Flight MNH01 - Part A

Do you ever wonder if your trials are worth all the pain? Or do you ever wonder, is this hardship, this trial leading to something?

Is there a purpose behind it? And of course, the answer is, yes, God has a plan. It can be easy to get discouraged and lose hope in the midst of trials.

But as Skip shares today on Connect with Skip Hytech, God's plans never fail, and He always has a plan. Now, here's a resource that will help you understand and articulate the path to real lasting freedom in Jesus. Freedom is precious, and in human history not common in governance. America was built on the cornerstone that man is endowed by his creator with rights that cannot be taken away. Our government was formed to secure existing rights, not provide them. But there is a higher, permanent liberty, the freedom from sin. If you want to fix a society, they need truth.

If you want to fix a broken political system, you need to infuse it with truth and expose ourselves to the truth of the Word of God. True freedom is ours, but we need to understand the terms. That's what you'll find in our freedom package of resources by Skip Hytech. The package features Skip's ten full-length message set of your path to freedom messages, including Securing the Foundations and Jesus in the Age of Confusion. The freedom package is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Hytsig.

So request your freedom package today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888. Now, let's turn to the book of Micah as Skip begins today's lesson. Tonight, Micah, Nahum, and Habakkuk. And I will get to the proper pronunciation of that in a little bit. But if you were tomorrow to announce to your co-workers and say, last night I went to church to study Micah, Nahum, and Habakkuk, they might think you're on drugs. Or they might think you're referring to drugs. You know, like I took a little Micah and Habakkuk for my Nahumitis or something. These are not normal words.

They're not normal names. And unfortunately, many of us believers are not familiar with their message. If I were to give a theme to these three books, and since I'm covering them all in one fell swoop in our Bible from 30,000 Feet Survey, I'm going to do that. I'm going to give it a theme, a title.

There's a song that encapsulated the theme of this section, these three books. It would be, Hey Judah. Hey Judah, don't make it bad. Because principally, all of these three prophets had something to do with Judah. Even though Micah does mention Samaria, the northern kingdom, as well as the southern kingdom, he only mentions the northern kingdom, more as an example to the southern kingdom that they, the south, not be like the north. So the theme is Judah.

Hey Judah. These three were God's representatives to that southern kingdom. Micah speaks to the commoners of Judah, the average folk, the common folk, the man or woman on the street.

Nahum speaks to the collective audience of some nobles, as well as the commoners. And then Habakkuk is God's message to a clergyman of Judah, a spiritual representative. The theme of Micah is God is moving. God is moving. God is moving.

The theme of Nahum is the Ninevites are going. And the theme of Habakkuk is the Babylonians are coming. All to Judah principally, God is moving, the Ninevites are going, the Babylonians are coming.

God is moving. God is moving in judgment, first of all, in the book of Micah. He promises to act on the earth, intervene in human history, judge because of sin that is going on in the camp of the Jewish people. But eventually, like so many of the other prophets predicted, afterwards there will be a glorious restoration. That's the theme of the book of Micah. The book of Nahum is the Ninevites are going. Now you remember there was another book where a prophet was sent to Nineveh.

His name was Jonah. Some time has passed. We'll notice what is going on when we get to that. But this book is essentially to comfort Judah that her long-standing archenemy, who is now at a place of strength and power, they've turned against God, they're hassling those in Judah, that they're on their way out.

It would comfort them. Then finally, the Babylonians are coming. It's a strange message that has an undergirding of faith as the key component, and that's the book of Habakkuk.

We'll get to that as our third study. In the book of Micah, as we begin, let me pose a question. Do you ever wonder if your trials are worth all the pain? Or do you ever wonder, is this hardship, this trial, leading to something? Is there a purpose behind it?

Of course, the answer is yes, God has a plan. So you get a theme as you go through this first book of Micah. Micah Yahu is his Hebrew pronunciation.

Micah or Micah Yahu means who is like God. But there's some things going on. They have enemies that are oppressing them. They have rulers that are hassling them.

And they have wealthy people who are exploiting them. Those are the themes. That's sort of the background that's going on. Verse one of the book of Micah begins, the word of the Lord that came to Micah of Morashath. Now, Morashath is not a town where a pop singer named Alanis came from. This is not Mora Seth, it's Morashath, which is or was a town about 20 miles from Jerusalem, 20 miles to the southwest in what is called today the Philistine country. One of our tour days, we'd like to go through the area of where the Philistines occupied the land. And he is from that fertile area of Morashath, 20 miles to the south west of Jerusalem. So the word of the Lord came to Micah of Morashath in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear all you peoples, listen, O earth, and all that is in it. Let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. For behold, the Lord is coming out of this place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth like a warrior swooping down, or maybe better yet, an eagle swooping down on its prey.

God will come to judge. The mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split like wax before the fire like waters pour down to a steep place. It sort of sounds like Psalm 97. In your presence, Lord, the mountains melt like wax, a song we used to sing around here many years ago.

