Advent 2018: The Shepherd-King Came

Introduction

The most difficult achievement on earth is to realize peace. It’s unlikely that you would take much convincing. You can think of it on a personal scale. It’s astounding how quickly we can fall from joyful to anxious, isn’t it? A restful Saturday can transform you into a nervous wreck with nothing more than confusing text that seems to be sent with the wrong tone. You can go from feeling so good about how your children are finally at a good place in their lives into staying up praying and worrying all night with insomnia all in the same day, can’t you? And, we can see this on a more global scale, too. ‘World peace’ has become a joke of a beauty pageant answer because it seems like such a far-fetched idea. We can’t even get along in our subdivisions and HOA’s! Following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations was formed. And, the belief was that if we could just get all of these world powers with their military might and political clout together in an alliance that we could just sort of force world peace by sheer determination. And, then of course, World War II happened and proved what a pipe dream that all was.

And, this unrest that we know. That is, the unrest that we know personally and the unrest that we know nationally and globally is trying to tell us something. The unrest that we face and the anxiety that we face and the conflict that our world experiences all preaches that we are not living according to the design of God and in submission to the reign of God. This week, we’re kicking off our Advent series. Just by way of reminder, especially if this is your first time celebrating Advent, ‘Advent’ just means ‘coming’. So, historically, the church has taken the four weeks leading up to Christmas and celebrated two advents, or the two comings of Jesus. And, as we do that this morning, what we’re going to see is that Jesus came so that one day you could know perfect, final, never-ending peace. That is, Jesus came so that you could have a peace that was never again under threat!

God’s Word

Read

Jesus Came to Gather God’s Scattered Flock. (v. 1-3)

A Desperate Judgement

“Now muster your troops” Micah was a contemporary of the Isaiah and Hosea and would have likely been far less known than them. Hebrew names are often very significant to their lives and ministries, and Micah has a good one that means something to the effect of “Who is like Yahweh?” At this Israel has been split into two Kingdom, the northern Kingdom, which retained the name “Israel” and the southern Kingdom which was called “Judah”. Micah’s primary ministry was in Judah, but he preached and had a word from God for the all of God’s people. And, we’re going to see in our passage this morning that the vision that God gives to him very much encompasses all of God’s people. At the time of his ministry, things appeared to be prospering. King Uzziah had ushered in a time of prosperity in the first half of the century and had allowed there to be an ever-growing upper class among God’s people. Unfortunately, this class began to buy up the land that God’s word had designated for the various tribes and injustice began to become pervasive. Religion became more a part of their culture, something routine that they did so that they could keep their wealth and their identity rather than so they could know, love and walk with God. And, the kings and religious leaders of Israel took part in this injustice and idolatry rather than condemn it.

Now, judgement has come to the door through the lips of Micah. He says, “Muster up your troops! The seige is coming! Our king will be struck in the face with a rod!” I want you to notice a couple of things about the way that Micah words verse 1. First of all, notice that he includes himself in the city to be besieged. This is an imminent attack. He’s not letting himself off the hook here. He’ll be there. Most commentators believe that this fits with the siege of Sennacherib of 701 BC, which took place during Micah’s life and during Hezekiah’s reign. Remarkably, you can read in that when Sennacherib preparing to lay seige to Jerusalem that night with 185,000 Assyrian soliders, the Angel of the Lord slaughtered them and so that particular city is actually left undocumented in the Assyrian Annals, though many of the other cities were destroyed. Nonetheless, Micah, as he’s predicting this, wants them to see this is going to be a dire time. So, he tells them ‘muster your troops.’ That is, scrape together whatever misfits, whatever boys, whatever warm bodies you’ve got. You’re going to need them. You’re going to be desperate. Then, he says, ‘the judge will be struck on the face with the rod.’ That is, your king is going to be humiliated. He’s going to be defenseless. Without his generals. Without his guards. Withouts his aids. There will be no crowns and glory and no honor for him. He will be mocked and beaten in defeat with a rod. This is going to be a dire defeat that is coming. The judgement of God is coming to your door in this day of prosperity. You had better be ready.

