Dennis Tuuri

and all that therein is. And let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord, from his holy temple. For behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth, and the mountain shall be molten under him, and the valley shall be clefted as waxed before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. 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? Your children may be dismissed now to go down to their Sabbath schools if their parents desire that.

This morning is the second in our series going through the book of Micah. I want to review a little bit what we said last week and also pick up some things we didn’t really get time to discuss.

So we’ll have a brief review of Micah 1:1 before we get into the next four verses, which is our main subject this morning. Remember, we said last week that Micah 1:1 says that the word of the Lord that came to Micah is the source of the prophecy of Micah and how important that is. It’s a sure covenant word, a command word from our God, the covenant God of Israel identified by the term Lord there, Yahweh. The first verse told us who the speaker of the prophecy was.

It was Micah the Moreshite. Third, we said that the time, the setting as it were of the prophecy is in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. How important it is to remember that we’re talking about the divided kingdom here. These were kings of Judah, the southern kingdom, the southern two tribes. And we talked a little bit about Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. And then fourth, the topic or the subject of the first verse was which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

So the topic of the subject of the prophecy of the book of Micah is Samaria and Jerusalem. I want to spend a couple of minutes more on the setting. Remember we said that first there was King Jotham and the lessons we learned from King Jotham whose name means Yahweh is perfect. First we recognize during Jotham’s reign he was a pretty good king did good things but the scriptures explicitly state that the people were still doing corruptly and the word meant to kind of rot away and they were being perverted in everything that they did.

And so there was no reformation at the popular level as it were. We said that a nationally good political figure, for instance in terms of application for us, is not going to do as much in terms of reformation and staying God’s hand of judgment against this land. People basically get the rulers that God intends them to get based upon their own sinfulness or faithfulness to his covenant. And so judgment was to come because the people themselves were still corrupted.

We’ve said repeatedly that a theonomic president in the White House will not help us much in this country if there’s no reformation, there’s no revival, there’s no turning back to our covenant God on the part of the general population.

Secondly though, Jotham does tell us that rulers have to be consistent in what they’re doing. Jotham was inconsistent in that he was a pretty, a very good king. He ordered his ways to be right after the Lord. However, the scriptures explicitly state that he did not take down the high places that had been erected by his father. And so Jotham kind of just kept in the way of his father who was basically good although he left the high places up as well and who ended his life of course in incident that we talked about last week.

Rulers must persevere. They must not just be content with where they’re at. Jotham should have persevered in his righteousness before God and gone into taking down the high places. The name Yahweh is perfect is an indicator to us that we are not, that our rulers are not. That’s certainly true. But also true is that we must strive toward that sort of perfection. Not that we can achieve it in our lifetime, but we must not be content with any level of maturity that God brings us to. We must continue to persevere.

God is holy. He’s totally separated in his righteous standard. We are not that. However, we are called to be holy since he is holy and we are called to be perfect because he is perfect. We can’t achieve it totally, but we must press toward the mark. The people and the ruler in Jotham’s time did not. And so Jotham’s reign was followed by Ahaz’s reign, a very wicked king who did not respect God’s covenant word at all.

Ahaz, the meaning of that name was he has grasped. And we saw in Ahaz much sin. We saw political and religious syncretism. We said that religious and political syncretism is always accompanied by religious syncretism. And we talked about the implications for our country in light of our president who has just recently visited a nation that official state policy is persecution of the faith.

Still a federal criminal action in Russia to educate your children under the age of 18 in the faith. And yet we have a president going over there and saying they’re no longer an evil empire. That was a different time, a different place. Speaking under the bust of Lenin himself. And so we see in this country religious and political syncretism. We have alliances with Russia because we have a shared faith with Russia.

That shared faith is humanism and secularism. And the God of Yahweh has been demoted to a very small portion of official public policy being basically used for invocations of public events now. And that’s about it.

It’s very important to recognize that Ahaz’s sin is specifically said to be religious syncretism. It’s important we don’t miss that mark. Remember how he took some of the elements that God had in the temple and brought them out and incorporated it into a pagan altar of worship that he had seen in Damascus when he was visiting with the king of Assyria.

And later, Josiah, who we know will be a very good king later on in this time period, shortly before the whole nation was taken into captivity in Babylon. Josiah’s reforms will include the breaking down of Ahaz’s upper chamber with its idols. Hezekiah, who will follow Ahaz, part of his reforms is specifically said in the scriptures is that he remade and then reconsecrated the utensils of the temple that Ahaz had discarded in his unfaithfulness.

