Trusting God’s Timing Through Micah 5 | Micah 5:1-6

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Bible Guys. Chris. It's good to be in the studio with you today, bright and early shipper, on a lovely Monday morning. Yes, it is a lovely Monday morning, at least for us, it was today. Well today, technically we're filming on a Wednesday. Yeah. And the good news is you didn't have to fight a goose on the way in today. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So the goose that we had mentioned for those long consteners, it's gone. And they redid the landscaping. That's right. Yeah, so they relocated our lovely goose. Yes, and now I don't have to fist fight in the in the parking. I don't know how they did it, and I'm not I'm afraid to ask. Yep. So Hey, today, Jeff, we have a segment given by desiree to us. Okay, good by somebody anonymous. Thank you. They've not listed who says? This is this the stump the pastor it is stumped the past? Okay, it is Can I read it? Please? Okay? This person says, I don't know who it is. I have recently discovered your podcast and I have been thoroughly enjoying it. Oh good. I hope you don't find offense to this. Oh. Usually that means you're, yeah, don't be offended. But you two remind me of Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell and Daddy's Home. And so I just want to go on record and say that I want to be Mark Wahlberg. Okay, you're you're going to be Mark Mark Wehlberg. Well, I mean really, I'd rather. You're the bad boy. You're the bad boy tough guy on this on the show. Wait wait, wait. Wasn't he the bad boy tough guy. I can be the bad boy tough boy. Okay, hey, by the wait, do you think me before before I was a Christian, back when I was you know, scrapping and want to be gangs and and you back in the day, if we would have met each other and and been opposed. We would have fought, and then there'd only be the Bible guy on the show. I'm sorry about that. Bonnie would have never met her. Yeah, no, that's it. I'm sorry man. All right, So here it is. So he says, you. Know, you know we're gonna get hate mail from Mark Wahlberg. Now, yes, Mark Wahlberg does not care about the Bible guys. I don't think. I don't. I don't think. But who knows. He did the Father Stu movie. Hey, listen, I know Mark Mark Wolberg is a Christian. I just mean he probably he probably listened to Bible guys all the time. He's like, I am not chrisba right, he knows me. It's me. So anyway, this person says, my question is, do you think Jesus had a sense of humor? Oh? Absolutely, I think so too. Absolutely. Yeah, So there's there's there's evidence of God having a sense of humor. And uh and and I like what you said. We talked about this earlier, but I don't think I can say it as well as you. What you had several references. Well, I mentioned I think that my favorite one. Jesus uses so many funny like turns of phrase or uses illustrations that just capture his listener's attention. Like he's talking about he's really going after the Pharisees, and he calls them a bunch of vipers, which would have been I think funny to the people. A bunch of snakes, right, But then he tells them that they they strain it gnats and swallow whole camels, talking about they get super uptight about the simplest of little laws and then excuse the really big sins, right, And so he uses phrases like that a lot, I think, and that is funny. Yeah, I think it's funny. You strain it a gnat and swallow a whole camel. It's a funny idea to people. Have to say that. No, he could say it another way, right, right, right, Well, he could have said it you work really hard on the little laws and you ignore the big ones. He could have said that way, but he didn't. He said it, you strain it gnats and swallow whole camels. He one time he's talking with people and he's talking not being judgmental, and he said, you know, you're tempted to go over and offer to get the little speck out of your friend's eye. He sai, why don't you get the big plank out of your own eye? That's funny, Yes, that's a funny thing. It's a long guy. He does that a lot of times where he makes these funny statements. So like a true carpenter by the way, Yeah, that's. One of the reasons why I'm not a carpenter. Jesus sawdust in your eye versus a plank of wood, Right, that's funny, That's what a carpenter would think of. And so yeah, it is funny. And I think that people sometimes have a really bad view of Jesus, Like, for instance, can people picture Jesus sitting around a campfire laughing. Like a like a belly roll laughter. You know, when he was young, he grew up and you know, do we not think that he played games with children? Sure? Right? Other kids? Like when you watch The Chosen, you know, obviously there's only so much recorded about the life of Jesus, and most things are about, you know, about him or a quote that he had said, right, but like they don't mention. And then he you know, went on an outing with his friends. They never said those kinds of things, and so on The Chosen, they sort of take liberty to develop, like what must it have been like for Jesus to go back to Capernaum and to hang out with the people who grew up with him, you know, and then he reveals himself as the Messiah, you know, those those kinds of things. And so it shows them going to like like the regular Jewish festivals, and then. They're playing a game that would have looked like a like a like a hacky. Sack game, and Jesus jumps in and he starts playing, right, And it's really interesting because it's like it's like, wow, there's a new thought for a lot of people. He probably grew up playing games with these people that in his home town. I think paintings and