Micah 5:1-6

Those of you who have been on short-term mission trips or any trip abroad know that one of the most challenging things about re-entry into everyday life is answering the question, “So how was your trip?” You have been in a different culture eating different food around people who speak a different language and have a different exposure or access to the gospel than you do. So to sum up two weeks of that in a word or two is impossible. At the same time, your coworkers and acquaintances are not interested in the digital slideshow and 3 hours of video footage. So when we were in Indonesia last year, our missionary hosts made us write a one-sentence answer to the question “So how was your trip?” Then we wrote a three-sentence answer then an extended answer.

If one of your acquaintances hears that you have been sitting through sermons on the Minor Prophets since the first of the year, even if they are a believer they are likely to ask, “What are the Minor Prophets about anyway?” You and I both would be quite embarrassed if, after months and months in these books you hadn’t a clue how to answer them, so I thought I would use this morning’s text as an opportunity to give us the one-sentence answer, the three-sentence answer, and yes, the extended answer.

The one-sentence answer is so simple that you can teach it to your three-year-old. In fact, it is one of the most important things you can teach your three-year-old. It is this: “God always keeps his promises.”

The Minor Prophets are certainly more complex than this sentence, so here is the three-sentence explanation of the Minor Prophets. “Yahweh established a covenant relationship with Israel and made great promises to Abraham and David. The Minor Prophets were covenant enforcers who brought God’s message of judgment when Israel broke covenant with God. However, interwoven with their messages was the promise that God would ultimately restore Israel after he disciplined her.”

I want to use the three points in these sentences to set up one extended answer to “what are the Minor Prophets about?” The three points were (1) God’s covenant with Israel, (2) God’s judgment on Israel’s sin, and (3) the hope of restoration after the discipline. Don’t think that this is merely a history lesson on Israel. What we are about to look at is an entire paradigm for dealing with hardship and waiting on God. It is the experience of looking at what God has promised, looking at the circumstances around you, and saying, “God how can there be any hope here?” It is Abraham looking at the sand that his descendants will outnumber, looking at his old, barren wife, and all he can do is laugh and rest on the fact that God always keeps his promises.

Turn with me to Micah 7:1, and let’s step into Micah’s shoes as he wrestles with how God is going to keep his promises. “Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.” Micah knows the covenant promises God made to Abraham and David, but when he sees the Israel’s situation, there are very few traces of those covenants being fulfilled. He likens it to having a deep craving for some grapes or figs, going to the vineyard, and finding zero fruit on the vines. He wants to see the fulfillment of God’s promises, and he doesn’t see it.

Let’s clarify what exactly Micah was seeing. On the one hand he was looking at God’s covenant promises to Abraham and David. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be many, that he would give them the land of Canaan, and that through them he would bless all the peoples of the earth. Then to King David he promised that his descendants would sit on the throne of Israel forever.

Put those together and Micah is looking at God’s promise of a mighty nation that would bless the world, lead by a king who would rule forever. Or to use the metaphor God spoke to David, “I will build you a house.” But when Micah looks at the building materials for this great house, all he sees are wicked people led by a weak king. If you are still in Micah 7, look at verses 2-3 to get a sampling of what the peoples’ wickedness was like; to see how rotten these 2x4’s are: “The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together.” You want to build a house out of that?

Turn back to chapter 5 where we see the weak king who is leading this wicked people. Verse 1 says, “Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek.” The king of Israel was supposed to rule with a rod of iron. He was supposed to strike down his enemies. He was to protect the nation from invasion. And here we see that this king was not ruling with an iron rod, he was being ruled by his enemy’s rod. He was not striking his enemy; his enemy was striking him. He was not protecting the nation from invasion; Jerusalem was under siege.

Can you understand Micah’s despair? Ringing in his ears are God’s promises that he will build a house for David, and all he sees for the materials are rotten boards and rusty nails. The reaction is, “God, how are you going to build a house out of that?!?”

How many times has this happened in the Bible? Abraham looks at barren Sarah and says, “How are you going to make a nation from us?” Gideon looks at his army of 300 and say, “How are you going to win a battle with us?” Israel’s army looks at little David and says, “How are you going to slay Goliath with him?” And here Micah looks at his people and asks, “How are you going to make a great nation out of us?” How is God going to keep his promises?

