A good and glorious morning to you all. Why do they get a good morning and I don't? I'd like to take this opportunity, first of all, to thank you. To thank you for your prayers. To thank you for your support. To thank you for the privilege of returning here to fellowship with you. for your warm and friendly welcome. I'd like to think with you today about a portion of God's word in the book of Micah, Micah chapter 4. I will be reading to you from the new Maoz version. I wish to emphasize that this does not presume to be a literary translation, but rather a more literal one, trying to give you something of a sense of even the stilted Hebrew and some of the nuances that are smoothed over in any good translation when you need to make sure of the quality of the grammar and something of a literary standard. Micah 4, verse 1, And at the end of days it will transpire that the mountain of the house of Jehovah will be firmly established on the highest of the mountains, and lifted above the hills, and nations will flow upon it. And many peoples will come and say, Let's ascend to the mountain of God and to the house of the God of Jacob, And He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths. Because out of Zion will the law issue and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And He will educate between many nations and rebuke immense peoples at a great distance. And they will hammer the swords into hoes and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will not lift a sword against nation, and will no longer learn to wage war. They will sit each under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be none to frighten because the mouth of the Lord Jehovah of Hosts has spoken. Even if all nations will frame their conduct each in the name of its God, we ourselves will frame our conduct In the name of Jehovah, our God, forever and ever. On that day, Jehovah says, I will assemble the lame, and he that wandered far I will engather, and those whom I have punished. And I will make the lame into a remnant, and the wandered into an immense people. And Jehovah will rule over them on Mount Zion from then and forever and ever. And you, watchtower over the flock, high hill of the daughter of Zion. All the way to you will truly come the first governance, the kingship of the daughter of Zion. Now, why do you cry out? Do you not have a king within you? Has your counselor perished that pains like those of childbirth have taken hold of you? Be in anguish and give birth, daughter of Zion, like in giving birth, because you will now come out of the city and live in the field, and you will arrive all the way to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. But now many peoples have assembled against you, saying, Zion will be polluted, and our eyes will see it happen. But they do not know the thoughts of Jehovah, and do not understand his plan, because he has engathered them as one gathers a sheaf to the threshing floor. Get up and thresh, daughter of Zion. because I will make your horn of iron and your hooves of bronze, and you will crush many nations. And I will confiscate their booty and their riches for the Lord of all the earth. Now you enlist in troops, daughter of troops. He has imposed a siege on us with a staff. They smite the judge of Israel on the cheek. Before God sent Micah to prophesy, there were a number of other prophets that addressed the two nations, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Amos, Jonah, Obadiah, and Joel had all preceded Micah. Micah himself was sent particularly to the kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom, although in the first chapter he addresses the northern kingdom as well. There were two other prophets who were active more or less at the same time, Hosea and Isaiah. Micah began prophesying in the days of one of Judah's best kings, most successful kings, Uzziah. He continued to prophesy in the days of one of Judah's worst kings, Ahaz. And he began to see the restoration of the fear of God in his worship in the days of another one of Judah's good kings, Hezekiah. I know these Names sound very similar to you, but believe me, they're spelt differently, and they should be pronounced more distinctly than they are normally in English. Micah witnessed the destruction of the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel of Samaria, at the hands of Assyria, and the removal of a kingdom which served as a buffer between Judah and Israel on the one hand and the vicious rising power of Assyria on the other. Babylonia, whom you might have noticed he mentions here, was a distant kingdom and at that time under the heel of Assyria. Our chapter begins with a little word, and A single letter in Hebrew, but a letter, a word which serves to connect between the destruction of Jerusalem spoken of before and what is to follow. Micah had warned the kingdom that if they persist in their sin, God would bring destruction on Jerusalem just as he did upon Samaria. The contrast we see here in this chapter between those prophecies and the one we will be looking at this morning is quite amazing. Despised, shunned, destroyed Jerusalem is to be the glorious focus of international attention. Micah is telling us that God is not limited by our failures nor by our sins. God's power exceeds both and His grace conquers both. And so Micah is addressing