I want you to think about this. You ever heard me mention or you ever read about a woman named Athaliah? Athaliah was a queen. And when her son died, she immediately, to seize power, killed all the heirs. Killed every one of them because she wanted to be in authority. And she knew if the son just died, that meant one of the sons of her son, one of her grandsons were gonna take over the throne. Well, what does she do? She does the unthinkable. She kills every one of her grandsons with the exception of one. One of the sisters who was married to a priest, Jehoadah, rescued that little boy and nobody knew. And they brought him into the house of God and they raised him in secret for six years. And in the sixth year, all the while Athaliah is on the throne. She's queen mother. She's on the throne. Well, in the sixth year of this little boy's reign, I think his name is Joash, King Joash. They raise up and they go in and they take and they kill Athaliah and they put Joash on the throne. And Joash rules and reigns and does wonderful as long as Jehoiada was alive. And when Jehoiada died, he then invited all the counselors to come in and they went the way of the kings of Israel. Why? Because Athaliah, guess whose daughter she was? Jezebel and Ahab's daughter, who had intermarried with one of the Judah's kings and alliances. And here they are still having the deal with the influence down the road, just prior to God coming in and destroying them all and moving them out with the Babylonians, that influence has infiltrated and taken over. You know, last couple weeks, we've looked at a couple places in the scripture that make reference to that, like in Ecclesiastes 9, that even with people walking rightly with the Lord, with every intent to be missionaries and kingdom-minded people, still ugly things come their way. And he said in that passage that things alike come to everybody, and it's messed up defiled, corrupt world and body that is prone to sickness and sin, things come to solid people and sorry people, you know, all the same. And then sometimes those, when I say sorry, that are unrighteous, ungodly, and wicked, good things fall their way. But bad things fall their way as well, just like bad things fall to the righteous man and good things on the just and the unjust. That's right. Things happen. Yes, yes. Little by little, little by little, day by day. God's grace is sufficient, isn't it? Well, as we read in Micah, the sweet blessings of being able to walk humbly with the Lord. to be able to love what he loves, his mercy, and to be able to do what he does. Man, what a gift that is. Because if it wasn't for him, we couldn't do that. We couldn't walk with him. We couldn't love that which is full of mercy and kindness. We just couldn't do it. But with him, man, he'll do it in us, won't he? What a reward it is to trust him, even when times are untrustworthy. You read today's reading in Micah, you'll know what I'm talking about. When he says you can't trust people publicly in the marketplace, you can't even trust them privately in your own home, is what he was getting at. He said as hard as it sounds, it's bad times. A lot of this is what was going on then and what is yet to come. Jesus spoke of it, those things are brought to light in the New Testament where he says people of their own house will be their enemy and that sons will rise up against fathers and daughters against mothers and daughter-in-laws against mother-in-laws and a man's enemy will be in his own family. And that's going to progressively, as time continues to carry on, gonna continue to be more and more as the day of the Lord is approaching. And we see that. Lots of needs out there. So many needs. A lot of hurting people. A lot of needy people. A lot of darkness, deceit. What was the time span on this or the time frame in Micah? I've got a note here, 697, 752, I guess that was his reign maybe? Yes, yes, because we see in the front part, look in the first few verses, he tells us when he was prophesying. Therefore, we can also then recognize that there was other prophets that were prophesying at the same time. So he says in verse one, the word of the Lord that came to Micah. His name means who is like Yahweh. That's what that means. And he's gonna bring that out in chapter seven, who is like Yahweh. Micah of Moresheph. Moresheph was in the lowlands south of Jerusalem. So here's a country preacher that lived in Moresheth, and he's gonna use a lot of those little cities and towns and villages around Moresheth. He's gonna bring them out in his prophecy. But he says he did it in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning both of Samaria and Jerusalem. So that gives us the time span of this word. Somewhere we can land it, if you want to put it in the middle, somewhere around 725 or so BC. Yeah. Yes, that's right. Same thing. Yeah, that's BC. So we're talking about what? 2700 years. from this time to where we are today. So if you take the idea of BC and then go back 700 plus years, we're 2,000 plus years into our timeframe. So you're dealing with nearly 2,800 years when you take that in consideration. We said the same thing about Hosea. We say the same thing about Amos, Isaiah, Well, all prophets do in this timeframe. They're all given a very similar message. Some are a little