Micah 2:6-11; Now I Stand Up to Rest

Class Outline:

Sunday December 1, 2024

 

Intro: Micah is going to identify false prophets. He accuses them of failing to preach judgment. This is something that the church has been guilty of. There will be judgment for those who refuse Christ. In Israel, the people are more than willing to hear that everything is going to be okay, that judgment is not from God.

 

The false teachers and their evil rulers preach peace and love and are themselves always deeply unethical.

 

Theme: God’s words do good to the upright and give them rest in Him.

 

MIC 2:1-5

 

You never have to worry that any person is going to get away with the evil they do.

 

The poetry is striking in imagery of darkness and light and in the misplaced efforts of the evil ones.

 

Next oracle: 2:6-11.

 

(vs. 7) The Lord says something that the whole world functions on. A scientist may say that the key to the function of the universe is gravity and electromagnetism, but I say no. The universe functions on the words from God.

 

HEB 11:3

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God,

 

Why is the word good to the upright and not good to the unrighteous? Why words? This is the crux of the difference between those in the kingdom and those who are not.

 

Micah crescendos from taking rich robes to taking homes and small farms from women and children. (Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard, 1KI 21:3).

 

God’s splendor is the rich blessing and benefits that He promised to Israel; land, family, security, and most of all, the words that established Him in their lives.

 

(vs. 10) “go” the sentence of exile.

“rest” takes us back to vs. 1, “work out evil on their beds.”

 

(vs. 11) If they don’t love God’s word, people will listen to what they want to hear. Having their ears tickled.

 

Man was made to rest in God. But to do so he would need to be upright.

 

No matter where you are, if you are not resting in God, you are in exile. Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden. All of us are uneasy and restless until we find our rest in God.

 

When you love God’s word as an upright, you want truth from God, no matter how unpleasant it may be or how challenging.

 

Understanding terms: upright, rest in Him.

 

Upright means literally straight, level, or narrow. It is strict obedience to God’s word. God’s word is good to those who believe it and obey it. Makes sense.

 

People who do not want to be upright, twist it to justify themselves:

MIC 3:9

Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob

And rulers of the house of Israel,

Who abhor justice

And twist everything that is straight,

 

EXO 15:26

And He said, "If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer."

 

God offered this rest to Israel.

 

Like many, they refused His rest and sought something else. The land should be a place of rest but it is not.

 

HEB 4:2, 3

the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard

 

"As I swore in My wrath,

They shall not enter My rest,"

 

God declares the land “unclean” or defiled.

 

God gave Israel a home, a place of rest with security and wealth to enjoy. He gave them a center of worship so that they could find rest for their souls.

 

PSA 23:2

He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

 

PSA 116:1

Return to your rest, O my soul,

For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

 

Because they had become unclean the Lord removed them from His presence, from His place of rest. The Lord Jesus in REV 3:16 threatens the church at Laodicea that He will spit them out of His mouth.

 

2TI 4:3-5

wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

 

Rest in Him: a resting place akin to Sabbath. Peace and rest in the prosperity which God provides (kingdom or garden).

 

Application of uprightness.

 

Goodness and peace flow to the upright, they who strictly obey the Lord. The word does not do good to those who do not obey it or believe it. This should make sense.

 

The upright want true teachers and not ones who tell them what they may want to hear. God’s word is going to challenge us, our assumptions, our preunderstanding.

 

PRO 8:30

Then I was beside Him, as a master workman;

And I was daily His delight,

Rejoicing always before Him,

 

The importance of being upright in understanding the Lord.

 

JOH 7:16-18

So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”

 

This is what makes the remnant. The prophets focus on faith that obeys. Not sinlessness, but obedience to the will of God.

 

Obedience is a life given to God, not a task to get done.

 

As long as we are looking at righteousness or sanctification (living in strict obedience) as a task to be done with, and with the hope that we will have some life left over for ourselves, we will fail to see Christ as we need to in order to rest surrounded by goodness.

 

Take one aspect - one discipline - that you do well and one that you fail to commit to. Bible study, morning prayer, daily prayer, considering others, doing good in service to those around you, considering others more important, witnessing the gospel, loving your enemies, etc.

 

Ask yourself, why do you do one well and not the other? Consider giving your entire life to the Lord’s authority.