So political religious syncretism is spoken against in Ahaz’s reign. Additionally, Ahaz had a better idea than God. Remember, Ahaz was confronted with the judgment that was coming upon him. And he was told by Isaiah, he was given the sign of the virgin who would bear a child, Emmanuel, that he shouldn’t worry about the invading troops from Israel and from Syria, that God would take care of him if he put his trust in God.

But Ahaz had a better idea. Ahaz had the idea of making a covenant, this religious and political syncretism with Assyria and we talked about what a terrible nation they were at that time. So Ahaz grasped his own concept of what’s good. Remember we said that the covenant word of the Lord spoken of in 1:1 reminds us that we must not grasp our own solutions. What seems best for us. We must cleave to the word of God.

Don’t rely upon circumstances and say well God worked it out for me to do this and that thing when actually that thing is specifically spoken against in the scriptures. God doesn’t work against his word. We must cleave to that word and understand it. We must not grasp our own solution and our own ideas and Ahaz did and he suffered the judgment of God because of it.

Third though, Ahaz was followed by Hezekiah and Hezekiah was a good king. His name means Yahweh is my strength. He began his reign in 716 BC. His reign is talked about in 2 Kings 18 and following and 2 Chronicles 29 and following. And we find out that Hezekiah did some very good things. He trusted in God. He did good deeds. He did destroy the high places. He began his reign at age 25. For 29 years, he did what was right in the land. He rebelled successfully.

2 Kings 18:7 tells us, against the reign of the king of Assyria. Remember we said that Assyria had been diminished for the first five or ten years of Hezekiah’s reign by trying to fight the Ararat kingdom, which is now present day Armenia. We talked about how Rusa kept the Assyrians at bay. And it’s important to recognize that’s a historical fact that helped Hezekiah achieve the reforms he did while Assyria was being diverted their attention was being diverted by battling Ararat.

Hezekiah declared Judah’s independence in 704 BC from the Assyrians. But the Assyrians soon after taking care of Ararat too with the help of the Cimmerians, with their help they defeated Ararat and then they turned their attention back to the Syro-Palestinian area there and they began to conquer again. Hezekiah is said to be a Philistine conqueror in 2 Kings 18. So he was a good king, but God’s judgment was coming upon both his land and the northern kingdom because of their sin.

We’re specifically told that in the texts involved. And so judgment was coming upon him. Hezekiah’s reforms are primarily mentioned in the scriptures in great length in terms of his religious reforms. That’ll be important what we’re going to say this morning about the next four verses of Micah. His reforms were religious in character. And of course, you remember that we said that Hezekiah’s reforms occurred primarily as a result of Micah’s prophecy.

And so there’s a link between the reforms of Hezekiah, which we’ll make this morning, and Hezekiah, the end of Micah’s prophecies here in these next four verses of the text. Proverbs 25:1 says that Hezekiah had men transcribe some of Solomon’s proverbs as part of his religious reform. And of course, he reinstituted Passover and many other good religious reforms that he accomplished.

After however, the defeat of Israel and Samaria and their deportation occurring at the hand of the Assyrians, the Assyrians then invaded Judah. In 701 BC, this whole thing began. He eventually invaded Judah. He took over the high fortified cities as it were of Judah. Jerusalem. We said Hezekiah’s reforms were good, but he was basically a bird in a cage. He was set upon by the Assyrians. They had come to the walls of Jerusalem itself. Hezekiah tried to buy them off by sending them gold from the doors of the temple. They took the gold. They weren’t bought off.

However, they continued and tried to bring in the God of Jehovah as were under the authoritarian state. Remember, they’re dealing with political religious syncretism. Religions were conquered and brought under the king of Assyria himself who was the great dragon, the great worm as it were, the great serpent. And so it was very much like today where we have political statist attempt to subvert and bring all religions under its dominion.

Well, they weren’t content with just the doors, the temple. They wanted the whole thing. And so Hezekiah turns to Isaiah. Isaiah tells Hezekiah to be strong. And he was strong and unlike his father Ahaz whose hearts trembled and shook like the trees in the wind. The scriptures tell us in Isaiah before the approaching judgment from God upon his nation. Hezekiah did take strength in God and Hezekiah said that greater is him who’s with us than him who is with the enemy.

