Micah 1

Nic Schroeder

Micah • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Game Night

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Lord, here we go again!

Pray.

Think myself empty.

Read myself full.

Write myself clear.

Pray myself haught.

Be myself.

Forget myself.

Lord, let this message be a beacon for you. Let me be forgotten and invisible. Let them see and know you, only you. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

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The gospel is the good news that God, the loving Creator, sovereign King, and holy Judge of all, has looked upon men and women wonderfully and uniquely made in His image who have rebelled against Him, are separated from Him, and deserve death before Him, and He has sent His Son, Jesus, God in the flesh, the long-awaited King, to live a perfect and powerful life, to die a sacrificial and substitutionary death, and to rise from the grave in victory over sin, Satan, and death. The gospel is a summons from God for all people in all nations to repent and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, turning from all idols to declare allegiance to Jesus alone as King and trust in Jesus alone as Lord. All who turn from Jesus will experience everlasting, horrifying suffering in hell, while all who trust in Jesus will experience everlasting, satisfying communion with God in heaven. (Secret Church 2020, David Platt, Radical.net)

For now, Jesus remains in heaven, changing the world one person at a time, but one day he will return and judge the world in righteousness. He will remove from this world all sin and all causes of sin and he will restore the cosmos to a state of peace, prosperity and flourishing and all those who have received him as their Lord and Savior will participate in his rule and enjoy his goodness forever.

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PRAY

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Prophecy Major Prophets

-Isaiah

-Jeremiah

-Ezekiel

-Daniel

Minor Prophets

-8th Century BC—Hosea, Amos, Jonah, Micah

-7th Century BC—Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah

-6th Century BC—Joel, Obadiah, Haggai, Zechariah

-5th Century BC—Malachi

Prophet--

“a mediator who claims to receive messages directly from a divinity, by various means, and communicates those messages to recipients.”

Redditt, Paul L. Introduction to the Prophets. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008. Print.

The weight of bearing news

-What is the message of Micah?Throughout Micah, we’ll look at three different theological themesSin and Judgment: the book shows that God takes sin very seriously and teaches that people must reflect his priorities by dealing justly with each one another and the opposed.God’s Sovereignty: God has the power to judge sinners and also to save them through his promised MessiahEschatology: the book contains apocalyptic visions of a future golden age

Crossway Bibles. ESV Literary Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019. Print.

The implied purpose of Micah the prophet is to warn all people, especially God’s people, that God does not tolerate sin and, along with that, to instill an attitude of repentance. Micah assumes that the information that the human race most needs is a double message—the bad news that the human race is headed for disaster if left to its own inclinations and the good news that God offers salvation.

Crossway Bibles. ESV Literary Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019. Print.

Before we get into the book, I want to first talk about the inerrancy of Scripture and prophecy.

Unique among all books ever written, the Bible accurately foretells specific events-in detail-many years, sometimes centuries, before they occur. Approximately 2,500 prophecies appear in the pages of the Bible, about 2,000 of which already have been fulfilled to the letter—no errors.

(The remaining 500 or so reach into the future and may be seen unfolding as days go by.) Since the probability for any one of these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance averages less than one in ten (figured very conservatively) and since the prophecies are for the most part independent of one another, the odds for all these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance without error is less than one in 10 to the 2000th (that is 1 with 2,000 zeros written after it)!

The acid test for identifying a prophet of God is recorded by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:21-22. According to this Bible passage (and others), God's prophets, as distinct from Satan's spokesmen, are 100 percent accurate in their predictions. There is no room for error.

https://reasons.org/explore/publications/tnrtb/read/tnrtb/2003/08/22/fulfilled-prophecy-evidence-for-the-reliability-of-the-bible

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Can anyone remind me of what the name Micah means?

