

In dark times our faith should shine bright – knowing that the best is still too come!

Rebuilding the ruins (v11-13): Once again we have God speaking to his people, regarding a coming ‘day’ (v11-12). In that ‘day’ God’s people are renewed and seen as a blessing to the nations.

The broken city walls will be rebuilt (v11) – not with stones but more like fences! This is must have sounded very strange to Micah’s hearers, because at this stage they had not even been broken down!

Another aspect that must have seemed strange was the type of ‘walls’ that would be rebuilt. They are described as being more like fences that mark boundaries than brick walls – surely they would not keep many invaders out! But that is the amazing thing – they won’t need strong stone walls – they have the King of the Universe among them! He will defend them.

The expansion of Gods people (v12): The description of Micah here gives the impression of an ever expanding kingdom – it is similar to that of Isaiah who said ‘the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea’ (Isa.11v9). Some 700 years after Micah spoke these words the Lord Jesus Christ, the hope of the world, came down to this earth to be the Saviour of his people. Through the coming one the blessings of Israel are going to extend to everyone who puts their trust in Christ as their Lord and Saviour. They will become part of an expanding kingdom of God.

The Book of Micah

This is the reversal of the initial situation. At one time the land had been a deserted spiritual place as Gods people were ‘swept’ away from the land. Now we see the nations coming to the people of God (v12) and the nations becoming ‘desolate’ (v13).

Who is like God (v14-20): This repentant people now seek after God’s loving protection and guidance something he had promised earlier (2v12; 5v4).

Shepherd and feed your people in fertile pastures (v14): Micah once again speaks, this time in a form of a prayer request. He asks God to ‘shepherd his people’ and to ‘feed them in fertile pasturelands’ - ‘as in the days of old’.

Perhaps Micah was thinking back to the great prayer of Solomon, many years earlier: ‘When they sin against you (for there is no one who does not sin), and you become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent ... then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you’ (2 Chron.6v36-39).

This prayer is answered much further down the timeline of Judah, a time when the Messiah (promised in chapter 5) will come. He will come as the ‘Good Shepherd’ and will watch over his sheep and feed them, and lay down his life for them.

The lands of ‘Bashan and Gilead’ were sought after territories because they were naturally good grazing areas. It’s as if Micah is remembering that the land was once like the Garden of Eden in its beauty and fertility. God has promised that one day the earth will be renewed – Eden will be restored and it will be the home of Gods people forever!

Micah’s vision of hope is a hope for the return of the ‘good old days’ (as in the days of old, v14) – or more accurately, the good old days as they should have been rather than as they actually were.

The Book of Micah

Micah’s vision is like the good old days but much better!

I will show them my wonders or miracles (v15): In response to this God says that he will watch over them like he did at the time of the Exodus. God worked miraculously to rescue his people from the tyranny and slavery of Egypt – he will do so again – this time from sin.

The fear of the nations (v16): When the nations saw Gods power over Israel’s enemies they were afraid – the nations trembled (Josh.2v9-11) – they would do so again! The might of Egypt could not stop God’s people leaving Egypt. The might of the nations of Canaan could not stop Joshua leading the people into the Promised Land and to take possession of it. God worked then to ‘deprive them of all their power’. God will do so again. The nations, who refuse to submit to God, will see their hopelessness but will not want to do anything about it. In those days they will put their hands over their mouths and their ears will become deaf ... they will not talk about God or listen to him. Just as Pharaoh saw the wonders that God did in Egypt he hardened his heart and refused to submit to the Lord. This is how some will be in the last days.

They will be afraid of you (v17): The nations face an either / or situation: they come to Yahweh in submission (v11-12), or else they will come in panic (v16-17).

It is interesting to note that the unbelieving nations will be afraid of the people of God. That is something we cannot imagine now! That is the effect that Samuel had on the people of his day (1 Sam.16v4), and is seen again when the power of God was seen in the early church (Acts 5v11, 13).

Who is a God like you (v18)? As the nations consider God and what he has done the question is asked ‘who is a God like you’? Remember that Micah’s name means ‘who is like the Lord’? The answer to question of course is that there is no one like God; no one can be compared to him.

The Book of Micah

There is no one who is his equal (i.e. Ex.15v11).

God will fully and finally deal with our sins (v18-19): Gods greatness is seen in his Creation but his greatness is displayed better is his mercy and love in forgiving those who seek him humbly, forgiving sin and restoring fellowship with him. He is no longer seen just as the awesome God who is to be feared because of his righteous anger, but he is now also seen as the one who is ‘altogether lovely’ (Song 5v16)! God is seen as merciful and compassionate (Ps.103v9; Isa.57v16).

Only God can forgive sin (v18): The prophets (Micah included) always seem to stress so much the horrible nature of sin and its consequences – but it is because they want us to see what we are really like – apart from the grace of God!