With that theme, he takes it up. Verse 5, all this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? Samaria, the chief city, the capital city, the main city of the northern kingdom. And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem, the main city, the chief city, the headquarters city, the principal city of the southern kingdom? So Samaria and Jerusalem. Because of the idolatry of Assyria, the Assyrians are of Samaria. The Assyrians will swoop down 722 BC and take captive the northern kingdom.

We've covered this so many times. It's now ingrained into your collective memory. So because that happened in 722 BC, we can figure that this prophet probably gave his message around 740 BC, maybe 20 years, maybe 15 years before it actually happened. Judah will be spared for another century and a half. Eventually, they'll go into Babylonian captivity. But the northern kingdom will serve as a warning to the southern kingdom. But the northern kingdom will serve as a warning to the southern kingdom. But he's pointing now to the very centers of the kingdoms, Samaria and Jerusalem. They are companions in sin.

They're destined to be companions in judgment, although removed by about 150 years. The cities are named for this reason. They are the centers of influence for the rest of the land. Whatever happens in Jerusalem is significant. What happens in Morashath isn't as significant. It's a little podunk town compared to a large influential city. The heartbeat of the southern kingdom is Jerusalem.

The heartbeat of the northern kingdom is Samaria. Very similar to today, the centers of influence in the United States are East Coast and West Coast. Business owners of large corporations will often use the middle of the country to test the product because they say if it fails in middle America, it won't be as big of a deal as if it fails in Los Angeles or New York.

Because as those cities are, LA and New York, so go the rest of the country. These are our major influential areas, and they influence the rest of the country. So the idea is my people, the nation, north and south are rotten to the core.

In the very center of the nation itself, the center, the head, the heartbeat goes to all the rest of the country. I remember a few years back, I love apples, and I eat a few a day. I took a bite of an apple, and as I looked down, I noticed a wormhole. I didn't see any penetration on the outside of the skin, so I noticed a wormhole, which only meant one thing.

I had eaten, I had swallowed the worm. Because you probably know this, worms don't come from the outside through the skin. They begin in the core. Actually, they begin in the blossom. The eggs are laid and hatched in the core. The worm grows and works its way from the center toward the periphery, finally penetrating the edge. The fact that there was no penetration, the fact that the wormhole was there but no worm could only mean one thing. It was lodged in me somewhere. I was the worm carrier now.

It's not the first time I've eaten worms before, which probably explains a lot of my weirdness, but Israel is rotten to the core is the idea. Now, the book is laid out in a legal fashion, like a legal summons. Chapters 1 and 2 form the first summons, 3, 4, and 5, the second legal summons, and chapters 6 and 7, the third legal summons. And you can tell the beginning of this legal summons by the same words, and that is here, the word here. So look at verse 2 of chapter 1, hear all you peoples, like hear ye, hear ye, as the town is getting an announcement. If you go over to chapter 3, and I said, hear now, O heads of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel. If you go to chapter 6, where it begins, hear now what the Lord says, arise, plead your case before the mountains, et cetera.

So let's, with that in mind, that's the layout. Let's go back to chapter 2 now, verse 2. Speaking of the oppression of the people, they covet fields and take them by violence, also houses and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. This is the upper class oppressing the lower class.

This is the wealthy oppressing the poor, the haves versus the have-nots. Therefore, thus says the Lord, behold, against this family, I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, nor shall you walk haughtily, for this is an evil time. Now, do you remember, back in the law, the first five books of Moses, the Pentateuch, the Torah, God made a provision in the law to protect the people who were landowners, or if they lost their land, or if they became slaves.

God knew that you could fall on tough times. You'd have to sell your land, and you wouldn't own it anymore. It would go to another family, even of another tribe.

But how do you keep the land that was given to a certain tribe within the tribal allotment, if you have to sell it? Or you could become so poor that you would have to indenture yourself as a servant. That was biblical slavery. You were employed by a master.

The master would take care of you. It was a way out of extreme poverty. Well, the way to get out of poverty and the way to get your land back was something called a Jubilee year. So you would plant, and you would harvest for six years. The seventh year, you would do nothing. The land would grow by itself.

You would just, by faith, for one year, live off the land. Every seven cycles of the Sabbatic year was a year called the year of Yovel. Yovel is a ram's horn.

You blow the ram's horn. The year of Yovel, or Jubilee. On the Jubilee year, which was the seventh of the Sabbatic years in a row, you follow? It was the seventh cycle.

Something happened on that year. All debts were canceled, man. All of the debts were canceled.

You don't owe anything more. If you lost land, you get it back into your family and tribe. If you're a slave, you go free automatically. That's how God protected the land.

But by now, the wealthy were taking advantage and exploiting those in poverty. A classic example of that is in 1 Kings 21, one of the kings of Israel by the name of Ahab saw a vineyard that was next to his palace up in the valley of Jezreel that belonged to a guy named Naboth. And he just, the king's like, oh man, what a good looking vineyard that is. I really want it. So King Ahab goes to Naboth, the vineyard owner, and goes, hey, give me your vineyard. I'll give you good money for it. You name your price, I'll buy it. Or I'll trade you for a better vineyard, a bigger vineyard, a more glorious, verdant vineyard than yours.