then religious ritual have kind of made Jesus into this really pale, skinny, white guy that never made it out of you know, out into the sun, right and ever kind of a sissy. Look to him, a halo all the time, And. That's exactly the opposite of the person the Bible describes. Jesus was a carpenter, which means he would have had to plane every board by hand, right, He would have had to drill every hole by hand. He didn't have power tools, and so his arms probably he probably looked like Popeye. He probably had a grip like a vice. And then when he shows up his very first followers, he goes and gets dock workers, guys who are fixing their nets. These are manly men, and manly men don't follow sissies. They don't leave their industry and go follow a sissy. Right, So you've got the you've got these manly men who recognize a manly man. That's very different from most of the paintings we see. But I think we get this sad view of Jesus from these sad looking paintings. Yeah, and you know, frail and light and then you know, and. By the way, let me just go on record and say a lot of people I've done this before where I've talked about how the paintings are so inaccurate, and people some how they think that it's disrespectful or irreverent to talk about a painting. We're not being disrespectful to Jesus. The painting is we're just misrepresenting him. Painting is misrepresenting him, and it's the only thing that we know in our culture. Right. And by the way, Jesus wasn't white. Most of the paintings picture Jesus has white. He would have been a Middle Eastern man. It's just crazy how we have this image in our minds that is just not a depiction of the real Jesus. And then and then the last big thing is one of the accusations against Jesus was that he enjoyed going to parties too much. That's one of the things the Pharisees and the priests used against him as a hey, he's not a good guy. He goes to parties too much. Whether you're talking about Matthew's party or other people. Simon had a party. Different people have parties and he went to those. As a matter of fact. Mark Lowry, he's a Christian comedian, and he points out the fact that jesus very first miracle at Cana was at a wedding, and it was to make more wine just so the party would keep going. Right, they ran out of wine. Jesus makes more wine. That's his very first miracle, just to keep the party going. They didn't need more wine, they just wanted more wine. Yeah, so somebody sat down making who do we want at our wedding part Oh, don't forget Jesus. He's a lot of fun. Yeah right, that's what that's how it went. So. Yeah, I think I think Jesus had a great sense of humor, and I think when you get to heaven. You'll laugh a lot. Yeah, that's that's great. Hey, well that's uh, that's a great you know what, Hey speaking of Jesus. Oh, there you go. That's that's actually a good transition speaking of Jesus. Guess who also spoke about Jesus, Oh, Micah, Micah. Yes, they didn't write a little book. Yeah, he did seven chapters long, seven chapters long, exactly seven and uh he actually wrote about a prophecy about where Jesus would have been born. Yeah. So this book Micah was written about the same time that Isaiah was writing his book. This is about the same time, just before a series. Remember a couple weeks ago we talked about Sinakreb invading, or last week we talked about Sinacrab invading and trying to take over Jerusalem. Right about this time, right before. Seven hundred and fifty years before Jesus. Yeah, something like that, seven hundred years right before Sinakreb besieges Jerusalem. Micah has written a little book and it's saying, hey, watch out a serious coming. This is God. I'm sending my judgment. And he's just affirming in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Isaiah being the primary prophet, Micah being a secondary prophet, a minor prophet coming in but kind of affirming Isaiah's prophet words yeah yeah, prophet yeah yeah, vice prophet yeah, minor prophet yeah. So in Micah there's lots of things. He prophesies a little bit about what the end of time would be like when God establishes his kingdom, all these things. But in Micah chapter five, we'll just read a few verses. He says, mobilize, marshal your troops. The enemy is laying siege to Jerusalem. They will strike Israel's leader in the face with a rod. But you, o, Bethlehem, Ephratha, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. The people of Israel be abandoned to their enemies until the woman in labor gives birth. Then at last, his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land, and he will stand to lead his flock with the Lord's strength and the majesty of the name of the Lord is God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored around the world, and he will be the source of peace. Now good, Oh yeah, are you going to read all the way to verse seven? Do you want me to? I do? I will. When the Assyrians invade our land and break through our defenses, we will appoint seven rulers to watch over us, eight princes to lead us. They will rule Assyria with drawn swords and enter the gates of the land of Nimrod. And he will rescue us from the Assyrians when they pour over the borders to invade our land. So, just to look glad, I read that a. Little bit more of the same man. So so this is probably the only place where they actually get specific enough to mention that the ruler of Israel in the future is going to come from a small town called Bethlham. That's right. And now is this? I think this is true. This is the only time in all the Old Testament that Bethlam has mentioned as a prophecy for Jesus. Right, Oh boy, I think so? Yeah, I think so too, I think