Micah 3-5 - Outline

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

March 18, 2013


 *SEP 28 - MICAH 3-5 - PROPHECY OF PROMISED DELIVERANCE*


 *1. 3:6-7 (3:1-7, ESV) PROPHECY: AGINST RULERS AND PROPHETS. “Therefore it
shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without
divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be
black over them; 7 the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to
shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.” **
Righteous* are Your judgments Father, against false rulers and
prophets. *Hallowed
be your :name.*


 *2. 3:12 (3:8-12) PROPHET MICAH: CONTRASTED WITH PROPHETS AND RULERS.
“Therefore
because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap
of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.” *For Adam’s sake
You drove him out of Eden, Father. For *Judah’s* sake Your brought
chastisement in judgment. *Judgment* is Your strange work, and works for
our good when all else fails. Micah spoke a true word. *Your :kingdom come!*


 *3. 4:2 (4:1-8) RESTORATION: PEACE, PROSPERITY AND POWER FOR ISRAEL. “And
many nations shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of
the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” *O what a comforting word! After
the weeping of night follows morning. After the purging of judgment comes
blessing. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.*


 *4. 4:10 (4:9-10) RESTORATION OF TRAVAIL AND INTERCESSION. “Writhe and
groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out
from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There
you shall be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your
enemies.” *O Father, forgive us for ever doubting Your love and
restoration-faithfulness during the times of judgment! Your design during
such times is but to purge us, bring us to contrition and repentance, and
restore us to Your blessing once again! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!
*


 *5. 4:12 (4:11-13) RESTORATION: ISRAEL NOW AN INSTRUMENT OF JUSTICE. “But
they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan,
that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.” *Father, You
restore us through judgment, that we might be merciful instruments of
judgment to restore others! O the depths of Your wisdom! Your ways are past
finding out! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our
:debtors!*


 *6. 5:2 (5:1-6) MESSIAH: HIS FIRST AND SECONG COMING. “But you, O
Bethlehem Ephratha, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from
you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming
forth is from of old, from ancient days.” *Always You have foreseen and
determined the coming of Your Son *Jesus*, Father! He is Your instrument,
Whose obedience perfected through suffering, enables You to accomplish all
You have fore-ordained! *And bring us not into temptation!*


 *7. 5:7 (5:7-15) MESSIAH: RESTORER OF ISRAEL. “Then the remnant of Jacob
shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers
on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of
man.” *What
a word of Grace: Covenant Love and Faithfulness, O Father! Your word is
more sure than the heavens! *But deliver us from the evil one!*


 *NOTE**: 3:8 (3:8-12) PROPHET MICAH: **HIS GOD-GIVEN PREPARATION. “But as
for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with
justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his
sin.” *Done through anointing and empowerment!


 *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: “You are no Lover of Christ” - *You are no lover of
Christ if you do not love his children. As soon as ever the heart is given
to the master of the house it is given to the children of the house. Love
Christ and you will soon love all that love him.


 *Our Psalm for the Day: 88:1-2 (88) I CRY OUT DAY AND NIGHT BEFORE YOU. “O
LORD, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you. 2 Let my
prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry! *Father, Your Son Jesus
shared these afflictions in common with all mankind. In all our temptations
He was afflicted even as we, yet without sin. We *hallow your :name* for
sending such a wonderful, self-sacrificing Son! And *You* were in Him,
reconciling the world unto Yourself!


 *Title: “A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah.” *This sad complaint reads
very little like a Son, nor can we conceive how it could be called by a
name which denotes a song of praise or triumph; yet perhaps it was
intentionally so called to show how faith “glories in tribulations also.”
Assuredly, if ever there was a song of sorrow and a Psalm of sadness, this
is one.


 88:1. *O Lord God of my salvation. *While a man can see God as his Savior,
it is not altogether midnight with him. While the living God can be spoken
of as the life of our salvation, our hope will not quite expire. It is one
of the characteristics of true faith that she turns to Jehovah, the saving
God, when all other confidences have proved liars unto her. *I have cried
day and night before You. *Day and night are both suitable to prayer; it is
no work of darkness, therefore let us go with Daniel and pray when men can
see us; yet, since supplication needs no light, let us accompany Jacob and
wrestle at Jabbok till the day breaks. Evil is transformed to good when it
drives us to prayer.


 88:4. *I am as a man that has no strength.* I have but the name to live;
my constitution is broken up; I can scarce crawl about my sickroom, my mind
is even weaker than my body, and my faith weakest of all. The sons and
daughters of sorrow will need but little explanation of these sentences;
they are to such tried ones as household words.


 88:7. *Your wrath lies hard upon me. *Dreadful plight this, the worst in
which a man can be found. Wrath is heavy in itself; God’s wrath is crushing
beyond conception, and when that presses hard, the soul is oppressed
indeed. The wrath of God is the very hell of hell, and when it weighs upon
the conscience, a man feels a torment such as only that of damned spirits
can exceed.


 88:8. *You have made me an abomination unto them. *The mass of men who
gather around a man and flatter him are like tame leopards; when they lick
his hand, it is well for him to remember that with equal gusto they would
drink his blood.


 88:14. *Why do You hide Your face from me? *Will You not so much as look
upon me? Can You not afford me a solitary smile? Why this severity to one
who has in brighter days basked in the light of Your favor? We may put
these questions to our Lord, nay, we ought to do so. It is not undue
familiarity, but holy boldness. It may help us to remove the evil which
provokes the Lord to jealousy, if we seriously beg Him to show us why He
contends with us. He cannot act towards us in other than a right and
gracious manner, therefore for every stroke of His rod there is a
sufficient reason in the judgment of His loving heart; let us try to learn
that reason and profit by it.


 88:15. *While I suffer Your terrors I am distracted. *How near akin to
madness soul-depression sometimes may be it is not our province to decide;
but we speak what we do know when we say that a feather-weight might be
sufficient to turn the scale at times. Thank God, O you tempted ones who
yet retain your reason! Thank him that the devil himself cannot add that
feather while the Lord stands by to adjust all things


 88:16. *Lover and friend You have put far from me. *Lonely sorrow falls to
the lot of not a few; let them not repine, but enter herein into close
communion with that dearest Lover and Friend Who is never far from His
tried ones.


 (We have not attempted to interpret this Psalm concerning our Lord, but we
fully believe that where the members are, the Head is to be seen
preeminently. To have given a double exposition under each verse would have
been difficult and confusing; we have therefore left the Messianic
references to be pointed out in the Notes, where, if God, the Holy Spirit,
be pleased to illustrate the page, we have gathered up more than enough to
lead each devout reader to behold Jesus, the Man of sorrows and the
acquaintance of grief.) *(From “The Treasury of David” by C.H. Spurgeon,
abridged by D.O. Fuller)*



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