Micah 12/23/2017

    A son was born to Jim's niece and husband.  Micah is his great-nephew.  Micah's name means, Who is like the LORD.  The book has seven chapters.  Micah prophesied for about eighty-four years, in, Judah through three kings, during the times of Isaiah the prophet.  God was giving these kings and their people, the Jews over one hundred years to repent.  When Isaiah died, they had around fifty-six years left before King Nebuchadnezzar would come in and destroy their Temple and Nation.  God had even sent the Assyrians in to get their attention.  They would cry out to the LORD, God would save them, they would forget God and go back to their sinful ways. God has given all the peoples  of the world over 2000 years to repent. There is not a god on this earth who is like the LORD.  Chapter one verse two says,"Hear all ye peoples; hearken (hear), O earth, and all that is in it; and let the LORD GOD be witness against you, the LORD from His Holy Temple."  God tells the people through Micah that He is going to destroy Israel and the Temple for their worshiping of idols.  But at the end of chapter two, you see God's grace; though many would die, He gathers His remnant of Israel. 

                                                                                       

Chapter 3

     Micah preaches against Israel's kings and princes and their politics.  Those who hate good and love evil. Isn't it the leaders, if know one else in the world who should know the law, shouldn't it be the kings and the priests? God says He will not hear them when they eat their own people when there is nothing else to eat. This did happen when Jerusalem was surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar's army.  Then  the Princes and Priests cry out to the LORD, but it's to late.  He will not hear them, and will hide His face at that time. God says for four hundred years you will not have the prophets, the sun will go down on them.3:5-7.  God will not answer them. When you read verses 9 through 11 in Chapter 3, you see the Present day Obama's, Clinton's and Bush years.  These Presidents and their heads of states, like Hillary, perverted justice. They rewarded crooked judges, and their preachers preached for money, just like in the days of Micah. God sees it all. God says in verse 3:12, which is very interesting, "There shall Zion (Israel) for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem (Israel's capital,even back then) shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest."  For the Jews sake God was going to make Jerusalem heaps and hide His temple area.  So why would He hide this area, which He did?  Maybe because He knew we would fight over it, and spill blood on His Holy Site, like when they fight on the "temple mount" today.  And that "temple mount" is in plain sight.  There seems to be many mounds in Jerusalem; I've never been there but I would guess there is a mound that when archaeologist start digging (and I believe they are digging it up), they will find the real temple area.  Why do I believe they will find it?  Because chapter 4:1 says, "In the last days it shall come to past, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it."  God also goes on to say during this time, or "in that day, will I assemble her".  That's the regathering, bringing the Jews back to Israel, and making Israel powerful again. 70 years God has made this tiny nation a force to recon with. And they are leaving the other nations. Verse 11 says, "Now also many nations are gathered against thee (Israel), that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion."  Now isn't that today?  The U.N. with many nations right now are angry at  President Trump for just saying Jerusalem is the capital of  Israel. How dare he put our embassy in Jerusalem!  Russia wants Israel's oil and gas, Iran (Persia) wants the land, along with Turkey and all the Middle East to change the government over to Islam.  And to be able to say Allah is god.  Which will never happen. Only because the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob made a contract with Abraham in Genesis 15:7-17.  If God changes His mind and says, No Abraham, I'm taking your land back and giving it to Ishmael. Do  you know that His contract would be broken and Abraham would be allowed to cut God up like he did the animals and birds in Genesis 15:8,9,10,17.  So think about that.

Chapter 4:12 says

     "But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they His counsel;" In verse 4:13b, God says, "thou (Israel) shalt beat in pieces many peoples, and I will consecrate their gain unto you, and their substance unto the LORD of the whole earth."  Read Ezekiel 39:6-10.  

Then Micah speaks about where Jesus would be born, and that He, Jesus would die, in 5:1-2.  But the most amazing part of these verses are in verse 1, though Judah is small, out of that line Jesus will come..Not only that, but it says, "He would come UNTO ME, Jesus' Father.  Jesus ruler in Israel, and not just a ruler, this Ruler, born in Bethlehem, Ephrathah, has BEEN FROM OF OLD.  From long ago; from everlasting(that means having no beginning and no ending).  That's eternity!  He is not a baby in a manger.  I get angry at what Christians do to His birth, death and resurrection.  How hey mislead people to Christ.  To think I'm angry, what must God the Father think? 

