All right, I hope you got an extra hour of sleep and were able to enjoy, actually it turned out to be a beautiful fall Oregon, Washington drive this morning. So James and I are switching places this morning. We planned this for a little while. I'm gonna teach Sunday school and then James is gonna preach for this morning so I get to finish up the book of Micah. 

All right, let's bow before the Lord in prayer. Father, we're thankful for your word. We're thankful for what it tells us, and most of all, for what it tells us about you and about your character. We thank you that your character is greater than we can imagine. and also that you're greater in mercy and grace than we can ever imagine. And so we pray that you would fill our hearts with praise and worship of you from what we hear and believe in this book. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. 

Okay, we're finishing Micah. So Micah chapter seven. I'll ask you to turn there. Micah was one of the prophets of the nation of Israel, one of the eighth century prophets, so that means the 700s BC. It also means that he prophesied together with Isaiah. And Isaiah and Micah were a good pair, both really powerful prophets. And there's even some matching passages in their books. So the passage about all the nations are, in the end time, in the latter days, all the nations are gonna come to the hill of Jerusalem and they're gonna settle their disputes. And nobody's gonna study war anymore. And they're gonna beat their swords into plowshares. That's in Micah chapter four. It's also in Isaiah chapter two. So there's some overlap. 

Isaiah is known as the Prince of Prophets for a number of reasons, but one is he lived in Jerusalem. And some have even said maybe Isaiah was related to people in the royal family, part of the royal court, close to the king, that sort of thing. Micah is from Mereshit, Gath. which is in Judea, Judah. It's in the foothills, kind of west of Jerusalem, I've been there, to Moreshet Gath. And so he was a farmer or a shepherd, and we'll see some of that even this morning in the passage. So he's been called sort of like the blue collar prophet of the two of them. Perhaps because of that, he's keenly aware of injustice. Maybe he's a little less insulated from the effects of it than Isaiah was, and we'll see that as well in this morning's passage. 

It was a significant time in Israel's history. because it was during the ministry of Micah and Isaiah that the northern kingdom went into exile. Assyria came down and took the northern kingdom into exile, and then almost took the south in the same way. They took every city in the south except for Jerusalem. And so there's the figure of the floodwaters coming up to the neck that's up to the Jerusalem, but not going any further. And so Jerusalem was the only one left over, so it was a good, opportunity for them to think, okay, we're headed down the same path, the same thing's going to happen to us, and that's part of the message in an opportune time for Isaiah and for Micah. 

Okay, I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk about, to kind of zoom out. and talk about Israel itself. These are prophets of Israel. And in our day, I think even among Christians, attitude towards Israel are changing. Am I the only one noticing that? And I see it, I kind of wonder the reason for it. I think it's kind of a perfect storm. There's a war in Israel, hopefully is ending now. kind of political wins, even from the conservative side, we should put America first and not be beholden to all these other foreign lobbies and maybe some merit in some of that. But I think it's caused Christians to rethink Israel, maybe in a way that's not good. 

And so some have said, well, and gone back to what a number of Christians already believe, is that the nation of Israel is no longer significant in any way. That they used to be, they used to be, but that has been given to the church. And so as far as Israel today, there's no special purpose for their nation. And they're just like any other. So the idea there would be, that Israel was the vehicle kind of for organizing and collecting the saved people of God in the Old Testament, but now that's gone to the church.

And they don't like the word replacement, that the church has replaced Israel, but the idea would be that the church has superseded Israel or fulfilled Israel. that Israel was the shadow and now the church is the substance of the shadow. And so those who believe this way, Christians who believe this way say, you know, we have nothing against Israel, not against Israel, but they're a nation like any other nation and should be treated and thought of as any others.

Well, I would disagree with that and say God chose Israel. When God makes a choice, it's permanent. It's permanent. He chooses lots of things. He chooses people, chooses individuals. We're chosen before the foundation of the world. He's chosen a nation. He's chosen a city. He chose the city of Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. And when he chooses something, his choice is permanent. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. And so I think to say that his choice of Israel has now kind of flowed into the church, so there's nothing left for the nation of Israel, is a little bit comparing apples and oranges. The church is not a nation. We have our own nationalities that are not Israel, and God has chosen one nation, and his choice has been permanent.

So he didn't choose Israel to be his sort of temporary receptacle for the saved, or to organize the saved. He chose it as a chosen nation with a chosen national destiny. And I was going to show you that. Genesis chapter 12, kind of from the first point that he chose Israel, he chose it as a nation. He chose it as a nation. So Genesis chapter 12, one through three. Now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

So he's chosen one nation of all the nations of the earth, and there's many nations on earth. He chose one nation for an amazing destiny for that nation. And let me put it like this, let me put it like this to hopefully make it a little bit clear. So for our nation, if our nation succeeds, in what we should be doing, if we honor the Lord, in what we should be doing, which means we're obedient to God, or as obedient as can be expected now. The result will be, it will preserve the world from the effects of the curse. And that's why God created nations, is to ameliorate, if I can use that word, the effects of the curse so it's not as miserable as it could be, and that's important. In fact, God made a whole covenant about that, the covenant with Noah, that he's gonna preserve the earth, he's not gonna destroy the earth, the curse isn't going to completely destroy the earth.