And Naboth correctly said, hey man. I don't know if he said, hey man, but he said, your majesty, I don't want to sell it. I don't want to get rid of it. It's part of my family allotment.

God forbid that I should lose it. So King Ahab goes back home. His wife comes to see him, Jezebel. And she sees the king with his head down, sulking. And she said, what up, king?

And he goes, man, I really want that vineyard that Naboth has, but he won't sell it to me. And she says, basically, man up. You're the king.

You can have whatever you want. And so she says, I'll take care of it. So she proclaims a fast and then a feast and gets two scoundrels to sit next to Naboth. And when the fast is broken, they would accuse him of blaspheming the king, which they did. And they then took him out and stoned him to death. The king then stole his vineyard. That's how King Ahab got the vineyard. And everything was hunky dory until Elijah the prophet came along and busted him. But that is a classic example of what this prophet is saying is going on in the land.

The rich are oppressing the poor. Chapter three, verse five, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets, who make my people stray, who chant peace while they chew with their teeth, but who prepare war against him who puts nothing in their mouths. They're eating well, but they're devouring the people who have nothing.

So there's two dangers going on. There's wolves on the outside. There are false shepherds on the inside. Therefore, verse six, you shall have night without vision. You shall have darkness without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets and the day shall be dark for them. So the seers shall be ashamed, the diviners abased. Indeed, they shall all cover their lips for there is no answer from God. The seers wouldn't see. The prophets wouldn't be able to portend or predict or foretell the future. God wouldn't speak to them any longer.

That day was over. And it would come, it was coming, from among their own ranks. There were false shepherds. This reminds me of Paul, the apostle, when he had that last meeting, remember in Acts chapter 20 with the Ephesian elders, he called them to the shores of Miletus and he got them together and he said, look, I'm leaving.

I'm not going to ever see your face again. I'm going to Jerusalem. But I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in and destroy this flock, not sparing the flock.

Even some from among your own ranks will devour the flock. That was happening in ancient Israel. Go down to verse 12. Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed like a field. Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins.

That's the Babylonian captivity, 586 BC, and the mountain of the temple like the bare hills of the forest. Israel began as one nation under God. That's how they started. It was a true theocracy. The center of their community was the tabernacle, later on the temple.

That was where everything took place. Everything revolved around their worship of God. They were one nation under God. The United States began as one nation under God. And I'm not trying to equate the theocratic kingdom of Israel with something similar in the United States. I know some do that.

I don't. But nonetheless, we started as one nation under God. That's what we declared. That's part of what we say. One nation under God. The back of our bills, the back of our money says, in God we trust. But do we? Are we operating the same way that our founding fathers operated when this nation was developed?

Hardly. I want you to listen to a document from 1643. This is part of the Constitution of the New England Confederation, before it became these United States. And I quote, whereas we all come into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel in purity and with peace. That was then. It ain't now. In God we trust?

I don't think so. Maybe in gold we trust, or for some in government we trust, but not in God we trust. What's great about this book is that's not all she wrote. That's not all he wrote. The prophet Micah continues after God is moving and he's moving in judgment, it doesn't end there. There's some messianic promises that follow.

Chapter 4, verse 1. This will be familiar to you. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days. That's a technical phrase, by the way.

That does not work. That term latter days. It appears 21 times in the Scriptures. It'll come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it. Mountain in Scripture is sometimes literal, sometimes figurative.

I think in this case it is both. There is a Mount Zion in Jerusalem, but this mountain, this peak of God's work on the earth is seen figuratively in Mount Zion, the Jewish people. Many nations shall come and say, and that word nations is goi, Gentile nations, nations other than the nation of Israel. Many Gentile nations shall come and say, come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion, the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series, The Bible from 30,000 Feet.

Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Right now, here's Skip and Lenya to share some exciting news about a trip to the Holy Land. I'm guessing that many of you have thought about, talked about, maybe even dreamed about visiting Israel.

Well, let's make that happen. Lenya and I are taking a tour group to Israel next summer in 2024. And I can't wait. We'll start in Tel Aviv, head north to Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in Jerusalem and see the Garden of Gethsemane, the Upper Room, and so much more. And we'll wrap it all up with a swim in the Dead Sea. Now, I've been to Israel many times, like over 40. In fact, I can honestly say, though, that visiting the places where the Scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived out his earthly ministry, it never gets old.

No, it doesn't. The incredible sightseeing will be punctuated by times of worship and teachings that you'll never forget. And Jeremy Camp and Adie Camp will be with us to lead worship. Make plans to join us next summer in Israel. See the itinerary and book this Israel tour with Skip Heitig and Jeremy Camp today at InspirationCruises.com slash C-A-B-Q.

That's InspirationCruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Tomorrow on Connect with Skip Heitig. Skip talks about the messianic prophecy found in Micah. Connect with Skip Heitig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.