Context
- Lived and written around the same time as Isaiah
Overview
The Judge is coming (1)
- Pay attention!
- God’s might is coming to judge the sins of Israel
- Idolotry has spread even to the leaders
Land Robbers will Lose their Land (2)
- Those that plan out evil (theft of land, fraud, not sharing what was given freely) will be “as good as dead” (v2:1)
- Prophets will be told not to prophesy, for “the LORD’s patience cannot be exhausted - he would never do such things” (v2:7)
- Be sure: commandments bring reward
- You stole from the innocent, you sill be forced to leave by your own sin
- That said, God will gather Israel
God will Judge the Leaders (3)
- Rulers (and false prophets) should know what is good vs evil
- You hate justice and pervert all that is right (v3:9)
- God will not answer their cry (v4)
- God will strip them of their power
- verse 11: “Her leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, her priests proclaim rulings for profit, and her prophets read omens for pay. Yet they claim to trust the LORD and say, “The LORD is among us. Disaster will not overtake us!”
- “Because of you, […] Jjerusalem will become a heap” (v12)
Better Days Ahead (4)
- The LORD’s temple will be supreme and people from all nations will stream to it “so He can teach us his commandments and we can live by his laws”
- We will all see the goodness of God and God’s way
- God will be judge over his people
- Nations will no longer war and will all follow the LORD
Restoration to Come
- In that day…
- God will take the dejected and build a nation from them
The King and Remnant (5)
- “as for you, Bethlahem, seemingly insignificant among the clans, from you a king will emerge. One who’s origins are in the distant past” (Matt 2:6)
- The LORD will hand over Israel to their enemies until Israel is reunited
- God’s sent one will sepherd his people to safety and peace
- God will cleanse the people of evil, sorcory, idolitry, and enfoce obedience
Justice, not Ritual (6)
- What did God do for you? Rescued you from slavery, Balak, Balaam
- What does he want in return? “He has told you” (v8-11)
- Promote justice
- Be faithful
- Live obediently before God
- Respect authority
- Live honestly
- Treat men fairly
- Don’t deceive
Micah’s Lament
- Faithful men are gone; none are godly
- Men are now experts of doing evil
- “Do not rely on a friend or trust a companion” (v5-6)
- Watch the LORD; wait for God; He will not fail
- Jerusalem will be saved
- Pray for the nations that they will see God and be humbled; God will forgive them and their sins
Important
Closing: there are two that Micah calls out as “as good as dead”: rulers/false prophets who say “God is too good to push back” and those who plan out evil. Let’s plan to not be those, yeah?How does this apply to us? It reminds of a few things: God’s hope for the nations and plan to restore us from our sins in the ultimate, new world. The book reads as a judgement but the prayer at the end is a master class in how we should respond:“Lead us, God, to your perfect peace. Open the eyes of the wicked to your truth and humble them. You alone have the power to forgive sin. Thank you for your boundless grace and kindness toward us; thank you for your mercy, your empowerment, to overcome our evil deeds; and thank you for your promise that you will remain loyal to us, though we were not loyal to you. We rest in your promise of love. Amen.”It also gives us a clear direction of what God asks of us this side of eternity: to live rightly and promote justice rather than sinning and asking for forgiveness: - ”Certainly you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it; you do not desire a burnt sacrifice. The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit - O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject.” Psalm 51:16-17 - “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into license and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” Jude 1:4