And so that's the purpose of our nation and actually every other nation. that exists is to make the effects of the curse not as bad as they could be by doing things like establishing justice on the earth. Israel is a special nation. If Israel succeeds in being everything that they should be, the curse is actually going to be repealed. it's going to restore blessing to the earth, because that's what this is about, making Israel a source of blessing to the nations of the earth as a nation, as a nation which will be leading the nations. And so when Israel succeeds, it's going to be blessing for the entire earth. which will happen when Christ returns. And he's gonna be recognized as their king. They're gonna receive their king. He was crucified as king of the Jews written over his, the placard on the cross. And they will receive their king and then do what they've been destined to do. And the whole world is gonna benefit from that in ways that are amazing.

So this is God's strange plan. He chooses a nation. makes promises for their success, and then lets time pass to where it looks like everything's coming to nothing. Like he chose this nation and his promises are coming to nothing. And then in the end, against all appearances, he's going to step in and suddenly bring about the future that he promised for the nation of Israel. So Israel, God's dealings with the nation of Israel, It's the longest story in the Bible. It goes from the beginning of the Bible. We read from it here near the beginning of the Bible to the end. And it's an important story for a number of reasons, but perhaps one of the main ones is that God's character is at stake. Does God keep his word? He makes promises for this nation. Do they come to nothing? Do they roll over into something that is not exactly like what he promised? Or does he keep his word? And do we believe that he keeps his word even when we can't, even when we can't see it?

So God is going to act suddenly to bring about this, destiny for the nation of Israel, and of course Christ is the one who comes suddenly to bring it about, but he comes twice. He's already come once, his work isn't done. He's coming again, and so it's when he comes the second time that there's gonna be a focus on Israel, and Israel is going to come into, it's the destiny that God promised for it. Let me read just one passage about this from Romans chapter 11. Verse 11 through 15, it says, I say then they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? And he's talking about the nation of Israel. May it never be. But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make them jealous. And that happened in the first coming of Christ. By their transgression, they rejected their Messiah. And salvation has blossomed to the Gentiles. We're recipients of it. The gospel has gone out to the Gentiles. That's his first coming. Now, if their transgression is richest for the world and their failure is richest for the Gentiles, that's the first coming, how much more will their fulfillment be? That's the second coming of Christ, when Israel as a nation comes into their fulfillment.

But I'm speaking to you who are Gentiles, inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. If somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them, For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, that's when he came the first time, they rejected him, and we've all been reconciled to Christ, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? And so when they receive him as a nation in his second coming, when they actually accept him, it's going to be like a resurrection for the world. It'll be like life from the dead.

Okay, so that's a little bit of the history of Israel, past, present, and future. Where did the prophets fit in? I'll just say a couple of things about this and then we'll get going on our passage.

The Lord gave his special nation, a law on Mount Sinai. And that was kind of the mark of the beginning of their national life together, the beginning of them standing on their own two feet as a nation. And God gave them a clearer revelation of what God demands than any other, than he gave to any other nation. And it made them worse, worse than they were before they got the law, and worse eventually than the other nations.

So then after a while, the prophets began to speak up and began to say the trajectory is moving in the wrong direction for Israel. And they're getting, instead of getting better and better and more and more like this obedient nation that's gonna be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, they're getting worse and worse. And so the hope for Israel is not that they would gradually, I should say, start getting better and better, but the hope for Israel that the prophets began increasingly turning to is that God is gonna suddenly step in and make everything different. give them real repentance.

And so he started talking, the prophets started talking about things like the new covenant, or the day of the Lord, where the Lord steps in and gives real repentance for Israel and makes the whole situation different for them, makes them an obedient nation, and then through them brings blessing to the rest of the world. So there's a focus on God stepping in, as in the day of the Lord, and then an increasing focus on the Messiah. The nation isn't going to be able to do this on their own, and so it's the Messiah that's gonna bring this about.

So there's a big focus on the Messiah in Isaiah, of course, the suffering servant, and even in Micah, speaks of him being born in Bethlehem and so on.

Okay, so the book of Micah, the book of Micah, We're finishing it this morning. It comes in three cycles, and they're really easy to see because they always start with the word hear or listen. So it starts with that in chapter one and two is the first cycle. Then at the beginning of chapter three, it says hear again, and so the second cycle is chapter three to five. And then the last one, chapter six and seven, Again, it says here, and so that's the last one. That's the one that we're gonna be finishing this morning.

