In this episode, we delve into the profound insights of the prophet Micah, exploring the tumultuous era he lived in and his foretelling of the judgment on Israel and Judah. As we listen, we draw parallels between the past and our present-day struggles, highlighting the unchanging nature of human conflict and the enduring hope found in turning to God. Listeners around the world share their testimonies, illustrating how the Word of God has transformed their lives, even amid darkness. Join us as we navigate these themes, emphasizing the necessity of aligning our hearts with the peace of God to
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Through the Bible. In our five-year journey through the whole Word of God, we’re traveling through the small Old Testament book written by the prophet Micah. And Micah tells us about a losing battle the northern kingdom of Israel fought with Assyria. It ended when all ten tribes of the north were carried into captivity. And though Jerusalem didn’t fall at that time, Micah wrote that Jerusalem would become a heap of ruins. And sure enough, a hundred years later, Jerusalem was dust. Some people say the conflict that has plagued our country over the years points to our destruction in the future as well. Well, around the time the Vietnam War ended, Americans were watching the Watergate hearings on TV and student protests were winding down. And Dr. McGee received this poem in the mail.
SPEAKER 03 :
Comes from a listener in Marion, North Carolina. And it says mirror, mirror on the wall, can you see our nation fall? Headlines scream of our decay. Is there any hope today? Smog doth blind and traffic choke. Wages bind and buildings smoke. Welfare rolls are soaring high. And hard drugs cause our young to die. Villains are heroes on TV while legal loopholes set them free. Morality is a foreign word. Love with marriage is absurd. Campus riots, no-win war, busing is a festered sewer. Candidates are often shot. when they seek a major spot. Hijacked planes, a lefty press, schools are in an awful mess. Mirror, mirror on the wall, is there any hope at all? Very good, by the way, for this present day in which we live.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, some things will be true no matter what decade you live in. God is the only source of peace, our only hope in this world. And that’s also the message that we hear from listeners around the world. Now, here’s a word of hope from a fellow Bible bus passenger in the African country of Benin writes this. My father and mother were servants of God. Shortly after I entered high school, my eyesight started to fail, and then I plunged into total darkness. I became blind despite the resources my parents spent to treat me. I was very depressed, but my dad told me, the Lord wants me to listen now to the word of God. From then on, I started listening. I noticed the difference between preachers who tell stories and those who present the gospel of Jesus. through your presentation of the word of God, I forget I’m blind. Dr. McGee shows us Jesus, the Lord who is present in the Bible. I also realized it’s not only with physical eyes that we can see things. Through this five-year course, the scales have fallen and my spiritual sight has been restored. Gladly, I can say that I see. Thank you for showing me Jesus. Wow. You know, there’s no better encouragement than looking to Jesus. So I hope that you see him as well. DeWald in South Africa has a similar story. He sees Jesus clearly, too, and he writes this. I’m blind and use an app on my phone to listen to your messages. It’s really encouraging and enlightening. I try to share the messages with friends, but they don’t share the same enthusiasm for it. My goal for this year is to somehow share the Word of God in new ways, including perhaps creating a WhatsApp group. God is giving me opportunities to come into people’s homes by tuning and servicing their pianos. Pray with me for my family. They are all unsaved and I struggle to reach them for Jesus. I hope to live a life full of the light of Christ that will overpower the powers of darkness. It doesn’t matter in what situation you are. It is glorious to know God can use you. I’ve been listening to Dr. McGee explain about all the different people in the Bible, and each one of them had a different measure of Christ, a different degree of faith. Luckily, we don’t have to walk by sight, but by the faith of Christ. Well, isn’t that a great truth? Aren’t these young men remarkable? I sure hope that you’ve been encouraged. I know I have. If you haven’t already joined the World Prayer Team, and you do want to join us as we pray for more people in Benin, South Africa, and all over the world to know the hope found only in Jesus Christ, why don’t you sign up at ttb.org forward slash pray or click on the World Prayer Today in our app. So let’s commit this time to Micah chapter 3 now to the Lord. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for your powerful word that shows us your son Jesus. Would you teach us more about him as we listen? And bless the word as it goes out. Thank you for the peace and hope that we find in only your son. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Let’s turn to Micah chapter 3 as we make our way through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, friends, we’re in the third chapter of Micah. And we saw last time God’s judgment upon the princes, upon the political leaders of the nation. Now we’ve come in verse 5, where we begin today, God’s judgment of the prophets. And actually, the conduct of the prophets is just about as reprehensible as that of the princes. In fact, I’m not sure but what it’s more so. Because the sins of the prophet is that they misinform the people. And not only that, they mislead them. And this type of thing. They know better, but they do not respond to giving out God’s Word. Now, will you notice specifically, for he will spell out the sins of the prophets here. And I read now in verse 5, “…thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets.” that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace, and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. Well, here is the thing that the prophets were doing. They actually were like really a vicious animal. are like a serpent with a forked tongue and a fang that would poison. Actually, they’re worse than that because they got up and they used smooth words and attempted to comfort the people. And they spoke of peace, that peace was coming. You know, the futile effort of Man for Peace ought to begin to shake some people in their thinking that man by himself cannot bring peace to the world. And just by warning it and saying it enough and say you are for it and vote for it, that doesn’t mean you’re going to have peace. Now again, Micah makes it very clear that the problem is not on the surface. The problem is not this