Sermon Notes — Medina Community Church

Key Passage · ESV

Micah 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Micah 1:2–4 Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. Micah 1:5–7 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for they were gathered from the wages of a prostitute, and to the wages of a prostitute they shall return.

My Notebook

Part One

Concerning Both Kingdoms

Micah 1:1

Micah of Moresheth, a small farming town, prophesied in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, a contemporary of Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos.

God’s word shows no ¹. Both capitals, Samaria and Jerusalem, are held to the same standard.

The word of God comes to a ² man, from a common place, for two capital cities.

This is not Micah’s word to the people of God. It is the word of God to the people of God. Micah is the ³.

The book swings like a pendulum: from impending judgment, to the hope of redemption, and back again.

Part Two

Yahweh Descends

Micah 1:2–4

Not Israel only: “Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth.” Every nation watching is meant to learn from this.

God does not sit back ⁴ to unrighteousness. He intervenes personally, for our good and to bring Himself glory.

This is the courtroom of heaven, and God Himself serves as the ⁵: the most credible and exhaustive witness there could ever be.

“Those who will not observe the judgments of God’s mouth shall not escape the judgments of His hand.”

Matthew Henry

Like a father rising from his chair toward a misbehaving child: the LORD is rising from His place. He is coming down.

Mountains melting like wax depicts an anger hot enough to melt ⁶. Creation itself reacts to His transcendent majesty.

Israel had the judgments of His mouth for generations. The word of the LORD ignored becomes the judgment of His hand.

“Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people.”

Psalm 50:3–4

Reflect · Have you grown comfortable assuming God overlooks what a person or a nation gives itself to? Where does that show up in your thinking?

Part Three

The Sin Is Named

Micah 1:5–7

The people who watched Jonah’s indictment of Nineveh now find themselves in the hot seat. The charge: gross idolatry.

Micah names names: “Is it not Samaria? Is it not Jerusalem?” The very cities that should have modeled faithfulness.

Idolatry in the prophets is pictured as marital unfaithfulness, a wife who has taken other lovers. Idolatry is ⁷.

The punishment fits the crime: idols funded by a prostitute’s wages will be plundered and return to a prostitute’s wages.

God hates idolatry so much that He will use an ⁸ nation, Assyria, to judge His idolatrous people.

Samaria, a large fortified capital, will be reduced to a heap in the open country. Nothing left but farmland.

Reflect · We all have our own versions of Samaria and Jerusalem: places that should model faithfulness but have become centers of compromise. What are yours?

Conclusion

A holy God shows us our dire need for mercy.

A very uncomfortable place to open a series, but for good reason. Every one of us has trusted something other than God to secure us: wealth and health, status or power, these various sorts of carved images. And every one of them is powerless to grant us salvation.

In future weeks, when we see the promise of a Savior, the mercy God offers means so much more, because we first understand why we so desperately need it.

“Who is like our God?”

My Response · One thing I am taking from this message

Prayer

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