Quoted again of course in the New Testament which is important for us to recognize that Old Testament reference. So Hezekiah was strengthened and resolved and God then delivered Hezekiah and Jerusalem out of the hand of the Assyrians through miraculous means. Hezekiah was then a goodly example for us.

The lesson is that in the midst of great judgment, great apostasy, great calamity and mighty and ferocious and ruthless foreign nations and judgments as it were from God and being worked through secularist nations that try to subvert and conquer all religions. In the midst of all that, God can and does affect reformation and revival in the heart of a people. And Hezekiah is an example to us of that. And he should be an encouragement to us then as we look upon the judgments to come upon this nation and upon the whole world for its disobedience to God. We should remember the hour is never too late. The day is never too dark. The time is never passed. The circumstances are never so bleak as to be beyond grace and deliverance from God from the hand of a mighty conquering God that is and will conquer all kingdoms under himself.

In times that characterize the writings of Micah, it’s important to know and rely upon the fact that Jehovah is our strength, the rock to which we can and must cling.

Okay, that brings us to the next four verses, verses 2-5. And we see in the very first verse here a summation or summoning as it were a convening of a court of God’s justice. Wesley Allen in his commentary on this passage says, and I quote: “The prophets frequently borrowed from the social life of the community in order to transmit their messages of God’s attitude and character. The law court serves as a favorite source of comparison. God is the great judge and plaintiff while his people or other nations stand in the dock accused of grave crimes awaiting his verdict. This poem preserves echoes of the summons to the defendant to stand trial of the judges coming to hear the case of the call to recite the charges against the defendant of the solemn verdict soon to be carried out and the gasp of horror from the spectators at its severity.

Part of the allure of the prophets is the refreshing way in which they mix motifs juxtaposing a kaleidoscopic variety of cultural models.”

Okay. So Allen correctly recognizes that verses 2 through 7 are a summation to a court proceeding by God. And Allen says that God would take these things that were common in the cultural milieu which he was operating and speak to the people in some sort of common ground mentality. He seems to be implying that and he’s right in that it obviously is a court situation here and we’ll go through that in a second. But I think it is vitally important that we recognize that God didn’t somehow find that cultural implication of courts and lawsuits and that sort of stuff existing in the people that he addressed. He didn’t just find it there. He brought it to pass. We’re people of law. We’re people of courts and of lawsuits and lawsuits involving contracts or covenants.

Covenant lawsuits then not because we came to that on our own, but because we’re created beings created in the image of God. God’s a God of law. He is a God of covenant. He is a God of covenant lawsuit. He’s a judge and he brings witness against people. And so in our courts of justice, we image God in that. Whether we’re self-conscious about it or not, it doesn’t make any difference. God doesn’t find common ground with us.

He establishes the ground on which we walk. He’s the sovereign declarer of all things that are. He creates all things to image him. And so it’s not a common ground mentality in that sense. We must start with the God who is and who reveals himself and he reveals himself in the way that people actually live out their lives either in obedience or disobedience to his covenant but always as it were at the very worst twisting the images that he has given to us men in law courts because God is a God of law and it’s important to keep that in mind in everything we say this morning it has implications for the lessons we can learn from this passage of scripture before us the primacy of God not the primacy of man first okay.

In verse one the court is convened verse one or verse two rather which is really the first verse of the prophecy. Verse one was actually the introduction or the description of what is to follow and verse two actually starts the prophecy and the first thing we read is here all ye people hearken o earth and all that therein is and so there’s a summation here the first word in the prophecy is here and the word there is shama and many of your children if they’re downstairs in the Sabbath school today have learned that Hebrew word by now from Robert as he’s teaching the kids the meaning of shama hear o Israel you’ve heard us talk about or write in the line upon online.

For instance, Steve Vickers wrote about the great shama or hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Shama is a Hebrew word for hear, but it’s a strong imperative term. It means listen up. Don’t miss this because this is extremely important. It is a call, a summons by God to realize that this law court is going to be convened and you had better hear what’s going to be said or you’ll not understand what’s going to happen to you.

And so it’s a strong word of convocation given by God. We hear the word of the Lord with big ears. Remember we talked about that a few weeks ago. We should have big ears. And I mentioned that it was interesting how the day I was speaking about that from the scriptures. I didn’t realize it, but Robert at the same time had kids downstairs with a set of big ears that he brought from them to put on to remind them what shama means.

