Peter Barnes | Micah 2:1-13
SERMON NOTES
OUR WAYS AND GOD’S WAYS
Micah 2:1-13
– Micah 2 focuses on two main sins: covetousness and false preaching.
1. God condemns covetous profiteering.
– 2:1-2. There is a contrast between the godly man and the covetous man – Ps.36:4; 63:6. Calvin comments that ‘there is nothing more destructive than avarice and insatiability.’ Isa.5:8.
– the land is the Lord’s (Lev.25:23). So God will act against these land barons – Mic.2:3-5. They plan evil so God plans disaster. They redrew the land allocation that God had decreed in the days of Joshua, and now God will use the Assyrians to reallocate the land in 722 B.C.
2. God condemns false preaching.
– 2:6-7. False preachers will invariably preach a false peace. Isa.30:8-10; Amos 7:10-13. False preaching does not confront sin; it panders to it. (Mic.2:7b-9.) Defenceless women and children were evicted, and all the time the false preacher proclaimed ‘Peace’.
– God’s verdict is very different – 2:10. Just as the Canaanites were cast out – Lev.18:25; so would the Israelites – Lev.18:26-28.
– read 2:11. The Qur’an promises Paradise of 70 beautiful virgins, luscious fruit, wine, and gold (surahs 37, 56, 74, 83). Jer.23:14, 16-17, 21-22. Calvin: ‘Do you think that God’s Spirit is soft?’
3. God preserves a remnant.
– 2:12-13. Calvin misreads this; he sees it as a leading into judgment. It is actually a message of hope. The shepherd-King will gather His flock – Ps.78:52-53. There is a remnant – Rom.11:5.
– the shepherd-King leads them out of Jerusalem.