Sermon Tone Analysis

God's Battering Ram

Dr. Ron Dunn

Micah 2:12-13

 

        Would you take your Bibles and turn to the Table of Contents?

I'm serious.

I want you to open them to the Table of Contents, to the Old Testament section and I want you to look under the "m's" and find Micah.

Find what page it's on in your Bible and turn there.

Now, I do that for a good reason.

When I preach from these "minor prophets"...they're called "minor prophets" not because their message is minor, but because it's so hard to find them in the Bible.

No, because the length of their message is such and it's hard to find those boys over there...they hide...Micah is hiding between Obadiah and Nahum...I know that helps you a lot.

But, if I don't have folks usually to find the page and turn to it, you know, you just flip here and you flip there and after awhile you get embarrassed and you're afraid people around you will think, "Well, he doesn't know his Bible."

And so, after a moment, you just sort of settle on Psalms, you know, and pretend that's the text and read from it, but I want you to find Micah because we're going to read from Micah this morning.

Years ago a Spanish philosopher said, "We do not know what is happening and that is what is happening."

Now, I think that what he meant by that is that we do not know what is happening and that is what is happening.

I'm almost certain that's what he meant.

I think what he meant was that there is usually something significant happening but we're not aware of it.

I think that's so true of us today.

We're caught up by the sensational and we always notice the sensational, but the sensational is not necessarily the significant.

I think many times the media captivates us with some sensational story and all the while there is really something significant happening over here that we miss.

Do you all – those of you who are old enough – remember where you were when Kennedy was shot?

That's a question that is asked in our generation...and everybody, nearly everybody, remembers where they were on that fateful day.

I remember where I was.

And that was a significant event, but do you realize who else died on that day?  C.

S. Lewis died on that day...one of the greatest philosophers and Christian writers who ever lived...a man who impacted not only time, but I think eternity.

And while I would not deny that the assassination of a president is a significant event, yet it seems sad to me that the death of such a great man went unnoticed.

We were caught up with one thing and missed something else that was very, very significant.

Do you remember when James Belushi, the actor-comedian, overdosed on drugs and died?

You couldn't have missed it if you were alive.

It was in all the papers and on television and they've done specials about it.

But do you realize who else died on that day?

You may not recognize her name – Ann Rand – who was one of the great intellects of the twentieth century.

She was not a Christian, but she was a great philosopher, a great intellect, a great author...one of the greatest minds that our country has ever produced, and yet, her death went unnoticed while all the world was captivated by the death of an addictive TV actor.

We're caught up with the sensational and often miss the significant.

We do not know what's happening and that is what is happening.

You may not know what is happening in your life today...it may seem as though nothing is happening in your life today...but I guarantee you there is something significant going on, whether you recognize it or not.

Another example of this, of course, is the coming of Christ into the world.

That was not a sensational event at all.

There were no news cameras there.

There were no great people there.

There were no super headlines there.

He was born in a manger, noticed by a few shepherds and a few other people and some livestock.

Of course, He was noticed in heaven, but heaven always notices what earth overlooks, and yet the most significant day in the history of the universe was largely overlooked and missed by the entire world.

That was true all of His life.

Even when He was grown and had started His ministry and He was doing great things and saying great things, you remember, there were people who were saying, "Who can deny this Man has to be something special...this Man has to come from God because He speaks as no other one has ever spoken and He does miracles that we cannot deny...but isn't this the carpenter's Son?

I mean, we used to play together in the dirt when we were kids...this surely can't be the Messiah.

And after all, He's from Polk County.

After all, He's from Nazareth and can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

And yet, the most significant event in the history of the human race went largely unnoticed.

And it's true today!

I want us to read a couple of verses in the second chapter of Micah that describe to us this most significant event of Christ's coming into this world...and He's coming for two reasons.

First of all, Jesus has come to gather together a people...to create a community of love and fellowship and of course, that's one of the things that's missing so much in our day.

I don't know if you read much after sociologists or follow the people who follow the trends, but there are a number of characteristics that are unique to this generation that were not present in previous generations and one of them is that this is a fragmented generation.

And there is not a sense of belonging and people are afraid to make commitments.

That's why so many of the younger generation choose just to live together rather than marry, because they're afraid to make any commitment.

The younger generation is less committed to the church than the older generation was.

This is a day that people, although in a crowd, feel lonely and isolated and fragmented.

And yet, Christ came to take away that loneliness, that fear of belonging, that fear of commitment and to create a community of love and fellowship.

The other thing that our text will tell us is that Christ came also to free us from the things that enslave us.

And that's another characteristic of our day...it is that we are slaves...slaves to so many things...slaves to popularity and slaves to merchandise and slaves to advertising and I think most of all slaves to fear...the fear of the future, the uncertainty of it all.

All things are changing too fast.

The old landmarks that have been around so long have suddenly changed overnight...political realities can change...technology is moving at such a rapid rate you can't keep up with it and what is popular today is not popular tomorrow and companies that are growing and successful are out of business tomorrow and so there is an uncertainty about this generation.

That's why it's sometimes called "the X generation" because it is an unknown...they're facing unknowns and yet what the prophet is trying to tell us is that Jesus has come to insure us that there is a future with God, and to set us free from that enslavement.

Now, I want us to read from the second chapter, the last two verses...verses 12 and 13 and you may, as you read these verses, think to yourself, "Okay, now he's really done it.

There is no sermon in those two verses."

I am reading from the King James Version, because the King James retains a couple of words that the newer versions translate in a different way, but I think if we want to get the full and graphic picture and image that the prophet is painting here we need to retain these words.

So let's read beginning at verse 12...now in verse 12 he tells us what God is going to do and in verse 13, he tells us how God does that...

 

        I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely

        gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as

        the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their

        fold:  they shall make great noise by reason of the mul-

        titude of men.

The first thing is that He is going to gather all His people together...He is going to assemble all of them.

"I will surely do this..."  This is a definite thing He is going to do.

"I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah..." now the newer translations I think the NIV, the "Nearly Infallible Version" translates that "pen"... "I will put them together as sheep in a pen..."  But I like the reading of Bozrah.

Why?

Well, because Bozrah is the name of the enemy.

They're in the midst of the enemy.

They're in enemy territory.

They're surrounded by hostility and what he's saying is that right in the midst of the enemy territory, right in the midst of hostile environment "I will establish you as a flock and I will lead you into a fold or a pasture" which always indicates protection and provision.

So, he's saying these words... "I'm going to gather together a people...I'm going to make a people out of My coming to this earth, and I am in the very midst of the enemy territory...in the very midst of uncertain and unfriendly times.

I'm going to give them a place of security, a place of protection and a place of provision, and He says as a result of this "they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men."

Then in verse 13, here's how it is accomplished...

 

The breaker is come up before them:  they have broken

        up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out

        by it:  and their king shall pass before them, and the

        LORD on the head of them.

Now notice the opening words of that thirteenth verse.

"The breaker is come up before them..."  That's why I want to read from this version to retain the word "breaker."

Personally I like another translation "battering ram" and if you wanted a title to my message, I guess you could call it "God's Battering Ram".

The breaker was in a sense a member of the flock.

He was a ram with horns and he would go before the flock and the rough meaning of the Hebrew word "flock" was "to lag behind."

And he would go before them and use his horns to break through any kind of barrier, any kind of briars, or any kind of scrub brush or any kind of gate so that the flock could go out and find that pasture...that provision and that protection.

So, the prophet here is calling Jesus by this very picturesque image "the breaker" or "the battering ram".

So I want us to center our thoughts this morning on God's battering ram.

This One whom God has sent to set us free and to bring us together into a community that belongs to God and to one another.

And there are several characteristics that I think are important...To me the most obvious characteristic is this...

 

1) Jesus Christ as God's "battering ram" is one of us.

Notice he says, "the breaker is come up..."  It doesn't say He has come down.

It says He has come up.

Now, usually when we talk about the Incarnation, the coming of Jesus into the world, we talk about His coming from Heaven to earth...that