Micah Intro

We're going to start in the book of Micah tonight, and for the following nine weeks, including tonight, we'll go through that book together. The reason for going into the Old Testament, at least for me, is that for the last many years, since November of 2008, here at Cross Connection, we've been entirely in the New Testament. We did have a Wednesday night Bible study for a while, where we were going through the book of Isaiah, which was the last one we completed in 2011. However, in our normal order of going through the scriptures here, we haven't been in the Old Testament for a while. I've been looking forward to having the opportunity to study through some of the Old Testament. That's the first two-thirds of the Bible, so there's a lot of content there.

Not only are we exploring the Old Testament, but we are also focusing on an area of the Old Testament called the Minor Prophets. I can't remember the last time that we, as a church, have spent any time in the Minor Prophets. During the nearly eight years that I've been pastoring the church, it hasn't been the case, and I can't recall prior to that when we were in the Minor Prophets. I've been thinking about this for a while.

This study will be different from what we used to do in our midweek Bible study. If you were here at the beginning of the year, you know that this is different in the sense that when we gather together, I'm not going to share a lot. Normally, I will share for about 12 to 15 minutes, and then we'll break up into our groups: men's ministry, youth ministry, and our classrooms. We will go through discussion questions in small groups based on the text we are studying.

What we are doing in the book of Micah will be even a little bit more different than what we did at the beginning of the year. At that time, you would come without really preparing for the session. You would just show up, and we would share on the nature of the Father and the nature of the Son, and then we would discuss the application questions. This fall, however, we are asking you to do a little bit of homework. I know for most people, "homework" is a bad word, and I get it. So, it's kind of homework at your own pace, and it won't be graded. At least, I think the women's ministry might have a grade, but in the men's ministry, there are no grades.

This will really be at your own pace as you go through the text. We will take a chapter every single week. This week, going into next Wednesday night, we will be going through Micah chapter 1. If you grabbed one, the homework papers are on the back table.

If you grabbed one coming in, you can get one on your way out. These are application, observation, and interpretation questions for you as you're going through that. Now, you're going to get out of this Bible study as much as you put into it. If you take just five minutes between now and next Wednesday night to quickly read through Micah chapter 1, and don't spend any time looking at that, don't expect to get a lot from Micah chapter 1.

I know there are some overachievers who will spend a couple of hours reading through and going through each of these questions, thinking about them, and writing notes. There are probably a lot of approaches between those two spectrums. Some people will just come and plan to wing it. But you will get out of this what you put into it. This principle applies to really anything in life, but especially to studying the Scriptures.

For years, I've had people ask me how I became so knowledgeable about the Bible. Did I go to seminary? No, I didn't. How about Bible college? I attended one semester at Bible college. I've become knowledgeable about the Bible because I spend time reading the Scriptures, thinking about them, memorizing them, and reading books on the Bible, as well as reading the Bible itself. You will glean as much as you put into it. There’s that whole principle of reaping and sowing. If you sow the time into studying the Scriptures, you're going to reap a lot from the Lord, and He will speak to you through it.

The questions on this sheet are there to help give you some guidelines. Some of you may already have a series of questions if you've been in a Bible study before or if you've taken an inductive Bible study class. You might already have some questions that complement the ten questions on this paper. You can use those as well. The whole point is to get you to look at the text and think about what's there.

As we go through these chapters during the week, whether you take 10 minutes, 50 minutes, or two hours to read through and study it, when you come ready next Wednesday night, you will already have some idea about what's going on in chapter 1 of Micah. Who are the key players? What people are being spoken about? Who's saying what? You will have that in your mind. The goal is that when we come next week, I will spend a few minutes summarizing.

Chapter one discusses a couple of brief key points, and then we'll break up into our small groups to give you some application questions. What I've just mentioned is observation, interpretation, and application. This is what we call inductive Bible study. We teach this class at the Bible college up in Marietta, and we've taught it here in our School of Discipleship and School of Ministry over the years. We'll teach it again at another time.

The whole point of inductive Bible study is to apply some sort of method, even a scientific method, to going through the Bible. It's similar to how a meteorologist examines and observes all the things that are happening. They look at the computer screen and the radar images. Out over the Pacific Ocean, they see storms and clouds, and they identify where the high-pressure and low-pressure systems are. They observe where the jet stream is and where it's going to be because of these pressure systems. They analyze all this data, noting how it's moving and at what speed.

For example, they might predict that on Thursday, there will be rain. This is often a bad example in San Diego because the weather rarely happens as predicted. However, they have observed the high pressure, the low pressure, and the storm system. They interpret this data to conclude that it will rain on that day. The application follows: they advise you to leave your house 15 minutes early because no one in San Diego knows how to drive in the rain, and you should take a coat and maybe an umbrella with you.

So, we have observation, which is the data; interpretation, which is what the data means; and application, which is how that information impacts our lives. We use the same method when we go through the Bible. This is the method that I, along with just about every other Bible teacher, uses as we teach through the Scriptures. I take a passage of Scripture, break it apart, and analyze who is talking, who is being spoken to, what is being said, and the historical context.

Then we interpret it: why were they saying this, and what was the point? Finally, we consider how to apply that to our lives today, living thousands of years after the events described. Over the next nine weeks, the goal is to take a chapter from Micah. You will take observation questions, like the ones on that sheet, along with a couple of interpretation questions, and examine the passage. If you have that piece of paper, I want to look over these questions real quick to see some of the things that are here.

I split it up into observation and interpretation. Observation involves asking basic questions: who is speaking? This is just the basic who, what, when, and where. If you don't have one of the papers, please raise your hand, and Pastor Mark has a stack of them back there. He'll bring them to you.

Observation simply asks the question, "What does the passage say?" It is not trying to figure out why it says it or delve into all the details and nuances. It is not attempting to find some super-secret Bible code that no one has ever seen before. It is just asking what the passage says: who, what, when, and where.

So, who is speaking on the paper? Who is being spoken to? How is God revealed? What do I learn about God's character? Remember, this is the Word of God. The Bible reveals God, and on every page, you can find revelation of who God is, His nature, His character, and His will.

Next, what does the passage reveal about the person or people spoken of in the chapter? We will see this as we go through chapter one. I will highlight it just a little bit tonight as we move forward. We are only going to look at one verse tonight to get you ready for what’s ahead. But what does it reveal about the people or person being spoken to or about in the passage?

Is there a key theme or topic? Is there an overarching theme in this chapter or this book? This is linked to the next point: are there any recurring or important words used in the chapter? Sometimes you find the theme by noticing that a word is used multiple times in just a few verses. For example, in chapter 13 of First Corinthians, Paul keeps using the word "love." I wonder if chapter 13 is about love. You start to see a theme emerging because of these recurring words.

Finally, is there a truth to believe or a command to obey? Is there some sort of truth in the passage? For instance, "The wages of sin is death." There is a truth that I need to believe: the result of doing sinful things is death. Is there a command that I need to obey?

Go into all the world and make disciples. You're simply identifying that there's something to believe and something to do.

Number eight: What does God promise in the chapter? Both positive and negative. A lot of times, we think about the promises of God as being just the positive promises, and we all like positive promises. For example, "Call to me and I'll answer you, and I'll show you great and mighty things that you don't know." That's a really nice promise that God gives to us. However, there are also negative promises. For instance, "If you do this, the wages of sin is death." That's a promise, even though we may not necessarily like it. God is telling us, "This is what I'm going to do." We will see this quite a bit as we go through the book of Micah. There are some key words that you'll need to pick out, and I'll talk about those in a moment.

Observation simply answers the question: What does the passage say? It involves those old newscaster questions: who, what, when, and where—just the facts. It's not giving any sort of editorial about what it means; that's interpretation. The next two questions focus on interpretation. I haven't included many interpretation questions here because I want you to spend more time on observation than on interpretation. This is normally what we encourage people to do when we teach inductive Bible study. Spend more time just asking the basic facts. What's going on in the passage? Where are the people being spoken about? What's happening in their lives?

