Condemnation of Israel's leaders part 1

All right. You know, I thought it's always good to look at this again and again. Is it not? I mean, this is, you know, something we showed the first week. I think Andrew was the first to portray this. And this is kind of just a historical reminder of the timing of this whole event. And look at Micah here.

Ultimately, 722 is when the Northern Kingdom got ultimately sent astray up to Babylon. and ultimately the southern kingdom represented here by Judah was much later. But the overlap between the minor prophets Micah and Hosea with the major prophet Isaiah was timely in terms of interpreting scripture and how that fits in to what we're studying here this morning.

All right, let's go ahead. So, Roger, I don't mean to overly simplify, but I've got one reminder here. The one line is, Israel will be reassembled and will enter the gate after the king. That's the summary of excellent teaching last week from our elder, Roger. So anyway, that's the summary. And we spent a lot of time trying to understand the timing of this, etc. But nevertheless, that's a promissory note that Micah really reflected to this staling nation around him, was it not?

Okay. As always, interrupt whatever. All right, the overview of chapter 3, I thought it might be reasonable to kind of take a look at this, and we'll be looking at the verses systematically, so I'm not going to read this before we get going here today.

J. Robert McGee divides the book this way.

So, verses 1 through 4 are the sins of the princes. Injustice, they love evil and hate good. Verses 5-7, the sins of the prophets, they declare peace and cause people to err. Verse 8, which by the way, I'm going to stop at 7 today and we'll start with a more uplifting verse next week. Verse 8, Micah is declaring God's Word by the power of the Spirit. 9-11, sins of the leaders of Jerusalem, injustice of the rulers, and love of money of the prophets. And verse 12, the frightful judgment. that's upcoming in the city of Jerusalem. And then Darby, kind of looking at this section, says, The prophet again denounces the heads and princes of Jacob.

They should cry unto Jehovah, but he would not hear them. No prophet should enlighten them with the light of his word. The seers should be confounded. There should be no answer from God. By the way, this is kind of an interesting aspect of this section of Scripture. And that the Lord here is really not interested in providing forgiveness. And we'll come back to that because the topics will be discussed in more detail.

All right, so remember the Hebrew poetic pattern, Bob. So I'm stating the verses as the Bible reflects them, so that Hebrew poetic pattern is ultimately maintained. So rather than put, I had initially put it all as one verse, but then I said, well, that doesn't do justice to Scripture in the way this is stated. So keep in mind, this Hebrew poetic pattern is the way Scripture was written at the time that Micah was scribing the minor prophet of his name.

Micah 3.1, and I said, hear now, O heads of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know justice?

All right? Here now I think is a statement that is often used by the prophets and other prophets and that includes Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Amos. Or as J. Bernard would say, Amos. Okay, so I think should we look at Jacob and Israel as the same or separate here? What are the thoughts? Say Bob? Yeah Bob.

Last week I may mention that Jacob and Israel were separate in that Jacob, a lot of times, was mentioned when he was opposed to God in Israel, when he was for God. And this is true in a lot of Scripture. When Jacob fought with the Lord on the ladder, it was only then, when he gave in to the Lord, that he was renamed Israel. But then, after listening to Roger last week and studying that this week, I think Micah pretty well makes him synonymous.

Excellent. So, Bob, as always, has done his homework. So, Kosovo says, again, Jacob and Israel are synonyms for all twelve tribes. And, you know, somewhat rhetorical, but nevertheless. So, Constable would agree with Bob, so he's in good hands, isn't he? I mean, Constable's in good hands. But remember, everybody, Jacob can also be used to describe the southern kingdom, in Israel, the northern kingdom. So you have to rightly divide the word of truth. But I think for the most part, in the minor prophets, Jacob and Israel are one nation. They're considered one and the same. It is kind of interesting. And the Southern Kingdom, remember, was just two tribes. What were they? Judah and Benjamin. Jacob and? Judah. Benjamin. Judah and Benjamin. Yeah. But Jacob really reflects, I think, the history of that calling aside of the Southern Kingdom.

