Micah 1-4
The Way
to World Peace

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Psalm 111:1-10 Words and Works of Wisdom

Glorious and Majestic Are His Works

1 Praise the LORD!
I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart,
 in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
2 Great are the works of the LORD,
 studied by all who delight in them.
3 Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
 and his righteousness endures forever.
4 He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered;
 the LORD is gracious and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who fear him;
 he remembers his covenant forever.
6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
 in giving them the inheritance of the nations.
7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;
 all his precepts are trustworthy;
8 they are established forever and ever,
 to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
9 He sent redemption to his people;
 he has commanded his covenant forever.
 Holy and awesome is his name!
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
 all those who practice it have a good understanding.
 His praise endures forever!

Application

Contemplate God's works to understand His character, and then choose the life objectives that will please Him.

Prayer

God, You are gracious and great, and do great things for Your people. May I be aware of all Your workings in my life, and praise You so others can appreciate You. Amen.

Proverbs 25:11-12 Wise Words and Ears


11 A word fitly spoken
 is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.
12 Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold
 is a wise reprover to a listening ear.

Application

Understand the situation, so you can know what's appropriate, or don't say anything.

Prayer

God, please set a filter on my heart and on my mouth, so I only say what You want me to say; and help me have ears that seek out Your words and reproof. Thanks. Amen.

Micah 1-4 The Way to World Peace

A contemporary of Isaiah (cf. Isa 1:1), Amos, and Hosea, Micah prophesied to both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, from ~750-686 BC. Israel was taken into captivity in 722 BC by the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, who invaded Judah in 701 BC (capturing 42 towns and 200,000 Judeans). 2Kings 18-19 give some background and God's payback. Micah cites the idolatry of the nation and focused on the injustice of the powerful toward others, both of which violated their covenantal obligations and led to their cursings. He lambasts the civil and religious leaders for failing in their function. But Micah isn't all doom and gloom. He gives the famous Messianic prophecy about Bethlehem (next post), 23 characteristics of the Millennial Kingdom in chapter 4 alone, and more in the latter chapters, when God will regather and rule over His people. The book tells both ancient and modern readers what God requires for His people to enjoy life as He intended:
 Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, to love hesed, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Micah 1 Destruction for Idolatry

Judgment to Come
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.

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.
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.
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?
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.
Weeping and Mourning

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.

10 Tell it not in Gath;
 weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
 roll yourselves in the dust.
11 Pass on your way,
 inhabitants of Shaphir,
 in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
 do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
 shall take away from you its standing place.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
 wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down from the LORD
 to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the steeds to the chariots,
 inhabitants of Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
 to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
 the transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts
 to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
 to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring a conqueror to you,
 inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
 shall come to Adullam.
16 Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
 for the children of your delight;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
 for they shall go from you into exile.

Application

Those who forsake God's word for pagan pleasures will be forsaken by God.

Prayer

Mighty God, You build up and tear down; You warn and justly judge; may I be receptive to Your warnings so that I can avoid Your judgment, and experience Your building up instead. Thanks. Amen.

Micah 2 Retribution and Restoration

Woe to Oppressors

1 Woe to those who devise wickedness
 and work evil on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
 because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and seize them,
 and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
 a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the LORD:
behold, against this family I am devising disaster,
 from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk haughtily,
 for it will be a time of disaster.
4 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you
 and moan bitterly,
and say, “We are utterly ruined;
 he changes the portion of my people;
how he removes it from me!
 To an apostate he allots our fields.”

5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot
 in the assembly of the LORD.
Reproof of False Prophets

6 “Do not preach”

—thus they preach—
 “one should not preach of such things;
 disgrace will not overtake us.”

7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
 Has the LORD grown impatient?
 Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
 to him who walks uprightly?
8 But lately my people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly
 with no thought of war.
9 The women of my people you drive out
 from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away
 my splendor forever.
10 Arise and go,
 for this is no place to rest,
because of uncleanness that destroys
 with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,
 saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”
 he would be the preacher for this people!
The Remnant of Israel
12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
 I will gather the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together
 like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture,
 a noisy multitude of men.
13 He who opens the breach goes up before them;
 they break through and pass the gate,
 going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
 the LORD at their head.

