Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness. Do you see the gospel in that little verse there? What a glorious description that Micah gives us there. This is the thing throughout the Bible, that Jesus is our defense attorney, if you would, in the courtroom of heaven.

Kurt: The Prophet Micah lamented about the moral decay of God’s people, expressing sorrow for their corruption. However, Micah also demonstrated his unwavering faith by expressing confidence in God’s unfailing love and mercy. On Today’s Word, we conclude our verse-by-verse study of the book of Micah as Pastor Brett Meador points to the loving grace of the gospel as our source of true salvation.

Brett Meador: Micah chapter 6. It says in verse 8, “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” This verse is one of the more famous verses of the Bible because it’s the Lord boiling it all down to total simplicity. 613 Jewish laws the people were supposed to keep, and that’s one of the reasons why they’re rebelling here, saying, “What do you want us to do, all this stuff?” And the Lord says, “You already know what to do: Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly.” You’ve got to love this.

By the way, this whole thing of what the Lord really requires of us—what are we supposed to do as people? I love what John 6:28-29 talks about. Then said they to Jesus, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” And Jesus answered and said unto them, “This is the work”—and notice that’s singular, one work, not the works. They’re asking, “What are the works of God?” Jesus says, “Here’s the work of God: that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”

That’s the big work that we’re called to do. Not works—what are the works that I should do? No, what is the work? Believe on Him whom the Father has sent. That’s Jesus. So what are we supposed to do? Believe in Jesus. I love that. That brings us to verse 9. It says, “The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.”

Interesting that the Lord brings up here the rod, because the rod can be an interesting implement. Does the rod make you nervous, or does it make you comforted? Remember the Psalm 23, “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Why would a rod comfort a sheep? The answer is because the rod could be used as a disciplinary tool, but it could also be used as a protector from the wolves. The shepherd would use the rod to protect the sheep.

It’s all a perspective. If you’re walking contrary to God, then the rod becomes a disciplinary tool or implement. And that’s probably the context of what the Lord’s talking about: the rod of judgment and correction. The rod and the staff—the staff was used to guide and redirect the sheep, the more of the shepherd’s crook staff, the tall one. But the rod was more of a club, shorter, and it was used to correct but also protect.

But in this context, the Lord’s saying, I’m crying to you guys that the man of wisdom would see that the rod of correction, the stuff that they’re going through, was corrective. And even the Assyrian invasion would be a corrective smack with the rod of correction, and hopefully the Jews would hear it. But they wouldn’t; we know the story. They wouldn’t hear that. I wonder if the United States, if the Lord is trying to get our attention through His rod.

You do wonder. Because we’ve been very sinful. If we think America has been amazingly godly, we need to reassess our history and our current behavior. Most of what we do flies in the face of God today. And if we don’t see the rod of correction, maybe that’s part of what we’re seeing right now as the United States continues to seem to spiral in the wrong direction.

Speaking of early fathers, Thomas Jefferson, who people used to say was an atheist, but he wasn’t. He said this in 1781: “God who gave life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” Does that sound like an atheist to you, by the way? No, Thomas Jefferson was not an atheist.

This sounds like a guy who knows what the Bible actually says, and he’s right. When I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever, how much worse is it today than it was in 1781? And we do have to wonder what’s going to happen to the United States. As much as I’m a patriot and I want to see the United States do well and I pray for this country daily, if we keep going the route we’re going, don’t be shocked if we see that rod of correction.

But be that as it may, we go on into verse 10. It says, “Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?” We talked about the deceitful weights. Remember they would have the scales, and this is what Micah is talking about: they had the scales of justice and they were dishonest weights or unjust weights. They were hollowing out the inside of the weight to make it look like it was a shekel’s weight, but it really was light, and they would rip people off with their fake weights. And the Lord’s saying, you’ve got fake weights and you’ve got fake sinful stuff in your houses that you got by sinful means. And the Lord’s saying, do you want me just to ignore that you’ve got wickedness in your house? And the Lord’s saying, I’m not going to just ignore that wickedness.