 From verse 5:3-6, Micah speaks of many years to come.  Jews will die, go through harsh times, and be scattered.  But God will bring a remnant back, even when the Assyrians and the land of Nimrod (Babylon) came this God did and continued to deliver the Jewish nation.  Just like He delivered them from Hitler.  God delivered them when not one nation would take them into their lands; not even one boat load.  Yet they take millions of Muslims who rape and kill their people. But God knows all things. He also tells about them before they happen, like Psalm 83.  Those countries, today are  Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the various Arab's that make up the Palestinians, and Syria.  But you don't find Iran (Persia) in this battle.  It's the war after they became a nation, and the  six-day War.  From 5:8-15, there are six I will's that God says He will do.  This God is JESUS, the God mankind keeps shoving into a manger, and stealing His presents.  This baby in the manger one day is going to do verse 5:15.  "And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations, such as they have not HEARD."

Chapter 6.

    God pleaded with Israel, as He pleads with them and us today.  He tells us what He requires from us; "to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy GOD."  But most will not.  Read 6:9-16, The people don't change their evil and wicked ways.  Chapter 7 is a sad moment, like Amos in chapter 8:1-12, is this the last basket of fruit?  No more summers of the little peace we have before war sets in?  What Micah describes in this chapter, "the good man is perished out of the earth".  This may be the rapture.  This is what Micah sees, All are liars, murderers, brother against brother, like Muslims killing Muslim, ethnic groups killing each other, non-believers killing non-believers and believers.  Doing evil with both hands, bribes.  Powerful men (great men) they speak and the people do all mischievous things that the great men and women desire, like: Bill Gates, George Soros, the Rothschild's, Pelosi, the Clinton's  and others who work for others greater then them. But God says that the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge.  God says the day of the watchmen and visitation (judgment) comes; now shall be their perplexity,  Micah 7:4.  God says, in 7:5, trust not in a friend, nor your confidence in a guide (a leader), keep your mouth shut.  Don't confide in a wife or a husband.  A son will dishonor his father,  the daughter rises up against  her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  And a man's enemy is in his own house. Now if this isn't today's news, written about 2400 years ago!  

So Micah says, " I will look upon the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me"  During Micah's time it was like this.  He lived in a small town, 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem, probably a farmer, like Amos.  Wherever Micah went, God was with him.  He suffered too from those who hated what he told them from God.  He says in 7:9,10, "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 forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said unto me, Where is the LORD, thy GOD?  Mine eyes shall behold her; now shall she be trampled down like the mire of the streets."   It didn't matter what his enemies said or did to Micah, he prophesied what God told him to say to his end.  In that day the Assyrians would come; in that day, the land (Israel) would become desolate, because of them that dwell in it.  Then Micah speaks of the future, to us he speaks. God says, "I show unto him marvelous things."  Let me tell you marvelous things aren't  good; that the people won't want to speak of them or hear them.  Scary things never seen before possibly nuclear. Verse 17 says, "They shall lick the dust like a serpent.  They shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth."  Worms move out of their holes due to flooding and earthquakes.  Then he says, "Thy shall be afraid of the LORD, our God, and shall fear because of Thee."  Again Micah says in 7:18, "Where is a God like unto thee...,  Though all the bloodshed, pain and suffering God's people went through, and are still going through, He says, "Who pardons iniquity (sin), and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage."  That's the Jews.  God goes on to say, "He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth IN MERCY."  Verse 19 says He will have compassion upon us.  He will subdue our iniquities and will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea". 

Micah ends with this verse, "Thou will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou has sworn unto our fathers from the days of old."  God will show the truth to the tribes of Jacob.  God will take the blindness away.  He will give mercy to Abraham, to his nations.  This mercy He will give to us, we who believe in Abraham's God, Moses' God, in the Old Testament, the God who came down from heaven (Jesus), to earth, took on a body in the New Testament, to die and on the third day rise out of the grave. I Corinthians 15:1-4.    

Jesus sacrificed His life to pay our penalty of sin, so we might not die and go to hell.  Believe In Jesus our Savior of our souls.  If you are willing to repent,  and change from your wicked ways, Jesus will forgive you and give you a life of eternity in heaven with Him and the Father .