So rulers could be here magistrates or judges. And what was the responsibility? to guide the people, hopefully, to govern. But still, I think, because they're a nation called by God, they had responsibilities to Yahweh, did they not? I mean, they're governing, but governance is set up entirely in Genesis, very clearly, to rule over the sinful nature of the people. So they were falling astray here, in terms of these responsibilities.

And you know, the interesting thing here, I'm turning whenever I can to the New Testament. In Romans 2, it says, Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourselves. For you who judge practice the same thing. So it's just a reminder that even to the New Testament, people who are put in positions to judge, including each one of us individually, Ultimately, when we fall short, we fall short in the same ways that we are in fact judging others.

And I think that's a reminder to each of us individually. All right. So that's all we're going to say about verse 1. Now, verse 2 and 3 I've combined here. And verse 2 says, you who hate good and love evil, who strip the skin of my people and the flesh from their bones. And verse 3, who also eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin from them, break their bones, and chop them to pieces like meat from the pot, like flesh in the cauldron. Now, what do you think of that? I mean, that's pretty dramatic here, isn't it? What's that remind you of? Our society? So, is this... It's an incredibly strong incrimination, isn't it?

And ultimately, have good and love evil? And we're going to come back to how we interpret this. This is really quite a contrast to the call of the prophet Amos, who prophesied immediately before Micah, or the wisdom of Solomon. If we turn to other people in that same time frame, of course Solomon preceded this to some extent, Amos said, hate evil and love good. And ultimately Solomon brought up many problems.

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance and the evil way and a perverse mouth I hate. So in other words there's enough scripture to indicate that loving evil and hating good is really not anything that the Jewish nation or us today are called to. And the Lord Jesus himself said much about hatred and he, just quoting a couple of passages, in John 7 he says, And later in John he says, If I had not done among them the works which no one else could do, they could have no sin and now they have seen and also hated both me and my father. So this hatred of good things really is an innate condition or consequence of the human nature lived out in the world in which we live. All right.

What should we make of this whole other aspect of these two versions, who strip the skin from my people, them, and the flesh from their bones, who also eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin from them and break their bones and chop them in pieces like meat for the pot, the flesh and the cauldron. I mean, to some extent, isn't this really cannibalism? Were they undergoing cannibalism, do you think, or is this simply symbolic? Are your thoughts?

I think it's symbolic. OK, Margaret has made her opinion known. There's nothing new about that, actually. It's all good. So I think it deals with the the attitude that our leaders have with us little folks. Right. We're we're nothing where they're concerned. Any other thoughts, sir? Well, it is speaking of, you know, legal legal thievery against the people who are poor. You know, they just stole from them, basically. But they did it in a legal manner. They made laws to do that. Well, if you go back to the psalmist, and the psalmist said, have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call on the Lord? And Constable helps us clarify this.

The figure is of a hunter And the implication is that the rulers regarded and treated the ordinary citizens as mere animals rather than as human beings. So I think it's symbolic. I mean, these were not undergoing cannibalism. But then I think another source called the Cambridge Bible, which I normally don't go to, but I thought this was something worthy of discussion.

And this Bible said, we may infer that cannibalism was not unknown to the Israelites by hearsay or tradition, but not necessarily that it was practiced by the ancestors of the Israelites, much less by the Israelites themselves. The meaning of the figure plainly is that the peasantry had lost their old independence and had fallen into a condition like that of the peasants of the Turkish Empire. So in a sense, I think this theme of the peasantry and ultimately how that reflected the rulers and their relationship to those who are less of a consequence in the nation of Israel is kind of what we're talking about.

And Jason Fawcett Brown say, compare Ezekiel 24.3, etc. containing as to the coming punishment, the same figure as is here used of the sin, implying this is sin and punishment, exactly.