Micah uses several words to describe sin:

Transgression,

Iniquity

Rebellion

Failure

Guilt that comes from transgressing Gods word

Seeing sin for what it is - is so important! As we recognise the terrible nature of our [MY] sin, we can only then begin to see the wonder of grace! God loves me despite my sinfulness! This is something of the wonder John grasps as he says ‘behold what manner of love God has lavished on us’ (1 John 3v1)!

God forgives all sin: Although the sacrificial system showed that God was willing to forgive sin – the whole system was a signpost to the coming of the Messiah – Jesus. Jesus makes real forgiveness possible – he often annoyed the religious rules as he went about forgiving sin during his ministry (i.e. Mark 2v5).

Here Micah says that:

God deals with ALL our sin.

The Book of Micah

The blood of Jesus cleanses us from ALL sin

Micah says that God delights ‘to show mercy’ and ‘will again have compassion on us’. These are two of the great identifying features of the ministry of Jesus!

He deals with our sin permanently (v19): This is pictured in the language of Micah when he says that God will ‘tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea’. The psalmist uses similar language when he says ‘as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us’ (Ps.103v12).

Matthew Henry says God ‘casts them into the sea, not near the shore-side where they may appear again next at low water, but into the depths of the sea, never to rise again’.

Isaiah also encourages us to be amazed at God’s mercy and grace as God says ‘I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins’ (Isa.43v25).

Is there a better picture of forgiveness in the whole Bible? It reminds me of a story about a woman who had upset her pastor because she claimed that she had conversations with God. She had attracted quite a following in the church and every day people gathered at her house, got on their knees, prayed, sang hymns and listened to her describe what God was saying to her. The pastor thought all this was getting out of hand, so he went to visit her. ‘I know you say you are talking with God’, he said, ‘but what you hear talking back at you is just your imagination. Just to prove it, I want you to ask God to name three of the sins that I confessed this morning. Then tell me what God said. If you can name those sins, I’ll believe that you really are talking with God’. The woman sat there for a long while, praying. Then she looked up and said, ‘I asked God to name your three sins, but God said, ‘I forgot’.

God keeps his word (v20):

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This last verse is taken up by Zechariah (Luke 1v72-73). It was on the occasion of the birth of his son – John that God’s promises were about to be fulfilled. Jesus the Saviour was coming.

The promises made to Abraham seemed to have been forgotten. The hope of Micah’s promised Messiah and Kingdom seemed impossible. Whether this has to do with the affairs of the nation or in the matters of salvation - what God says – he will do! We can trust him!

Lessons for today: The problems of the world, society or the church have not changed over the years – but neither has Gods solution to those problems!

His promises will be fulfilled. God’s Kingdom has come, and is coming to completion. Jesus has promised ‘I will build my church’ (Matt.16v18) and nothing can stop that from happening.

In the meantime we have a job to do: We are to remember that the coming of the Lord is getting closer, the day of grace is here now – but one day it will be gone!

We are to be amazing people sharing the grace and mercy of a great compassionate God to a lost and hostile world.

We are to encourage ourselves in the good news of sins forgiven and seek to live holy and godly lives for the glory of our God.

Amen.

The Book of Micah

References:

These are basically my ‘unpolished’ sermon notes that I used here at my home church Guisborough Evangelical Church (I apologise for any grammatical errors you will find) and are made available for individual use only.

The Bible versions used vary but are mainly the New King James Version and the New International Version (1984).

Please feel free to contact me (details on the church contact page) with any questions, comments or further information. http://www.g-e-c.org.uk/contact.html

These notes are not meant to be a detail commentary on the passage; there are plenty of commentaries already available and for a more detailed study I refer you to them.

After consulting many commentaries, digital media and preaching sites on the internet, I have found that many people have come to similar doctrinal and practical applications as myself; so instead of showing each reference I have listed below some of the sources to which I have quoted from or referred to. I apologise for any that I may have unintentionally missed out!

Christ in the Minor Prophets by H. P. Barker. Vallance Books.

Balancing the Books (Micah and Nahum) by Michael Bentley. Evangelical Press: 1994 edition.

Micah by Dale Ralph Davis. Evangelical Press: 2010 edition.

Hosea to Micah by Paula Gooder. Bible Reading Fellowship: 2005 edition.

Focus on the Bible by John L. Mackay. Christian Focus Publications: 1998 edition.

Expository Outlines on the Old Testament by W. W. Wiersbe. Victor Books 1993 edition.

The Chronological Study Bible. Thomas Nelson 2008 edition.

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Paul Apple: http://bibleoutlines.com/library/pdf/micah.pdf.

Micah by Ray Stedman. www.raystedman.org/bible-overview/adventuring/micah-who-is-like-god.

Easy English Bible Commentary: Micah. www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/micah-lbw.htm.

Studies in Micah by Stan Long, Co-Pastor, Faith Christian Fellowship: September 2009.

END.

http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/micah-lbw.htm

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