Judgment and Hope in the Book of Micah
First B Jackson
2025-11-30

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Amen. Alright. So, I I made a valiant attempt in the first service to get all the way through the book of Micah and I did not accomplish my mission but I'm going stop in the same place. Y'all have that to look forward to so that I don't get y'all ahead of them. So, we have been going through.

If you're walking in the door and you decide to come, this might be your first time here. We have been going through a study of the minor prophets. Minor prophets being that their books are shorter than the major prophets. There are 12 of them. We're halfway through with the minor prophets.

Now, often times, at this season, you will hear from the book of Micah on Christmas Eve, we'll read it. Micah five two. Oh, you, Bethlehem Ephesians, right? But that's the only thing you hear out of Micah for most of the year except maybe Micah six eight which is to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God, right? That's you you'll hear those two places from Micah but you don't hear the whole book of Micah often.

Micah was written in a time when social injustice was abounding. So, that's the same time that Isaiah was writing to the people but Isaiah's book was longer and Micah is very specific about the hope that is to come. He's specific in that he says, Bethlehem is where the Messiah will be born, basically. He also is specific about he will be our shepherd and he will be our peace. So, it's looking forward to Messiah.

We know Messiah to be Jesus but he was looking forward to Messiah and in a time where Israel and Judah had both gotten way off track. So, if we're going to look at who the guy is that is making this pronouncement from God. It is Micah, the the man. It's a man, not a woman. A lot of people named Micah these days are ladies.

It's it's a guy. So, just just so you know, he is from Morasheth Gath. It's about 25 miles Southwest of Jerusalem and he is ministering concern in Samaria and Jerusalem specifically. So, Samaria is in the Northern Kingdom and Jerusalem is in the Southern Kingdom and it is a time when the kingdoms are still split. They had been split for about one hundred and fifty years at this point.

So, if times are from 750 to seven hundred BC, Jeremiah mentions him and the times are contemporaneous. So, focus is mostly on the leaders. Pride and arrogance has gotten out of hand. It's growing in Jerusalem. So, that's the times and I'm going to just go for it.

So, it's seven chapters long. I know that's a lot. I went back before I got here the before I put the slides in this morning and color coded them because what we see this book is about is judgement is coming. That is certain. He is forecasting in his time period, the Assyrian onslaught and then after the Assyrians, he's already forecasting the Babylonian onslaught and exile.

So, Micah is filled. He says so, with the spirit of God and he is filled with courage to be able to pronounce this word and it is a word of both judgment and hope and so, I color coded him like that. Judgment is red and hope is yellow if you're wondering. So, here we go. This is the word of the Lord which came to Micah of Morasheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah and which he saw regarding both Samaria and Jerusalem.

So, I've already told you that but that says what time period is and we know this very specifically. Seven fifty to seven hundred. Here you peoples both Samaria and Jerusalem who definitely saw themselves as distinct peoples, okay? Here, both of you peoples, all of y'all, listen carefully. Earth and all it contains and may the Lord God himself be a witness against you.

Is that terrifying? It is. May the Lord God who sees all. He is omnipresent and he's omniscient and he says, he may he himself be the witness against you, the Lord. From his holy temple where he sees all, behold, the Lord is coming forth from his place and that can be hopeful.

He will come down. He's going to tread upon the high places of the earth. He is saying, judgement is coming. So, I think that one is red. Judge, judgement is coming but I want you to look at those last couple lines of behold the Lord is coming forth.

Emmanuel, right? He's coming forth and he's going to tread upon the high places of the earth. The high places typically were places where idol worship happened. So, people would go up to the top of the hill, the highest hill around. They put up an ash or a pole.

This is the highest place, highest closest to heaven and they would worship foreign or other small G gods but he's saying that Jesus is gonna tread upon those high places and stomp em out. The mountains will melt under him and the valleys will be split like wax before the fire like water poured down a steep place. All of this is due to the wrongdoing of Jacob. That sounds like judgment. It is judgment.

