The Prophecy of Micah #12

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INTRODUCTION

As we come now to the last chapter of Micah, we are in the judgment section of the last cycle. As before, the judgment that is going to fall on Israel and Judah both was going to be a fearsome one. This is found in the first seven verses of the seventh chapter.

THE TEXT

“Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: There is no cluster to eat: My soul desired the firstripe fruit. The good man is perished out of the earth: And there is none upright among men: They all lie in wait for blood; They hunt every man his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; And the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: So they wrap it up. The best of them is as a brier: The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; Now shall be their perplexity. Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; A man’s enemies are the men of his own house. Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: My God will hear me” (Micah 7:1–7).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The devastation will be complete. The land will look like it has been completely harvested, but there is nothing to show for it in the barns (v. 1). There is no food in the fields, and there is no food in the storehouses. There are no good men left in the land, and those remaining seek to trap others with their nets (v. 2), in order that they might shed their blood. These scoundrels pursue evil with both hands (v. 3). The prince and the great men come to the judges with their desires, and all the corrupt judges have to say is how much? The best of these miscreants are like a hedge full of thorns (v. 4), a thicket of brambles, but their day of perplexity is about to fall down upon their heads. Do not trust in your friends, or even in the wife who lies in bed with you (v. 5) because the days are so treacherous. As Harry Truman once put it, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. A man’s adversaries are the members of his own household (v. 6). Trust no one. Things are really dark and hopeless, and this is why the prophet says that he will wait upon the Lord (v. 7). Salvation is from the Lord, and only from there.

OPEN CRUELTY

When sinful men first begin to drift away from the ways of the Lord, they claim to be able to fulfill, better than the Lord can, what believers value. In other words, the initial claim is that the Deuteronomic blessings that God promises are actually promises that our imaginary sky-friend will not be able to perform, while their enlightened way of approaching government will be able to fulfill them. Do you want peace, love and understanding? Then away with your reliance on ancient texts! Do you want a society governed by mutual respect? Then it needs to be a neutral society, with a secular public square.

But as time passes, it turns out that the peace, love and understanding were actually the values of a white supremacist culture. The cruelty that was implicit in the abortion clinics all along comes out in order to parade in the open. Hostility to others who differ becomes a feature, not a bug. The only thing that is necessary for sinful men to come to boast in their cruelty is the opportunity to do so. When they get their rebellion green-lighted, they pursue their wickedness with both hands.

They will at first mock you for thinking that peace and love can only come from Jesus Christ. They can generate the milk of human kindness just as well as Christian faith can. But then, after what seemed like a very short time, they start mocking you for valuing peace and love at all. Cruelty becomes their badge of vaunted pride.

CORRUPTED COURTS

Truth and justice are objective realities, and they can only be objective realities if there is a transcendent God over all of us. The moment you allowed justice to be a relativized value, settled by human voices down here below, that moment was the time when you put justice up for sale.

And as Micah points out, the only ones who can afford the prices that relativistic judges charge will be the princes and great men. The lowly cannot get justice because they have been priced out of the market. If you want the common man to be represented in the courts, the great need is not public defenders, but rather judges who cannot be bought.

But if you live in a time where this is the case—and you do—do not despair. The day of their perplexity is approaching. It is about to come crashing down on their heads because the ultimate court, the court of Heaven, cannot be corrupted. And God issues decisions from behind His bench.

NO HELP IN FAMILY

We are Christians, not sentimentalists. There is no innate power in human relationships. If we are out of kilter with our Maker, then we are also out of kilter with every aspect of His world. Jesus taught that His coming was intended to recalibrate everything. This is why we are summoned to love Him more than we love father or mother. “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). And worldlings, for their part, return the favor. “The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law” (Luke 12:53).

The only way to love your family properly is by loving them less than you love Jesus Christ.

WAIT ON THE LORD

The prophets end with hope, anticipating the hope of the next section. God does not abandon His people, but He does leave them in situations longer than they really wanted to be in them. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Afterward, it yields the peaceful fruit of an upright life (Heb. 12).

But the only way to look forward to that time of harvest is through looking toward the Lord of the harvest, who is the Lord Jesus. We can look forward to the great reckoning, to the time of harvest (v. 11) if we have obeyed the earlier exhortation (v. 2). We are took toward Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That is the only way to wait on the Lord.

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INTRODUCTION

So we have now come to the conclusion of the second consolation section in the prophecy of Micah. As we continue to work through this passage, notice again that deliverances are hard. To be saved through trials is not the same kind of thing as an afternoon at the park.

THE TEXT

“And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: Who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver . . .” (Micah 5:7–15).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

As Calvin points out, there are two great things promised here. The first is God will defend His Church apart from the help of men, and second, that the Church will grow to surpass all her enemies. The first thing to note is that the people of God will be very much like a grassy meadow drenched in dew (v. 7). This is grass that just grows, and does not require cultivation (v. 7). It will be dew from Jehovah. God will empower His people, and they will be like a lion in the midst of a flock of sheep (v. 8). The enemies of God will be cut off (v. 9). Then comes a curious comment. God will cut His people off, taking away their horses, chariots, cities, and strongholds (vv. 10-11). They would not be delivered by their own might. In addition, God will purify His people, granting them repentance. He will take away their witchcraft and soothsaying (v. 12), their graven images (v. 13), and their groves (v. 14). This then will culminate in God’s summary dispatching of the heathen.

TWO KINDS OF IDOLS

Idolatry occurs whenever we place any created thing in the place of our Creator. This can be done surreptitiously, in the realm of heart motives, but with the object of this false worship being innocent in itself. But idolatry can also be something gross and explicit, as when men carve or paint objects to facilitate devotion, veneration, or worship.

We can see the first kind implied in various places of the New Testament. For example, Paul tells the Colossians that covetousness is idolatry (Col. 3:5). If you are looking over a catalog with a heart filled with avarice, then you are an idolater. But the catalog might be filled with items that are perfectly innocent. In this vein, a man might make an idol out of his job, or his family, or his church. When this happens, repentance is a heart matter. He doesn’t have to quit his job, or leave his family, or burn down his church.

This is not the same response that is required with explicit idolatry. In this case, repentance looks like a demolition of the idol itself, and a removal of the pieces.

TWO KINDS OF IDOLS IN OUR TEXT

This is an important thing to mention because we have this distinction in our passage this morning. What does God remove from His people first? He removes horses, and chariots, cities, and strongholds. None of these things are sinful in themselves. But if God had not removed them, He knew that Israel might be tempted to glory in victory, as though they had accomplished it all by themselves. God sometimes removes instruments and means when we start to think that we are in charge of our own blessings. But we are not. “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: But we will remember the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7).

But God does not just deliver His people apart from visible means, He is also gracious enough to cleanse and restore His people. When He determines to grant reformation and revival what will He do? He will take away the witchcraft, and the fortunetellers, and the idols, and the groves that sanctify them.

OUR REPENTANCE, HIS GIFT

It is absolutely true that we must repent of our sins, and we must believe in God. This is something we do. But it is also something we are enabled to do because it comes to us as a gift from God. If God does not give this gift, we cannot obtain it.

“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25).

“Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31).

“Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; Renew our days as of old” (Lamentations 5:21).

THE LAST AND ONLY AMERICAN HOPE

We come then, to the sharp point of application. We cannot fully understand the intersection between God’s absolute sovereignty and man’s complete and foundational responsibility. But we can know this. If we are guilty of wickedness, we are guilty as true moral agents. We are not puppets. We are not automata. We are not moist robots.

At the same time, if we have sinned our way into spiritual prison, we do not hold the key to that prison. The only one who can grant the repentance that will make the doors swing outward, gloriously outward, is the God of Heaven. If we are dead, we cannot raise ourselves. If we are slaves, we cannot free ourselves. The only thing we can do is cry out to the Lord.