And so when God tells us in verse two here, shama, he wants them to hear and he wants us to hear as well. He wants us to be attentive to what he’s going to say in this prophecy to give our full attention to it. It is extremely important. Now here or shama is a word that’s found throughout the book of Micah and it could serve as a basis for division of the text. For instance in 3:1 we have the word shama here given to the heads of Jacob and to the princes of the house of Israel.

In 3:9 here or shama again to the heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel. In 6:1 shama hear ye now what the hills let the hills hear my voice. And then again in 6:9 hear ye shama the God that and who hath appointed it of course being God. And so it is a central aspect of the prophecy we’ll be talking about for the next few months to hear when God calls us to this lawsuit as it were this judicial proceeding.

Now at the very beginning of the prophecy, the second thing he does at the beginning of the prophecy is to name the defendants. And this is quite important for reasons we’ll again bring out in a couple of minutes. He doesn’t say here my people. He doesn’t say hear oh land of Israel. He says, “Hear all ye peoples. Hearken, O earth, and all that therein is.” This tells us that as the defendant is called forth whom God is going to witness against, the defendant is not just the covenant people.

The defendant is the whole world. Okay? The judgment spoken about in verse two is the whole world. Now, we know that just from the terms used, but if you want further indication interior to the book of Micah. if you look for instance in chapter 4, turn to chapter 4 for a minute. Chapter 4 part of this prophecy uses the same terminology. Verse one rather of chapter 4 says that God’s hill will be exalted above the hills at the end of the verse and people shall flow into it.

Same word there, not my people but basically people without the qualifier of my people, the covenant people. Verse three, God he that this God will judge among many people. Okay. Verse 5, all people will walk, everyone in the name of his God, and will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. And then verse 13, arise and thrash, oh daughter of Zion. I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoof brass, and thou shalt beat in pieces many people.

You see, Micah isn’t just restricted to the covenant people of Israel or Judah. Instead, it is a general indictment of the whole earth. And after God finishes dealing with the covenant people, he then will turn to the Assyrians. Remember we talked about that last week. It’s important to recognize the defendant so identified in the very opening verses of this prophecy is not just Israel. It’s not just Jacob and Judah.

It is indeed the whole earth is being called as the defendant. The witness is named by God in this verse as well. We read in verse one after he says hear listen up you guys and who he’s talking to all you people hard to earth all then there is and let the Lord God be witness against you and the you there what I’m saying is goes back to what he’s already done he’s summoned the people to hear this the god himself will be the witness he’ll be the witness against you the people have been convened and that means the whole earth so the whole earth is defendants and the witness is the Lord himself and then finally the judge who’s named in this judicial proceeding in verse one, the Lord from his holy temple.

God is both the witness against the defendants. He’s the one who gives the summons to hear and to come into the holy court as it were and understand what’s going on. And then God himself is said to be the judge for the word of the Lord comes against them. He is witnessed against them where from his holy temple from his seat of authority. And lots of discussion can take place about whether he’s talking about Jerusalem or whether he’s talking about his seat in the heavens.

Obviously though the seat in Jerusalem is just imaging or picturing his seat in the heavens. It’s in the heavens from where God rules in the final sense. And so he comes out of the heavens or he could come off the seat in Jerusalem off the mercy seat as it were to come forth to his people. In any event, the point is that both things indicate the source of law. First of all, remember inside the ark of the covenant was law and there was authority.

Aaron’s rod that blossomed, okay? Or the budding. And so there’s authority that God declares for himself. His law is what’s been violated. And so he’s going to come forth now to judge the people. He is judge and he is witness as well in verse one in the calling of the covenant lawsuit.

The next two verses three and four announce the sentence that God gives upon the people that he has summoned. He is the witness against them. He is the judge and then he tells them the sentence in verses three and four. The mountain shall be molten under him. The valley shall be clefted as wax before the fire. I’m sorry, I should have started verse three. For behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. God comes in judgment. The announcement in these two verses is the sentence that’s going to be brought against the defendants.

Remember we said the defendants are the whole earth. And the judge has decided this is the sentence and he now announces the sentence. Now this first image of God coming down to earth out of his holy temple is sort of a setup in a way for the people and you’ll understand that as we go along a little bit. But that when they first hear that God is judging the whole earth and that then God is coming out of his temple and he’s coming forth in judgment and he’s going to tread upon the high places of the earth.

