Micah 5

Jesus will rule forever in the majesty of Almighty God

1 Now muster yourselves in troops, O daughter of troops: someone has laid siege against us: they will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek. 2 But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you will he come to me the one that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. 3 Therefore he will give them up, until the time that she which travails has brought forth: then the remnant of his brothers will return unto the children of Israel.

• The name ‘Bethlehem’ means house of bread: a fitting birthplace for the ‘bread of life (John 6:35),’ the One who will rule forever.’
• Jesus, before He came to earth was eternal, with God.
• Verse 1 contains the prophecy of Christ being stuck on the cheek.
• ‘She that travails’ is the nation Israel (Revelation 12:1). She has had many birth pains from the enemy trying to stop the birth of the Messiah into the world.

• Daniel 2:44 And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom, which will never be destroyed: and the kingdom will not be left to other people, but it will break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

• Psalm 93:1 The LORD reigns, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, with which he has girded himself: the world also is established, that it cannot be moved.

4  And he will stand and feed/rule in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name/person of the LORD his God; and they will remain: for now he will be great to the ends of the earth. 5 And this man will be the peace, when the Assyrian comes into our land: and when he treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds, and eight princes of men. 6 And they will eat up the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with her own naked sword: by this he will deliver us from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land, and when he tramples our borders.

• When the Lord rules he feeds body, soul, and spirit of the people.

• John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me.

• Psalm 145:3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

• John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

7  And the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers on the grass, that do not wait for man, nor delay for the sons of men. 8 And the remnant of Jacob will 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 goes through, both treads down, and tears in pieces, and none can deliver. 9 Your hand will be lifted up on your adversaries, and all your enemies will be cut off. 10 And it will happen in that day, says the LORD, that I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, and I will destroy your chariots: 11 And I will cut off the cities of your land, and throw down all your strong holds: 12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of your hand; and you will have no more soothsayers: 13 Your carved idols I will cut off, and your statues out of the midst of you; and you will no longer worship the work of your hands. 14 And I will pluck up your groves out of the midst of you: so I will destroy your enemies. 15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury on the nations that have not obeyed.

• They were to trust God, not guns, tanks, and missiles.
• In the news each day we see suffering, terror, and more suffering.
• This is not what God designed.
• He made everything good, good, and very good.
• He has a sovereign, divine right to be angry and pour out that anger on the cause of suffering and ruin.

• Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

                                                Micah 6

1 Hear now what the LORD says; Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2 Hear , O mountains, the LORD’s indictment, and you strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD has a lawsuit against his people, and he will plead with Israel. 3 O my people, what have I done to you? In what way have I wearied you? Testify against me. 4 For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of servants; and I sent Moses before you, Aaron, and Miriam. 5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal; that you may know the righteousness of the LORD.

• How would you like to receive a subpoena, being sued…by the Maker of the universe? Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel but he couldn’t.

• Numbers 23:8 How can I curse, whom God has not cursed? or how can I defy, whom the LORD has not defied? 23 Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.

• 1Peter 1:18 you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your self-centered and empty life received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot

God has showed us what pleases Him

6  With what will I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? Will I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what the LORD requires of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble yourself to walk with your God/to walk humbly with your God? 9 The LORD’s voice cries to the city, and the man of wisdom will see your name/person: and hear the rod, and who has appointed it.

• The rod is discipline. The Lord is imploring the people to be corrected by loving discipline so that He does not have to destroy them.
• Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

• Psalm 50:1 The mighty God, even the LORD, has spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down of it.

• Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

10  Are there still the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? 11 Am I to declare wicked balances to be pure and a bag of deceitful weights? 12 For its rich men are full of violence, and its inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 13 Therefore, I also will make you sick in striking you down, and make you desolate because of your sins. 14 You will eat, but not be satisfied; and your vileness/excreta will be in your midst; and you will hold back, but will not save; and what you save I will give up to the sword. 15 You will sow, but you will not reap; you will tread the olives, but you will not anoint yourself with oil; and sweet wine, but will not drink wine. 16 For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab. You walk in their counsels, so that I will make you an astonishment and its inhabitants a hissing: therefore you will bear the reproach of my people.

• The statutes of Omri were idolatry and evil. God is life.
• Idolatry leads people to eternal death in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:15).
• Remember that God made everything good, good, and very good. Man’s evil choices bring suffering, ruin, and destruction.
• God is longsuffering and disciplines in love.
• When God pronounced judgment on Nineveh they turned to Him and He spared them.
• Here, His people were cheating and killing one another instead of loving one another and sharing God with the world.

• Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law he meditates day and night. 3 And he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf will not wither; and whatever he does will prosper.

• Psalm 93:1 The LORD reigns, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, with which he has girded himself: the world also is established, that it cannot be moved. 2 Your throne is established of old: you are from everlasting. 3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. 4 The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yes, than the mighty waves of the sea. 5 Your testimonies are very sure: holiness becomes your house, O LORD, forever.

                                                  Micah 7

God hears and protects His people in the most desperate times

1 Cries of grief to me! For I am as the gathering the summer fruits, like the grape-gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fruit. 2 The godly man has perished out of the earth: and there is no one upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net. 3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly. The prince asks, and the judge asks for a reward/bribe; and the great man speaks the lust/evil of his soul: so they weave it together. 4 The best of them is like a briar: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of your watchmen and your punishment will come; then will be their perplexity. 5 Do not trust in a friend, put no confidence in a guide: guard the doors of your mouth from her that lies in your bosom. 6 For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. 7 Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 8 Do not rejoice against me, O my enemy: when I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.

• 1John 1:5 … God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

• Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

9  I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause, and executes judgment for me: he will bring me out to the light, and I will behold his righteousness. 10 Then she that is my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her that said to me, Where is the LORD your God? My eyes will behold her: now she will be trampled down as the mire of the streets.

• Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

11  In the day that your walls are to be built, in that day your boundary will be extended far. 12 In that day he will come to you even from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 13 And the earth will be desolate because of those that dwell in it, for the fruit of their doings. 14 Feed/rule your people with your rod, the flock of your heritage, who dwell alone in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. 15 According to the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt I will show to him marvelous things.

• Job 5:9 Who does great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without number.

16 The nations will see and be confounded at all their might: they will lay their hand on their mouth, their ears will be deaf. 17 They will lick the dust like a serpent, they will move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they will be afraid of the LORD our God, and will fear because of you.

• Is it wise not to fear someone smart enough and powerful enough to make the universe?

• Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all those that do his commandments: his praise endures forever.

God delights in mercy

18  Who is a God like you that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in love/kindness/mercy. 19 He will turn again, he will have compassion on us; he will subdue our iniquities; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 20 You will perform the truth to Jacob, and the love/kindness/mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

• What a wonderful promise that God will subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the depths of the sea.

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SUMMARY: Micah 5-7

• Jesus will rule forever in the majesty of Almighty God
• God has showed us what pleases Him
• God hears and protects His people in the most desperate times
• God delights in mercy