And Ezekiel 24.3 says, and utter a parable to the rebellious house and say to them, thus says the Lord, put on a pot, set it on, me and pour water into it. So, in a sense, I think what Jeff and Bea are saying is, ultimately, there is scripture that relates to this symbolism that's being portrayed here for the rulers of Israel.

Okay. Olay, any thoughts about that? So, this is not cannibalism. This is just reflecting the innate nature of the human condition that existed then and potentially even today. All right, verse four. Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not hear them. And he will even hide his face from them at that time because they have been evil in their deeds. What kind of cry will this be? Well, Bob, also, I think we should make clear who's crying to the Lord here.

Okay. In context, right? Yeah, I had that in there. Who goes they? So who is they? Yeah, who is they? Is it the people or is it the leaders? I think it's the leaders. It seems like. It's the leaders. Yeah, absolutely. That's in fact condemnation of Israel's leaders, right? I put that in there and I took it out this morning on fire preparation because I thought it was pretty obvious. But anyway, thank you, Roger. Okay.

What kind of cry is this going to be? And will it always be heard? That's an interesting part of this whole text. So Psalm 27, 7 and 8 says, Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer me when you said, Seek by face, my heart said to you, Your face, Lord, I will seek. So David, you know, also cries out to the Lord. I use that as a simple example, crying at her or something. We do at times here today. I mean, I said to my Lord of Bricks dad this morning, made me kind of cry out the word, what's happening here?

You know, explain to me how somebody can lose 50 pounds in two months and not be seen medically or evaluated. Heidi. Heidi. Heidi. Heidi. Heidi. No, even in numbers, it says when he hides his face, his face equals a blessing or approval of God. Okay. They use that term.

So the crying out is hoping to have a response of someone praying for a response, right? And we're wondering, does God always hear our prayers? I think these leaders here, they're not crying out in repentance. They're crying out because they're in pain. Okay. And so I'm not so sure they're actually praying to the Lord. They're more or less complaining. All right. Okay. And think about the leaders.

What do they represent? So the question I'm asking you now, does God hear all prayers and is always forgiving? And my next comment to that is, isn't there a difference between a nation and an individual? And Bob, your point about the way he answers is not always the way we ask, right? So the leaders are representing a nation. And their prayer really, or crying out, is really the desperation they're currently experiencing, right?

So if God doesn't answer their prayer in the way they're praying, that doesn't mean that it's not God's will. And there's a passage Heidi, can you help me with this? If you have sin in your heart, God will not hear you. Psalm 66, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear it.

Okay, so that's a principle of God, right? I mean, that's something we should be applying to our prayer. Is that your interpretation? Are any of us free of sin in our heart? No, I know. I mean, in a sense, that seems like a barrier to going to the Lord, but yet, you know, if our prayer is sin-based in terms of not asking forgiveness, then I think that has merit in terms of a principle of God-based church age, right? Could you even use this, use the example of When the Lord was washing the disciples' feet, they were believers, but he was washing them to cleanse them of their current sin. It was like when we talk to the Lord, we have confession of sin, and he wanted to show them that they needed to confess their sins. When we pray, do we always confess our sin before we ask anything of the Lord?

Not always. Isn't that a priority? You're claiming it is, I'm not going to... If you regard iniquity in your heart, the Lord won't hear. I thought that's kind of what it... Do you agree that there's a difference here between a nation and the individual in terms of the prayer requests and the circumstances that surround it? I think there is. So a couple of verses for that.

Psalm 32, 5, I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity. I'm not hidden, I said. I will confess my transgressions, O Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. So that fits with Psalm 66 is what you said, Heidi? Yeah. Okay, so that fits very nicely with kind of the, here's David praying individually. and he's looking for the Lord to forgive him. Yeah, it's me here, Andrew, out here.

