Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Man, we're living in crazy weird times. But the good news is, and one thing you can do as we study the Bible is remember that Christ is coming. That the Lord's kingdom is going to be set up. Jesus taught you and me and the disciples to pray, "Lord, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That's praying for the coming kingdom. That's praying for what Micah actually is articulating here by the kingdom when Christ would come.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador with a reminder to take heed, watch, and pray. Just as scripture tells us Micah, Isaiah, and others prophesied of the birth of the Christ Child, we've been alerted of Jesus' second coming in both the Old and New Testaments. And turning back to Micah chapters 4 and 5 in today's word, Pastor Brett Meador highlights the divine coordination and promise of the coming ultimate peace at the arrival of the Prince of Peace.

Brett Meador: So far in our study of the book of Micah, we have seen in chapter 1 the sins against God by the people. Chapter 2, we sort of observed the sins against each other, people sinning against each other. And then in chapter 3, we saw the sins of the leadership of Israel, including the judges, the prophets, and the politicians. And then in chapter 4, we start to look forward through the channels of history to the Millennial Kingdom and the second coming of Christ, the coming kingdom of Jesus. Let's take a look here at chapter 5, verse 2.

"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."

Wow, this verse is packed full of stuff. The ruler that's going to come, as it says here, he's going to come from Bethlehem Ephratah. Even though Bethlehem's little, it says here, Bethlehem was O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie. If Jesus wanted to be a big deal, he could have said, "I'm going to be born in Rome, and I'm going to be born on the main street where everybody sees the glorious coming of the Messiah." But he chooses this little Bethlehem that's a worthless little nameless town.

That's what it says, just Bethlehem of Ephratah. And by the way, do you remember even the Jewish scholars knew that's where the Messiah was supposed to come from? Matthew chapter 2, verses 4 through 6. We read, "And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet." Which prophet? Micah, chapter 5, verse 2. "And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel."

So they knew that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem because of Micah chapter 5, verse 2. You know what's interesting about these dudes in Matthew chapter 2? These wise men or Magi from Babylon were more interested in the Jewish Messiah than the Jews were. And they're saying, "Where's this Messiah going to be?" and they're following the star to Bethlehem. They're interested. Herod says, "Man, I want to find this out. Talk to the Jews. Where's this Messiah supposed to be born?"

And the Jews know, "It's supposed to be Bethlehem." Meanwhile, there's a star shining over Bethlehem. And the Jews are like, "Yeah, whatever." They don't even get up off their duff to get out of Jerusalem and go a 15-minute hike to Bethlehem and say, "Maybe we should go see what's going on here. The rest of the people think there's some kind of a king being born in Bethlehem. In Bethlehem, whatever." And they could care less.

By the way, there's going to be people that will miss Christ's second coming or not be ready for it with the same attitude. "Yeah, it's supposed to come, Jesus is coming again, second coming. But who cares? The Bible talks a lot about prophecy and how it's going to be in those last days, but who cares? It's just going to happen whenever." Meanwhile, we're seeing all the signs of the days we're living in today, that it looks like we're living in the last days, if you ask me. And people are just indifferent, same as these Jews. "Who cares?" I mean, they told Herod, "Somewhere around Bethlehem." And then you know the rest of that story.

So this is an amazing prophetic word. One of the, by the way, there's over 300 specific prophecies about Jesus in his first coming from the Old Testament that Jesus of Nazareth would have to fulfill to be the true Messiah. This is one of those 300. He would be born in Bethlehem. And there was all kinds of confusion because there's prophecies about how he would live in Nazareth, but there's also prophecies of how he'd live in Egypt. Well, which one is true? The answer: all of them.

Because Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but when Herod tried to kill all the little kids, they fled to Egypt where Jesus lived for a while. And then he was brought up to Nazareth where he would be raised as a carpenter's son. All those prophecies came to pass truly in one person, Jesus.

Now there's another phrase here that you really need to know because it's giant, and I probably don't have time to do it justice. But did you see when it's talking about the one born in Bethlehem, it says that the one that's going to come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. What is that all about? This is basically saying the King of kings that's going to be born, Messiah, King of the Jews, he is a pre-existent being. That he would be before actually being born in Bethlehem, he pre-existed that. It's a doctrine we call pre-existence, that Jesus existed before being born in Bethlehem.

