as we begin to delve into it, is going to look forward to the birth of the Messiah and the conversion of Gentiles in verses 1 through 6. Then it will detail the triumphs of Israel during the Kingdom Age as we finish out that chapter in verses 7 through 15. But before we start, let us ensure that we have recovered the filling of the Spirit, because it is not me, but rather the Holy Ghost who is our true teacher. And Jesus told us that the Spirit of Truth would guide us unto all understanding. And that's what we want this evening, for Him to guide us and lead us inside of this study tonight. So let's look. Let's pray. I'll give you a few moments of silent prayer, and then I'll open us up. Our holy, gracious, heavenly Father, we thank you this evening for all of your many blessings that you have allowed us to have, Lord. Father, we thank you for allowing us to be able to assemble together inside of your house once again this evening, assembled in your name. Lord, you told us through Jesus Christ inside of John's Gospel, Chapter 4, that the true worshipers that you're looking for, that they would worship you in spirit and in truth. So Father, we seek to have the spirit feeling recovered. And Lord, we have the truth. As the word says in John 17, 17. Sanctify them by thy word, thy word is truth. And so Lord, we just ask tonight that you hear our cry. Have your will and your way be done now inside of our midst. Open our hearts and minds to the truth. And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, in Matthew's gospel, we of course see inside of chapter 1 that long, long, long genealogy, which goes down to Joseph. When you go inside of the scripture, back inside of Jeremiah, you find that Conniah was cursed because he took a pocketknife, the Bible calls it a penknife, and he cut up the scroll from Jeremiah and threw it inside of the fire. And so it was that God placed a curse upon Caniah and all of his descendants that none of them would be able to sit upon David's throne. To me that was the decoy line because Satan was trying his best to destroy the lineage there. You even get down to Queen Athaliah who tried to kill off all the seed royal and it was just one who was able to survive until I think he was five or seven years old and that's when the high priest brought him out and proclaimed him to be the king. Athaliah didn't like that but she was soon dispatched out of the way. Why all of the bloodshed and all of that? Because Satan was trying to stop the birth of what was promised back in Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman that would one day crush his head. And so it is that when you get down through all of that in Matthew 1, you find that's the legal lineage of Jesus. Because this is Joseph's line. Even though Joseph adopted Jesus Jesus could not claim the throne of David through Joseph's lineage because Joseph was a descendant of Caniah. So that's why you've got to go over to Luke chapter 3, and it goes in a different way. And you've got these people out there, they say, well, Luke and Matthew can't even get their family trees right. They did get them right, but the thing is, when you get to David in both lineages, one of them goes through Solomon. That's Matthew's lineage listed. And the other one goes through Solomon's brother, Nathan. So no, it's not the same family tree past David. It's two different ones. Because in Luke, that, even though she's not mentioned, that is Mary's family tree. And that's the one that counts because that is where the humanity of Jesus comes in. Why does it matter? Because all of us, every one of us, every human being around the world has got to be somehow related to the humanity of Jesus Christ. The reason? Because if you look back in the book of Ruth, you'll see the concept of the kinsman redeemer. In order to be redeemed, you have to be related to the kinsman redeemer. I remember years ago, thanks to my mama getting me into family genealogy, I was able to tap and tie our lovelaces back into a family genealogist back in the 1920s. And he took it all the way back to Ireland, all the way back from there, even unto Adam and Eve themselves. When I tied in our family tree, I found out that Adam and Eve was my 141st great-grandparents. And then I tracked it back down to Noah, our common ancestor, and extrapolated it out. And best I could tell, Jesus's humanity would be my 64th cousin. Wow. A lot of people, even the kids at school, they say, Dr. Lovelace, how are you kin to all these famous people? I say, well, when you go back so far, you'll find that your family tree spreads out quite a deal. I mean, even if you get back to, say, six or seven or eight generations, you've got a lot of grandparents. I mean, just do the simple math on that. There's you, there's your ma and pa, and then there's their moms and dads, and then there's theirs, and so yeah, just go up a little way, you got a whole pile of people to plow through and figure out. So you're gonna bound to be kin to somebody, might even find out that some of your own relatives are even closer relatives than you realized before, you never know. So anyway. So it is that that's important, that genealogy out of Luke 3, that's the important one. Anyway, when you get into Matthew chapter 2, you begin to run into these