And each of these cycles falls into two parts really crisply. There's first doom and then hope in each of these cycles. Our first judgment on Israel for its sins, and then looks ahead to a restoration. And the restoration, when it comes, is gonna come suddenly. And so perhaps that's a reason why The, uh... When you go from the doom to the hope in each of these sections, it's pretty crisp. It's pretty abrupt.

So for example, chapter two, when you finish the section on the judgment of Israel, chapter two, verse 11, it's been all judgment up to this point. It says, if a man walking after wind and falsehood had told lies and said, I will speak out to you concerning wine and liquor, he would be a spokesman to this people. So it's a judgment against people, and it immediately goes to this, verse 12. I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob, "'I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. "'I will put them together like sheep in the fold, "'like a flock in the midst of the pasture. "'They will be noisy with men.'" And so there's a message of hope.

So Israel doesn't deserve any of this, and yet the future is there's gonna be a hope, and it's because God is gonna step in and act. The same in the second section. It ends the section on judgment, chapter three, verse 12. Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed as a field. Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest. So judgment, but chapter four, and then it starts the message of hope. But it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills and the peoples will stream to it.

So then the third section, we're gonna come to that part today. We're gonna finish up the part about the doom of Israel in the first six verses, and then it's gonna change, and there's gonna be a hope for Israel. It's a very stark difference, a very sudden change that's gonna take place for the nations. So three cycles. darkness and then light, doom and then hope. And in each cycle, I think the darkness is darker, the judgment is greater on the nation, and then the light of hope is brighter and brighter. So it kind of telescopes out.

So I've got a good task here to finish chapter seven with the light, with the hope. And it's expressed here more forcefully than ever here at the end with a wonderful hope and a focus on God's character as well.

Okay, so let's look at chapter seven. And the first six verses are going to end the judgment section. And it's stark. It's kind of the culminating judgment. And so this is a great passage for the doctrine of total depravity. It's a lot like Romans chapter three, where it says there's none righteous, not even one. There's no one who does good, not even one. And so this section makes clear that the hope for Israel. as a nation is not in Israel's character at all. It's gonna be in the character of God instead.

So verses one through six, and I'll just go through verse by verse. Chapter seven, the prophet says, woe is me, for I'm like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers. There's not a cluster of grapes to eat or a first ripe fig which I crave. So he starts out with a picture. It's a vivid picture, and it's a picture, if you do it right, you can taste it as well. That's the kind of picture that he makes. He's going to make a point about judgment, but he's talking about living amidst a wicked people and the burden on his soul that it is. So he expressed it in terms of a craving for fruit.

And so for me, the nearest thing for me is I love the blackberries that are around here when I'm running. I love a certain time of year and it doesn't last very long, but I can just grab right from anywhere off the bush and have a snack of black, sweet blackberries. That's the taste of summer for me.

Some of you all live even closer to the land and the seasons of the land than I do, and Micah did as well. And so he's speaking of desiring something that's in season, something sweet. It's either grapes here or it's a fig. And he's gonna compare that desire with a desire for a righteous society.

And there's something right about that desire to live in a righteous society. And there's something that resonates on us in a deep level. And so he could have pictured this in a number of ways. He could have pictured this in terms of just righteousness that measures up to a standard. Instead, what he pictures it as is how it's pictured a lot in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament as well, as fruit.

He pictures righteousness as fruit, as something that's alive and that has the life in it. That's what makes a fruit, is it has the seed in it. So it's not only alive itself, but it makes other things alive as well or carries that life with it as well. And so this is something, Micah talks about his soul craving. This fruit is what he puts it first. It's gonna be righteousness in his society.

And I think that is something built into us. at a deep level, a level that your soul craves, not just intellectual, like you read a book about a utopia or something and that's on your mind, but something built into us at a craving level, at a taste level, so to speak.

The Bible says, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. And so Micah's longing to see a righteous nation. He's longing to live in a righteous nation as well, and I think that's something that's built into us as well. We find it in church. We're part of a righteous society in church, and that's a wonderful thing for us, a satisfying thing for us, and that's what we're destined for in all eternity as well, where it will be perfect as well. So this is a good desire.

Micah, get a hold of yourself. Why would you be desiring this in a sinful world? No, this is a good thing that Micah desires, and yet he doesn't find it, and especially in Israel.

Verse two, the godly person is perished from the land, and there is no upright person among men. Okay, now he drops the figure, and this is what he's longing for, is a godly person. to find even one godly person, and what he finds instead is there's not even one. The godly person has perished from the land. There's no upright person from among men. We looked last week, James talked about this, about what does the, chapter six, verse eight. He has told you, oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. And he looked, Micah looks around at his society, and he doesn't find anyone doing that. Instead, he finds this.

