Micah, Nahum

Micah and Isaiah were contemporaries. Micah focused on the small towns while Isaiah walked the corridors of power in the king’s palace.

Micah 2:1, 3, “Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. Therefore the Lord says: I am planning disaster against this people from which you cannot save yourselves.”

Notice again that the condemnation is not concerning rituals, but ethical behavior.

Micah 1:6 “Do not prophesy,” their prophets say. “Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us!”

The false prophets wanted the true prophets to shut up. They thought that since they were God’s “chosen people” and that His temple was in Jerusalem, surely, nothing bad could happen to them.

Micah 2:11, “If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer’, he would be just the prophet for this people.”

One way of filling a church, I believe, is to tell people what they want to hear. Preach the “health and wealth ‘gospel’” and you can fill a church. Preach righteousness and the church will empty out and you’ll be fired.

Micah 3:11, “Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.’”

Micah 4:1-7 “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains . . . The law will go out from Zion . . . They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks . . . every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree and no one will make them afraid . . . . In that day . . . the Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.”

The prophets oftentimes jump from the near future to the distant future. Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether the passage deals with the restoration of Judah after captivity in Babylon or to the reign of Jesus during the millennium.

Micah 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will rule over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

This is one of many Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah.

Micah 6:8, “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Again, the theme is repeated. Rituals and ceremonies, of and by themselves, do not impress God.

NAHUM

NAHUM IS THE SECOND PROPHET TO ASSYRIA, 150 YEARS AFTER JONAH. BUT HIS MESSAGE IS NOT ONE CALLING FOR REPENTANCE, BUT OF DOOM!

Jonah would rather have had the assignment that Nahum was given. Jonah would have loved to have delivered a message of doom to the Assyrians. But, as in life, we don't always get what we want. It was Nahum who sent this simple message of destruction. In this short book Nahum has a simple message.

Nah 1:3 “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.”

Sooner or later, on God's schedule, He will judge and punish those who deserve it.

Nah 1:7 “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him, but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh.”

Nah 2:13 "I am against you . . ."

How would you to get an e-mail from God saying, "I am against you!"?

Nah 3:1 gives the reason for God's anger. "Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims."

Nah 3:19 "Nothing can heal your wound, your injury is fatal. Everyone who hears the news about you claps his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?” 

No one will mourn your death".

There is no hope of recovery for this nation. Much like the fall of Nazi Germany, the world celebrated its destruction. Nineveh fell in 612 B.C.