17: Minor Prophets - Micah 6-7

[Dunkle] Welcome to Minor Prophets Class! Glad to be here with you, and we're going to carry on where we were in the Book of Micah.

So in the Book of Micah, we've already covered the first five chapters. We're picking up with Chapter 6. Now, I will note there is some disagreement among Bible scholars about this section. Some scholars think that this section of Micah, chapters 6 and 7, was actually inspired by God and pronounced by Micah after Israel was conquered by Assyria.

I'm not convinced that that's true, but I don't know for sure that it's not true. But if it is true, you know, if these prophecies were given after Israel was conquered by Assyria, then much of it would definitely be end-time prophecy, because there are prophecies of the punishment and of things to happen. So let's keep in mind that, you know, it could be that certainly there's room for dual prophecy. It could be prophecies of things about to happen to ancient Israel, but also to happen to Israel's descendants in the end time.

One thing I can say with certainty is some of the style that we see, especially in Chapter 6. It's presented as somewhat of a dialogue, some back and forth between God and Israel, where, of course, God is saying what Israel says. And it's presented as somewhat of a legal suit, or like you're in the courtroom and they're going back and forth.

If you notice in Chapter 6, verse 1, it says, "Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case" (Micah 6:1). So that's the idea—stylistically, it's presented as though there's a legal case.

And it says, "Before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice" (Micah 6:1). Mountains often in prophecy represent nations or kingdoms. So we can imagine God is saying, let's bring the nations in and let them hear this discussion between me and Israel so they can judge who's right. Again, this is metaphorical, but God is in a position to make this case.

So, "Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s complaint, and you strong foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a complaint" (Micah 6:2). Complaint could have been translated as he's got a case. He's got a legal suit against Israel, and he'll contend with Israel. So now he's going to address Israel.

"O My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against Me" (Micah 6:3). In other words, what have you got against Me?

God is going to make the case of all the things He did for Israel. He starts off in verse 4: "For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now." (Micah 6:4).

I'm going to pause there, because before I go on with Him talking about Balak, as God is recounting these blessings, I find it intriguing that He mentions not just Moses. We often think, oh, God sent Moses to deliver Israel. Aaron is included. Moses and Aaron worked as a team. And so did Miriam.

Miriam is listed here, and this implies that she might have had a more prominent role than we see described in Scripture. That's why I'm saying she may have, because Scripture doesn't describe it.

I will mention, though, that in Exodus chapter 15 and verse 20, Exodus 15:20, Miriam is described as a prophetess. And when I teach Pentateuch class, I sometimes go out of my way to ask the question, why is she called a prophetess? There's an easy answer—she was a prophetess.

Now, what does that mean? If a prophet is someone who brings a message from God, that might imply that God worked through Miriam more than we've seen described. So I don't want to go too far down this road speculating things that I can't prove, but I want to say there might be more to Miriam's story than we know about, and this is a hint of that.

And I think that's intriguing—that God can work through people without always letting us know. And Miriam stands out as someone we should be cognizant of.

Having said that, let's move on, because God is still describing what He did for Israel. In verse 5: "O My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab counseled, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Acacia Grove to Gilgal, that you may know the righteousness of the Lord" (Micah 6:5).

This is calling back to a story that's described in the book of Numbers. So it's Numbers chapters 22, 23, and 24, when the king of Moab, Balak, sent to a prophet—and Balaam is also called a prophet—who was all the way over on the banks of the Euphrates in the Mesopotamia area, and he brought him to curse Israel.

And you probably know the story. Balaam wanted that money, but God told him, no, you can only say what I tell you you can say. And he ends up pronouncing blessings on Israel. And God is just making the point here that He protected Israel from those curses. God was looking out for Israel. God has Israel's back. So He presents this as part of His case against Israel.

In verse 6, we start to see a response to God. And it's Israel talking back, and I would say asking some pretty impertinent questions. It's like, okay—"With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?" (Micah 6:6)

It's sort of like saying, well, what do you want from me? That's the way it's implied.

"Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?" (Micah 6:6). Is that going to satisfy Him? God, when is it enough?

As I said, impertinent—not the way we should come to God.

And verse 7: "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" (Micah 6:7)

I'd say that was somewhat insulting to God, because if you read through the Scripture, you see that God never, ever condoned child sacrifice. You know, the false religions and false gods involve child sacrifice, and God very strongly condemns it.

You know, throughout the Bible—and especially there's a couple of chapters in Jeremiah, which I don't have written down which ones they are—but God condemns that in the strongest terms.

But we'll see, God never wanted sacrifice first. Let me quote some Scriptures to show that.

"To obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22).

You know, shall I give my firstborn, thousands of rams? No. Obedience is better than sacrifice. And then there's spiritual sacrifices that we could say God wanted.

Psalm 51:16 and 17 is where David is writing to God in David’s psalm of repentance. And David tells God, "For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it" (Psalm 51:16).

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart" (Psalm 51:17). Of course, we've got a psalm in our hymnal that sings this very eloquently.

Okay, Hosea 6, verse 6. I won't go on with very many more, although there are others. Hosea 6:6 is where God says, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6).

And I'm listing these because it's, you know, the answer in part to this impertinent question. Is God going to be pleased with thousands of rams? Like Israel is saying, when is it enough? What do you want?

Well, God answers what He wants. As I said, it's not a lot of dead animals. It's not someone's sacri— not someone's children. In verse 8, He says, "He has shown you, O man, what is good" (Micah 6:8).

He's shown you. It's already in the Bible. Let me give you a scripture that corresponds with Micah 6:8. It's in Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12.

I'm going to turn to this one rather than just reading, because it said, what does God want? What does He require? And Deuteronomy 10:12 says, "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. And to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you" (Deuteronomy 10:12).

And I love those three words at the end—"for your good" (Deuteronomy 10:13).

If we have the question, what does God want? What does He expect? Fear Him, love Him, obey Him. And it's going to be for your good. You'll be far better off living God's way.

So coming back to Micah 6:8, here's where I'm saying He's shown you. Deuteronomy 10:12 is a good example. And it says, "What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).

That's a little different than the other one. It's different than thousands of rams and tens of thousands of rivers of oil. It's not asking for your firstborn. Simply do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.

Jesus made what I think is a very strong parallel to this in Matthew 23, verse 23. When I say I think, many people think—I didn't originate this. Matthew 23:23, Jesus refers to "the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith."

So justice matches do justly. Mercy matches love mercy. I think faith is another way of saying walk humbly with your God, because to have faith means to act on your faith, to trust God enough to do what He says.

And that's pretty simple—pretty simple, but not pretty easy. You know, that's one of the things we don't want to confuse. It's not hard to know what God wants us to do. Sometimes it is hard to do what God wants us to do.

And so here in Micah 6:8, with this back-and-forth dialogue, you know, Israel seems to be getting in a bad attitude because they're not seeing what God really wants when He says it's pretty clear.

Okay, moving on from there. In verse 9, it says, "The Lord’s voice cries to the city—wisdom shall see Your name" (Micah 6:9). We could say when God cries out, a person with wisdom is going to hear and listen, right? That wisdom is to heed God.

But the rest of the verse—there's a little space in my version of the Bible because it's like a paragraph break—then it goes on to say, "Hear the rod! Who has appointed it?" (Micah 6:9).

It's almost like saying the wise will listen to God's voice. Those who are not wise will listen to the rod. You know, so if you don't respond to words, you'll respond to corporal punishment.

And I like to tie this to Isaiah 10, verse 5. In Isaiah 10:5, it calls Assyria, "the rod of My anger" (Isaiah 10:5). So the rod in this particular case is the Assyrian army that's coming to enforce God's will to bring punishment.

I'm going to pause, because God's going to still address some of the problems of what Israel was doing. It says—this is verse 10—"Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the short measure that is an abomination?" (Micah 6:10).