This is Old Testament. It's Old Covenant. God had given them very clear instruction and they were not going by the very clear instruction. Now, I will say the spirit of the Lord operated differently in those times than he does now and so, there was not an indwelling spirit of the God but they did have the rules. They had the law and they were not living up to the law, not even close.

All of this is due to the wrongdoings of Jacob. Judgment was coming because of their sin and the sins of the house of Israel. So, it's both Northern and Southern Kingdom and what is the wrongdoing of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? We see Samaria getting off course because of the way that you were.

What is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? Jerusalem is supposed to be this holy city but you're worshiping other gods in Jerusalem. That's judgement. For I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country.

Oh, no doubt about it. Judgement. Planting places for a vineyard where there was a city, it's just going to be a vineyard. I will hurl her stones down into the valley, lay bare her foundations, and all of her idols will be crushed. All of her earnings will be burned with fire and all of her images I will make desolate.

For she collected them from a prostitute's earnings and to the earnings of a prostitute, they will return. Nothing will come of this kingdom of Samaria. Nothing. So, I will say here too, they rejected the prophet. Samaritans reject the prophets.

They did all the way up until the time of Jesus. They didn't want to hear anything from the prophets and several of the prophets spoke to Samaria but they rejected them out of hand. They only believe the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, Moses's books, and even in Moses, Jesus calls back to this. When he's sitting with a Samaritan woman at a well. He calls back to this and he says, she asked him a question and says, I sense that you are a prophet.

You, are you the one that Moses told us about? This is pretty awesome because Moses had said in Deuteronomy eighteen fifteen through 18. It says, I'm going to send for you a prophet, the Taheb. I'm going to send for you a prophet and he will be from among you and I will raise him up and you are to listen to him. That's what it says and the Samaritan woman at the well recognized from the prophecy of Moses.

Though she didn't have all these other prophecies in her book. She recognized them. Because of this, I must mourn well. Now, who's I? That's Micah.

Micah is delivering a very hard message and he recognizes how hard the message is because judgement is coming and it's from the Lord and it's to the people of Jerusalem and Samaria but he says and for this, I must mourn and wail myself. I must go barefoot naked and thank God I don't have to go barefoot naked. He's saying, I've ripped my clothes over what's going on here. It's terrible. It's awful.

I must do mourning like the jackals. I must mourn like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable. Last week, Nahum said that the wound was incurable, that time for judgment had come, that there was nothing that they could do to escape it. Now, I would say for y'all who are out there, there is hope and we're in the age of grace and we're in a time where you can turn to God in humility and he will save you.

This was a pronouncement of judgment and we'll see before the end of this that it's a hopeful thing. His redemptive purpose is taking them through a difficult time even into exile twice. Her wound, Jerusalem and Samaria is incurable for it has come to Judah. It's reached the gates of my people even to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is supposed to be this holy place that God is set up to be different.

The temple is supposed to be the place where heaven meets Earth and it's supposed to be a light to all of the nations and it's not doing that and so, there's judgment. So, Micah 110 through 15 is a a not an exhaustive list but it's a representative list and it's all over the map literally because these are all everything highlighted in green and I know it's kind of too small for y'all to read but everything highlighted in green here is a city. And he's saying, basically, all of these cities have fallen short. So here's the list. Do not tell it in Gath, that's where he's from.

He's from Moresheth Of Gath. Do not tell it in Gath, don't even weep at all. At Bethle Ephesians, roll yourself in the dust of mourning. Go on your way, inhabitant of Shafir, in shameful nakedness. The inhabitant of Zanan does not escape.

The morning of Bethazel, he will take from you its support. What he's saying is, I know that you all have felt like you were in the hand of God and you're hold, you're held up there in the hand of God. But that is a false sense of security. For five hundred years, you've been going against me and multiple prophets have spoken to you. Isaiah was one that was saying at the same time.

We've already heard from Amos. We've already heard from probably Hosea at this point too. I'll get to Hosea eventually but the inhabitant of Maroth waits for something good because a disaster has come down from the Lord to the very gate of Jerusalem. Harness the chariot to the team of horses, you inhabitant of Lakish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion.