Then in verse 12, “For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.” Are we seeing lies and deceit today? It’s shocking, and now we don’t even know what to believe in what we’re seeing and hearing. That’s why I love talking about the Bible. Because when I’m talking about the Bible, I’m on solid ground. When I’m talking about geopolitics, who knows what we’re talking about?

That’s shaky ground that we’re on. But right now, we get to be a people that look to the Lord and we have the Bible to be our solid rock—immovable, unshakable. And there’s no fake news here in the Bible. Aren’t you glad about that? Well, verse 13 says, “Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.” Now is this the Lord just punitively punishing them? No, He’s doing this correctively to try to move them to repent.

So that’s what He’s talking about. And how is He going to do that? Verse 14: “Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down,” that is like of seed, “shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but thou shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but thou shalt not drink wine.”

You can work and do all the stuff, but somehow you’re going to come up empty. A lot of people, especially in America, have been working hard for a lot of years. We work hard, but we still feel very empty. The Lord wants us to learn to be content, the Bible says. But one of the signs that you’re not doing what God wants you to do is when you get to a place where you’re working hard but you’re seeing no fruit of your labor. You’re spinning your wheels.

That’s what the Lord says: I’m going to judge you guys, and how I’m going to judge you is you’re going to be sick, but you’re also going to work your tails off but you’re going to get nothing from it. You’re going to farm but you’re not going to be able to harvest. You’re going to sow seed but there’s going to be no harvest. You’re going to stomp on the olives for oil but there’s going to be no oil. You’re going to come up empty.

And that’s what happens when we do our own thing. And that leads to discontentment, unhappiness. Webster’s Dictionary defines discontentment as a lack of satisfaction with one’s possessions, status, or situation. Just a lack of being content with what we have. Paul says, “I have learned to be content.” These people need to learn a lesson that God is the source of all things good, but they weren’t knowing that. So the Lord says, I’m going to discipline you in this way.

Well, then He goes on in verse 16. He says, “For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.” Who is this Omri? Well, Omri’s Ahab’s father. Ahab was one of the most horrible kings; he goes in the top two or three evil kings in all of Israel’s history.

And so they were following these evil leaders, doing what the evil leaders told them to do. And they just went on like sheep following Omri and Ahab and keeping their statutes. It’s kind of interesting. It makes you wonder about is there a time when you shouldn’t follow your leaders? And I know this goes without saying, but just remember when your leaders—one thing the Bible says we’re supposed to obey the authorities that are over us.

And there was some confusion on this. It’s interesting how the church had to rethink and remember what the Bible actually says. And there are some people that never really got this, I think, but it’s really interesting because I’ve done whole sermons on how we’re supposed to obey the laws of the land. I’ve done whole teachings—we talked about that in Second Peter, Romans 13—there’s definitely places where we as Christians, we’re just supposed to obey the laws, of course.

But at the same time, the Bible indicates that when leaders ask you to do things that are contrary to what the Bible teaches us, and when you’re breaking what the Lord says to do and the world’s telling you not to do that, there’s a point where you can have to say, you know what? We’re not going to just blindly, glibly follow the statutes of our leaders. And the Lord’s indicting the people of Israel for following Ahab and Omri’s statutes because they were evil, they were wicked people.

That was the indictment God says: You keep the statutes of Omri and the works of the house of Ahab, but you walk in their counsel, their laws. Because they did that, He says, I’m going to make you a desolation. And He did. Well, that brings us to chapter 7. Quickly, let’s take a look. “Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.

The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly: the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward,” or like we said bribes, “and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.” The idea there of wrapping it up means that the leaders of the country are doing evil, sinful stuff behind the scenes and they sort of cover it up, and we see a lot of that today.

Verse 4: “The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity. Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.”