Short measure is important. He's talking about our dealings with each other. And in commerce, if you're using a short measure, it means you're not giving someone their money's worth. You know, okay, you want a quart of grain? Yeah, I'll sell you a quart of grain, but I'm not going to really fill it all the way up. I've got a measure that's going to give you a bit less for your money.

In verse 11, "Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales, and with a bag of deceitful weights?" (Micah 6:11)

You know, "for her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth" (Micah 6:12). Talking about, again, false dealings.

And a bag of deceitful weights is talking about false measurements used in commerce to cheat customers. God would go out of His way to tell ancient Israel, when Moses gave them the civil law, they couldn't do that.

Deuteronomy 25:13 says it in particular: "You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light" (Deuteronomy 25:13).

I remember years ago, I had a young man at summer camp ask me, does this mean I can't work out with different weights? You know, I got a line of barbells—15, 10, 20.

It's not about that. It's about false measurement, where you had balanced scales. And so if I have a weight that says three ounces, it needs to be exactly three ounces, not a little less or a little more so that I'm cheating the customer. That's what that's about.

Let me add another scripture. Proverbs 16:11. Proverbs 16:11 is where it says, "Honest weights and scales are the Lord’s; all the weights in the bag are His work" (Proverbs 16:11).

God wants honesty.

He wants us to not cheat each other. The fact that He's having to correct Israel for that shows that they were out of line. God had an argument. He was pleading His case with them, and they were trying to cover it up, not confessing their sins and turning to Him. And of course, that brings punishment.

Starting in verse 13, God shows how He'll punish some of it. It says, "Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, by making you desolate because of your sins" (Micah 6:13). So sickness is going to come on. "You shall eat, but not be satisfied. Hunger will be in your midst. You may carry some away but not save them, and what you do rescue, I'll give to the sword." (Micah 6:14). 

Eating but not being satisfied reminds me in Leviticus 26, one of the blessing and cursing chapters. Leviticus 26—actually in verse 26—God says that He'd cut off the supply of bread. And He says, "You shall eat and not be satisfied" (Leviticus 26:26). Meaning, yeah, even if there's food, it's not going to be enough, because God withholds blessings when the people aren't obeying and following Him.

Similarly, in verse 15, "You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread the olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil" (Micah 6:15). By the way, this is a very strong echo of what's in Deuteronomy chapter 28, the other blessing and cursing chapter. Deuteronomy 28, starting in verse 38, God says, "You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in" (Deuteronomy 28:38). "You shall plant vineyards, but shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes" (Deuteronomy 28:39). "You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil" (Deuteronomy 28:40).

Same thing here in Micah 6 as we saw in Deuteronomy 28.

And in verse 16, He reminds them some of the reason why. "For the statutes of Omri are kept; all the works of Ahab’s house are done; and you walk in their counsels" (Micah 6:16).

And if you're like a lot of people, you say, what? Who? What's Omri? What are the statutes of Omri? Well, Omri was the first king of one of the dynasties in Israel, in the northern kingdom of Israel. As I like to say when we refer to this map, the northern kingdom was green and the southern kingdom was purple. The ground was really the same color in both kingdoms, but the northern kingdom kept the name Israel.

They did not have descendants of King David. They set up various other kings. At one point, Omri became the ruler. His son Ahab—the same Ahab who confronted the prophet Elijah—they were both very diligent in promoting Baal worship. So Baal worship was added to the worship of the golden calves that Jeroboam started when the kingdom separated. And God was not happy about it.

So He's telling Israel some of the reason that they're having famine and sickness and war. They're following the statutes of Omri and the works of Ahab.

So God says at the end of the chapter, "Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing; therefore you shall bear the reproach of My people" (Micah 6:16). Huh. Pretty bad.

This is where I pause, because we've got a chapter break. But I don't want to take too long—we can move right into chapter 7. But this is one of the cases where I think it was good to have a chapter break, because we start off with, "Woe is me!" (Micah 7:1).

I don't think this is God saying, "Woe is me!" (Micah 7:1). It seems that this may be Micah describing his own feelings. Now, he might be reflecting some emotions that God feels, but perhaps it's Micah saying, "Woe is me! For I am like those who gather summer fruits, like those who glean vintage grapes; there is no cluster to eat of the first-ripe fruit which my soul desires" (Micah 7:1).

What's he talking about? There's not much there.

"The faithful man has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among men" (Micah 7:2). So it's like Micah is decrying a lack of righteousness, that there are so few people in the kingdom that are obeying God. We could say good men are as scarce as fruit on the trees after the harvest.

When it's time for gleaning—gleaning was when you go back after the harvest and try to get whatever little is left—that's like, okay, we're looking for a few good men, but they're not there.

What he finds instead at the end of verse 2 is, "They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net" (Micah 7:2). Okay, you know, they're supposed to serve others, but they're taking bribes, they're doing poorly.

Let me read a little further: "That they may successfully do evil with both hands—the prince asks for gifts, the judge seeks a bribe, and the great man utters his evil desire" (Micah 7:3).

You know, these people in positions are supposed to serve the public, supposed to do good for people, but they're not. They're seeking bribes. They want to be paid off. They scheme together.

"The best of them is like a brier" (Micah 7:4). Oh, what's that mean? You guys know what a brier is? You know, those thorns, the vines with thorns. You ever try to get rid of those? You know, they're pretty useless, and if you try to touch them, they hurt you.

He's saying the best of these evil rulers are like that. You know, they're a nuisance, they're destructive, and if you try to remove them, they hurt you. That's something we don't want.

"The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge" (Micah 7:4). "The day of your watchman and your punishment comes" (Micah 7:4).

The day of your watchman—it could be referring to the warning. You know, prophets were called watchmen. Ezekiel chapter 33 is a particular place where God describes Ezekiel the prophet as a watchman, but he's a moral watchman. He's not watching for an enemy army; he's watching to warn the people. And the day that he predicts is here. Your punishment comes.

Now, I thought there at the end of verse 2 when it said, "They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net" (Micah 7:2).

You might have heard of the philosopher John Locke, who wrote in the 18th century. His writings influenced the founders of the United States and his theories about government. And I'm not going to say John Locke was right about everything, but he had a theory, you know, that man formed government for his own good.

And John Locke said before human government, we had a state of every man was at war with every other man—everyone out for themselves. Every man at war with every other man.

Now, I'm not sure if that's true, but that seems like what it's saying here at the end of verse 2. Every man hunts for his brother with a net. They all lie in wait for blood. That is absolutely not what God ever wanted.

And I would say, unlike John Locke, man didn't create government on his own—at least not good government. God gave the direction for good government. And it certainly included people looking out for each other and, you know, civil servants serving.

And God forbade Israel—anybody in Israel—to take bribes. So He's basically showing a very bad situation in Israel that He didn't want to exist.

In verse 5, He says, "Do not trust in a friend; do not put your confidence in a companion; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom" (Micah 7:5). That seems to be referring to your wife, you know, your closest companion.

"For son dishonors father, daughter rises against her mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own household" (Micah 7:6).

This should sound a bit familiar to us. If we don't spend a lot of time reading Micah, we've spent time in the Gospel accounts. Jesus Christ partly quoted this, and we can find it in Matthew 10, verses 34 to 36.

Jesus goes on from there to let His disciples know that He didn't come to bring peace on earth at that time. Christ certainly will come to bring peace on earth when He comes back, but at His first coming He says, you know, there's going to be variance—father against son, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law—and He quotes, "A man's enemies will be those of his own household" (Matthew 10:36).

And Jesus seems to be making the point that in this era of the work, not everyone's going to be called. And although God likes to call people in families, sometimes some people in a family are called and other people are not, and there is a variance. There's difficulties. Some of you have experienced that. I mean, we all have to some degree.

Israel had that. Although, you know, the people who were righteous were as few as good grapes after the harvest and the gleaning.

So Micah is bringing this out—remember, in a very poetic fashion.

But what we should do—we see a turn here starting in verse 7: "Therefore I will look to the Lord" (Micah 7:7).

Therefore, because of this bad situation of not being able to trust people, because of people at war with each other, I'm going to look to God. “I'll wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.” And this seems to be Micah's personal conviction and hope of deliverance.

Some of it might be applied to the Church in general. Certainly, the Church should be looking to God.

So in verse 8 it says, "Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I will arise" (Micah 7:8). So it just popped in my head—I remember in other years, some time ago, there was a popular song that said, I get knocked down, but I get up again. You guys—I can't remember the rest of the song, but it was very catchy. I get knocked down, but I get up again.

Micah is saying, for righteous people, we can be that way. Okay, when I fall, I'm going to rise again.

Continuing, "When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me" (Micah 7:8). We don't have to be without light.

Some have said maybe there's a parallel to the Church down through the ages, when it had to somewhat go in hiding from that great false church. You know, it was sort of in darkness, but God would bring deliverance. God would bring deliverance for Micah personally. He'll bring deliverance for Israel. There's deliverance for the Church—but not always first.

Verse 9: "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness" (Micah 7:9).

We're looking forward to that.

Then, "She who is my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, ‘Where is the Lord your God?’" (Micah 7:10). People sometimes look at us—oh, where's your God now? Is He protecting you?

"My eyes will see her; now she will be trampled down like mud in the streets" (Micah 7:10).

He's using the feminine pronoun there, but it's not necessarily talking about an individual. It's talking about an enemy. God will destroy the enemy. For ancient Israel, the enemy would be Assyria, and then later Babylon for Judah.

We could say for the Church, it'll be Mystery Babylon the Great—the beast power that'll rise up. And the Church will have to flee. In Revelation 12, it talks about the Church fleeing to her place. But as Mr. Armstrong used to say, we can read the end of the book—and we win. That's always encouraging to me.

Moving on, verse 11 says, "In the day when your walls are to be built, in that day the decree shall go far and wide" (Micah 7:11).

Most Bible scholars will connect this to the work of Nehemiah when he was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. And perhaps that's a foreshadow, but those decrees didn't go far and wide. It was just within the Persian Empire.

This might be also looking to God rebuilding His Church and His family. And I like to connect this to Amos 9:11, where it talks about raising up the ruins of the tabernacle of David. And when we covered that, I think I made the point that we could liken that to a prophecy of the Church being raised again and rebuilt.

And with that in mind, verse 12: "In that day they shall come to you from Assyria and the fortified cities" (Micah 7:12).

So if this is talking about a time in the future, like the millennium, people are going to come from all over. “From the fortress to the river”—many people think—represents a particular place in Egypt. The river, perhaps from there, from someplace in Egypt, all the way to the river Euphrates.

Okay, and from sea to sea—is it from the Great Sea to the Red Sea, or perhaps the Dead Sea? Perhaps it's a phrase from one end to the other. In the United States, we say from coast to coast, from one end to the other. Mountain to mountain.

Verse 13: "Yet the land shall be desolate because of those who dwell in it" (Micah 7:13).

Let me point out here, Hebrew scholars say in verse 13 the Hebrew that's translated “yet” probably would have been better translated as “though.” So we could say though the land will be desolate because of those who dwell in it, yet there's going to be this rebuilding that's prophesied.

So though the land shall be desolate, it says in that day the walls will be built. So he's saying what's going to happen despite the punishment that precedes it.

Okay, verse 14: "Shepherd Your people with Your staff, the flock of Your heritage, who dwell solitarily in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days of old" (Micah 7:14).

This is looking back to previous times. Carmel is by the sea in its highlands that were heavily forested. Bashan is in the Transjordan, a very rich, fertile land. So it's referring to good lands where you can bring a flock and they'll flourish and grow.

So who is being commanded to shepherd the people? Well, some say it could be Micah's prayer to God. We've seen Micah seems to be expressing his own thoughts in some places. This might be a thought of Micah saying, dear God, shepherd Your people.

Another way of looking at it is some say this is God giving instruction to His servants. We saw bad servants—we saw judges who take a bribe. Now we see shepherds instructed to shepherd the people. And if that's the case, the staff is that long shepherd's crook that can be used to pull a sheep out of danger and from something that could cause harm. So it's good leadership taking care of people.

Going on in verse 16: "The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall put their hand over their mouth; their ears shall be deaf" (Micah 7:16).

"They shall lick the dust like a serpent; they shall crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of You" (Micah 7:17).

"Who is a God like You" (Micah 7:18)?

What's left of humanity at the time that Christ establishes His kingdom is going to be astounded at what just happened.

We could connect this to Revelation 6 and verse 16. In Revelation 6:16, it describes men going into the mountains and rocks and saying, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb" (Revelation 6:16).

The catastrophes will be so bad at the end of the age—with the trumpet plagues and the seven last vials—that seems to be describing the people who have experienced this. They're going to be afraid, but then they're going to learn what God is like.

"Who is a God like You," (Micah 7:18)

It's worth remembering the name Micah means “who is like Yahweh.” So who is like this God who pardons iniquity? "Pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy" (Micah 7:18).

Remember, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6). Who is like that? God is like that—a loving Creator who sustains us. And the peoples of the earth that don't know Him are going to be kind of shocked and amazed, especially after the devastation on the planet.

By the way, in Exodus 15, verse 11, we see that same phrase: "Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods?" And so I called that out—Exodus 15:11.

We don't see it that way very often, but interestingly, that's part of the song that Moses wrote after Israel crossed through the Red Sea. And they could look back at the Red Sea smashing the armies of Egypt, at the plagues on Egypt—locusts and water to blood and hail and darkness and plagues. Okay, at the end of all that, who is like God?

And this seems to be looking at the end of the age when there's going to be locusts and plagues and darkness. I'm not sure how many locusts—I know at the end of the age we've got what looks like grasshoppers with stings in their tails—but people will have that same question. And they're going to learn that God doesn't retain His anger forever. It's a great statement of God's mercy.

And verse 19 says, "He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities" (Micah 7:19). Like God is going to conquer sin—He'll subdue it.

"You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19). It's like God is going to take your sin—like if you ever throw a big rock into a body of water and it goes boom because it displaces all that water and it sinks down—and you're not getting it back out, not without heavy equipment or something. It's sort of saying God's going to do that with our sin. It's going to be totally gone and out of sight.

"You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old" (Micah 7:20).

Remember, God made an unconditional promise to Abraham back in Genesis 22, and He swore by Himself, because He could swear by no greater, that He would bless Abraham. And so that mercy—those promises—they never went out of effect. And God is going to remove our sins.

I put in my notes a reference to Psalm 103, verse 12. Psalm 103:12 is where it says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12).

I think I did that right—no, east in this room is that way, west is that way. Am I right? That's how far from us He's removed our sins—like that stone, you know, thrown in the depths of the sea.

What a wonderful thing.

So we see in Micah, you know, God expressing His upset, pleading a case with Israel—I've got a case against you, you've done wrong. Israel doesn't get it at first, but it's clear we can see Israel will get it. All mankind is going to get the point, and they'll realize that God is a God who doesn't retain His anger because He delights in mercy, and He's going to subdue sin.

You know, I guess here I'm reminding myself that Micah is seen as a parallel to Isaiah, with some beautiful language and beautiful imagery. And yeah, we see it briefly here, but it's still very beautiful and I hope very inspiring.

And that's where we're at the end of Micah.

And I'm thinking maybe we'll end this particular class session a little early, and we're going to make a little longer one next time and begin the book of Nahum, rather than blend them both together.

So thank you for this time. Let's go ahead and break for now, and we'll pick up with Nahum next time.