Category: Micah

But as for You…

Micah 5

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

One of the major downfalls of us as humans is that we love evidence. We hear a cool fact, and want to know where it is cited. We learn something in school, and we need a peer reviewed article. When a statistic is cited we like to know how the study was conducted. The cool thing about God is that he knows this about us. In Micah 5 we receive prophecy about Jesus which reads; “Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops; They have laid siege against us; With a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek. But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” (Micah 5:1-2)

This direct prophecy from God through Micah foretells of the only king the Israelites will ever need, Jesus Christ the Messiah. The remainder of Micah 5 relays the message that the land of the Israelites will be laid waste for their sins and for their breaking of the covenant God set forth to protect them.

There’s a message that parallels something rather unfortunate that goes on in our modern churches today. I have been quite blessed in my experience in church growing up. The people surrounding me who I have known as God’s people have acted accordingly. However, as I meet others my age, I learn that is not always the case. This experience, I have come to learn, is called church hurt. It seems to be when people experience behavior that doesn’t quite align with the ways a Christian should conduct themselves, causing a disruption between what is expected from God’s people and the reality of their actions. But like all sin it’s hardly anything new. Micah was attempting to call out the corrupt leaders of his day, comparing them to Ahab stealing the family vineyard from Naboth, (see 1 Kings 21) and to call out the Prophets who are offering “God’s protection” to those who are willing to pay.

Throughout the book, Micah continues to warn that God has withdrawn his protection and is going to allow the Babylonians to take over and use them to remove the corruption of the Israelites.

“Then the remnant of Jacob Will be among many peoples Like dew from the Lord, Like showers on vegetation Which do not wait for man or delay for the sons of men. The remnant of Jacob Will be among the nations, Among many peoples Like a lion among the beasts of the forest, Like a young lion among flocks of sheep, Which, if he passes through, Tramples down and tears, And there is none to rescue. Your hand will be lifted up against your adversaries, And all your enemies will be cut off.” (Micah 5:7-9)

This is where we are today. Remnants of Jacob. We wait for the day of our prophesied King to return to rule correctly. So what do we do in the meantime? Despite having a bad experience, continue meeting with your fellow Christians, but be on guard for the “Wolf in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew 7:15). There will be a day when we are gathered together as one nation truly under God, and we’ll be awarded according to our faith in the King born in Bethlehem which prompts us to obey and work for him.

-John Evans

Reflection Questions

  1. What is the good news of Micah 5? And for whom is it good news?
  2. What is the bad news of Micah 5? And for whom is it bad news?
  3. Do they both still apply today? Which do we hear more of today?
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Get Right with God

Micah 5-7

Many people point to Micah 6:8 as a simple, straightforward verse telling us how to get right with God:   Micah 6:8: “He has shown 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.”  

Let’s look at this in context.

Micah 6 starts out as a courtroom scene.  “Plead your case”… “For the Lord has a case against his people”.  God then reminded His people of the things He had done for them including leading them out of Egypt, protecting them from Balaam’s cursing them, and leading them into the promised land.

We might pause here to remind ourselves how the Israelites reacted to each of God’s protections that He pointed out to them here.  

  1. He led them out of Egypt to be His people, but they grumbled repeatedly, wanting to go back to Egypt; worshiped a golden calf; and didn’t trust that God could bring them into the promised land – so they had to wander in the desert for 40 years.
  2. He caused Balaam to bless Israel instead of cursing them.  This was a spiritual battle God was fighting on their behalf, without them even knowing about it.  Their response was to sin sexually with Moab’s women and worship Moab’s gods – so God sent a plague and killed many of the Israelites.
  3. He caused the Jordan River (at flood stage) to dry up, letting the Israelites cross on dry ground.  This was reminiscent of what He had done for the Israelites when they had left Egypt 40 years earlier.  God had done for Israel what they could not have done for themselves – but the people didn’t remember all the righteous acts God had done for them, and turned away again and again.

In Micah 6:6-7, we see that things we do can’t reconcile us to God, including bowing down to Him (presumably in hollow worship), performing sacrifices (remember that to obey is better than sacrifice), even sacrificing things most precious to us – including our children.  None of these things can reconcile us to God.

Then, we find the beautiful verse of what God really wants.  Not religious ceremonies, but moral and ethical conduct – “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

None of us can do these things until we first submit to God as broken sinners and allow Him to transform our lives.  We can only act justly once we have been justified.  We can only love mercy (and extend it to others) once we have experienced and recognized God’s mercy.  We can only walk humbly with our God after we bow humbly before Him, confess our sins, and claim his promise of forgiveness (I John 1:9).

Titus 3:5 reminds us, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”  So people are misguided if they think they can follow this formula from Micah 6:8 to be saved.  It’s only because of our saving relationship with God that we can do what He requires in Micah 6:8.

As we continue reading Micah, we see that Israel hasn’t lived up to God’s requirements, so in 6:13, He says, “Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins.”  If God treated Israel this way, and if God doesn’t change, I’ll let you consider for yourself the implications for you and the implications for our nation.

Micah 7:13 is pointing to a time still in the future to us, when “the earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the result of their deeds.”

But the last 3 verses of Micah remind us of who God is and what He has done in the past. 

Micah 7:18-20: “18 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.

19  You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

20 You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.”

To quote Warren Wiersbe from his Bible commentary, “the better we know the character of God, the more we can trust Him for the future.  The better we know the promises and covenants of God, the more peace we will have in our hearts when things fall apart.”

In closing, 

  1. We need to recognize we can never measure up to God’s requirements on our own.  
  2. We need to humbly come to God as broken sinners, confessing our sins, and asking for His forgiveness.  
  3. We need to remember who He is, what He has done in the past, and what promises He has made for the future.  
  4. We then need to develop a deep personal relationship with God.  

Only then can we “be imitators of God as dearly loved children” (Ephesians 5:1).  And only then can we live a life acceptable to God – “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

-Steve Mattison

Read or listen to today’s Bible reading plan passages at Bible Gateway.com here – Micah 5-7 and Revelation 10

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Know God’s Plan

Micah 3-4

Yesterday, we read about God’s words to a people who were on the breaking point. To be fair, Israel had seen a lot– civil disputes, mass religious wars, a kingdom divided. But here, Israel is facing its final days as an independent nation.

So we read Micah’s desperate attempts to warn his people– Israel and Judah both– that their only hope is to return to the LORD. Chapter 1 talked about the coming destruction. Chapter 2 talks about these “oppressors,” who are likely people of political or financial power that are abusing the people around them.

In chapter 3, Micah now addresses two groups of people: the political leaders and the prophethood. Micah tells the leaders that they “hate the good and love the evil,” (3:1). The prophets that Micah confronts were likely professional “prophets” that lived in the king’s court. They may or may not have been followers of the LORD and they were not like the prophets that God chose for Israel. Micah says they prophesy peace when it gets them something to eat (3:5) and teach the masses when it gets them paid (3:11). 

On and on, Micah confronts everyone in the nation who has shown corruption, greed, selfishness and evil. He closes chapter 3 by saying  these ways are going to leave Zion, God’s holy city– flattened to a plain. 

And then Micah’s message does a complete 180-degree turn. In chapter 4, he starts giving some really good news. He says that the house of the LORD will be a meeting place where everyone turns to know God (4:2). He says that God is going to bring the weak, lowly, hurt, sick, and anyone who’s been abused, and He is going to personally make them strong (4:6-7). 

And here we begin to see what we call “God’s redemptive-historical plan.” That’s a fancy way of saying that God’s plans span thousands of years. And although Israel rejected and resisted God, He would not give up so easily. God sent His Son Jesus into the world to be an atonement, a light, and a leader for all of humanity. And in this way, every good thing that God has promised to mankind will be made true in Jesus our King.

If this isn’t good news enough, wait until tomorrow, when Micah is going to have even better things to say! 

-Levi Salyers

Read or listen to the Bible reading plan passages at BibleGateway.com here – Micah 3-4 and Revelation 9

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Who is Like the Lord?

Micah 1-2

Have you ever wondered, “what’s so special about Jerusalem?”

I mean, think about it. Maybe look at a map. That area has been hotly contested by kingdoms, empires, nations, world religions, and people groups since the dawn of time. Why? The reason for each group is a little different, but practically speaking, it’s the only strip of land that connects Europe, Asia, and Africa all together. Everything around it is pure desert. 

So Israel, since the days of Moses, has been an impossibly small tribe in an ocean of military conquests and empires. Over and over again, though, God had protected Israel and preserved their residence in the top real estate of the ancient world.

Until the days of Micah.

During the time of the Old Testament minor prophets, Israel had walked away from God and His protection. The northern half of the kingdom (which split off from Judah, the southern half)) was about to be destroyed by the kingdom of Assyria. Micah was pleading with his countrymen to return back to God and His protection before they fell to a similar fate.

Micah means “Who is like the LORD?” and his name fits the theme of his message perfectly. Chapter 1 is a call for Judah to start mourning for the fate that is sure to befall them. It’s also a reminder that all of this will happen because they turned away from their covenant to God (see our discussion on Amos 5 earlier this week). 

In chapter 2, Micah goes on and on about the many ways that his country has totally forgotten about their God. My favorite verse in this section is 2:7b: “Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?” In other words, God asks Judah, “if you were following my Word, wouldn’t you be so much better off?” And this is the lesson for the reader today: God’s Word is beautiful and practical. We don’t just learn about God in His words! We also find life, love and contentment in God’s words!

-Levi Salyers

Read or listen to today’s Bible Reading Plan passages at BibleGateway.com here – Micah 1-2 and Revelation 8

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It’s Always Been About the Condition of the Heart

Micah 5-7

micah-6_8

Tuesday, April 18

The latter half of Micah includes passages about judgement, God’s frustration with the people of Israel, and a prophetic utterance about the future king of Israel coming from a tiny blip-of-a-town, Bethlehem. Among these three chapters, we will look at Micah 6.6-8. Despite a common misconception that the Old Testament is concerned solely about external obedience to Torah (the Jewish law) and that it says nothing about the heart issue, our passage speaks directly about the heart.

Starting in verse six Micah asks a rhetorical question, ‘What should I bring to God”? Should it be burnt offerings? How about yearling calves? What about a thousand rams! The answer is none of these. We can find a similar message in Hosea 6.6. Micah tells the Israelites plainly “He [God] has told you, O man, what is good” (Micah 6.8). What is good in the sight of God are not sacrifices and mere external obedience but exacting justice, loving kindness, and walking or obeying God humbly, all of which are impossible to do without a transformation of the heart. The remedy to the corrupted leadership in Israel we looked at yesterday is found in here in verse eight. Israelites, return to God with all your heart-fully devoted to him, upholding justice, loving kindness, and obeying God, this is good in the sight of Yahweh!

You and I can read this passage and think ‘silly Israelites of course God doesn’t want your sacrifices, he wants your heart’! However, just because we’re removed from the historical context, doesn’t mean we don’t struggle with the same problems. For example, some of you reading this may keep up with the ‘look’ of a Christian, yet have let your heart linger far from him. You attend church, youth group, and camps. You instagram your Bible readings and caption verses on your selfies. These are not wrong or bad, however, if this is the extent of your Christian faith, God is longing for something much deeper and significant. He wants your heart. Have you surrendered in your heart completely to the will of God and what he desires for you? In the words of Micah, do you uphold justice? Do you love kindness and see people as God sees them? And lastly, do you humbly obey and walk with God? We all can return to God in some area of our lives and give our heart back to him.

-Jacob Rohrer

(photo credit: http://www.godswordimages.com/wallpaper/gentleness/micah-6-8/)

The Responsibility of Godly Leadership

Micah 1-4

micah 1

Monday, April 17

            Micah, in line with his fellow minor and major prophets, has been given a message of judgment and warning. Micah is prophesying to the northern tribe of Israel. After king Solomon died, his son Rehoboam took over the nation of Israel but due to his poor leadership the nation split into two tribes. The northern tribe-Israel, and southern tribe-Judah. Micah’s audience is Israel-the northern tribe in the eighth century BCE.

Chapter three sheds light onto why judgment and wrath will come upon Israel if she does not change her ways. The rulers and leaders of Israel have led in a manner that is not in line with God and his standards and statutes. Instead of loving justice and hating evil, the present leadership have been accused of “hating good and loving evil” (Mic. 3.2). God had placed certain officers to lead his people, and the people in these positions were failing. Chapter three continues to say that leaders pronounced a judgment not based on truth but on bribery, the prophets would prophesy for money and speak falsely concerning God. Corruption was through the whole leadership and the victims of the corruption were the common people themselves.

In our world it’s not uncommon to see leaders fail and look out for their own interests before the interests of the people they’re leading. If you and I can be outraged with failed leadership how much more is God displeased and upset with his leadership when it fails? Whether we serve in an official leadership position at a church or Christian organization, or you’re a student leader at your school or church, you are a leader to someone. The best way to lead is to do it God’s way: pursue his heart and truth, practice servant leadership, stand up for justice, obey, and don’t be a coward with God’s truth. Leadership is something God gives and so it’s something he can take away if those whom he has called are not being faithful with it. We can see from Micah that God takes seriously a failure to obey God when leading. Are you being faithful with a leadership position God has placed you in?

-Jacob Rohrer

 

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