Episode 3: A God who melts mountains (chapter 1)

This little Bible book packs a mountain-melting punch within the first few lines. Join us as we get going in our bible study podcast with Micah chapter 1 and see why God is splitting valleys and reducing cities to rubble.

• Questions to Dig into over a Cup of Tea

  1. How do the pictures in chapter one help communicate the reality of judgement?

  2. Why is Micah weeping and wailing?

  3. How does this chapter help me to see God rightly?

• Sponsorship Details

  This episode is sponsored by Open the Bible.

  Open the Bible exist to open the Bible with people, equip them to open the Bible for themselves and with others so everyone everywhere can experience the transformative power of God’s Word.

  We recommend their latest book, ‘Fly Through the Bible’; a short, simple journey through the Bible’s story. Why not pick up a copy at 10ofThose and use our exclusive discount code TEA40.

  Open the Bible UK’s website also has a free video-based small group guide, and a mobile app to accompany the book.

• Episode Transcript

  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 in a cup of tea.

   You're listening to the Two Sisters in 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 for a while or have just found us, we're so pleased you're here.

   Felicity: Today’s episode is sponsored by Open the Bible UK, an online ministry bringing you accessible multimedia resources to equip you to open the Bible for yourself and with others. Whether you want to listen to inspiring Bible teaching, enjoy short daily Bible reflections or be equipped to serve in your local church, there is something for everyone. I've particularly enjoyed their latest book, Fly Through the Bible by Colin Smith, a short simple journey through the Bible story. Open the Bible UK's website also has a free video based small group guide and a mobile app to accompany the book. Take the journey on your own with an inquiring friend or as a small group. To find out more go to openthebible.org.uk that's openthebible.org.uk 

  Welcome to Two Sisters and a Cup of Tea. My name is Felicity and I'm here with my sister Sarah and we are both in England which is unusual because usually I'm one side of the Atlantic. And we are excited to be continuing in our Micah journey. We're gonna be getting into Micah chapter one. Sarah, I feel like your cup of tea is wafting nice smells to me. 

  Sarah: What a word, wafting. It is amazing. I'm really enjoying my cup of tea. We had the privilege of visiting family in Australia this summer and this is Australian tea no less. So this is a nod to our Australian listeners. It's a tea called Tea Two. It was a very nice tea shop. One of those ones where you're like saying to the kids, no touching shop. No touching shop as you go round. This one's called Southern Sunrise and I’m really enjoying it. I bought a box of a kind of selection box. Sadly there's only one of each bag in the box so that's it. 

  Felicity: That is sad, especially as they are in Australia so once you've drunk it that's it. 

  Sarah: This is my Southern Sunrise experience. I’m really enjoying it and sharing it with you. 
  
  Felicity: I can actually smell it I mean that's different isn't it doesn't happen through a screen 

  Sarah: So last week we can have just started to get our heads around Micah and what it might look like to get into this book together and what we probably didn't touch on or we probably did a tiny bit but not enough was the fact that this is a prophecy written hundreds of years ago and I don't know about you but these can often feel like dusty old books. Why could they possibly have something to say to us in the 21st century? That's one of our big questions we need to wrestle with with a book that's been written hundreds of years ago, isn't it? Can you just help us think that through a little bit? I know that's like a massive question!

  Felicity: I'm sure there's like a Bible course on just that question. 

  Sarah: Give us a snapshot of why not just believing knowledge about people who lived hundreds of years ago, but why this is actually going to apply to us in the 21st century. 

