Episode 5: A God who gathers and scatters (chapter 3&4)

Season 12: Micah

18 Oct

The hope trailered at the end of our last bible study session in chapter 2 is fleshed out in this bigger passage. How can the same God gather and scatter? Join in as we press on in studying the Bible book of Micah together.

1. Why is judgement necessary in these chapters?
2. How is Micah different to those around him?
3. How do the images in chapter four persuade us that there is hope?
4. How is your view of God's character growing as we travel through Micah?
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The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Sarah: You are listening to the Two Sisters and a Cup of Tea podcast, the Bible Study podcast for everyday life.
We're here for a 20 minute burst of Bible chat over a cup of tea and an English style biscuit as we make our way through a Bible book over the course of the season and drive it to our hearts. And this season we're in Micah. Whether you've been listening along for a while or have just found us, we're so pleased you're here.
Felicity: This episode is sponsored by the ESV Bible app. I've always enjoyed Crossways resources and recently I've started using their ESV Bible app. It's really good for listening to the Bible on the go but more than that it has a whole range of resources particularly helpful for studying the Bible in more depth. The audio Bible on the app is read by various Bible teachers and artists including Kristyn Getty, Mike Reeves, Jackie Hill Perry and more. You can change the voice, change the music, all the things. You can subscribe to this app at ESV.org or download the ESV Bible app.
Welcome to Two Sisters and a Cup of Tea. My name is Felicity, I'm here with my sister Sarah. We are still in the same country, in the same room, recording together. And this episode we are jumping into chapters three and four of Micah. I'm excited, Sarah. I am having an educational experience right now. I'm drinking the famous lemon and ginger tea.
Sarah: Yes, and you don't seem that enthusiastic.
Felicity: Let's just be honest about the temperature of the room we're sitting in. It's quite hot.
Sarah: Yes, but the myth goes that drinking tea should cool you down.
Felicity: It's nice.
Sarah: It's just not your favourite is it? I'm thankful for you wanting to sit with me in the tea.
Felicity: Yes, yes. It's good in that it's just not what I expect from a cup of tea. I haven't put any milk in it. The tea bag's still in it. I find that a little distracting as I'm drinking, to be honest. It might just touch my lip.
Sarah: You don't have to have the tea bag in it. It looks bad.
Felicity: I know, but it looked a bit pale without it. I think we'll leave it to you, the lemon and ginger.
Sarah: Good, well before we get into reading chapters three and four, what persuades you so far to get this open with a friend?
Felicity: Good question, good question. I think already just in the space of two chapters we've had big declaration of who God is. And I think if I was to invite a friend to do this with me, I would be doing it in order for us both to gaze at God. And I actually kind of relish a bit of a conversation about God's justice and judgment. Not that I love that kind of conversation, but I think it's something which I'd really enjoy. Well, I'm enjoying talking about it with you, so I'd really enjoy talking about it with someone else. And I just love the little taster we've had at the end of chapter two of the hope, which we're gonna get more of this week, it's kind of powering me on. I kind of want to pull someone along on this journey with me. What about you?
Sarah: Yeah, I think you're right in the sense that we don't. Why does judgment feel awkward to talk about? Is it because we just don't talk about it enough? We don’t talk about the rightness of what's judgment enough. And so, yeah, in similar vein, I think it's made me hungry to want to start the conversation on this so that it wouldn't become a kind of thing we shy away from, this is awkward, it's the judgment book, but actually this is cool, this is showing us about our good God and his righteous judgement and justice. So I think in a similar vein of just actually wanting to start these conversations, it still feels a bit awkward to do that on a Sunday morning after church. I think if I came up and said, what do you think about, you know, I think that, yeah, to do it over a cup of tea with a friend, knowing that you're both going to be talking about that kind of thing feels like an easier in rather than the after church chat.
Felicity: I agree and you've both agreed to sit down and read this book together so already you're kind of one step ahead. So it's good.
Sarah: Okay I'm gonna get into reading it. I'm gonna read chapter three, you're gonna read chapter four. Let's go.
Then I said, Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, should you not embrace justice, you who hate good and love evil, who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones, who eat my people's flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces, who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot? Then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done. This is what the Lord says ‘As for the prophets who lead my people astray, they proclaim ‘peace’ if they have something to eat, but prepare to wage war against anyone who refuses to feed them. Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God.” But as for me, I am filled with power with the spirit of the Lord and with justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression to Israel his sin. Hear you leaders of Jacob you rulers of Israel who despise justice and distort all that is right who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with wickedness. Her leaders judge for a bribe her priests teach for a price and her prophets tell fortunes for money yet they look for the Lord's support and say is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us. Therefore, because of you, Zion will be ploughed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
Felicity: In the last days, the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as the highest of the mountains. It will be exalted above the hills and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his way so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plough shares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine, under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and ever. In that day, declares the Lord, I will gather the lame, I will assemble the exiles, and those I have brought to grief, I will make the lame my remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The Lord will rule over in Mount Zion from that day and forever. As for you, watchtower of the flock, stronghold of daughter Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you, kingship will come to daughter Jerusalem. Why do you now cry aloud? Have you no king? Has your ruler perished that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labour? Writhe in agony, daughter Zion, like a woman in labour, for now you must leave the city to camp in the open field. You will go to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you out of the of your enemies. But now many nations are gathered against you. They say, let her be defiled, let her eyes gloat over Zion. But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord. They do not understand his plan, but he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor. Rise and thresh, daughter Zion, for I will give you horns of iron, I will give you hooves of bronze, and you will break to pieces many nations. You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
Sarah: There's a lot there, isn't there? So we come to the second section of the book where ‘listen you leaders of Jacob’ in 3 verse 1 and we're really zooming in again on the leaders this time, aren't we? And what the state of play is. It's really striking, I think, just that 3 verse 2, the heart of it all, you who hate good and love evil.