After that, you move to the issues of interpretation. Interpretation shifts from "What does the passage say?" to "What does the passage mean?" I've only provided a couple of questions here, and we will add to this as we go on. For example, why does God command this or that? If there's a command to obey in the passage, is there a reason why He tells you to do that? Many of the commands in the Bible have a corresponding promise. God says, "If you do this, then I will do this." These are conditional statements. The Bible is filled with conditional statements: God gives a command and then a promise with that command.

So, why does God command this or that? Why does God command me to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations? What is the result? These are the kinds of questions we should be asking.

Number two: Why is God going to judge or bless? This is connected to that conditional statement. Since we're in the book of Micah, one of the prophetic books of the Old Testament, it's important to note that the prophetic books are filled with promises and judgments, blessings and curses. God is calling out to His people, urging them to make a change. If you make this change, then this is what I’m going to do. If you don’t make this change, then this is what I’m going to do. Micah, like pretty much all the other prophetic books, is filled with that kind of language.

So, why does God command this or that? Why is God going to judge, or why is God going to bless? Keep an eye out for these themes as you go through this passage. My encouragement to you as you observe this book of the Bible, particularly chapter one, over the next week leading into next Wednesday night, is to read through chapter one at least two or three times.

Consider reading chapter one in different Bible versions. If you have a physical Bible, perhaps the New King James or the New International Version, most of you also have smartphones or access to the internet, where you can find every English Bible online for free. Just go to Google and type in "Bible Gateway," and you'll find all of them available to read.

When I study the Bible, I read through at least four versions of the text regularly. The main one I use is the New King James Version, followed by the New International Version, the New Living Version, and the English Standard Version (ESV). There are other versions as well, such as the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) and the New American Standard Bible (NASB). However, I always read the passage in those four versions because it helps me understand what is being said. Sometimes, what you read in the New King James Version may cause you to scratch your head, but then you read it in the English Standard Version or the New International Version and think, "Oh, okay, that makes more sense." This approach broadens your understanding of the text.

So, read through the passage two or three times, read it in a different version than you did before, and then ask some observation and interpretation questions. As I mentioned, the inductive Bible study method focuses on observation and interpretation, and I hope you will apply this when doing your homework throughout the week. When we gather together on Wednesday nights, my goal is to focus our discussion on these insights.

Small groups will focus on application. Each week, we will provide you with a piece of paper that contains application questions specific to the passage you just read. These questions will come from Chapter One next week and Chapter Two the following week. We will gather to discuss these topics, and hopefully, you will be prepared to engage with the application questions in our small groups. This will be our model as we progress.

Throughout the week, we will read and study the passage on our own. As you do this, I encourage you not to get discouraged. You may encounter things that do not make sense to you, and that is okay. Always start with prayer before you read and study the Bible. God is the one who gives us spiritual discernment. It is His book; He provided the revelation, and He knows what it means. He can reveal these truths to you, especially when you come across a passage that you do not fully understand.

Now, I want to spend the remainder of the time I have tonight discussing the book of Micah. When we finish, we will not spend any time discussing the book of Micah in our small groups. The men's ministry will go to one room, the women's ministry to another, and the youth ministry to a separate group. This will give us a chance to get to know each other and pray for one another, which will conclude our night.

Hopefully, you have a Bible with you. If you do not, please raise your hand, and Pastor Mark or someone else will bring you one. The book of Micah is located about two-thirds of the way through the Bible, close to the end of the Old Testament. You can open to the book of Micah and keep it open. There are seven chapters in this book, so it is not very long. We will spend nine weeks on this study. Tonight is our introduction, followed by seven weeks of exploring the book, and then we will have one final week to wrap everything up.

Micah comes right after the book of Jonah—everyone remembers Jonah and the whale—and right before the book of Nahum in the Old Testament. It is a small book, the book of Micah. As you find it, I want to provide some context regarding the biblical placement of the book of Micah. As I mentioned earlier, it occupies a portion of Scripture known as the prophets.

In the Old Testament, there are five sections. The first is what is called the Pentateuch. These are the first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. After the Pentateuch, you move into a section of Scripture called the history of the Bible. This history begins with Joshua and continues all the way through the book of Esther. This section of the Old Testament discusses the history of the people of Israel.

Following the history, you encounter the poetic books, which include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. Next, you reach the prophetic passages, which are divided into the major and minor prophets. The major prophets include figures like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel. In contrast, the minor prophets consist of individuals such as Nahum, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Micah, and Malachi. These are the five sections of the Old Testament: the Pentateuch, the history, the poetry, the major prophets, and the minor prophets.

A common discussion arises regarding what makes the major prophets major and the minor prophets minor. It seems that the major prophets are akin to major leaguers, while the minor prophets resemble minor leaguers. The only real difference is that the minor prophets are shorter. Essentially, the major prophets are just more wordy; they talk more, which is why their books are longer. Consequently, they are labeled as major prophets, while the minor prophets are often overlooked. However, the minor prophets were likely the smarter ones who could express their messages more clearly and succinctly. While that may not be entirely true, it sounds good. In reality, the minor prophets are simply shorter.

We will be looking at the book of Micah in the minor prophets. Understanding its biblical placement is crucial. The historic setting or larger context of where this book fits is important, as Micah does not provide all the details about where he was, why he wrote it, or when he wrote it. Therefore, we need to grasp how this fits into the historic or larger context of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament begins with Genesis and the creation, then moves from creation to the fall. After the fall, it transitions to the call.

Genesis 1 and 2 describe the creation, while Genesis 3 details the fall. Genesis 12 marks the call where God begins to initiate His plan of redemption in the world, which I will explain in a moment. His plan of redemption is to work through a family, and so He chooses a person, the head of a family named Abraham.

You have creation, then the fall, followed by the call. Ultimately, as you follow through the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible concludes with Abraham's family, his descendants, in the land of Egypt. While they are in Egypt for the next 400 years, they grow into a great nation of people. This leads us to the fourth section of the Bible, which is called redemption.

Beginning in the book of Exodus, God redeems the children of Israel, the children of Abraham, out of Egypt. Moses goes down to demand, "Let my people go," and after the ten plagues, they are finally taken out. Now, we move into the fifth section of the Old Testament, a larger context called the assembly.

You have creation, the fall, the call, the redemption, and then the assembly. God assembles His people, as described in the books of Exodus and Numbers. He begins to dedicate these people to the work He is calling them to, known as the commission.

You have the creation, the fall, the call, the redemption, the assembly of the people, and the commission of those people. God says, "You are going to be my nation of priests, the people of Abraham." Their whole task is to be the people through whom He will reveal Himself to the world and bring salvation. This was the task assigned to the family of Abraham: to be the means through which God would bring salvation to all people, due to the fall after creation.

All of this takes place in the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. After that, we move into the time of history, which I would call the establishing of the people. God takes those people, the nation of Israel, the children of Abraham, whom He had called.

Through Abraham, God redeemed His people out of Egypt. He assembled them as His people and commissioned them to a task, establishing them in the land. This narrative begins in the Book of Joshua and continues through the history recorded in Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Nehemiah, Ezra, and Esther. All of these historic books illustrate how God establishes His people in their promised land so that they can be the conduit through which He will bring salvation to the world. This encompasses the story from Genesis through Esther, including the Pentateuch and the historical accounts.

Next, we have the poetry, which consists of the songs and poems of the nation of Israel. King David, Solomon, and various other figures from Israel contribute to what can be considered their greatest hits. Their songs and poems are captured in the poetic literature of the Bible.

Following the poetry, we enter the realm of prophecy, which includes both major and minor prophets. The major and minor prophets represent God's discipline of His people. He intervenes because they are still sinners and continue to fail, just like all of us. God brings His discipline to these people because He has a task: to work through them to bring salvation to all people. If they stray off course and fail completely, His task would not be fulfilled. Thus, the prophets are sent to correct a wayward people.

This section of Scripture is particularly significant because every one of us is a wayward person at various stages in our walk with Jesus. We all still fail, and there are times when we need the correcting word of God. The books of Micah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and others provide God's corrective instruction to His people.

Now, we will focus our attention on the biblical placement of Micah within the minor prophets. We have established the historical context of where this fits in the Old Testament, recognizing it as God's corrective literature for His people who were failing and falling short. This brings us to Micah chapter one, where we will examine just one verse. Look at Micah chapter one, verse one.

