MICAH

Micah Chapter 1

• Micah 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 

The word of the Lord that came. How privileged are any who hear the word of the Lord and know for certain that it is the word of the Lord. We never should take God's word for granted. We live in a country chock full of preachers, bible teachers and churches which I'm really thankful for, yet I wonder how many of us take the word of God so lightly. There are many Christians that cannot get access to bibles in some parts of the world who would love the freedom we have to have access to the written word.

Some of us would love to hear a word from God if we only knew who had a word from God. So many claim to speak for God, how is one to know. One way to know who is speaking the truth is to search the word for ourselves. God gave us a wonderful account of the creation, the law, the prophets and the coming of Christ to reveal to us who He is and what is the truth.

When reading the word we must assume God knows what He is saying. If He says, Israel, I believe He means Israel unless He states otherwise. So many dear people have tried in vain to put the church in the Old Testament, airplanes, automobiles and other modern inventions. The only verse that hints of latter day inventions is in Daniel when he said that many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. We live in the day when that prophecy is being fulfilled. 

Micah was a prophet in the days in which the Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah were kings in succession of Judah. The word he brings concerned Samaria and Jerusalem just before the days when the captivity of Babylon would occur. We see then that God sent more than one prophet before that occurrence. They could have avoided it if they would only have repented and turned back to God.

We must try not to read things into any scripture that is not there. If God says Jerusalem, it usually means just that unless it is clear that it has a symbolic meaning. God meant for the person who truly seeks to understand to receive understanding. I believe sincerely that anything written had to be understood by those who lived in that time period as well as by modern scholars of the bible. 

Sometimes we see and double fulfillment of prophecy. Something comes to pass immediately and also it could apply to the future events yet to come. All the puzzles will start to become plainer as we approach the latter days closer to the coming of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. 

• Micah 1:2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 

Here God speaks through the prophet Micah to all the earth, especially those in Judah. If we break God's word, it applies to us today. We must not assume all that is spoken is against the latter day believers unless we are guilty of similar sins and have not repented. We are privileged in these latter days to know that our sins can be removed and forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, all Israel had to do is repent and they too would have not had the sin held against them.

Repent does not just mean to be sorry for, or sorry that one's sin has been found out. Repent means to be sorry for sin but to the point that we are willing to give up or turn away from our sin. As an example, we must not fall into the attitude that we know God forgives so we can go ahead and divorce one spouse and get another, then repent. That is not genuine repentance. 

• Micah 1:3 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. 

There seems to be a point in which God says, it is enough, and He brings judgment. Examples of these are the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden, the flood in Noah's day, the scattering at the tower of Babel, Babylonian captivity, destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and the future tribulation period. There may have been other things in between those time periods that are not as well known without further study from other sources.

Concerning Adam and Eve though, they were expelled from the garden to keep them from eating of the tree of live and living forever in a fallen state. It was an act of mercy on the part of God. He had other plans for His creation. The gift of eternal life.

High places were places used to worship idols. Ever since the rebellion at the tower of Babel, there has been idolatry. False religion was started by the influence of Satan himself to get people to turn from the true God and to a substitute god that would bring no salvation. As long as Satan can get us feeling religious without our being made free from sin, he doesn't really care what religion we are in. A religion that does not save from sin, is a false religion. A religion that teaches outward strict doctrine without an inward change, is a false religion.

True religion has to take place by the spirit of God changing our inward souls. We can have this by acknowledging we have sinned and are in need of a savior from sin. We believe the gospel which is that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to save us from the condemnation of sin and also the sin itself. Without faith in Christ, our sins remain because no other religion gives power over sin. If there would have been another way, Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God would not have had to die in such a horrible way in which He died. 

God hates idolatry, not because He just wants our worship to be toward Him alone but because He knows Satan does not love any of us and only desires our destruction. False religion will keep us religious but without a way to heaven. Our sins remain and we are lost eternally if we continue in false religion. Whether it is a religion of idol worship or a humanist religion of believing in nothing, both will keep us from hearing the truth of the gospel which will save the soul from eternal death.

If our religion is centered on anything but Jesus Christ, it is vain religion. Nothing but Christ can remove our sins that is killing us. Sometimes God has to send severe judgment because the influence of evil will continue until there is no one left that can be saved if He allows sin to continue without judgment. 

• Micah 1:4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. 

Scripture can often be interpreted by other scriptures. 

• Zechariah 14:3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 
• 4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 

Who other than Jesus can be who is talked of in Micah 1:4 and Zechariah 14: 3,4 Many times during the earthly ministry of Jesus, He went often to the mount of Olives. He will return to the Mount of Olives literally and split it in half. Peter speaks of many other things that will occur at the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ.  

• 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 
• 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

Our lives are to be holy lives if we truly belong to Jesus. I heard a message in tongues and an interpretation once and I will not be able to remember the exact words but the message was that if God cannot influence the way we live, we are not His.  

• 2Peter 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 

The judgment Peter speaks of has not yet occurred but will occur in the latter days yet to come.

• Micah 1:5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem? 

As I stated previously, high places were used for idol worship. So we see that the coming judgment was for those who allowed idolatry to be set up in Jerusalem like it had already been set up in Samaria which was the other 10 tribes of Israel which had split off from Judah back after the death of Solomon.