A Better David is Coming

“from shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel” Now, the prophets were never in any danger of winning popularity contests, and you could see why. If you read the whole book of Micah, he’ll even tell the other prophets around him that their whole world is about to go black. Often, Israel would kill her prophets. But, the prophets never preach without giving us hope, and that’s because God never speaks to his people, even in judgement, without showing them the other side that is to come. It would’ve been hard to see if you were them. It was their loved ones who would go to war and their children who would face oppression, but here in verse 2, Micah is given a word from God about the future that is filled with hope, hope that we are here to celebrate this December. Hope that is grander than Black Friday. Hope that is more beautiful than a few days off.

You see, there had been a time for Israel in which the blessing was apparent. There was a time in which the giants fell and the enemies were slain and the king led them in war and in worship. There was a time in which the king was a man that loved God and loved them, and that king had come from a place that nobody expected. They had expected a king that looked like a king. They had expected pedigree and standing. They had expected Saul, but Saul saw Goliath and trembled. Saul said he was the king after God, but he operated as a king OVER God. But then, there was David. David was born in a tiny town that almost didn’t even register on the map, Bethlehem. And, in Bethlehem, the prophet Samuel went to Jesse’s house, the grandson of Moabite woman named Ruth. And, when Samuel asked to see his boys and he paraded the oldest seven of his sons before him sure that the youngest boy was too much of a runt to be considered, and yet he was just the man that God would use to establish a throne that would last forever! No pride, no pedigree, no prestige. Just the call and anointing of God! Oh, brothers and sisters, this is the hope that Micah has for them! There is a greater David coming! There is a David coming that will slay a giant far larger than Goliath! There is one coming that will be born in this tiny town of Bethlehem and laid in a bed of hay who will be the very Son of God that will slay that giant of sin that every man, woman, boy and girl cannot defeat under their own power or with their good works.

God Delivers Us from What We Deserve

APPLICATION: And, this is far better than they deserve. They deserve the judgement that is coming to them. They deserve the seige of Sennacherib coming that century and the exile of Babylon coming 150 years later. They deserve Assyria’s attack. They have forsaken God; God has not forsaken them. They are the ones that have made worship about riches. They are the one’s have have forsaken justice in the name of greed. They are the ones that have forgotten their brothers and sisters so that they themselves can have more. God’s judgement and wrath is rightly descending upon the house of Israel. But, hear the hopeful message of Micah because, brothers and sisters, it is the message of the Gospel: God is going to deliver his own people from what they deserve. God is going to deliver them from his own judgement by his own provision. God had sent David to deliver his people from the cowardly, ungodly king they deserved. He had sent them David to deliver them from Saul who was handing them over to the Philistines. And, remember, they wanted Saul! They asked for Saul! But, God sent them David! They deserved Saul, and God gave them David! And, coming out of Bethlehem, there is going to be an even greater David yet, a David that will bring ultimate deliverance and ultimate justice delivering us from the judgement of God we deserve by the very provision of God. Don’t you see the Gospel here in Micah?

A Man with God’s Heart

“for me” Notice that it says that this ruler of Israel is coming forth ‘for me.’ This is coming from the voice of God himself through Micah. What was the problem with David? David is described in as being a man after God’s very own heart. But, the truth is that David failed, isn’t it? He didn’t perfectly represent God before his people and the people before God. David was an adulterer, a murderer, and a man of war. David was at times a liar and at other times lazy. David required God’s pardon, God’s grace, and God’s mercy. God’s justice should’ve demanded his wrath poured out over David, but David was pardoned. You see, it’s God’s integrity that’s on the line. It’s God’s glory that his people are continually selling out. It’s his promises and his word that our unfaithfulness brings into question. And so, the Ruler that is to come isn’t coming PRIMARILY for Israel. He’s coming primarily for God. He’s coming for God’s glory, in God’s strength, and as one who fully and truly is a man after God’s own heart because He has God’s own heart. He is Immanuel, God with us! A man with God’s very own heart because He is God himself!