The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he, Micah, saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem, contains a ton of information in that one verse. This is where observation becomes really important: the who, what, when, and where. All of that is answered in this one verse. It doesn't take rocket science or a seminary degree to observe what's going on here.

I want to walk through, with the remaining time we have, how we do this thing called observation of the text. I want to demystify it, because it's just not as hard as it might sound. Observation, inductive Bible study—this may sound intimidating, but it's really simple. The phrase "the word of the Lord" means that God spoke. That's pretty straightforward. When God speaks through people, what are those people called?

When God's people speak, they are called prophets. This is in the minor prophets, which are shorter books, but Micah is one of the prophets in the Old Testament. Why? Because God spoke the word of the Lord that came to Micah. So, this is God's word speaking to a prophet named Micah.

Who was Micah? We don't have much information. All we know from this passage is that he was a man to whom God spoke, and frankly, that's about all you need to know. You could do a character study on Micah and find a little bit of evidence beyond what's said here, but there isn't a lot of information available. He was a man from Moresheth.

What is Moresheth? It's a city, a place. He was from a location called Moresheth. Thankfully, we have maps in the back of our Bible, and you can look at those maps to try and find Moresheth. Alternatively, you can use one of my favorite resources available for free on the internet called the Blue Letter Bible. They have made it really easy to find. Write this down if you have a pen: blb.org, blueletterbible.org.

Probably the best resource I have is a Bible study tool called Logos Bible Study, which I have invested $2,400 in. It is amazing and does phenomenal things, but I hardly use it in comparison to Blue Letter Bible. This is terrible because I have spent a significant amount of money on it. However, Blue Letter Bible, available online for free, is an incredible resource. If you go on there, it's pretty simple. You type in the search box "Micah chapter one," and it will take you directly to that chapter, where you can find all kinds of information. They even have videos to show you how to use it, making it super simple.

Moresheth was a city not very far from Jerusalem. By doing a simple study of a map, you can find that Micah lived very close to the city of Jerusalem. When did he live? In Micah 1:1, it states, "The word of the Lord came to Micah." He was a prophet from Moresheth during the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Who were Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah? If we have never studied the Bible, we might not know who they were, other than having some unusual names. Thankfully, the text tells us they were kings of Judah. This gives us an idea of when this was written, who wrote it, and where it came from: from God to Micah, who lived outside of Jerusalem during the reigns of these three kings.

When did these three kings live? Using basic tools like Wikipedia, you can find information about them. For example, if you type in the name Jotham, you will learn that he was a king of Judah who lived in the 8th century BC, approximately 2,800 years ago. Jotham reigned from around 751 BC for about 30 years, placing him right in the middle of the 8th century BC. Jotham's son, Ahaz, reigned for a period after him until the end of the 8th century BC.

As for Hezekiah, Wikipedia also provides information about him. He lived and reigned until about 680 BC. So, Micah states that he was a prophet of God from his hometown, Moresheth, outside of Jerusalem during the time of these kings.

Micah lived in Jerusalem from about 750 BC to about 680 BC. That was his lifespan, and we can find this information in Micah chapter 1, verse 1. We are not doing anything amazing; we are simply asking who, what, when, and where. As we do that, we are coming to some really important conclusions.

I think it's exceedingly important to note that the best way to interpret the Bible is with the Bible. I teach this at the Bible College and in the School of Ministry classes. While Wikipedia is great for about 80% of what it has, and the Blue Letter Bible offers wonderful tools, the best way to learn about Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah is to read the history of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is divided into five sections: the Pentateuch, which includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, followed by the history books, which range from Joshua through Esther. Within this historical section, there are six important books: 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. The period during which Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah lived is recorded in Kings and Chronicles.

You can write down the verse references if you like: 2 Kings chapters 15 through 21 and 2 Chronicles chapters 26 through 33. If you want to know everything about those kings and what was happening in the nation of Israel at that time, I encourage you to read those passages as homework this week. You will learn everything you need to know about these kings and the events of that era.

There were some really wicked things happening in the nation of Israel during this time, with people engaging in all kinds of terrible actions. Understanding this context will help you see why God was going to send a prophet to correct and discipline them. Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were not the best leaders, especially Jotham and Ahaz, while Hezekiah was a little better.

Additionally, it is helpful to know that there were other prophets who also lived and prophesied at the same time as Micah.

One of them was the prophet Isaiah. He is a major prophet with 66 chapters in the Bible. Then you have Amos, another minor prophet, and Hosea. Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea lived at the same time as Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Micah. Their prophecies are similar.

The word of the Lord came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. God revealed His word to Micah, and he saw visions. This is why some Old Testament prophets were called seers; they had to have visions sometimes, in addition to hearing the word of the Lord. Micah's visions concerned Samaria and Jerusalem.

Who was Micah speaking to? He was speaking concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. This is really important. You can underline those words if you'd like to: concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. This point needs to be held tightly if you are ever going to study prophecy going forward.

Prophecy in the Old Testament—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Hosea, Micah—all needs to be interpreted first through the historic context. How do we understand this from the words concerning Samaria and Jerusalem? These were the two areas that Micah the prophet was primarily focused on.

The reason I emphasize this is that most Christians in America in the 21st century only read Micah, Daniel, Ezekiel, or Jeremiah for what they say to us living today. That is the wrong place to start. These words were written specifically 2,800 years ago, and there was no United States of America at that time. There was a Samaria and a Jerusalem, and God was speaking to them about the conditions of their nation and what was going on in their day.

Does that mean these words don't have application today? No, that is not what it means. However, it is essential to understand what they meant to the people of that day before considering their relevance for us now.

What it means to us in our day is important to consider. So just quickly, you don't have to write all this down; I can make these notes available to you if you want them afterwards. There are six lenses through which I look at prophecy.

The first one is the historic lens. What did it mean to the people in Samaria and Jerusalem 2,800 years ago? Why was God saying these things to them at that time? I do not start with what Micah has to say to me living in San Diego, California, in 2015. I always begin with the historical context. So, that's the first lens: the historic lens.

The second lens is what I will refer to as the preterist view, even though it's not the best term. The preterist view simply asks the question: What did these words, written 2,800 years ago, have to do with the early church? This refers to the church that existed in the first century after Jesus ascended into heaven and sent forth Peter, James, Thomas, Bartholomew, and all those guys to preach the gospel. What did these words have to do with the first-century church? Sometimes, there is prophetic fulfillment for that time, which we will call preterist.

So, we have the historic lens and the preterist lens. The third lens is what I will call the Christological lens. Is there a messianic fulfillment? Is there something that Micah is talking about 2,800 years ago that was fulfilled in Jesus? There is a term known as messianic prophecy. Has anyone ever heard that term before? That is when you look at the scriptures through a Christological lens.

For example, when we read in Isaiah 7:14, it says, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel." That applies to Jesus. The reason we know that it applies to Jesus is that Matthew, the gospel writer, tells us so. Even though it was written 700 years before Jesus came, it is a messianic prophecy.

So, we have the historic lens, which asks what it meant to the people it was written to 2,800 years ago. Then, we have the preterist lens, which considers what it meant for the early church. From a Christological or messianic focus, we ask what it has to say about Jesus.

The fourth lens is the ideological or allegorical lens. I know these are big words, but I will provide my notes. The ideological lens asks if there is a teaching for us today that serves as an allegory from the passage.

Something that we can learn from is where God says, "If you do this, then I will do this and bless you." So that's an ideological perspective.

There are several lenses through which we can view this: historical, preterist, Christological, ideological, ecclesiological, and eschatological. I realize these are big words, so let me explain them.

The ecclesiological lens asks, "Is there a fulfillment for the church?" The Greek word for church is "ecclesia," which is where we get the term "ecclesiological," referring to the church view.

The final lens, which most people go to first, is the eschatological lens. What does it mean for the end times? "Eschatos" means the end, and "eschatology" is the study of the end.

To summarize, the six lenses are as follows: the historical lens asks what it meant 2,800 years ago; the preterist lens considers what it meant for the early church; the Christological lens examines what it meant for Jesus and Messianic fulfillment; the ideological lens looks for teachings or allegories for us; the ecclesiological lens questions whether there is a fulfillment in the church; and the eschatological lens explores any end times fulfillment.