fellers around the time that are coming to visit Herod the Great. Now we typically call them the wise men or the magi. And no, they did not arrive the night of Jesus' birth. I know a lot of times when we do our Christmas plays and we have our Christmas cards and all of that and our TV specials and whatnot, we always try to show the three wise men. Three? The Bible never says there were three. We just assume three because there were three gifts. Anyway, you'll get more on that again when we get toward the Christmas season. But we're setting up the stage. And so it is when these men come to, not Bethlehem, But preacher, I thought they were following the star. No, they weren't following the star. I know we sing, we three kings of orient are, you know. They weren't kings. The Bible doesn't say that. See, there's your tradition again. Rearing his head into matters that the Bible is clear about. And so it is, these wise men, I figure, now let me stand over here, this is my opinion. I figure there were probably over a hundred, maybe two, three, four, five hundred, maybe. I mean, think about it, Jerry. If three guys came into town, I don't think it would make much of a ruckus. But the Bible clearly tells us that all Jerusalem was troubled along with Herod. But if a crowd of, say, three, four hundred foreigners come in as a group, everybody and their brother would be on Facebook chatting this whole thing up. And before long, everybody would know about it. So there had to be a big group. Plus, if they're bringing gold, frankincense, and myrrh, that ain't something that's just cheapy-cheepy. That's expensive stuff. So there was probably a guard, an armed escort with them as well in this had-to-be-huge caravan. Think about it, though, folks. If they're following the Star of Bethlehem, They should have went to Bethlehem, but they didn't. They went to Jerusalem. Why in the world did they go to Jerusalem? Because historically that's where all the kings of Israel were born. So they saw the star. And then they took off. And it took them about two years to get there. Because if you read that in Matthew 2, you'll find that when Herod inquired of the wise men, he diligently inquired. That means he left no stone unturned trying to figure out when did they see that star. And that was the signal that Daniel, most likely, had told them about based upon the prophecy out of the book of Numbers. That's where all of that comes from. Look up Balaam and you'll find that Balaam said a star would rise out of Jacob. I'll get the J right here in a minute. So it is that when they came into the palace there in Jerusalem they said, tell us where is he that is born King of the Jews? Now remember, Herod was a madman. He was crazy. He had wives, he had sons, he had family members killed right and left. I mean, even secular history testifies that this man had lost his marbles a long time ago. And so it was that when they're asking about this new king in town, you can probably imagine Well, this town ain't big enough, Elgrim, for the both of us. And so it is. In Herod's mind, there's only room for one king, and that's him, the pretender to the throne, if you will. He wasn't even Jewish. He was an Idumean. So when the wise men inquired, where is the king? He shooed them out of the room, and he turned to his scribes, and he said, tell me, where is the king to be born? Micah chapter 5 verse 1. Micah says, So this chapter is starting off with a prophecy of the siege of Jerusalem. Though the chapter is soon going to turn with the coming of the Messiah and the glories of the kingdom that glorious day however is backdropped with the storm clouds of judgment upon the horizon so again over and over and over Micah has been telling them judgment is coming judgment is coming mend your ways get right with God judgment will soon be at your door but there is a bright spot Micah is trying to bring forth and here is The capstone, verse 2. This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the clearest, clearest prophecies. of the coming of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. More than 700 years before his first advent, his first coming, the prophet Micah foretold the exact place of his birth, Bethlehem Ephratah. The original name of the village was Ephratath. That's a fancy word that in our language, if we were to put it there, the meaning there, it would be fruitful. That's what it meant. Later, it would become known as Bethlehem. You go back to the book of Ruth, you'll find that that's where she and her entourage was from. And isn't it interesting when you learn the name is Bethlehem. Bethlehem means house of bread. Why in the world did Ruth and her family, her husband and her two boys, why did they leave and go out over there to Moab of all places? Because there was a famine. In other words, there was no food, there was no bread in the house of bread. So they left and they got out of the city. And the prophecy is precise, for there was another village named Bethlehem. Sometimes when you start looking at biblical maps and things of that nature, sometimes people will get these two Bethlehems confused. And always be careful, guys, when you do this because sometime when you're in your Bible and you're doing your Bible study and Bible reading and