There's all kinds of scripture about this. In Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." And remember when God talks about us, he says, "Let us create man in our image." Why is God speaking in plural there? You know, it's an interesting thing that the Holy Trinity, God is one God in three persons. And when God says, "Let us create man in our image," Colossians tells us Jesus was there at creation.

Let me give you a few scriptures in case there's a ton of them I could give you. John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And then in verse 14 of the same chapter, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." The Word became flesh. That's Jesus. In the beginning was the Word. Jesus was there at the very beginning. That's what this tells us in John chapter 1.

Why? Because Jesus is God. This is why the Mormons change this in the Book of Mormon. They say, "It's a Bible just like your Bible." Nope. It's a Bible just like ours, but they tweaked a bunch of words. I'm just telling you the truth. You can look this up. But you don't see, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." They say, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god."

And the Mormons believe in multi-gods. God was a man like you and me that happened to be a really good Mormon and became God, and you could become God too, eventually. Now, here's the problem. I've noticed a lot of my Mormon friends, they don't know their doctrines very well. They might know the Book of Mormon. They might even know the Doctrines and Covenants, which is where a lot of the crazy doctrines come from, Doctrines and Covenants.

But even beyond that, the quotings of the Mormon fathers and the early porters of Mormonism, they said some crazy stuff. And that's where you get all this stuff that Jesus, they don't believe Jesus is God. That's why he says, they say the Word was "a god," because that would make Jesus God. They have a lot of other problems about that. But if you're a Mormon and you're upset at me for saying that, there's all kinds of information that the church has been trying to show Mormons for years.

And here's the hardest part: the Mormons are trying desperately in the last 30 years to look just like the church. They'll do everything they can. I've had people write me letters, and bless their heart, they say, "Pastor Brett, I loved your teaching until you slammed the Mormons one Sunday. And I go to the Mormon Church." Hey, it's okay. Here's what you've got to do. Do some research about Mormonism, the way it was formed. And don't just look at the Doctrines and Covenants; look at all the doctrines that have come into the Mormon Church. And it gets weirder and weirder the more you look.

The church itself is trying to cover over all those things. And even today, Mormons even struggle to know, like for something very simple: do they believe that Jesus is God? And the answer's no. But you'll find some Mormons that think, "Well, I think Jesus is God, they're united and there's, it's all syntax and nuance." You've got to read your own Doctrines and Covenants. You've got to read your own writers of Mormonism because they make it clear that Jesus is not God. He's the brother of Satan, for crying out loud. Like, that's not the Jesus I believe in. The Mormons believe in a different Jesus than the Church of Jesus Christ. And it's really sad how many people are deceived by that.

By the way, I could just go on and on on these scriptures. John 17:5, it says, "And now, O Father," Jesus was praying in John 17 to the Father in heaven. You say, "Well, that doesn't sound like Jesus is God." But check this out. "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." Jesus was claiming to have been there before the world was even created, and he was saying that when he was praying to his Father.

And then, this is a good one. Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born." Who's that? Jesus, born in Bethlehem. "Unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor." Wait, what? "The mighty God." Mormons, hello. The Jesus, the child, would be called the mighty God and the everlasting Father. This is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, that Jesus is God and God is Jesus. They're all part of the Trinity, and the Holy Spirit is in there as the third part.

So, here's the child that's going to be born and he's going to be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. That's Jesus, who pre-existed. Very important stuff. So, this doctrine of the Trinity and the pre-existence of Christ, it is important. And this little verse, verse 2, kind of just tosses that in there for us to chew on, that his goings have been from of old, even from everlasting. That's pretty radical statement.

Well, then verse 3. "Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel." Now, of course, you could apply this, by the way, to both the Babylonian thing we read about in chapter 4 or the gathering of the Jews again. You can see both. One's talking about the Babylonian captivity, one's talking about the Tribulation period. You can see the dual fulfillment of prophecy in this again with the travail of the woman in child. That's what people see there, both.

Verse 4. "And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, and in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth." Mark that "he shall stand and feed." The word "feed" there is interesting. It's the Hebrew word that's transliterated in the Septuagint to the Greek that's the same kind of word for pastor, which means feeder. Did you know that's what the word "pastor" means? Feeder. It's a feeder of the flock.