And that means that if our nation does not repent, it is not because we have successfully gotten away from God. We have not outrun Him. No creature is ever out of His range. If we do not repent, then that is because God decided that we would not, and has determined to make us an object lesson. “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” (Romans 9:22)?

And if God restores us, it will be the result of Him determining to grant us times of refreshing. The church will be restored, lush and luxuriant, a mountain meadow filled with grass—a meadow that nobody planted, that nobody watered, that nobody tended. It will be the result of a dew from Jehovah.

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INTRODUCTION

We are still in the middle of one of Micah’s consolation sections, and we have come to the passage where the birth of the Messiah is promised.

THE TEXT

“Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: He hath laid siege against us: They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, Until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, In the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; And they shall abide: For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. And this man shall be the peace, When the Assyrian shall come into our land: And when he shall tread in our palaces, Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, And eight principal men. And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, And the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, When he cometh into our land, And when he treadeth within our borders” (Micah 5:1–6).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Israel and Judah are told to muster the troops because they will be under siege (v. 1). Not only so, but they will be apparently humiliated in that the judge of Israel will be struck on the cheek with a rod, as happened to Christ in His trial (Matt. 27:30). But the prophet is about to instruct us not to go by surface appearances. Bethlehem was an obscure little town. It was famous because Rachel was buried there, and because David was from there, but it was still an obscure little town. Most places could raise a thousand men for battle, but apparently not Bethlehem (v. 2). Nevertheless, just as Bethlehem had once produced the greatest king Israel had ever had, so she would do so again. This king would be even greater—His goings forth were from of old, from everlasting (v. 2). God was not going to undertake on Israel’s behalf (for a good six centuries) until the time this ruler was eventually born (v. 3). It was a long gestation, and a hard delivery, but then the remnant would return. But at this point the Messiah would stand, and He would feed the people in the strength of Jehovah (v. 4), and they would be enabled to abide by Him. This Messiah would be able to deliver us from all the enemies of God, who are presented here under the figure of the Assyrians and Nimrod (vv. 5-6).

COMMON KNOWLEDGE

The rabbis of the first century knew that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:4), which is the answer they gave to Herod in response to his inquiry (Matt. 2:5-6). That answer might be different now, now that Bethlehem is so closely associated with Jesus.

And the same thing was common knowledge on the streets as well.

“Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Beth-lehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him” (John 7:40–43).

Jesus was a Galilean. He had arrived in this world at Bethlehem, but He also departed from Bethlehem as a baby. Although He might well have gone back later in His life, we have no indication of that in Scripture. The appearances would seem to indicate that God moved the heart of Caesar Augustus (Luke 2:1-4) simply in order to touch that base. The point was prophetic and typological only.    

LITTLE AMONG THE CLANS

God loves underdog stories, and He loves to deliver His people using unlikely means. Bethlehem was a hamlet, just a bend in the road. And yet . . .

Not only so, but David was from a family of shepherds, and he was the youngest son, out tending sheep while his brothers were inside with the prophet Samuel at the big kids’ table.

“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

God loves this way of doing things so much that He does it over and over again. And man loves looking on the outward appearance so much that he misses it, also over and over. The lesson should be straightforward. It is quite possible that you might be too big for God to use, but it is not possible for you to be too small for God to use.

HOUSE OF BREAD

The name Bethlehem means House of Bread, and this is the place where the line of David was going to be restored. The king who was going to feed Israel was to be born in the House of Bread.

When this king was raised up, what was He going to do? His goings forth were from everlasting, and in this new station, He was going to “stand.” He came from the eternal realms, and His kingdom was going to last forever. He was going to “stand.” From that place, as a Shepherd King, He was going to feed His people, doing so in the strength of Jehovah. This is something that the Lord Jesus most clearly did—He not only healed the people of their diseases, but He also fed them.

In that same verse, it says that we will abide, and we will abide as a result of this feeding, and in the majesty of the name of Jehovah God. There is as much strength in you to abide in Christ as there is majesty in God. This is another way of saying that although you are charged to abide in Christ (John 15:4), you are not able to do this in your own strength. You are kept by the power of God. “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:29).

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