Prayer for Deliverance and Praise for Forgiveness
Micah 7:14-20 · Miles Driedger · Mar 2, 2025
Micah, No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261938305804

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, well, here we are at the end of Micah, and so we're in chapter 7, verses 14 through 20, and it's been a great study. I've really enjoyed this, and I just want to say thank you to everybody who's pitched in on teaching here. There's been a lot of us pitch in, and so I appreciate everybody who's done that, and thank you. And I just had a Since we're kind of finishing off the book today, I had a few thoughts just in regards to studying the Minor Prophets and a book like Micah. The Minor Prophets get largely ignored a lot of the time. But I think it's important to give some attention to these books.

Obviously, this is the Word of God. Though a book like Micah isn't written to us directly, the church wasn't in existence when Micah wrote this, still it's very important for us, in part because it gives us a better understanding of God's big plan, the overarching plan that the Lord has and is working out which church fits into. And so, as we see more of that, we can ultimately come to know who God is, to know His character. And that really should be the goal of all Bible studies, to come to know Him more.

Just thinking about this, you know, part of the reason that people don't understand the minor prophets often and don't give them much attention is because they get confused by it. Largely because people don't see the distinction between the church and Israel. And, you know, when you try to say that the church and Israel are the same thing, as you know, much of Christendom does, then you're left with really huge interpretive problems.

And things that we read in a book like Micah get really confusing really fast. You know, you think about that, right? If you try to say that you are under the law and dead to the law at the same time, you're going to end up really confused, right? You know, you also have to, if you take that position, you also have to try to explain how the Old Testament promises of God to Israel really aren't what they sound like, you know, because you have to say that they won't literally be fulfilled, you know, that they're being fulfilled in some sort of a spiritual sense to the Church. And, you know, that kind of interpretation is not only very confusing, but it also calls into question the Lord's character. And frankly, you're basically approaching the scripture saying, well, like a book like Micah at least, saying, well, whatever it means, it doesn't mean what you think it means. We know one thing for sure, it can't mean what it sounds like it means. So, you're really not honoring the Word of God to begin from that. situation.

Something I heard even the last couple of weeks here, I was listening to a podcast, a couple of Reformed covenant theologians, a couple of pastors, talking about dispensationalism, actually. And they said, you know, this is a quote, they said, to the dispensational mind, if God makes a promise, he has to keep it. And I just wanted to, I wish I could have just, you know, asked him a question, well, what exactly do you expect God to do if he makes a promise, right? Of course, implying that we can't expect God to keep his promises, right?

So, it's no wonder that so many Christians come to a book like Micah and they just end up confused, right? And I know for me personally, before I began to understand the distinction between Israel and the Church, the Old Testament prophets really made no sense to me. I really couldn't I really couldn't read them because I couldn't make sense of them, right? Because you're always trying to make things fit into the church paradigm. You're not seeing that distinction.

So we've got to keep in mind everything in the Book of Micah relates to the nation of Israel, right? And to those nations, those Gentile nations that surround Israel. We'll see that again this morning. the center of it all is God's program with Israel. And if we try to force the church into it, we're going to really distort the meaning. So, if we can keep this distinction clear, if we can keep in mind the broad brush strokes of God's plan for Israel, then the Old Testament is not that hard to understand.

And as dispensationalists, we have, at least we should have, clarity on these big distinctions. And that enables us to look at a book like Micah and actually understand it. Maybe not every single little detail, right? But we at least have a solid understanding of most of it. We see how things fit together.

And so, you know, you should never be embarrassed about being a dispensationalist. I don't know if anyone's ever tried to embarrass you. But if you listen to Covenant, and reform people, they can be kind of derogatory towards dispensationalism, and you have nothing to be embarrassed about. You have the ability to look at a book like Micah and understand much more than they possibly can. So, not to be arrogant about that.

We have to give the Word of God its due So what I wanted to do here, just before we get into these verses, is I wanted to review really quickly the broad brushstrokes of God's plan for Israel. You know, what we should have in mind when we come to a book like Micah, and that is largely going to revolve around distinguishing between the church and Israel, but it's also very important to understand God's covenants with Israel. Because if we don't understand those, we really don't understand why he's doing what he's doing with the nation of Israel. And so, there are other things we could talk about here, but we'll just look at the three main covenants that God has made with the nation of Israel.

We have the Abrahamic covenant, which is, to really sum it up, is unconditional blessing in the land for the nation of Israel. And I've given the references there if you want to, it's just Genesis 12 through 17, in those chapters where God unfolds this to Abraham. And of course as you follow throughout Genesis, he confirms this covenant with both Isaac and Jacob. And then 400 years later, we have the Mosaic Covenant given at Mount Sinai, and this one's interesting because this brings in conditional blessing.

This is blessings for obedience, cursings for disobedience. And so this is, of course, there's much scripture that deals with this, but just Exodus 19, 5-8, if you read those verses there, God makes this covenant, Israel responds, yes, we will do this, so they enter into this covenant with the Lord. very distinct from the Abrahamic covenant. And then we also see this covenant which is foretold. This covenant has not been established yet.

If we read those chapters there that I've been practicing, Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, you'll see that this is a covenant that God will make, future tense, with the nation of Israel. but it's detailed in what it will look like. And what this is, is the guarantee of blessing through the provision of the new heart, etc. So, three key planks, we could say, in God's dealing with the nation of Israel.

Very, very important to keep these in mind as we look at passages like we're looking at this morning. And as you read the Old Testament, You can see, with a little bit of thought, how each passage, how each portion of it is connected in some way with these covenants. You know, if it's a passage that deals with cursing or judgment for disobedience, or on the other hand, blessing for obedience, well that's related to the Mosaic Covenant. That's what that has to do with.

And we've seen that in the Book of Micah, right? Of course, if it's a passage about unconditional blessing for the nation of Israel, then that is rooted in the Abrahamic Covenant and will ultimately be fulfilled in the New Covenant. And so the prophets often circle back around to this unconditional blessing theme at the end of their books. And that's what we see here at the end of Micah, and so that's what we're looking at this morning. And so it's a really Really neat passage and very positive tone that he ends on. So, here we have it. We're covering verses 14 through 20 of chapter 7. I'll just read that out loud.

Shepherd your people with your scepter, the flock of your possession which dwells by itself in the woodland, in the midst of a fruitful field. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt, I will show you miracles. Nations will see and will be ashamed of all their might. They will put their hand on their mouth. Their ears will be deaf. They will lick the dust like a serpent. Like reptiles of the earth, they will come trembling out of their fortresses. To the Lord our God, they will come in dread, and they will be afraid before you.

Who is a god like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, he will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham, which you swore to on some days of old." So there it is. If you look right at that last verse, verse 20, right? Who is named? What is being called to mind here at the very closing of the book?

We see Abraham, Jacob, the forefathers of Israel, and what's it talking about? Something that God swore to them. Well, what did God swear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? This is the Abrahamic covenant, right? And so that's why I say all of these things are resting on God's covenants with Israel. So that's the way we use these covenants as an interpretive key to our study in the Old Testament. So what we're looking at in this passage is based squarely on the Abrahamic covenant, not the Mosaic covenant.

So let's back up now and begin at verse 14. Oh, sorry. So, verse 14, "...shepherd your people with your scepter, the flock of your possession, which dwells by itself in the woodland, in the midst of a fruitful field, let them feed and bathe in Gilead, as in the days of old." And notice, first of all, this is a prayer. These words are directed toward God. And it's actually in the imperative.

So Micah is praying that God would come and shepherd the nation of Israel. And this is really a wonderful thing to pray because God has promised to do it. And we saw that back in chapter 5 verse 4. And now Micah's prayer is based on that promise, which is a great way for us to pray as well. When we know something that God has promised, then we can pray in terms of that.

And so that's what Micah is doing here. So if we read 4 verse 5, it says, And he will arise and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth." So this is talking about the Messiah, Jesus Christ, we know His name, coming and ruling Israel as the Shepherd King. And Micah is anticipating the fulfillment of this in his prayer. So what is a Shepherd King? What does it mean to shepherd a people?

Does anyone have... Go ahead. Yeah. OK. I was going to say, does anyone have the King James or the ASV? Yes. OK. So what is the word there? Actually in both 714 and 5-4. It says... What is it? What word are you looking for? Instead of shepherd, where we have shepherd his flock. Yes, shepherd, and then no King James, yes. Okay, and the new King James, okay. And the King James, the old King James. The King James has feed. Feed, feed, yeah. And I have to admit that that caught my attention because if you've ever farmed livestock, you know that the number one thing you do is feed them, okay. That's really what your job is, you know. You're just there to keep a pet most of the time, right.

So what's interesting is that the Hebrew word here can refer to both shepherding and feeding. It's kind of either or. And really that's because the shepherd's job is basically feeding, right? To shepherd the sheep is to feed them. Or in their case, to take them out to pasture. Today we're usually bringing the feed to them with a tractor. In those days it was leading the sheep out to graze in the pasture, right? So the shepherd's job is to feed the flock.

But of course the shepherd also does more than that. If he takes the sheep out of the protection of the sheepfold and takes them out into the open field, now all of a sudden there's danger. There's predators, there's thieves, and so pasturing also requires that you protect the flock from danger. So feeding is maybe the goal of the shepherd, but there's protection that's involved. You know, the basic idea of the shepherd king of Israel is that Jesus will rule Israel with a real care and compassion for their needs and their well-being as a nation.

He'll provide for that and he will protect them in that. We all good there? And Miles? Isn't that what the scepter is for? He takes his staff out, one end of it is curved to protect the sheep, the other end is a weapon against enemies of the sheep. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for me, you know, it was a stick with gunpowder in it. But, you know, we...

But the same principle applies, right? You've got to protect the flock. The scepter is a critical tool of the shepherd, right? So it's interesting that there's this parallel between shepherding and a king. A good king, right? A king who cares about his people, you could say. So, here's another question.

What does it mean that the flock will dwell in a fruitful field, feeding in Nation and Gilead? Now, the word behind a fruitful field is interesting. The Hebrew word there is literally Carmel. which we name places like that today. Well, it's a nice place, we call it Fruitful Field, but the Hebrew word is Carmel. So this could be a reference in that phrase to Mount Carmel and the surrounding regions. And then, of course, you have Bashan and Gilead. Now, Carmel, as you can see on this map maybe, is the little circle right over by the Mediterranean.

And it's referred to in 1 Samuel 25, we see this interesting, you remember Nabal, foolish man that David is going to go out and kill and Abigail says wait and everything. But what we see is that Nabal was a very rich man and this is the area in which he was a sheep farmer. So apparently it was a good place to be a sheep farmer because he got very rich there.

We actually also see in Song of Solomon 7 verse 5 that Solomon compliments his bride by saying, your head crowns you like Carmel. Not sure exactly what that means. Either it means she had really thick hair like the grass that grew on Carmel, or maybe her, you know, whatever. But in whatever case, it was a compliment. And so Carmel was a fruitful productive area.

Now, Bashan and Gilead, you see over there on the east side of the Jordan. And if you remember, this is the area that Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh requested to have as their inheritance. And if you remember why they requested it, in Numbers 32, it's because they had large numbers of livestock and they needed good grazing lands. And so this was always the best grazing land in the whole nation of Israel. And we'll see references to these areas.

In fact, one of my favorites is in Amos 4.1 where Amos calls the rich upper-class women the cows of Bashan. In other words, he's calling them fat cows. So... Amos was an interesting character. He was a sheep farmer. He knew the fat animals came from Bashan.

These are the best pasture lands, the best grazing lands in Israel. And if you're a shepherd, this is where you would want to shepherd, to feed your sheep. So coming back to verse 14, you know, what's the point? Why does it say that, you know, he will feed them and in Bashan and Gilead. Does it mean that he's literally, that those are the locations where Israel is going to dwell in the kingdom? No, this is a word picture, right?

And what we understand is that when Jesus returns to reign over Israel, they're going to be like a flock of sheep in Bashan and Gilead, right? So this doesn't mean that the entire nation will live in those geographic areas because Israel's kingdom, you can see here I kind of just highlighted the current state of Israel along the Mediterranean, that little sliver of red there. In the kingdom, as we see described in scripture, will extend from the Mediterranean all the way to the Euphrates River. So a massive tract of land in the Middle East.

And so this entire area will be like Bayesian and Gilead in those days. And Jesus will provide that for the nation of Israel. And he'll secure it in peace and safety, like Bob pointed out with the scepter. And you'll notice in Deuteronomy verse 14 that this is as in the days of old.

Remember that this was written in Micah's time, and he's already talking about Israel's time of prosperity as a historical thing. Micah lived about 200 years after Solomon's reign, and that is likely the period he was looking back to. We used to have prosperity.

We don't anymore. We're kind of on the way down. I mean, I think we can identify with that in our own nations today, right? That's why we have expressions like, make America great again, because we kind of look back at, you know, the former days. And that's kind of what Mike is doing. He's looking back.

Israel used to be a prosperous nation, but because of our hostility against the Lord, we no longer have that. But he knows that based on the Lord's covenant promises that this will come and in far, far greater ways than ever under Solomon. This should cause us to kind of pause and think. Here we are, you know, about 2,700 years later, and we look at this map here, and God still hasn't fulfilled this promise to the nation of Israel, but he will.

We see in 2 Peter 3.9, the Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you. not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. And so the Lord's patience has a very important purpose. So this will be fulfilled, but we've got to move on. Let's look at verse 15.

Micah is continuing to talk about this future time when Jesus will shepherd the nation, Israel, and the kingdom, and he says that it will be as the days when you came out from the land of Egypt. And here, by the way, we have the Lord speaking in the first person. Okay, I will show you miracles.

Micah is reaching back now even earlier in Israel's history, past the time of prosperity under Solomon, and he's looking back to God's miraculous deliverance and provision for the nation of Israel, and he brought them out of Egypt and led them through the wilderness. It's really interesting here to compare the future kingdom with Israel's exodus from Egypt. Actually, that will lead us right into verses 16-17. We know that when God brought Israel out of Egypt, he did it in such a powerful way that the news of it spread all throughout the surrounding Gentile nations.

He did it with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. And then, for the next 40 years, God miraculously provided for the nation of Israel. He provided food in the form of manna and quail. He provided water on numerous occasions, miraculously. He provided for their clothing that they wouldn't wear out, their shoes wouldn't wear out, and so forth. And not to mention the fact that during this whole time the glory of God was visibly present in a pillar of cloud and fire leading the nation Israel through the wilderness.

And the result of all of this is that the Canaanite nations were totally defeated before Israel even arrived at the Promised Land, at least psychologically, right? We read that they had no strength left in them. That's what Rehau says to the spies when they come in. She said, we were already psychologically defeated 40 years ago, right?

So this is parallel. to what God will do for Israel once again through the tribulation time and into the kingdom. Because God is going to miraculously preserve the remnant of Israel with, again, a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and he'll bring them into the kingdom where he'll supernaturally provide for them.

And we also know that the visible glory of God will be seen above Jerusalem in that day. You can see it in Isaiah 4, verse 5. And what we're going to see here in verses 16 and 17 is that the effect on the Gentile nations in that day will be very similar. So let's look at 16 and 17.

It says, nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will put their hand on their mouth, their ears will be deaf, they will lick the dust like a serpent, like reptiles of the earth, they will come trembling out of their fortresses to the LORD our God, they will come in dread and they will be afraid before you. Notice, by the way, that word there, to the LORD our God, all caps, L-O-R-D, that's the Hebrew, the personal name for God represented there. We might say Yahweh. which is worth noting because here we have the Messiah reigning on the earth, we have the Gentile nations coming to him, and he's called Yahweh. So, Jesus is God himself.

But notice the parallel between the concept in these verses and what Rahab said there in Joshua 2.11. Now, as I said, this whole passage is describing Jesus' kingdom rule on the earth. He's reigning as the shepherd king.

And I think this would be a really good moment here in the study just to kind of clear up something that can be a bit of a confusion. Because sometimes we have the tendency to use the terms kingdom and millennium interchangeably, right? We hear the term millennial kingdom quite regularly in dispensationalism, and there's nothing wrong with that term, right? But we have to be clear that the millennium is not the same thing as the kingdom, right? The millennial kingdom is only the first phase of the kingdom which is eternal, right?

There are tons of passages in the Old Testament that refer to an eternal kingdom that will last forever and ever. I just put two up there, Isaiah 9, 7 and Daniel 2, 44. We see that that he will reign in justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.

We see in Daniel 2.44 that this kingdom that will be set up will endure forever. And it just goes on and on.

You could bring up so many passages that talk about an eternal kingdom. But it's somewhat common to talk about the kingdom just using the term millennial kingdom. as if the kingdom only lasts for a thousand years. And then sometimes you'll hear that the millennial kingdom is followed by the eternal state. And that's, again, that's okay. There are some significant changes that take place at the end of the millennium, right?

The new heavens and the new earth, this new creation. But that is not the end of Jesus' eternal kingdom. The kingdom continues on the new earth throughout all eternity. Otherwise these prophecies, these passages, couldn't be true. Jesus has to reign forever. That's what scripture promises.

And so why do I bother getting into all this here as we look at this? It's because there are some distinctions in conditions, very distinct distinctions between the conditions in the first thousand years and in the eternal kingdom. And if we don't divide the kingdom up the way scripture does and do the first thousand years and then forever, then we can end up a little bit confused. If you don't know which phase you're looking at, then we can kind of wonder what's going on, right?

Because the Eternal Kingdom, of course, will be a time of perfect peace on the Earth, right? No hostile enemies, that'll be over. That'll be all history. But here we have this trembling and dread and fear and licking the dust, and that doesn't fit with the Eternal Kingdom. That's all we have to understand.

Yes, please. Sorry to interrupt, but can you reflect on the nations that are there at that time? Yeah, yeah. No, that's... Do you give a sense of the magnitudes of the nations to have survived the tribulation? I mean, I can't put that in place in my mind. Yeah. That's a really good question, Bob, and I would have to study more.

I know there are passages that give more detail about which nations are involved because we do know that there are some nations who are friendly towards Israel. Some are coming and you know, showing their allegiance to Jesus in his reign. But others are apparently hostile. However, it will be sort of a subdued hostility. You know, we see...

Actually, so to answer your question, Bob, not entirely. I don't know that I have a clear picture of, you know, how many or which specific nations will be in hostility against the Lord. We do know that at the end of the millennium, Satan is released for a short while and he stirs people up and they follow him out to rebel openly against Jesus. But we don't really know, as far as I know, how how widespread this sentiment will be.

But it's there. It certainly exists in that time. But one of the things I find interesting is that there's a parallel here between when King David subdued his enemies and established his kingdom, and when Jesus subdues his enemies and establishes his kingdom. Because this is actually a little bit of a quote from David. David says in... where are we now? Did I get... Yeah, here we are. 2 Samuel 22, 45-46.

Foreigners pretend obedience to me. As soon as they hear, they obey me. Foreigners lose heart and come trembling out of their fortresses. David is saying this after he has established his kingdom. But you see it's interesting, these foreigners, well, they kind of have to obey me because of my strength and my power.

But they're not necessarily willing, they're just in kind of a forced submission. It seems to me that all the nations of the world during the millennium will give tribute to Christ as King, And they will openly support Israel, but in their hearts, that's not true. And eventually, especially after Satan is released, then those nations will rebel. Even though for the first maybe 900 some years, they pretend to support Yeah, no, that's right.

I think that's a pretty good kind of summation, Bob. And of course, we know that there will be Gentiles out there who do put their faith in the Lord, who are you know, support him and so forth. But yeah, I think that's a pretty good summation, Bob. I like the way John Darby translated this here, strangers come cringing unto me. So I thought that was pretty descriptive of the way in which they will, you know, kind of cringingly obey. So we see this interesting parallel, and like Bob said, the Gentile opponents, Gentile hostility will be kept subdued throughout the millennium until Satan is released at the end. They'll take their final stand against Jesus Christ, and of course at that point, the enemies of the Lord will be judged once and for all at the Great White Throne Judgment.

One other comment that I like to make is we think of the Abrahamic covenant as an unconditional covenant. But there are conditions to it because it kept being put off, put off, and put off because of the disbelief of the people. I would rather call the Abrahamic covenant an eternal covenant rather than an unconditional covenant. Yeah, I hear what you're saying there and I think that's legitimate. We could see it's Sometimes we say unconditional, but what we mean in that is that it's guaranteed.

It will be fulfilled. But you know, one of the conditions, I mean, we should see this in Jesus' ministry, right, is that you, in order to enter the kingdom, you must be born again. Well, that's kind of a condition, right? You have to have a righteousness that is from God in order to enter into the kingdom and inherit the kingdom, right? So that's a good point, Bob. Well, we've got just a few minutes left and we should try to finish the book. So we want to move into verses 18, 19, and 20.

And so we've seen here the Messiah's subjugation of the hostile nations. And then Micah begins to glorify God for his faithfulness and his loving-kindness toward Israel. So verse 18, who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession, he does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love." Now, is Micah saying that God just sweeps Israel's sin under the carpet?

No. Why not? Because God's attributes, His character, His justice, makes that impossible. God is perfectly just. So we have this tension set up, you could say, between God's justice and his love and compassion. On the one hand, God's righteousness demands justice. On the other hand, God's love compels him to extend mercy. So where is that tension resolved? The place where God's justice was satisfied and his love was most fully expressed. The cross. That's the cross, right? Both are perfectly satisfied at the cross, and we have to keep that in mind when we see something like this. It's not God dismissing sin. But God does extend grace and mercy on the basis of the cross. And so, you know, God could be at peace with He could be at rest about Israel's sin.

It allowed him to be patient toward them, but not lenient patient. There we are. Romans 10, 21 speaks to this. As for Israel, he says, all the day long I've stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. So God extends great mercy and patience towards his own disobedient nation.

And just to look quickly at that word, unchanging love, that is the Hebrew word chesed. You've got to really get some saliva in the back of your mouth to pronounce that properly. But this is God's covenant faithfulness, we could say. God has entered into a covenant relationship with the nation of Israel and he will remain faithful to his covenant promises. That's his unchanging love. But Israel has to respond by faith, as we said. The Lord is patient towards Israel in order to give them every opportunity to respond to His grace.

And like we said, that's all based on the cross. It has to be based on the cross. And then verse 19. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, He will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. And this, of course, is describing the cross. This is where that happened. This is where iniquities were tread underfoot. This is where sin was cast into the depths of the sea. By and large, Israel has missed that. Jews today, Orthodox Jews or secular Jews, they see no value in the cross. They see no value in Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross. And so, they're missing it.

But you know what's interesting is that though the cross was not, the Roman cross had not been invented in Micah's day, the concept or the fact that the Messiah would be a substitute sacrifice was very clearly revealed. And Micah's contemporary Isaiah said the familiar words, but he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.

And of course we're familiar with this passage, Jews today are steered away from this passage because it's just too clear that Jesus Christ is the one who died for their sins. And so the rabbis today steer the Jewish people away from Isaiah 53. But, you know, it's not just the Jews, of course, that Jesus died for, right?

We see in 1 John 2, too, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for those of the whole world. And thank God that includes you and I. And so we're looking here in Micah, of course, at the Lord's dealings with the nation of Israel and his dealings with their sin, but we know that in that cross work, that cross work wasn't limited to Israel. We are recipients of grace on that same basis.

And we talked earlier a little bit about Jesus' words that someone must be born again in order to enter the kingdom. We see that in John 3, 3. Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus explaining how exactly is a Jew going to get into the kingdom. It's by faith alone. They have to put their faith in God's saving provision. When I understand John 3, 3, we can look a little further down at 3, 14, and 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Remember, keep in mind John 3 is before the church began.

Jesus was talking about how a Jew might enter into that promised kingdom. And to Bob's point earlier, It's not so much that the kingdom is unconditional, but guaranteed to all who will put their faith in the Lord for justification, right? Sorry, I know you want to finish, but the point, though, is despite the cross and all its value, the Kingdom Age nation of Israel does not have the same relationship as the Church does to the Lord Jesus Christ, correct?

Yeah, valuable, valuable point, Bob. Very good. And the basis for justification for all people is the cross. And yet the relationship that we have to the Lord Jesus is distinct. That's one of the key distinctions between the Church and Israel. They know him as their shepherd king, praise the Lord. We know him as our bridegroom, the head of the body that we are members of.

And so different relationships that we enter into, same basis for salvation. Very good. You know, I know I'm hurrying a little now. We're five minutes past, but we're just, we're, that's good. There's so much rich stuff here. When we cover a book like this, you know, we've done it in big, big chunks, which is good because we, you know, we need to move relatively quickly to get the big picture here like this and not get too bogged down.

But But just looking at verse 20, the last verse, and we've already touched on this, you will give truth to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham which you swore to our forefathers from the days of old. With Israel, everything goes back to God's faithfulness to his unconditional covenant promise of blessing, or guaranteed covenant promise of blessing, right? And this brought to mind Hebrews 6, 13 and 14. God swore by his own name to bless the nation of Israel, and so he will do it. Hebrews 6, 13 through 14, for when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself. saying, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you. So God stakes his whole reputation on fulfilling this covenant promise with Israel. And so there's no question that God will absolutely do this.

And we will be there. We'll see it happen. We'll be together with Christ as he returns as the shepherd king and fulfills all of these wonderful things to Israel. So we get front row seats. Hey, Miles? Yeah. I know we're out of time, but I have one question. The church is a kind of a parenthesis. Micah talks over the church.

The question I have is, as a church, how should we feel about Israel today? Do we ignore them? Do we support them? How should we look towards Israel? No, good point, Bob, and we'll probably, I mean, we need more time to really get into that, but, you know, we, the Lord loves Israel.

Of course, He loves all men, but Israel, you know, has a special place in the Lord's plans and purposes. He has these promises to them. I think we should absolutely love the nation of Israel, knowing that their greatest need is Jesus Christ. And, you know, we don't hate them because they have, by and large, rejected Jesus Christ, but like the Lord extends patience toward them. They need Jesus Christ. It's their greatest need. And so we love them toward that end.

All right, let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your wonderful word. We thank you for the opportunity to have studied through the book of Micah. We thank you for the things that you have taught us through it, and we pray that you would continue to use these things to teach us, to show yourself to us, ultimately so that we might know you and so that we might share you with others so that you would be known and you would be glorified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.