Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20100207.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Micah: An Eloquent Presentation Of God's Salvation From Ungodly Leadership
Part II: Cycle One Of Doom And Hope: God's Final Victory Over False Teachers
(Micah 1:1-2:13)
  1. Introduction
    1. Errant teaching has disastrous long-term effects on people, fact seen in Micah 1:1-2:11 in Judah's history.
    2. However, God has a solution, one predicted in the rise of the True spiritual Shepherd in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in Micah 2:12-13, and this passage offers edifying application on that great need in our era:
  2. Cycle One Of Doom And Hope: God's Final Victory Over False Teachers, Micah 1:1-2:13.
    1. As we learned in our first lesson on this prophetic book, the whole prophecy is organized in a chiasmus, with Micah 1:1-2:13 forming a section "a" in the chiasmus.
    2. As such, a long section on doom appears in Micah 1:1-2:11, presenting the terrible plight of Judah in Micah 1:1-16, with Micah 2:1-11 explaining that the cause of this plight arose from false teachers :
      1. Judah in Micah's era faced a terrible future, that of God's overwhelming judgment for sin, Micah 1:1, 2-7: Micah thus predicted he saw God figuratively coming like a huge, angry giant to devastate the land of Israel (seen in its capital, Samaria) and Judah (seen in its capital, Jerusalem) for their sins.
      2. This plight produced a lament from God's prophet, Micah (Micah 1:8-9), and a call for others to grieve who stood in the path of the invading Gentile army God would thus use to punish His people, Micah 1:10-16. ("Micah 1:10-16 traces the route of the invading army from the Philistine coastal plain through the Judean hills to Jerusalem", Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to Micah 1:10-16).
      3. The cause of Judah's terrible plight was the sin of her people (Micah 2:1-5) that was in turn supported by the ministry of errant false prophets (Micah 2:6-11), described in Micah 2:1-11 as follows:
        1. Micah pronounced a judgmental "woe" to the people for their sins of staying awake at night to devise sinful abuses to perform greedily to seize the possessions of others, Micah 2:1-2.
        2. God thus promised to punish Judah: (1) He would let foreign invaders take away their own land (Mic. 2:3-4), and (2) they would not even have anyone present to pass judgment in their courts of law used for unjustly seizing the properties of others (Mic . 2:5), which judgment would destroy their abusive legal system, Micah 2:3-5, Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Mic. 2:3-5; Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 1480.
        3. Tragically, the false prophets in Judah were angry that Micah was predicting such judgment, so they told him not to prophesy that God's judgment would come, Ibid., Micah 2:6!
        4. In response, Micah answered that God indeed blessed those whose deeds were upright (Micah 5:7); however, these false prophets "were actually treating God's people as if they were the prophets' enemy", for in failing to tell the nation of its need to repent, they were in effect aiding the invading Gentile army by ensuring the arrival of God's judgment, Ibid.; Micah 2:8-9.
        5. Thus, due to the false teaching of these prophets, the land was defiled, so Micah sarcastically called the people to go into exile (Micah 2:10); their values were so twisted under the false prophets' words that the people would believe their claims of future prosperity, even if they promised lots of wine and strong drink so everyone could get drunk in debauchery, Micah 2:11! (Ibid., p. 1480-1481)
    3. Nevertheless, Micah 2:12-13 supplies a short segment of hope, God's solution to this plight of false teachers by way of the Person and Work of the True, Good Shepherd of the Messianic Kingdom, Christ:
      1. Opposite this seemingly spiritually hopeless situation, Micah was led of God to predict that God Himself would surely gather the remnant of Israel after her judgment, setting the entire nation together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture and a noisy multitude of people, Micah 2:12.
      2. Israel would be led by her Shepherd Who would break open the fold to lead her to nurturing pasture, removing obstacles to blessing in contrast to the false teachers of Micah's era, Mic. 2:13; Ibid., p. 1481.
Lesson: Though the false prophets had misled Israel and Judah to continue comfortably in their sins, being the key plight to their terrible destiny of facing God's wrath, God would one day Himself in His SON, Jesus Christ, shepherd the whole nation in truth and righteousness with resulting great blessing!

Application: (1) May we hope and live for Christ's Kingdom! (2) May we heed our Great Shepherd, Jesus, in obeying Scripture for blessing in our dark era of false teaching! (Hebrews 13:20; Isaiah 8:20)