It grew from there. The rebellious acts of Israel. Therefore, you will give parting gifts in behalf of Morosheth Gath, even my hometown, Micah says. It affects me too. I'm not just a voice that's saying, we're alright and you're wrong.

I'm saying, even in my hometown. The houses of Akzib will become a deception to the kings of Israel who's forecasting some false prophets. Moreover, I will bring on you the one who takes possession, your inhabitant, Marashah. The glory of Israel will enter Adullam. These are all just a list of cities.

He's saying, it's all over the place and then, he calls for an action that is in regards to repentance. So, shave yourself bald. Cut off your hair because of the children of your delight. Extend the baldness like the eagle, bald eagle. For they will go from you into exile.

What he's forecasting right here is your children will go into exile. You can know the time frame is within a generation. It's coming. And it did. The judgment, obviously, that's judgment.

It came to pass in Assyria taking them over and then it came to pass with Babylon taking them over, okay? So, he's already forecasting the Assyrian takeover. He'll get to Babylon in a minute. Woah. Woah is a funeral word.

It's a funeral dirge. It's saying, the death has happened already. Woe to those who devise wrongdoing. We were talking just before we started here about scammers. There are always people who are devising wrongdoing.

There are always people finding and Paul lists this in includes this in one of his list of vices in the New Testament. Inventors of new ways to do evil. If you get a text from me that says, hey, Dave, I'm sitting bedside in the hospital and can't really talk right now, but I'd really like to do something nice for the staff. I wanna surprise them. Will you go get five Amazon gift cards and send them to me?

That's not me. Okay? And it happens. It happened to one of our families this week. They were defrauded of $3,000.

If not not under my name this time, not this time, but it happened. So, this woe to those who devise wrongdoing, thinking up new ways to defraud people. Woe to those. Payday someday. It's coming.

Okay? Judgement on this for sure. Woe to those who devise wrongdoing. Those who practice evil on their beds. Actually, a good translation there is who those who plan out evil at night.

And when morning comes, they get up and they do it. They come up with a new plan under darkness and then they get up in the daytime and they do it because it's in the power of their hands. God has given us a choice. He's given us free will. We can either act for good or we can act for evil.

We can either act in a godly manner which he will describe throughout the latter portion of this book or we can just act like the rest of the world. Get them before they get you looking out for number one, kind of thinking. It's in the power of their hands to do evil and they get up and do it. They covet fields and so they seize them. They covet houses and so they take them.

They exploit a man and his house, a person and his inheritance. We have, I've talked to somebody just beforehand and we we both know somebody might be the same person. I hope, I hope, I hope it is the same person because I don't want two people. We're defrauded of $700,000 which is the inheritance for a person, right? It's it's a great inheritance for a person.

It's not unheard of and our times line up so well with the minor prophet. Therefore, this is what the Lord says. This is what the Lord says. Behold, I am planning against this family, a catastrophe. Does that scare you?

Yeah, that's hard. That's really hard. Now, it's judgment and there's hope. We're getting to the hope but there's a lot of judgment before we get to any hope. Behold, I'm planning against this family catastrophe for which you cannot remove from your necks.

It's going to happen and you will not walk haughtily proud for it will be an evil time. It will bring you to a place of humility. So in that, let's keep going. On that day, they will take up against you a song of mocking and utter a song of mourning and say, we are completely destroyed. He exchanges the share of my people and he removes it from me to the apostate, the one who's walked away from the faith.

He apportions our fields. Wait a second, the Lord is given to the one who's walked away. Ugh. Therefore, you will have no one applying a measuring line. You will not have an advocate for you by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

That's tough. That is judgment and it's coming and it's been five hundred years in the making. It's not something that's sudden. It's not a capricious God who's just making stuff up. He's shown them the way.

He says that specifically in six. We're not going to get to six. Do not prophesy so they prophesy. The Lord is saying, nope. Don't prophesy but they prophesy but if they don't prophesy about these kings, insults would not be turned back.

