Micah: Prophetic Plot Twist

Welcome to the Caribbean Grace Chapel podcast, where we value the expository preaching and teaching of the Word of God for the purpose of life transformation.

Don't you love a good plaque twist?

I mean, don't you love it when a movie or a story pulls off an unexpected plaque twist?

I mean, who doesn't love The Empire Strikes Back?

When Darth Vader says, Luke, I am your father.

And everybody's like, what?

And it makes you rethink the whole thing.

Or how about the 1995 hit movie The Usual Suspect?

Again, not recommended the movie, but it's a great plot twist.

Kent, who in the movie, this guy named Kent, was like a small town, small time con artist.

And he and his friends are involved in this boat heist, it was a drug heist, and the boat explodes and there's a shootout, and very few survivors are left.

Kent is arrested.

Well, the whole movie is centered around this.

The customs agent gives Kent immunity in exchange for his testimony.

And Kent comes in and he's he walks with a limp and he has a paralyzed hand, he has cerebral palsy, and he sits down in the interrogation room and he tells this elaborate story of how this criminal mastermind convinced him and four of his friends to be involved in this crime, and he tells the whole thing.

And then at the end, he's released, and so he's walking down the street.

And as he's walking down the street, all of a sudden you see the limp goes away, and the hand is normal, and he gets into a car and drives off.

All of a sudden it pans back into the interrogation room, and this is 1995, okay.

A fax comes in, and the customs agent looks at it, and it's a composite of the criminal mastermind that the international authorities have been looking for.

His name is Sose.

Turns out it was Kent who was sitting right there the whole time.

And as the officer just realizes he got con, he starts looking around his office and he sees pictures and he sees files and its names and dates and locations of all these court cases or cases that he's working on.

And Kent, as he's telling the story, is looking at all this and he's just making up the story as he goes, involving all of the stuff.

It's one of the greatest plot twists of all time.

But there's nothing new about it.

Consider the biblical narrative.

Consider the story of Joseph.

His brothers were jealous, hated him, sold him into slavery, took his garments, smeared blood on it, took it back to the father, and said, you know, that he had been killed by a wild animal, but really they sold him into slavery in Egypt.

And while he's there, he ends up being falsely accused of rape.

He ends up in prison.

Through a course of events, he interprets a dream.

Pharaoh makes him second in command in all of Egypt.

And there was a famine in the land.

And because of Joseph's ability to interpret dreams, he knew what to do in advance to prepare for the famine.

And when no one else had food, they all had to come into Egypt.

And guess who showed up?

His brothers.

And so, you know, there was a testing period and all this stuff, but at the end, finally, Joseph revealed his identity to them.

And they were scared because they thought that he was going to take revenge.

Instead, he said, What you intended for evil, God meant it for good.

It's a great plot twist.

Oh, how about this one?

Jesus dying on the cross and rising again.

I mean, the demons were rejoicing.

They thought, yes, they have crucified the Lord of glory.

They've done away with him.

Satan is dancing, you know, the demons are rejoicing.

Rome thought they got rid of their problem.

Of course, the corrupt Jews thought they got rid of their problem.

But on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and he conquered everything and he holds the keys.

Now that's a great plot twist.

Well, in today's passage that we're going to read is a prophetic plot twist.

Micah uses that literary device to drive home his point.

So if you have your Bible, let's look at Micah chapter 2, verses 1 through 5.

Micah 2:1–5

It reads, Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds.

When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.

They covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them away.

They oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

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.

In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and mourn bitterly, and say, We are utterly ruined.

He changes the portion of my people.

How he removes it from me to an apostate, he unlots our fields.

Therefore, you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

That is the reading of God's word.

Micah chapter 2, verses 1 and 2.

Micah 2:1

Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds.

When the morning dawns, they perform it.

Because it is in the power of their hand.

They covet fields and seize them and houses and take them away.

They oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

So Micah begins the plot with a word of woe.

W.

E, woe.

Now, when the prophets, and especially Jesus, use the woe, it meant a declaration of divine judgment is coming.

Woe! Divine judgment is coming.

But what?

Why is divine judgment coming?

Divine judgment was coming because the wicked, wealthy in Micah's day in Jerusalem, were devising wicked plans.

They were devising evil.

They were lying on their beds at night, and they were working up schemes in their mind.

They were carrying them out.

They were thinking it through.

And when the morning light came, they got up, they went to the temple, or they went to the city gates where business was conducted, and they carried out their wicked schemes.

You know, just a side note here there are many sins that people do not commit physically because they don't have the power or the means to do so.

You notice in our text, it said they were on their beds and they were, you know, devising wicked schemes, and in the morning they went and they carried them out because they had the power to do so.

They had the means to do so.