whatnot you may come across a name that you're familiar with and suddenly in your mind you may link those two names together when they're not supposed to be linked at all. Case in point, let's try it out. A lot of you are most likely familiar with Lazarus of Bethany in John chapter 11. Remember he is the one the Bible says that Jesus loved as a friend and yet he was sick, nigh unto death and his sister sent messengers and Jesus just sat and allowed the man to die. Allowed Mary and Martha to go through grief. And isn't that something? This is not in my notes, no extra charge. That sometimes God's will is for us to go through grief, to go through suffering, to go through pain. I mean, God loved Lazarus, Jesus loved Lazarus, and yet he allowed Lazarus to die. And yet so it was that he was raised from the dead. And boy, didn't he have a story to tell. But then in Luke 16 we encounter the rich man sitting at his table eating all his nice fancy foods and there's another guy outside of his estate right at the front gate and his name the Bible says is Lazarus and all he wants is to eat the crumbs that falls off of the rich man's table. Those are not the same Lazaruses. That's Lazarus the beggar, not Lazarus of Bethany. Two different guys, two different circumstances, two different situations. But a lot of times, if we McDonaldize our Bible reading, make it into fast food, instead of sitting down at Grandma and Grandpa's table or something and eating yum, yum, yum. If we just rush through it, we might make a false attachment there. It's easy to do. So these two Bethlehems, one of them is in the tribe area of Zebulun. Bethlehem Ephratah, however, is located about eight miles south of Jerusalem. Please notice that. About eight miles south of Jerusalem. Now though Bethlehem today is a city of some size in the West Bank area under Palestinian control, the prophet refers to it as little. Thou, if just a hermaphrodite, thou be little among thousands of Judah." That's how it must have been when Jesus was born. The thousands of Judah could be understood to be the company of Judah. So the thought there, God, is that Judah was a small place amongst the... Bethlehem was a small little village compared to all the other towns and villages and cities scattered all throughout the tribe of Judah. But it is from that humble small place that would come the Messiah, God in human form, in the flesh, and He would come out to be the ruler of Israel. Now that's the clearly understood meaning here, that there will be a restoration, there will be a reunification of the nation of Israel. They've been divided, mind you, but there is an understanding in this verse that they will come back together. David had been born at Bethlehem. However, the king foretold here had his goings forth, that is his origin, from everlasting. That is, his origins were from eternity past. He who would be born in Bethlehem one day would have been eternally pre-existent. And we see that echoed in John's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. Both from the perspective of foresight and certainly from hindsight, it is apparent that this prophecy foretells the birth of the Messiah of Israel. Moreover, we find also there that His divine nature is clearly foretold. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it at all. That's what the Scripture shows us. Let's hold on a second right here. I want to bring out a couple of points about this. No doubt many of you are familiar with the Book of Mormon. You've probably encountered an elder who probably is a little bit younger than you out on their deputation, trying to earn their way to heaven, peddling their Book of Mormon, a so-called another testament of Jesus Christ. I've got quite a collection of their books because I've known a lot of Mormons. Years ago, you probably remember Brother Brian Rome, one of our evangelists here, before he passed away. He said that Mormon missionaries came to his house and he wanted his pastor to be there with him. I said, well, reschedule a time and I told him the time I could be there so that we all agreed that I would come and be there with Brian whenever the missionaries came. I asked him for a copy of the Book of Mormon. I said, can I borrow one of your books? He said, yes sir, here you are. I said, thank you. So I started asking them. And I loved to see their reaction. I said, so tell me, where is this place called Kolob where God, Elohim, Father God supposedly resides? Their eyes got big as saucers. I wasn't supposed to know that. That comes out of the book of Abraham. Which Joseph Smith claimed was one of the Egyptian papyri that they got while they were in Kirtland. And the peddler had to sell that church, the mummies as well. But of course, that document was found back in the 60s because one of his wives sent it back to Chicago and in turn she sent it back to New York. The Mormons thought the thing was burned up inside of the Great Chicago Fire back in the 1870s. But no, no, no, no. God has a wonderful sense of humor. That document made it out. And then in a time when Egyptian hieroglyphics could be read, Egyptologists read the thing, and it was nothing but a copy of the Book of the Dead. It had no mention of angels, Elohim, Abraham, Moses, nothing. But clearly in Joseph Smith's