Condemnation of Israel's leaders part 2

So last week, I'm going to very quickly review last week by selecting several verses from last week. The first is verse two, the rulers of Israel hated good and loved evil. Remember our discussion last week about that. All right. Verse four, then they will cry to the Lord that he'll not hear them. We discussed when the Lord doesn't hear, when he does hear. And thus, this is verse 5, now, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets, which sets the stage for verse 6, which is, the sun shall go down on the prophets and the day shall be dark for them. So kind of a prophecy of things to come.

So we start today at verse 8 to conclude the chapter through verses 9, 10, 11 as well. So verse 8, and the reason I'm showing scripture like this, at least I am for Micah, is this is the Hebrew poetic pattern that was used typically. And I have a lot of verses from the Old Testament I'm going to be sharing this morning, but I won't show them here for space-related reasons. So, just like New Testament verses, in one sentence after another, without this format.

So, but truly I'm full of power by the Spirit of the Lord. and of justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. So Micah declares that he's full of power by the Spirit of the Lord. Let's discuss this a little bit. How can we explain the role of the Spirit at this time or throughout the Old Testament?

Well, the Spirit in the Old Testament, right, kind of God had He would enable man to build things, to do things. It would come and go as, you know, so it wasn't quote believers at that time didn't have the spirit full-time it seems like. It came for a season, for a purpose, and then... Is that what you're kind of thinking about? It was their authority. Authority? Yeah. Okay. And what about... I was just going to say, I was just reading about some of the judges and, you know, even Samson is filled with the Lord to kill a thousand people with a donkey's jawbone, you know.

So in Pentecost, the church was baptized with the Holy Spirit, were indwelt with the Holy Spirit continually, but in the Old Testament, I mean, youth were endued with the Holy Spirit. It came and went according to a job that God would have a man to do. And God was in Providence, was he not? I mean, from the Garden of Eden, through Abraham, through the sons and history of the nation Israel, through Moses and Daniel and on through all the prophets. I mean, the Spirit of God worked to ultimately accomplish his principles being enacted on, first of all, the nation of Israel. That's where the law was given, of course. But beyond that, God worked over his own time scale to reveal himself in the Old Testament, mostly directing, ultimately, the Old Testament to the Lord Jesus Christ, right?

You know, you mentioned God worked directly with people In the Old Testament, there were theophanies, there were angels that were sent. But then when Christ was on the day of Pentecost, he said, when I leave, I'm going to send you my comforter. So God doesn't work with us in the same way today.

I mean, we have a lot of questions, I think, when we look back at the Old Testament saints in terms of the way God used them. I mean, in terms of people who have lived the life revealed by the Old Testament, we think of Joseph and Daniel as having no shortcomings at all, but we know they had a sin nature like everybody else. And then we look at David, and he's a man after God's own heart, but he was Spirit-led to have tremendous faith despite his shortcomings. But anyway, we know we're all sinners saved by grace. And the Old Testament, they ultimately, their ultimate destination will be God's great grace applied to them in times to come in the future. All right, Benson has a nice thing to say here.

He says, here Micah speaks of himself by way of contrast to the false prophets. And the clerics said he was filled with a divine prophetic influence. and not with deities, wine, and strong drink, like those false pretenders to prophecy and of judgment. to discern truth from error, right from wrong, and to judge properly of times and seasons, and improve them accordingly, and of might, of courage, constancy, and resolution to speak whatever God commands me, without being deterred from it, from the fear of anyone, however great, or in whatever station." So I think that kind of capsulizes what Micah represents as an Old Testament minor prophet. Any thoughts about what Vincent has said to you?

It's good. All right, let's go ahead. All right, so I'm going to share a verse, interestingly, here from Jeremiah. There's lots of texts to complement what we're going to be looking at today. But in Jeremiah 23, 16, it says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesied to you. And they make you worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. Jeremiah here was not a contemporary of Micah. He's another hundred years subsequent to Micah. We're going to come back to Jeremiah a little bit later. And in contrast, look at Isaiah 58-1, who was a contemporary of Micah.

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sin. So in other words, this whole issue of the nation of Israel and Judah, if you were to combine this, remember last week we said they're used interchangeably at times and sometimes they're used separately.