problem of wanting peace. The problem is that the human heart is wicked. The human heart is sinful. And God says, there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. Now, the contemporary of Micah, Isaiah, is the one who said that. And he said it three times in the last part of his prophecy. That was the great climax he would come to each time that the problem was in the human heart, that the problem is there. It’s not a question today when I make a statement that we cannot have peace today. Well, I generally get two or three letters from some well-meaning folk. And they’re very lovely folk. They write a lovely letter. And they say, oh, Dr. McGee, don’t be so pessimistic. Don’t say that. We should continue to try to bring peace in the world. We should continue our efforts in that connection. And they’re sincere in that. And it sounds good. But friends, may I say to you, it’s one of the most false teachings that’s abroad today that man can make peace that way. I want peace as much as anyone wants peace, but I want to go at it God’s way. The individual must first of all know what the peace of God is. How are you going to know it? Paul says being justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You can’t have peace with your fellow man till you have peace with God. And the human heart is one that you just can’t trust at all. The heart’s desperately wicked, Jeremiah says. Who can know it? You and I really do not know how bad that we really are and that we can stoop and go probably as low as any creature can. In fact, we talk about we’ve come from animals. The proof that we have not come from animals is that man can go lower than animals. Animals can’t go as low as mankind can go. Animals don’t go out and get drunk. Animals today do not of their own, do not desert their offspring. They follow a certain rule and a certain pattern. But mankind can go lower than the animal world. Now, that is the thing. The prophet is prophesying peace when actually Assyria in the north was getting ready to come down upon them. And today, there is efforts being made in different sections of the world to get people together and to get them to sit down at a table and reason out and not go to war. And in spite of all of that, And now for at least about 6,000 years of recorded history, man still goes to war. He still fights among themselves. One nation against another nation. One tribe against another tribe. One family against another family. One individual against another individual. Why do that? We ought not to. It’s not to the advantage of either side. But we do it because we’re alienated from God and we’re in rebellion against them. But we won’t face up to what the real problem is. We want to smooth the thing out with smooth words. We want to say we’re going to have peace. Well, may I say to you, we’ve been saying it a long time. And these are false prophets. That’s what God calls false prophets. And because they do this sort of thing, God is going to pronounce upon them the calamities that are going to come upon them. Listen to verse 6 here. He says, therefore, night shall be unto you. And night and darkness, as we’ve seen in the prophets, always speaks of judgment. And it speaks of judgment in two different ways. Of the direct intervention of God in the punishing of the offender. And then in the silence of God in not giving any revelation to man at all. And so here we have mentioned again, therefore night shall be unto you. that ye shall not have a vision. That is, God will not reveal any new truth to you. And it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine. And the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. In other words, the judgment that is coming to them is called here darkness, and the sun will go down. And what he’s talking about, there will not be any light from the Word of God, the light which they formerly had from God. They will no longer have this cessation of prophecy. Now, you will recall that actually Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 8, made reference to this. He said, “…love never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.” Well, they’ll fail in two different ways. They’ll be fulfilled. And when they’re fulfilled, then they have failed. That is, they no longer look forward to the future. In other words, they’re no longer prophecies. They’re now history. But in another way, then God does not reveal anything new to them. You have quite a hiatus between the Old and New Testament of approximately 400 years. The sun had gone down. And Malachi, the last one, promised that the sun would come up again. The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. But they were entering the night at that time because there’d be no purpose of the sun coming up if it hadn’t been night. It wouldn’t make sense. And so they entered a long night. And that is the picture that is presented here. We today have moved into a unique position as a nation. I think very much the same position that these people had moved into at the beginning of our nation. And it’s so easy for the critic today and the very sophisticated historian today likes to tell about what barbarians our ancestors were, how narrow-minded they They were and what bigots they were that came to this country. Well, they were human beings, but they had a reverence for the Word of God. Even those that were not Christians had had a reverence for the Word of God, and they had a certain knowledge of it. Because actually, the reason that both Harvard and Yale Universities were founded were to train ministers so that people in this country would not be in the darkness of ignorance of the Word of God. But I tell you, the light’s gone out, hasn’t it? And today, the very places that were supposed to be great educational centers, great lights for the country, they turned off God a long time ago. And the night’s on us today. And the universities have had the worst riots of any places. They have become the very hotbed today of darkness. And that is where this worship of Satan originated in our day. And it’s where it’s being propagated today. I had a clipping the other day where a professor has gone off into this sort of thing, the worship of Satan today and indulging in the occult. May I say to you, we’re in a period again, it would seem to me, when the sun of Revelation has gone down. Now, what I mean actually by Revelation is illumination of the Word of God, that today the very centers that should be giving light from the Word of God are not doing it anymore. In fact, they’re rejecting it, turning their back on it, and at the same time turning to the occult. Now, that’s exactly what he’s talking about here. Therefore, night shall be unto you. Ye shall not have a vision. It shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine. The sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed and the diviners confounded. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, for there’s no answer from God. In other words, they will be in such gross darkness that those that are false prophets, God will make a fool of them by the fact that their prophecies do not come to pass at all. You will recall that was the thing that Ahab discovered. Of course, he discovered it too late. that all these prophets that were before him, that said for him to go out and fight in the war, the only one man that was God’s man, Micaiah, said, there’s one thing for sure. If you go out, you won’t come back. You’ll be slain. And it’s too bad that Ahab didn’t listen to him because he didn’t come back. He was slain as the prophet of God had said to him. And we just well tell the truth today. Friends, there’s no use trying to cover up this idea even of church membership. That has become almost revolting when you hear today some man that has been a leader and looked up to and even quotes the Bible every now and then. And then we find out what a sinner that he really is. And we see many prospering today as church members. When you go back and read the 12th chapter of Hebrews again, we looked at that some time ago. And in that, we saw that whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and every son that he receives. And why does he do that? Well, he says that I don’t want you to be illegitimate. And I’m chasing you. I discipline you so that you can know and the world can know that you’re my child. William the Conqueror actually signed his name William the Bastard because he was illegitimate. And I’m of the opinion that a great many church members today could sign their name the same way. I’m a deacon in the church. I’m a Sunday school teacher. I’m a leader in the church. And I’m a preacher. But you’d have to write under it what William the Conqueror wrote under his name when he signed it. I really am not a legitimate child of God. I have not really been born again. I do not really know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I do not love him. I do not seek to serve him. I’m not interested in his word at all. Now, these false prophets, you see, they were in this position. God was going to make them ridiculous. And the light of prophecy would go out. And they were speaking these smooth words. Why? They were words that would comfort the people. The people had itching ears. And the prophet would scratch them by saying something they wanted to hear. And then they in turn scratched the prophet’s ears because he had itching ears. They told him how wonderful he was. They said, my, what a great preacher you are because you say such nice, flowery, lovely things and everything must be all right. And they were living in luxury. But my, the morality was horrible and was frightening. Now, will you notice, Micah’s very clear to separate himself from that group. In verse 8, he says, “…but truly I’m full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.” He says that it takes intestinal fortitude to say what I’m saying, what I’m going to say it, because I believe that the Spirit of God is with me. In fact, Micah could say, I know the Spirit of God is leading me to say what I’m saying. It’s wonderful to be in that kind of a position, my friend. Now, will you notice, as we come down to the last division here, 9 through 12, we have now the sins of the leaders of Jerusalem. And it’s specifically now he turns to Jerusalem. Heretofore, it’s been Israel in the north. But now he turns specifically to Jerusalem. And he bundles together here the prophets and the princes, and the priests, and the judgment is on all of them. Now, will you notice the things that he says here? Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor justice and pervert all equity. Now he says, listen to me, I have something to say to you. They build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Well, how do they do that? Listen to him. Verse 11. Her heads judge for reward, and her priests teach for hire, and her prophets divine for money. What is the thing that they all have in common? Greed, covetousness. And that, my friend, was the worst kind of idolatry even in that day of idols. And today we don’t have an idol sitting around anywhere, at least I hope you don’t. A great many people are becoming very superstitious today and have little gadgets around and they follow their horoscope and all that sort of thing. But we still haven’t reverted to the base idolatry that was in existence in that day. But now he puts into focus They’re real sin, and it is idolatry, for covetousness is idolatry. And the judge was judging for reward, and the priests were teaching for hire. And the prophets, they were doing it for money. And therefore, since they were all doing it for what they could get out of it themselves, then they did not take in consideration God, nor did they take in consideration other people. They were willing to walk over them. No wonder the prophets said, you eat them up like a cannibal. You’re eating the people up. Why? Because of your greed and your love of money. That, my friend, is probably the root trouble today in many places. When the leadership of a nation is evil, no form of government will work. I don’t care what it is. That’s what he’s saying to us here. Now, will you listen to him in this last verse here? Verse 12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps. and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. And you can look at Jerusalem even today, but if you want to read Jeremiah 26, 18, you’ll find out this came to pass. And even Jerusalem today bears the scar marks of the fulfillment of this prophecy here. This is a great little book we’ve been in. Now, that brings us to the conclusion of chapter 3. We’ll pick up at chapter 4 next time. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 01 :
The news in the book of Micah isn’t all bad. In our next study, we’re going to look ahead at least 27 centuries into the future, into Israel’s golden age. In the meantime, if you want to dig a little deeper into your own study of God’s word, why don’t you check out our free Bible companion downloads over at ttb.org. We’re happy to now also offer any of our Bible companions for the New Testament in beautiful paperback editions. To purchase yours, just go to ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. And when you get yours in your hands, tell us what you think, especially if you’re using them for small group studies. They’re perfect for that. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll meet you back here for more great teaching by Dr. J. Vernon McGee next time.
SPEAKER 02 :
All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 01 :
Our story on the Bible Bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride, and you’ll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God’s great redemption story. Is this your story too?