so so. So I know that this is the passage that they that they looked up and used as evidence believing that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Yes, yeah, so there's a there is a reference in the Gospels, if you remember. I think it's in Matthew. I'm not quite sure about that, but I think it's in Matthew. Where the magi as they were following the star in the east, they swung by Herod's palace and they actually inquired of Herod, and Herod sent for his advisors, and the advisors looked up and looked up the you know where would that where would the city be listed? You know where the where this uh you know savior would be born? Uh. And and I believe that this was most likely the passage that they looked up. Yeah, yeah, right, it is. This is the passage. Yes, And then and then Herod said, we'll go and worship him. Uh. And then when you worship him, come back and let me know exactly where you find him, so that I. May worship him to remember. But Herod obviously didn't want to go worship the child. He wanted to uh, you know. Snuff out any competition for himself to be king. So actually, uh, the magi were warned in a dream member and so then they did not return to Herod on the way back home, and so Herod you know, once realizing this, ordered that all the babies two years and under be slain, the babies, all the male babies be born, and then and then Mary and Joseph fled Egypt. So so anyway, this this would have been the passage. Uh and uh. And I think that it's really interesting how Bethlehem is small, right and says the smallest city in the tribe of Judah. And it's amazing because you know, we also know that the line of David is from Judah, right, so we know it has to be Judah. And yet they chose, you know, David's hometown Bethlehem. And by the way, you. Were at Israel, did you did you see did they point out the difference between small Bethlehem and big Bethlehem. I'm not sure. So so so if you stand back and look at the scope of Bethlehem, like the skyline of Bethlehem, there's a there's a there's remnants on the city hill. And Bethlehem was like I mean, I'm telling. You, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it was ancient, ancient portion of Betham versus all the modern it's kind of sprawled a little bit, yes, yeah, yeah. And so Bethlehem now is one hundred times bigger than what Bethlehem would have been back then. Oh sure, So Bethlehem back then was like Capernaum, right, I mean, it's just just this small little town and this is where you know, Jesus, this is where God chose Jesus to be born. And so it just goes to show you. You know, it's not about your size, right, It's not about your humble beginnings. I mean, after all, God uses humble people all the time. Remember the story of Gideon, yes, right, and he says, he says Gideon, the Angel says, mighty man of Valor. And Gideon says, well, he says, I'm the youngest of my brothers, So who are you talking to? He's like, our family is like the smallest in all the city, and our city is the smallest in all of our tribe, and our tribe is the smallest of all the tribes. Right, And so Gideon's like, you're talking to like the lowest possible guy that you could ever choose. And the Angel sort of double double downs and says, no, you're you're Gideon, the Mighty Man of Valor. And obviously I'm paraphrasing all of that, but Essentially, that's really what it is. God. God's not gonna you know, it's not like God's not going to use us just because. We feel like we on a mount to anything. We don't have to come from, you know, prominent places in order to do important things. Right. Well, that's that's the I think the key lesson from the fact that God chooses to use Bethlehem here. It's where David came from. Obviously you already mentioned that, and so it seems significant in our minds because we whenever we think of David's story, we think of Bethline. Whenever we think of Jesus story and his birth at Christmas time, we talk about Bethlehem all the time. It so we make it a big deal in our minds. It's a big deal, but it's so in for the listeners. And this is one of the secrets to learning how to read the Bible is to try to read it from the listener, the hearer, as it was written. And it would have seemed so insignant. Bethlehem really right, really, I've been there. It's just a little backwater village whatever. It seems so small. And I think that this is like you were saying, this is one of those things that just reminds us that God delights in using simple people in simple things for his majestic purposes. Yeah. And then also, I think the other one is when you read a passage like this, this is seven hundred years before Jesus is born. Yeah, and there's a note. Hey, we always love promoting the life application study Bible. There's a note for verse one and it says, remember, it says that the enemy will lay siege to Jerusalem and they will strike Israel's leader in the face with a rod. Yes, it says this leader was probably King Zedekiah, who was reigning in Jerusalem when Nebu Kinezer conquered the city in Second King's twenty five. Zedekiah was the last of the kings in David's line to sit on the throne of Jerusalem, and Micah said in this passage that the next king in David's line would be the Messiah. Oh wow, that would establish a king that would never end that. I'm not sure I've ever pieced. That together, right, That's that's what he's saying. That's nifty. This is why the scholars when Herod asked for hey, where's the next where's the Messiah supposed to be born? The scholars knew, yeah, this is why is because hey, Zeekiah is going to be knocked off the throne and there won't be another king until the Messiah shows up. So