My Bible study notes for Wednesday night, May 10th. Remember, these are my personal study notes and not a manuscript of the sermon. They are provided as an outline each week for our Tabernacle Church family. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, Prayer List, and other resources at our Church Website.
Micah 1:1
An Overview:
Chapters 1-3 – The coming judgement
Chapters 4-5 – The restoration to follow
Chapters 6-7 – The plea for repentance
Time of Ministry: 735-710 B.C.
In the days of:
- Jotham (739-731 B.C.)
- Ahaz (731-715 B.C.)
- Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.)
- Before his reforms
Setting:
Deals primarily with Judah, but does address the northern kingdoms fall in 722 B.C.
- Economic prosperity
- Spiritual decline
Contemporary of Hosea in the northern kingdom and of Isaiah in the court of Jerusalem.
Themes:
Judgment and Forgiveness
- God will judge disobedience/sinners
- God will keep his covenant promises (their will be a remnant)
- Blessings on those that will repent
The Lord, the Judge who scatters his people for their transgressions and sins, is also the Shepherd-King who in covenant faithfulness gathers, protects, and forgives them.
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1693.
Key Themes
The character of the sovereign Lord and the sins of his people demand judgment (1:2–5; 2:3; 6:1–2, 9–11). The sentence of God’s “lawsuit” comes in the form of an oppressor (1:15; 4:11; 5:1, 5–6) and by means of covenant curses (6:13–15) rendered for covenant unfaithfulness (6:16).
A Shepherd-King gathers and delivers a remnant (2:12–13; 4:6–8; 7:14, 18). This deliverer, functioning as a new David, will come from the very region under Assyrian control (5:2–5a).
Covenant faithfulness consists not merely in ritual but in the proper expression of the primary forms of love: justice, mercy, and faithfulness (6:8; cf. Matt. 23:23).
The Lord is the focus of worship. The nations will no longer “flow” to false gods (cf. Jer. 51:44) but to Zion to learn of the true Lord and to live in peace (Mic. 4:1–5; 7:12; cf. Isa. 2:2–5).
The liberating light of grace flowing from the Lord’s steadfast love (Mic. 7:18–20) overcomes the ominous sentence due to sin (7:8–9). Forgiveness is grounded in God’s faithfulness to his promises (7:20).
God’s saving acts in the past (6:4–5; 7:14–15) are interpretative analogies for his saving acts in the future (7:19–20).
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1694