And it speaks of the barrenness of the land as he goes to get grapes from the vineyard. The vine here is not Jesus, by the way, if you’re looking at it that way. The vine is also speaking of Israel, the vine but also the olive tree, the olive branch speaks of Israel. But all this is just the people are doing evil stuff. We talked about the word perplexity, and that’s the last days kind of language that Jesus used in Luke 21 because of people’s sin and the way nations go, they’ll be perplexed.

We talked about people that you won’t be able to trust them. Don’t trust in a guide, don’t trust in your neighbor, don’t even trust anybody in your house. Now this isn’t arguing, by the way, that we be sort of cynical about humanity. This is just the results of a people who were in rebellion. And because of that, they couldn’t trust one another. Sinfulness leads to all kinds of other troubles and what have you.

Basically, verse 7 is where Micah gives the perfect answer. We talked about there’s three things here: look to the Lord, wait on the Lord, and the Lord will hear you. A great bit of advice in troubled days is what we saw there. But beautifully, verse 8 continues Micah’s recognition of what God—what we’re supposed to do when we’re in troubled times. Verse 8: He says, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.”

I like Micah’s being positive, Mr. Positive here. When I fall down, I’m going to get back up. And he also says, when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. I love that about the Lord and His light. Psalm 119:105, we’ve talked about this: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” I love that. Then in verse 9, we have sort of the gospel message tucked away in verse 9.

“I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness.” Do you see the gospel in that little verse there? What a glorious description that Micah gives us there. Notice, I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned. But then He will do what? He will plead my cause.

And this is the thing throughout the Bible, that Jesus is our defense attorney, He’s our defense lawyer, if you would, in the courtroom of heaven. And do you think that Jesus as our lawyer is going to be successful? Because when you think about it, who’s the judge? God. Who’s the prosecuting attorney? Satan. He says he accuses the brethren day and night. So there we are, Satan accusing you as a sinner, God seated at the judge seat, but your attorney is Jesus.

And Jesus is the Son of the judge. And not only that, Jesus as your attorney paid your price. Nail prints in His hands, nails in His feet. And so when Jesus is pleading your cause and He took your payment, it’s like you deserve the electric chair. You deserve lethal injection, according to the Bible. But Jesus took that for you and there rose again, and now as a resurrected Jesus, He’s standing before His Father and He says, I paid the price for this defendant.

And so what does the Lord say? Case dismissed. That’s the gospel. That’s what it says: He will execute judgment for me, He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness. I love the gospel. Good stuff. Verse 10: “Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.”

The ‘she’ here is the enemies of Israel saying, where’s your God? But God is going to redeem and save them and this is basically Micah saying the Lord’s going to protect. Verse 11: “In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed. In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.”

And this is something that happened. The land was desolate when the children of Israel sinned and all this stuff happened. The Assyrians came, the Babylonians came and drove them. There was a small return of a remnant, but even after that, Israel became a real desolate place. And what’s so interesting to me is in short order they were able to really fix the barrenness. Remember the Turks came, the Ottoman Turk Empire, and they taxed all the trees in Israel?

So the Jews started cutting down trees because they didn’t want to be taxed. And so many trees were cut during those centuries of the Ottoman Empire that it changed the whole climate of the land, and it became even more barren during the Ottoman Turk era. So by the time Mark Twain goes there 150 years ago, he writes a whole book about his journeys to Israel and he says, I have not even found one green plant for hundreds and hundreds of miles.

That’s how desolate Israel was. So this promise came to pass; they became a desolate place there as it says there in verse 13. But God then in other passages says He would raise it back up as a fruitful branch and a fruitful vine, and the Lord has done that too. Ezekiel 36 and 37 speak of the Lord regathering and restoring the beauty and the fruitfulness of Israel. Now Israel’s one of the most fruitful countries really in the world. It’s kind of an amazing thing.

So all these promises have come to pass. But then verse 14 to the end of this, we have sort of the closing prayer of Micah. Let’s read verse 14. Now, by the way, the next this verse commentators argue: is this Micah or is this the Lord who’s going to do this? Is the Lord speaking to Micah, or is Micah speaking to the Lord? And there’s arguments about that. But notice why.

