Day 195 (Micah 1-7) - Year 7

Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today, we finished our 20th book of the Bible.

Congratulations!

We're still hovering over the same time period, and we will be for a while.

We'll continue to switch back and forth between a variety of prophecies and some of the narrative history portions, like Kings and Chronicles, where we'll often see those prophecies being fulfilled.

Today we're in another minor prophet, Micah.

I find his writing style very confusing, so I'm really glad he's not a major prophet, just seven chapters instead of 70.

He's sometimes viewed as Isaiah Jr.

because God appointed them both to speak the same message to the same people in approximately the same time frame.

One primary difference apart from the length is that Isaiah's message was directed more toward the ruling authorities, while Micah speaks mainly to the general population.

He even opens by saying, here are you peoples, all of you, pay attention.

He says God is about to take action against their sins, and one of God's first moves is to trample down the high places.

Finally,

he addresses the sins of Israel and its capital Samaria, as well as Judah and its capital, Jerusalem.

And when God sends destruction, Micah tells them how to grieve and mourn.

And it seems they're supposed to do it privately, possibly because if news of their grief reaches the enemy nations, they'll rejoice over their destruction.

First, Micah calls them out on the same things we've already talked about, stealing land from the poor and oppressing them.

In Micah's words, we see that greed may start with just wanting more stuff, but it eventually becomes so all-encompassing that you begin to oppress others in order to find a way to get that stuff.

They're oppressing the poor and lining their pockets.

And God is a defender not only of the poor, but also of his own righteous standards.

In chapter 3, Micah gives examples of how the rulers, the priests, and the prophets are all wicked.

3.9 says they detest justice and make crooked all that is straight.

These leaders in the land hate good and love evil.

A few days ago, we read where the minor prophet Amos spoke to this problem too.

Amos 5.15 says, hate evil and love good and establish justice in the gate.

I'm starting to sense a theme among all these prophets.

The leaders and the people, however, are not noticing that theme.

They hear these oracles and say, that's not going to happen to us.

We're too powerful.

3.11 says, they lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord in the midst of us?

No disaster shall come upon us.

They're arrogant and in denial, but Micah reiterates that they won't escape this destruction.

Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, he says.

In 4.10, he says, you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country.

You shall go to Babylon.

I don't want to give too many spoilers since we're still in the middle of the story here, but this is so specific that I have to point out that this literally happens.

Not only is Jerusalem destroyed, like he said, but the people are driven into exile in Babylon.

Micah prophesied it in the 8th century BC and it happened in the 6th century BC.

It's historical fact.

Way Way to go, Micah.

Micah offers several warnings, but he always follows with a reminder that destruction and exile aren't the end for them.

A remnant will be preserved, and God will begin to establish a kingdom of peace on the earth.

God even says he'll gather the ones he has wounded and driven out of the land and he'll carry them back to the land.

So even though they do go into Babylonian captivity, they can expect to be back in this land someday.

And Micah 5, 2 says that when they return, the king who who will rule this new kingdom of peace will be born in Bethlehem Ephratha, which you may recall is how they specify which of the two Bethlehems in the Promised Land this is referring to.

It's important for them to know that their Savior won't be some kind of outside help.

He will come from among them.

They've been looking to other nations and other gods of other nations to rescue them for too long.

But their Savior, the one true God, will dwell in their midst, even in this land of oppression.

But again, they're thinking literal king, not eternal king.

They read this prophecy and imagine someone who can overpower Assyria and Babylon, not someone who will overpower death and the grave.

But that's exactly what Jesus did, the shepherd king who was born in Bethlehem, Ephratha, 700 years after this was written.

And then Micah says that the faithful remnant will be dispersed again to live among the nations.

5:7 says, The remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations in the midst of many peoples.

You guys, this happened too.

It was about 30 years after Jesus died when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, its second destruction, and the Jews fled the city, again,

roughly 600 years after they were exiled to Babylon.

Except this time, when those Jewish and Gentile believers who made up the early church were dispersed among the nations, they took the gospel of the resurrected Jesus with them and it began to spread around the world.

That happened in 70 AD.

I know I'm getting ahead of the timeline here, but I just want you to see that lots of these prophecies have already been fulfilled in ways that history has recorded and verified.

And these prophecies that sound so tragic to us in many ways, God used them as a part of his plan to get the gospel to you and to me.

But back to Micah.

In chapter 6, he circles back around to remind the people that God is after their hearts, not their empty ritual sacrifices, and he calls on them to repent.

Micah has witnessed the destruction of Israel and he knows the destruction of Jerusalem is coming.

He knows a holy judge can't leave sin unpunished.

And sin in Israel and Judah is rampant.

It must be hard for him to see all this darkness and not be wrecked by it.

But he sets his heart on straight in 7:7 when he says, As for me, I will look to the Lord.

I will wait for the God of my salvation.

My God will hear me.

I had about five God shots today, so it was hard to narrow it down to my favorite, but I went with a little section in 5, 4 through 5 because it reminds me that His greatness, not my own, is where my only peace and security are found.

Micah says it like this, and they shall dwell secure.

For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and he shall be their peace.

When he increases and I decrease, that's where I find my greatest peace.

He's where the joy is.

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