Micah 1
Outline:
I. \\#Mic 1:1-16\\ A Nation Destroyed
A. \\#Mic 1:1\\ An Introduction
B. \\#Mic 1:2-7\\ The Coming Judge
C. \\#Mic 1:8-9\\ Micah’s Reaction
D. \\#Mic 1:10-15\\ The Sin Belt
Notes:
I. Chapter 1 - A Nation Destroyed
A. \\#Mic 1:1\\ Introduction of Micah
1. "Micah the Morasthite" - Micah was likely from
Moreshethgath, less than 20 miles southeast of
Jerusalem.
2. "Samaria and Jerusalem" - The capital cities of the
northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. Micah will
have news for both of the kingdoms of Israel.
B. \\#Mic 1:2-7\\ The Coming Judge
1. \\#2-4\\ A Graphic Visual
a. \\#2\\ "the Lord from his holy temple" - God is seen
leaving His holy temple. The temple is the place
from where God abides and rules.
b. "let the Lord God be witness against you" - From
there, the all-seeing God has observed the sins of
Israel and is not ready to testify to what He has
seen.
c. \\#3\\ "the Lord cometh forth out of his place" - As
God leaves the mountains on which His temple rests,
He steps from mountain peak to mountain peak.
d. \\#4\\ "the mountains shall be molten under him" - And
the earth beneath His feet ignites and melts as "wax
before the fire" or "waters that are poured down a
steep place."
e. Fire is a picture of judgment and these are the images
of God coming to judge a wicked land.
2. \\#5\\ A Reason
a. "For the transgression of Jacob …sins of …Israel";
a. The names Jacob and Israel are names that can
apply to the whole nation of Israel.
b. This is not a judgment for EITHER the north or
the south but a judgment for BOTH the north and
the south.
b. Although the remainder of the verse contains
questions, they are questions that make a point.
a. The point is that both halves of the country were
filled with false worship.
b. Even Jerusalem itself was filled with "high
places," locations of forbidden altars.
3. \\#6-7\\ The Judgment
a. \\#6\\ "I will" - God is speaking and will carry out
His judgments. Although evil actions may appear to
come from the hands of men, it is God who controls
all things.
b. \\#6-7\\ "make Samaria as an heap" - God will use
Assyria to leave Samaria nothing more than a "heap"
of "stones" in "the field."
a. It’s "foundations" will be exposed \\#6\\ and its
"graven images …shall be beaten to pieces"
\\#7\\.
b. The city will "lay desolate."
c. God specifically mentions harlotry in this judgment,
stating that Samaria’s false worship was "gathered
…of the hire of an harlot." That would indicate
that Judah’s false religion was built on lusts and
fornication.
C. \\#Mic 1:8-9\\ Micah’s Reaction
1. \\#8\\ Micah Mourning
a. "I will wail and howl" - The people of this culture
associate loud crying with extreme grief.
b. "I will go stripped and naked" - Micah probably
stripped to his underclothing or put on sackcloth.
c. "I will make a wailing like the dragons" - While the
word "dragon" is not used exclusively of dinosaurs
or monsters, the thought might be that if any are
alive today, they would be the last of their kind
and would mourn so.
d. "mourning as the owls
2. \\#9\\ Micah’s Deductions
a. "For her wound is incurable" - Micah, like
\\#Amos 2:4-5\\, understood that Judah was on the
same diseased path as Israel. In time, it would lead
to Judah’s death as surely as Israel was drawing its
last breaths.
b. "even to Jerusalem" - Even the holy city itself was
marked for destruction.
D. \\#Mic 1:10-15\\ The Sin Belt - Micah listed 12 cities in this
section, all marked for destruction. The central city was
Jerusalem with most of the others thought to have been
located fairly close.
a. Possible Fulfillments - Most of the locations given are
in Judah. Although Assyria did not conquer Jerusalem,
they did destroy the remainder of the country. That
being the case, it seems best to see these prophecies as
being fulfilled in the Assyrian conquest unless there is
a notable cause to associate them with the later Babylon
conquest.
b. Possible Locations:
(1) See C:\Program Files (x86)\Bible Mapper 4\My Maps\
Amos.map for the likely locations to most of the
cities.
(2) Ophrah, thought by some to be Aphrah \\#Mic 1:10\\,
was a few miles into Israel.
