Predictions You Can Count On

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
(Yogi Berra)

 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— ²² when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
(Deuteronomy 18:21-22, ESV; cf. Deuteronomy 13:1-5)

 Micah

1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. (Micah 1:1, ESV)

750 B.C.    Micah’s ministry begins

-> 722 B.C. Samaria & Israel fall to Assyria

-> 701 B.C. Jerusalem is sieged, but does not fall

700 B.C.    Micah’s ministry ends

-> 586 B.C. Jerusalem & Judah fall to Babylon

² Hear, you peoples, all of you;
     pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and let the Lord God be a witness against you,
     the Lord from his holy temple.
³ For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place,
     and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
⁴ And the mountains will melt under him,
     and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
     like waters poured down a steep place.
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?
And what is the high place of Judah?
     Is it not Jerusalem?
⁶ Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
     a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones into the valley
     and uncover her foundations.
⁷ All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
     all her wages shall be burned with fire,
     and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
     and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
⁸ For this I will lament and wail;
     I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
     and mourning like the ostriches.
⁹ For her wound is incurable,
     and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
     to Jerusalem. (Micah 1:2-9, ESV)

What are the lessons for us? The predictions we can count on? 

1. God eventually will bring on nations that intentionally and stubbornly dishonor him.

Therefore thus says the Lord:
behold, against this family I am devising disaster,
     from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk haughtily,
     for it will be a time of disaster. (Micah 2:3, ESV) 

2. Like God’s ancient people, we will be tempted to ignore or God’s message of judgment.

“Do not preach”—thus they preach—
     “one should not preach of such things;
     disgrace will not overtake us.” (Micah 2:6, ESV)

If a liar and deceiver comes and says,
     ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’
     that would be just the prophet for this people!
     (Micah 2:11, NIV)

3. God requires more of us than perfunctory religious ritual; he requires , faith, and a life by his love and grace. 

⁶ “With what shall I come before the Lord,
     and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
     with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
     with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
     the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good;
     and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
     and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8, ESV)

4. Even if God’s judgment comes to our nation, God will one day gather his faithful to himself; so, we should live confidently, joyfully, and obediently no matter the cost in the short term.

⁶ In that day, declares the Lord,
     I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away
     and those whom I have afflicted;
⁷ and the lame I will make the remnant,
     and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion
     from this time forth and forevermore. (Micah 4:6-7, ESV)

5. Jesus, the Messiah, will one day come again to defeat his enemies, to gather his people, and to rule and to reign; so we should and follow the Lord Jesus wholeheartedly.

² But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
     who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
     one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
     from ancient days. …

⁴ And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
     in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
     to the ends of the earth.
⁵ And he shall be their peace. (Micah 5:2, 4-5a, ESV)