Title: Never Give Up (Mic 01:1-16)
Content 'Micah' has the meaning of 'who is like the Lord'.
Micah is portrayed as a stranger to Jerusalem, who is not from a prestigious family and lives in rural areas.
The time he prophesied was when Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and three men were kings with Judah.
Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos, was active in the late eighth century B.C.E.
The vision he had received from God, which he was seeing now, was a revelation concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
The overall theme of the prophet Amos is ‘God’s justice’, the overall theme of the prophet Hosea is ‘God’s love’, and the theme of the book of Jonah is ‘God’s judgment’.
The overall theme of the entire book of Micah is humility.
When God reveals Himself, He does not reveal Himself all at once, but through each of the prophets little by little, He reveals to us various aspects, meanings, and character of God with different emphasis on different prophets.
Micah is quoted from Jeremiah (Jeremiah 26:18-19), and also from Jesus (Matthew 10:35-36).
The book of Micah can be divided into three parts, chapters 1-2, 3-5, and 5-7, and the contents of each part are the rebuke of sin, the proclamation of judgment, and the promise of blessings in the Messiah.
1. God in Judgment
“The LORD will come out of his dwelling place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth” (1:3).
Micah's message in this chapter is that God is in judgment now.
Judgment is not only in the future.
You are already judging everything.
If you play a little today and do better tomorrow, it means it's already too late.
Micah is now seeing the appearance of God in His holy temple.
Judgment is expected to take place in the temple.
Micah also sees God who is present and judges the world.
2. The Fall of Samaria 1) The sin of pride
“Under him the mountains shall melt, and the valleys shall be divided like horses before a fire, like water that flows down the slope” (1:4).
The fall of Samaria was pride.
“The Lord will come out of his dwelling place, and he will be strong and tread on the high places of the earth.” When the Messiah comes, the high places will be made low and the valleys will be filled.
The high heart of man, and the poorly withdrawn person, all turn to a level ground, but by trampling on the high person, their pride is broken.
It melts and crushes it until it cracks.
Even the proud Tower of Babel easily collapses.
The Tower of Babel of our pride, not the Tower of Babel, must be destroyed.
The Tower of Babel is partisanism in which people create parties among themselves by collectivism.
Because it is a tower of pride against God, it must be destroyed quickly.
If it doesn't break down, you'll end up in chaos.
Humans seem amazing, but in the sight of God, they are inferior to earthworms.
When a satellite was launched from Cape Town, the United States, and a rocket was launched into the lunar country, the greatness of its power soared to the top of the sky.
When the American pride rose to the top of the skies of the world, a rocket launched and exploded in the air in just a few seconds, shattering American pride in an instant.
It's only a few seconds after the President of the United States delivered a speech bragging about saving pride to the world.
After rigorous research and meticulous research, they spent hundreds of millions of dollars in research and research for decades, so beautifully and with so much care, and they conducted several test launches. It left me with a pain to look at.
The proud are rejected by God.
But it's not about breaking the pride of the American people.
It was not because the tower in Jerusalem fell and the 18 people who died there were more sinful than the others.
This is to help us learn the truth that if we are arrogant, we cannot help but become like that.
God shatters the proud, and the situation is terrifying.
It is ‘like wheat before fire’, so everything melts and shows that there will be nothing.
Wheat means wax.
If I put wax on the fire, will it remain? Everything gets wet.
'It's like water pouring down a slope'