Micah 2:7-11
In Desperate Days
If you turn to an Old Testament prophetical book, chances are it is
going to be a message of condemnation. God is a good God, a merciful
God, a gracious God, but He does not often send out prophets to say
"Good job." If God is sending a prophet, it is because bad things
are about to happen and in this book, bad things were happening.
Micah is a prophet to both the nations of Judah and Israel. His book
has been dated around the year 730 BC which is just 8 years before
Israel, the northern kingdom, will be taken captive by Assyria. In
586 BC, 144 years after that, Judah will be carried away by Babylon.
But even though Israel is the more wicked nation and the one facing
the more imminent destruction, Micah does not preach to the northern
kingdom about their destruction. Instead, he preaches to the southern
kingdom about theirs, and he told them that their judgment was sure.
Micah 1:9 For her wound is incurable; for it
is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate
of my people, even to Jerusalem.
Notice it was Judah to whom God was speaking. Judah is called by
name 4 times in this book. Zion is called by name 9 times. Even
though the northern kingdom is about to be destroyed, God was telling
the southern kingdom that they were going to be destroyed too—even
though it would not happen for 150 years.
When I read through the Old Testament passages, I do not see God
speaking to just the nations of the past. I also see Him speaking to
today’s nations too. I often see Him speaking to America. I wonder if
God already has a date picked for America’s destruction. If so, it
might not happen this year, this decade, or even in this century for
God knows the end from the beginning, but it will happen. I also
wonder if there is anything we can do to put it off.
Tonight, let’s consider this situation for a few moments.
I. What is the CAUSE of this nation’s demise? I can only think of
three possibilities.
A. Is God too weak to change this situation?
1. God actually asked the nation that.
Mic 2:7 O thou that art named the house of
Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD
straitened…?
2. That is God’s way of asking, "Is God too weak?"
3. Sometimes we seem to think that if things get much worse,
there will be no hope for a revival.
4. However, as I thought about it, I realized that God does
some of His best work in our worst times
5. Bad days often produce God’s greatest miracles.
a. Noah - Wicked days, violent days - But God showed up.
b. Moses - Days of oppression, of slavery, evil, but God
showed up with some of His greatest miracles.
c. Elijah - The days of Ahab and Jezebel
d. Jesus - The Bible called them days of darkness
B. This means that not only is God not too weak but that the days
can never be too evil for God to change the situation.
C. Is it possible that God’s people are too rebellious?
Mic 2:8 Even of late my people is risen up as
an enemy…
1. God is not speaking here of enemies that Israel has
neither is He saying Israel is some other nations enemy.
2. He was saying that Israel was THEIR OWN ENEMY.
3. There is a principal in the Bible, not just for revival
but for life.
2Chron 7:14 If my people, which are called by
my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and
seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;
then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land.
4. If God ever sends judgment to a nation, it will not be
because God is too weak or nations are to evil, it will
be because God’s people are too rebellious.
5. Yet that verse also lists the solution. God’s people must
do four things:
a. Humble themselves
b. Pray
c. Seek God’s face
d. Turn from their wicked ways
II. What is the COST in the nation’s demise?
Micah 2:10 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not
your rest: because it is polluted, it shall
destroy you, even with a sore destruction.
A. Actually, this is a command and a statement.
Micah 2:10 …this is not your rest…
1. The Jews sought a land not heaven.
2. The land in the Old Testament was often called the
Promised Land or the Land that flowed with milk and
honey.
3. However, Hebrews 4 also called it the land of REST.
a. Israel had not rest in Egypt.
b. But God promised them a place where they could rest.
4. You might be thinking that when Israel went into the land,
they did not have rest but war.
a. That is true, but the conquest took only 7 years.
b. There was a little more that needed to be done after
that. Let’s just say 10 years.
c. By that time, the enemies were to be destroyed, but it
did not go that well.
d. The Jews compromised instead of conquering. By Judges
2, God rebuked them.
e. If God is on your side, it would takes no more
time to conquer than it takes to compromise for the
land never truly totally became a land of rest.
5. By this time, there was NO rest in the land and none was
going to come.
a. In Deut 4, God had promised to judge the Jews if they
rebelled.
b. God now executed that clause.
c. They lost the land of rest altogether.
d. My, the high price of sin.
(1) They lost their prestige, their place, their
protection, their power.
(2) Somewhere in that cycle is America. We like
Israel have lost our privilege.
B. Now the command.
Micah 2:10 Arise ye, and depart…
1. Notice, God does not give them a place to run to.
a. They have sinned away their land but there is no
place to go.
b. If you rebel, there is no Plan B.
c. There is no place to run. Sin took the only place
they had.
d. Why run? Because if you stay, you will be destroyed
by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
e. Hence, they are just trying to out run the wages of
their sins.
f. The run itself has no destination. It is a
purposeless, joyless, destinationless run and it is
pretty much futile.
g. It is where most people are in this world!
2. It would be a far better tactic to repent, but God has been
trying to get these people to repent for centuries.
a. They won’t.
b. Even if they did, I don’t think it would do any good.
3. This is merely a message of condemnation! How sad it is.
III. \\#3:1\\ Notice the consequences that brought this nation’s
demise.
Micah 3:1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads
of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel;
Is it not for you to know judgment?
A. That is God saying, "Did you not know the consequences of your
rebellion?"
1. God was asking, "Is there any way you could have not known
what was going to happen?"
2. Isn’t that why the prophets have been coming?
3. Isn’t that why God had the Jews stand on two mountains and
pronounce the blessing that could be theirs if they obeyed
and the others pronounce the cursing that would surely
come?
4. How could you not know what the judgment?
B. If God said that to Israel He must surely be saying that to
the church today.
1. What will be the judgment of a rebellious, worldly church?
a. We and the world lose God’s blessings.
b. The church becomes so ineffective that it is removed.
(That is good for us but terrible for the world.)
c. The tribulation begins with war and destruction and
death.
d. Nations are realigned and the anti-Christ emerges.
e. Man’s rebellion is exploited and most of the world
is slain.
2. Can we claim ignorance of these judgments? NO.
3. They will be the consequences of a rebellious church.
There is little from which to be comforted in this book. It is a
book of condemnation and the path Judas was on was incurable, but
perhaps, with revival and obedience, God’s people could push it back
for a time. I do not know if God has a date for our destruction
written in stone or if we, His people, might delay it; but I am do
know I want to go down right with God. Do you?
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