That’s going to bring up images to them of Sinai or images of the song of Deborah for instance or the things that happened in the book of Judges. It’s going to bring forward images of God’s coming to rescue his people from the ungodly. Remember we just read the psalm earlier responsively talk about God coming against the people who suppress or try to oppress the people of God and so their first idea is that Micah is doing here is he’s announcing a prophecy to a group of people in Jerusalem and they’re going to hear that and say, “Hey, that’s what we want to hear. We want to hear God going to get those bad guys, the Assyrians, and those lousy people up in Damascus and maybe even those lousy people up in Israel.” Okay? And he kind of strings them along as it were on one hand.

On the other hand, he’s really pronouncing a larger picture, which we’ll get to in a couple of minutes. But it’s important to recognize here the judgment aspect here in verses 3 and 4, the theophany described the picture of God coming and the what his coming and his presence does is originally seen can be seen by the hearers as delivering them. Okay.

So he comes down and it says that he treads the high places the mighty places under his feet in verse three. He comes and he treads upon the high places of the earth. Okay. Now obviously there’s an image here of mountains and valleys and everything suffering the judgment of God. Again, a holistic sort of coming of God and judgment which is pictured in other prophets as well. But I think that we have to understand here that the judgment is not against the physical earth.

The judgment is against the peoples in the earth. All that therein is the peoples in the earth who the judgment is against. The earth is not guilty of moral violation. The people are. And so we have to look in this judgment for what people are being described. And when he says he’s going to tread upon the high places, I think we have to believe from that it means he’s going to judge rulers, principalities, powers, and he’s going to tread upon those people in judgment.

Now, it’s interesting if you turn over to Micah 5 verses 5 and 6. “This man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him even shepherds and eight principal men.” Okay. Verse six, “They shall waste land of Char the sword and the land of Nimrod and the entrances thereof. Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land and when he treadth within our borders.”

The Assyrian is described in the twofold witness in verses 5 and six of chapter 5 as treading upon the people of God and treading upon their land and treading upon their dominion as it were. And so the Assyrians are going to be judged by God for that. Now it’s true that they’re the rod of his wrath against his people, but their treading means they’re going to be tread upon. And in terms of the high places that God comes down and treads upon in verse three in the first chapter that we’re talking about indicates first the high places, the rulers and the principalities and authorities in the covenant nations, the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom.

We’ll get to that in a second, but first they’re going to think about the high places in the earth. Who’s the great empires now? And it’s the Assyrians who are going to be coming against God’s people. And so they’re going to think in terms of the Assyrians here primarily. And so God’s going to tread upon the Assyrians. The opposition to God is going to be melted. Verse four, “the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valley shall be clefted as wax before the fire and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.”

Two things being talked about here, mountains and valleys. The mountains are going to be molten as wax before the fire. Okay? And this is often seen, often described in scripture. We won’t turn to it now, but in Psalm 97, for instance, we have a picture of the theophanic execution of God’s wrath and the accompanying deliverance of his people again the idea of deliverance is probably in their minds because of what he’s talking about here in Psalm 97 also the hills melt like wax at his very presence and it’s important to recognize that he’s talking about the ancient landmarks being disappeared the most solid of refuges in terms of the mountains being dissolved before his wrath.

Who can abide the day of his coming and certainly those nations that rose up against his people and against him are being talked about as well here. Now in a similar passage to this we read in Isaiah 34 verses 1-3. Let’s turn to that so you won’t think I’m making it up. Isaiah 34 verses 1-3. “Come here ye nations to hear and hearken ye people.” That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Just we’ve read about. “Let the earth hear and all that therein all that is therein the world and all things to come forth out of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations and his fury upon all their armies. He hath utterly destroyed them. He hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stinks shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountain shall be melted with their blood.” Okay? And so, I’m not just making up this imagery here. It’s given to us. And remember that Isaiah was a contemporary of Micah, prophesied the same basic things at a different level in society and gives more detail. Of course, a much bigger set of prophecies of his are recorded.

And so, when the people hear about mountains melting before them, they’re going to think in terms of the words of Isaiah as well or if they don’t then they’ll understand it later when Isaiah preaches if it’s after this prophecy of Micah. But the mountains melting refer certainly to the disintegration of all refuges and hiding places of people that have rise up against God. But it refers also of course to the destruction of the enemies of God. The mountains will be melted with the blood of the people. So much blood will be shed. The mount will be worn away the way it would be in a mighty thunderstorm of great water coming down upon the mountain. So they have this image of tremendous rivers, flowing rivers of blood. I hope I’m not upsetting you too much, but that’s the word of God. And it tells us that when God talks about melting these mountains, he’s talking again about treading upon these heathen, ungodly nations that have tread upon the people of God.