Is it being said, house of Jacob? Is the spirit of the Lord impatient? Are these his works? Are you sure this is from God? Do my words not do good?

This is God. Think about this. Do my words not do good for the one that's walking rightly? Can I ask you all that question? Does God's word work?

It does. It works. For the one who walks in it, it works. Even even if it feels like the world is against you, it's still the right thing to do. Do my words not do good for the one who walks rightly.

Now, says this, recently, my people, the ones who are called by my name have arisen as an enemy. The people who are supposed to be mine are now an enemy to me and to other people. Boy, that's tough to hear. You strip the robe off the garment from the unsuspecting passers by, from those who have returned from war, you're hitting people while they're down, you're taking advantage of people who are in a weakened state and that's not the way I am and you're supposed to show them how I am and you're treating them poorly. You evict the women of my people, each one from her pleasant house.

From her children, you take my splendor forever. Arise and go, for this is no place of rest because of the uncleanness that brings on destruction and a painful destruction. If someone walking after wind and falsehood had lied and said, I will prophesy to you about how great wine and liquor are. They would become a prophet to these people. Did you get that?

He's saying, that's not true. Wine and liquor are not a good thing but if somebody come to you and said, oh, wine and liquor are wonderful. They just hoist you up over the shoulders and say, this is our God. That's blasphemy. When you call something that's good, bad, and when some you call something that's bad, good.

He's saying, if someone had walking after the wind and falsehood had lied and said, I'll prophesy to you wine and liquor. How good it is. I'm gonna He'd become a prophet to this people. That's judgment. I will certainly assemble all of y'all, Jacob, and I will certainly gather together the remnant.

Oh, thank you for the remnant. The remnant, there are those. Even in this time, even in our time, there are those who have not walked away from God. There are those who have not bowed their knee to the Baals. There are those who have not decided, I'm going to do things just like the world does things.

I'm going to listen to the way God instructs. So, I will certainly gather all of y'all Jacob. I'll certainly gather the remnant of Israel. I'll put them together like sheep in the fold. Oh, that feels good.

This is doesn't sound very judgment like. This sounds like I'm going to do something here. I'm going to gather like a flock in the midst of its pasture. They're going to be noisy with people. It's not going to be just a few.

They're going to be a lot of folks. The one who breaks through goes up before them. They break through. They pass through the gate and they go out by so their king passes on before them and the Lord is at their head. That is hopeful.

That's a forecast of Messiah. That's a forecast of the time coming when God gathers those who humble themselves before him. So, there's judgement on Jerusalem and Samaria in this first chapter up through middle of two. God is a witness against you because he sees what you've done. There's a lament.

Micah himself is feeling a prophetic tension. He's like, this is a really difficult thing to have to deliver and it causes me to tear my clothes but I still have to deliver the message. And then there's a woe to the oppressors, those who plan evil at night and carry it out by day. People who are just trying to figure out a new way of shafting people. It's a terrible thing.

Social injustice is a focal point of this. It goes all the way to the very end of the book. It will remain with that. Micah three, here we are. And I said, this is I.

Micah said, here now you leaders of Jacob. Here, now you rulers of the house of Israel. Is it not for is it not for you to know justice? Y'all are the leaders. You are the rulers.

Shouldn't you know the difference in good and bad? You who hate good and love evil. You who tear off the people's skin from them and their flesh from their bones, and you who eat the flesh of my people strip off their skin from them, smash their bones and chop them up for the pot as meat in a cauldron. That's a terrible gross metaphor. It sounds a lot like Ezekiel 34, one of the major prophets.

Ezekiel 34 says, woe to you bad shepherds. You are feeding the sheep. Shepherds don't eat sheep. They take care of sheep. So, woe to you bad shepherds.

Then, they will cry out to the Lord but he will not answer them. Instead, he will hide his face from them at that time because they have practiced evil deeds. Now, this one is hard, it's judgment, but it also mentions a chastisement that God sometimes like in the days of Habakkuk when he cried out to God and said, the we're just, it's just awful lord. It's just awful. Everything is bad all the time and he says, why don't you do something in this evil time?