there are descendants of David who continued to sit on the throne until this time, and most likely this is the end, right, this would be the end, And so Micah's prophecy is so it makes it that much more relevant and prominent and all those other things to say, Hey, this is about to end, but don't worry, it's going to pick up right. If you read the whole book, it's only seven chapters long. If you read the who book, you realize what he's saying is the end of David's line is coming until the Messiah. And so the Assyrians are the ones that are surrounding Jerusalem with Isaiah and Hezekiah. After that it's the Assyrians are defeated and the Babylonians come in. Do you remember when we were talking about Hezekiah and the Babylonians came in and wanted to know, so, hey, how'd all that happen? Remember, so Assyria was descending empower and Babylon was beginning to ascend empower that point. Finally Babylon wipes out Assyria and then they come after Israel. And so it's not very long after this prophecy, a little while, but not very long. And then he's saying that the only king next, the next king from David's line, will be the Messiah. Yeah, I'm not sure. And they waited seven. Hundred thoughts on the timing of that, like when this was written and who was king at the time. Like I knew the content of it, I just didn't know the timing of it, which is really cool. And so then the other part of it is I think it's really great to remind ourselves that Jesus was not God's plan, b Right, Jesus was always the plan. Right, Jesus wasn't God's reaction to humanity sin. Jesus was God's plan from the very beginning, once sin was set in emotion, that's right. Yeah, So even when God slayed the animals and killed the animals to make coverings for Adam and Eve's shame, that would have been a foreshadowing of Jesus. Right, So the killing of an innocent, the shedding the blood of an innocent having to die to pay the price for someone else's guilt. Right, right. It wasn't like, oh, shoot, the old Testament didn't work, let me come up with a new covenant. Right. It was always his plan, that's right. And so then you know, this is one of those moments when it reminds us again in the Bible, just in it. We only read five verses today or seven six verses, but that's good. This is yeah, that's right. But this is that that reminder again that God's not winging it in your life either, right, Right, He's literally seven hundred years ahead of time coordinating. Okay, I'm going to bring David's line to an end, but there's always going to be a remnant of David's line. The next king is going to be the Messiah. He will also be born in David's hometown, and he'll be this. This is going to be one of the indicators so that you can know when you see Jesus, you'll recognize him. You'll know who he is. Right, and some did and didn't. I think I'm going to use that phrase in the future somewhere. God's not winging it in your life either. It's great it really is. It's a great phrase, you know, and and if you really piece together all the prophecies and you know, and just like you said, it just seems at times that you know, if you if you read the Bible without flying thirty five thousand feet in understanding there's a scarlet thread, right that that weaves it all together. Sometimes it could seem like these different profits and different stories seem random and they're just sort of pieced together, but they're they're one big story, right, there's one big end game, and they really do thread together God's agenda. And so it is, it is great. It's great to understand God's not winging it in your life. That's great. Yeah, And so if he's not winging it in your life, then you can trust him even though events may seem insignificant, or events may seem random, or events may seem insurmountable. God's in control, and God's the one telling your story. And if he's taking you down this path, he can take you through it so you can get past this and He's going to make you better. And as a result, I mean, here we are, you know, we're two thousand years after, we're twenty seven hundred years after Micaeh wrote that passage, and God's still in control, and God's still orchestrating things and moving on his agenda in his path and bringing us ultimately to and we didn't spend any time. But in Micah chapter four, it highlights God's future reign right where the whole world will be able to go. And it says the Lord will mediate between peoples and will settle disputes between strong nations far away. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor trained for war anymore. Everyone will live in peace and prosperity, joying their own grape binds and fig trees, or they will be nothing to fear. You want to know what eternity's like. It's not a bunch of naked babies buncing around on clouds playing harps. Right now, we're not gonna need weapons anymore, but we're gonna work. We're gonna turn our swords into plowshares, and we're gonna turn our spears into pruning hooks, and we're gonna be enjoying our own grapevinds and our own fake trees. There are gonna be ownership in heaven. We're gonna be living. Well, that's what he's trying to say with God as our king, and he said there will be nothing to fear. The Lord of Heaven's armies has made this promise, right. Yeah, so God's not winging it. Jesus seven hundred years later comes and he begins then the process of redemption for all of humanity. And then God says, hey, when I'm all done, it's gonna be pretty good. You don't have to worry about it. Yeah, that's great, it's pretty great. Well, hey, that is a great place to end, and that is our time. So hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible gush