more extensive, some are more pointed, and they each have a word that they're directing toward both Israel and Judah, the people of God in general. Now, he's gonna say in here what a word towards Samaria and Jerusalem, because these two are the capital cities of the northern 10 tribes and the southern two tribes. Samaria is the capital of Israel. Jerusalem is the capital of Judah. Remember, they're one nation, but they're divided in two. And they're divided because God told Solomon that if Solomon did not obey the Lord and what God gave him to do, he was going to separate the kingdom. He had divided. and he gave the northern 10 tribes to one of Solomon's servants, Jeroboam, and then one of Solomon's sons took over the southern two tribes, and they'd been at war. They've battled, civil war against one another. And Samaria was the darkest of the places, and the reason being is that every king over Samaria, Israel, was wicked. every one of them. And they all went in the ways of that servant of Solomon, Jeroboam. And the scripture says that, that he walked in the ways of Jeroboam. They walked in the ways of Jeroboam. Jeroboam set up a falsehood. And the reason he did it, we've talked about these things in the past, he knew that God required the people to go down to Jerusalem about five times a year. there were certain feasts that they were to go to and those feasts were given to bring them to remembrance of the faithfulness of the Lord, His goodness and His future plan for them. So he knew that if he didn't establish something up in the north, that when his people go down to the south, they're gonna wind up staying down there and they won't come back. So he says, I created a plan and I established feasts that was similar to the ones down south. I had to then make my own priest. I had to make my own temples. I had to do everything that resembled it. But remember, none of it was ordained or the will of God. None of it was given by decree. of God, what was already given was given, and now they completely rejected it and then replaced it. And that's the problem. We're gonna see that over and over again. And one after the other, there was no long-term lineage of these kings. They would assassinate one, And then another family would take over and go for a couple of years. They'd assassinate that one, then another family. And it just, one thing after the other, it was just riddled with trouble. All of it was trouble. All of it was an abomination. Now the sad thing is, is that these kings in the South, because they played the political party, they intermarried. with the Northern Kings, like two kingdoms. You see that over and over again. They marry these daughters of these kings to build alliances with them. So these alliances begin to corrupt them. And when it began to corrupt them, then their ideas start filtering down into Judah. And now you see in the close of Micah's prophecy, In chapter six, in the chapter seven, he's gonna remind them of two of their kings that they have adopted their ways. Look in chapter six. Look in verse 16. These are all condemning accusations that are being put on trial by the Lord. Chapter six is like a summons to a courtroom. He started off that way. Just look in verse one. Hear now what the Lord says. Hear now, arise. Arise, a picture of stand up. The judge has walked in the room. Stand up and contend your case. You plead your before the mountains and let the hills hear your voice. Who's he calling to be a witness? He's calling creation to be the witness. Why? Because everybody in the past is dead and gone. The only thing that has heard everything God has decreed and declared to the people has been creation itself. Those mountains ain't moved. and they heard and seen the word of God, what God declared to you, and now they're gonna testify and listen to your evidence and they're gonna listen to my evidence. And they're the witnesses who's gonna be on like the jury stand listening to your plea and you don't have a leg to stand on because I gave you everything that is right, but you chose your own way. So this is like a courtroom call of God to the great judge of the earth who's now gonna give you a sentence for your ways. And you can't say, I didn't know. because the mountains gonna say, yeah, you did. The hills are gonna say, we heard it. Remember how he talks about people don't cry out, what did he say? The rocks will. What did we seen a sacrifice in the past? He says, these rocks have heard the word of God today, and they will testify against you one day. And here it is right here, because they've been there from the beginning, as God's been from the beginning. The people, another generation who's walked in these lies are now gonna give an account to it. Well, look in verse 15. For the statutes of Omri are kept. Well, who was Omri? Omri was a king up in Israel and he had a son and his son's name was Ahab. And we know about wicked Ahab and wicked Omri and wicked Jezebel. Look, verse, he says, all the works of who? Ahab's house are done. Why? Because they allowed their teaching up in the North because of their alliances filtered down into Judah. And now Judah looks like the Northern 10 tribes of Israel. They are corrupt. they are in bad shape because they've allowed that which was deceit and falsehood to like a river flow into their land and they would rather it than they would the ways of God because it appealed to the nature of man but not to the holiness of God. And that's why if you look in verse number three of chapter six, oh my people, What have I done to you? Verse three, and how have I what? How did I wear you down? What did I do that wearied you? What did I do that made you tired of me? What did I do that caused you to wane and wean in your service unto me? Did I do anything to you? Did I give you something that was uncalled for? Where did I wear you out? Because the indication is by the judge that God is at fault here. That the people are attributing their ways to God. That they are saying, you wore us down and made life too hard for us. Therefore we gave up on you and went after something else. That's the idea. That being missionaries is too hard. Being disciple makers is too difficult. Coming to church one time out of the week is all you're gonna get out of me. You see, wearied down. That's what that's saying there. That you have wearied me in the fact that you gave me too much to do. And I couldn't do it, so I just gave up on it. It's your fault, God. You should have never put that kind of stuff on me. You wore me down. You wore me down. Man, this applies to where we are today. You see it over and over again. We can go back and look at kings, at leaders, that God gives us as these historical references. For an example, like Gideon. Gideon was one of those guys that God used to do a mighty work. Gideon was used by the Lord and at the last bit of his life, people came to him and said, man, we want you to be king or rule over us. And he said, no, I'm not gonna do it. He said, but I tell you what, I know you like me because of what I just did and I've helped you out a lot. So if you'll do this for me, and man, they were willing to do anything for him. He says, give me all the spoil that you received. Give me all the earrings from the Ishmaelites that we just killed. Because the Ishmaelites were known for their gold nose rings, earrings, scripture says the camels that they had even had gold chains around the camels. They were flashy. They flaunted it, their gold, their crescents. You know, like in the Islamic world today have they had their crescents where they had crescents gold pieces. So all the people brought and they laid out a big old blanket and it says they all brought their gold and everything they had and they laid it on that blanket and Gideon took it and Gideon put it in a fire and he made an ephod. And ephod was something that was designed strictly for the priesthood. And it had the thuram and the uram on it. And it was a tool that God used to give them discernment on when to do a thing and not to do a thing. What to do and not do. So he made one like for himself that they could inquire of. It looked good. It sounded noble. But the scripture says it became a snare to both Gideon and all the people of Israel. Why? Because that which God does not ordain becomes an idol. Even though it was called an ephod, something God gave in the past, now it's an idol. It's snares. Why? Because Gideon says that That wears me out having to go and seek an answer from the priest and get a word from the Lord. I'm gonna make my, I'm gonna do it my way. That's the idea. Same thing. Scripture says of another king like Uzziah, and we know that name, Uzziah, he's referred to with two names in the scripture, but remember Isaiah, the scripture says that in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah heard from the Lord, King Uzziah reigned for 52 years. And the scripture says he was a mighty king and done mighty feats for the Lord. And the scripture even says, God told him, as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him. But it says that he got to the point where he became strong in his own eyes. And when he became strong in his own eyes, pride took over The scripture says that he took a censer and went into the temple, the house of God and offered a defiled thing before the Lord. And the priest tried to stop him and he says, y'all know who I am. I can do whatever I wanna do. And he went in and you know what he got? Y'all remember reading that? God struck him with leprosy. So he got weary. He was wearied in doing it God's way. So he said, I'm gonna do it my way. So these things hit home with us if we pay attention to it, amen? But Ahab and Omri were these kings. Now I want you to think about this. You ever heard me mention or you ever read about a woman named Athaliah? Athaliah was a queen. And when her son, died, she immediately, to seize power, killed all the heirs. Killed every one of them because she wanted to be in authority. And she knew if the son just died, that meant one of the sons of her son, one of her grandsons were going to take over the throne. Well, what does she do? She does the unthinkable. She kills every one of her grandsons with the exception of one. One of the sisters who was married to a priest, Jehoadah rescued that little boy and nobody knew. And they brought him into the house of God and they raised him in secret for six years. And in the sixth year, all the while, Athaliah's on the throne. She's queen mother. She's on the throne. Well, in the sixth year of this little boy's reign, I think his name is Joash, King Joash. They raise up and they go in and they take and they kill Athaliah. And they put Joash on the throne. And Joash rules and reigns and does wonderful as long as Jehovah was alive. And when Jehovah died, he then invited all the counselors to come in and they went the way of the kings of Israel. Why? Because Athaliah, guess whose daughter she was? Jezebel and Ahab's daughter, who had intermarried with one of the Judah's kings and alliances. And here they are, Still having the deal with the influence Down the road just prior to God coming in and destroying them all and moving them out with the Babylonians That influence has infiltrated and taken over now. That's why you got the soothsayers That's why you got all that and God says look You won't cut them off but I will And I'm going to cut every one of them off. And that's what you see a common theme. If you look in chapter five, you see that verse 10 and it shall be in that day. What is God going to do? I will cut off your horses from your mitts and destroy your chariots. Now, number one, that was unheard of. Ordained it wasn't sanctioned by the Lord for them to have horses and chariots Why because God says if you have horses and chariots, what are you gonna do? You're gonna trust in the horses and chariots and you're not gonna trust me. So that was number one number one putting confidence in that which can't deliver And when you do that, he says, that's the first mistake that you made. He tells us that. Look, go back to chapter one. Now, some of these things, we may highlight some of this in the service as well. But look in verse number 12. 112, chapter one, Michael 112. For the inhabitants of Moroth pined for good, but instead of good coming, disaster came down from who? Not the Assyrians, not the Babylonians, but disaster came from the Lord. To the gate of Jerusalem, O inhabitants of Lachish, go ahead and harness the chariot to the swift steeds. And then he gives this little note in there. She, Lachish, was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion. for the transgression of Israel was what? Found in? What was the beginning of this sin? Lachish in this low lying land of Palestine was lush and it was known for a place to raise horses. And it was ideal, it became the citadel for the horses and chariots. That's it was the low lying heels. You know, if you go out toward in Alabama and you make your way over to Montgomery, you know how the land lays out over there and how many horse farms are out over there because the land is perfect for it. And therefore there's farm after farm after farm, but horse farms all through there. And our area where I grew up, north of New Orleans, north of where I lived in a place called Folsom, all those areas out there are horse farms out there because the land is conducive to it. So all your wealthy people out of New Orleans has horse farms out there where they raise their horses and they race them in the horse races in New Orleans because the land was perfect for it. Well, Lakish, Was where they put a garrison of horses and chariots y'all come on in So he says that was the start of it That's where the sin begin to roll out from there because once you've done that Then everything else open for you to do and what was it? They were putting confidence and that which God said don't put confidence in that's where the well good morning How are you doing? Good to see you. You brought the crew with you today, I see. They done drove all the way up here from Clark County. No, you're not, you're not. Glad to see you, glad to see you. No, sir, this is just a few men gathering together this morning. Yeah, let's see what time we got. 1047, all right, well, we're gonna be getting close to it. Them buck cannons, they come early when they come, amen? Praise Jesus. Who taught y'all that? Both? All, huh? Amen. Be on time, amen, amen. Good stuff, good stuff. Now, we'll have them get here. Look at there, that's the way it goes, right? And now we'll have some crawl in for Greg to get started about first, second song, and they'll be still filtering in. But you know what we tell them? Come when you can, amen. Come when you can. Yeah. But you see that, that we're gonna be a Micah this morning. So you could find your spot there. We're doing it in the men's class, but we also jump in it in the service today. We're walking through it. We're reading in the Old Testament book of Micah. But yes, man, these things, I've been just indulging myself in it, feeding on it, and asking the Lord as he promised he would. He said he'd feed his sheep, didn't he? And he tells us that right in this book here. He said, God says, I'm gonna cut them off, but what I'm gonna do is feed my people. And he does, and to him be the glory, amen, amen. Well, let's pray. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, for the day you've given us, for the time you've given us, for the grace you have blessed us with, and we just can't help but thank you for Jesus and what he means to us. Now we ask you today to help us celebrate and worship the fellowship with your grace and mine, and that we would open our ears and our hearts and our minds, that we'd trust you in faith, and that we'd take what you give us and walk in it, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, all right.