TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
Micah 1:1-4:13
Revelation 6:1-17
Psalm 134:1-3
Proverbs 30:1-4
Micah 1:1 — Micah is a contemporary of Isaiah. He was around in the days of Hezekiah. Notice that even during good king Hezekiah, Samaria (capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel) and Jerusalem (capitol of the Southern Kingdom of Judah) still had sin problems.
Micah 1:13 — Micah is warning Lachish of coming judgment – this was fulfilled when Sennacherib destroyed Lachish as he moved toward Jerusalem.
Micah 2:2 — This was written 100 years after 1 Kings 21:3 , where Naboth refused to sell “the inheritance of my fathers” to Ahab. In Joshua 18-19 (that was a while back!), we read about the division of the land. The LORD God used two chapters of Scripture to assign property so it must be important to Him. Yet, people are constantly trying to redraw maps to benefit themselves.
Micah 3:4 — The scariest verses in the Bible talk about people crying “unto the LORD, but He will not hear them: He will even hide His face from them at that time.” Let’s turn to God while we still can, before it’s too late! Learn more at the VCY America Prayer Encouragement Project.
Micah 3:11 — They are violating some of the oldest commands in the Bible (Exodus 23:8).
Micah 3:12 — This prophecy was quoted in Jeremiah 26:18. In the days of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah prophesied against Jerusalem, and the leadership wanted to execute him (Jeremiah 26:11). But the “cooler heads” (see Gamaliel in Acts 5:34) pointed out the precedent (Jeremiah 26:17-19) of not executing prophets. By way of context, this was in the days of Hezekiah that the judges were corrupt, and the priests were doing their duty for pay. Even though Hezekiah cleaned up a lot of things in the Temple, it appears that he let some things go.
Micah 4:1 — Remember that Micah preceded Daniel (even though Daniel’s book comes first). Micah is prophesying the “mountain of the house of the LORD.” This mountain would be seen by Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:35 and explained in Daniel 2:45.
Micah 4:3 — This verse is almost identical to his contemporary, Isaiah, in Isaiah 2:4. Outside the UN headquarters is a statute of a man beating his sword into a plowshare, but that promise is not yet fulfilled! We can’t do that with human strength; we need the Prince of Peace!
Micah 4:4 — ”Under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid” … we saw this phrase used once before in 1 Kings 4:25. In the apocrypha (1 Maccabees 14:12), the claim is made that this was the status under Simon. George Washington loved this phrase according to Dan Dreisbach, author of Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers. From the Library of Congress:
In his letters he referred often, as an expression of this devotion and its resulting contentment, to an Old Testament passage. After the Revolution, when he had returned to Mount Vernon, he wrote the Marquis de Lafayette on Feb. 1, 1784: “At length my Dear Marquis I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, & under the shadow of my own Vine & my own Fig-tree.” This phrase occurs at least 11 times in Washington’s letters. “And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree” (2 Kings 18:31).
https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0010/gwdiary.html
Micah 4:8 — The “Tower of the flock” is where the King will come. From Jimmy DeYoung:
Micah 4:8 says that the Messiah’s birth at Migdal Eder, the tower of the flock, is evidence that Jesus will one day come back to Jerusalem and set up his kingdom. The tower of the flock, Migdal Eder, is at the edge of the Shepherd’s fields where Priestly Shepherd’s watched over their lambs that were to be sacrificed at the Temple about three miles away in Jerusalem. Therefore, the sacrificial lamb, Jesus Christ, had to be born at Migdal Eder.
http://news.prophecytoday.com/2015_12_24_archive.html
Revelation 6:12 — This was prophesied of in Joel 2:31 and reiterated in Acts 2:20.
Revelation 6:16 — The first coming of the Lamb was the silent sacrifice (Isaiah 53:7). The second coming of the Lamb is the forewarned wrath.
Psalm 134:1-2 — ”Behold, Bless Ye the Lord” is a song based on these two verses.
Proverbs 30:4 — From EnduringWord.com:
Agur knew there was something special about the Son of God. We don’t know to what extent he prophetically anticipated the Messiah, God the Son, Jesus Christ – but Agur knew that God had a Son, and the Son had a name.
https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/proverbs-30
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