journal that he kept, he clearly said, translating from the papyri, translating from the Egyptian papyri, the only valid documentation we have that Joseph Smith literally said in his own hand and wrote these characters down that he translated It ain't accurate at all. The book of Deuteronomy tells us that if a prophet makes one false prophecy, you are not to respect or fear him. So I do not believe anything that he wrote at all. Furthermore, Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church claim that this book is the most perfect book on the face of the earth. So I popped it open to the book of Alma, chapter 7, and I read verse 10. And behold, he shall be born of Mary at Jerusalem, which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God. I said, so, your book that your prophet said is the most perfect of all books in the world says that Jesus is supposed to be born in Jerusalem. I said, why is it then that the prophet Micah said that he'll be born in Bethlehem? Now they got concerned. And then I could see their gears spinning in their head. Oh, well, Bethlehem is a suburb of Jerusalem. I know a couple of rabbis, I said, what? Suburb? I wasn't swallowing that at all, and I said, no, I don't think you're right in that. So later on I called up my rabbi buddy, and I said, he's over in Chicago, and I said, rabbi, has it ever been said that Bethlehem is a suburb of Jerusalem? Right when I got that out of the doors of my mouth, he started bawling in laughter. I had to hold the phone out. I said, Rabbi, what is so funny? He said, Bethlehem, a suburb of Jerusalem? Where did you hear that from? I said, well, I heard it from a Mormon missionary. He said, that's not it at all. Whoever come up with that obviously knows nothing about the Holy Land. I said, okay, that's what I was figuring. Obviously, Joe hiccuped or forgot to reference his Bible or something when he was jotting that down. Because no, Jesus wasn't born in Jerusalem. So in other words, one of these is right and one of these is wrong because you've got two different cities mentioned and they can't both be right. You can't be born in two places. So, Herod asked those wise men, where is this Messiah to be born? Where is this king? And without a hitch they said, that verse right there, Bethlehem, Ephratah. Herod called them wise men back in and he told them where where he was. And then he laid it on thick. And he said, by the way boys, when y'all find him, be sure to come back by the palace, let me know, so I can bring myself and my crew and we'll go worship the king too. Obviously he didn't want to do that, he wanted to kill him. But God warned, remember, the wise men not to go back that way. They went another way. And when Herod saw that they mocked him, that they didn't come back by, he ordered all male children in and around, that is the coast of Bethlehem, two years and under, to be killed, to be put to death, to be murdered. And that, of course, is what we call the massacre of the innocents. When we celebrate Christmas, we have to remember two years later, after the birth of Jesus, because remember, when the wise men came, they came into the house, Matthew says, and they saw the young child, not the babe, the young child and his mother. By the way, when the shepherds came the night of Jesus' birth, they came into the stable area because they saw the manger, which is the feeding trough, And they saw the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and Mary, his mother, and they saw Joseph as well. When the wise men came, Joe wasn't anywhere around. He was probably out in the city working, most likely. And they weren't inside of a house either. They were inside of the barn, if you will. So two different events, two separate times. But anyway, I digress. One other thing I want to point out here about Bethlehem. Today is traditionally Palm Sunday, but as we know, the timing is off because a lot of people get this preparation on the eve of the Sabbath. I think it's the weekly Sabbath. It isn't the weekly Sabbath. Jesus was crucified right before the Passover, and according to the Old Testament, Passover in and of itself is a Sabbath. It's a day when they're not supposed to do any work. So there is a possibility in a week in the Jewish calendar you could have two Sabbaths in a week. And that's what was happening the week of Jesus' crucifixion. That's why it wasn't on Friday. But it was on Wednesday, and when you do the calculations and the mathematical thing, which we'll take a quick look at Wednesday, about six o'clock, whenever we're doing our Q&A, I'll try to have the TV out and have the big chart that you can see it, and you can count it up and see. But anyway, that's what we understand. And that's also why our cloth out there will be black when everybody else's is purple, because we're trying to be biblically correct. Even though we could have Good Friday services and you attend and remember the death of Jesus upon the cross, that's understandable. But as long as we got the truth, remember, that's what matters. And so it is that in Bethlehem, every Passover, the high priest, now this is Jewish custom, mind you, what I'm about to tell you. So, how do they know when to do Passover? Alright? They've got to look for two things. They've got to