Thankfully the book of Micah gives us the answer. God is going to gather a faithful remnant of his people around a great king who will rule over them forever. All the passages in Micah that give hope for the future of Israel, especially in chapters 2 and 4, contain these strands of God gathering together a remnant and with them making a strong nation. And the Lord himself will rule over this nation through a new king that he will raise up.

Turn with me to Micah 5:2 and let’s see who this king is. “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, 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 origin is from of old, from ancient days.” Skip down to verse 4. “And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.”

This is how God is going to keep his promises—he is going to raise up a great king who will shepherd the remnant of God’s people. This is the resolution to the tension between God’s grand covenant promises and the wickedness of his people. This is the hope that explains how God is going to keep his promises.

So if you are living in Micah’s day and you despair with him when you see the wickedness of your people and the weakness of your king, the place where you turn your hope is the reign of this new king. You can say, “things may be horrendous right now, but there’s a king coming who will make all things right. He will gather a remnant and rule over us forever!”

But what should you say if you are living in 2006, and you despair when you look at the wickedness and injustice of the world, the impurity that is always creeping in the church, and even the weakness of your own life before God? Where do you look when you hear all the great promises of God, and you simply don’t see it happening? You do the same thing that they did in Micah’s day—turn your hope to the reign of this king. You say, “things may be horrendous right now, but there’s a king coming who will make all things right. He will gather a remnant and rule over us forever!”

But you can say much more than that, can’t you, because the King has already come. When wise men from the east followed his star to Israel they said, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” Do you remember what the chief priests and scribes answered them? They quoted the words of Micah, “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” They followed the star to the house of a young couple named Joseph and Mary, and there they fell down and worshipped this little boy named Jesus, because he was the King.

So unlike Micah, we don’t only have the hope that a king will come, we know who this King is. He is Jesus of Nazareth—our Savior, our Master, our King. And King Jesus did all we’re reading about in Micah, didn’t he? He came from the ancient line of David. He said, “I am the good shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep.” But at the same time, when the people wanted to make him king, he slipped off into the mountains by himself. He didn’t ride into Jerusalem on a white horse to establish his eternal reign. He rode into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey and allowed his enemies to capture and kill him. And as he hung on the shameful cross, Pilate mockingly placed a banner over his head: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

But what nobody understood is that before this King came to reign forever he first came to die for the sins of his people. He came and made peace between God and sinners on the cross. Or as Micah says, he is our peace. And this King did not stay in the grave but rose again on the third day, showing that his kingdom is not a petty kingdom like the United States or Russia or China. No, this King conquered death, sin, and Satan. And he came to his followers and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”

There is a crucial connection between this Great Commission and our text in Micah that we cannot miss. In Micah 5:4 the prophet says, “And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.” When you and I, as subjects of King Jesus, talk about him and the forgiveness and eternal life that is offered in his gospel, we are part of seeing Micah 5:4 fulfilled. It says that he shall be great to the ends of the earth. Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations. In Acts 1:8 he said, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Jesus Christ came as the King that Micah foretold. But he came not to crush his enemies but to extend mercy to his enemies. And as more and more sinners repent or turn from their allegiance to Satan and self and bow the knee to King Jesus, his kingdom extends. As we labor in sharing this good news of the kingdom with others here in Phoenix and as we help others take the message to all nations, Jesus is doing exactly what Micah prophesied. He is gathering to himself a remnant and reigning over them as a strong King forever.

And as we enjoy the benefits of being under King Jesus’ rule, we still are in a situation like Micah where we groan because of the injustice that remains in our world. The violence, the racism, the sexual perversion, the greed—it makes us ask, where is the covenant keeping God? Where are his promises? And in that moment of despair we look to the same place where Micah looked. We turn our hope to the reign of this King. We fix our eyes on King Jesus who, after this window of mercy is over, will come and trample his enemies, rid this world of injustice, and reign over his people forever in the New Heavens and the New Earth. And he shall be their peace.