a sinful nation with a message of grace. And it will come to pass says Micah, that in the latter days or at the end of days. This term we are inclined to think of primarily in terms of our own future. But Micah speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem as happening in the latter days and as the birth of the Savior is happening in the latter days and these two events we know are now in our past. So the latter days includes far more than what we normally are accustomed to think. It basically means some time in the distant future without defining how distant that future is to be and what exactly will be its nature. Micah further speaks in a future tense of an exile to Babylon, which likewise for us is a matter of the past. In those latter days, says Micah, it will transpire that the mountain of the house of Jehovah will be firmly established on the highest of the mountains and lifted above the hills. Now, when we study the Bible, We should be literalists, but not wooden literalists. We should believe what the Bible literally means, not necessarily what we think it might literally say. I am so pleased that when I come home and tell my wife that I'm so hungry I can eat a horse, she does not serve me a horse for dinner. She has taken me literally in terms of what I mean. God's Word is written in human language. And the way to get at the message, at the meaning that God is seeking to convey to us, is through the normal uses of human language. Grammar, syntax, the meaning of words, semantics of words, and the general context. And so Micah is not describing here some kind of amazing topographical change that's going to take place so that Mount Zion becomes so high that it's higher than the Everest. Nor is he telling us that every single individual in the world from all the nations of the world will gather around Jerusalem. Those of you who have visited our land know there just isn't enough room for you all. Micah is using imagery inspired by the Spirit of God to describe a restoration, but a restoration that is very dissimilar to that which we often have come to expect. Notice that there is no sacrifice here. In fact, there's no explicit mention of a temple. What we have here is something quite different. The restoration is the kind of restoration that encompasses the whole world, many nations, all nations, many people who come for one purpose. the same purpose for which I trust we have come this morning, to hear the Word of the Lord, which in itself serves another purpose, to walk in His paths, to conduct ourselves in ways that are in tune with His Word and which serve His glory. But notice, Micah's vision is very similar to that of John the Apostle in the book of Revelation. He doesn't see a faceless mass of people. He does not see a united nations. He does not envisage the erasure, the deletion of national identities. John says that While they're all singing one song, they are people from every nation, tongue. God created differences. He distinguished between day and night. There's a difference between a bird and a mammal. And contrary to what a modern man may think today, there are differences between men and women. There are differences between Americans and Israelis. You shove your food onto your fork with your finger and then lick it. We're horrified. We eat properly with a fork and a knife. But you see, that's precisely the point. Divisions do not create conflict. People do. Differences do not create conflict. People do. When they are of the opinion that the only proper way to eat is with a fork and a knife and not to shove your food onto your fork with your finger or use chopsticks or whatever else it might be. Differences enrich. Differences enable us to serve each other, to learn from each other, to each be a distinct reflection of the multifaceted beauty of our amazing God, who is not an abstraction. but a person. No, but persons, three persons in one, each distinct from one another. And there is no conflict, but glorious, eternal, loving harmony. This is Micah's vision. When the mountain of the Lord will be lifted up and many peoples will come and say, let's ascend to the mountain of God and to the house of the God of Jacob and He will teach us His ways and we will walk in His paths. Dear sisters and brothers, it is not enough to visit the temple of the Lord or to come to church or to ascend to Jerusalem and listen to wise and holy instruction, however good it may be. For God's truth is not meant to tickle our ears or entertain our hearts. It was meant to shape our thoughts and the patterns of our lives. It was meant to change our values. It was meant to challenge our priorities and establish new ones. No doubt, there is room for pleasant sermons that encourage and add to our joy. But all encouragements, all pleasures, all happiness should issue out of an honest self-appraisal, coupled with an honest appraisal of God's holiness and then of His goodness. A preacher, unlike Micah, who does not expose and denounce sin, is unfaithful to God and to those who come to hear Him. We are not entitled to encourage people in their sins, but away from them. We should all be neck deep in a struggle against our own sins. International interest in God's Word will bring about a radical change in the nations of the world. Cultures and patterns of life will remain distinct, but will be deeply affected. There is tremendous power in a faithful declaration of the Word of God. And somehow we have lost faith in the ability of God's Word to create those kinds of revolutions that are so necessary. And I suspect that this loss of faith is the fruit of a widespread erosion of an understanding in the contents of the gospel. People are now looking for some kind of seeker-friendly gospel in which there are no sharp corners, no transforming challenges. And then they wonder why their message does not change the world. The reason is it has become so much like the world. If we dared have the same kind of radical, courageous, ambitious, unequivocal, yes, it's another way to say dogmatic faith, we would be capable of creating revolution. Out of Zion will the law issue. And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. In the mouth of the prophets, the word of Jehovah always meant God's moral demands. The law. An essential part of the gospel. God does not ask us to do anything. He commands us. He is the Lord, the Maker of all, for whom all things exist, whose glory must be primary in the minds and the hearts of all His thinking creatures. The law will come out of Zion. And being the Creator, wiser than all wisdom, more righteous than all righteousness, and holier than all holiness. He alone can teach individuals and nations to conduct their lives rightly. And for that reason, Micah goes on to say that if a misunderstanding should arise between nations, and he does not rule out this possibility, He, that is the Lord, will educate between many nations and rebuke immense peoples at a great distance. The judge of all the earth will establish his justice on earth and all will willingly embrace his authority, even immense peoples. Even peoples at great distance will obey Him, because His visible kingdom will enfold the whole of the world. And nations will no longer seek to resolve their differences by war, nor will Christians. True peace will reign, so that they will transform their weapons of war into hoes and pruning knives And they will not lift up a sword one against another, and they will learn no longer how to wage war. It's not only that there will be some kind of world peace established by a balance of fear and power. There will be peace that begins deep in the hearts of individuals and at the center of national alliance. Differing, yes, even perhaps in their aspirations and expectations, but united because they're united around God. Micah provides us with a picture of what every Christian family, every Christian congregation, Every society, all of human society should be like. This is what was intended. This is part of what we lost through our father's sin in the Garden of Eden. They will sit each under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be none to frighten because the mouth of Jehovah of hosts has spoken. No one will damage street lights. No one will dismantle park benches or disfigure walls with paint. Everyone will enjoy prosperity without fear. Children will play in the neighborhood Without their parents' watchful eye, doors will not be locked and former policemen will be engaged in gardening, former soldiers in caring for the elderly. Of course, this is an ideal. Apparently, impossible. But the mouth of the Lord, Jehovah, has spoken. who dare doubt His Word. This is the goal to which the Scriptures direct us, to which Jehovah is guiding all the events of history, and to which He calls us in our daily walk, in all spheres of our walk, in every area. informed by the scriptures is a wonderful hope. It's invigorating. It's motivating. It drives us to a kind of determined, purposeful action to strive without compromise, graciously, but with hope. Imagine a future in which there is no selfishness, no miserliness, no cruelty, no indifference, no lust in your heart or in that of the person sitting beside you. Oh, that we would rid ourselves of these contaminations today. In a slightly different context, John says that everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself. even as God is pure. Now, of course, such a change can only come about with a change in the nature of mankind. It's only such a change that can bring men and women, boys and girls, to prefer God's commands to their ambitions, or to frame their ambitions by His commands. Only such a change will bring them to want not what other people have, but what God sees fit to give them. Such a change is beyond human reach, but it is not beyond Jehovah's. In the present situation, their sisters and brothers will not remain. It will change. Some have been impacted by this prophet's vision without understanding it, and they imagine that a perfect society could be created by human efforts. But we know better. Such a change was described hundreds of years later after Micah. He puts it in these words, though you were slaves of sin, You have become obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you have been committed. And having been freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. Now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification and the outcome, eternal life. I hope you recognize those words of Paul from his letter to the Romans, chapter 6. In light of such a hope, only one firm decision is reasonable, and Micah presents it. Will this be our decision, sisters and brothers? Even if the whole world, if all nations frame their conduct each in the name of its God, we ourselves will frame our conduct in the name of Jehovah our God forever and ever. I hope and pray that those are our determinations. Micah goes on. On that day, Jehovah says, I will assemble the lame and he that wandered far I will engather and those whom I have punished and I will make the lame into a remnant and the wandered into an immense people and Jehovah will rule over them on Mount Zion from then and forever and ever." God promises to remove Judah's punishment and their consequence. Note, He has not made such a promise in response to their repentance. He will bring about their repentance. That is part of their transformation. A change of mind, a change of heart. That is God's work. And then He will regather them, scattered for their sin. They are still His flock, wounded, but His. And He will take the weakest of them. and turn them into a remnant. The remnant which is that core of the nation which is to inherit the promises of grace. Once again, this reminds me of Paul, not many wise, not many noble, not the strong, not the mighty, We look for strength. We look for strength of personality. We teach our children to be competitive, to be successful, more than the next guy. And God chooses the lame, the weak, and those who are despised, so that none might glory in His sight. Micah is not speaking here of the kingdom of Israel. He is speaking of the kingdom of God. And you, watchtower over the flock, high hill of the daughter of Zion, all the way to you will truly come the first governance, the kingship of the daughter of Zion. Now, why do you cry out? Do you not have a king within you? Has your counselor perished that pains like those of childbirth have taken hold of you? Be in anguish and give birth, daughter of Zion, like in giving birth, because you will now come out of the city and live in the fields, and you will arrive all the way to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There Jehovah will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. Micah is addressing Jerusalem, described here as a watchtower over the flock. Such vantage points are in the nature of case solitary. They are lifted up distinctly so that there's nothing higher than them, so that they can look over the flock. Again, Micah is not referring to a physical location so much as the sense of loneliness that Jerusalem would have felt as the city was under siege. The high hill of the Daughter of Zion is what is known today as the Ophel, the fortified elevation of the city, perhaps even the city itself, high above the other mountains round about. All the way to you, says Micah, will truly come, without doubt, the first governance, that is to say, the kingship of the daughter of Zion. I've translated all the way to you, although to you would be a fair translation. It just doesn't give the sense of this distinct promise, which is that unexpectedly, Even to you, regardless of where you may be, all the way to you. It's more forceful than merely to you, because the people of Israel, under judgment, will have lost hope. As we will soon see, they are to be exiled to Babylon. Yet all the way to you, the first governance will come, the Davidic kingdom, the kingdom of God. But why are you crying out now, asks Micah, for pain, for fear? There's a combination of both mockery and rebuke in his words when he asks them Do you not have a king within you? Has your counselor perished that pains like those of childbirth have taken hold of you? And the question is really two-edged. On the one hand, although a descendant of David was on the throne, most likely Ahaz at this time. Micah says that the city's inhabitants behave as if the kingdom was or the king was dysfunctional. There was no one to lead the nation. There was no clear course to follow. On the other hand, they behave as if not only the king is dysfunctional, but as if God is not on his throne. And so, they are like a woman gripped with the pain of childbirth in fear of the oncoming experience. Be in anguish. Give birth, daughter of Zion. You will now come out of the city and live in the fields. Your city will be conquered. Your inhabitants will be driven out into the fields. And worse than that, you will arrive all the way..." Same word. "...to Babylon." Now, it's worth pointing out what I briefly mentioned earlier, that in the days that Micah addressed the nation, Babylon was under the Assyrian heel. It was not the mighty power it was to become. And it would be natural for the average Jerusalemite to assume that if judgment was to come from the hand of some mighty nation, it would be Assyria. Micah was not bound by yesterday's newspaper or tomorrow's. He is informed by the word of Jehovah. Assyria is to fall. Babylon is to rise, even if that does not seem likely. And Israel will not be exiled by the Assyrians, but by the Babylonians all the way to Babylon. But even this, even this punishment is an instrument of God's grace. There you will be rescued. There Jehovah will redeem you from the hands of your enemies. Micah does not tell the people how God will perform this. I would assume he did not know. He wasn't speaking, again, as a fruit of some kind of political insight or statesmanship, so that he could discern international trends and know where things were going. No, no. He