Miquéias 2
Warren Wiersbe · Citado em PreceptAustin
Miquéias 2
Wiersbe - What these counterfeit religious leaders forgot was that God’s covenants involve precepts as well as promises, obligations as well as blessings. Merely going through the motions of religion isn’t the same as worshiping God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). Anybody can join the crowd and be a part of some popular religious movement; but it takes devotion, prayer, obedience, and submission to worship God “with reverence and godly fear” (Heb 12:28NKJV-note). “Popular religion” is usually false religion, for the road to life is narrow and lonely (Mt 7:13–20-note) and those who walk it are invariably persecuted (2Ti 3:12-note). (Ed comment: Wiersbe is not saying obedience saves anyone, but he is saying that the one who says "I'm saved!" will to some degree manifest a lifestyle of obedience ["not perfection, but direction" is what I like to teach], their obedience serving to "authenticate" that their faith is genuine.) TODAY IN THE WORD - We all have those times when we hear only what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. Sometimes the refusal to admit the truth has relatively small consequences. At other times, however, it can be the prelude to disaster. One example that continues to stand out in history is the Flood during the days of Noah. Imagine the people jeering and laughing at Noah and his family as they built an ark--on dry land! They probably brushed aside his claims that there would be a flood. But in the end, all but Noah and his family were destroyed. The prophet Micah must have seemed like a "wet blanket" in Judah, a stubborn naysayer who refused to paint a rosy picture of the nation's future. There was no lack of prophets to say what the people wanted to hear. "Do not prophesy about these things," the false prophets said. ""Disgrace will not overtake us"" (Micah 2:6). Those who prophesied good things for the nation were the people's choice (Micah 2:11). But God's Word leaves no doubt about who was right. Judah was too much like her sister Israel for God to ignore her sins. In today's verses, we are introduced to one of Judah's great sins: terrible injustice. Those in power, both socially and in the government, defrauded their brother and sister Israelites of their land (also see Micah 3:1-4). Taking away a man's land in an agricultural society meant sentencing him and his family to poverty. The coveting of the powerful for the land and homes of the powerless was a direct violation of God's law. The word covet (Micah 2:2) is the same as the one used in the tenth Commandment (Ex. 20:17). To defraud a person of his land portion was also to rob his children of their future, because an Israelite's land was his inheritance. Throughout Hosea, we have seen God's indictments against Israel set in the context of the Mosaic covenant. To break the covenant was the height of sin against God. Now we know that Judah was also cursed by covenant-breakers. What would be an appropriate judgment against those who seized the land of others by violence and fraud? Their land would be taken away by foreign invaders (Micah 2:4). TODAY ALONG THE WAY It is so human to hear only the good things people have to tell us. But it's a temptation we need to guard against. (Copyright Moody Bible Institute. Used by permission. All rights reserved) Micah 2:7 "Is it being said, O house of Jacob: 'Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these His doings?' Do not My words do good to the one walking uprightly? Being said Micah 3:9; Isaiah 48:1,2; 58:1; Jeremiah 2:4; Matthew 3:8; John 8:39; Romans 2:28,29; 9:6-13; 2 Timothy 3:5 is Numbers 11:23; Isaiah 50:2; 59:1,2; Zechariah 4:6; 2 Corinthians 6:12 straitened (impatient) Psalms 19:7-11; 119:70,71,92,93,99-103; Jeremiah 15:16; Romans 7:13 walking Psalms 15:2; 84:11; Proverbs 2:7; 10:9,29; 14:2; 28:18; Hosea 14:9 uprightly Heb. upright. See Spurgeon's Sermons on this passage - The Holy Spirit-The Need of the Age (1952) - Micah 2:7 Is The Spirit of the Lord Straitened? (2218) - Micah 2:7 The Questions: Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient (KJV = straitened = restricted in freedom or scope)? Are these (calamities described Mic 2:3-5) His doings? NET Bible Micah 2:7 Does the family of Jacob say, 'The LORD's patience can't be exhausted– he would never do such things'? To be sure, my commands bring a reward for those who obey them, Holman Christian Standard Bible Micah 2:7 House of Jacob, should it be asked: "Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these the things He does?" Don't My words bring good to the one who walks uprightly? ESV Micah 2:7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Has the LORD grown impatient? Are these His deeds? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly? Who is the speaker? There are two main possibilities - false prophets or God's true prophet. Assuming it is the False Prophets: If one takes the speaker in the first part of the verse as the false prophets (or the profiteers) (McComiskey, Gary Smith, New American Commentary, et al, favor this interpretation), it is as if they were objecting to Micah's message by asking "Isn't God long suffering? Then why the calamity?" Or they might say something like "Well, you must remember that God is a God of love and so clearly the nation of Israel has nothing to fear." If this is the proper interpretation, they seem to have forgotten the "whole counsel" of God's Word - God is patient, but He is also just (cf Ex 34:6-7, Nah 1:2-3)! The have forgotten that God's anger burned against Israel when the majority refused to go into the land from Kadesh-Barnea (Nu 14:11-12). They seem to have forgotten the section on blessings (for obedience) and cursings (for disobedience), as when God threatened curses if they worshipped other gods (Dt 29:25-28)! Assuming it is the True Prophet: MacArthur takes Micah 2:7a as words spoken from God through His prophet Micah - "God responded to the evil prophets that their message affirming sin in the nation was inconsistent with the Holy Spirit and His true message to Micah (cf. Mic 3:8). God’s words do reward the righteous, but they also rebuke those engaging in evil deeds." Assuming it is the True Prophet: New Bible Commentary sees the first section as from God (or His prophet) - "The LORD rebukes the house of Jacob by quoting their doubly false theology that ‘the LORD never grows impatient’ (NIV, angry) and never does such things (i.e. bring judgment). On the contrary, God’s words do good only to those who are upright." Assuming it is the True Prophet: Matthew
Miquéias 2
Wiersbe - This promise seems to reach ahead to the end times when Israel and Judah will be united and their King Messiah will reign over them. Micah describes a triumphant procession into the land, with King Messiah at the head and the Lord leading the people, just as He had led them out of Egypt. J C Philpot - Now as to the prophetical meaning of this Scripture, it appears to my mind to point to a day not yet arrived, to "the latter day" of which the Old Testament prophets speak so much. When the Lord shall set his hand a second time to gather the remnant spread abroad on the earth, then this prophecy of Micah will be literally fulfilled--for there will be those difficulties in the way which none but "the Breaker" going before can remove. But the Scriptures are written with that mysterious wisdom that there is not only in the Old Testament prophecies what is strictly prophetical, but also experimental. We are not to discard the prophetical meaning as some do, for God has given it, and every word of God is pure. But on the other hand, it is the spiritual and experimental part which is food for the church of God. Therefore though we dare not pass by the literal meaning (Ed: Amen! May his tribe increase!), yet we confine our attention chiefly to the spiritual (Ed: And so Philpot's sermon deals primarily with application of the literal text)… The people here spoken of are the people of God, the remnant according to the election of grace, God's own beloved family. But we gather from the words used that they had great difficulties, for why need they to have a Breaker go before them unless they were in such difficulties as nothing but an almighty hand could break down and remove? Thus we gather that the people to whom this promise is made are in such straits and difficulties, that they can never succeed in making a passage for themselves--but that this wondrous Person, this Immanuel, God with us, is to go before them; and for that reason he is called "the Breaker," because with His almighty hand He breaks up and breaks down these difficulties that lie in their path, and which they themselves could not by any wisdom or strength of their own remove out of the way. (The Breaker)