Word of Salvation - January 2012

 

GLORIOUS REVERSAL; GRACIOUS RENEWAL, John de Hoog

(Sermon 4 in a series on Micah)

 

Text: Micah 3:1-4:4

Singing: BOW 90a, PsHy 166, Consider Christ, Ancient of Days

 

Mt Zion is raised to be the highest of the mountains. People from all nations are streaming to it, and they are coming so that they can learn from the Lord. There is total peace over the whole world, and every man sits under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one makes them afraid.

 

Psalm 87 paints the same picture. Let’s read Psalm 87, and then we’re going to sing it as well.

 

Psalm 87 Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm. A song. He has set his foundation on the holy mountain; the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are said of you, O city of God: "I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me--Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush-- and will say, `This one was born in Zion.'" Indeed, of Zion it will be said, "This one and that one were born in her, and the Most High himself will establish her." The LORD will write in the register of the peoples: "This one was born in Zion." As they make music they will sing, "All my fountains are in you."

 

Then sing Ps Hy 166 “Zion founded on the mountains”

 

Get the picture? All the nations of the earth stream to Zion, and God counts them: This one was born in Zion, and this one, and this one. It’s a picture of every single believer acknowledging that Jesus Christ is Lord, and of all of God’s people gathering together in the heavenly Jerusalem, people from every tribe and language and people and tongue. This one was born in Zion, and this one, and this one – in other words: This one was born again by the Spirit, and this one, and this one, from all the nations of the earth. It will be a victory party that will leave any human victory party absolutely in the shade!

 

That’s the picture in the first four verses of Micah 4. That’s the picture of Psalm 87. It’s also a picture you find repeated again and again, in fact, seven times over, in the Book of Revelation. It’s a picture of the last day, when Christ will return in victory. It’s magnificent, isn’t it?

 

Pause

 

So Micah preaches the great hope of eternity to Jerusalem. But realise that the context into which Micah is preaching could not be more different from the future he is picturing.

 

The Assyrians have overthrown Samaria, the northern kingdom of Israel is no more. The Assyrians have overrun the southern kingdom of Judah as well; the whole country is in the hands of the enemy. Only Jerusalem stands. And Jerusalem is under siege! The vast army of Sennacherib is massed outside her walls. And to make things worse, so far Micah has been preaching mainly judgment!

 

We saw it first in Chapters 1 & 2. Two chapters of unrelenting judgment preaching, with just two verses at the end of Chapter 2 holding out a glimmer of hope.

 

Then, in Chapter 3, Micah returns to the theme of judgment. Let’s skim over Chapter 3 and see God’s charge against his people.

 

There are three accusations made in Chapter 3.

 

The first accusation is against the leaders of Israel. Those who should have been caring for Israel have turned into cannibals! Vss 1-3 “Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice, you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones; who eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin and break the bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot.” It’s a horrific picture, isn’t it! These leaders are like wild animals who ignore everything good and use the utmost violence to get what they want.

 

The second accusation is against the prophets of Israel. The accusation is that they have become prophets for profit. When someone feeds these false prophets, they prophesy peace and health and God’s blessing for them. But if they are not fed they prepare to wage war against the people, condemning them in the name of the Lord.

 

They look like real prophets; they say, “Thus says the Lord”, but all the time they are simply saying what they know will be of most advantage to themselves. It is a prostitution of the prophetic office, and God will not allow it. Vs 6 “Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces, because there is no answer from God.”

 

The first accusation in vss 1-4 was against the rulers, the second accusation in vss 5-8 was against the false prophets, now the third accusation in vss 9-12 brings it all to a climax. It gathers the rulers and prophets together and adds a third category, the priests, and accuses all three groups of doing the very worst thing imaginable – justifying their guilty behaviour theologically! Vs 11 “Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us!’”

 

Can you imagine these rulers, prophets and priests? They are the occupiers of the three offices that God had ordained to lead his people. Can you hear them? “We are not pagans who worship other gods, we are not secularists who say there is no god; we are not tolerant universalists who say that every road to God is equally valid. No, we trust, rely on and lean on the Lord, who is present with us in the temple.”

 

And in the meantime they pocket the bribes they demand for “justice” and they teach and they tell people’s fortunes, all for a price. And they claim God’s sanction! The sin is blasphemy against the Spirit of God. Not only do they tell Micah not to prophesy, but they themselves prophesy from their own imaginations and claim their words to be from God.