A Long Time Coming

“whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” Micah says, basically, this has been a long time coming. If you’ll remember back a little over 5 years ago when we started Matthew, we started with a genealogy. Matthew starts his gospel that way. And, he starts it that way for the purpose of proving that Jesus comes from the line of David because every Jew knew and accepted that the Messiah had to come from David’s line based upon the Scriptures. This is Micah’s main point here. But, I think it goes back even further to the original promises of God. The ‘ancient days’. I think he’s telling his contemporaries this: His coming is going to feel like a long time coming, but it’s been a long time coming! In the Garden, Eve had eaten of the fruit and was under the curse of God much like Israel here. But, do you remember the hope that she received in her judgement? One day, her Seed, her Child would come forth and He would crush the head of the Serpent finally and that serpent would be rendered impotent and tortured forever! Brothers and sisters, Micah is saying that Seed is coming to Bethlehem! At Babel, the judgement of God came and scattered people and divided people so that there was confusion and division all over the world. We were separated from one another and set against one another. And, right after that, do you remember what happened? God promised Abraham that through his Seed he would be a blessing to all Nations! Brothers and sisters, Micah is saying this is the Seed that will be coming to Bethlehem! God had promised David that his throne was going to endure forever. His throne would always stand! But now, the Assyrians were bearing down and dire times were coming in! But, the greater David was coming, and He, too, would be born in Bethlehem!

Can You Blame Them?

APPLICATION: Jesus’ advent gives us the hope we need when God’s will feels like it’s a long time coming. As generations had come and generations had gone, the Messiah had still made no appearance, how difficult it was to trust God that He was actually going to come. I mean, can you really blame them for turning greedy when it looked like God was never going to come for them? Can you really blame them for getting while the getting was good since it must’ve felt like the Messiah was never going to come? I mean, how many generations, how many centuries, how many millennia were they supposed to wait? Eventually, you’re left to believe that maybe there’s nothing really to believe in except the money that you can make and the success that you can achieve, and the prosperity they were achieving was unprecedented. “So, let’s do just enough to maintain appearances and then keep the spoils for ourselves.” How much does this sound like us today? Maybe we’re unwilling to say it out loud, but we wonder in the quietness of our souls and in the enlightenment of our education, every time we hear of Christ coming back. How long are we really supposed to wait? Is it real? Maybe we should just get while the getting is good. Maybe we should just allow our kids to stay home and do what they want to do. Maybe we should just live up whatever time it is that we have here. Maybe there’s nothing really to believe in here except the money and success that we have, because I’ve been waiting on the promises of God and the rewards of God, and I’m still waiting. But, here’s what I want you to see. The Baby in Bethlehem. The first advent of Christ. It felt like long time coming too! It felt like it wasn’t going to happen. it felt impossible. But, then He came! And, it’s in that initial advent that we’re able to find hope, assurance, and security for the other promises of God!

A Shadow of Deity

“from ancient days” The phrase that’s used there ‘from ancient days’ can even mean something much further back, something eternal. Though it’s likely that Micah first intends for us to anchor this into the storyline of Scripture, it seems apparent to me that he wants for us to trace the genealogy of the Messiah all the way back to the eternal godhead himself. Jesus Christ, very God of very God as the church fathers said in the Nicene Creed, doesn’t merely trace back to David or to Abraham or to Eve. He finds no beginning, and He will find no end. This unsuspecting baby that is to be born to the virgin in Bethlehem will be the Word who was God and was with God in the Beginning who has come to represent man to God and God to man so that mankind might be reconciled to God, and you can see the shadows of this wonderful doctrine hinted here in Micah’s words. He is the by whom and through whom and for whom all things have been made. This is a baby to be born, but He is God already and eternally in existence.

APPLICATION: Micah wants us to know who the Messiah is. He’s not just a king to serve for a little while. He’s God that has reigned and will reign forever. He’s not just a man that’s coming. He’s God that will bring a Kingdom that will endure! The deliverance he’s bringing won’t come and go like David’s did. It will last forever!

“He Shall Give Them Up”

“Therefore he shall give them up until the time” The days will be difficult days until then. Until the time of this new David, until the time of this King’s birth, Micah says, times will not be good. He says in verse 3 that God will ‘give them up.’ That is, God will give them over to their own depraved desires. He will let them go their own way and reap their own fruit, their own destruction. They will face the seige of Sennacherib in 701 in which much of Isreal will be left in ruins and then Babylon will finish them off about 150 years later. There will be no son of David on the throne. The promise of God will appear in question. And, that’s what this prophecy is promising will happen. The throne of David will be abdicated. God had promised it would endure, but here he is also promising that it would be cleared. The problem that seems apparent in God’s promise to David is that God’s sons are ruining Israel. David’s line did not deserve preservation. Even as we saw earlier, David, the best of any of them, was himself not good. By the time you get to the time of Micah, there have been so many bad kings, that Israel is mere mockery of herself.

A New Israel, A New Throne, A New Shepherd, A New David

“the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel....to the ends of the earth” But, God is good, and his promises are certain. Here’s the status of things: the covenant God has with his people has been so violated by his people that it should be wiped out. God’s people have been so idolatrous and unfaithful that they should be disowned permanently by him. The covenant God has with David has been so humiliated by David’s line that it should be wiped out. What is God going to do? He’s going to make them all new! He’s going to make them a New Israel with a New Throne and a New Shepherd-King, a New David who will bring a New Peace!

Do you see this? What is God going to do? Who’s going to re-unite the brothers of Israel. There’s not going to be a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom any more. There’s not going to be a difference between Israel and Judah any more. Why? He’s making them new! And, he’s expanding the borders! This will be a kingdom without borders to the very ends of the earth. It will not be one race, people. It will be all tribes, all tongues, all peoples! Why? he’s making them new! It’s going to be the New Israel! The abdicated throne of David will be filled by One who is truly righteous. He will not be a man after God’s own heart, but a man with God’s own heart! David was the Shepherd-King who had fought off courageously bears, lions, and then giants to defend his flocks. He had been willing to look death in the eye and not flinch for the good of those who were in his care, and Jesus is the Chief Shepherd, the New David, the Shepherd-King that has come to not flinch in the face of death on a cross so that the flock might be delivered from her own enemy. Why this new David? God’s making everything New!

A New Peace

“And he shall be their peace” But, that’s not all that will be new. Look at verse 5. Verses 5 and 6 are basically the same exact thing stated twice and in two different ways. God shows Micah a vision of the future. For now, Sennacherib is knocking on the door. For now, the seige is coming. For now, the times are dire and the judgement is imminent. But, a new day is coming! He mentions Nimrod. Nimrod is unique in that Nimrod was king of a region that represented both Assyria and Babylon. He’s saying, “You’re going to be over both. All of your enemies will be slain. All of them will be your subjects.” There are going to be ‘seven shepherds and eight princes.’ You probably already know that seven is the number of completion. So, in Hebrew, when they start with seven and go to eight, they’re saying, we’re going to have more than enough! We’re going to be in total control!

The word for peace here is a word you’ve all heard. It’s ‘shalom.’ And shalom doesn’t just mean peace ‘out there’ somewhere. It’s not just some abstract peace. It’s real peace. It’s peace you can see, you peace can feel, peace you can know, peace you can enjoy. It’s comprehensive peace. It’s inner and outer peace. And, this Messiah that’s coming, He’s not bringing peace. He is peace! He’s the Prince of Peace ()! It’s the reason that 2000 years ago, there was a baby that looked like any other baby, and he was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. And, lying in that manger, heaven could not contain her excitement and joy any longer, and she burst forth in a song, singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” He had finally come! And, it was finally real. That which is most elusive in this broken world would finally be truly obtained — peace! Because God had sent his Son to make it new! He had come to make all things new!