And he’s going to cause their blood to run in such fashion, the mountains themselves are seen to be melting.

An important secondary use of this term melting and wax before the fire and that whole imagery throughout the scriptures, and again, you can look this up in your concordances at home if you want a lot of evidence of it, but that many times when we read about things melting before the presence of God, we read about hearts being melted. Remember we talked before about how the promised land was given to the people and their hearts would melt before the giants. Okay? And God doesn’t want their hearts to melt in fear of what might happen to them as they go into the promised land conquering. And throughout the scriptures you read about God’s enemies, their hearts being melted before him in terms of his coming against them. It’s an indication of fear and of recognition that their opposition to God is futile and in vain when his theophanic execution approaches.

When the description of his coming comes against them, their hearts melt. They get fearful before God. And so when we read these verses, we recognize that it’s talking too. The people would understand this that the Assyrians, this great mighty nation, will be trod upon by God. They’ll be killed by God. Their blood will run. They’ll cause the mountains to melt and their own hearts will melt before them as it were in fear before God in his presence.

Valleys are also a subject of judgment here. And I think that probably that’s because the valleys are seen as the place of God’s blessing upon people and certainly in the covenant nation the valleys were valleys of blessings and grapes growing you know and communion provision of food for the people and drink for the people in terms of wine and wheat growing in the valleys the valleys are indications of God’s blessings and so the valleys also then become God’s judgment we’ve seen in the valleys as well.

Jeremiah 48:8 says, “And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape. The valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the Lord hath spoken.” The judgment comes upon the city, the judgment comes upon the valley. The valley is the place of blessing. The valley also becomes was the place where God’s curse is manifested. And so all of the dwelling places the people can be on the high protected mountains or the valleys of blessing all be subject to God’s judgment in his approach.

Jeremiah 49:4 is an important passage to look at. I should have had to turn right there when we were back there. but just a couple of verses later in 49:4. “Wherefore glorious thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, oh backsliding daughter, the trusted in her treasure, saying, ‘Who shall come unto me? Behold, I’ll bring a fear unto thee, said the Lord God of hosts.’” You see, they would say, “Well, our valleys are full of rich things and we can prosper and we got the grapes grown and the wheat’s grown. Everything’s growing real good here. We glory in those valleys.” We’re backsliding, but I guess it’s okay because they probably didn’t know they were backsliding or were consciously aware of it. But he says, “You glory in your valleys in terms of their blessing.” And God says he’s going to bring those valleys to destruction as well. It’ll turn our blessings into curses as we backslide and fall away from him.

Okay. So that’s the appearance and the execution of God’s judgment in verses 3 and 4 in the passage before us. Then we go on from there to talk about why God’s judgment is coming. He summoned them. He said he’s going to be witness. The whole world is going to be the defendants. He’s going to be the judge. And here’s the sentence coming upon them. And now he gets to why the sentence is pronounced. And now he gets to the crime detailing what their crime was before God.

It’s important to recognize that in this church and I think we are trying to again to be biblical in what we’re doing in terms of church discipline in church disciplinary cases when you have a charge against somebody you have two elements to that charge there’s a charge and there’s the specification of the charge the charge is a general term a violation of God’s word that specification gives details on how that person did that thing if a guy was a murderer for instance the charge would be murder the specification would be that on such and such a date he went here and he drew a gun out and shot this fellow that’s a specification the charge is murder.

Well, here God gives specifications and charges as well. The charge first of all is rebellion in Jacob. And the word rebellion there, it isn’t the word rebellion, it’s transgression. But it’s important to recognize the root word for transgression is revolt. And we read about transgressions in the scriptures, the particular nuance of that particular word for sin is rebellion. It’s a revolting against the covenant. It’s a violation of an agreement. It’s rebellion then to the holy agreement, the covenant that God has brought his people into relationship with him through religiously is a rebellion against the divine king and against the established covenant between him and them.

Now I said here I’m not sure in your outlines it might have rebellion in the northern kingdom. I just read it as of course it actually says in verse 5 to the transgression of Jacob. Transgression is related to rebellion and Jacob is related to the northern kingdom. And that was pretty clearly seen. Jacob and Israel both were terms which were frequently used as abbreviations for the northern kingdom. Okay? And that’s going to be important here as we go to the second part of this.