Felicity: And he then uses the poetic imagery, doesn't he, to then make it really clear it's just horrific, this kind of cannibalism that's being described here. That is how callous and how violent this is. And then they will cry out to the Lord, verse four, but he will not answer them. And so the shock, I think, as well is that these people are claiming to be followers of Yahweh. They're the religious sorts. They're not just the total pagan world. They're crying out to the Lord and he will not answer. And we've talked already about the grace of God speaking, so the idea that God doesn't answer, that's big.
Sarah: Yeah, it does seem very clear, doesn't it? The way that then, the therefore, the kind of, in verse five, chapter three, against these leaders, these prophets, these priests. Well, it's actually, it's alienation, isn't it, that comes. It's darkness, without visions, night, that kind of repetition and the kind of the picture that's painted of life without God because of what they're doing to lead his people astray. And the reality of their kind of ministry is that it's prophecies bought at a price, isn't it? We'll say, well they’ll proclaim peace if that something to eat, if they’re given money to do it, then further down the passage in chapter 3 it says that leaders judge for a bribe, priests teach for a bribe, prophets tell fortunes for money, this is a wholly corrupt leadership of God’s people who are wholly deserving of the judgement that is coming to them.
Felicity: Yes, verse 7, I mean it says it again because there is no answer from God and then I love that the immediate contrast we get there with Micah himself. This is the clearest description we get of Micah in terms of character and what he's doing. Verse eight, as for me, I am filled with power with the spirit of the Lord and with justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression to Israel of his sin. And so it's confirmation that those who are of God will talk about God's justice as well as his mercy. And Micah is in stark contrast to those who are around him because he's doing it. And so, and we were talking a bit about this in our previous conversation, this idea that Micah is in this particular moment in salvation history. This is Micah's job right now. This is what he's here for. He's filled with power with the spirit of the Lord and he is to declare the justice of the Lord. We also, as God's people, have the spirit. We're not Micah. We're not in this particular moment in history. But we do have the Spirit and we therefore do know God and we are people who are hearing God still. Therefore we can declare this same God. We don't want to get there too quickly. I don't want us to say, I'm just like Micah.
Sarah: No, but I think there is something of that isn't there? That we do have a responsibility to call out sin amongst God's people and that is a right thing to do that in the right context under the authority of leadership in your church, whatever. But just recognizing that actually the Lord's Spirit here is given to declare and to kind of expose sin. And that is a right thing because it leads you to the mercy of God. And that, as we were saying, this is a word of grace from the Lord, isn't it? He wants them to repent. And so this is why he's giving these warnings so that they may run to him. And I mean, let's just kind of then, it feels very brief, but heading on to chapter 4 we have this extraordinary image of people actually flocking to the Lord, don't we? I love that when we, know, chapter one, we had the Lord coming down to the mountains, the trajectory of coming down. Now we've got this supernatural reality of people streaming up to the temple, up to the mountain, which can only happen through the cross, can't it? You can't stream up somewhere. You normally stream down.
Felicity: Even just before we get to you know how it happens but actually just in the way it's written if you just look at chapter 3 verse 12 a reminder Zion would ploughed like a field a heap of rubble and then the mountain the Lord this highest of the mountains that people will stream up to as you're saying. Kathleen Nielsen was helping us wasn't she in that that talk we listened to details in the show notes and that even just having those two contrasting images helps us see these two things together. God is a God of the ploughing and the rubbling but he's also the God of the mountain and the mercy that enables us to go there. So the imagery enables us to almost hold the tension. This is who God is. yeah, think that's helpful to see in the whole book.
Sarah: And it is just beautiful, isn't it? It's a beautiful picture of people flocking to the temple, which is God's presence through the Bible. He will teach us his ways in verse two. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. It's the word that's the kind of instrument of this transformation for people, for many peoples, nations far and wide. It's just a beautiful picture. Yeah, it's just wonderful, isn't it? It's such contrast.
Felicity: It is such contrast. And the peace and the idea that spears are turning to pruning hooks, nation will not take up sword against nation. I think that could almost be microcosm down into leaders will not do all that's been described in the previous chapters. And as you say, it is supernatural. This only comes from the Lord. And the whole idea that we could go up and actually our deserved spot on our kind of as we sit under God's justice is down, then it is by the Lord's grace so this is what the Lord is doing. That's the point of this picture, isn't it? This is a picture of what is to come.
Sarah: But as we've kind of said, the structure of these prophecies is judgment, then mercy, and actually in the second half of chapter four, we are seeing that judgment, these people are bound for Babylon. They are bound for judgment that is deserved and so this mercy isn't yet? No. It's a not yet thing, isn't it? It's a kind of hope for the future, but actually in the very near future, this remnant will experience judgment through being exiled to Babylon.
Felicity: Which I think is a fairly significant thing, like, because you'd think, OK, I'm in the remnant. OK, I'm going to be OK. Not sure how it's going to work. I'm going to be OK. And then this surprise of, no, no, you are going to go to Babylon to do this. You're going to come through judgement into mercy and that in itself is an impossible thing to understand to put together without actually the cross so as us now this side of the cross we see that as we see the judgment on the cross and the life that is given through the resurrection
Sarah: Yes. But this is like, there's little tastes of it. It's like the starter to the main. And you can't see it all. And so what a gift that we do live this side of the cross and that we can taste and see that this is good because we know how the story ends.
Felicity: Yeah, and we have the certainty, is that certainty which is captured in the repeated use of the words here, like ‘will’, so I'm looking at verse 10 here, chapter four, verse 10. There the Lord will redeem you out of hand. And we've had it previously many nations will come and say, and we've had it in previous chapters, well there's a certain, there's a surely, there's a kind of, this is definitely gonna happen. It's an amazing picture, isn't it, really? If we really understand what's being said in the previous chapters, the idea that this could come from that.
Sarah: Yes. And again, as we keep asking that question, who is a God like you? Who is a God like Yahweh? He’s beautiful isn’t he? In the way that both his justice is poured out here on those who deserve judgement in the way that his mercy is guaranteed for those who choose to come to him. The safety of the remnant even though they will go through hard times. It's just our enlarging of God and his character and his worthiness to be worshipped. It's good for the heart, isn't it?
Felicity: It's good for the heart, I agree. And I think we get it in the last verse here of chapter four. You will devote, you see he's kind of talking about how the tables will be turned, isn't it? And we have the reversal. You will break to pieces many nations. The nations have been breaking you, but you will break them to You will devote their ill -gotten and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth and by this point we're seeing this is not just it's not just geographic it's not just geographical is it this is this is kind of universal, it's kind of, it goes on into eternity and it spreads the whole earth. So the Lord and his character, the impact of who he is, is significant for everyone.
Sarah: And his purposes of gathering and scattering, as I think we see in these chapters, like we do see him scattering the people in exile and gathering them again and actually just that verse six of chapter four, in that day I’ll gather the lame, I'll assemble the exile, I'll make the lame my remnant. And you think of all the pictures in the Gospels of Jesus deliberately moving towards the lame, deliberately moving towards those who cannot, those who are helpless, those who are in need. And just that beautiful picture of this covenant God in the flesh, kind of living this out and drawing people to himself because he is the temple. And I just think, yeah, you start to think of that and it starts to blow your mind. Jesus says, you don't need to worship on a specific mountain or specific temple anymore. You worship in spirit and truth because you're worshipping Jesus. He's it. And just it starts to, I'm getting all excited. It's fleshing it out.
Felicity: Yeah, it is, absolutely. And I think something that's really struck me this week has been just that the king this picture of the king is not separated from the people. So there's a lot about the people here, isn't there? And we're gonna see more of that in coming chapters. But as we're understanding more of who God is, we're also understanding more of who we are as God's people and what our position is, but also who we are to reflect. And it is huge, big mind blowing stuff.
Sarah: so cool though isn't it? I'm so in this.. I'm all about Micah right now. Felicity, why don't you pray for us as we close?
Felicity: Okay I'd love to. Father we praise you so much that you are a God like no other. Thank you that you show us so clearly who you are and as we see the different facets of what's going on in these chapters we're all the more persuaded that you are right and good and just and merciful and that you gather and that we what can we do but worship you? And so we pray that as we're in Micah that you would give us a real clear view of who you are that we might be moved to worship, that we would be moved to love you more and to just be delighted that we are your people. Help us to love that and to walk that and to live that for your glory. Amen.
Sarah: What a gift of time in the word together. A reminder that we have a resources page on our website where you can find links to things that we are recommending particularly we recommended Kathleen Nielsen's talk a couple of times and a commentary by Dale Ralph Davies and other things that have helped us get into Micah. We have worked hard over the summer to get into this book together we've had many conversations before pressing record we've been really thankful for other people's wisdom on it and that resources page is kind a summary of the starting point of where you can go deeper into this book as well. We look forward to getting into chapter five of Micah next time. We hope you'll continue to join us and we look forward to seeing you next Friday for that. Bye bye.
Felicity: See you then. This episode is sponsored by the ESV Bible app.