And that's what pastors are supposed to do: feed. And the food that we're supposed to serve as pastors is the Word of God. If a pastor's not feeding the congregation with the Word, then they're not really a pastor as the old term is. But it's a shepherding term, by the way. That's the term being used here. And so, when all that's coming down, Jesus is going to stand and he's going to feed. I love that about our Savior. I can't think of anything that sets Jesus forth more wonderfully than the figure of the shepherd. You know, the shepherd cares for the flock. It speaks of protection and care and salvation and contentment. He leads us beside still waters and he feeds us and leads us to the green pastures.

I love the Bible, the progression that the Bible does. You know, he's called the Good Shepherd who will lay down his life for the sheep, Psalm 22. In Psalm 23, he's the Great Shepherd who keeps his sheep, even today. But in Psalm 24, he is the Chief Shepherd who's coming in glory. His entire ministry is going to be set forth under this office of shepherding. And even in the Millennial Kingdom, he's going to be feeding in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord God. I love that.

And verse 5. "And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders. And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men."

So, who is the Assyrian who treads in the palaces? This is interesting because we could talk about Sennacherib, who is the Assyrian who came and ultimately would mess up the northern ten tribes. But the Assyrians really didn't do Jerusalem. So what's this talking about? This is where Micah's gaze is going past into the future. And one of the nicknames given to the Antichrist. And by the way, there's many names that are given to this coming Antichrist.

I don't know why we stuck with the term Antichrist. I think it sounded dramatic, so we stuck with it. "The Antichrist is coming," which is funny because it's true. But the Bible says that there's many antichrists. But he will be called the Antichrist, that is one name. But he's also called the Assyrian. Did you know that? This coming world leader, one of the names the Bible gives to this guy is the Assyrian. And that's the one I think we're referring to here, as an Assyrian would be.

He's also called the son of perdition, the man of sin, the beast. There's other names that it's given to this coming world leader. But this title given to the Antichrist, and you say, "Well, what does the Assyrian have to do with anything?" By the way, in the peak of the Assyrian Empire, it was really all of the Middle East. In fact, did you know that the Assyrian Empire even included parts of Iran of all places? Which is kind of interesting. Ezra chapter 6, verse 22 talks about Assyria that was part of Persia in Bible times.

So it was a huge calling Persians Assyrians as Ezra did. But basically it's saying that verse 7, the Jews will become a blessing but they will also become judges. The remnant of Jacob, verse 7. So the Assyrian I think is this coming world leader. This is when Jesus stands up, he's going to stand against this coming ruler Antichrist, and as the shepherd protect the flock of Israel during the Tribulation period.

Verse 8. "And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off." This is what the Lord's going to do to all those nations that are going to hate Israel and come against Israel.

Verse 10. "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots." Some people kind of get weirded out about this. "Brett, who rides horses and chariots today?" Well, this is biblical language, prophetically speaking of weapons that could be modern. But there's no name for them. What are they going to say, the Merkava tanks or the Apache helicopters or whatever? That's not really the language. It's okay that they're using the idea of chariots and horses.

But this is talking about in that day, verse 10, the kingdom age. That's what's going to happen. And verse 11. "I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strongholds: And I will cut off," interesting, "witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers." Some of you might say, "Brett, come on. What are we, Hogwarts here, talking about witchcraft and stuff?"

Do you understand the idea of witchcraft and the darker things that the Bible talks about? In the New Testament, witchcraft, necromancy, there's a word that's often associated with that and it's the word pharmakeia is the Greek word where we get our word pharmacy. And I can't help but see what's happening in the world, especially in the United States, with all the drug problems that we have today.

So while some people might say, "Witchcraft, schwitchcraft. That's like, there's a few weird witches in Ashland, Oregon, or maybe in parts of Portland, there's some witches on Halloween killing cats up in the mountains." That actually happens in Ashland. When I was down there, you'd find dead cats after Halloween. It was a true thing. But witchcraft, the idea is we picture like the green witch from The Wizard of Oz. No.

Witchcraft takes on so many different forms, including all this drug stuff that we're doing. And I believe it can mean anything from some of the fentanyl that's coming across and killing people, or we could even talk about the over-prescribing of medications on people. Did you see again, I've talked about this in past times, but they've done other recent studies on the rivers in the world. And one of the biggest problems in the world's greatest rivers is the amount of these medications people are taking.