I'm thinking, you know, that's from Psalm, about the forgiveness of sin, but we're in Christ now, so our sins are already forgiven. Yeah, so I think we have a different approach than Israel, right? Or these Old Testament states where we're accepted in the beloved, you know, and sins are forgiven. You know, whether we go to them in prayer, which we should in prayer and ask for forgiveness, but it's right that this is my two cents.

Good, Andrew. The cross is final, is it not? There's no more forgiveness of sins that's being accomplished by our Lord and Savior. And I cited one of my favorite verses, because for He hath made Him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we become the righteousness of God.

That's positional truth. So the idea, I mean, if we've got, I guess, sin in our life, maybe our prayer is less sincere. I mean, if there's something we need to confess, 1 John 1, 9 tells us, confess it, move on, get back in fellowship. But I think the difference here is the fact that God's not forgiving them because they're praying selfishly on behalf of the nation. This isn't individually. And David gives us an example that even he individually went to the Lord, confessed his sins, and he was forgiven.

So anyway, everybody okay with that? Yeah. All right, Jason Fawcett. Okay, here's another point. But the promise to Israel still remained. And I think Roger talked about this, and I'm just sharing one verse from Jeremiah. In those days, and in that time, okay, remember, I'm summarizing, we're not sure when, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none. and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found, for I will pardon those whom I preserve." So the nation will ultimately be forgiven. And that's kingdom made stuff. So here we have the Lord dealing ultimately with the fact that even though He may not be forgiving the sins of the leaders at the time that Micah wrote this prophecy, He will one day. And Roger, that's what you covered last week. So is that the remnant? Well, the remnant will be preserved. Sure, the 144,000 will be preserved.

But the whole nation of Israel during the millennium will have the law of God written in their hearts. Now, we're not quite sure how that's going to be performed. But nevertheless, the entire nation will be forgiven in the millennial period. But there will still be sin during the Kingdom Age, right?

Yes. I just don't think we have enough detail in understanding that. At least I don't. I think you're right in the fact that we're talking about the nation here, not individuals in the nation. I mean, look at the world we live in and the way it's being dealt with by the world system. I mean, not the fact that we don't give presents. Maybe the idea is that the nation, the United States, you're the world.

Are we asking God to forgive the world system? No, no. But I think this is an important thing because, you know, does God always forgive sins? Well, individually, yes. And that's, Andrew stated it succinctly. Yes, the cross, once and for all, all sin for the entire world has been covered.

But that's not the United States or Mexico or Argentina. Back to my friends J.F. and B. Their prayer was rejected because it was the mere cry of nature for deliverance from pain, Bob. Not that of repentance for deliverance from sin. So, nicely stated in one sentence by Jason Fawcett and Brown. Now, there is a consequence for nations if they hate good and serve evil or love evil. So going back again, we're using the Old Testament to complement the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 31 verses 16 and 17. And the Lord said to Moses, behold, you will rest with your fathers and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of foreigners of the land where they go to be among them and they will forsake me. and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? I mean, how perfectly You know, that person, those verses in Deuteronomy fit Micah and to whom he's addressing as a nation. And there's a little bit of application to the day, you know, we don't want to overly interpret you know, the Old Testament scenarios in terms of the way God's dealing with Israel as a nation. But look at what Paul's written in Romans 2.

But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. So in other words, I mean, we all know believers who claim to be saved whose life then goes south, doesn't it? And ultimately, that continued behavior of unrighteousness and indignation and transition from God's will and truth for their lives, ultimately, they may be in a position that both the Jew and the Greek to fall out of God's favor. Now, that doesn't mean they're not forgiven. Remember, the cross is final. And again, referring back to position of truth, all believers are made righteous of what that is righteous of God. But there's a consequence. of wrong behavior.

And I think we can all reflect that individually in terms of our own lives. Your thoughts, Beth? I was just wondering if that day, is that the Day of the Lord they're referring to? It could be a local thing, but I was just wondering, is that what the Jews are going to be saying during the Tribulation?