God is concerned. Mars says, oh, that every minister and teacher of God's holy gospel were able to utter Micah 3 8. It may be ours through the Holy Spirit. So he's taking this principle of God in terms of falling short or going astray to the world in which we're currently living, where the Holy Spirit will help us discern good from evil. A problem that those surrounded by Micah were having, weren't they? They loved evil but hated good.

Alright, should we try to distinguish the transgression of Jacob from the sin of Israel? What do you think? The verse said again the transgression of Jacob from the sin of Israel. Is that something we should try to dissect? Are those differences in terms of the way we fall short or the way they fell short? Well, let's look at the Hebrew.

Transgression or Tepesha, specifically here is a transgression against God. And then when we look up, in context, Sin, which is the emphasis on the third verse, Ketraha, here again is against God. So the summary of this is, no way can we look at these two things as different, the transgression versus the sin. They represent the same shortfalling before God's holy righteousness and law. Violation of God's standards. Right. Now, sometimes these can be interpreted in context with the sins against the people or sins against your own spirit, etc., but both in context really represent the same thing.

This is falling short of God's glory. All right, that's verse 8. Let's look at verse 8 again just to make sure we But truly, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. So Micah's purpose is well stated in verse 8.

You know, Bob, it kind of looks forward to Christ in a sense, almost foreshadows Christ's ministry there. Very much so. You want to further that thought, Bob? I had kind of underlined that in my own Bible, and I almost thought it might be quoted somewhere about Christ. I didn't find anywhere that it was, but it just reminded me so much of his ministry when he came to Israel. And he was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit at his baptism and throughout his whole ministry. And really central to his ministry was to make known to Israel their problem, their need for him as a Savior.

Yeah. Well, here's an interesting point. I'm studying for the main service coming up. I'm going to teach today. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit while in the womb. Remember that? So that was kind of interesting, too. So the Holy Spirit is pretty key to that. You know, then and now. And as Bob mentioned, we're privileged today to be filled or at least baptized by the Holy Spirit. Hopefully, Bill, day in, day out, by faith. Okay. So, verse 9.

Now, here this, you head to the house of Jacob and go to the house of Israel. Interesting here, he's talking to the whole nation, but yet he's kind of identifying Jacob now more as his southern kingdom and Israel, the ten tribes of the northern kingdom, who are already in exile. I mean, they're already in Babylon, right? Who abhorred justice and pervert all equity.

Remember who's speaking here. Who's speaking here? Well, let's go back to verse 1. And it's Micah who's speaking, but it's the power of the Spirit, verse 8, by which Micah is speaking. 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? So let's go back to verse 9.

Now hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and the rulers of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity. That's to whom he's speaking, that this is Micah through the power of the Spirit delivering this message that now to some like is repetitive from verse 1, which introduced the chapter. So what I'm saying here is that Micah now confronts Israel's leaders with a judgment that will come upon Israel because of their transgression and sin. Now remember, Israel now, if we think of it as the Ten Kingdoms, the ten tribes who were in exile in Babylon already, Ultimately what's going to occur to Jacob is ultimately being exiled also. But that's like a hundred years hence. So that does not occur during the time that Micah was a prophet.

And Isaiah 520 says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, and who put bitter sweet and sweet for bitter. That's a pretty strong statement. Jeremiah has something to say here, too. They have grown fat and they are sleek. Yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked. They do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless. Yet they prosper in the right of the needy. They do not defend. I'm not sure whether we've covered this very adequately previously. I don't recall that I remember the teaching in the few weeks that I was gone.

But, you know, this was a fairly profitable time. in this part of the world. I mean, there's scripture indicating that ultimately, you know, the amenities were tremendous and people were very privileged in terms of the economic aspects of a time in which they were living. So I think, you know, Jeremiah, again, a hundred years even later, is looking at the continued presence of kind of earthly pleasures and benefit that ultimately much of the country astray. These are things that ultimately, even today, we could be overly occupied by in terms of our faith.

All right, verses 10 and 11, I'm going to combine those because they kind of flow one to the next. Who build up Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her heads judged for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money.

Yet they lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? Question mark, I guess. No harm can come upon us. No, I think that's kind of, you know, a rhetorical redundant kind of question mark there. So again, this verse, verse 11 particularly reflects the abundance by which this group of Israelites or Judahites are currently existing within. So these verses indicate that the rulers who built Jerusalem did so by bloodshed. And presumably those were innocent people that were killed as part of this. And existed as false prophets. But then look here at how they lean on the Lord in His presence.

