And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, so begins the third verse of Martin Luther's famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. You don't have to experience much of this life to realize just how true that stanza is. For the world can be a very harsh place, a very dangerous place. Our very existence is a precarious one. There are countless threats and temptations, countless vulnerabilities that each of us face. There are many forces in our world that would seek to undo us. There are the external forces that would press in against us and would seek to undo us. There's active persecution and the hostility of others. There's blatant and subtle injustices. There's the destructive abuse and violence that can destroy us in a moment. or can break us down over a lifetime. And as if all that weren't enough, as if all of that out there wasn't threatening enough, there's also the internal forces that seek to undo us from within. There's our own lust for power and pleasure, our anger, our selfishness. In short, there is our sin. And if we are honest and we look around us and we look at ourselves, we cry out how precarious this life can be, how fragile, how dangerous, how vulnerable we are in such a world. What are we to do? How can we go forward with confidence? Who can we look to for aid? for support, for salvation? These are the kinds of questions that many of us are asking tonight. And these are the kinds of questions that almost all the people of Judah were asking in the latter days of Micah the prophet and of Hezekiah the king. For in those days, the warmongering king of Assyria, Sennacherib, was on the march. You might say he was on the prowl, seeking whom he may devour. Imperialistic. aggressive, brutally violent, the Assyrian Empire had overwhelmed almost all of the smaller kingdoms around it. And when they took over a people, they not only made a practice of ruling over that conquered foe, but they also engaged in systematic attempts to disband and to exile and to breed their foes out of existence. Through forced intermarriage, the Assyrians sought to destroy the distinct ethnic heritage of the peoples they conquered. You see, it wasn't enough for them to simply rule over a foe. They wanted to assimilate that foe and culturally annihilate their captives. Only 20 years earlier, the Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. They had exiled and scattered the 10 northern tribes throughout their empire, and they had been completely repopulated the northern capital of Samaria with other conquered peoples. And since that time, the Assyrians had been marching southward, chewing up and spitting out the towns of Israel and Judah as they saw fit. And now, around the year 701 BC, Sennacherib and his army had surrounded the city of Jerusalem. This was all that remained of the free kingdom of Judah. The Assyrian army, we read in the scriptures, had come right up to the gate of Jerusalem. The city was literally surrounded. And this threatening reality stood before the people. This was their choice. On the one hand, they could engage in unconditional surrender, which would mean geographic exile. and cultural annihilation, or they could stay put. They could resist, fight, defend and face almost certain death and destruction. Now, if the people of Jerusalem could have heard a choir sing out, and though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, they would have uttered a somber, but a heartfelt amen. And in such dire circumstances, what were they to do? Well, as we saw last week in the final verses of chapter four, Micah calls the people of Jerusalem, surrounded as they are, he calls them to arise and thresh their enemies. He calls them to resist the march of the Assyrians, to fight and defend the people of God against Assyrian onslaught. They are to arise and thrash with the assurance that God Himself has gathered His enemies for such a time as this. And now, in keeping with the flow of that, book chapter 5 begins, now muster your troops. O daughter of troops, siege is laid against us. You can picture the scene, can you not? A small group of folks hunkered down in the capital city, surrounded by hordes upon hordes of Assyrian troops. Arise and thresh, the cry rings out. Muster your troops, arise and thresh. The battle is the Lord's. Let's go, men. The men make their way to the wall of the city. There they look out and see an opposing force that cannot be numbered, an angry force bent on their destruction. The leader of that force stands up and delivers to the men of Jerusalem the speech that we see in Second Kings 18. I read a good portion of that last week. Do not be deceived. Your silly King Hezekiah cannot save you. Your impotent God cannot save you. Has any God of any of the nations been able to withstand the onslaught of Assyria? Resistance will mean death and torture for you. You will eat your own dung and drink your own urine before you die. We read that after these words, the people of Judah were silent. They were mustered for battle, but their foe had openly mocked them and their king and their God. This then is the context for chapter five, verse one, where Micah writes, siege is laid against us with a rod. They strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. Now, in ancient times, publicly striking someone on the cheek was one of the most insulting, most degrading things that you could do to another person. It was a sign of the person who was slapped, of their utter weakness, of their complete inability to resist. It was a declaration of total power and control over another. And this is what the king of Assyria has essentially done to Hezekiah and the people of Judah. He has laid down a mocking boast. By any human measurement, he has every ability, every resource necessary to back up that boast. What could such a small band of men do against such an enemy? Surely they were powerless against such a foe. All they could do was sit in coward silence, arise and thresh, Are you kidding me? We cannot defeat this foe. It's not a matter of willpower or desire or intensity. It cannot be done. We do not have this in us. There is no way. Let me ask you tonight, have you ever come to such a place? Have you ever honestly confronted? Perhaps are you now confronting the devils swirling around in your life as you face the sin that is without and within? And have you ever come to that realization where you say, I simply cannot do this? I cannot defeat this foe. I cannot defeat or deliver myself from the injustice and the wickedness that is all around me. I cannot defeat or deliver myself from the injustice and the wickedness that permeates the very dark recesses of my own soul. Arise and thrash? How? How is such a victory possible? Well, for the people who were walled up in Jerusalem and for every person who has ever been overwhelmed in their own confrontation with sin and evil, for all of us, Micah proceeds to declare verses two through six. In these verses, Micah declares how the victory of God's people will come about. He makes it very clear this victory will not come about from any resources that Israel possesses. It will not come about because of their courage. or their fortitude or their persistence or their skills in battle. It will come about only because God is going to raise up a deliverer, a ruler, a shepherd who will miraculously lead his people to victory. And this is Israel's only hope. And this, I would declare this evening, is our only hope as well. Micah begins in verse two by saying how and where the promise deliverer is going to come. For starters, he will be born in Bethlehem. This small, rather insignificant town will be the birthplace of Israel's greatest ruler. This was a powerful statement regarding the humble origin of this coming leader. Unlike all the recent kings who were born in luxury and affluence and privilege in Jerusalem, this coming king would be born in the obscure village of Bethlehem. Now, of course, any Israelite who heard this could not help but be reminded that this was also the place where Israel's greatest king had come from, King David. And this is a connection that Micah is working hard to make. And he strengthens this connection between the coming king and King David by declaring that the coming ruler's origin is of old, from ancient of days. Now, scholars have debated just what exactly this verse means. Some have suggested that this phrase points to the preexistent nature of the coming king, that his origins are rooted in eternity past. Others have pointed out that given the context and given the language that is used here and which is used elsewhere, this is not necessarily a claim that the coming king is preexistent. Instead, they would say this is a rather common way of connecting the coming ruler with great rulers of the past, in this case, King David. It's another way of saying that this coming ruler will not only come from David's family line, which has been true of all the kings of Judah, but this one will will hearken back to the great king of old. He will share in David's character and greatness. I think this is more likely what the phrase means. Because Micah, I think, is trying to connect this coming ruler here to David. He will be born in the same town. He will arise from the same humble origins. And he will share in the same character. His origins will be of the same stuff as Israel's greatest leader. In modern terminology, we might say this coming ruler is going to be a throwback. He'll be old school, like like the great David himself, not like these clowns who have come along recently. This is how he will come. This is where he will come from. This is what his coming will be like. Well, this then raises the next question. What is this humble Davidic ruler going to do? How is he going to do it? What is he going to accomplish? What will the character of his rule be? Well, Micah states, first of all, that this royal leader is going to be the ruler in Israel. We see that in verse two of the term used here is an interesting one. It is not the normal word for king. Rather, it conveys the idea of a subordinate ruler, a ruler who rules based on the authority of another. And I think Micah uses this particular word here to declare that this coming ruler is not going to usurp God's power. He's not going to try and deny God's right to rule over Israel, but he will rule as God's ruler. What a stark contrast this would be to most of Israel and Judah's kings of the past. Most of these men ruled Israel for their own gain, for their own ends, for their own glory. But this coming ruler will rule Israel as God's man in order to accomplish God's end, for God's glory. And when this ruler comes to power, he will gather the rest of Israel under his leadership. We see this in verse three. What a great promise this was for Israel, because as you may remember, Israel had once been united as a single people under King David. However, because of sin and conflict, they had fractured into two distinct kingdoms. One of those kingdoms, the northern kingdom, had been destroyed by the Assyrians. At the time of Micah's writing, almost all that was left of the original twelve tribes was the remnant huddled together in Jerusalem. What Micah's promising here is that this coming ruler who will rule with God's authority, he will reunite all of God's people. When he comes, all of God's people will rally together under one head. And in verse 4 we see that this ruler, having gathered all of God's people together, will stand. stand, which is an image of power and strength. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord, his God. Again, how different this will be from what Israel asked for in a king and what they have received. Some of you may remember, if you go back to the book of First Samuel, that when Israel asked for a king, they wanted a king who would rule over them and protect them just like all the other nations. They weren't looking for a divinely empowered leader, someone who would exercise God's rule over them through God given authority. No, they wanted a king just like all the other nations. And for the most part, this is exactly what they got. They got kings who served themselves, who sought to do what was right in their own eyes and advance their own glory. They had kings who used people for their own gain. instead of seeing their authority as a responsibility and an opportunity to care for the subjects that God had given them. And where had such kings landed Israel? Well, the northern kingdom lay in ruins. The southern kingdom was on the verge of extinction. They were a minuscule, powerless kingdom cowering before a foe who seemed certain to destroy it. So what a great contrast their present reality was from the coming rule of the shepherd king. Micah says he will be a ruler who will stand and defend the people in the strength of the Lord, in the supernatural, miraculous strength of the Lord. And this mighty, divinely empowered ruler will then shepherd and care for the people with tender affection and a pastoral heart. His strong and compassionate rule, the text says, will be exalted to the ends of the earth. And he will bring peace and security to the people of God. Micah goes on. When Assyria comes to tread on God's people, he will end up ruling and shepherding them with the sword. When Assyria comes to tread on the people of Israel, he will deliver Israel from their hand. And he will then establish under shepherds and vice regents, princes who will rule and shepherd the people of God under him. No, it's this coming ruler will be the perfect Davidic king. He will fulfill all of the divine promises that were made to David back in Second Samuel, chapter seven. He will rule over God's people in righteousness and strength and integrity. He will bring eternal peace and security to God's people. He will shepherd them in his love and his kingdom will know no end. What great news this must have been to the people of Judah, an afflicted people who in their own strength had no way out of their affliction. What great news it must have been to hear that God was going to raise up a ruler to deliver them, a humble ruler like King David himself. A divinely empowered ruler who would rule in the strength and character of the Lord. A compassionate ruler who would shepherd his people. An exalted, peace-conferring, security-bringing, people-uniting ruler of the ages. What great news this was to a powerless, afflicted, and desperate people. Surely the people of Judah would have offered a hearty amen to verse 2 of a mighty fortress is our God, which reads, did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Of course, then there were only two questions left. When will he come and who will he be? Well, first, we see that this blessed ruler would have to be born. Micah says in verse three, this ruler is coming. This blessed rule is coming when she who is in labor has given birth. Micah here is echoing the words of his contemporary Isaiah, who wrote in Isaiah seven, therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel. Again, Isaiah writes in chapter nine, for unto us a child is born unto us, a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful. Counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of his father, David, and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. Oh, what good news. A child will be born who will bring about this great kingdom. But you can just see the folks clamoring, wanting more information. When will this child be born? Well, Micah doesn't give a date, but he does give a strong sense that it will not be right away. All of this is coming in the future. So Micah declares in verse three, until then, God is going to give you up, Israel, until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. And so he isn't born yet. And God is going to give us up, give Israel up for a time until he is born. You can just see them crying out, though, but when will that be? When will we actually experience his deliverance? How long is he going to give us up for? Well, no one living in Micah's day saw this great shepherd ruler born under Hezekiah's leadership. They did stand firm against the Assyrian king. They did not surrender. And we read in Second Kings that God miraculously intervened and struck down over one hundred and eighty thousand Assyrian troops in the night. As a result, the Assyrians packed up their bags and returned home, sparing Jerusalem and allowing the kingdom of Judah to continue. However, even though it was miraculously spared from destruction, Judah did not see the rise of the promised shepherd king. And the Assyrians came and went in the pages of history. They were eventually defeated by the Babylonians, who conquered Jerusalem and sent the people of God into exile in Babylon. The Babylonians were eventually defeated by the Medes and the Persians, who allowed the exiles to return back to Jerusalem, where they lived under Persian rule. The Persians eventually fell to the Greeks. The Greeks eventually fell to the Romans. Empires and kingdoms came and went, years rolled into centuries, but no shepherd king ever emerged. Israel remained a conquered people under the thumb of mighty empires. And when we come to the New Testament, two things then are interesting to note. One is that Assyria has been reduced to a historical footnote, long forgotten. But the other is that the Jews were still eagerly anticipating the birth of the shepherd ruler who would give them promised victory over the Assyrian foe. How, you might ask, would these two realities coexist? You might think that with the passing of the Assyrians from the pages of history, so, too, with the hope of a promised deliverer passed into the pages of history. After all, the foe they were longing to be freed from is no more. How did the Jews reconcile these realities? Well, the people of God understood that the ultimate nemesis of their people was not the historical people of Assyria. They understood that even when the Assyrian Empire went the way of the Dodo, Israel still remained an afflicted, oppressed people who longed for deliverance from their foes. This was true before the Assyrians came along. It remained true after the Assyrians passed. into history. So the people began to understand that Assyria in the scripture was not only a concrete historical reality, but it was also a type, a template, if you will. Assyria in the scriptures also then stood as a type of oppressive world power that was opposed to God and opposed to his people. The Jews understood that even though the Assyrian empire as a historical entity had ceased to exist, Assyria as a type, Assyria as a spiritual reality, continued to thrive in the form of other world empires. The Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, all of them had that spiritual oppressive quality that rebelled against God and sought to destroy his people. And so in the New Testament era, 700 years after the ministry of Micah, 600 years after the fall of Assyria, people were still longing for the shepherd king of Micah 5. The king who would deliver God's people from all their foes and who would unite and rule and shepherd and protect and bless that people. And so it is then in this context that the New Testament introduces us to Jesus. Jesus, we learn in Matthew one and two, is a true descendant of David, born of a virgin. And he was born in Bethlehem in the most humble of settings. And when he was born, wise men came from the east to seek him, knowing that he was the Christ, the promised one of God. And when they inquired as to where he was, Herod's advisors immediately respond that the Christ is to be born in Bethlehem. And they quoted this very passage from Micah. Finally, after years, after centuries of waiting, the promised child had been born in Bethlehem. The promised Savior, Shepherd, King had come. And from the very beginning, the expectations of the people were there. Zachariah, the priest, prophesied this in Luke one regarding the birth of Jesus and the birth of his son, John the Baptist, who would herald the way, he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. As Jesus grew and began his public ministry, those kinds of expectations increased and flowered and got specific in people's minds. For many people, the assumption was that Jesus would give the Jews political freedom, would set up an earthly kingdom over against the Romans, who they thought was the Assyria of the day. This assumption and this desire was so strong in many people that at the end of John 6, we read that after Jesus fed the 5000 people wanted to come and take him by force in order to make him king. You see, to most folks, it seems so logical. Here was the one, the promised one, the one whom God had promised would deliver them from their enemies, who would deliver them from their Assyria. and who would rule them and shepherd them and bless them and give them peace. Why not make him king? Why not turn him loose against the Romans? What is standing in his way? Well, what was standing in the way was Jesus himself. For as the New Testament unfolds, we see that even though Jesus understood that he was the promised shepherd ruler of Micah five, even though he knew he was the promised deliverer of whom the prophets had spoken, Even though all of that was true, he had no interest in overthrowing the Romans. Why is this? Because Jesus had much bigger fish to fry. You see, just as the Assyrians were not the ultimate foe of God's people, just as they were a concrete historical expression of a deeper spiritual reality, neither were the Romans the ultimate foe of God's people. They, too, were a concrete historical expression of a deeper spiritual reality. And so, too, with the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Persians and the Greeks and the Romans and every oppressive empire that has ever walked the earth. There is an underlying problem even greater. Problem is sin itself. Sin, which is simply rebellion from God. Sin was the universal root cause of every historical expression of oppression that Israel ever encountered. And yet the ultimate problem with sin is that it didn't just affect and corrupt Israel's oppressors so that they in turn oppressed Israel. Sin affected and corrupted Israel, too. Israel suffered the effects of sin at the hands of others, but they also afflicted others and they afflicted themselves with their own sin. And this wasn't just true for Israel. It's true for every person who has ever lived and ever will live. For the psalmist wrote, there is none righteous. No, not one. All have turned away from God. Together, they have all become corrupt. You see, this means that if Israel or if anyone, for that matter, is going to be truly set free from all their foes, they will have to be set free from sin itself. And if you thought defeating the historical Assyrian army or defeating the Romans was difficult, consider for a moment the thought of defeating sin at its root, when every human being who has ever lived is afflicted and corrupted with sin in their roots. But that is exactly what Jesus came to do. He came to liberate God's people from the ultimate Assyria. He came to deliver them from the bondage of sin itself. And he did this not by marshalling an army and attacking the political powers that be. He did this by serving as the good shepherd and by laying down his life for the sheep. The New Testament says that Jesus took the sin of the world upon his sinless self. And having become sin, he went to the cross and there he suffered the full penalty and the consequences of sin. He endured the rage of Satan and the powers of hell. He was afflicted with physical suffering and he died. And perhaps most terrifying in his suffering and death, he endured the eternal judgment and wrath of God. And having endured all of this. Jesus was then raised from the dead, gaining victory over sin and death and Satan. And the scripture declares that his victory is an eternal victory. It is a once and for all victory. And now he stands at the very center of human history. having defeated the greatest foe that human beings have ever faced. And he calls out to the world. His call goes out to the world. Come to the Lord Jesus. Believe in him and he will give you his victory over sin and over death and over the devil. Believe in Jesus and he will rule over you. And he will shepherd your soul in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord. Believe in Jesus Christ and your soul shall dwell secure because, as the scripture says, neither life nor death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. What is more, believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall become a part of the people of God. For just as Micah promised, the resurrected Jesus is now gathering his brothers and sisters into his fold. And yet what is so remarkable, as Ephesians 2 makes clear, is that this is not just a gathering of ethnic Israel, but this gathering which Micah tells us of is a gathering of the nations, a gathering of Jew and Gentile. And together, believers in Christ from every tongue and tribe and nation stand together as the true children of Abraham, the true Israel of God. And together, Paul says in Ephesians 2, I think perhaps with allusions to Micah 5, together Jesus is our peace. For through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God the Father, and we have peace with one another, peace that was purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross. And in this new people of God, in this church of Jesus Christ that he has gathered from the nation, in this church, Jesus has established his spiritual rule on earth through his body. Jesus exercises his shepherding care over his people through this body. His invisible kingdom is made visible and it is being made visible among all the nations of the earth. And one day soon, this shepherd ruler will come in glory. His kingdom will be consummated in full. His peace will know no rival. Death and affliction will be no more. And Jesus Christ will be exalted to the ends of the earth. The rebellious will be judged with the sword. And the rule of Jesus Christ will be total and complete forever and forever. What a promise this is to afflicted people. What a joy this is to people who are afflicted by sin, both from within and from without. We declare together what hope there is that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. To refer again to Martin Luther's great hymn, In this world with devils filled, In this world where our own sin threatens to undo us, in this world, if we did in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Ah, just ask who that may be. Christ Jesus. It is he. Lord, sabbath his name from age to age the same, and he must win the battle. Oh, brothers and sisters, as we struggle with injustice that is done to us, as we struggle with the sin that rages in our own hearts, let us turn again and again to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us bow before Him. Let Him rule over our hearts through His Word and through His appointed shepherds and princes in the church. Let us submit to his shepherding care, which he provides through his word and through his spirit and through the work of the under shepherds that he has appointed and the members of his church, his body. Let us dwell together, secure in the knowledge that Jesus Christ has purchased our salvation, that he rules over us as our shepherd and king and that he has brought us true peace. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We exalt Jesus Christ, our Shepherd, our King, our Savior, our Deliverer. We praise you that He has set us free from the bondage of sin and death and the devil. He has done what we could not do, and we praise Him as our God and our Savior forevermore. Amen.