Well, Romans 2 kind of deals with, I mean, Romans 1 is creation is by which we get, I mean, it's the first evidence of Christ and ultimately what he accomplishes. We all believe in God partly because of creation. That doesn't save you. But the second thing is the consciousness of man.

I mean, so I'm just saying here that this may be directed to the unbeliever and not to the believer. But to those who are self-seeking, I think it's really representing probably the unsaved. But I'm just saying, as an example, a believer who falls into this ways of the world perhaps could even be, you know, judged by God. So I think, again, it deals with the consequences of that behavior.

But Romans 2, you know, it goes into that second. The three scenes are creation, conscious and Christ in terms of salvation. You're not saved by your conscience. You're not saved by creation. You're saved by Christ. But there is a progression that Paul outlines very nicely in Romans. And I think really probably in context, this maybe reflects more the consciousness of man before he's saved or she's saved by Christ. All right.

Verse 5, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets, who make my people stray, who chant peace while they chew with their teeth, but who prepare war against them, who puts nothing into their mouths. Are they blaming others here? Is Micah declaring that, you know, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who make my people stray, we can't feast while they chew with their teeth? Are they just stating what God's view of the prophets is? Or is Micah reflecting an opinion that maybe the prophets have in fact been misleading them? Well, Constable has an opinion here.

The Lord also had a message concerning the false prophets who were misleading his people. The false prophets gave benedictions to those who paid them. The people who did not give them anything received Maledictions of doom and gloom. It was an ancient and respectable practice for a prophet to accept payment for services rendered to his clients. I know. Roger? Well, it just sounds like, you know, some denominations that they want to get paid before they'll talk with you, right? If you want to have some service. Oh, you want to be this, you have to pay us first. It seems.

I can't write a testimony to that. So back to this. This is in some way looking at the false prophets of the age and maybe misleading. Is that an excuse? No. No. But in fact, ultimately, that could be really what the author here, Mike, is reflecting. Yes. I think it's important to realize that Verses 1 through 4, we were talking about the leaders, and just like J. Vernon McGee said, now suddenly in verse 5, we're going to be talking about the prophets, a different... Right, okay, good point, Bob, thanks.

"...who chant peace while they chew their teeth..." Is this a metaphor? Jeremiah says because from the least of them even to the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. They've also healed the hurt of my people slightly saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. And by the way, think of the season we're in.

I can't tell you how many Christmas cards we get every year that talk about peace and joy in the earth, right? Well, is that what Christmas is about? Peace and joy to the world? The joy is the incarnation and ultimately the crucifixion. That's the joy. but ultimately peace in the world?

The world system is so flawed in their thinking, right? I mean, even with the recent change in leadership for this country, there may be a period of settling into maybe a new leadership, but nevertheless, ultimately, peace in the world is not something scripture predicts, is it? Say, Bob? Yes?

The prophets here are saying, when they say peace, It's not the peace of God. It's not the peace of the Lord. It reminds me of our people in Washington today saying that our economy is great, everything is going good, we are improving. And it's actually the opposite of all that. That's a question I'm asking. Is this happening today?

Well, maybe from a world perspective it is, but in the ultimate peace is really ultimately going to be delayed until the tribulation is behind us. And for the believers, of course, we'll be in heavenly places at that point in time. What about chilling or preparing for war and putting nothing into the mouth? You know, it kind of reflects, again, I try to go to the New Testament when I can.

Romans 16, 18, For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. So, again, false prophets in a sense we have them today. So the principle of God is the Word of God is final. what people are saying who are psychologists and sociologists and anthropologists and everybody else has no bearing on us as the church or as believers. No bearing at all. And I think sometimes we're really influenced, you know, too much by the system around us. All right.

Sixth verse. Therefore you shall have night without vision, next slide, and you shall have darkness without divination, and the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them. Now, ultimately here, Micah's predicting the consequences of their sinful ways. And keep in mind, the absence of forgiveness of sins by Yahweh is an immediate consequence.