Who is like Yahweh

Micah receives the message:

Micah 1:1 ESV

1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Literally, Micah has received the word from God or from I AM. The Hebrew verb hayah with the phrase debar-yhwh constitute the prophetic word formula that is commonly used as a report of prophetic revelation in the oracular speech of prophets in the Old Testament (see Isaiah 1:1, 1:10, 28:13; Jer. 1:1, 4; Amos 1:1, 7:16). This construct chain occurs 242 times in the OT and almost always (225 times) appears as a technical form for the prophetic revelation

When we read, or then when they heard, there should be trembling in awe and fear of the Lord God. Micah addresses his audience with the messages from the same voice that created the cosmos and directed Israel’s history.

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So, the word of God is received by Micah and given to the people.

Micah’s point here is to call the reader right from the beginning to give full attention to what is being said.

Um, Stephen. Micah for You. Ed. Carl Laferton. The Good Book Company, 2018. Print. God’s Word for You.

This is during the days of the Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. It is presumed that Micah died before Uzziah since his (Uzziah) name is not mentioned. These kings that are mentioned are kings in the southern kingdom of Israel. It’s during this time that Isaiah is also prophesying in the northern kingdom.

(God’s people had divided two centuries previously, during the reign of Solomon‘s son Rehoboam—ever since, there had been two kingdoms: Israel to the north, centered on the capital of Samaria; Judah to the south, with Jerusalem as its capital.)

Um, Stephen. Micah for You. Ed. Carl Laferton. The Good Book Company, 2018. Print. God’s Word for You.

Now, keep in mind that prophets weren’t necessarily the most chipper of news bearers.

...Micah doesn’t give readers any glimpse of restoration early on—it will only come later, and by way of rebuke. The deliverance will come through judgment. Restoration will come through rebuke. The resurrection will come through suffering. This is why a message like this is hard for any audience to receive.

Um, Stephen. Micah for You. Ed. Carl Laferton. The Good Book Company, 2018. Print. God’s Word for You.

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Micah 1:2 ESV

2 Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

Micah’s oracle‚ announcing the fall of Samaria‚ has four parts, each with two sub-divisions: (1) The prophet summons the nations to a trial (v. 2a) as defendants (v. 2b).

Wiseman, Donald J., T. Desmond Alexander, and Bruce K. Waltke. Obadiah, Jonah and Micah: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 26. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988. Print. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries.

The stage is being set for God’s message. The court is convened.

We have here the image of a court of law. God is the Judge, Judah and Samaria are the defendents.

Micah addresses all the people of the earth because God is the Lord of the whole earth (4:2–3) and all the nations are accountable to Him. God is both judge and witness from His holy temple where His Law was kept in the ark of the covenant. A holy God must act in righteousness and judge sin.

Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Concerned. Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor, 1996. Print. “Be” Commentary Series.

The passage begins with God summoning the peoples and the earth as witnesses to the judgment that he is about to execute on Samaria. This disputation pattern is common in the prophets (cf. Isa 1:1; Jer 6:18–19; Joel 1:2). God will come from his true temple, the one in heaven (1:2–3), and his coming will bring turmoil to the mountains and valleys. The principal target is Samaria, the magnificent capital of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, established around 870 bc by Omri, and which finally fell to the Assyrians only after a three-year siege in 722/721. This fact provides a date for the prophecy against Samaria, probably around 725.

Rogerson, John W. “Micah.” Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. Ed. James D. G. Dunn and John W. Rogerson. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003. 703. Print.

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(2) The Lord is going to descend in a punitive epiphany (v. 3) to convulse the earth (v. 4).

Micah 1:3–4 ESV

3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4 And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.

The Judge arrives (vv. Micah 1:3–4). Today when a judge enters a courtroom from his or her chamber, everybody in the courtroom rises—a symbol of the respect we have for the judge and the law that he or she represents. But no judge ever came to court in the manner described by Micah! The verb “to come forth” means “to come forth for battle.” God opens the court and declares war!