To make it even more complicated, some prophecies fit multiple lenses. Some prophecies speak to multiple things. For example, in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah says, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things." How many of you have ever heard those words?

This phrase had a historic fulfillment when the messengers came to the children of Israel, who had been taken captive to the city of Babylon, telling them that they could go back to their homeland. "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things," they proclaimed, saying, "We can go home."

It also had an early first-century fulfillment because it applies to John the Baptist, who was proclaiming the coming of the Lord. "How beautiful are the feet of John the Baptist bringing this glad tidings of good things." Remember, the angels were proclaiming glad tidings when they said the Messiah is coming.

Furthermore, it has a Messianic fulfillment because Jesus is the first one to bring the message of redemption, salvation, and the gospel. "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things."

Finally, it has a church fulfillment. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 10 that it applies to us, the church, when we go into all the world. "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things."

It has an eschatological fulfillment because, in the Book of Revelation, it is applied to those evangelists who are going into the world in the last days. This is one prophecy that has fulfillment over a broad spectrum. Therefore, it is really important, if you are going to read these things, to at least try to see if there is a fulfillment in various places. I realize that is a lot of information on interpreting prophecy. We will not spend a lot of time on that as we go through this, but I just wanted you to know it. If you come afterward and say, "Hey, I'd like my notes," just give me your email address, and I will email them to you so you can read all this.

There are two more things on prophecy. There are two kinds of prophecy besides that. The first is predictive prophecy. We all know about predictive prophecy because that is what we normally think of when we think of the word "prophecy." Predictive prophecy is just that: it predicts something that is going to happen. The difficulty with that is that there are two kinds of predictive prophecy. One is what I will call cause-and-effect predictive prophecy. God is prophesying and telling you, telling me, that if you do this, then this is going to happen. It is a prediction. If you do not do this, this is going to happen.

For example, "Children, obey your parents, and if you do, there will be a blessing; you will have long life on the earth." That is a predictive cause-and-effect prophecy. If you honor and obey your parents, then you will have long life.

The second type of predictive prophecy is apocalyptic predictive prophecy. This is when God says that in the last days, the moon will be turned to blood, the sun will be darkened, and there will be wars and rumors of wars. All of this is predictive prophecy for the end times.

The second kind of prophecy is called didactic prophecy. This is simply God teaching us things we would not know unless He told us. It is about revealing truth.

I realize that is a lot to absorb and a lot to get into our brains. We will not spend much time on that as we move forward, but we need to at least have that in our minds as we study the Book of Micah. The Book of Micah is a book of prophecy. The word of the Lord came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Two last things on verse one, and then we'll be done with this. It says, "which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem." Where are Samaria and Jerusalem? Of course, most of us probably, if not all of us, know that Jerusalem is in the land of Israel. It is the capital of the nation of Israel. As it is today, so it was thousands of years ago.

The problem is that the nation of Israel was divided into two nations in their history. How many of you have heard of King David before? King David had a son who became king, and that was King Solomon. Solomon had a son who became king, and his name was Rehoboam. Rehoboam was an idiot. Because Rehoboam was an idiot, he wouldn't listen to those who were giving him counsel. As a result, the nation split into two nations. The nation of Israel that once was united became two nations.

There was a Southern nation called Judah and a Northern nation called Israel or Ephraim. The Southern nation of Judah had its capital in Jerusalem, while the Northern nation of Israel had its capital in a city called Samaria. The prophet Micah, 2,800 years ago, spoke to both the Northern kingdom of Israel and the Southern kingdom, addressing Jerusalem and Ephraim.

When you read through Kings and Chronicles, you'll discover why. At the time he was speaking, God was going to judge the people of the Northern ten tribes. He was going to destroy them because of their sin, using the nation of Assyria. This happened in the eighth century BC; it actually happened. God was going to destroy the Northern tribes, Samaria, the nation of Israel. Ultimately, He was trying to get the Southern kingdom to repent from their sins so they wouldn't face destruction.

Micah was telling the people in the North, "If you don't shape up, God is going to judge you." He warned them that they would be judged because they were not shaping up. Then he said to the people in Jerusalem, "You better wake up and see what's going to happen to them, or the same thing is going to happen to you." Sadly, they didn't heed the warning, and the same fate befell them about 150 years later.

So that's the context of what's happening here in this passage. As we go through this, the overarching theme of Micah becomes clear. Micah has a burden on his heart because of the abusive treatment of the poorer and defenseless people in the nation by their political leaders.

Doesn't sound familiar at all, does it? The political powers and the religious powers are abusively treating the poorer people. They are not giving them justice, nor are they taking care of them fairly. They are not defending the defenseless. Micah sees this, and he knows that if they don't shape up, God is going to judge them. He is saying that they must stop this; they cannot use their political or religious power for their own personal gain. That is one of the messages he conveys.

The key verse for this book is Micah 6:8. I encourage you to memorize it. My son, Ethan, who is six, had this as his memory verse a few weeks ago, and he has it down perfectly. Micah 6:8 states, "He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." If you want to know what God wants you to do, there it is: do what is right, do justly, love mercy, forgive people, be gracious to others, and walk in humility. If you do this, you will do well.

In this passage, Micah emphasizes that if you do what is right, you will do well; if you do not, judgment will follow. That is what God says here. If my six-year-old son, Ethan, can memorize it, all of you can memorize that verse without any problem.

As you read through the book of Micah, there are a few helpful hints. First, take note of and circle the words "therefore," "because," and "for." God will say, "I am going to do this, this, and this, because..." and then explain why. If you do this, then I will do this. The word "for" also indicates what God is doing, providing clarity in His explanations.

Another word to notice, which we do not use very often, is "woe" (W-O-E). "Woe" simply means judgment is coming. Jesus used this term in His teachings, saying, "Woe to you, Bethsaida and Chorazin! If the works done in you had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented long ago." God is saying that judgment is coming because of your sin.

Woe. Keep notice of the words "if" and "then." If you do this, then I will do that. Sometimes the words are implied, but you can see it as you go through. This is something you'll see a lot in the book of Micah. Keep track of the words "I will" or "I shall." God is making statements: "I will do this." As you go through the passage, I mentioned Jerusalem and Samaria. Those are the two places that He is speaking to. Keep track of Jerusalem and Samaria, or Israel and Judah. Judah was the nation that had the capital, Jerusalem. Israel was the nation that had the capital, Samaria.

As I said earlier, don't get discouraged. Prophecy is difficult. Even some of the best Bible teachers, and I won't even put myself in that category, have a really hard time with prophecy. It's very hard to interpret. It's filled with metaphors that you and I just kind of scratch our heads over, wondering what they mean. Oy vey, I don't have any idea. There are metaphors, similes, and all kinds of Jewish idioms and sayings that we don't use and don't know what they mean.

Don't get discouraged. Just look for the facts—just the facts, right? Observe it, interpret what you can, and when we get together, we'll apply it to our lives. The primary lens that we're going to look at this through is the historic lens. We're not going to talk really about the end times as we go through this. I'm sorry if you were really excited about Micah and the study of the end times; that'll be for another day. I might highlight one or two little points of future things that are found in this passage, but for the most part, we're looking at how God wants to speak to us through His Word, because that's what He does, right?

So what we're going to do is break up into our groups. The men's ministry, guys, will go up to room six. The women's ministry will go up to room four. Youth ministry, you'll be in the youth room, which is the junior high and high school room. I'll pray in just a minute, so don't go yet. Men's ministry, room six; women's ministry, room four; youth ministry, down in the junior high and high school room.

We'll spend some time getting to know each other, and then we'll pray for one another. Hopefully, next week, you'll be here and bring a friend, because we want other people to come as well. Come next week. We'll be in Micah chapter one. So next week, your homework is to read Micah chapter one and use some of these questions. If you have any questions as you go through it and get stuck on something, you can ask.

Email me at miles@ccesco.org. Let me know.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for Your Word. I pray that You give us wisdom as we go through it and help us to glean facts and truths—things to believe, things to obey, and passages that would apply to our lives. May we be transformed, doing justly, loving mercy, and walking in humility. In Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said?