Who is Like our God? · Week 7
Is There No King?
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Micah 4:8–5:1
Who is Like our God? · Week 7
Micah 4:8–5:1
Suffering comes. His promise stands.
No King and a Good King
Micah 4:8–9
A tower of the flock was a shepherd’s 1, a place to stand and guard sheep.
A King is coming to that tower to watch over His people and to guarantee their safety and security.
The former dominion is the Davidic line. It was about to be interrupted, and it would be 2.
Their rulers are failing and are not watching their people, but a King is coming who will.
Then verse 9: there is no king. Chapter 3 showed a throne with a man on it, doing nothing becoming of a king.
Isaiah, preaching in this same generation, promised a Wonderful 3. Micah’s people have no counselor at all.
The promise and their experience did not match. It is often the same with us.
Christ is King, yet “at present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (Hebrews 2:8).
The circumstances seem to contradict the promise, but they are not the final word.
Pain for a Time
Micah 4:10
Daughter of Zion is another way of referencing Jerusalem, and what is spoken over her future is incredible pain and difficulty.
Assyria is the threat right now. Babylon, at this point, is not. And Micah says: 4.
God has given chances, and the people have chosen rebellion.
“There you shall be rescued.” Redemption would come in the very place of the suffering.
He is not a God who loses, and He is not a God who gives up.
“Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26)
Suffering, then 5. And the one is the path to the other.
The seed goes into the ground and dies, and then it bears much fruit. The Son goes into the grave, and then He rises.
Suffering does not mean God’s purposes have gone 6. In many ways, it often means He is working.
An Unexpected Turn
Micah 4:11–5:1
Many nations assemble to watch Zion humiliated. That is the cruelest kind of enemy, the one who wants to enjoy your ruin.
Circumstances are not always indicative of reality.
The nations think they are the ones closing in. In reality God has 7 them, as sheaves to the threshing floor.
The army that assembled to crush Zion has assembled itself onto God’s threshing floor.
Threshing crushes the harvested stalks to loosen the husks from the grain. The Lord often uses it as a picture of His judgments.
“Arise and thresh.” The victim of the siege becomes strengthened by the Lord.
From inside the siege, Zion does not know the plan. They see their king struck on the cheek and humiliated. It looks like the end.
When we are surrounded, we need to remind ourselves: we serve the One who gathers our enemies.
Romans 8:28 does not say we understand all things. We know the ultimate outcome because we know the 8 of the outcome.
Do you have a promise, paired with a situation whose outcome is uncertain?
Maybe that is exactly what your season feels like. The promise you hold in your right hand looks much different than the pain you hold in your left. They could not see their King, and His promise stands. In the midst of hardship and suffering, His promise stands. When we are surrounded, and we feel abandoned or confused, His promise stands.
Your circumstance is not the final Word. The final Word belongs to the One who made the promise. You may feel like you are captive in a city called Babylon, but it is in Babylon that God promises: “There you shall be rescued.” The worst pain in history looked like death, and in the midst of the greatest darkness shone forth a marvelous light.
“Through suffering, God brings about the greatest of glories.”