Verse two, all of them lie in wait for bloodshed. Each of them hunts the other with a net. Concerning evil, both hands do it well. The prince asks also the judge for a bribe and a great man speaks the desire of his soul. so they weave it together. So he paints here the opposite of what he's looking for and longing for. It's a really vicious picture of society, where every person is trying to take advantage of the other, trying to advance themselves at the cost of the person next to them lying in wait for bloodshed.

The picture that he paints is not a picture, it's a picture of violence, yes, but it's not a picture of lawlessness like you have before the flood where violence covers the earth and there's nothing to restrain it. But it's violence as kind of the subtext and there's a facade of law in front of it. You can see that here. There's the prince, there's a judge, but they do their work for bribes. They do their work for their own gain. And the great man is speaking the desire of his soul. The great man is probably telling somebody else what he wants for a bribe. He's speaking the desire of his soul. It's interesting, it's the opposite of Micah's desire. Micah's desire is for a righteous, society and the great man in the society is speaking the desire of his soul for telling others about a bribe.

He says, there's this picture here, concerning evil, both hands do it well. And so he's looking around at his countrymen, and it's like all their energies are directed towards evil. Both hands are doing it. And then he says, both hands do it well, which is kind of a sarcastic way of putting it. It's actually the word for good. Both hands, they're good at this. But it's good at doing evil. And so he's speaking kind of ironically in that way. So it's law, but it's all been corrupted. And so the people are using the law in order to get what they want. And then the last phrase here in verse three, they weave it together. And that's, A little hard to understand what that means, but it refers to them, it's probably weaving together like it refers to in verse two, the net. Each of them hunts the other with a net. And so it refers to people actually cooperating to set traps. for other people, and so there's a bit of a conspiracy, you might even say. There's a bit of people cooperating together in order to, that the people on top might benefit at the expense of the people on the bottom, and there's some cooperation at the top as well.

It's interesting, it sounds a lot like our nation. It sounds a lot like the direction, maybe it's worse here in Israel at the time of Micah, but it sounds a lot like our nation, our U.S. Constitution was never meant to rule over an immoral people. It was meant to rule over a moral people who would be self-restrained. It's an experiment in self-government. And so it's made for people who are not just looking to get out of jail, or stay out of jail, and then get as much profit as I can from selling products that are going to be harmful to other people, or some other way of taking advantage if I can get away from it.

So this is about Israel. Israel's meant to be a mirror. This actually reveals the heart of a human being, is what Micah was experiencing here in Israel. Verse four, the best of them is like a briar, and the most upright, like a thorn hedge. So we're back to the picture again, where he's looking for grapes, he's looking for figs, and the people that he sees, the best of them, if you take, if you take the most moral of them, instead of being something that produces fruit, they're a briar and a thorn edge, something that you'd have to cut through to get where you're going an obstacle to you.

The next statement in verse four is abrupt. The day when you post your watchman, your punishment will come, then their confusion will occur. So he speaks of the day of your watchman is literally what it says, and your punishment will come.

And what is meant by the day of your watchman? Probably the true prophets. The true prophets were pictured as watchmen on the walls, looking out for danger, announcing danger, and the danger they were announcing was the day of the Lord.

The day of the Lord is coming, and it's gonna be a day of darkness and not light. It's gonna be a day of punishment for most of Israel. And so the day of your watchmen, which is also your punishment, will come. And that's a word there that's used for visitation. And it can be either for good or for bad. It means to attend to something with great care.

And so it's as if the Lord is stepping back for a while as this evil develops, but there's a day coming when he's gonna visit and he's gonna take care of it. and he's going to establish justice. So it can be for good or for bad. The same word is used for some of the women of scripture who are barren, and the Lord remembers them and visits them with a conception, an answer to prayer. He pays attention in a good sense.

But this is a day of, as the translators have put it, a day of punishment is gonna come, and when it comes, it's gonna come suddenly. then their confusion will occur. So the Lord's gonna put an end to this suddenly by stepping in and judging at some point.

And then there's these statements, this finishes up this section in verses five and six. Do not trust in a neighbor. Do not have confidence in a friend. From who who lies in your bosom guard your lips. For son treats father contemptuously. Daughter rises up against her mother. Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own household. So this speaks of the most intimate relationship and you can't trust anybody. Don't trust in your neighbor. Don't trust in your friend. Don't trust even in your family member. Because a man's enemies are against are in his own household.

Now there's a couple of ways to take that. these two verses. One is he's going back to a description of this corrupt society, where nobody can trust anybody because both hands do evil well, and everybody makes a net to take advantage of anybody that he can, and so you can't even trust family members. Another way of taking it, I think probably a better way of taking it, is that this is a result of the confusion that comes when the time of punishment comes for Israel. When the time comes when the Lord visits Israel, it will be a time when even God's punishment the most intimate confidences are broken. So I'm thinking of like the time of the tribulation coming. That's when the Lord really visits Israel and straightens out Israel. It's a time of Jacob's trouble.