They're asking for earthly peace. And remember again, Israel's a nation, and the earth is their current, meaning when Michael is writing, their gospel account and future view of existence is earthly, is it not? And we're heavenly. We're members of the heavenly kingdom. What kind of darkness is this? Well, Isaiah, then they will look to the earth and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish, and they will be driven into darkness. Remember, Isaiah lived at the same time Micah did.

And then in 1 John 1.5, this is the message of which we have heard from him and declared to you that God is light.

And in him is no darkness at all. So, I mean, that's something that comforts us, this prediction of darkness. You know, the post-Trib people, ultimately, the post-Trib Rapture people, we would have tremendous darkness, would we not, as believers? But not according to 1 John 1. I mean, God is light. There's no darkness there, meaning no sin. But also, we as believers will never experience the darkness of the tribulation and what the world system will go through. Say, Bob? Yes, Bob.

We think of the Dark Ages as being like around 500 AD. But if you want to think about Israel, from the time Malachi, until the birth of Christ. We're talking dark. Nothing is mentioned here, unless you want to talk about the Baccabees, but this was a dark time for Israel. The prophets had stopped speaking they were...everything was going wrong for them. The interval between Malachi and John the Baptist I think is about 400 years, 450 or something like that. Wow, talking about a period of true darkness. But interesting for the church age, like 300 or 400 up to what? The Middle Ages really was a period of darkness, right?

Yes. As far as documentation. Alright, verse 7, our last verse for today. So the seers shall be ashamed and the diviners abashed and indeed they shall all cover their lips for there's no answer from God. Now who are these seers and or diviners or mystics? Well, I didn't know who exactly they were, but you can kind of envision what a diviner would be, a mystic, someone who's into, kind of, you know, ultimately mysticism, I think, is the way you think about it. So the consul has something to say, so we'll see what he has to say.

The title seer is an old word describing a prophet, and he's going to reflect some scripture, which we'll look at in a second, but diviners sought knowledge of the future. through illegitimate means and were outlawed in Israel. There's a verse there, we'll look at that too. Thus, these two titles were derogatory terms for the false prophets, which was mentioned in verse 6. So 1 Samuel 9, 9, formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus, come, let us go to the seer. for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.

And dear Rami, there shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, which is a sorcerer or a diviner. So these are, again, people who are more gypsy-like or astrayers, have gone clearly away from Scripture in terms of their prophecy for the future.

Now what about covering the upper lip? And that was a sign of shame, actually. A couple of verses, both Old Testament and Leviticus, said, Now the leper on whom the sword is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, unclean, unclean. And then Ezekiel says, And you shall do as I have done, you shall not cover your lips, nor eat man's bread of sorrow. So, again, there's a couple of other scriptures that I shared with you.

Covering your lip was really a shameful thing to do. Actually, not speaking because of sin or what other consequences were exemplary in your life. Covering your lip means you don't say anything. It's shameful. And finally, there is no answer from God.

So, Amos 8.11 says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land and not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of God."

And remember Amos existed right before Micah. So the timing, Amos actually predicted this even before, or maybe right before Micah was writing his prophecy. Really, these first seven verses, I think, of Micah 3 really reflect the period of just absence of God, love of evil, hatred of good, and the leaders were being condemned by the leading the nation astray, and God was not forgiving of this whole scenario.

So, thoughts before we conclude? Well, next week Verse 8 has something to say that's, I think, a little more encouraging. So this is kind of a turning of chapter 3 in terms of what Micah now is going to be doing on behalf of the nation who loves evil and hates good to follow. Okay, no further comments by anyone. Bob, why don't you close us in prayer this morning, please?

Thank you, Father, for your Word, that we can study your Word, we can apply these things to our lives, knowing that you being a God to Israel who's given him the Covenant which is unchangeable that that we in our lives also have promises that that are unchangeable and we can rely on you for everything and We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen