Micah & Jesus
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Intro
Have you ever misjudged someone because of where they were from?
Maybe you had a neighbor who said they were from Capitol Hill in Seattle but then found out they drive an F-150. Or you had a coworker who’s from Topeka, Kansas that really like Sushi.
In football, it’s a shock when a player doesn’t come from the Pac-12, Big 10, or SEC but a junior college or some small university.
We’re surprised to hear when great people come from small beginnings. Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest leaders in Western Civilization, was raised in a little homestead next to Pidgeon Creek in Indiana. Jimmy Carter, another great US president who’s been in the news lately, was born in Plains Georgia a town of 600 people when he was born.
It’s surprising when greatness comes from humble roots and yet the story of the hero from humble beginnings runs deep in our society.
Consider Star Wars - Luke Skywalker comes from the small rural planet Tattoine.
Harry Potter - lives in 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging, a quiet London suburb.
Lord of the Rings - Frodo Baggins, the small hobbit from the Shire.
Why are we enamored with the story of a hero who isn’t from the big city?
As we read in our text, Micah 5:2-5, the great hero, the Savior of the world, the Messiah, comes from Little Bethlehem.
Micah tells us that hard wired into our universe is the promise of a Savior from the place you least expect it.
Why is that good news? How can this fill us with hope today?
Micah’s hope and our hope is in the Great King from the Small Town of Bethlehem.
Why are we in Micah?
We are in week 2 of a sermon series Prophets of Advent where we are letting the Minor Prophets point us towards hope in Christ.
As we learned last week, Advent is a word that means coming or arrival.
We live between two advents. The first came Christmas morning two thousand years ago when Mary and Joseph had their firstborn son and named him Jesus. Because as the Angel told them, he would save his people from their sins. The second is yet to come when angels will announce his arrival with trumpets and a shout. The first advent was quiet, the second will be no secret.
The theme of hope is so important during Advent.
I need hope. You need hope. We cannot live without hope. We can equip astronauts to survive in outer space without oxygen, but no one is equipped for a life without hope.
What is hope?
Hope = The active, confident expectation of good, based on the character of God. - Catharine Coon, Hope Alive! Africa, WorldVenture, Uganda
Advent can be a season of hope as we reflect God’s goodness and his promise to save us.
So there’s a lot of different ways to celebrate Advent.
Maybe you’ve got an Advent Calendar at home. There are so many different advent calendars, we have a mouse one and a santa toy one…this week I saw online there’s a Die Hard Advent calendar where you can watch Hans Gruber fall from the Nakatomi Tower for 24 days.
This Advent we are choosing to celebrate the arrival of Jesus by looking back at the Minor Prophets to fill us with hope in the coming of Jesus.
Why the Minor Prophets?
They’re not easy to read.
‘They have a queer way of talking, like people who, instead of proceeding in an orderly manner, ramble off from one thing to the next, so that you cannot make head or tail of them or see what they are getting at.’ - Luther
Full of images of judgment, wrath, metaphors that don’t make a lot of sense in 21st century context.
But yet because we often don’t bring them out this time of year they may be even more fresh and able to speak to us today.
It’s like a long forgotten family recipe that gets found and when you make it it tastes even better because it’s been so long since you’ve opened it.
Lord willing we will bust out this dusty part of our Bible and let it’s freshness fill us with hope.
Why do we need the prophets?
Every human being’s deepest need is a loving relationship with God. Apart from God, like a branch disconnected from a tree, we wither and die. We are more than bodies who need sex, food, pleasure, entertainment…we’re souls in need of a spiritual Father.
And the Jewish prophets believed that the God of the universe uniquely revealed himself through the people of Israel, and the hope of the world to get back into a loving, dynamic, life-giving, eternal relationship with God was through the coming Savior known as the Messiah. True life and hope would be found in Him.
So the prophets give us hope in the coming Messiah.
And they give us hope in God, not the God we construct in our imagination, but the real God.
In their day, God had become a symbol of nationalistic pride. He was a trophy to wield against their enemies.
Today, God has become a deity who simply wants you to be a good person and to have good feelings. If you’re nice and happy, God is pleased.
And yet reality is so much more. The gospel is good news for the naughty and the nice, the happy and the sad, the rich and the poor, the hopeful and the depressed because the real God has come and made a way back to life with Him.
So last week we heard from Amos, this week we’re in Micah, then Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Zechariah on Christmas Eve.
Recap - Advent, hope, prophets
That leads us to Micah.
What do we know about Micah?
Micah 1:1 tells us he’s from Moresheth, which is a town 10 miles southwest from Jerusalem, about the relationship from here to Spanaway.
He preached during the reigns of Jotham and Hezekiah, which spans about 740 BC to 686 BC.
For context, King David was anointed King over all Israel in 1005 BC, so it’s been a while since David.
The big bad guy in Micah’s day was Assyria. They were rising in power and taking over people right and left and exacting taxes from people and if you didn’t pay up, well they would come knocking. Eventually the North would fall to Assyria in 722, and Judah, the Southern Kingdom would miraculously survive in 700 BC, but only to be exiled by Babylon a few decades after that.