(3) Shaphir, thought to possibly be Saphir \\#Mic 1:11\\,
was well into Philistia. However, one source also
listed Zaanan \\#11\\ as another name for Shaphir
which indicates there is much uncertainty over
these cities and their locations. Since these
judgments were mostly directed near Jerusalem, it
seems more likely that Saphir was another city in
Judah now lost.
http://bibleatlas.org/zaanan.htm
(3) Yet another source listed Bethezel \\#11\\ as being in
central Judah west of the Hebron.
http://www.bible-history.com/geography/ancient-israel/ot/beth_ezel.
html
(4) There were two cites which I could not locate at
all, Maroth \\#12\\ and Achzib \\#14\\.
c. Possible Meanings - God picked these cities to give a more
specific prophecy to the nation through each of them, but
the meanings of the prophecies are largely obscure to our
generation. As the prophecies are historic, being
fulfilled during the Assyrian conquest, Micah’s words
may have been a detail in the battle that is now lost to
us or perhaps as John Phillips states, perhaps the
prophecies were puns on the words themselves. For
example, Jerusalem means peace but peace was gone from
the peace town; Achzib means falsehood and lies reign
in the town of lies.
"Exploring the Minor Prophets" by John Phillips, Kregel Publications,
1998, Grand Rapids, MI, 49501, pp. 163-164.
(1) \\#10\\ Gath, a city of Philistia
(a) "Declare ye it not at Gath" - It appears that
Gath was not to be warned by Amos of the
impending judgment.
(b) "weep ye not at all" - And Israel was not to
feel badly at what would happen to them.
(2) "Aphrah roll thyself in the dust" - To roll in the
dust was either part of extreme mourning or an act
to put out fire on one’s clothing. Either image
indicates destruction.
(3) \\#11\\ Saphir, "Pass ye away … having thy shame
naked" - The phrase means to move on out and away
with shame, perhaps to say that this city will never
be found as their shame was exposed by God.
(4) Zaanan, "came not forth" - This meaning is unclear
but may indicate that Zaanan did not attempt to
help Bethezel when it mourned.
(5) Bethezel was a city which had something to mourn
about.
(a) Perhaps Bethezel was one of the first cities
to be attacked.
(b) "he shall receive of you his standing" - One of
these cities was to receive the standing or
recognition of the other.
i. If Bethezel was destroyed first, it would
make sense that Zaanan received Bethezel’s
standing.
ii. This prophecy no doubt revealed something
important that occurred during the Assyrian
conquest, but which seems lost to us.
(c) It would seem that these two locations might have
been close to each other.
(6) \\#12\\ Maroth, "waited carefully for good; but evil
came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem"
While this city waited for good, God sent evil upon
Jerusalem instead.
(7) \\#13\\ Lachish, between Philistia and Jerusalem.
Lachish is the city that the Assyrian army came FROM
in their attack of Jerusalem \\#Is 36:2\\. The city
was well fortified and fell only after the Assyrians
besieged it. It was destroyed permanently by the
Babylonians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Lachish
(a) "bind the chariot to the swift beast" - As
a well fortified city, Lachish had chariots and
horses. It appears God may be telling the
people of the city to use them to flee.
(b) "she is the beginning of the sin …for the
transgressions of Israel were found in thee"
This may mean that Lachish was the city which
introduced idolatry into Judah as it was
practiced in Israel.
(8) \\#14\\ Moreshethgath, a possible hometown to Micah
and believed to be located between Philistia and
Jerusalem
(a) This city would receive gifts, probably from
Lachish.
(b) Maybe these were gifts to form or strengthen
an alliance for battling the Assyrians.
(9) Achzib - The name means "deceit." Perhaps the city
was a deceitful locality, somehow being a "lie" not
to a single king of Israel but to "kings,"
indicating that they may have been the source of
problems to Israel for many years.
(10) \\#15\\ Mareshah, located in central Judah. God will
"bring an heir" to this city.
(a) Since God was to bring Assyria that way to
destroy them, it seems logical that Assyria is
to be the new heir or owner of that and all
cities.
(b) However, there is the small possibility that God
is giving a millennial prophecy and that the
new Owner is none other than Jesus Christ!
(c) While this is merely a possibility, Micah did
end the judgments of chapters 2 and 3 with
words of hope \\#Mic 2:12-13, Micah 4:1-13\\.
Perhaps this is to be the word of hope for
chapter 1.
(11) Adullam - The new owner will come to Adullam too
and take the glory of Israel.
E. \\#Mic 1:16\\ A Command to Mourn
1. "Make thee bald" - Shaving one’s head was a sign of
distress. God is telling the men to make their heads as
bald as the eagle for the sorrow that was to come upon
their "delicate children."
2. Why? Because "they are gone into captivity from thee" -
Any that would survive would be taken from their parents
into captivity.
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