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Articles 2018-2020
The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Micah and Isaiah were contemporaries. They prophesied in a time when devastating judgment from God was looming over the land. As an indication of the evil in the land, Ahaz the king was so wicked that in his idol worship he even offered up his children in fire (2 Chronicles 28:3).
Hear, all you peoples! Listen, O earth (Hebrew, ERETS), and all that is in it! Let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.
Micah’s prophetic word concerned Samaria and Jerusalem, the two capital cities of the respective nations of Israel and Judah. Clearly, his word was for the people in the land. And yet ERETS can also be translated “the earth”. It is interesting to note that when God created the languages of man, He saw to it that in both Hebrew and in Greek the word for “land” could also mean “earth”. In Hebrew it is ERETS; in Greek, it is GE.
So when a passage makes reference to the land, it can also have reference to the whole earth. The translators of the NKJV Bible obviously thought that this was the case when translating verse 2. Though the prophecy in verse 1 is about the land, they translated verse 2 to apply to the whole earth.
The relationship between the land of Israel and the earth goes beyond the Hebrew and Greek words, however. For example, one parallel to consider is that when Israel took the land of her inheritance, it illustrated the task that Christ would set before the Church concerning the nations of the earth. The giants and walled cities that the Jews faced demonstrate for us our present conflict with principalities, powers, philosophies, and paradigms arrayed against the knowledge of God. Once Jesus had received all authority in heaven and on earth, His directive to the Church was clear – we were to disciple the nations (Matthew 28:18 - 19). And today the task continues.
In response to Jesus’ command, neither Peter nor any of the other apostles acted militarily or politically. Neither did they preach that Christians were to “take over” as some today proclaim. They simply loved God and served Him faithfully in the sphere to which He had personally commissioned each of them. For example, in reading Peter’s epistles today, one looks in vain for the type of gospel some are presently promoting – that Christians are to take over in each nation the media, the educational system, the offices of political power, etc.
And yet our calling is to announce the rule of Christ among the nations; and our desire is to see Him extend that rule. On this we all agree. And we also agree that it is better when the righteous rather than the wicked are in power (Proverbs 29:2). But it is God not the Church who defines our spheres of service and then places us into them. The Church is to simply agree with Him. After all, our gospel is about Him, His strategy, His timing, and His power to accomplish His agenda in His own way. And so we fix our eyes upon Him.
For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth (Hebrew, ERETS).
God was arising into the land for judgment. The sins of His people were many and grievous to His heart.
And yet the question arises. Does Micah’s word also reach into our generation? Could it be that what the prophet saw concerning the land also has reference to Heaven’s activity among the nations in our day? I believe that indeed, the Lord is presently arising out from His place and is coming down to tread upon the high places of the earth. The high places – God’s treadmill.
Many Israelis practiced idolatry in the high places of the land. So today, the nations have many substitutes replacing the true God in their thinking and activity. “Diplomacy and compromise will unify us if we would just support the UN more vigorously. Surely, the inherent goodness of man combined with human reasoning and scientific research will solve our major problems. And if we only had more money allocated to governmental programs, the elite among us could guide us to a just society.”
But it seems that God is breaking into human history to tread upon these very places of human reasoning and strategy. And the interruption has caused an obvious and increasing mental and emotional distress in many. But these are not days for the righteous to be fearful.
The mountains will melt under Him, and the valleys will split like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.
Among other things, mountains can symbolize for us seemingly immovable obstacles (Zechariah 4:7). Today, secular humanism and its “theology”/paradigm seem permanent to many observers. Marriage no longer has to be thought of as solely between one man and one woman. One’s gender is not by any particular god’s design but by one’s choice. And if there is no God, then right and wrong are simply whatever we decide. Of course, such thinking must lead among other things to the conclusion that Israel has no more right to her land in the Middle East than anyone else.
But are these conclusions really permanent? Or do they only appear so? And since they do not align with what the Ruler of the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:5) says, how can believers think of them in any way other than mere mumblings made by someone giving a book report who has not bothered to read the book? To comment on God’s creation without spending time with Him and reading His “instruction manual for humanity” is ultimately foolish.
The mumbling conclusions of darkness are not only transitory they are specifically an affront to the Spirit of Truth. And as He arises in our generation, it is not to confirm the folly of those who have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness but to cause seemingly immovable mountains to melt before Him. The way He does this is by invading human hearts. When one repents for his sin, seemingly permanent structures in his thinking (mental strongholds) immediately begin to crumble, to melt. Here is how we disciple a nation – one heart at a time. And as we preach the gospel of Christ, we must continue to cry out for God to mercifully visit the earth in mighty outpourings of His Spirit.
In Micah’s day, Israel’s great sin was bringing upon herself the invasion of God’s judgment.
All this is for the transgression of Jacob 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?
The two capital cities embodied the sins of Israel and Judah. And as God arose to tread upon the high places (these very cities), He would bring upon them great destruction.
Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, places for planting a vineyard; I will pour down her stones into the valley, and I will uncover her foundations.
Envision a city of many houses, streets, and marketplaces with walls surrounding it all. God’s prophetic word was that it would cease to exist in its present form; it would become a plowed field. But notice the word of hope. That very field would become the place of future fruitfulness. A vineyard bearing fruit would emerge from the devastation.
And so God’s judgments in Israel prepared the way for Heaven’s true vine to be revealed in human history (John 15). The fruit that God had called for in Israel (Isaiah 5:1 - 7) would now be revealed across the whole earth.
I remember a movie from a few years ago where armed mercenaries and former soldiers rescued some missionaries from evil men. Those who were persecuting and killing the Christians were themselves slain. The underlying theme of the movie seemed to be that the missionaries were naive and that the sword is mightier than the word. While in the short run that perspective might appear to be true, the longer term reveals otherwise. It is true that over the last two thousand years many believers have been imprisoned and even martyred for their faith. And those with military weapons have seemed to hold the real power on earth. But while nations and empires have risen and fallen, the Church of Christ has continued to spread abroad, to grow spiritually, and to increase numerically. And she is now larger than ever.
To the undiscerning eye, Jesus looked like a weak and naive failure as He stood before the might of the Roman Empire. But His death brought resurrection. And His righteous obedience brought Heaven’s overwhelming victory over darkness.
One question the Church has faced over the years is to what degree Christ’s defeat of darkness at Calvary will be manifest among the nations prior to His return. On this question, valid and godly Church leaders have simply not seen eye to eye.
I remember when the Lord spoke to me some years ago about eschatology. I believe that He directed me to look at all the scriptures that I thought referred to the future and to pray for insight on whether they also had present application. Here was to be my focus. While we may disagree on some of the details of the future, may God grant us His grace to hear what He is saying in the present and to see with accuracy the steps He has laid immediately before each of us. Obviously, what we believe about the future will affect how we speak of His present work. Here is where we need to guard our words and our heart attitudes. The goal is that when the future arrives, we will be walking together celebrating His present work at that time.
It is probably true that all of us are wrong to some degree concerning things to come. In the past when God fulfilled certain prophetic promises, many even of the godly were stunned at how He did so. I wonder how many recognized in John the Baptist the fulfillment of God’s promise to send Elijah? And notice how difficult it was for even Jesus’ disciples to understand the then present work of God in Christ. And so today, many speak with such certainty of how the future will play out that their present words can draw lines in the sand that God is not necessarily drawing. We need the Lord’s help to not cause unnecessary division among ourselves. Let us remember that articulating the details of a particular system of eschatology is not the same as prophetically revealing Christ – the present expression of His heart and of His word.
Oh Lord, please help us in this.
Donald Rumble – October 2018
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