And then it goes through their body and through the septic systems of cities and stuff. And even after water filtration and all the stuff that that goes through, there's still startling amounts of these drugs flowing now in the rivers of the world. And it's causing all kinds of problems with fish life and stuff like that. I really believe that we are the most medicated, drugged out people in the world's history. And I wonder if part of this is the cutting off of witchcrafts. Some of that's going to be linked to that word pharmakeia, which deals with drug abuse and what have you.

Well, I digress. Verse 13. "Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands." By the way, idolatry is alive and well today. We just do it a little differently. Verse 14. "And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities. And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard."

And that lines up with what Jesus said when he said the Tribulation period's going to be like no other time in the world's history. So this idea of the Lord coming and dealing with witchcraft and all that stuff, man, we're living in crazy, weird times.

But the good news is, and one thing you can do as we study the Bible is remember that Christ is coming. That the Lord's kingdom is going to be set up. Jesus taught you and me and the disciples to pray, "Lord, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That's praying for the coming kingdom. That's praying for what Micah actually is articulating here about the kingdom when Christ would come.

Now, with the prophecy of Micah, you can kind of see how the time the disciples of Jesus' time, remember how confused they were about, "Well, when are we going to attack the Romans, Jesus? When are we going to?" Simon the Zealot, he was a Zealot. He was a guy who would have wanted to thump on the Romans and thought, "I'm joining Jesus' team because he's the King of the Jews. So that means we're going to revolt against the Romans."

But you can kind of see when you just read the book of Micah, you get a snippet that it's a little confusing. Well, he's going to be born in Bethlehem. Okay, check, the disciples would have thought. But then he's going to crush the kingdoms. Oh, that's awesome. So you can't blame the disciples really, if you ask me, for thinking, "When do we attack the Romans?"

And when they saw Jesus die on the cross, they're thinking, "What in the world is this all about?" and why did the disciples when Jesus died on the cross, did they go back to Galilee and start fishing again? Because what they had envisioned, they just didn't see it happen. They'd go, "Well, maybe he wasn't the Messiah." He was, but they thought he wasn't because he didn't do what they thought.

And if you just take Micah chapter 5, you'd read, "Well, he's born in Bethlehem and then he's going to subdue the nations." But Micah's prophecy would be speaking of Jesus in his second coming. And that's the part that they missed in those days. So it's an interesting challenge. I don't blame the disciples for being a little confused. Even if you were a scholar of the Old Testament, it would have been hard to understand. And the Lord even says, "I'm going to unfold the prophecies in sort of a mystery. It's going to be a little bit concealed so that you don't fully understand."

But the Lord would say, "I'm going to reveal to you my plan throughout time and through the ages." You and I are living in an age where we uniquely have kind of a bird's eye view of the whole picture. And it's not hard to picture right now the second coming of Christ. That's the truth. And Micah's touching on all these things, but the New Testament guys would have had a hard time putting all that together. How can we put it all together? Man, we got Daniel, we got the book of Revelation, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. We've got all kinds of commentary on what we just read in Micah. That's how we can discern to know what Micah's talking about. The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. Yeah, that's the key right there.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador taking the whole counsel of the Word of God to provide the complete prophetic picture presented to us in today's word. And Pastor Brett still has a closing prayer to lead us in before we go. But first, Today's Word Radio is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area, where Pastor Brett Meador's the senior pastor.

Our vision is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com.

I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville. For more information just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations". Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations". Well, to close our time together, here again is Pastor Brett Meador with a brief word of prayer.

Brett Meador: Lord, we're so thankful for your Word. We're thankful to be able to look through scriptures and see your plan. And Lord, we do see the world in real trouble right now. And we see perilous times. Lord, we know that all throughout history there's been perilous times and birth pains that have come and gone. And whether this is the one that brings the child or not, we don't know.

But we want to be the faithful servant that's watching and waiting, looking for your coming. That we'd be ready for that, Lord. So wake us up. May we serve you with all of our hearts, Lord, and look forward to that day with joy, knowing that someday we'll be with you forever in eternity. So bless these your people who've taken the time to study the Word. May it bring good fruit in our lives, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time today here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Micah, and we'll see a remedy to help us handle the dark days we may be experiencing. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.