The second charge, the first charge is rebellion in the northern kingdom. The second charge is a falling short in Israel. And you’ll have your outline of the southern kingdom. And remember I told you here that God is sort of through the prophet Micah, he’s drawing in the audience in Jerusalem where he’s speaking by giving him this picture of God treading on all these ungodly nations and against the heathen, against the whole earth.

And then he brings it a little closer to home and he says, “It’s for the transgressions in Jacob, the northern kingdom, too.” And they say, “Well, that’s okay. We don’t like those guys. They invade us occasionally and take away our people’s slavery.” And then he says, “It’s for sin in Israel.” And they can still think, well, Israel, that’s probably another reference to the northern kingdom. Sin is different than transgression.

And that it indicates a falling short. That’s the difference in the nuance of the term. In don’t take time to look at it now, but in Judges 20:6 says we’re well maybe you should look at it. It might help you to get a picture here in your minds. Judges 20:6. I’ll read it. Judges 20:6 says, “Oh, that’s not what I want. Took my concubine and cut her in pieces. That is not the verse I’m looking for.” Verse 16.

“Among all his people there were 700 chosen men left-handed. Each one could sling stones and hit a target within a hair’s breadth and not miss.” Okay? That’s kind of an interesting thing because these are Benjamites he’s talking about. We have a little boy named Benjamin. And Benjamin means son of my right hand. And these are 700 men that come out of Benjamin. And they’re all left-handed, you know. So he says among all the people there were 700 chosen men left-handed. Everyone could sling stones and hit within a hair’s breadth and not miss.

And it’s that same word there for sin. Okay? They would not miss. That’s not this hair’s breadth out there. That’s, you know, this is a statement of God’s inspired word. By the way, these guys were trained, right? They were disciplined people. It’d be nice if we had 700 people we could raise up in a couple years that could have that kind of discipline in their weaponry as it were. And maybe we’ll start doing that in a couple of weeks out at the Hidden Place.

But in any event, they don’t miss the hair’s breadth. And it’s the same word here. The same root word for sin is found in our Micah passage. And so sin is a missing as it were the target. And remember we talked about several times how the New Testament you’ve got basically two words for sin anomia to be against law together in rebellion against law or the other word which indicates a falling short of the righteous requirements of God’s law.

And in the New Testament believers are said to be capable of sinning in terms of falling short. But if you’re in anomia then you’ve completely thrown off God and your life isn’t to be characterized by anomia but rather we’re all going to be falling short. Now these are differentiations in the word nuances in the word. They may not be. It’s important never to read this as real solid two separate words that are always separated in that fashion.

There are nuances, but sometimes God will use these words in pretty much an interchangeable sort of way. Both these words occur uh in a couple of minutes later in the text in a few verses down. Well, I guess we’ll get to it in a minute. Okay. So, the word here is sin, a falling short. And he uses the word Israel as the general charge.

In verse 13 of Micah 1, it says, “Thou inhabitants of Lachish, bind the chariots of the swift beast. She is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion, for the transgression of Israel were found in her.” So, she begins to be the falling short in Zion because the rebellion found on the northern kingdom is found in her in this city. And we’ll talk about that more in a couple of weeks as we get to that passage. That’s kind of the relationship of the two.

Having given the charges then rebellion in Jacob, sin in Israel, falling short in Israel, he then gets to the specifications. And the first thing in the specification is what is the transgression of Jacob? And remember, they’re still thinking it’s the other guys being judged here. What’s the transgression of Jacob? Isn’t that Samaria? See, Samaria is the capital city of the northern kingdom. And we talked about that last week. King Omri set it up and it became then the symbol of the capital of the northern city and it’s the covenantal head of the northern nations.

Okay? And so he says the sin the specification to be a rebellion against me in the northern kingdom is the specific sins in Samaria. And he’s going to detail some of those here in a little while. Okay. So that’s the specification of the sin of Samaria, the capital city, the covenantal headship of the northern kingdom. And then he gets to the kicker of the passage to the people in Jerusalem that he’d be speaking to.

And what is the hide places of? And he doesn’t use the term Israel. He tells by Israel. He was meaning Judah. Okay. What are the high places of Judah? What’s the perversion? What’s the falling short of righteous leadership before me in your kingdom? He says, Judah, the southern kingdom, is it not? Are they not Jerusalem? And now it hits home. They’ve agreed that God’s judgment should come upon those people that break God’s covenant.

