SSWIFM66

www.touchet1611.org
Adult / Kids Sunday School Series
April 6, 2008

What's In the Old Testament "FOR" Us?
Part LXVI

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples:
and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
I Corinthians 10:11
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Romans 15:4

Micah

A historical summary of the
The Impending Fall of Israel and Judah

Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is:
and let the Lord GOD be witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.
For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place,
and will come down,
and tread upon the high places of the earth.
Micah 1:2,3

Micah prophesied in Judah, the southern kingdom.

Reigned during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

Jotham and Hezekiah were good kings;
Ahaz was extremely wicked.

Thus Micah witnessed the apostasy as well as its recovery.

Can you imagine living through the Dispensation of Grace; the falling away; God's final wrath; His final Coming and then the Millennium!

His home was Moresheth, on the Philistine border, near Gath, about 30 miles southwest of Jerusalem.
Micah lived at the same time of the prophets Isaiah and Hosea.

Micah’s message was to both Israel and Judah.

His message was addressed primarily to their capitals,

Samaria
Jerusalem

The three main ideas in Micah’s message are:

1) the sins of Samaria and Jerusalem,
2) their destruction
3) and their restoration.

These three ideas are intermingled in the book,

with abrupt transitions between present desolation and future glory.

We can be thankful that we have no wrath coming!

Romans 5:9 - Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Our future is not our "restoration" - we are not becoming a "born-again" nation.

Ours is a "reconciliation" as Paul explains in Ephesians 2:12-22.
We are not having to learn to "stop sinning" by following Christ's example...
Christ became sin and took the law away for righteousness for those trust ON Him and receive His righteousness imputed to us!

Summary / Outline Micah 1. Samaria Doomed

Quick history review:

Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom, whose rulers were directly responsible for the corruption

1:5 - For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

Since their apostasy from God 200 years before (1 Kings 12), they had:

adopted calf worship
adopted Baal worship
adopted other Canaanite, Syrian, and Assyrian idols and idolatrous practices.

God had sent Elijah, Elisha, and Amos to turn them back from idols.

However, it was all in vain.

They were about ripe for the death blow.

Micah lived to see his words come true

In 734 b.c. the Assyrians deported all of the northern part of Israel, and in 722 Samaria itself became a “heap of the field.”

1:6 - Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.
1:7 - And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.
1:8,9 - Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

The places named in 1: 10-15 were in the western foothills of Judah, Micah’s home territory.
They were eventually devastated by Sennacherib of Assyria in his campaign of 701 b.c., during which he claims to have destroyed 46 strong-walled cities of Judah - probably including those mentioned by Micah.

Micah 2–3. The Brutality of the Rulers

In addition to their idolatry (1:5-7), the ruling classes were merciless in their treatment of the people:

2:1,2 - Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
2:9 - The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.

What a way to say how we have hurt our children today!

On top of all this, their priests & prophets were looking for fame & fortune as they condoned their unjust and cruel practices and used the Lord as a 'talisman.'

talisman - A magical figure cut or engraved under certain superstitious observances of the configuration of the heavens, to which wonderful effects are ascribed;
3:11 - The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

Micah 3. Jerusalem Also Indicted

Micah continues to rebuke the leaders of Israel for the horrible and inhuman cruelty of the ruling classes.

3:2,3 - Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
3:4,5 - Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

But Jerusalem is as bad as Samaria -

3:10 - They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.,
in particular the religious leaders

3:5–7 - Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
3:11 - The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say,

Then Micah pronounces the doom of Jerusalem

3:12 - Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest
...as he had earlier predicted the fall of Samaria

1:6 - Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.

Micah 4. Zion’s Universal Reign

Micah now shifts abruptly to a vision of a warless, happy, prosperous, God-fearing world, with Zion at its head.

What a contrast from he had been saying!

Micah 4:1–3 is the same as Isaiah 2:2–4- sublime, grand words that are worthy of repetition.

4:1-3 - But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:2-4 - RD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Suddenly, in the midst of this rhapsody of the future, the prophet reverts to his own troubled times and the doom of Jerusalem announcing that the people will be carried away captive to Babylon.

4:9,10 - Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counseller perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

It is an amazing prophecy.

At the time Micah prophesied, Assyria was sweeping everything before it.

This was 100 years before the rise of the Babylonian Empire.

Yet Jerusalem survived the Assyrian onslaught and outlived Assyria,

...which was overthrown by Babylonia - which would destroy Jerusalem in 586 b.c. and deport its people to Babylonia.

Another sudden piece of good news from Micah!

4:13 - Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.

Micah 5. Zion’s Coming King

A ruler from Bethlehem shall be at the head of Zion.

in 4:1–8, Micah describes the glorious future;
in 4:9–10, he goes back to the Exile;
in 4:11–12, he goes further back, to his own time, to describe the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians.
in 4:13, there is again a forward sweep to the future.

Then, in 5:1 , Micah returns to the siege of Jerusalem.

This is the setting for the appearance of the deliverer from Bethlehem - 5:2–5.

In Micah’s own day it referred to the deliverance from Assyria - 5:5–6.

Beyond the horizon, in the dim distance, loomed the majestic figure of the coming Messianic King, who made His advent from eternity ... whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. 5:2 by way of Bethlehem.
Unquestionably the eternal Ruler from Bethlehem 5:2 is to be identified with the wonderful Child of Isaiah 9:6–7.

Isaiah 9:6-7 - For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

This is the only place in the Old Testament where it is specifically stated that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem.

Micah 6. Jehovah’s Controversy with His People

Again, the sins of Micah’s times: ingratitude toward God, religious pretense, dishonesty, idolatry - and certain punishment.

Micah 7. Zion’s Final Triumph

Micah laments the prevailing treachery, violence, and bloodthirstiness.
He promises punishment, yet closes with a vision of the future when God, with His people, shall rule and the promises to Abraham will be completely fulfilled at last.

We see that God will never cast away His people!

Romans 11:1,2a - I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.
Romans 11:25,26 - For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: