Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Through the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz, your host and fellow Bible Bus passenger. Now, before we dive into our study of Micah chapter 6, our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee tells us about a truck driver in Tennessee who was inspired to talk out loud to God. Here's what happened next.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And I would like to read this little clipping that's been sent to me by one of the listeners. It says, winding down Mont Eagle Mountain and south through the Sequatchie Valley on the drive between Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, I was impressed with the fresh rain cleansed beauty of the rolling hillsides. On impulse, I picked up the mic of my CB radio and broke channel. Lord, I said, if you are on this channel, I just want to tell you we are grateful for the beauty you put into these hills and streams and mountains. Suddenly realizing how foolish that must sound, I shut up.

The silence lasted a bit. Then other voices, some precise, gentle, others coarse and mild toughened, came over the air. Right on. Amen. Thanks, Lord. Amen, brother. A further hush and then another voice, deep and solemn, but not deep enough to hide traces of a Tennessee accent came on. You are welcome. It's said and then cut off. May I say to you I've driven, I do not know how many times between Nashville and Chattanooga and Nashville and Chattanooga and Atlanta when I was a seminary student. And I always remember the beauty of that trip and especially at the time when the dogwood is in bloom.

You know that God has given us so many wonderful things even in a world that is cursed by sin. And we ought to be deeply grateful for that.

Steve Schwetz: Well, Dr. McGee is right about that, isn't he? I know for myself many of those wonderful things from God that I've enjoyed most have been in nature. When I'm out doing things I love in his beautiful creation. But you fellow grandparents will have to agree that holding a newborn grandbaby takes it into a whole new level. What about you, Greg? What things come to mind for you?

Greg Harris: It's similar. You and I both love the outdoors. We've gone skiing together. I remember driving up that beautiful trip 395 and we were talking about heaven and how heaven is going to be so beautiful and we get these glimpses of it. And of course, the other thing is just the faces of the people that I've seen us minister to around the world and are beautiful.

Steve Schwetz: 395 Yeah. Yeah. You know just like those truck drivers on those CBs, you know seeing God at work you can have an appreciation for for seeing nature and seeing God at work, I should say. And the other thing is when you as a believer see maturity happening in people's lives. And one of the best ways to have that happen is in the context of a small group where it's not just going to church in a in a mega church, not that there's anything wrong with mega church, but when you're in a small group you you you're much more open.

You you get to know people in a very different way instead of just sitting in a pew. And so we're talking a little bit about small groups here.

Greg Harris: Yes. Yes. Yes. Mhm. Yeah, and this was this was a a movement of God. We did not come up with this plan and now we have by God's grace we have probably 25 30 thousand home groups meeting in Africa, all over South Asia and we get the most wonderful encouragements from these groups.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah. Yeah, here's an example. This is from a listener named Magunlan Thank you in Rajasthan, another one of those stone countries. Here it goes. I have been married for 15 years, but have been without a child. We tried every kind of medication, consulted local quacks and interesting term. I guess it's in it's in it translates well. And even sacrificed animals, but nothing changed in our lives. I followed every piece of advice I heard from others, but all I received was discouragement. I became deeply depressed and was searching for peace. After losing everything while following the priests' suggestions, I felt hopeless.

One day while visiting a relative, I heard the word of God at their neighbor's house in our Wogdi language. The message was so interesting that I listened to the entire thing. It gave me courage and brought peace to my mind. Since it was in Wogdi, I became very curious to know more about the media player they were using. They introduced me to a man and by the grace of God I shared my story with him and he prayed for me and my wife. He also gave me a media player to listen to the word of God.

Listening to the messages helped me a lot and brought me out of depression. Today I run a radio home group at my house and God has blessed us with two children. We regularly listen to the word of God and I have developed a burden to share my testimony with others. I've been telling people about this life changing Bible study and how it transformed my life.

Greg Harris: Well done. Yes. It's a global yeah, it's global.

Steve Schwetz: Oh my goodness. I mean

Greg Harris: That's a home run.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, if you if that doesn't touch your heart as Steve likes to say, check your spiritual pulse because this is this is God at work and we are simply the vehicle and we're trying to just serve him. But God did this, Steve, and this is amazing. Uh that person went from having real physical medical problems to addressing their spiritual needs for eternal life and salvation and now leading a home group. It doesn't get any better than this.

Greg Harris: Yeah, and the fact that it's in the Wogdi language. How many people even know what Wogdi is? I know I don't even know some of the other terms.

Steve Schwetz: Yes. I don't. I mean I should know that we're in the language. We're in so many languages. It's just amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Greg, let me go ahead and pray for us as we begin. Heavenly Father, we're thankful for the way your spirit moves in people's lives and the way you have chosen to have Through the Bible play a small part in bringing people to Christ. We pray for the study that we're about to engage in now in Micah chapter 6 that you would bless it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Here's Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Micah chapter 6 on Through the Bible.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, friends, we've come to this sixth chapter of Micah. A little prophecy of Micah as we've seen is a very important little book in the word of God. The reason that we go through the entire Bible teaching it actually book by book and chapter by chapter we touch on every chapter and in a great deal of it. It's verse by verse and then in some places it's word by word. We believe therefore that each book of the Bible is in there for a purpose and a very definite purpose. We've seen that in this little book and each section we divided it actually into three main sections.

That is we solve who is a God like unto thee in proclaiming future judgment or past sins. That was in the first three chapters and it began with a call here. Hear all ye people. That was chapter 1 verse 2. And then we found that the second major division began in chapter 4 and this chapter 4 and 5 and it began the same way a call actually the here. And we have that in that section and then we come to this last section and it is here a call again in chapter 6. Hear now what the Lord saith.

But I have taken the privilege of dividing these last two chapters because each one of them is major and I've made a major division out of each one of them so the chapter 6 that we have here, who is a God like unto thee pleading present repentance because of past redemption. And that's chapter 6 and then in chapter 7 we'll see who is a God like unto thee and pardoning all iniquity because of who God is and what he does. Now, this section here begins as the other major sections has begun in verse 1 in chapter 6 again.

Hear now what the Lord saith. Now, this is a call not only to the northern kingdom, but I take it that it again it is really a call to the entire world to hear because I think we'll see that in just a moment. But here we open with that and he registers here his complaint against Israel. And this is the beginning of the third and final message of Micah to the nations of the world and of course to Israel in particular. Now, God has a contention with his people Israel and from it we can learn great lessons of course.

Hear now what the Lord saith. Arise, contend before the mountains and let the hills hear thy voice. Now, this is an expression that we've had before us several times as we've gone through the prophets. Actually a calling to nature. And this is not mother nature either. It's not an attempt to fool mother nature. This is a call. Actually it says to the mountains and to the hills. But I believe that there is an application here as we have seen. It has been made before that a mountain represents a great kingdom and a hill would represent a lesser kingdom.

And I would say that it's not only a call to nature, but to the nations of the world. In other words, here is a message that is applicable to all the nations of the world. And you'll notice he says in verse 2, hear ye, oh mountains. Now, the nations of the world are to hear the Lord's controversy. In other words, it's a controversy with his people Israel and ye strong foundations of the earth. That is these great peoples and nations of the world that have been in existence for literally thousands of years and yet have been far from God.

God now gives a message to them for the Lord hath a controversy with his people and he will contend with Israel. Now, God has a controversy with his people and he's calling them into court. And then he does a very startling and surprising thing here when he goes into court instead of lodging a charge immediately against them, he says, what am I guilty of? Can you imagine the condescension of almighty God to little man down here on this earth? And he says here, oh my people, what have I done unto thee? And in what have I wearied thee?

Testify against me. In other words, this is verse 3 and in other words, God is saying to them, why have you turned from me? Why have you rejected me? What have I done to you? What have I done? And it is something that we're going to meet with again in the prophecy of Malachi because there after the captivity Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, after the captivity the people returned and they became very blasé. They became very sophisticated again. They had forgotten the Babylonian captivity. The city now has been rebuilt and they are enjoying prosperity again and Malachi speaks to them and they said, well, to tell the truth this going through the religious rituals is a little boring.

And it's very boring indeed and it's wearisome. And I more or less agree with them in that, but the problem was not with God. The problem was with them and we're going to see here what the real problem was. Now, he asks them to testify against them. What has God done? Well, he's going to tell them what he's done to them. What is it that God has done? Has he been ugly to them? Has he mistreated them? Did he take them down to the land of Egypt and leave them there and forget about them? He could do that.

He didn't have to deliver them out of the land of Egypt, but he did deliver them out of the land of Egypt. Listen to him now in verse 4 of chapter 6, for I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed thee out of the house of servants. They were slaves. God says, I have redeemed you. I didn't do you wrong. I didn't harm you. I redeemed you. You were slaves bending under the yoke of the taskmasters down in the land of Egypt and there's no one to deliver you. You were not an attractive people.

You were a slave people and you had dropped down to a very low level to the lowest level of humanity. But God says, I loved you and I came down and I redeemed thee out of the house of servants, of slaves and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam and I gave you leadership to lead you out of the land. Moses and Aaron and Miriam. It's interesting that Miriam is mentioned here. I'd like to call attention today to the women libbers that God didn't pass them by. Miriam was one of the leaders out of the land of Egypt.

She was on a par with Aaron, but not on a par with Moses because Moses was the one that God had chosen and actually Miriam won the leader rebellion against her own brother. You remember when they got out in the wilderness Moses really took charge. He was leading under God. Miriam says, who is he to tell me that? Why? I remember when he was a little old bitty fellow and he was about to be put to death by Pharaoh and I took him down there with his mother and we put him in the bull rushes and I stayed at a distance and I watched over him.

Who does he think he is? Tell me what to do. Well, she was the first woman libber I guess that we've had. She says Moses thinks he's going to tell me, but she was a leader. She was one of those and she was chosen of God and I have a notion that she had a real ministry with the women. Can you imagine the problems that would arise with the women and the children on that wilderness march? Problems that Moses would not know too much about. And Moses is another example of a father that wasn't too good a father, tremendous leader for Israel, but not such a good father.

David was the same kind of a man. Strange, isn't it that you have those? And it's always well to have a wonderful mother at a time like that. And Moses certainly had a wonderful mother and she was the mother of Miriam. And so Miriam must have been a great help especially to the women in that wilderness march that they made. And so their complaint is all we are weary. We're tired of worshiping God. After all what's he done for us? Now, God goes back and he recites their history. Now, he says and listen to him.

God is pleading from his heart now with these people. He says in verse 5, all my people, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, devised and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord. Now, may I say to you that we have here a very wonderful incident given to us here. And this incident goes back actually to the time they were ready to pass through the land. They'd had to go all the way around Edom because Edom wouldn't let them through. And God had led them around and then they came to Moab and the king of Moab was this fellow Balak.

So Balak wanted to curse the children of Israel and he hired this prophet Balaam who was a lover of money. He was a hired preacher. And yet he was a prophet that seemed to have information from God. God certainly spoke through him, but God finally judged him. And he was called in to curse the children of Israel. And you'll well recall that it says he answered him from Shittim. And by the way that was the lies camping spot before they entered Moab after Balaam began his ministry against them and unto Gilgal. And Gilgal was the first place they camped when they got into the promised land proper.