So another way to take it, probably would say to take it is it talks about when your visitation comes, then your confusion will occur. And this is part of the confusion is that you can't even trust your family member at this point.

I'd say that for a couple of reasons. One is there is a certain cooperation with this evil society that Micah talks about. He talks about them weaving it together so that they do have people that they trust. This last part is about all trust breaking down.

And the other reason I do that is because of the way that the Lord Jesus use this. Remember the Lord quoted this passage. He talks about, I did not come to bring peace on earth, but I came to bring a sword. And from now on, son will be against father, daughter will be against mother-in-law.

And so I think in some ways the Lord Jesus saw his coming as already setting this visitation in motion. It's not the judgment part of it, but he has come, God has visited his people in this way, and so part of this has already begun with the Lord himself coming and he applies it to the division that comes when one family member is a Christian and another family member is not, and so that is already experienced even before the judgment falls in this way.

And that's already experienced. So we experience that today, this kind of division that he refers to. It's probably a foretaste of the confusion that's gonna come in the end times when the Lord brings judgment and sends confusion upon his wicked nation of Israel.

Okay, I gotta get moving here. Verse seven. This comes as kind of a conclusion. He looks at Israel. There's nothing to hope in. There's nothing to hope in. They're evil. They're pursuing it wholeheartedly with both hands. Everyone in the society is pursuing it. And so what does the prophet conclude from that? Does he despair of Israel as a nation, of God's plan for Israel? Well, in one way he does. He despairs of them ever coming into the destiny that was promised for them because of themselves, because of their own character. But he doesn't despair. because he's looking to the Lord, verse seven. But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. So he says, I'm gonna watch for the Lord. Micah's one of the watchmen that was talked about in verse four and it's the same word that's used here. He's gonna watch for the Lord and he's gonna wait for the God of salvation to come and then he says, my God will hear me. In other words, he's praying for the Lord to come as well.

Okay, that then, that's kind of the transition point and that introduces an amazing hope, an amazing hope that if you're reading this would be totally unexpected because what the future has in store for Israel is Total victory, total victory, and that's the picture that emerges from the rest of the verses in this chapter, the rest of the book. It's the total opposite of the trajectory that he's seeing when he looks around and he sees that Israel isn't interested at all in righteousness. So what he's hoping for from the Lord is not, well, I hope that maybe something could be salvaged of Israel's national destiny and maybe they could, if we lowered our expectations, maybe they could hit part of it. No, he's hoping for total victory for Israel and for the Lord to be totally vindicated in everything that he's promised for Israel. He's hoping for everything that he could hope for, for the nation of Israel and more. 

It's not based on Israel's character. That's already been shown not to be the source of hope at all. It's shown to be the source of gloom, shown to be the source of disappointment. But his hope is in God's character, and that's what really shines forth from this passage, and especially the end of this passage is the character of the Lord, and that's his hope. 

OK, four parts. It really falls into four parts, what's remaining. And I'll just mention these, and then we'll go through them. verse by verse. First is a confession of trust, verse eight to 10. And then response is a prophecy of enlargement, verse 10 to 13. Prayer for blessing, verse 14 to 17. And then a hymn of praise, verse 18 through 20. And that last part is kind of the high point, the hymn of praise. It's a hymn of praise of God's character that comes through in all of this. 

Okay, one helpful thing. In the first two stanzas, it seems like the speaker is the city of Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem is personified and is speaking. In the response that's given after the city speaks, it talks about it will be a day for building your walls. like it's speaking to the city of Jerusalem. One thing you can't see in your translation is that when it refers to your, in verse 11 through 13, it's a response to this confession of faith, it's feminine, and a city is feminine. A nation, not necessarily, but a city is feminine, and so it's a reference to the city of Jerusalem. 

And then one thing you can see is that the enemy that speaks against Jerusalem here is a she. You can see that in verse 10. My enemy will see and shame will cover her who said to me, where is the Lord your God? My eye will look on her. And the rivals of the city of Jerusalem is other cities. So it's spoken of as she in that way. And so a lot of the commentators, almost all of them, speak of the first two stanzas being Lady Zion speaking, or the daughter Jerusalem speaking, and speaking on behalf of the nation. It's the capital speaking and it refers to the nation. 

The New King James Version, I liked the heading that it gave to this section. It's Israel's confession and comfort. So it's like the city speaking, on behalf of the nation, but that's a good way to track kind of God's dealings with Israel through time, is for the city itself to be speaking and for this to be reflected in the life of the city. So verse eight is a confession. Verse eight through 10 is a confession of trust in the Lord, and it's actually a triumphant cry. It's something that shouldn't follow based on the state of the nation, the moral state of the nation. The city itself should be burdened by the sins of its people and headed for doom. That's what the law would say, but there's something more, and that's the promise of the Lord for the nation of Israel. 