look for the first sliver of the crescent moon after the new moon. Okay? That's how they do their months. Anytime they see the sliver of the new crescent moon, they know that's going to start their month. Because remember, the Jews operate on a lunar calendar. But to start the year, the second thing they look for in Jerusalem is barley. Why that? Because that goes back to when God gave the judgments upon the Egyptian. And you go back there and read whenever the hailstones fell and they burned upon the ground, there was one thing that was left and that was the barley. So when they look and they see that the barley is coming up and it's ripe, and they see that sliver crescent moon, and they see the barley's ripe, there's two things. They know that's That's it. That's when they got to start the countdown. So, my dear, who was it? Was it Pippin that Gandalf sent up through the tower to drop the flame onto there inside of Minas Tirith? Yeah, so the beacons are going to be lit. So if you go back, and I use this because this is one of the great illustrations. Where do you think Tolkien got it from? He got it from Jewish history, no doubt. And so what would happen, how do you, in Jerusalem, how do you communicate to the entire country that they need to start coming to Jerusalem and start getting ready for the Passover? Simple, by the beacons. So you would have to have two witnesses, always two by two. So on one side of Jerusalem, they'll look and they'll see the crescent moon, they'll see the field of barley, make sure it's ripe. By the way, if the barley is not ripe, they add a 13th month to the year. Not a leap day. but a leap month, you might call it. And this is another reason why, guys, when you're trying to see all these people that try to set dates and, oh, Jesus is coming back in 1992, that was a dud, and all these different things, they're thinking most of them from a Western mindset. Most of these yahoos out here do not do biblically correct understanding or calculation. And there's one thing that we can't understand because nobody has found all of the records, even if they kept it. And that's, is there an extra month, a 13th month in these years or not? We don't know because people evidently, because remember the Jews were scattered for 1900 years and they weren't keeping tabs inside of Jerusalem, which is where they were supposed to do it at. Anyway, so one of them comes up to the high priest and says, hey, we saw the crescent moon. We see that the barley's ripe. Well, now you've got to get it confirmed on the other side of the city. And so when he confirms it, and two witnesses say the same thing, then the high priest would tell all the priests at the temple, start preparation. Now, ha, ha, ha, the priest, the high priest, will now leave Jerusalem And he will go now to the ceremonial city of where they raise the Passover lambs. And where do you think it was? In Bethlehem. You remember they were keeping watch over their flock by night? a lot of sheep inside of Bethlehem, there's a reason because that's where they raised the Passover lamb for the high priest so the high priest will take a lamb and now he's going to come back and he's going to ride on a donkey and now by this point all the people in the whole city have been told about it because they're going to start their new year because they've got about fourteen days to count down until the big show the big event Passover, where everybody across the entire land will come. And so it is that when the high priest hits the gate and he comes in, everybody has palm branches and they go bananas. Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Why are they going so nuts? Because they think this might be the year Messiah might just come. Well, here's the funny thing. When the high priest left on Palm Sunday, Jesus got a donkey and rode in. He one-upped him. So when they saw somebody riding in, a lot of people, oh look, it's the high priest. Yeah, it was the high priest, just not the old boy, you're thinking. Ah ha, and so they all started going off and ooh, hosanna, hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. It was the presentation of the Passover lamb. But half the time when all these people, they look at Palm Sunday, it just goes over their head. They just look at Zechariah and that's all they see. They don't go back into the cultural, historical context to pull this other meaning out. And so that Passover lamb that the high priest would eventually bring, he will set that in front of the people. They'll examine it to make sure what? That it has no spot and it has no blemish. And what did Jesus do when he came in for the Passion Week? He'll be out and about everywhere around and everybody will be looking at him, hearing him, examining him. The, as John the Baptist said in the beginning, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Wow, all that about little old Bethlehem. Here's a reason God let me be a historian and study all these weird, useless facts most people don't ever pay no attention to. And then when I got into the Bible and all this and my studies, I said, whoa, wait a minute, that connects over there. Woo, that's pretty cool. So it's pretty neat. All right, look at verse 3. Now this is a long-range prophecy. Guys, you've got to be