 

In New Testament terms, not only are they seeking to quench the work of the Holy Spirit by commanding Micah not to preach, they are also attributing their own evil work, which in the end is the work of Satan, they are attributing that to the Holy Spirit! Think of it! “Oh, the Lord is with us, the Holy Spirit speaks through us, we are his people, nothing can touch us!” In the end, attributing evil to the Holy Spirit! Here is the worst kind of blasphemous sin imaginable, and God will not allow it to continue. Vs 12 “Therefore because of you, Zion will be ploughed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.”

 

Brothers and sisters, think about this situation with me for a few moments. Micah predicts that because of their utter complacency, because they are saying “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us!” for this reason, Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed.

 

Micah’s prophecy was not fulfilled in his day, because Hezekiah and the people of Judah heard Micah’s preaching and repented and were saved. Jerusalem did not become a heap of rubble in Micah’s day.

 

But realise that Jerusalem eventually did become a rubble heap, during the time of Jeremiah, and it was because of precisely the same sin! In Jeremiah’s time, they were saying just the same thing, and just like Micah, Jeremiah was sent to warn them of this great sin. He was told to go to the temple itself, and to preach as follows (Jeremiah 7:3-4): “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple if the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’”

 

You see, in Jeremiah’s day the same thought patterns dominated. This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. Nothing can touch us, we are invulnerable. Jeremiah comes preaching destruction, just as Micah did, and they put him in jail and put him into a well and the king even tears up his manuscript and throws it into the fire as it is being read to him! The people are utterly convinced of their status as God’s people, they refuse to hear the message of judgment proclaimed by Jeremiah, and finally Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, with not one stone left on another.

 

Of course, Jerusalem was rebuilt, and eventually the Lord himself came to the temple. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to Jerusalem, and in the temple he threw out the money-changers and the traders, and in many other ways he warned the people of Israel that judgment was coming. He predicted that once again Jerusalem would be destroyed. But the priests and the Pharisees and the leaders of Israel did not pay heed to Jesus’ warning, and did not repent. Instead they killed the Prince of Peace, they hung him on a cross and he died and was buried.

 

And even after he was raised from the dead, and even when the disciples filled Jerusalem with their teaching that Jesus Christ is Lord, still, by and large, Jerusalem did not respond. No wonder the city was levelled again in 70 AD! The same sin as in Micah’s day and in Jeremiah’s day was committed. The people listened to Micah, but not to Jeremiah and not to Jesus.

 

Micah’s prophetic word of judgment needs to be taken to heart by every generation of God’s people. Let us never end up saying, even unconsciously, “But we are the Christian Reformed Church, the Christian Reformed Church, the Christian Reformed Church.” Remember Micah, remember Jeremiah, remember Jesus Christ, and repent and turn to the Lord.

 

Pause

 

Here then is the situation into which Micah is preaching! He has preached three chapters of almost unrelenting judgment. And judgment has come! The Assyrians are at the gates of Jerusalem! The whole of Judah has been overrun. Judgment has been proclaimed. Judgment has come. Is there anything left to say?

 

In that context, God gives the people the amazing picture of the first four verses of Chapter 4. If ever there was light against darkness, surely there is no better example, is there?

 

Some people say, “Oh, Chapter 4 cannot possibly be Micah. Micah is a prophet of doom, he could never have spoken Chapter 4:1-4. Someone has added them on years later!” But that is to misunderstand Micah’s message.

 

Chapter 3 and the beginning of Chapter 4 belong together in the tightest possible way. It might seem as if the contrast couldn’t be greater, but it is precisely in the contrast that they fit tightly together. Let me show you.

 

Chapter 3 speaks of the dismantling of the old Jerusalem, Chapter 4 moves to the rebuilding of a new Jerusalem. See the contrasts.

 

In the old Jerusalem the hill on which the temple is built is laid waste: Vs 12 “Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.” But in the new Jerusalem: Vs 1 “The mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains.”

 

In the old Jerusalem, the leaders are utterly wicked: Vs 11 “Her leaders judge for a bribe; her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money.” The word for “leaders” is the Hebrew word “rosh.” But in the new Jerusalem, vs 1, “mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief (same Hebrew word rosh) among the mountains,” and the wicked rulers will be replaced by the perfect Ruler, the Lord himself.