is a messenger of God to his people and to us today. And the message is a word of God. Micah's contribution is the style, the vocabulary, the syntax, the literary form. But the content comes from Jehovah Himself. And God is telling the people, even as I lay my hand upon you in punishment, I love you. And I have purposes of grace for you. Children, remember that as your parents punish you. They're not doing it out of any pleasure. They're doing it because they love you. They care for you. And they will not leave you to sin freely. They will seek to teach you God's ways. Those punishments are means of grace, instruments by which your parents say, I care about how you live. Adults, I don't intend to excuse you either. We sometimes suffer under the hand of God. There's never a time when we do not deserve it. What we do not deserve is the times that we do not suffer under His hand. But God is treating us as a father with treats His children so that we might be partakers of His holiness. And so, His punishment is a means of grace, an expression of His love. He is saying to you and to me, I will not leave you to sin freely, but I will call you to Myself by My strong, loving hand. But now many peoples have assembled against you, saying, Zion will be polluted, and our eyes will see it happen. They do not know the thoughts of Jehovah, and do not understand his plan, because he has gathered them as one gathers a sheep for the threshing floor. Get up and thresh, daughter of Zion, because I will make your horn of iron and your hooves of bronze, and you will crush many nations, and I will confiscate their booty and their riches for the Lord of all the earth. Now you enlist in troops, daughter of troops. He has imposed a siege upon us. With a staff they smite the judge of Israel on the cheek." Micah is describing in present terms, in a present tense, the future that Jerusalem was to experience. When many peoples would be assembled against them and will say, Zion will be polluted and our eyes will see this happen. They know no further than their own intentions. But as we have said, God has other intentions. They do not know the thoughts of Jehovah. They do not understand His plan, neither His grace towards Judah, nor His intentions toward them. He has engathered them. They have not come on their own volition. He has brought them together and he has a purpose. He has engathered them as one gathers a sheaf to the threshing floor. Do you know what a threshing floor is? You take the wheat and you put it on a hard surface, normally a stone, and then you have a beast of burden, an ox, a cow, a donkey, a mule, to tread upon it. And as the hooves hit the grain, they remove the grain from the husk. Get up and thresh, daughter of Zion, because I will make your horn of iron, your hooves of bronze, and you will crush many nations. And I will confiscate their booty and their riches for the Lord of all the earth. Now you enlist in troops, daughter of troops, again addressing the nations, He, that is the Lord, has imposed a siege upon us, that is Judah. And with the staff they smite the judge of Israel on the cheek. What a contrast. A moment ago he has spoken of the first governance, which is to be restored. He's spoken of the day of Israel's glory. And he leaves them. In Hebrew, verse 1 of chapter 5 is the last verse of chapter 4. He leaves them with the reality that is soon to come upon them when their present king, or their king to be, will be humiliated. Why all this? Because they are to learn in the midst of their punishment, to lift their eyes to the Lord and rest on Him. And that, dear sisters and brothers, is what we must do. We live in a world still bearing the ravages of sin. We lose loved ones, and loved ones lose us. We labor under pain, under illness, under loss. We're disappointed. Our expectations are dashed. We're sometimes, though not often here in America, in need. And yet, we must trust in the Word of the Lord. We must put our hope in God. who has promised another future and walk the paths of life as we strive to frame our conduct according to the Word of Jehovah. We must examine our aspirations. We must examine our plans. We must examine our motivations. Sometimes we do the best things for the wrong reasons. Often we do the wrong things for the right reasons. There's too large a disparity between what we know and how we live. And Micah is calling upon the people of Judah And through Him, God is calling each of us to put our trust in Him and follow Him through the path that He will pave for each of us. Let us pray. O Master of all worlds, teach us to love your Word and thereby to love you. And move us, O Lord, so that we will not only love your Word and enjoy it, relish its truths, but live out those truths in our daily walk. Forgive us, O Lord, our self-love and free us from it. Your Word challenges us and encourages. It exposes us and it motivates us. You are the God of the weak, and we confess In spite of all the appearances we might like to present to others, deep in our hearts we recognize our weakness. But in you and through your Son, we find salvation. Thank you for not despising us in our moral and spiritual weakness. Thank you for not rejecting us in our failures. Thank you for laying your hand upon us for grace and for good. We give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen.