This Week\’s Sunday School Lesson, \”God Our Righteous Judge: Micah 2:1-11, 7/10/2022

GOD OUR RIGHTOUS JUDGE

Micah 2:1-11

When Israelites were brought into the promised land, God divided the land among the

12 tribes. God commanded that the land always stay in the hands of the families

Of the tribes, it was originally given too.

If for some reason the land ended in the hands of another party, it was to be returned

In the year of jubilee. This was God’s design so that no one would get rich by taking another

Israelites property.  Leviticus 25:25-28

Some Israelites ignored God’s commands and became rich by defrauding their brothers  

Of their property. In addition, their gross error was the worship of the idol gods of their enemies.

When you take on the attitude of the enemy, you become an enemy to yourself.

THE SIN OF DEFRAUDING OUR NEIGHBORS

V:1. 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. 2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home a fellowman of his inheritance.

1. The jury was in and God was judge and jury.
2. God presented Israel with the evidence of their sins.
3. The whole nation was judged because they had an attitude of compliance with

The leaders.

• The Word from God came to Micah the prophet and not to the Chief Priest or

The king.

• Every man was given the right and the protection to stand for God.
• The religious leaders that were in place willfully ignored God’s Commands.

We hear of no mass outcry of the people to God.

1. God heard their cry while they were in bondage in Egypt.
2. It remains a mystery to me after hundreds of years of God rescuing them

From the enemy, that they turned from God and disobeyed His commands.

• It is no different today, we are all guilty from time to time of disobeying

God’s commands.

• From time to time we ignore the rule of God to pursue the desires of our hearts.

THE VENGEANCE OF THE LORD

V:3. Therefore, the Lord says:

\”I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity. 4 In that day men will ridicule you; they will taunt you with this mournful song:\’ We are utterly ruined; my people\’s possession is divided up. He takes it from me! He assigns our fields to traitors.\’\”

Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the Lord to divide the land by lot.

1. What goes around comes around.

As the Word says, you reap what you sow.

1. While it may seem that the rich can do what they want without consequences,

They will have their day in court before Jesus.

• The rich influence the attitude of others.
• The whole nation was responsible for their worship of idol gods.
• Therefore, God planned 70 years of captivity.  Jeremiah 25:12
• This was the prophecy of the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
• Hundreds of years of ignoring their devotion to God came down to their own

Destruction.

• God allows His chosen people to choose idol God over Him.
• God wants our voluntary obedience.
• God did not force the angels in heaven to worship Him.
• He allowed Lucifer (Satan) to corrupt one-third of the angels before being

Kicked out of heaven.

• God does not tell us why He allowed His holy nation to turn from Him.

Perhaps His Grace and Mercy needed a reason to bring us unto true

Worship.

• The Gospel Coalition gives this reason;

 Salvation presupposes sin; restoration presupposes a fall. Thus it’s reasonable to infer that God’s primary purpose in allowing the fall was to showcase his glory both in the original creation and also in his powerful and merciful restoration of that creation from its rebellion and corruption.

A DISRESPECTFUL UNGRATEFUL ATTITUDE

V:6. \”Do not prophesy,\” their prophets say. \”Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us.\” 7 Should it be said, O house of Jacob: \”Is the Spirit of the Lord angry?  he do such things?\”

1. There are two types of teachers in the world. Those who speak the truth, and those who

Pervert the truth to push their evil agendas.

1. Israel was put in a position with the Word of God to influence the entire world.
2. The Word of God was put in print starting with Moses on Mount Sinai

As a light to God’s righteousness.

• With privilege comes the responsibility to know the truth and to live and

Role model the truth as a living example.

• With Responsibility comes the obligation to spread the truth

To those around you.

• Believers are the light of the world. To hide that light leads to sin.
• We have to be careful who we listen to.
• In every man\’s heart is the truth. He has no excuse to believe a lie.
• Romans 1:20

       For since the creation of the world God\’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine    

        nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men    

        are without excuse.

• False teachers chose to lie because it benefits them in some way.

Power, authority, and money are a few things that drive them.

• Then some go along with the lie because the desires of God are

Not in their hearts

1 John 2:15-17

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does come not from the Father, but the world.

• Every man is responsible for what he believes and does.
• The whole of Israel by not voicing opposition to false teachers, condom them.

THE VERDICT OF GOD

V:7. \”Do not my words do good to him whose ways are upright? 8 Lately my people have risen up like an enemy. You strip off the rich, those who pass by without a care, like men returning from battle. 9 You drive my women from their pleasant homes. You take away my blessing from their children forever.

1. The Word given Micah the prophet, like the other prophets of God was rejected.
2. Israel had a history with God. They knew their obedience to God\’s commands

Brought prosperity.

• Israel knew from their history that was passed down from generation to

Generation that their disobedience and worship of idol gods brought

Defeat in battle, loss of freedom in the land that God had given them

For rest.

• They also knew that when they turn back to God, He restored their land

And prosperity to them.  Yet they continued to worship idols and listen

To false prophets.

• Israel refused to learn from their mistakes.  
• My brother-in-law has a saying, “a lesson unlearned must be repeated”.
• God presented Israel with the evidence of their corruption.
• Sometimes we don’t know how far sin has taken us away from God until

We are forced to look at ourselves in the mirror.

• God forces us to look at our sins when He chastises us.
• Sometimes God removes from us the very thing that we pride ourselves for.
• It is the things that we willfully considered over God that He takes away

From us.

GOD’S PUNISHMENT

V:10.  Get up, go away! For this is not your resting place, it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy. 11 If a liar and deceiver come and says, \’I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer, \’he would be just the prophet for this people!

1. The lust of our hearts defiles the things God has given us for our comfort.
2. When we turn from God, we are headed for a punishment we cannot

Imaging.

• The God we serve loves us so much that He removes from us the very thing

That drove us away from Him.

• The sin of idol worship deprived us of the blessing of God.
• Our minds can become depraved until nothing is too sinful for us.

                     Romans 1:24-26

                   Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for     

                   the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie,

                    and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised.

• Jerusalem and the temple became so defiled that God sent the enemy to

Destroy them.

1. Not only did God destroy the Temple they defiled but removed them from the

City they loved.

• When God takes away the source of our pride, we are readied to restore our love

Love for Him.

Romans 2:5-8

5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God\’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God \”will give to each person according to what he has done.\”  7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will give eternal life.

To my brothers in sisters in Christ, don’t take for granted the love of God

And destroy yourself in the process.

Rev. M. Mitchell

NIV

NIV