Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20100131.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Micah: An Eloquent Presentation Of God's Salvation From Ungodly Leadership
Part I: Applying Micah's Desire For God's Messianic Solution To Ungodly Human Leaders
(Micah 1:1-7:20)
  1. Introduction
    1. Throughout history, sin has led to self-centered, abusive human leadership opposite what subjects need.
    2. God led the prophet, Micah to produce a powerful literary work presenting His final solution to this need.
    3. We view the overview of that work to find specific, productive application for our era (as follows):
  2. Applying Micah's Desire For God's Messianic Solution To Ungodly Human Leaders, Mic. 1:1-7:20.
    1. Micah prophesied in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Micah 1:1), and from the books of Kings and Chronicles, we know this era was marked by "economic revolution, which was proving to be a mixed blessing," Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah, (NICOT), 1976, p. 239-240.
    2. Though prosperity initially seemed good for the nation of Judah, it "spawned selfish materialism" (Ibid., p. 240), and as so often has occurred in human history, the strong took advantage of the weak: "(f)or peasants and villagers, these were days of harassment from enemy armies, of hardship because of exploitation by the wealthy (Micah 2:1-13), and of oppression by the rulers (Micah 3:1-4) and false prophets (Micah 3:5-8)," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., p. 1283, "Introduction to the Book of Micah."
    3. Micah's prophetic book, then, addressed these sins as he "cried for social justice," Ibid., and the way he did this involves a book-long literary device, a chiasmus, that makes a powerful point (as follows):
      1. E. W. Bullinger's, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, 1968, p. 374, claimed "by far the most stately and dignified presentation of a subject" was the chiasmus that arranged subjects as a, b, c, b', a'.
      2. The center of the chiasmus, here, segment "c", forms the heart and most important part of the work.
      3. Well, Leslie C. Allen (Ibid., p. 257-261) reveals the whole book of Micah is a chiasmus (as follows):
        1. Micah 1:2-2:13, section "a", corresponds to Micah 6:1-7:20, section "a'" where both sections contain prophetic material that is "long [on] doom" (Micah 1:2-2:11; Micah 6:1-7:7) followed respectively in turn by "short [on] hope" (Micah 2:12-13; Micah 7:8-20). (brackets ours)
        2. Micah 3:1-12's "long doom" with Micah 4:1-5's "short hope" segment, what we call section "b", corresponds to the Micah 5:10-14 "long doom" with the Micah 5:15 "short hope" of section "b'".
        3. Micah 4:6-8's focus on Israel's godly "remnant" hope with allusions to distress that they will face corresponds to the same focus in Micah 5:7-9.
        4. In the center of the book, at Micah 4:9-5:6, is section "c" that itself consists of three parts: (1) a "long distress and doom + short hope" part in Micah 4:9-10, (2) a "short distress + long hope" part in Micah 4:11-13 and (3) a final "short distress + longer hope" part in Micah 5:1-6. (emphasis ours)
        5. Since this section "c" of the chiasmus is the highlight of Micah's whole prophetic book, and this section's three parts shift from an initially higher focus on distress and end with a significantly higher focus on hope, the last part of Micah 5:1-6 is the key highlight, the hope of the book.
        6. That section starts with the plight of Judah's last, hapless puppet king Zedekiah who would be taken captive by Babylon in judgment for his sin (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Micah 5:1) and moves triumphantly to the coming righteous Messiah (Jesus Christ) Who would be born in Bethlehem of Judah (Micah 5:2-3) and reverse the nation's plight by properly shepherding not only Judah's oppressed people, but the whole world in His coming Kingdom (Micah 5:4), and protecting Judah from her foes as exemplified in His protecting her from the Assyrians (Micah 5:5-6), Ibid., ftn. to Micah 5:4-15.
    4. Thus, by its arrangement into the potent literary format of the time, by way of a chiasmus, Micah revealed the only real hope of Judah's oppressed over the abuses by godless human leaders would be the rise of the Blessed Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Supreme Hope not only for Judah, but for all mankind!
Lesson: The STRUCTURE of Micah EXALTS the ULTIMATE SOLUTION to the OPPRESSION people face by godless leaders -- the coming REIGN of the RIGHTEOUS MESSIAH, JESUS CHRIST!

Application: If troubled by ungodly leadership today, may we release our grief and frustration by productively trusting in Christ, and then living, working and hoping for HIS COMING KINGDOM!