Life At The Ridge

In the rest of chapter 5 here Micah is going to give us some details about His reign. What will the reign of Christ be like when He returns to rule and reign from the throne of David in Israel? Vs 5-6 When Christ comes He will bring peace and protection. Vs 7-9 Christ’s reign will be powerful. Vs 10-15 Christ’s reign will purify His people.

In this portion of Micah 5, Micah warns about Judas coming destruction and captivity, but then give some hope as concerning the coming king that will come out of Bethlehem and what the coming kingdom will look like as Jesus sits on the throne and shepherds His people with justice and peace.

The tone of Micah 4 is completely different than how chapter 3 ends. Micah tells us of a coming kingdom where the Lord Himself will rule.

The Lord will rescue the remnant, He will deliver His people and He will restore them. Micah's message out of chapter 4 is one of a coming hope and these words would have brought much encouragement to a nation that was about to go into exile for 70 years.

Geff Fisher speaks about the life of Jesus out of the book of Mark.

Micah continues his message of judgment and not only has he singled out the politicians but now he turns his judgment on the the spiritual leaders, the prophets. These prophets were giving messages only for what they could get from the people. God has some strong words for these corrupt people and this corrupt nation.

Micah is primarily giving judgement to the the northern kingdom of Israel. Although he will give some messages of judgement to the Southern kingdom as well later in his message, he primarily right now is pronouncing judgment on Samaria and their judgment would soon come to pass in 722 B.C when the Assyrian Empire would come in and destroy Samaria and take captive the people. The Southern kingdom would last a little bit longer and ultimately be destroyed and the people taken captive and led off by the Babylonian empire in 586 B.C. Why does this happen? Because they rejected the Lord and His ways. They worshiped false idols and allowed sin to rule their lives.

These last two verses are a promise of the coming king that will lead His people, if you can get the picture of what Micah is saying it’s a picture of hope, restoration and victory. These people living in Samaria, the Northern Kingdom would soon be defeated by the Assyrians. Later in 586 B.C the southern kingdom, Jerusalem would also be defeated and carried off to Babylon by the Babylonians and so to be living during that time and hear pronounced judgment upon you, but then followed by a message of hope was very encouraging.

Marks gospel account is many snapshots of Jesus. We see Jesus going and doing. It really emphasizes Jesus as the suffering servant. Today we are going to see 3 snapshots of Jesus’ ministry in three events. All three of these involve Jesus and the Pharisees and there are three questions that are asked of Jesus. The Pharisees question Jesus’ motives, His leadership, and His authority. In these three events and questions we see one answer to the Pharisee’s questions. The answer is basically that Jesus is Lord.

Here in chapter 2 God is going to get a little more specific and point out the problem of what these people were doing which was covetousness and corruption. In vs 1-5 we will see Micah points the finger at those who were in the government. These were the guys that were in positions of power. In vs 6-11 Micah points the finger at the prophets. These were the religious leaders.

In the opening chapter of Micah 1, we get a courtroom scene where God is calling the whole earth into His courtroom. God tells us that He is coming and when He comes it's not going to be a pretty picture. What can we do and how should we respond to His coming?

Micah is a prophet whose name means "who is like the Lord" In this book we are told some reasons why God is going to allow His nation to be destroyed by the Assyrians in 723 B.C and by the Babylonians in 586 B.C

In this portion of Scripture Jesus heals the man that was carried by four men and let down through a roof. A miracle takes place in the man picking up his bed and walking, but Jesus teaches us that the healing was not the greater miracle.

In this final chapter God tells us exactly why Nineveh is deserving of His judgement. God will destroy all of His enemies, but we must not forget who the real enemy is.

Why does God destroy His enemies? Why was Nineveh going to be destroyed? How would Nineveh be destroyed? Nahum chapter 2 outlines for us God's destruction of His enemies.

Does God's wrath make you feel uncomfortable? Is God really that mean? In the book of Nahum we are going to see a full display of God's judgement against the city of Nineveh.

As we begin to work our way through the book of Nahum, it's important to understand the historical setting and background.

In this section of Mark we see Jesus touching the lives of several people and having power to heal.

Jon Sparks gave this message out of the life of David as to why David lost his way and some helpful lessons on how to stay on the path that pleases God.

These last few verses of the book of Jonah are comprised of some questions God has for Jonah. We find that Jonah still has some much needed heart surgery to be accomplished. God asks Jonah these questions to deal with his heart issues and change his perspective.