  Felicity: Yeah, because it's a fundamental question, isn't it? Why do we want to read Micah? Not just to gain knowledge, but actually because God is speaking to us as well. But in order to hear him rightly for us, we need to first of all hear him rightly for them then. And it's maybe just a starting point is to think there's actually two different groups of people here. We've got them then, so Micah's original audience, who are a remnant of God's people who are listening. And so they are the people who have heard God's promises back, Genesis chapter 12, Abraham's promises. And those promises are for them and the faithfulness of God is kind of evident in those promises and gradually they are being fulfilled but the big picture of salvation those promises the ultimate fulfilment of them happens in the new creation, so these people the remnant are in a quite a different spot in terms of salvation history in comparison to us so we are also not at the end point we're not in the new creation but we are this side of the cross. So we have Jesus' life, death and resurrection between us and them. And Jesus actually changes how we hear what Micah is saying. So for these guys, them then, back then, they hear these promises and they see what God is saying that he's going to do and they have yet to fully see that come to fruition. So they would see this picture of the shepherd king and they would think, okay, this sounds very much like the king that we've been promised, the kind of Davidic promise. We hear this and we see it and we say, hang on, this looks very much like Jesus. And we know therefore that Jesus is God's king. We still have yet to see the complete picture of that, but we're then able to hear it just in that context. And so it's just a little bit different. That's a very simplified version of it. We're gonna get into more detail on it as we go through, aren't we?

  Sarah: As we walk through the book we will see what it looks like to apply this but I think it's just helpful to kind of have that in our mind isn't it? The reminder that this is written to this remnant, we're in a different spot because of the cross, but it is applicable and it is going to drive to our hearts and we're looking forward to seeing what that cashes out. 

  Felicity: And because it's the same God, it's the same God then, the same God now and that's just, that's it, isn't it? We're going to see God. Brilliant. 

  Sarah: Okay. Okay, so we're going to get into chapter one. As we say at the beginning of each season, we are reading from the NIV translation of the Bible together. And as we also say, we choose to pray before we press record at the beginning of each episode. We're very aware that we need the Lord's help, we desperately need the Holy Spirit to give us insight and understanding into what's being written here, but we have already prayed before we pressed record and so I'm now going to read the passage for us. So Micah chapter one.

  The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear, you peoples, all of you, listen, earth and all who live in it, that the sovereign Lord may bear witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. Look, the Lord is coming from his dwelling place. He comes down and treads on the heights of the earth. The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart. Like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope. All this is because of Jacob's transgression, because of the sins of the people of Israel. What is Jacob's transgression? Is it not Samaria? What is Judah's high place? Is it not Jerusalem? Therefore, I will make Samaria a heap of rubble, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour her stones into the valley and lay bare her foundations. All her idols will be broken to pieces. All her temple gifts will be burned with fire. I will destroy all her images. Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes, as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used. Because of this, I will weep and wail. I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and moan. For Samaria's plague is incurable. It has spread to Judah. It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself. Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all. In Beth -Ophrah, roll in the dust. Pass by naked and in shame you who live in Sapphira. Those who live in Zanan will not come out. Beth-Ezel is in mourning. It is no longer protects you. Those who live in Maroth writhe in pain, waiting for relief, because disaster has come from the Lord even to the gate of Jerusalem. You who live in Lachish harness fast horses to the chariot. You are where the sin of daughter Zion began, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. Therefore, you will give parting gifts to Morhsheth Gath. The town of Aksib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel. I will bring a conqueror against you who live in Masha. The nobles of Israel will flee to Adulim. Shave your head in mourning for the children in whom you delight. Make yourself as bold as the vulture for they will go from you into exile. 

  Felicity: Well done Sarah. I mean there's a lot of names in there. You handled that well. We'll get into the fact that the names aren't just kind of there for the sake of it, although there is actually something going on with that, but I think that is probably the hardest chapter of Micah that you've just nailed it. Well done. Is it worth just recapping a little bit? We have in this first verse here, the information really about Micah that we need to know that he is speaking, he's preaching during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. And so he's speaking to a very particular context. got Assyria championing at the bit to come and take down the Southern Kingdom, Jerusalem, really kind of where he is. So he is in the Southern Kingdom speaking to the people there. 

  Sarah: Speaking and speaking against them. That's the interesting thing, isn't it, in verse one and two concerning Samaria and Jerusalem and that he may bear witness against them from his holy temple. So already we've got this picture of the Lord in his holy temple. Holy holy holy God and he's speaking against a people and he's right to do so. 

  Felicity: Yes, and all of you, like verse two there, you peoples, all of you, listen earth and all who live in it. So no one is exempt from what is being described here, which actually for the original audience would have been a bit of a surprise because the Northern Kingdom, Samaria, which kind of represented the Northern Kingdom, they're renowned for just having gone the wrong way. Idolatry is rife and actually they've been carried off by Assyria. So I reckon that these guys, Jerusalem guys, are like, yeah, but we're not the Northern Kingdom. So we're probably all right and here we have actually all people. This is relevant for you. 

  Sarah: And it's imagery that truly does make you tremble doesn't it? When you just kind of take like just reading that again the mountains melt beneath him the valley split apart like wax before a fire like water rushing down a slope like that just image of how powerful God is. The mountains melt beneath him. He's coming in judgment. He's coming in in righteous judgment against all the adultery that's been going on before him the way that they have forsaken him for false gods, idols, and for worthless things. I think, yeah, that as we were saying last week, the poetry, the language, the pictures are there to make you tremble. They're there to kind of instill that in you, aren't they? 

  Felicity: Yeah, along with the tremble -worthy pictures, there's also this sense of God coming down. Like you just mentioned a minute ago, the idea that God is high. And actually, not only is God coming down, but he is razing the mountains to the ground, like everything is being brought down. When he says, will make Samaria a heap of rubble, there's nothing left, there's nothing that's worthy of being saved here. And it's just really poignant, I think, in verse five, all this because of Jacob's translation, because of the sins of the people of Israel. This is judgment. Sin has brought about God's justice and that is a terrifying thing, but that is also a good thing. We're going to kind of explore that a bit more as we go through this, but that is, we don't want sin to go unpunished and here it's very clear that sin does bring about wrath. 

  Sarah: Yes, and then Micah responds, doesn't he himself in verse eight, because of this I will weep and wail, I will go about barefoot and naked and again these amazing images I'll howl like a jackal and moan like an owl, just that kind of visceral image of what it is to mourn this sin and this kind of upcoming judgment because of that. It's really powerful, isn't it? And he's mourning, he's lamenting because this is infectious. He's saying this, you the plague of idolatry is incurable and it's spreading to Judah, isn't it? And then we have this extraordinary kind of list of names and list of towns and he walks through each town, doesn't he? What's interesting about the names, Felicity? What's picked up? Because there's a lot of footnotes. What do they tell us? 

  Felicity: Well, we see in the names actually a reflection of the judgment that is coming. So if we just pick up one example in verse 10, get Beth -Ophrah will roll in the dust, but actually that name, Beth -Ophrah, means house of dust. So it's almost like this judgment brings about a fulfilment of the names that have been given to you. And actually geographically, if you look at these on a map, they're almost circling in, getting closer and closer to Jerusalem. It's kind of very evident that the cross hairs are on God's people. There's no escape from what's going on here because disaster, verse 12, has come from the Lord, even to the gate of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is the site of the temple. This is surely not Jerusalem. And so there's just, And I think there's a real challenge in the way that Micah responds to it. The challenge to the original hearers, like, they bothered about what they're saying around that? Do they realize the extent of it. Exactly, exactly, and to lament what you see around you. And there's a challenge as well to us, like we can carry that through, I think, to us as we look at the world around us. What is our response to that? Like, are we bothered, by the sin and by just the brokenness of the world. And yeah, I think that's been something that's sat with me. 

  Sarah: It did actually, I, yeah, it's, we've got this question we're gonna come through again and again of how does this drive to Jesus, but this did remind me of Jesus outside the gates of Jerusalem when he was in anguish for the city, when he was kind of grieving over the lostness of the city of God, wasn't he? And Micah does kind of seem to foreshadow that and kind of show us something of God's heart, doesn't he? In the way that he's lamenting over the sin, but also that it's also the rightness of the judgment, isn't it, that is coming. And I think as we begin to drive this to our own hearts, just being able to, as you've been saying, actually, this is written to the remnant and for them, judgment is a comfort as they look around and see the sin riddled world and the corruption and everything that we're going to be getting into more in chapter two but it is a comfort to know that they worship a God who judges, who is holy and who will not let sin go unpunished and so that should help us to feel the comfort as well. 

  Felicity: Yes and I think that is something that we have to kind of actually work quite hard to really grasp that and accept that don't we and I think we're going to see as we go on in Micah that this is a sin riddled place and leadership is corrupt and everything. So the remnant are most likely persecuted, marginalized, and so there is a sense of the sin is coming to bite them as well. They are guilty of the sin as well, but it would be a relief to know that they worship a God who's gonna deal with those who are just causing pain really. yeah, it's a one we sit in the safety of the cross as we read of the judgment and we tremble from the point of view if we know that Jesus has taken this wrath, this punishment. 
  
  Sarah: We don’t want to get there to early, do . We don’t want to neutralise with the cross each time oh it’s ok we’ve got Jesus. We want to sit in it enough this by getting to to all the people's, listen earth and all who live in it, that the Lord is holy and he's coming down from his dwelling place to judge because he needs to and it is right that he does that and asking the Holy Spirit to help me to sit in that and to feel the weight of that before I rush to the cross to see his mercy delivered. 

  Felicity: Yeah I think that's absolutely right and that's going to be our challenge as we go through, to allow ourselves to sit in it enough to feel it and to understand it. And I think then that is the question, so where it hits our hearts, because we're always seeking to drive it to the heart, aren't we? And actually taking a good, eyes -open look at the Lord here. This is the God we worship. He is the God of justice. He's a God who hates sin and we tremble before him. And that is a right fear of God, isn't it, in that. And rather than, as you say, sort of neutralizing it too quickly or trying to diminish it a bit to be able to make it bit more manageable, but actually just take a good look this is our God. 

  Sarah: Yeah I think that's right we tremble before him but we don't tremble in dread because if we're in Jesus we can come and tremble before him in just a kind of growing awe. 

  Felicity: Like an understanding of him.  

  Sarah: Yeah am I grasping that my God this God of the Bible is the God who melts mountains. This God is the one who is worthy above all else to judge because he is holy. Yeah I think just that kind of trembling but in a good way isn't it?  

  Felicity: Yeah I think that's exactly it. 

  Sarah: Growing in our view of him. That's what, as we've been saying, Marker's name, who is a god like you? already we're seeing this is a god who is worthy of us trembling before him in awe of what he needs to do and what he will do towards a sin -filled world. 

  Felicity: Yeah, absolutely. And just a note at the end there, we do get a slight hint of where salvation history is going, don't we? For they will go from you into exile. Ultimately, what's going to happen is Assyria, the current superpower, they're gonna come to Jerusalem to siege, they're not gonna break it actually, but Babylon is not far away. And we're gonna get this idea of actually the judgment is real. It is gonna hit, it's gonna look like exile, but God's people are gonna be broken. 

  Sarah: There's something beyond, isn't there? 

  Felicity: So there's the reality of judgment, but that's not the end of the story. And Micah makes that really clear.  

  Sarah: Yeah, wait for next week to see what happens. Cliffhanger. Do you wanna pray for us?

  Felicity: Father, we thank you so much that you make yourself known to us. Thank you that we see this picture of you and we tremble. We tremble from the position of safety, but we tremble and rightly so. We pray that we would have a growing knowledge of you, understanding of you, awe of you. Please would you give us just a right view of you. We pray that we'd have our eyes wide open as we're in this book. Pray that we would love to know that you're a God who brings justice and that is a good and a right thing. Please help us to sit with that, to love that and to praise you more as a result. Amen.

  Sarah: Well wow first chapter there's so much that we want to keep talking about here this is just the starter of the conversation as we always say and we would love to be helping more people to get their Bibles open in everyday life so who can you tell about the podcast who can you ask to read Micah with and do share this episode share this season if you're finding it an exciting thing to come into Micah with us we would love to be sharing this with more people and we look forward to getting into chapter two next Friday and we hope you'll join us then. We'll see you then.

  Felicity: We'll see you then.

  This episode is sponsored by Open the Bible UK.
  

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