Day 271: Micah 1-4

(The Book of Micah was the sixth of the twelve books that made up the minor prophet section of the Old Testament. Micah was a prophet during the same time as Hosea. Micah was a prophet of Judah, however, the first three chapters focused on Israel's coming captivity. Chapters 4 and 5 focused on the events leading up to and including the Millennium. The final two chapters focused again on Israel's causes for the coming judgment and the eventual blessings during end times.)

Micah 1
1 The word of Jehovah that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

(This book's prophecy was focused on Samaria and Jerusalem: the capital cities of Israel and Jerusalem respectively.)

2 Hear, ye peoples, all of you: hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
3 For, behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

(Messianic prophecy: Jehovah (Christ) will come down from heaven.)

4 And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place.

(This Messianic prophecy was concerning the second coming of Christ at the battle of Armageddon and the beginning of the Millennium.)

5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

(Verses 6-7: judgment against Samaria.)

6 Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, and as places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations thereof.
7 And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her hires shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I lay desolate; for of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them, and unto the hire of a harlot shall they return.

(The judgment against Samaria (Israel), in large part, came from the Assyrians.)

8 For this will I lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals, and a lamentation like the ostriches.

(The rest of this chapter was a lamentation for Israel.)

9 For her wounds are incurable; for it is come even unto Judah; it reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

(Israel was beyond repair.)

10 Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all: at Beth-le-aphrah have I rolled myself in the dust.
11 Pass away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame: the inhabitant of Zaanan is not come forth; the wailing of Beth-ezel shall take from you the stay thereof.
12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waiteth anxiously for good, because evil is come down from Jehovah unto the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish: she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.
14 Therefore shalt thou give a parting gift to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing unto the kings of Israel.
15 I will yet bring unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah, him that shall possess thee: the glory of Israel shall come even unto Adullam.
16 Make thee bald, and cut off thy hair for the children of thy delight: enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.

(Micah was speaking to Judah about Israel. Israel was going to be taken captive, leaving Judah behind. This ought to have caused Judah to focus more on God.)




Micah 2
1 Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
2 And they covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

(Judgment would be against those that oppressed other men.)

3 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye walk haughtily; for it is an evil time.

(Against this family (Israel), God would devise an evil. Judgment was upon Israel.)

4 In that day shall they take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We are utterly ruined: he changeth the portion of my people: how doth he remove it from me! to the rebellious he divideth our fields.
5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the line by lot in the assembly of Jehovah.
6 Prophesy ye not, thus they prophesy. They shall not prophesy to these: reproaches shall not depart.

(The people and false prophets had forbidden Micah from prophesying.)

7 Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the Spirit of Jehovah straitened? are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?

(The words of the prophets were not threatening to those who walked uprightly.)

8 But of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye strip the robe from off the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.
9 The women of my people ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their young children ye take away my glory for ever.
10 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place; because of uncleanness that destroyeth, even with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

(The prophets of "this people" (not of God) would be self proclaimed prophets who prophesied of wine and strong drink: a comfortable message of good times.)

12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the midst of their pasture; they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.
13 The breaker is gone up before them: they have broken forth and passed on to the gate, and are gone out thereat; and their king is passed on before them, and Jehovah at the head of them.

(Israel will be restored. Notice, within four verses, the focus of the prophecy moved from their current circumstances to the Millennium.)




Micah 3
1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice?

(God (through Micah) got the attention of the leaders. These leaders ought to have known Justice...)

2 ye who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

(...instead, they hated good and loved evil.)

3 who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
4 Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, but he will not answer them; yea, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings.

(During judgment, the people would cry out to God but He would not hear them. God would hide His Face (presence) from them. This was documented in the Book of Jeremiah. God did tell His people not to pray because he would not hear it: Jeremiah 11:14; 14:10-12. God also said in Jeremiah 15:1 that even if Moses and Samuel were present, they could not turn God's Mind towards His people.)

5 Thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that make my people to err; that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and whoso putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him:
6 Therefore it shall be night unto you, that ye shall have no vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them.

(The false prophets would have no vision. They would be in darkness. The judgment would be so bad that they would stop trying to "divine," which was "to practice divination.")

7 And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
8 But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

(Micah was full of power, judgment, and might from the Holy Spirit.)

9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, that abhor justice, and pervert all equity.

(Another proclamation from God (through Micah) for the leaders of Israel to listen.)

10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us.
12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

(Judgment against Jerusalem. See Jeremiah 26:18. We have seen the first three chapters focused on Israel's coming captivity. The next two chapters focused on the events leading up to and including the Millennium.)




Micah 4
1 But in the latter days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow unto it.

(In the last days (Millennium), the mountain of the house of God will be set up and people will flow unto it.)

2 And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem;

(The word (Christ) will go forth from Jerusalem.)

3 and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

(There will be peace in the Millennium.)

4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it.
5 For all the peoples walk every one in the name of his god; and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever.
6 In that day, saith Jehovah, will I assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted;
7 and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and Jehovah will reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever.
8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, yea, the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

(Israel will be restored under Messiah.)

9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee, is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail?
10 Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and shalt dwell in the field, and shalt come even unto Babylon: there shalt thou be rescued; there will Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

(Long before the Millennium, Judah would be taken captive by the Babylonians.)

11 And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see our desire upon Zion.

(The nations against Israel/Judah would be the nations under the authority of the Antichrist.)

12 But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, neither understand they his counsel; for he hath gathered them as the sheaves to the threshing-floor.
13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain unto Jehovah, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.

(Israel was encouraged to rise up against the Antichrist when Messiah comes back at the battle of Armageddon.)

(This post covered three chapters focused on Israel's coming captivity. It also covered one chapter focused on the events leading up to the Millennium.)

Day 272

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