October 5, 2019 - Suggested Reading Jeremiah 26 for the October 6th message on Micah 1 &2 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“ “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. He told all the people of Judah, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: “‘Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.’ ”

Jeremiah 26:18 (NIV) 

We can see from this passage that the prophetic ministry of Micah preceded the ministry of Jeremiah, and that both of their ministries were aimed at the southern kingdom of Judah. It is true that Micah addresses the capital city of Northern Israel which was Samaria, and it appears he did so as a way of reaching the people of Jerusalem with the prophetic message of false worship. We can say that he led with a jab at Samaria to set up the knock out punch to Jerusalem.

The elders in Jeremiah’s day were wise in their comparison of the repentance that happened as a result of Micah’s ministry, to the rejection of God’s message through Jeremiah. Unfortunately for the elders though, the kings and priests of Jeremiah’s day refused to repent and their people were snatched from their land.

What is being revealed in verse 19 is that Micah’s prophecy did not come to pass in Micah’s day because of repentance, but did come to pass in Jeremiah’s day because of their stubborn refusal
to repent.

Micah’s message was powerful among God’s people and I wonder if it will be powerful among the people of God at Parkdale, as we expose ourselves to his message. Some people think that the OT has nothing to say to a NT believer. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit who is present in us and amongst us, will use Micah’s message in an even more powerful way in our lives, then He did in the lives of the original audience. 

Now I know that God will answer that prayer - but the question for each of us is; "When we hear, will we repent?"

October 4, 2019 - Suggested Reading Isaiah 57 for the October 6th message on Micah 1 &2 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly  and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Isaiah 57:15 (NIV) 

The lives of Isaiah and Micah overlapped, for they prophesied together under the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. So, the themes of Micah’s shorter prophecy are very similar to the themes of Isaiah’s longer prophecy. In Isaiah 57 we can see that Isaiah is treating with great detail the problem with high places that Micah identified in Micah 1:5. Verse 7 of Isiah 57 – “You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill; there you went up to offer your sacrifices.” - is an example of Isaiah’s exhaustive approach. Not only is he identifying the idol worship that occurred in the forests and on the high hills as sin, but it reveals that God’s people are in an intimate relationship with those idols to such an extent that behind the doors and doorposts on which they have the Law written (Dt 11:20), are the symbols of those idols they worship on the hills.

We love to believe the lie that we can separate one area of our life from another. 

We love to believe that God is interested in us when we are at church, and what we do away from church has no effect on us and God.

No!

What we do away from church reveals whom we worship.

Whoever we worship while away from our church is who we are really worshipping while we
are at church.

Do you get the point from Isaiah about sexual intimacy here in verses 5 thru 12?

If we are engaged in sexual immorality away from church then we are engaged in idol worship, and when we come to church to worship God without repentance – we are actually worshipping idols instead of God.

The high places seem to represent our natural tendency towards pride and self elevation, that place where we do what we want, no matter what God has said.

Isaiah reveals the falseness of this high place concept when he speaks the truth about where God dwells;

For this is what the high and exalted One says—

    he who lives forever, whose name is holy:

“I live in a high and holy place,

    but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,

to revive the spirit of the lowly

    and to revive the heart of the contrite.

The only true high place is the place where the LORD lives, and we have the promise of the One who lives in that high and holy place to come and live with those who are lowly and contrite!

So why will we not humble ourselves before this wonderful God, and be revived?

October 3, 2019 - Suggested Reading Psalm 78 for the October 6th message on Micah 1 &2 in our worship service at 10:00AM

“They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.”

Psalm 78:58 (NIV)

The first verse of Psalm 78 identifies it as a teaching psalm, it’s lesson seems very similar to Micah’s and very similar to Stephen’s message recorded in Acts 7. 

According to Psalm 78, when God’s people worship idols at their high places and then go to worship God at the temple, God’s jealous anger is aroused.

According to Stephen in Acts 7:39-43, the people of God were worshipping idols all the time they were in the wilderness, although they were engaged in religious activity towards God.

According to Micah 1, the people of God have turned religious activity in the temple into one of their high places where they worship idols.

The lesson for us seems to be that the Living God is no idol - don’t treat Him like one, and don’t mistake outward religious activity as true worship.

In some ways, Psalm 78 is very discouraging, for although it tells us to teach our children the Way, it seems clear from the content of the psalm that there is no hope for the children to be different from their ancestors. 

Especially discouraging if we ask ourselves; "How actually are we different from our ancestors?"

If we can pull ourselves up to the top edge of the pit of discouragement and fix our eyes on the God described in Psalm 78 encouragement begins to build and praise starts to flow.

What an awesome God!

Yet again what a hopeless people.