A judge comes to court to see to it that justice is done, and he or she isn’t allowed to take sides. But when God comes to judge the nations, He has all the evidence necessary and doesn’t have to call any witnesses. God is angry at His people because of their sins. That’s why His coming makes the earth split and the mountains melt so that the rock flows like melted wax or a waterfall.

Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Concerned. Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor, 1996. Print. “Be” Commentary Series.

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(3) Samaria (v. 5a) and Jerusalem (v. 5b) are accused of breaking covenant.

Micah 1:5 ESV

5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?

In v. 5 a later editor has added a remarkable gloss, in which Jerusalem is called a high place. High places, in the official theology of Jerusalem (cf. Deut 12:2–7), were illegal sites of which God strongly disapproved. Jerusalem is called one of these!

The Judge names the defendants (Micah 1:5). God points an accusing finger at His own people—Israel and Judah—as represented by their capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem. After seeing what Assyria did to Israel in 722, the leaders of Judah should have repented and turned to the Lord, but they didn’t. In fact, during the reign of Hezekiah, the Assyrians plundered Judah and would have taken Jerusalem had not the Lord miraculously intervened (Isa. 36–37).

Both Judah and Israel were guilty of idolatry, which is really rebellion against the Lord. When the nation was divided after Solomon’s death, the Northern Kingdom established its own religious system in competition with the Mosaic worship in the temple at Jerusalem. But the people of Judah had secretly begun to worship the false gods of Canaan; and their hearts were not true to Jehovah, even when they stood in the temple courts and offered their sacrifices (Isa. 1). To God, the temple had become like one of the “high places” in the hills around Jerusalem, where the Jews secretly worshiped idols and offered their sacrifices.

Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Concerned. Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor, 1996. Print. “Be” Commentary Series.

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(4) The King hands down the sentence that Samaria will be levelled (v. 6) and its idols destroyed (v. 7).

Micah 1:6 ESV

6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.

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The prophet responded to God’s message by acting like a grieving man at a funeral (v. 8; 2 Sam. 15:30). He was genuinely burdened because of what would happen to his people if they didn’t heed God’s Word and turn from their sin.

Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Concerned. Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor, 1996. Print. “Be” Commentary Series.

Micah 1:7 ESV

7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

The language of v. 6 is vivid, envisaging the total clearance of the site of its monumental buildings, so that it can be devoted wholly to viticulture. The city’s crime is not only that of idolatry (v. 7a) but the misuse of power and the abuse of the poor that was bound up with fertility religion and sacred prostitution (v. 7b).

Micah 1:6–9 ESV

6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. 7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return. 8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches. 9 For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.

The ruin of Samaria (vv. Micah 1:6–9). The capital city of the Northern Kingdom was situated on a hill that overlooked a fertile valley. The Prophet Isaiah called the city “the crown of pride” with “glorious beauty” (Isa. 28:1) and predicted that God’s judgment would destroy the city (vv. 2–4). The Assyrians would turn the beautiful city into a heap of rubble, and her idols wouldn’t be able to protect the city from its enemies.

God destroyed the city and nation of Samaria because the people rebelled against His Word, and He destroyed the Samaritan temple because it housed a false religion that was nothing but religious prostitution. (Throughout the Old Testament, idolatry is compared to prostitution.) But God destroyed the temple in Jerusalem because the leaders had turned the true religion into a false worship of Jehovah and the gods of the nations. Jehovah is a jealous God who will not share worship or glory with another (Ex. 20:5; 34:14; Deut. 4:24; 5:9; 6:15). The covenant God made with His people at Sinai was like a marriage contract, and their breaking that covenant was like committing adultery or engaging in prostitution.

The destruction of the city of Samaria was begun in 722 under Sargon II, ruler of Assyria, who ordered many of the citizens to be taken captive or killed. Then he imported people into the land from various nations he had conquered; and as Jews and Gentiles intermarried, the result was a mixed race that the Jews despised. Even in our Lord’s day, the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans (John 4:1–9).

Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Concerned. Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor, 1996. Print. “Be” Commentary Series.