What hypocrisy. I mean, think about that. Roger? You hear this today, unfortunately, this is today. I was just thinking that, Roger. This is today. You think, oh my goodness, what do these people for pay, they're doing this stuff and all kinds of awful things they do for In the name of the Lord, too. And they say, oh, praise the Lord for this and that. All kinds of craziness. Send money. Send money, yeah. Well, now because we have the internet and we have all of this, I mean, it's so far reaching now. And how clear the Lord made this that it would be, I mean, it would go worldwide. I mean, it has. We never thought it would be this far reaching like this. Steve Vaughn? Yes.

Just a side note here that in today's society we have the Internet, but think of God and His Internet. Amen. So how is He manifesting His Internet today? Through us, right? The Holy Spirit. But it was true in the time of Micah as it is today as well. That's true, and I think Again, the principles of God never cease and ultimately, you know, I love the fact, is not the Lord among us? We've heard, oh my goodness. Well, anyway, the sin nature never leaves the human existence. And so it's being manifested, I think, in various times in different ways. But in a sense, these two verses really parallel the existence that we're in right now, don't they? being prosperous, ignoring the Lord. Oh, by the way, he's there, but I'm enjoying the world system that surrounds me. Okay, good. Bob, I just got a question that maybe you want to cover.

I don't know if you do, but is it appropriate to sell literature as teaching material in the church? In other words, we're selling what we teach and we're enabling it by getting a profit from what we sell. But some people, they've accumulated a lot of money by what they sell in that process. Yeah.

Well, I'll offer an opinion. I've seen, you know, many ministries will say that, you know, it's a gift. You know, they encourage a gift. If you, this is blessed, you give us a gift. Or if you want to cover the cost of printing it, Now, as far as, you know, for profit, they're not interested in that. I think a true minister of the Lord is not going to charge to put his word out, you know. Well, the Dean uses that terminology very, very carefully, but I think a lot of ministries online that you can subscribe to, ultimately, you do pay for information for non-profit. I don't know, Roy, you raise an interesting point. I sort of agree with Roger that I think if we're going to be faithful to the Word of God, the principles are here, that he frowns on selling the ministry for money.

Yeah. Well, I think you have to look at each circumstance judiciously. I think, again, I just know Jay Berman quite well because I listen to him a lot. I mean, it's a gift, but you can call it a gift. But by the way, I mean, he kind of. qualifies the need to support this because he has no other source. I mean, is that justification? I don't know. I think you need to wage circumstance individually here.

As far as I know, Jay Vernon Begee didn't sell his material except in bookstores and things like that. But when he went on the radio, it was a free will gift that he was asking for. But he defended that, that the ministry needs to be supported and these materials do cost to produce.

So anyway, we'll leave that one on the shelf right now in terms of having any answers. You don't quote Habakkuk very often, but I'm going to quote him here. But when do we quote Habakkuk? What other time when Habakkuk is famous virtually? It's also in a couple of other places, but I think if Mark Luther used Habakkuk, we may have, we're saved by faith.

I mean, that's an incident for Habakkuk, actually. But I'm going to quote verse 12 in chapter 2. Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity. I think that fits here, because it says, who build up Zion with bloodshed. You know, Habakkuk is dealing with that. Woe to them for doing such a thing.

And Deuteronomy, you shall not pervert justice, you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. So, I mean, this whole history of what Mike is describing here is scripturally not justified in terms of right doing, for sure. And I think that adds a little bit of clarity to the question of receiving money for Christian ministry, because if it becomes something that drives you, if the profit margin is what drives you to write what you write and do what you do, then that certainly becomes a snare. And Miles, in parallel to what you just said, If you can't write it to make a profit, don't write it, seems to be the philosophy of a lot of the stuff in print for sale.

Well, keep in mind, too, what the source of these materials are. It's some person who's trying to make Scripture clearer for us, right? But Scripture speaks adequately in its own way. So they had somebody try it. I mean, we all turn to commentators. I mean, I've shared Benson, I've shared Meyer, and Scott Simone, I'm going to share with you shortly. So we all turn to them because they help clarify something we're saying. But while we're also saying that we trust our brothers and sisters, we're rightly doctrinally and sound to be able to offer some suggestions about how we interpret Scripture.

So anyway. Amen. Deuteronomy 27, 25, Koshen is the one who takes a bribe. to stay or modify or slay, I guess, an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen. So anyway, this is kind of a repeated indication that what's going on here in Judah is not according to the Lord's way. And I've said here, this principle of the Holy Spirit extends to conflicts within the body today.

And just pulling one verse out of 1 Corinthians 6.5, and this says, I say to your shame, Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, not even one who will be able to judge between his brother? I mean, in a sense, kind of the same thing applied to this church today in terms of resolving conflicts within the body. Anyway. All right. Last verse in chapter 3, Micah 3, 12.

Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed like a field. Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins. and the mountain of the temple or house like the bare hills of the forest. Now, talk about something prophetic. They had an outcome and not the too distant future. So I'm kind of reminded to say a true prophet speaks about what's to become and when will this destruction occur. What are your thoughts about that? So Micah's saying, look what's going to happen to you guys. He's foretelling what's going to happen to the southern kingdom, right?

And false teachers went to high places to preach and look where the Muslim place of worship is today in Jerusalem, a high place. Keep in mind that mountain has to do with rulership of the temple. Okay. It has to do with authority. All of that will be like the bare hills of the forest. Well this, I think the house ultimately too refers to the ultimate Zion in New Jerusalem too, I think. So anyway, I'm gonna, here's Constable. And he's quoting Alan to some extent here.

He says, Micah's words, remembered for their shocking severity a hundred years later, deserve to be taken to heart by each generation of God's people. They challenge every attempt to misuse the service of God for one's own glory and profit. And they're a dire warning against the complacency that can take God's love and reject his Lordship. They're a passionate plea for consistency between creed and conduct. The Lord is content with nothing less."

Well, I thought that was really a very concise but relevant connotation. Right, so of interest is what Jeremiah had to say. Now remember, he's like a hundred years later. And he said in verse 28 of chapter 26, Micah, he's referring to Micah who was again preceding him by a hundred years. He prophesied the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah saying, this says the Lord of hosts. So here he's quoting again the same verse 12 that we're seeing a hundred years earlier.

In that way, the way scripture really compliments itself. Isn't it neat, Bob, that we can do a similar thing. We're quoting God's word to justify, you know, so this is nothing new, taking another godly man's writing and saying this is what the Lord has said. He's still saying that. And that's pretty spectacular.

I think it shows that Micah's prophecy was in part fulfilled during Jeremiah's lifetime, which is approximately a little over 100 years later, 120 years after Israel's, the northern kingdom, found themselves in Babylon. So remember, the ten tribes are already there, and what he's doing is prophesying what the future is for Judah. And just a little history, and I think the rest of the lesson is going to be a little historical, and I think it's kind of interesting that Macaulay, when I listened to his tape, brought something new to me that reflected on where we're going in Micah next week, or whenever we, I guess we'll be beginning. Right.

Okay, Judah was overtaken by Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylonia. However, although the temple was rebuilt during the period of Ezra and Nehemiah, it was again destroyed by the Romans under Titus in 70 AD. So if we go back to the verse, it says, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins and the mountain of the temple, like the bare hills of the forest is presumably going to be in ruin too. But then what's the prophecy in terms of when it's fulfilled? Is he talking about, you know, ultimately the fact that it was destroyed, you know, shortly thereafter by Nebuchadnezzar?

Or is he talking about the second destruction? Any thoughts or could this probably reflect both? I would say both. I would say both. Old Testament Scripture many times has two meanings to it. You see this especially in the Psalms where David is talking about something that's going on in his life, but it's quoted in the New Testament as referring to Christ. And so, here we have a quote in the Old Testament referring to that destruction in Nehemiah's, before Nehemiah, but it also has reference probably to A.D. 70 here. Yeah, I think there's a dual reference here.

We could apply one or both. I think both is probably the correct answer. The temple's going to be destroyed twice. at the time of Nebuchadnezzar's entrance into the southern kingdom and also ultimately destroyed by Titus in 70 AD. And it will be rebuilt, right?

God delayed the exile of Judah because of Hezekiah's loyalty, Isaiah's prayers, and Micah's intercession. And this is what I thought Macaulay helped me a little bit with, and I think it was ministered to me, and hopefully it will just a little bit without overly being dull to recite a lot of scripture.

So we talked about Sennacherib, and you remember the video we watched in terms of Lachish and everything that occurred there? Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invaded Judah. Remember that? Okay, let's look at some scripture now. 2 Chronicles 32, 1 and 2. After the deeds of faithfulness, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and entered Judah, and he encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them over to himself. And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, and that his purpose was to make war against Jerusalem, and it goes on. I'm citing individual verses to give you a brief historical sketch about Micah's time period.

In 2 Kings 18.14 it says, Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish saying, I have done wrong and turn away from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will pay. And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. Tremendous amount of money at that time. Okay, again, I'm being selective in the verses I'm showing just to give you the historical perspective. 2 Kings 19, 15 and 16.

Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, and you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear, open your eyes, O Lord, and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has said to reproach the living God. So initially Hezekiah gave in to what he was being requested by.

Now he's turning to the Lord. What's happening here? You know, Sennacherib's denying you. He's not accepting you. And I've maybe fallen short by giving him what he asked. And then ultimately, and Roy has corrected this, this should be 2 Kings 18, my bad, not 29. 29 was the verse. I messed up. I didn't pick it up this morning.

Thus says the king, do not let Hezekiah deceive us. Here's ultimately Sennacherib again talking to the people in the southern kingdom. Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand. Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, the Lord will surely deliver us. The city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

I mean, so that's kind of what's going on here. And I mean, remember what was said up here in this last section here. God delayed the exile of Judah because of Hezekiah's loyalty. He didn't seem very loyal initially because he gave in to Sennacherib, but ultimately now he's turning to the Lord. And ultimately, I think ultimately, the exile was ultimately delayed.

So in Micah 4, which we're going to begin next week, the future is bright. And into Micah 5, the restoration of Zion, or his Jerusalem, is promised. Now, ultimately the timing of that, we're still kind of being patient for in terms of what the eternal prophecy is related to the reestablishment of Zion and Jerusalem. But nevertheless, I thought, my colleagues were very helpful in kind of reviewing this history with the King of Assyria, Sennacherib, and how that relates to Micah's prophecy. So, anyway, on to Micah 4. Micah 4 too, right, is a verse that we ultimately see highly referenced in the New Testament.

So, you know, what's interesting is with all the stuff that's been going on, with Assyria and everything now. You know, I'm always reading all this and trying to see where, you know, what the scripture is still saying about all of this. Because, I mean, it's really interesting how all those countries, everything is still right there. I mean, they're all... So are you acquainting Assad with Sennacherib? and how that fits in and what's, I mean, it's just so interesting. What's amazing is it hasn't changed, nothing really, things in our history, nothing's changed. It's the same issues. the same problems.

You know, one of the challenges I think I find in reviewing this and trying to teach Micah, which could be true of anywhere in the Scripture, look where these texts come from. I mean, 1 and 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and then we're referring to Ezra and Nehemiah, which are books in the Bible that precede. I mean, you really have to kind of historically put this all in perspective to really understand the timing of this. And remember, Jeremiah was 100 years later in terms, and ultimately the exile was 100 years after Micah's prophecy.

Any other wisdom from all the members here? Yeah, Bob. It's important today to realize that no prophecy is being fulfilled right now. But there certainly are trends that we see going on. The only prophecy left that we're looking towards now is the rapture. Amen. But there are certainly trends which kind of show what might be going on after the rapture takes place.

Well, the other thing to reflect on is the season we're in, the holiday season, right? I mean, we all as believers look at the incarnation as why Christmas exists, right? But the world system looks at this joy and presence and alcohol and fun and all that kind of thing. But ultimately, what do you see most often on a Christmas card that comes from somebody from their world system?

Peace. Joy and peace, right? Joy and peace. Peace, Bob, to reflect on your comment, peace is not what's promised scripturally going forward. Peace for us at the rapture, but peace for the world. Not very promising, is it, in terms of what scripture has to say? No, but it sounds good. Well, it's world system warm and fuzzy, is what it is. And although we all selfishly, for the world, would like to see no war, but it's not very well-described scripturally, is it?

All right. Roger, will you close us in? Yes, please. Now, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time today, Lord. Thank you for your word. We thank you for just the, Lord, that you give us the desire to search it out, to look, dig into it, Lord. We're thankful that you've, that's a wonderful task of a believer, to search out your word, Lord. We thank you for that. Thank you for Bob sharing with us, and we thank you for our time and your word. In Christ's name, amen.