What will God do with a people like this?

He will give them a king, not from the strongest tribe of Israel whose capital is Samaria but from the tribe of Judah whose small towns are listed in Micah 1.

What has God done for a people like us?

He has given us a King from the tribe of Judah the Root and Offspring of David.

Our only hope to not repeat our ancestor’s behaviour is submission to the King!

Bow before Him- His kingdom come and His will be done in my life today.

October 2, 2019 - Suggested Reading 1 Kings 16 for the October 6th message on Micah 1 &2 in our worship service at 10:00 am

“He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill.”

1 Kings 16:24 (NIV)

The photo attached to this post is supposed to be of the ruins of the city of Samaria, though I have no idea how they identified them. Notice the vineyards growing alongside the ruins fulfilling Micah 1:6.

The Gospel account of the Samaritan woman at the well and the story of the good Samaritan are where modern Christians get their knowledge of Samaria - we know it as the geographical area between Judea in the south and Galilee in the north, where a people group lived who were despised by devout Jews in the times of Jesus of Nazareth, in large part because of their refusal to recognize the temple in Jerusalem as the approved place to worship God.

We know that the prophet Micah is addressing the city of Samaria rather than the country of Samaria in his prophecy contained in Micah 1:3 thru 7, just by following the parallelism between Samaria and Jerusalem in verse 5.

All this is because of Jacob’s transgression, because of the sins of the people of Israel.

What is Jacob’s transgression? Is it not Samaria?

What is Judah’s high place? Is it not Jerusalem?

1 Kings 16 records the building of the capital city of Samaria, and records the idol worship that Omri set up in the city and how his son Ahab followed his dad’s lead, and went even further in idol worship than his dad did.

It seems clear that the sin of Jacob(God’s people) is the idol worship that occurred in the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel.

What then is meant by Judah’s high place being Jerusalem?

It seems if you analyze this verse through its parallel structure that what God is saying through Micah is that the worship in Jerusalem at the temple of God had been turned into the same kind of idol worship that was occurring in Samaria. (see also 2 Kings 17:18-20)

How could proper worship of God at an approved worship location become idol worship?

When our lives reflect the worst of mankind rather than the God we worship.

When organized religion replaces true relationship.

When we treat God like an idol, giving Him what we think He wants in order to get Him to do what we want.

October 1, 2019 - Suggested Reading 2 Samuel 1 for the October 6th message on Micah 1 &2 in our worship service at 10:00 am

“Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.”

2 Samuel 1:20 (NIV)

Understanding the theme of a book helps us understand the intended meaning of verses, for the theme of a book helps provide its context, and the context is very important in helping us to understand the meaning of any particular verse. It's like having a conversation - misunderstandings abound if you overhear just a sentence- only when the topic of the conversation is understood will the individual sentence have the meaning the speaker intended.  Coming destruction from the hand of God because of a lack of justice within the community of God’s people, and restoration from that destruction is a general theme to the Minor Prophets, and yet each prophet has their own emphasis on that theme.

There is a clue to the specific theme of the book of Micah contained in chapter 1, verse 10 through 15, for Micah quotes the beginning of David’s lament in verse 10, over the death of Saul and Jonathan recorded in 2 Samuel 1, and then tells the nobles in verse 15, that they will flee to the same place David fled while he hid from Saul and his men, a place called Adullam.

For David to mourn over the death of Saul speaks highly of David’s heart. His heart is focused on God’s glory, and he knows that God’s glory is connected to His people’s lives and well being. David is telling the enemies of God’s people not to rejoice over the death of the king, which seems prophetic at 2 different levels.

Firstly the replacement king to Saul will inflict more damage to the Philistines than the king they killed. (Saul killed his thousands and David tens of thousands)

Secondly, there is no doubt that this song is speaking of the death of the true King our Lord Jesus Christ. The message is to the enemies of God as they celebrated the death of His Son on the cross. They would be wise to be silent, to keep their boasts to themselves for the death of this King is not the victory they imagine.

It seems that the specific theme of Micah is the destruction of kingship over God’s people by God’s hand and the restoration of a righteous King over God’s people by God’s hand.

Not only can we spot it in Micah 1:10-15 but we also see it in Micah 2:13, Micah 3:1-4,  Micah 4:8, Micah 5:2, Micah 6:16 and Micah 7:14. The most well known to us, of course, is Micah 5:2 which is used by king Herod to direct the wise men to the town of Bethlehem.

Israel’s kings fell short, and led the people away from God, bringing destruction upon the nation, and yet God would remember His people and would bring forth a King from Bethlehem, whose origins stretch back before the times of the nation Israel.

The theme of Micah is the King.

May the theme of each of our lives be the King!