The city of Israel is pictured in verse eight through 10 as saying this, this confession of hope. Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise. Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. So, it's the city speaking, and, you know, You can sort of see that throughout the city's history.

The Y fall and Israel has fallen numerous times to enemies that's kind of par for the course for the history of Jerusalem. I think Jerusalem's been conquered by foreign armies like something like 23 times. The walls of the city today bear all these battle wounds and bullet holes, even from the times that Jerusalem has fallen. But none of these speak of the final destiny of the city of Jerusalem.

Though I fall, I will rise. Though I dwell in darkness, and that's what Micah was seeing for the city of Jerusalem, for the nation of Israel. Though I dwell in darkness, The Lord is a light for me. And so the Lord's character, based on his character, he's gonna bring the city out of darkness and into light.

Okay, I'm speaking of this in terms of the city of Jerusalem. But what the city is saying is for you. It's assigned to you. The point of the Lord being concerned about the history of the city of Jerusalem and choosing a nation, choosing a city is not so much because the Lord is interested in cities or the life of cities. The point is to put his character on display. for you, for people, for you to draw what the character of the Lord is in a very visible way.

And the history of Israel isn't done yet, but in the end, it's gonna be put on display, the character of the Lord.

So this is one of the verses that Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, one of the best parts of it, his battle with Apollyon. with Satan, and Satan seems to get the best of Christians, and he's going for the final blow of Christian, and Christian finally grasps his sword and quotes this verse. Do not rejoice over me or my enemies. Though I fall, I will rise. Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is the light for me, and he strikes a blow against Satan. And that's a very good application of this passage. 

It's about Jerusalem. That's what it's about, but it applies to you. Though I fall, I will rise because it's the same God that's over both. And the Lord is putting his character on display in his dealings with Israel. So it's true for you. Because it's true of Jerusalem. Because it's true of Jerusalem. 

And it's important that it is true of Jerusalem because this is based on God keeping His word and keeping the word of His promise. Verse 9, I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light and I will see His righteousness. 

So it's the city itself speaking, bearing the indignation of the Lord, burdened with the sins of the people that are in it and experiencing the punishment of it. but looking to the Lord to plead my case, and he says, and execute justice for me. And the justice is not giving the city what it deserves. The justice is the Lord being righteous to fulfill what he's promised about the city of Jerusalem. 

He will bring me out to the light, and I will see his righteousness, meaning the righteous way in which he fulfills all his promises. Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, where is the Lord your God? My eyes will look on her at that time. She will be trampled down like mire of the streets." 

So the enemies who said, where is the Lord your God? They look at Jerusalem, the city that the true God has chosen, and say, it's come to nothing. And it's no better off than any other city. In fact, it's worse than any other city. And so where is the Lord your God? the God of Israel does not exist or doesn't care about you. 

When all is said and done, the enemies who said that to Israel, are gonna be covered with shame and trampled down in defeat and able to see with their eyes that they're wrong. And so there's a big focus in this final passage on what can be seen, what will be seen in the end. And my enemy will see the truth of this. 

And so what he's speaking of, this great reversal that he's speaking of that puts God's name on display is not just an internal reality. You know, that he's going to fill people with hope internally. That's true. That's a good application of this. But it's going to be seen externally for all to see. And that's in the end times when the Lord brings this about in Jerusalem. 

So there's a focus on sight. when this time of victory comes for Israel, it's gonna be something that's gonna be seen. Until that time, we walk by faith and not by sight. 

Okay, so there's a confession of faith, a great confession of faith by the Lord's people, by especially Jerusalem as a representative here of the Lord's people, and then there's a response. And the response is a prophecy of enlargement. So this is kind of a response to the nation of Israel. 

It will be a day for building your walls. On that day will your boundary be extended. It will be a day when they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, from Egypt even to the Euphrates, from sea to sea and mountain to mountain, and the earth will become desolate because of all her inhabitants on the account of the fruit of their deeds." 

So the day that's coming, the day of victory that's coming for Israel, he calls it a day for building your walls, the walls of the city, and a day when your boundary will be extended. The boundaries of Israel. are not unlimited. It's not God's purpose for Israel's boundaries to extend over the whole world and to make every nation to be Israel. 

The boundaries of Israel, they're mentioned a number of times in Israel, and they're mentioned by the prophets, like the prophet Ezekiel, and they're always the same. It's basically the boundaries, pretty much the boundaries of Israel now. Plus extending quite a bit more to the north, all the way up to the Euphrates River to the north, and that's a part that they haven't really possessed. 

The tourism industry in Lebanon, one of the ways they promote themselves is to say, we're the other promised land. And they're trying to get tourists, of course, like Israel gets. But that's actually reflected in scripture. A big part of Lebanon falls within the boundaries of the nation of Israel. 