SHOW TIMELINE
Do you know what your name means?
Micah’s name literally means, “Who is like YHWH?”
YHWH is the personal covenant name God gives to Israel so his people can know him as he really is. In Exodus God reveals himself to Moses and says YHWH is a God gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in covenant love and faithfulness, forgiving and just.
Who is like YHWH?
What was his message?
Rebuke and restoration.
Rebuke
Rebuke
God sent Micah to rebuke the sin of Israel at every level.
11 “If a man walking after wind and falsehood
Had told lies and said,
‘I will speak out to you concerning wine and liquor,’
He would be spokesman to this people.
5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray;
When they have something to bite with their teeth,
They cry, “Peace,”
But against him who puts nothing in their mouths
They declare holy war.
11 Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe,
Her priests instruct for a price
And her prophets divine for money.
Yet they lean on the Lord saying,
“Is not the Lord in our midst?
Calamity will not come upon us.”
Not just the leadership, but the people.
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?
And yet, who is like YHWH? God is not done with his people. His rebuke is not a sign of abandonment or the unhinged rage of a ticked off diety…it’s the discipline of a loving father who wants his people to be restored.
Restoration
Restoration
Whereas Amos was 8.5 chapters of judgment and 5 verses of hope, Micah bounces back and forth from rebuke to restoration throughout.
1 And it will come about in the last days
That the mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established as the chief of the mountains.
It will be raised above the hills,
And the peoples will stream to it.
18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity
And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?
He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He delights in unchanging love.
19 He will again have compassion on us;
He will tread our iniquities under foot.
Yes, You will cast all their sins
Into the depths of the sea.
20 You will give truth to Jacob
And unchanging love to Abraham,
Which You swore to our forefathers
From the days of old.
Micah’s name means, “Who is like YHWH?”
Micah says the real God is really upset at the injustice in society. And exile and pain is coming your way NOT because God is abandoning you…but because like a loving Father he cares and he is rebuking you in order to restore you.
We don’t rebuke the people we don’t care about. We rebuke and correct and help and guide those we love because we want to restore the relationship. Micah says, “Who is like YHWH?”
Our passage today.
2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.”
The Great King from the Small Town
The Great King from the Small Town
Bethlehem
David
The Great King who brings peace
The Great King who brings peace
Micah 5:3–5 (NASB95)
3 Therefore He will give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has borne a child.
Then the remainder of His brethren
Will return to the sons of Israel.
4 And He will arise and shepherd His flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God.
And they will remain,
Because at that time He will be great
To the ends of the earth.
5 This One will be our peace.
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
How does this connect to Jesus?
Micah’s hope and our hope is found in Jesus: the Great King from the Small Town.
Micah’s hope and our hope is found in Jesus: the Great King from the Small Town.
1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:
6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah;
For out of you shall come forth a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
Even in this story, we see the failure of the great King Herod from the Big City.
Like David, who overcame the mighty Saul, the baby Jesus has already conquered Herod.
Even though they believed the Messiah was to be from Bethlehem, people didn’t believe him.
Thought he was from Nazareth!
Jesus was overlooked and despised. Those in power rejected him and had him killed.
And yet this was God’s plan.
Israel’s hope was not in a military power to overthrow Rome, but in a spiritual power that could overthrow sin and death.
Weakness looks like strength...
Are you tired? Do you need help don’t want to admit it? This feels like weakness and failure but in God’s economy the things that are small are actually great. Death leads to life. Sadness leads to joy.
How does this passage teach us to see the world?
Who is like our Good Shepherd?
Who is like our Good Shepherd?
In 2023, authority is a four letter word. We are extremely disappointed with people in power. Moral failings within the church are not new, but perhaps because of the internet we’re more aware of pastors, leaders, and teachers letting us down. Who can we trust? Who’s an authentic person anymore?
In Micah 5, the great king is described as a shepherd.
And along comes Jesus, who calls himself the Good Shepherd.
11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
Who is like our Good Shepherd?
What king ever gave up his thrown to save his servants? Who is like Jesus?
Next year, we will elect another president.
And whoever gets elected will fail. They may have incredible promise, but they will fail. They may look strong, but they are weak just like us.
Jesus is our hope.
Hugh Jackman illustration
We see the world through the lens of the prophet who’s not amazed by himself but amazed at God’s ability to use the small to show his greatness and to even use rebuke and judgment to bring about restoration.
Who is like our Good Shepherd?
How can we bring hope to others?
Through the Spirit of Jesus we can be Micah 6:8 people.
Through the Spirit of Jesus we can be Micah 6:8 people.
Christmas is not good news because if we’re just nice and happy the world will be a better place.
Kindness is great but it can’t fix the world. It’s like trying to
It’s that the great King came and dealt with your biggest problem and now you can live with him through the spiritual power of God’s own presence and be the kind of person you were always meant to be. One who brings justice and hope and peace to the world around you.
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
First and second advent comparison
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Benediction
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.