And so that we are located here geographically. And I'm not going to go back over these prophecies that Balaam gave, but he couldn't curse Israel. God would not let him curse Israel. Now, he did something very damaging when he saw he could not curse Israel. The last word that he gave and what happened was that Balak took him up to one mountain. They looked down at the camp of Israel and Balaam started out by saying, how shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? God was not doing them evil. God was on their side. Now, if you go down in the camp they weren't perfect because God was dealing with them down there, but no enemy on the outside is going to find fault with them.

And you know that's the wonderful thing today that the children of Israel didn't know it that there was an enemy trying to curse them. And God was protecting them and defending them. And even old Balaam had to say, how shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? I'm not able to do it. God would not permit it. Now, we are told that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And God deals with us personally. I know that he has with me and severely. I'm confident that cancer that I had was a judgment of God upon me.

I accept it. Is that from him? And I thank him for hearing my prayer, but I'm very thankful that I have up yonder an advocate Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he defends me. He's on my side. He's my advocate. He is the one that today says that I'm his child. I am in the family of God and he's not going to let anyone on the outside curse. May I say to you that ought to answered a day. They're superstitious and wild views that are going around that God's children can be demon possessed and they can be cursed by this.

I don't believe one whit of it. Now, I think the devil can give you a whole lot of trouble and I think that he can certainly make life miserable for you, but no demons going to possess God's child. We've got an advocate. I don't care who you are. If you're a child of God, he's on your side and he's defending you. As Martin Luther put it when it seemed the whole world had turned against him at one time, he says one with God is a majority. I'm on the side of the majority. How about you?

That's very important and God is telling his people, I've defended you. Even when Balaam attempted to curse you and Balak got disgusted with him, he took him from one mountain to another, to four mountains, and he couldn't curse them, but he gave them awful advice. He says the thing to do now since you can't curse them, you can't fight them, join them. In other words, it's the same old story. If you can't fight City Hall, join City Hall. So you go down and intermarry with them and that's what happened. And that introduced idolatry among the people and that was the occasion for the brazen serpent because of the rotten advice that a false prophet had given to the people.

And I say to you today and I want to say this very carefully because we're getting today a whole lot of so-called marriage counseling. And there's a world of that going on today. And I want to say that a great deal that comes to me and I only get it second hand, but that is handed to me and my friend, it doesn't happen to be scriptural. Now, I know you can pull out a little verse here and a little verse there and you can build up quite a case, but the only thing that's going to make a marriage work, friends, is love.

If he can look down at her and say, I love you. And she can look back at him and say, I love you. Now, my friend, you've just about solved all the problems when you've done that. If you can come that far, this idea today that you can work out these in that type of a manner. Oh my people, God says, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, devised and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord. God was righteous God, but he was defending you.

He was on your side. And it's wonderful to have God on our side today. How wonderful this is. Now, we come down to as we have indicated before, there is always a wonderful, unusual passage in every chapter we've been in and there will be in the last two. In fact, the two most wonderful ones are probably coming up and we're just now coming in verse 6 through verse 8 to the one in chapter 6. And this is the one that the liberal delights in. The liberal says, this is what pure religion is and that this is the greatest statement in the Old Testament.

Well, in my book that's an exaggerated statement. This is a great statement, but I rather agree with the liberal. It's a great statement, but I don't agree with the liberal in the interpretation of it. And we're going to see next time what God really means when he's speaking to his people in this most unusual passage. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Next time we're going to learn that the truth found in Romans chapter 8 is the only way that we can live by the requirement given to us in Micah 6 8. I'm so excited to learn the connection, aren't you? Well, until then if we can help you find a resource or if you'd like to know more about how you can partner with us in getting God's whole word to his whole world, just call us at 1 800 65 Bible or email biblebus@ttb.org or visit ttb.org. I'm Steve Schwetz and I'm going to save you a seat on the Bible Bus for next time just for you.

Guest (Male): Well, ride the Bible Bus for 5 years and you'll be amazed at what God teaches you from his word about what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It's a blessing that keeps on going. That's what we believe at Through the Bible.