There's sometimes confusion about the southern boundary. It's called the Brook of Egypt. And a lot of times people will say, well, that's the Nile, which would be weird. It would sort of divide Egypt in half, like one bank of the Nile would be part of Israel. The Brook of Egypt is actually one of the dry riverbeds. It's actually probably about where the southern boundary of Israel is now. And so that's the boundary line. Israel doesn't extend into Egypt. So the point of Israel's boundaries being extended is that they're gonna possess the land that God gave to them all the way up to their boundaries. They're gonna be obedient in the land, possess not other nations land, but the land that's theirs and then be a blessing to the world from that land. And that's described them being a blessing to the world. It will be a day when they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, from Egypt and the Euphrates, even from sea to sea and mountain to mountain. And so that's the whole world, that's the world benefiting from Israel and coming to them.

Sometimes this is, understood to be sort of symbolic of the church and of the gospel going out today, that all the nations are coming to Israel, coming to the gospel, so to speak. But look at verse 13. And I don't think that's the context of it. I think it's something yet to come when the nations all benefit from Israel's triumph.

Verse 13, and the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants on account of the fruit of their deeds. That hasn't happened yet. But what does that sound like? The earth becoming desolate on account of the fruit of their deeds. Well, it sounds like the book of Revelation, doesn't it? The desolation that takes place on the earth. And after that desolation, there's going to be healing for the nation, for the world that begins in Israel. It begins there and then it spreads throughout the whole earth. That doesn't exactly describe the church age, the earth becoming desolate because of her inhabitants and the fruit of their deeds. And so I think it's referred to something that's yet to come and will involve the nation of Israel.

Okay. Let's go quickly through the last part. There's a prayer for blessing, these last two stanzas. And then the part I wanna get to, a hymn of praise. So verse 14, let me read this prayer for blessing. in light of this great triumph that's prophesied.

Shepherd your people with your scepter, the flock of your possession, which dwells by itself in the woodland in the midst of a fruitful field. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days of old. Israel is described, this part's a little hard to understand, as dwelling by itself in the woodland in the midst of a fruitful field. And I think the idea there is that they're in a thicket but they're right on the edge of fruitfulness, but it's just out of reach for them. And so it's describing what they are currently. They dwell by itself in a woodland or a thicket, but it's like they're in the midst of a fruitful field and they can't get to it. And so the prayers let them feed in Bashan and Gilead to very fruitful sections of Israel as in the days of old.

And then the Lord says in answer to this prayer, as in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt, I will show you miracles. I will cause you to see miracles. And there's a big emphasis here or an allusion to the Red Sea crossing. where the Lord showed wonders to his people. He delivered them in a way that everybody could see, again, a reference to sight, and put his character on display so that you could say who is like the Lord. In Egypt, it was the Egyptian troops that went down to the bottom of the sea. Here it's gonna be the sins of Israel that are cast into the depths of the sea, but there's a reference back to the great deliverance, and there's gonna be a greater one in store in the future.

Nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will put their hand on their mouth. Their ears will be deaf. They will lick the dust like a serpent, like reptiles of the earth. They will come trembling out of their fortresses to the Lord our God. They will come in dread and they will be afraid before you." So this is gonna be something visible. The nations are gonna see and it's gonna change things on the earth so that the people of the nations tremble. before the God of Israel, and Israel itself kind of sets the pace for the nations at this point.

Okay, the last three verses, and I haven't left myself much time for this. Who is God like you? who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham, which you swore to our forefathers from the days of old.

Do you remember what Micah's name means? Anybody? Yes, good, good. Who is like Yahweh or who is like the Lord? And so a lot of times the prophet's name speaks of their message. And certainly for Micah here, his message is really to put the name of the Lord on display. So he says, who is like the Lord? Who is a God like you? And what attributes of God makes him incomparable. What attribute does he mention? Redemption. Okay, good. And specifically, Forgiveness, forgiveness, okay? So it's the forgiveness of the Lord that puts his character on display. 

And the victory that he's just described, and that I've tried to capture in some of my comments on this for Israel, is totally undeserved. Totally undeserved. In fact, if you put the first half of this chapter with the second half, it's not a match. It's not deserved at all. Israel deserves the opposite of a great victory. And yet, God brings about a great victory, not because of who Israel is, it's the opposite of who Israel, but because of who he is. He's a God who forgives iniquity, Passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession. And that's important to mention in the end. 

All Israel is going to be saved. The nation of Israel as the nation is going to be saved in the end. It's the remnant, actually, that's gonna be saved, and it's gonna be expanded upon. The Lord is gonna bring, in one passage, it talks about bringing one third of Israel through a fire, a fire of his judgment. It's a part of the nation that's going to be saved, and yet, that's gonna be the surviving part of the nation, and then the Lord's gonna greatly expand upon them, and so their national character will be the same as the remnant. 

So he's gonna forgive the remnant of his possession, because he delights in unchanging love. He delights in grace and in showing his grace. And that's the purpose of the history of Israel. He says, he will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yet, yes, you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. And so Micah is looking forward to this great act of forgiveness and also an act of deliverance over sin. He will have compassion on us and tread our iniquities underfoot. You get the idea there, not just of sins being forgiven, but a deliverance from sin. And then as far as forgiveness, he says, you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. So he's looking forward to the time when the Lord deals decisively with the sin and the guilt of Israel. From Micah's perspective, it's future. I'm looking forward to the day when you will do this. Remove sins as far as they can be removed into the depths of the sea. 

For us, it's the past tense. We know how he did this, through the cross, through the empty tomb of Christ. And so for us, this is good news, news of something that has occurred. For Micah, it is a hope. And it's a wonderful hope that the Lord does this for our sins. It's something that leads to worship. That's the point of this hymn of praise. And why does the Lord do this? Let's put his character on display, but it's also this, verse 20. The reason the Lord does this for Israel, the nation of Israel, is because he promised to. And so he does it in exactly the same way. way that he promised. He promised to make Israel a great nation. And so that's the promise, that's the reason why he's doing this, to put his character on display and to do what he promised to do. That's how he wants to be known, not only as a God of grace, but as a God who keeps his words to us. So we're to join in in making this our confession of faith, our prayer to the Lord and then our hymn of praise. So it ends with worship of the Lord for who he is. 

Okay, comments, questions? 

Question. Will, how would you answer the charge of the dispensational distinction between the church and Israel as being only 200 years old from Derby? 

So yeah, some say that the distinction between the church and Israel is only 200 years old. It goes back to Darby, you mentioned, or the 19th century. So I would say a couple of things about that. One is, well, the early church, the earliest church, believed in a 1,000-year reign of Christ, that Christ would come and then reign on the earth for 1,000 years. So that goes back to the earliest part of the church. The distinction between the church and Israel probably was not made as clearly until the 19th century. I would say, though, that the church deals with different parts of theology at different times throughout church history. So the first, let's say, 300 years of church history, the church dealt with the person of Christ. He is God, He is man, and dealt with details of that that were probably more detailed even than we think of today, because that's not totally the thing that's the focus. During the time of the Reformation, there was a big focus on salvation theology. And so there were truths about justification by faith alone. You can track back in history, but they were never made more clearly than at the time of the Reformation. After that time, the church sort of systemized eschatology, putting the whole Bible together into a system. One of the systems that competes more or less with the dispensational system is covenant theology. 

Covenant theology didn't really crystallize until probably the 1600s or first James, maybe the end of the 1500s. So to say that one way of of bringing scripture together in a system dates back only to the 19th century, as if the rival to it dates back from the beginning. It's not true. 

The covenant theology itself and the way that it's been crystallized in detail, it only dates back a couple of hundred years earlier than that. And I think that's because the attention of the church focused on bringing the whole Bible together in a system is something that came into focus within the past three or four hundred years of the church. 

So I think it's worth thinking about, but the important thing is What does the scripture say? And one of the reasons why a more dispensational view has staying power is because it comes from scripture. It comes from, when you read through the Old Testament, and the New Testament as well, it's difficult to get away from the fact that God has a distinct purpose for Israel and for the church. They fit together, but there's a distinct purpose for each. 

Okay, any, oh. One more. I see it as, I don't see it as Israel, the land. I see it as the body of Christ. Where does that put that in history? Is that the very beginning? So I'm not totally understanding. I don't acknowledge Israel as being important. Okay. The land. Yeah. At this point I see it as Jesus' blessing. the entire world through his church. 

Okay, so that's one way of putting it together is to see no further purpose for Israel and you're in good company with a lot of Christians who see it that way. Ultimately, that's what's going to happen. Right is right and wrong is wrong and the way they're behaving right now, I can't I stayed pretty neutral for a long time, but I'm not now. Yeah, yeah. And it's difficult to, you know, I don't think we should support Israel right or wrong. We don't have a blank check just because God has a future purpose for them. 

And current events, sorting through current events, you know, I'm probably not qualified to do that. That's why I try to just point to how does the Bible view Israel. And in my opinion, in my understanding of the Bible, God still has a future purpose for Israel that the Bible speaks of. Correct. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. 

So it shouldn't take away anything from the church, but it does point to a larger purpose as well. Okay. To be continued for sure. And let's bow and pray. 

Father, we thank you for your purposes, we thank you that all of your purposes come to fruition in a way that is good for your people. And we struggle with the details and we, like the prophets of old, consider the prophecies and how they may come about, but we know that they are going to come about in a way that glorifies you. It sets your name on display, and it gives victory to your people. 

We pray for the nation of Israel. We pray for your purposes to be done in them, and we pray for ourselves. We thank you that we know you as you are, and we thank you for your power, for your compassion, and for your grace. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.