They’ve agreed that God’s judgment should come upon the northern kingdom in their rebellion from God. And now they’re stuck because now Micah says, “And it’s coming to your house. The sin I was talking about, the falling short. The high places of idolatrous worship are found here in Jerusalem and you’re going to suffer this judgment.” Okay? And the lesson begins to hit home to those people and hopefully it begins to hit home to us as well.

What are the lessons of these verses we’ve just run through? This covenant lawsuit has been summoned by God. Well, the first lesson is that judgment of the covenant community brings judgment to the whole world. He starts the first verse and calling all the people to judgment on the whole earth. And you know, this is a real big problem for people as they try to expound this text. See, what’s the deal here?

How can he judge the whole earth because of what’s going on in Israel and up there in the southern kingdom, in the northern kingdom? That isn’t fair. That’s not right. You know, so what they do is a lot of people they do is they don’t believe the inspired Bible. They’ll say, “Well, those verses were thrown in the first couple of verses from a later redactor who changed the text to make it more universalistic.” Okay, Micah’s prophecy really wasn’t against all the earth, but we know that eventually it comes to that. So, he throws them in there. Well, now, of course, we can’t accept that because that’s monkeying around with the word of God. It’s the inspired word of God. We don’t mess with it the way they mess with it all the time.

Willis in his commentary of this book is closer to the mark when he wrote that the prophets considered God’s judgment of Israel as a model to the nations. If Yahweh will not spare his own people, the nations need not expect that he’ll spare them. In case we say, well, it’s kind of an indication to them that they may be judged at some point in time. Helmo in his commentary is in a basic agreement. He said that by his judgment of sinful Israel, Yahweh will even yet awaken the sleeper and conscience of the sinful nations of the world. Well, there’s some truth to that. There’s some truth to that. But I think that the broader picture can be brought into mind a more correct picture, a little refinement of what these guys have said.

If you remember, we said earlier about the law court. Remember we said that God doesn’t use common language here. He created the law court. We have law courts because we’re made in God’s image. God is primal in his perspective on things. And what God is telling us in these passages, we shouldn’t try to somehow twist the passage. Judgment will come upon the whole earth because of the sins of the covenant people because though it is those sins that bring about the greater sins in the world outside of the covenant kingdom.

You know, it says in the New Testament, Jesus said, “If you lose your saltiness in relationship to what we’re supposed to do in terms of affecting the world around us. What happens? Remember, it’s good for nothing but to be tread underfoot. Israel, the northern and southern kingdom had lost their saltiness. What did God do? We read it a couple of minutes ago in chapter 5. The Assyrians come and tread them underfoot.

If the church is being trod underfoot today, why is that? If there’s persecution coming upon the church for doing what’s right from the federal government, from the state government, from the alliance with Russia, whatever, why is it? Is it because they’re lousy people? No. It’s because we’ve lost our saltiness and God’s bringing his judgment upon us by treading us underfoot. But as we said, because the Assyrians treaded Israel underfoot, they’ll be trodden underfoot by God as well.

They will suffer greater judgment because of that. And so the nations around us, the nation in which we live now as a covenant people, greater judgment is brought upon them because of our sin, because we lead the nations.

Secondly, sin and rebellion in the covenant community brings depravity to the whole earth. There’s a covenantal headship throughout this whole thing. Samaria is the covenantal head of the northern kingdom. Jerusalem is the covenant head of the southern kingdom. And so they both kingdoms are described in their covenantal headship. And the covenantal headship of the world is the covenant people. And so the whole world suffers judgment because of being represented covenantally by the headship of the church.

But there’s also a practical side to this. You know, I was talking to my wife about my covenantal headship in our family. You know, it’s a nice topic for husbands to talk about. I’m the covenantal head. here and I read you know covenantally and that’s true and I’ve tried to point out before that in our if we see problems in our family in terms of sin let’s look at our and I’m talking about the men here and the husbands and the fathers look to yourself first what is God bringing to pass in your family because of your covenantal headship and you’re falling short in an area and I was joking around with my wife I said you know it’s kind of like that old TV show u remember the name of it now outer limits was it we control the horizontal we control the vertical. And I was telling her, I’m the covenantal head.

I control the horizontal. I control the vertical. And I thought, I sure do control the horizontal. You know, if I’m getting any problems with anybody in my family, maybe wanting to lose a little weight, it’s probably not going to happen till I start doing it. Okay, I control the horizontal.