Micah 5:3-5

Everything is under the orchestration of God. He is the mighty Maestro. Perfect in all His ways. Nothing has been left to chance. We are His creation. All things work out for those who love and trust in Him alone. With the Father, in Jesus Christ and in the unity of the Holy Spirit we are saved.

God is love..faithful and true with no beginning and no end.

The future of Israel is pictured here in terms of the birth, life, and ministry of the Savior King. The two advents of the Savior are seen as one event by Micah. Whereas verse 2 speaks of the birth of the Savior in His First Coming, verses 3–5 speak of the time of the rule of Jesus in the Second Coming.

Micah 5:3-5

³      Therefore He shall give them up,

Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth;

Then the remnant of His brethren

Shall return to the children of Israel.

⁴ And He shall stand and feed His flock

In the strength of the Lord,

In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God;

And they shall abide,

For now He shall be great

To the ends of the earth;

⁵ And this One shall be peace.

¹⁸ Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. 

Micah 7:18

⁸ He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. 

Psalm 72:8

³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 

Luke 1:32

⁶ For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Isaiah 9:6

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” 

Luke 2:14

¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 

Ephesians 2:14

²⁰ and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 

Colossians 1:20

Zephaniah 1:2-3

Sin is so entwined in fallen mans’ DNA that left on his own he will self destruct. It takes a catastrophic event  (911) for Christians to lay aside their differences and concentrate on someone other than themselves. Even then it is short lived. It grieves God’s heart when we cast aside His commands to love Him and to love and care for others. Hatred and love can not coexist. Without God…history repeats itself over and over.

Without a real change brought about by the very Spirit of God within us we are devoid of hope.

It was the “turn back to God” part of Zephaniah’s message that offered a ray of hope. And to those who listened and responded to his call, the good news wiped out every line of bad. God would restore those who sought Him.

Stumbling blocks are substitutes for God in the life and affections of a person.

Zephaniah 1:2-3

²      “I will utterly consume everything

From the face of the land,”

Says the Lord;

³ “I will consume man and beast;

I will consume the birds of the heavens,

The fish of the sea,

And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.

I will cut off man from the face of the land,”

Says the Lord.

¹³ “I will surely consume them,” says the Lord. “No grapes shall be on the vine, Nor figs on the fig tree, And the leaf shall fade; And the things I have given them shall pass away from them.” ’ ” 

Jeremiah 8:13

³ Therefore the land will mourn; And everyone who dwells there will waste away With the beasts of the field And the birds of the air; Even the fish of the sea will be taken away. 

Hosea 4:3

Now  I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.  Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” ⁵ Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” ⁶ And He said to me, ^l“It is done! ^mI am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 

Revelation 21:1–6

1 Corinthians 15:3-8

In order for the Holy Spirit to work in us we must believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him and the truth of Jesus Christ. We must by faith believe that Jesus came to this world, He died for our sins, and He was lifted up by the power of the Holy Spirit and was seen by many after His resurrection.

Christ is a risen Savior today.

Christ lived and died in accordance with the prophecies about Him in the OT. At the time of Paul’s writing, a person could have verified the truthfulness of the apostle’s statements. The majority of the five hundred people who saw the risen Christ, as well as all the apostles and James (the half brother of Jesus), were still living. 

1 Corinthians 15:3-8

³ For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. ⁶ After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 

⁷ After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 

⁸ Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 

Isaiah 53:5

¹⁸ But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 

Acts 3:18

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. ¹⁰ For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. ¹¹ You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 

Psalm 16:9–11

² After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. 

Hosea 6:2

³¹ And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 

Mark 8:31

³ to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 

Acts 1:3

⁵⁰ And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 

Luke 24:50

Acts 13:38-39 and 13:47-48

There is hope for man through the Son Of God, Jesus Christ. Through Him and the salvation that He gave in His birth, death and resurrection we are saved. Praise God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit! ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

Justification is a legal term meaning “declared innocent” It is a legal declaration that a person is acquitted and absolved. It is by justification that a person is righteous and acceptable to God. The death of Christ was the payment of our sin debt, so that we might be forgiven.

The infectious news first appeared in Jerusalem, then spread quickly from person to person and from city to city. It faced opposition everywhere it went. But the world was ill-equipped to fight it. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the followers of Christ relayed the Good News about Jesus everywhere. In less than 35 years, the gospel had reached cities from Jerusalem to Rome.

Acts 13:38-39 and 13:47-48

³⁸ Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; ³⁹ and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

⁴⁷ For so the Lord has commanded us:

‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,

That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

³⁴ No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” 

Jeremiah 31:34

¹¹ He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 

Isaiah 53:11

⁶ Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” 

Isaiah 49:6

³² A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.” 

Luke 2:32

Romans 11:16-18

The Israelites were the roots of the Old Covenant  and from their root the Gospel of Jesus Christ was birthed. The Catholic Church, founded by Peter, became the New Covenant root of the Jewish believers in Christ. From this root and their successes and failures the birth of the Gentiles spread throughout the world.

The olive tree refers to Israel, those who inherited the promises of the Abrahamic covenant.

Gentiles, who have been grafted into the Abrahamic covenant and therefore become recipients of God’s blessing, should not boast. Gentile believers should not despise the Jews, the branches of God’s vine.

Paul intentionally stretches the analogy of grafting in order to communicate his point that Gentiles have been supernaturally connected to the family of God.

Romans 11:16-18

¹⁶ For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷ And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, ¹⁸ do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

¹² that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 

Ephesians 2:12

¹⁸ Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. 

James 1:18

² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 

John 15:2

³⁹ For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” 

Acts 2:39

Luke 10:29-37

Believers are without excuse. Who is our neighbor? Everyone. Not only in the USA but also, because of the information we have available to us, around God’s world. God so loved the world that He created that He gave His only begotten Son to to die for its’ redemption.

 We should be part of the solution not part of the problem.

This question was an attempt to limit the demands of the Law by suggesting that some people are neighbors while others are not. The lawyer was looking for minimal obedience while Jesus was looking for absolute obedience. The neighbor here was not someone the Samaritan knew or even someone of the same race, just someone in need.

The central issue is not determining who one’s neighbor is, but being a good neighbor to all.

Luke 10:29-37

²⁹ But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰ Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. ³³ But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. ³⁴ So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ ³⁶ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”

³⁷ And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. 

Luke 16:15

⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 

John 4:9

²¹ He who despises his neighbor sins; But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he. 

Proverbs 14:21

Joel 1:8-12

The turbulent times that we live in will only continue to escalate. We have not been good caretakers of the world that God created. We have destroyed what He created and labeled it progress. We have destroyed each other and called it good. Our enemies are not of blood and guts our enemies are Satan and his hordes who influence the decisions of mankind.

Man will be held accountable for his stewardship. God will judge.

Joy in Him is our only strength without Him there is no joy..

There is hope for man. That hope is Christ. We need to listen to the the Holy Spirit who is the only guide and teacher that man can internalize with promise. Christ within us is the hope of God’s glory.

We must judge our actions on His teaching while on earth and at the end…we will know in full all the things that we only know now in part.

Natural disasters—from rising flood waters to violent earthquakes—provoke fear and dread. With all their ingenuity, people still cannot control these powerful and destructive forces. They can only watch in awe. Joel begins his book with a description of such a natural disaster—a plague of ravenous locusts. In the prophet’s hands, the destructiveness of this plague becomes a vivid warning of the power of God’s coming judgment and a clear appeal to run to the Lord for mercy. 

Before Jesus ascended into heaven after His resurrection, He promised the disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit upon them. When this was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, Peter said, “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My spirit on all flesh’ ”. Peter attributed the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise directly to the prophecy in Joel 2:28–32.

Joel 1:8-12

⁸ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth

For the husband of her youth.

⁹ The grain offering and the drink offering

Have been cut off from the house of the Lord;

The priests mourn, who minister to the Lord.

¹⁰ The field is wasted,

The land mourns;

For the grain is ruined,

The new wine is dried up,

The oil fails.

¹¹ Be ashamed, you farmers,

Wail, you vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley;

Because the harvest of the field has perished.

¹² The vine has dried up,

And the fig tree has withered;

The pomegranate tree,

The palm tree also,

And the apple tree—

All the trees of the field are withered;

Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.

¹¹ They have made it desolate; Desolate, it mourns to Me; The whole land is made desolate, Because no one takes it to heart. 

Jeremiah 12:11

⁷ The new wine fails, the vine languishes, All the merry-hearted sigh. 

Isaiah 24:7

John 8:7-11

Compassion is sometimes lost in our Christian walk. 

We forget that the Lord, while never condoning sin, did not condemn those entrapped in it. With His words “go and sin no more” He offered new beginnings with mercy and grace. 

Jesus reserved His condemnation for the religious right who prided themselves in the OT letter of the law and not in the grace He offers through the NT. Although not living righteous themselves they condemned others doing the same. 

When we accept His salvation we are given a holy helper, the Holy Spirit, who will teach us and enable us to live in the richness of the New Covenant. He takes the things of Christ and breathes life into our existence.

John 8:7-11

⁷ So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” ⁸ And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. ¹⁰ When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

⁷ The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you. 

Deuteronomy 17:7

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. 

Romans 2:1

¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 

John 3:17

1 Chronicles 27:1-34

Goes into detail of the Military Divisions, Leaders of Tribes and other State Officials of the Israelites.

The view that fathers’ houses meant tribes is strengthened by the fact that there were 12 divisions, one for each month. Apparently a professional standing army is being described here, one broken up into 12 corps that served a month at a time on a rotating basis. 

Since there was no essential difference between the king and his state, the property of the king consisted of the assets of the nation.

Writing approximately when the Israelites returned from captivity, the chronicler wanted to emphasize the Israelites’ continuity with their past. The remnant was returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple because of the promises God had given to David many years before. God’s promises were still in effect—even though the people had been in exile.

The warriors and leaders were valiant people. They feared no one. They stood united to protect their King. Everyone had  a specific job to do in David’s Kingdom. 

Our present day gifts are to be used to build up the Body of Christ.

We no longer fight flesh and blood enemies, ours are spiritual. We must stand united in the power of the Holy Spirit against the demonic rulers of this world, against Satan and his hordes. Satan seeks to kill, steal from and devour anyone who seeks to hear the Word of God and the salvation that Jesus Christ alone offers to mankind.

Every time we stand up against violence and senseless killings, every time we strive to help others to get on their feet after he has stolen their hope, every time we reach out and snatch someone from his control through drugs, alcohol and poverty…we show the world that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. 

God owns the assets of everything…every little thing!

Love conquers all and Jesus uses HIS Body, the Church, and its’ leaders for good and not evil.

John 9:39

Open the eyes of our heart Lord…We want to see you!

The people that Jesus had the biggest issue with? The religious right and their arrogance and pride. They met Him face to face and did not know him. They thought it was all about them and their wants and desires, The Truth…it is all about Him!

Jesus did not come into the world to execute judgment. Nevertheless, the inevitable result of His coming is judgment, because some refuse to believe. As the light of the world, Jesus came that the blind might see and those who think they can see will be made blind.

John 9:39

³⁹ And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”

¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 

John 3:17

¹⁴ Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” 

Matthew 15:14

¹⁸ “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

John 3:18

²² For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, 

John 5:22

²⁷ and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. 

John 5:27