careful about some of these things. What makes sense to us may not be the actual sense back inside the Scripture. For example, when Jesus opens up the scroll, remember, to kind of kick-start His ministry, after his baptism and all that, and he reads that and he says, today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears. Remember he read out of Isaiah. When you go back and read that, where he closed the book, there's a little comma right there. Do you know that that little comma right now encompasses 2,000 years roughly? Because if he had finished the verse, a lot of people said, well preacher, why didn't he finish reading the verse? Because if he had, the end of the world would have happened and all that and we wouldn't be here. So that little comma adds up to 2,000 years. That's why he put the breaks on. So what might look like such to us might be totally different. That's why we got to study God. And I know a lot of people when they get to that stuff they say, oh that's boring. The Bible is amazing. It's an amazing book. It's God's love letter to you and I. So this long-range prophecy is now at hand. God foretold that he would give up Israel to their enemies until the time when she, which travailed, that would be Israel, had brought forth. Now the day is coming when Israel will go through her labor pain in bringing in eventually the millennial kingdom and her king. The thought is paralleled, guys, in Isaiah 12, I mean, in Revelation 12, verse 2, and Isaiah 66, verses 7 and 8. It will be then that the remnant of Israel, his brethren, will return all together to their land, and then Judah and Israel will be reunified in the fully restored nation of Israel. A lot of people look at that and say, well, Preacher, didn't that already happen back in 1948? No. What happened in 1948 was the establishment of a political entity called Israel after 1900 years. There has to be a nation of Israel in order for that nation to sign a peace treaty for seven years with the Antichrist. But that doesn't mean it is Israel regathered. Because when you see the New Covenant in Jeremiah 33, when you see all of these prophecies of God saying His people are regathered, what is the primary thing we see driving over the entire thing about the Jews come back to Israel? It is that all of them will know God as their Savior. Today, the vast majority of the Jews over there, they do not know Jesus as their Savior. Most of them are either agnostic or they think that the Bible, the Old Testament, is just fantasy or allegorical. They don't look at it literally. But anyway, that's why we need to pray for them. That they will come to know their Messiah, the Prince, before it's too late. Verse four, and he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, and the majesty of the name of the Lord is God, and they shall abide. For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. Now the he here is most likely the Messiah spoken of back up in verse three. In that day our Lord will stand and feed his people in the strength of the Lord. He will reign with the majesty of Jehovah God. And as a matter of fact, that's who he is. In that day, they, that is Israel, will abide forever. There will be a great big nation unto the ends of the earth. So this little sliver that people call Israel, that's nothing compared to the tract of land that they're going to get. Remember what God promised to Abraham. You can see that delineated and divided up by the Messiah in the book of Ezekiel. foretold is the glories of both the Messiah and Israel in the coming kingdom. Look at verse 5. And this man shall be the peace when the Assyrians shall come into our land, and when they shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men. Now, of course, this man here is the Messiah of verses 2 through 4. Still fresh in the mind of Micah and other Jews was the captivity of the northern ten kingdoms by the Assyrians. And no, that's not the lost tribes of Israel. And so it is. that their very recent invasion and chastisement of Judah that's coming. The Assyrian is then a symbol of the enemies of Israel. The Messiah will be the protector and enforcer of peace for his people. And in that day the Messiah shall reign. He will raise up the necessary number of qualified men to rule and to reign with him, as we note. inside of Revelation, as we note throughout other Old Testament prophecy. Verse six, and they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword and the land of Nimrod and the entrances thereof. Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land, when he treadeth within our border. So once again, the invasion and the chastisement of Judah by the Assyrian was a very vivid and very recent memory in the mind of Micah. You can go back to 2 Kings chapters 18 and 19 and see that. And from that perspective, He again uses Assyria as the typical enemy of Israel. The point is that when Messiah comes upon the scene, He will protect His people and He will defeat their enemies. Verse 7, And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. So a remnant of Israel is once again talked about here. The days were coming when Judah as well as Israel would be dispersed and then regathered again as a remnant. In that day, restored and regenerated Israel would be as the cool, refreshing dew upon the grass for the nations of the world. No longer would Israel be the source of animosity, anti-Semitism, and hatred. Rather, in that day, they will be a fountainhead of healing and blessing for all nations. As soft showers of rain upon the grass, giving life and vitality, Israel will be so to all nations in the coming kingdom of God. Verse 8, "...and the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver." What in the world is that? Well, in the coming millennium, restored and redeemed Israel will now be the capital nation of the earth. They will be the Lion, the King of the Beast of the nations. God will empower Israel in that day over all the other nations of the earth. They will be over all the other nations. It's kind of like people look at America today as going to be Israel in that day. Verse 9, Thine hands shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off. So in the millennium, in the millennial kingdom, Israel will prevail against any nation who might dare have a quarrel with them. This is not speaking about war and victory for Israel during the millennium because there's going to be, God, a thousand years of peace. However, the point of the prophet here is that the enemies of Israel will no longer exist. Remember, even Satan himself is going to be bound for a thousand years. And you know what? Looking at all of the whole coverage of war and warfare and bloodshed throughout all of history, that thousand years will be in a stark contrast to what we have experienced in our run of human history. It has been very, very bloody. in verse 10, "...and it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots." In other words, God's saying you're not going to have any military weaponry available, no armored personnel carriers, etc., nothing like that. That's going to be gone. Verse 11, "...and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down thy stronghold." So no need for fortifications, fortified cities. Down they go. They're all gone. They will not be needed. Christ will be their peace. Verse 12, and I will cut off the witchcrafts out of thine hand and thou shalt have no more soothsayers. Down through the centuries even some in Israel dared to dabble in the occult. You remember King Saul. He had put away the witches and the wizards out of the land. But yet when God would not speak to him, he told his lieutenant, find me a woman that hath a familiar spirit. They found the witch of Endor. And Saul went to her and consulted. In other words, when Jesus rules and reigns, all occult activities will be no more. No tarot cards, no Ouija boards, no seances, none of that stuff. It's all gone. Verse 13, thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. Again, all over, even when they came out of bondage, what did they do? They made a golden calf. Remember, all throughout Israel's history they have dabbled with idolatry. Baal, Asherah, Molech, even Solomon dared with all those wives, those thousand women he had. We read in the Bible and what do we find? We find what? Three sons of Solomon mentioned? And yet he had a thousand women? You know good and well that he got those women pregnant. Where's all his kids at? And the Bible tells us that he turned away from God and he began to worship Molech. And Molech, how do you worship Molech? Child sacrifice. What did he do? He sacrificed his own children. His wisdom, no doubt, was corrupted. But what we find here when Christ returns to rule and reign, all idolatry will be banned forever. Now, folks, stop and think about it. You say, well, I don't have a statue like that, Brother Craig. We may not have a little statue, but we got our idols. Oh, don't we, though? You say, well, how do we know? Easy. Jesus said, where your heart is, that's where your treasure will be. And he said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So what do we talk about all day long? That's what's on our heart the most. And in turn, must be pretty valuable to it, might, it might be an idol if we put it before God. Anyone or anything we place before Christ, that, beloved, is an idol. So there's a lot of hobbies, there's a lot of jobs, there's a lot of people, even ourselves, that we have placed as an idol in front of Jesus. It's high time we tear those idols down and give God his rightful place, which is the throne of our hearts and minds. Guys, he's not the advisor like Dear Abby or Dr. Field. He is the king of king and lord of lord. And the little sliver of his kingdom that's on this earth is what's in your heart and what's in mine right now. And he deserves to be on his throne in our hearts and minds. to rule in our lives. Why? Because your hands are supposed to be His. Our feet, our mouth, our eyes, our ears, all of that is to be His, to use for His glory and the advancement of His kingdom. You say, why the devil don't want me to speak? He don't like that stuff. Almost done. Two verses left. David, if you want to come. Verse 14, and I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee, so will I destroy thy cities. Now groves of trees were normally planted around idolatrous shrines where they would have an idol, they would have a grove of trees. So when Christ comes back, such places will not be allowed to exist. The cities of idolatry like Bethel or Dan, back inside of the Northern Kingdom, gone. The context also hints to us very clearly that idolatry will be eliminated from off the entire earth. God, what a paradise it's going to be when Jesus reigns. Verse 15, and I will execute vengeance and anger and fury upon the heathen such as they have not heard. Now this likely refers back to the campaign of Armageddon. When we typically think about swords in the Bible, a lot of times we think about the Gladius. When the Bible says that it is the sword of the Spirit, this is what it's referring to. The sword used by the Romans, the double-edged blade, when you reach out and touch someone at close quarters. What about this bad boy? This is where we kind of think about William Wallace and Braveheart. Freedom! You know, and all that. When Jesus is riding and he's coming back in the campaign of Armageddon, and you see the vivid imagery in Revelation, it clearly shows that a sword comes out of his mouth. Obviously, that's the Word of God. But it's not that. That's our sword. That's his sword. the broadsword. And that's what comes out of his mouth. And that's where, when you read about that, that 200 mile long river of blood The enemies of Jesus gathered around most likely Petra. When they see Jesus coming back, they'll try to use whatever weapons they have and try to knock him out of the sky. And then they'll turn tail and run. That's what we see in the Old Testament. As they begin to run up the valley of Jehoshaphat, Jesus will speak. Now here's the interesting part. We're gonna be right behind him on white horses. We're not gonna fight. We're just gonna have a front row seat. And so as Jesus speaks, that sword is going to smite his enemies and they will explode and there will be so much blood coming out from that army running back up the valley of Jezreel or Jehoshaphat that it will turn into a 200-mile river of blood deep as a horse up to a horse's bridle. By my calculations, that would run roughly to around 200 I think my calculation was about 200 million, no, not million, it would be somewhere right underneath about a billion people. I think my calculation, that's an estimate. That's a lot of dead people. Hence why Jesus calls all the birds of prey to feast at the great battle, after the great battle is over. But finally the remnant will be destroyed and they'll get up there and finally Jesus will come down. He'll touch the Mount of Olives. It'll rip in two and then He'll grab the Antichrist and the false prophet. He'll throw the false prophet into the lake of fire. He'll shake Satan out of the Antichrist and He'll throw the He'll throw the Antichrist into the lake of fire, and then the angel, Michael, will uncover the bottomless pit, and Satan will be chained, and he'll be cast into the bottomless pit, and he'll be covered up, and a seal will be placed upon it, and Satan will not be able to do anything for a thousand years. And then, remember what Paul said? What? Know ye not that ye, y'all, will judge angels? I can't wait to see this. Peggy will get to take a demon and knock him into the lake of fire. And Deborah will be able to chuck Norris roundhouse. Not like that, that's pitiful. But anyway, a demon into the lake of fire. Every one of us will. That's going to be amazing. Because the number of demons active will equal the number of the church And all of us, since Paul said, we will judge angels, by the authority of Christ, by our resurrection glorified body, we will remove the demons off of this earth. And there will be no demons active for a thousand years. They're already judged, remember? The lake of fire, Jesus said in Matthew's gospel, was prepared for who? The devil and his angels. And then at the end of all human history, God's gonna let Satan, I'm throwing this out, just give me one more moment. God will release Satan out of his prison, and he'll go forth and deceive the nations of the world one more time, Satan will himself. And he'll gather an army, the Bible says in Revelation, that will number even as the sands of the sea, seashore. And they'll come up against Jerusalem. All these people, 99 years and younger, will think they're gonna overthrow the King of Kings. And at that moment, Jesus will call down fire and incinerate the entire army. He'll take Satan, throw him into the lake of fire. Old Scratch will be done. And again, we got a front row seat. It's gonna be amazing. So Micah has brought in some pretty good news. Yes, Israel and Judah have gone through some terrible thing, but he's looking down the corners of time and he says, the king is coming. And then he looks down way beyond that, past us, and he says, the kingdom will be restored. What a bright spot in a bleak book of judgment. Well, guys, hang on. Well, not next week. We'll have revival going on. But when we get back to Micah, we got two more chapters. And we'll notice in chapter 6, he's going to set forth God's controversy with Israel. Why is he doing that? Because nobody can say, well, I didn't know what you wanted. He's setting it forth right there to show them you ain't got a leg to stand on because God's been saying this the whole time ever since Moses and before. He's told you what to do. Don't claim ignorance now. All right. Well, let's bow our heads and close our eyes.