 

In the old Jerusalem, vs 10 speaks of building Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity. In the new Jerusalem, Chapter 4:1-2 speak of Zion being established (same word) as the centre from which the Lord’s teaching goes out into all the world.

 

In the old Jerusalem, vs 11 condemns the leaders of Israel for “judging” and “teaching” for selfish gain, in the new Jerusalem vss 2-3 proclaim that the Lord will “teach” the nations his ways and will “judge” perfectly between them (same words).

 

In Chapter 3, Jerusalem is a city of bloodshed, but in Chapter 4 the Lord teaches the nations to beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

 

In the old Jerusalem, the people are being ripped off and live in fear of their leaders. But in the new Jerusalem, vs 4 “Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid.”

 

So then, it is precisely the contrast that unites the two passages together. God will systematically undo all the evil of the old Jerusalem in the new Jerusalem.

 

Implicit in this contrast is a warning: Don’t set your roots in the old Jerusalem, which is going to be destroyed, but set yourself on the side of the God who will reverse everything evil here and make all things new. The people of Jerusalem in Micah’s day need to heed the warning. And with Jerusalem under siege, the warning is dramatically confirmed. The word of hope is what they most need.

 

In Micah’s day, the people turned to the Lord, and the Lord won a great victory over the Assyrians, and Jerusalem was not destroyed. But as I have said, in Jeremiah’s day the people did not heed, and in Jesus’ day the people did not heed, and twice over Jerusalem was destroyed.

 

Pause

 

Brothers and sisters, hear the word of the Lord to us today. Hebrews 12 speaks of us as people who have come to the new Jerusalem; it’s addressing us as people who have entrusted ourselves to Jesus Christ for salvation. Hebrews 12:22 “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.”

 

A magnificent statement of the great blessing of being people of the new Jerusalem, but then a strong warning – “See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.”

 

In Micah’s day, Jerusalem is facing destruction at the hands of Assyria. Micah points the people to the Lord God, who will not abandon his people when they turn to him and seek him with all their hearts.

 

They must turn to him and seek him and trust him. There is no value in just presuming that everything is OK with God because you belong to Israel, or because you belong to the church or because your parents and grandparents were Christian and so of course you are too, or because one day many years ago you prayed the sinner’s prayer. One of the great problems of being a Christian for many years is the danger of complacent presumption that all is well between you and God. The leaders of Israel in Micah’s day fell into that trap. They were guilty of the most horrendous evil, and yet they said, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.” (3:11). And Micah called them to account, and history proved them wrong.

 

How is it with you today? Do not trust in your presumed status with God.

 

Trust only in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Practical daily trusting in the Lord Jesus involves turning from sin each day and looking to him and seeking to love him and to honour him, just as Micah called Jerusalem to turn to the Lord and live.

 

Daily repentance and daily renewal of faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to live the Christian life.

 

From reading on into Micah Chapter 5, we know that God would achieve his great and final victory through the shepherd-king who would arise from Bethlehem Ephrathah. And so it has come about in the coming of the Great Shepherd of Israel, our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Each one of us must ask ourselves the question: Do I believe and trust God? In the face of my circumstances, will I give myself over to him and rely on his promises? Have I aligned myself with that great shepherd-king? Am I on the Lord’s side? Have I given my life over to Jesus Christ and entrusted myself to him? Or am I over-awed with the “Assyrians” of today?

 

In Micah’s day, with the Assyrians massed outside the walls of Jerusalem, it seemed that those who were opposed to God held all the aces.

 

Is it any different today? In Australia, what kinds of people have real power and influence? What kinds of people grip the public imagination? Christians? Faithful people who will call adultery and pornography and injustice and hero worship and mindless accumulation what they really are? Such people are in short supply and are usually ignored. All the power is with the “Assyrians” of our day, with the rich and powerful who oppose God, with all their human might.

 

But that situation will not last. The picture of Chapter 4, the hope of Psalm 87, the glorious renewal of the Book of Revelation is on its way.

 

Do not set your roots in the old Jerusalem. Do not identify too strongly with the old order of things. For the old order of things is passing away. Behold, God is making everything new. Trust God, and rejoice in the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Amen