GOD OUR RIGHTOUS JUDGE
Micah 2:1-11
When Israelites were brought into the promised land, God
divided the land among the
12 tribes. God commanded that the land always stay in the
hands of the families
Of the tribes, it was originally given too.
If for some reason the land ended in the hands of another
party, it was to be returned
In the year of jubilee. This was God’s design so that no one
would get rich by taking another
Israelites property. Leviticus
25:25-28
Some Israelites ignored God’s commands and became rich by defrauding
their brothers
Of their property. In addition, their gross error was the
worship of the idol gods of their enemies.
When you take on the attitude of the enemy, you become an
enemy to yourself.
THE SIN
OF DEFRAUDING OUR NEIGHBORS
V:1. Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil
on their beds! At morning's light they
carry it out because it is in their power to do it. 2 They covet fields and
seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home a fellowman
of his inheritance.
A.
The jury was in and God was judge and jury.
1.
God presented Israel with the evidence of their
sins.
2.
The whole nation was judged because they had an attitude
of compliance with
The leaders.
3.
The Word from God came to Micah the prophet and
not to the Chief Priest or
The king.
4.
Every man was given the right and the protection
to stand for God.
B.
The religious leaders that were in place
willfully ignored God’s Commands.
We hear of no mass outcry of the people to
God.
1.
God heard their cry while they were in bondage
in Egypt.
2.
It remains a mystery to me after hundreds of
years of God rescuing them
From the enemy, that they turned from God and disobeyed His commands.
3.
It is no different today, we are all guilty from
time to time of disobeying
God’s commands.
4.
From time to time we ignore the rule of God to pursue
the desires of our hearts.
THE VENGEANCE
OF THE LORD
V:3. Therefore, the Lord says:
"I am planning disaster against this people, from which
you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a
time of calamity. 4 In that day men will ridicule you; they will taunt you with
this mournful song:' We are utterly ruined; my people's possession is divided
up. He takes it from me! He assigns our fields to traitors.'"
Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the Lord
to divide the land by lot.
A.
What goes around comes around.
As the Word says, you reap what you sow.
1.
While it may seem that the rich can do what they
want without consequences,
They will have their day in court before Jesus.
2.
The rich influence the attitude of others.
3.
The whole nation was responsible for their
worship of idol gods.
4.
Therefore, God planned 70 years of captivity. Jeremiah 25:12
B.
This was the prophecy of the upcoming
destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
1.
Hundreds of years of ignoring their devotion to God
came down to their own
Destruction.
2.
God allows His chosen people to choose idol God
over Him.
3.
God wants our voluntary obedience.
4.
God did not force the angels in heaven to
worship Him.
5.
He allowed Lucifer (Satan) to corrupt one-third
of the angels before being
Kicked out of heaven.
6.
God does not tell us why He allowed His holy
nation to turn from Him.
Perhaps His Grace and Mercy needed a reason to bring us unto true
Worship.
7.
The Gospel Coalition gives this reason;
Salvation
presupposes sin; restoration presupposes a fall. Thus it’s reasonable to
infer that God’s primary purpose in allowing the fall was to showcase his glory
both in the original creation and also in his powerful and merciful restoration
of that creation from its rebellion and corruption.
A DISRESPECTFUL
UNGRATEFUL ATTITUDE
V:6. "Do not prophesy," their prophets say. "Do
not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us." 7 Should
it be said, O house of Jacob: "Is the Spirit of the Lord angry? he do such things?"
A.
There are two types of teachers in the world.
Those who speak the truth, and those who
Pervert the truth to push their evil agendas.
1.
Israel was put in a position with the Word of
God to influence the entire world.
2.
The Word of God was put in print starting with
Moses on Mount Sinai
As a light to God’s righteousness.
3.
With privilege comes the responsibility to know
the truth and to live and
Role model the truth as a living example.
4.
With Responsibility comes the obligation to spread
the truth
To those around you.
5.
Believers are the light of the world. To hide that
light leads to sin.
B.
We have to be careful who we listen to.
1.
In every man's heart is the truth. He has no
excuse to believe a lie.
2.
Romans 1:20
For
since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power
and divine
nature have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that men
are without excuse.
3.
False teachers chose to lie because it benefits
them in some way.
Power, authority, and money are a few things that drive them.
4.
Then some go along with the lie because the
desires of God are
Not in their hearts
1 John 2:15-17
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For
everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and
the boasting of what he has and does come not from the Father, but the world.
5.
Every man is responsible for what he believes
and does.
6.
The whole of Israel by not voicing opposition to
false teachers, condom them.
THE VERDICT
OF GOD
V:7. "Do not my words do good to him whose ways are
upright? 8 Lately my people have risen up like an enemy. You strip off the rich,
those who pass by without a care, like men returning from battle. 9 You drive my
women from their pleasant homes. You take away my blessing from their children
forever.
A.
The Word given Micah the prophet, like the other
prophets of God was rejected.
1.
Israel had a history with God. They knew their
obedience to God's commands
Brought prosperity.
2.
Israel knew from their history that was passed
down from generation to
Generation that their disobedience and worship of idol gods brought
Defeat in battle, loss of freedom in the land that God had given them
For rest.
3.
They also knew that when they turn back to God, He
restored their land
And prosperity to them. Yet they
continued to worship idols and listen
To false prophets.
4.
Israel refused to learn from their mistakes.
5.
My brother-in-law has a saying, “a lesson unlearned
must be repeated”.
B.
God presented Israel with the evidence of their
corruption.
1.
Sometimes we don’t know how far sin has taken us
away from God until
We are forced to look at ourselves in the mirror.
2.
God forces us to look at our sins when He
chastises us.
3.
Sometimes God removes from us the very thing
that we pride ourselves for.
4.
It is the things that we willfully considered
over God that He takes away
From us.
GOD’S PUNISHMENT
V:10. Get up, go
away! For this is not your resting place, it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond
all remedy. 11 If a liar and deceiver come and says, 'I will prophesy for you
plenty of wine and beer, 'he would be just the prophet for this people!
A.
The lust of our hearts defiles the things God
has given us for our comfort.
1.
When we turn from God, we are headed for a
punishment we cannot
Imaging.
2.
The God we serve loves us so much that He removes
from us the very thing
That drove us away from Him.
3.
The sin of idol worship deprived us of the
blessing of God.
4.
Our minds can become depraved until nothing is
too sinful for us.
Romans 1:24-26
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to
sexual impurity for
the
degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God
for a lie,
and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is
forever praised.
B.
Jerusalem and the temple became so defiled that
God sent the enemy to
Destroy them.
1.
Not only did God destroy the Temple they defiled
but removed them from the
City they loved.
2.
When God takes away the source of our pride, we are
readied to restore our love
Love for Him.
Romans 2:5-8
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are
storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his
righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God "will give to each person
according to what he has done." 7
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality,
he will give eternal life.
To my brothers in sisters in Christ, don’t take for granted the love of
God
And destroy yourself in the process.
Rev. M. Mitchell
NIV
NIV
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