Why don't you do something? And God says, I am doing something that you wouldn't even believe if I've told you. I'm raising up the Babylonians to take over and that's a redemptive act and that's hard for us to see. It's a difficult time. God's urging has not worked and so, the difficult time is coming and when it says he will not answer them, he's also forecasting there.

The intertestamental silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament between Malachi and Matthew as it were. There are four hundred years of silence from God and that also was pay attention to what I've already said. This is what the Lord says, concerning the prophets who lead my people astray. So, false prophets. This is what lord says concerning false prophets.

When they have something to bite with their teeth, they have food in their mouth. They cry out peace, everything is good. But against him who puts nothing in their mouths, they declare holy war. Anything that looks like it might cause us to go through some sort of austerity. Absolutely not.

You cannot have that. This is kind of completely contrary to the prosperity gospel and what a lot of us think should be the case. Therefore, it will be night for you without vision. Therefore, it will be darkness for you without divination. You're not going to know what's coming.

The sun is going to go down on the prophets and the day will become dark over them. The seers will be put to shame and the diviners will be ashamed. All those people who are forecasting prosperity are eventually going to be ashamed when what comes to them is calamity. Indeed, they will all cover their lips because there's no answer from God. Like I said, intertestamental silence and that's judgment.

It's judgment that has been again five hundred years in the making. Now, Micah three eight is a personal statement and as a pastor or a preacher, someone who whose job it is is to present lovingly, present the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord. That's what he's doing. He goes, on the other hand, judgement. Judgement is right here.

This is what judgement looks like for false prophets but since he is being true to the word of the Lord. He says, on the other land, on the other hand, I'm filled with power. I'm able to take this stand because I'm filled with the spirit of the Lord and it is with justice, claiming that what is right is right, what is wrong is wrong, and with courage to make known to Jacob his rebellious act and to Israel his sin. It is not a good doctor that tells somebody that has severe malady that nothing's wrong with them. So, he's filled with power and the spirit of the Lord to be able to present this with justice and with courage.

Now, hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob, that's leaders, and rulers over the house of Israel, rulers and leaders, who despise justice and twist everything that is straight. You who build Zion with bloodshed and you build Jerusalem with malice, you're not doing things as I instructed you. Her leaders pronounced judgement for a bribe. The almighty shekel. Her priests teach for pay.

Her prophets divine for money. Yet, they lean on the Lord saying, is the Lord not in our midst? We're the good guys. Catastrophe is not going to come on us. We're on his team.

That's a false sense of security because they are not acting as the people of God. They're not listening to what he said. They're not acting in accord with it. They're acting just like the rest of the world, hitting other peoples when they're down. Isn't that the Lord in our midst?

Catastrophe is not going to come upon us. We're the good guys. They're the ones that are bad. So, this is to leaders, rulers, and prophets. Therefore, on account of you, leaders, rulers, and false prophets, Zion, Jerusalem, will be plowed like a field.

It's going to be overcome. Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest. It's going to be a temple to a foreign god. Now, we saw in seventy AD, the temple was destroyed, not a stone upon a stone. Three twelve is judgment.

No doubt about it. Now, it's a judgment against bad leadership. Rulers, shouldn't the rulers know justice? Y'all are the ones in charge. Shouldn't you know the difference in good and evil?

Yet, you are taking advantage and ripping apart the poor even it gives that gross image of putting them in a cauldron. God is going to hide his face from you and yet false security abounds. We're the good guys. False prophets abuse their office for dishonest gain. This one points to implicitly here but explicitly before the end of the book.

You remember Balaam and his donkey? We'll talk about Balaam and his donkey the next time when we cover this. Okay? But he was a prophet per prophet. Like, he was just going to bless whoever the people paid him the most to bless and God wouldn't allow it.

Right? False prophets abuse their office for dishonest gain. Micah four, we're over halfway there. And it will come about in the last days. I'm only going through five.

And 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 mountain. Uh-oh. This one feels hopeful. It is hopeful. It'll be raised above the other hills and the peoples will peoples will stream to it.

Many nations will come and say, come. Let's go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob so that he may teach us about his ways and that we may walk in his paths, not be like everybody else. For from Zion will go forth the law of God and the word of the Lord will go from Jerusalem out. It'll be spreading out from this place. Amen.

And he will judge between many peoples, and he will render decisions for mighty and distant nations, and then they will beat their swords into plowshares, and they will beat their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift a sword against nation. Never again will they train for war. Ain't gonna study war no more, ain't gonna study war no more, the song says. Instead, each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree with no one to make them afraid because the mouth of the Lord of armies has spoken.

There is a time of peace coming that is super hopeful. It's also projecting into the messianic age, right? Though all the peoples walk right now, in the name, each in the name of his small G God. As for us, Micah says, and the remnant, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. We're not going to turn our backs on him.

We're going to go forward. That's hopeful. On that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble those who limp. Those and gather those who are scattered. Those whom I have afflicted.

Now, that sounds like judgment. It is judgment but it's hopeful judgment. It's retributive justice. It is God taking them through a difficult place so that he may lift them up. On that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble those who limp and gather the scattered, those whom I myself have afflicted.

I will make those who limp a remnant, and those who have strayed into a mighty nation. All have sinned, fall short of the glory of God but when we come in humility, out of our affiliations and teams and into God's way. Truth and life. The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion. From now on and forevermore, as for you, tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come.

Yes, the former dominion will come. The king, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. It's going to start right here. Now, why do you cry out loudly? Is there no king among you or has your counselor perished?

The agony that agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth? Rather than scream, feel the fields, daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth. From now, you will go out of the city, you'll live in the field, and you'll go to Babylon. This is pronouncement of the Babylonian exile. You'll go out of this city, you'll live in the field, out in the wilderness, and you'll go to Babylon and there, you will be rescued.

There in Babylon, the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. Doesn't this remind you of Daniel and the three Hebrew children? It does. You know why? Because that is judgment, that is hopeful.

It's both. God is gonna take them through a hard time to bring them up. And now, many nations have been assembled against you who say, let her be defiled and let her let our eyes gloat over Zion but they do not know the thoughts of the Lord. Do you get that? You do.

You have my book. God's saying to them, you are supposed to know better. If they act like they don't know me, it's because they don't know me. You know me. You know my thoughts.

They don't know the thoughts of the Lord but you do and they don't understand his plan but you do. That's a that's a really hopeful thought and it's also really helpful in our time. Don't expect somebody who doesn't know Jesus to act like they do. And the scripture says, we can expect, we can, we should expect for those who do know Jesus to act like they do. It should be different.

Should be. For he has gathered these folks that don't know him like sheaves into the threshing floor. Arise and thresh daughter of Zion for I will make your horn iron. I will make you very strong. I'll make your hooves bronze so that you may pulverize many peoples.

It will happen and dedicate to the Lord their unjust prophet. It'll happen eventually, everybody is going to come around. He's raising up Assyria right now, but he's going to take them down with Babylon and the Medes. He's raising up Babylon just to bring his people to their place of humility and redemption and then he's going to lower those two and then he says, and I'm going to give back to y'all their unjust prophet And their wealth is going to be dedicated to the Lord of the earth. I am going to go forward with my plan.

That's hopeful. Now, muster yourselves up into troops, daughter of troops. They have laid siege against us which is the way the Assyrians took over and it's the way the Babylonians took over. With a rod, they will strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. I think that's messianic prophecy, right?

But Micah is looking forward in five one to a time where they're going to strike against the judge of Israel. That's Messiah and then five two is the one we all know. We'll get to that in just a second. The ultimate kingdom. So, Jerusalem is going to be restored.

Nations are going to be blessed through Israel. There's going to be peace under God's rule. We would say that is in the church. There will be but as for you, Bethlehem Ephesians, you remember this one from the Christmas story. We we go through this every Christmas Eve.

But as for you, Bethlehem Ephesians, too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you, one Messiah, will come forth for me to be the ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago from the very days of eternity. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The word was with God in the beginning and was God from the beginning.

So, this is speaking specifically about Messiah Jesus and where he'd be born. Therefore, he will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Then the remainder of his kinsmen will return to the sons of Israel and he will arise and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord. In the majesty of the name of the Lord his God and they will remain because at that time, he will be great to the very ends of earth. What's the great commission?

All of the nations to the very ends of the earth, and lo I'll be with you even until the end of the age of the ages. It's good. This is super hopeful. This one Messiah will be our peace. This one will be our peace no matter what happens.

Just like Habakkuk said, though the fig tree does not produce fruit. Though there be no wine press wine, though nothing go the way we think it ought to go, I will trust you lord. This one will be our peace. When the Assyrian invades our land, they had to look forward to Messiah the same same way we have to look back to him. Does that make sense to you?

This used to bother me so bad when I was sitting out there and I thought, what about all those people before Jesus? They had to be looking forward to the way that God had made. The same way we have to look back to the way that God had made. Jesus is the center point of all of it. He is Messiah.

This one will be our peace. When the Assyrian invades our land, he's our peace. When he when he Assyrian tramples our citadels, then, we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight leaders of the people. It's hopeful. They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod at his entrances and he will rescue us.

We need to look back to Jesus the same way. They had to look forward to him from the Assyrian. He'll rescue us. He when he invades our land, that's who's going to rescue us and when he tramples our territory, that's who's going to rescue us. So, from Bethlehem, a good ruler is coming.

That is in stark contrast to all the leaders we've seen so far in the book of Micah and all of the good all of the rulers have been bad. His going forth are from long ago. He's from the line of David, from the house of Bethlehem and he will shepherd us and he will be our peace, the good shepherd And then, in those days, the remnant of Jacob, that is the people who are trusting in God. There will be among many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on vegetation that do not wait for man or delay for mankind, the remnant of Jacob will be among all of the nations, among many peoples like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which if he passes through tramples and tears, and there's no one who can rescue. And so, five nine says this, your hand will be lifted up against your adversaries, Lord, and all of your enemies will be eliminated.

That's super hopeful. That's saying that though it doesn't feel like it, though it feels like we're doing everything right and we're doing everything good according to your plan, lord but still evil feels like it's winning a lot like that prayer of Habakkuk. There is coming a time when all of God's enemies will be eliminated. That that it, Blake? That's where I stopped.

I told him to remind me where I stopped in the last. I looked out. Y'all actually are fresher than the first service today. I will say that I'm not sure exactly what my I did to him last service but by the time we got to Micah five nine, I just, I said, y'all are toast and can't take anymore. So, Jesus said to his disciples in John 15, maybe 16.

He said, there are many more things that I would like to share with you right now but you just can't handle em at this point. So, I'm I'm stopping for y'all because I stopped for the first service. We'll come back and we'll pick up at Micah 510 and we still have Micah 68 in front of us which is so good. We'll use as a as a benediction but I'm going invite Judy to come back up and in the face of all that we've seen here today, all of the judgment but all of the hope that is stacked right beside it. A lot of the a lot of the prophets, a lot of the prophets truly are just judgment and they have one little one little silver lining and in Micah, we see judgement and then there's hope and then there's judgement and then there's hope and he is a sensitive soul, sensitive to the word of the Lord, compliant with the spirit of the Lord but absolutely truthful filled with both justice and courage and so, I pray that we would take Micah's word into our times and say, lord, how am I different from the other peoples around me?

Would you make me different? Make me a blessing today, lord. Would you carry through me something for them that would bring them into alignment with you and just lord, I ask your blessing on that. If you want to come up to the altar and pray, that's always open. If you want to talk to me, y'all, the rest of the folks will keep on singing and I'll turn off my microphone but I'll be here afterwards too.

In Jesus name, would you