Application

If people loved God wholeheartedly, and their neighbor as themselves, there would not be idolatry nor injustice, and no cause for the pain of judgment.

Prayer

Lord, I want to be always receptive to Your truth, and direct my steps according to it, so I will reap the blessings of the blameless; show me how I am not walking in loyalty and love, and guide me in getting back on the path. Amen.

Micah 3 Lax Leadership Leads to Loss

Rulers and Prophets Condemned

1 And I said:
Hear, you heads of Jacob
 and rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice?—
2  you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
 and their flesh from off their bones,
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
 and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
 and chop them up like meat in a pot,
 like flesh in a cauldron.

4 Then they will cry to the LORD,
 but he will not answer them;
he will hide his face from them at that time,
 because they have made their deeds evil.

5 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets
 who lead my people astray,
who cry “Peace”

 when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
 who puts nothing into their mouths.
6 Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,
 and darkness to you, without divination.
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
 and the day shall be black over them;
7 the seers shall be disgraced,
 and the diviners put to shame;
they shall all cover their lips,
 for there is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, I am filled with power,
 with the Spirit of the LORD,
 and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression
 and to Israel his sin.

9 Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
 and rulers of the house of Israel,
who detest justice
 and make crooked all that is straight,
10 who build Zion with blood
 and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
 its priests teach for a price;
 its prophets practice divination for money;
yet they lean on the LORD and say,
 “Is not the LORD in the midst of us?
 No disaster shall come upon us.”

12 Therefore because of you
 Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
 and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Application

Self-centered leaders lead others astray, into judgment; Spirit-centered leaders lead others out of judgment into glory. Who are you leading, and where are you leading them?

Prayer

Great Shepherd, thanks for leading me to pleasant pastures beside still waters (even though we did have to go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death a number of times), energize me with Your Spirit and truth so I can help others avoid judgment and find joy. Amen.

Micah 4 Worldwide Peace

The Mountain of the House of the LORD

1 It shall come to pass in the latter days
 that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
 and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
2  and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
 to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
 and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
 and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples,
 and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
 and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
 neither shall they learn war anymore;
4 but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
 and no one shall make them afraid,
 for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.
5 For all the peoples walk
 each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
 forever and ever.
The Restoration of Zion

6 In that day, declares the LORD,
 I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away
 and those whom I have afflicted;
7 and the lame I will make the remnant,
 and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion
 from this time forth and forevermore.

8 And you, O tower of the flock,
 hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you shall it come,
 the former dominion shall come,
 kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 Now why do you cry aloud?
 Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished,
 that pain seized you like a woman in labor?
10 Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion,
 like a woman in labor,
for now you shall go out from the city
 and dwell in the open country;
 you shall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued;
 there the LORD will redeem you
 from the hand of your enemies.

11 Now many nations
 are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be defiled,
 and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”

12 But they do not know
 the thoughts of the LORD;
they do not understand his plan,
 that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 Arise and thresh,
 O daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron,
 and I will make your hoofs bronze;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples;
 and shall devote their gain to the LORD,
 their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

Application

God's word will be the rule in the future, so we might as well learn it now, and spare ourselves unnecessary pain.

Prayer

God who spoke the universe into existence, and who will melt it with a sigh, none of Your words will ever fail to be fulfilled; may I order my daily life by Your word, and my set my future hope on its total fulfillment. Amen.

Digging Deeper

God in a nutshell: God patiently tolerates sin, while graciously warning people to repent, until the tipping point is reached, and they slide inexorably into judgment. He hates idolatry, injustice, and leaders who don't lead the people into faithfulness and justice. He will judge sinners, but bless the blameless (nothing new here). He will one day fulfill all His promises, and Jerusalem will be the center of the world, to which all nations will come to hear His word, and worldwide peace will result.

Us in a nutshell: We will be judged for what we do, whether good or evil, and be recompensed appropriately. Oppressors will be oppressed; those who lead others astray will be cursed in darkness. Those empowered by the Spirit of God will proclaim truth, and most will ignore it. Those who follow God's ways now, can experience a little bit of heaven on earth.

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