The northern tribes of Israel fell into idolatry first. Instead of fearing the judgment of God that was sent to them, Judah followed the same bad example and begun the same idolatrous worship that the northern tribes had given themselves over to. God hates this because it hurts them. Satan has always desired the destruction of Israel and true believers in Jesus Christ. 

• Micah 1:6 Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof. 

So we see that there is an immediate fulfillment of these prophecies by the coming of Babylon but also a future fulfillment in the last days because verse 4 refers to Christ's second coming to bring judgment upon the people who persecuted Israel of any people that believed on Him in truth. To truly believe in something is to be a partaker of that which one believes in. Believe doesn't mean that we believe in someone's existence. The devil believes in the existence of Christ but he is not a partaker of what Christ represents. 

Unless we think God is severe, remember God has to stop things that will destroy future human beings. It is similar to the time when He didn't destroy all inhabitants of the land of Canaan at once because the beasts of the wild would have multiplied too rapidly and the children of Israel would have had to fight wild beasts all the time. They took that land a little at a time.

If God would wink at sin and not bring judgment, no flesh would ever be saved in the long run. Like the beasts of the field multiply, so would the sins of mankind. He waits until iniquity is as far as it can get after he sends warning after warning to those nations who sin. Read the book of Jonah to see the true heart of God toward those who repent. 

• Micah 1:7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot. 
• 8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. 
• 9 For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 

The sin of the northern tribes influenced the southern tribes of Judah even to the city of Jerusalem. When sin gets so bad and constant warnings do not bring any change, it becomes like a wound that is incurable. 

Harlotry always accompanied idolatry. Temple prostitution with much riches was the attraction. The love of pleasure and greed accompanies all false religious systems at least for those at the top of the hierarchy of false religion. Usually the poor become poorer and the rich become richer.

The love of pleasure attracted Israel to this idolatry of other nations. That is why God allowed the nations that they desired to be like to finally overtake them and bring them into bondage. The law of reaping and sowing is in effect even now if we don't go by way of Jesus Christ to break that bondage of sin in our own lives. Jesus came to break lose the bondage of sin and false religion. 

Has anyone noticed that a lot of false religions today have sexual immorality among the leaders of the movements. It may be hidden for a while but it comes out in the papers occasionally. Even some Christian leaders that get away from their first love of the Lord can end up in this type of bondage.

In saying that about the news media, lately we have to be careful because we no longer can rely on news outlets to be truthful like we once did. Because of political bias and other things, they either print things or speak things slanted to further their agenda. Sad but true so we have to make sure by checking things out by other means and not assume all rumors about public figures or religious leaders are true. Unfortunately, people lie.

There are religions that oppress women and make the women 2nd class citizens and not worthy of giving her opinions or speaking in public. Jesus freed woman from the curse of being a servant to men. Through Christ there is neither male or female, bond or free. All are equal in His sight. For those who oppress women and call themselves, Christian, you miss the whole point of Jesus' death, resurrection and salvation. Gifts of the spirit are given to women. In the book of Acts women prophesied. The book of Joel foretells of that day when sons and daughters would prophesy.

Jesus came to free us all from sin. Men, women and children. If He saves us and gives us the Holy Spirit, then we are all the same. In marriage situations they are to be in subjection to a godly husband who in turn is following Christ but the unmarried woman can follow Christ alone, only we all are to be in subjection to the law of the land that we live in as long as that law doesn't go against God's written word.

Subjection and humility are voluntary and from the heart, never forced. Forced religious systems are not true religion. In true religion, the inner person is changed, the life is changed and we become new creatures who can willingly choose to live for God. The use of force robs us of serving the Lord out of love and joy.  Religion should never be forced upon anyone or it's not real.

• Micah 1:10 Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust. 

Their attitude toward sin and our attitude toward sin should be grief and mourning. We should not rejoice when we have sinned against God and we have not turned from that sin. If our nation sins or our local congregation of believers sin, we should mourn and weep until we make things right with God. 

• Micah 1:11 Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall receive of you his standing. 
• 12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem. 

The more knowledge we are given about the Lord and His word to us the more we are judged for abandoning that word. These were without excuse for they knew what the Lord required and did not obey His word. They went after not only the idolatry of the northern tribes but also other sins. 

• Micah 1:13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee. 

Lachish was the first city in Judah to receive the idolatrous worship from the northern tribes. 

• Micah 1:14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel. 
• 15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel. 
• 16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee. 

Even though making oneself bald was forbidden to the children of Israel, they were instructed to do so because of the mourning that was going to come when they too would be taken into captivity because of their sin and idolatry. 

God has given mankind so much and blessed them with a savior that it is mind boggling that so many choose sin and false religion instead of something that brings, peace, joy, love and bountiful visitations of the presence of the Lord. Eye has not seen neither has the ear heard of the things God has prepared for those that truly love Him.

We can read this in both the new and old testaments. The Holy Spirit gives us a preview of this promise to believers at times when we feel His presence among us but we still do not yet understand the joy that is to come to those who are faithful until the end.  

• Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. 

The verse in the New Testament:

• 1Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 

Why settle for a temporary man pleasing life rather than a life that is totally committed to the God of our salvation and the one who brings to us eternal life?