It says, “Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things.” I lean more toward the Lord saying, here’s what I’m going to do. But you could also say that Micah was supposed to do this stuff too as a prophet. Either way, I wouldn’t die on that battlefield.

Verse 16: “The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee.” This is one of those prophecies that’s going to happen with the Babylonians, the Assyrians, where people are hiding like in caves and holes in the ground.

But it’s also sort of a foreshadow of coming attractions like in the book of Revelation. For example, Revelation chapter 6, verses 15 through 17. It says, “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves,” this is the tribulation period, “hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

Humanity doesn’t do so well when we are under siege, when we don’t have electricity. Have you ever watched the show Alone, where they drop people off up in the Arctic and they just have to survive for as long as they can? Whoever survives the longest wins. It’s kind of an amazing thing how humanity—even our toughest people—don’t do that great because it’s hard to survive.

But in the tribulation period, that’s one of the things you’ll see people kind of like what you saw perhaps when we saw Saddam Hussein in a hole when the Americans came in and found him in a hole in the ground. Like he was literally in a little hole. Or in Afghanistan, some of the Taliban hiding in holes in the rocks and the mountains because they were under sort of a siege in that way. In the tribulation, the rich men, kings of the earth, great men, they’ll all be hiding in holes during the tribulation period.

That’s part of a time I don’t want to have any part of. I’ll be in heaven by that time, and so will you if you’re a Christian because we’ll be raptured. Praise the Lord. So where do they hide themselves? In the caves is the idea here is what it’s saying. Verse 18: “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.”

And man, that’s a verse we should meditate on, memorize, love. This is one of the great verses of the Bible because it explains who God is, and it’s a glorious, glorious thing. Verse 19: “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” And then he ends in verse 20: “Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.”

When will Israel be seeing the mercy of Jacob and the truth that’s talked about here, mercy to Abraham? When’s that going to happen? When the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, there’s going to be the rapture of the church. And then it says, Romans 11:25-26, all of Israel will be saved. God still has a plan for the Jews, and they will see the mercy and the truth of God during those times. Micah’s going to see his people perish during his day. But the Jews would be saved in God’s mercy during the tribulation period. That’s what the book of Revelation’s about. That’s what book of Romans 9, 10, and 11 talks about. And praise the Lord, God has a plan for the Jews and we love that. Amen? Amen.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador concluding an in-depth study of the book of Micah here on Today’s Word with an important reminder of the everlasting mercy of God for all those who are His. And you’re listening to Today’s Word Radio. If you’ve missed any portion of this study, you’ll find all of Pastor Brett’s messages online at todayswordradio.com. That’s todayswordradio.com.

Pastor Brett is joining me now. We just finished up the final message in one of the minor prophets, Micah. Brett, what thoughts would you like to leave our listeners with today?

Brett Meador: The book of Micah closes with one of the most hope-filled passages in all of the scripture. It ends with: “Who is like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?” I love how Micah reminds us that no matter how dark the days might be, which I feel like we’re living in somewhat dark days, but they were incredibly dark for Israel in that book. But just that God delights in His mercy—that’s His heart.

The world around us feels pretty heavy, but Micah points us back to the character of God. He pardons, He restores, He casts our sins into the depths of the sea. I love that theme. And because of that, we can walk in our trust and confidence in the Lord. Micah also calls us to a very simple, very practical life of faith: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. That’s not complicated.

I love how it’s powerful but simple, what our charge is from the book of Micah. So if we do that, walk humbly with our Lord, we’ll just find that He leads us, protects us, guides us, forgives us. So if I could leave one thing with our listeners, it’s this: that God is better at forgiving than we are at failing, and that’s good news for all of us.

Kurt: It sure is. Thank you, Pastor Brett, as we close out the book of Micah here on Today’s Word. And if you’d like more information about Athey Creek Church, Pastor Brett Meador, or Today’s Word, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com. And that’s all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will reflect on God’s character as we jump into another of the minor prophets, and that’s Nahum.

Kurt: Today’s Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.