They were connected to the city officials, they were connected to the rulers, or they had money to make things happen, and so they were able to carry out their schemes.

You know, there's a lot of sins that people do not commit physically because they don't have the power, the means to do so.

But in their heart and in their mind, they've already committed the act.

You see, just because you haven't physically carried out a scheme, or just because you haven't physically carried out a sinful act, doesn't mean you're not guilty of it because it's in your heart to do so.

And so you need to be very careful of the thought life and the things that you allow to run through your mind.

Now, back to the plot.

We were told that the wealthy, the wicked men were plotting while they're lying on their beds at night.

What were they plotting?

They were plotting to seize people's property, their land and their inheritance.

And this is a grievous sin against God.

The reason why this is such a grievous sin against God is because God owns the universe and the fullness thereof.

He owns all the land.

And in his divine wisdom, he allotted a portion of it to his covenant people in that time.

And he set up laws to protect property rights of individuals and to perpetuate generational wealth.

Listen to this.

In Leviticus chapter 25, verses 23 through 28, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine, for you are strangers as sojourners with me.

Leviticus 25:23–28

And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.

If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.

If a man has no one to redeem it, and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property.

But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of Jubilee.

And in the year of Jubilee, it shall be released and it shall return, or he shall return to his property.

So in other words, God allotted a portion of land to his people.

If for some reason you fell upon hard times and you had to sell your property, then the first option was the nearest kinsman redeemer, the nearest relative, should come and buy your property for you.

If he could not, then you could sell it to someone else.

Now, if along the way God began to bless you and bless your business, and all of a sudden financially you were able to go back and buy the land, you should do so and you should make it right.

You should cover the cost, right?

Or at the very least, every 50 years, it's known as a year of Jubilee.

Every 50 years, all the land reverted back to the rightful families.

And in so doing this, what God was actually doing was protecting the property rights of his people, and he was ensuring generational wealth.

In other words, they would have land, they would have property, they would have possessions that they could pass on for generation to generation so that they would be in a position to serve God without being in slavery to debt.

It's a pretty phenomenal thing when you study it out, actually.

Well, the people were rejecting the covenant that was very particular to ancient Israel in the Old Testament, and they were rejecting the covenant.

They didn't care about the property rights, they didn't care about the law of God, they were on their beds and they were scheming of how they could take all the land and all the property and all the inheritance from the people.

So that's the plot.

Now the plot twist.

Listen to it.

It's Micah chapter 2, verses 3 through 5.

Micah 2:3–5

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.

In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly and say, We are utterly ruined.

He changes the portion of my people.

How he removes it from me.

To an apostate, he allots our fields.

Therefore, you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

And so Micah revealed the plot twist.

He said, Yeah, the wicked, the wicked, wealthy, powerful people in Jerusalem in Micah's day were scheming on their best.

They were plotting of how they could take people's land, take their inheritance, take their resources.

And Micah said, Because you've been plotting to do that, the Lord is plotting against you.

The Lord is plotting to take all of your land.

And your power and your wealth and your connections will not save you.

You won't walk haughtily.

In other words, you're going to be humbled.

There's nothing you can do about this because you plotted evil, the Lord has plotted against you.

You will suffer the consequences of your actions.

And actually, God is going to take your land and he's going to allot it, he's going to give it to an apostate.

Now, in this context, obviously an apostate here would mean an enemy of God.

It's the ultimate plot twist.

Unthinkable to the ancient Israelites, that God would take his land from them and give it to wicked Babylonians.

But that's what happened.

Babylon came in and took Jerusalem captive and deported all the people, put them into exile, and they took over the land.

And when it came time for them to come back into the land after the exile, a lot of the families that were involved in all the wicked schemes had been cut off in Babylon and they didn't come back into the land, and therefore there was no one to allot their property in the assembly of the Lord.

That's the plot twist.

But because they plotted evil against God and his covenant, then God plotted to remove them from the land.

Maybe this will help.

In 1 Kings chapter 21, King Ahab is ruling, and he's married to Jezebel.

1 Kings 21 · chapter mention

Everybody knows Jezebel, right?

Even people don't go to church know Jezebel, right?

Become synonymous, but well, I don't need to say it.

Well, King Ahab is looking around one day and he notices that this guy named Naboth has a vineyard that butts up to some property that King Ahab owns.

And he kept looking at it.

He started to covet that land.

He began to think about it.

So he goes and he talks to Naboth and he says, Hey Naboth, man, listen, this is a beautiful piece of property, and this would make a great vegetable garden.

And I want this property.

I'll give you another piece of property, or you tell me how much it's worth and I'll buy it.

And Naboth says, No can do.

It would not be right for me to turn over or to release the land that God has given my family.

This is important because it's been passed down for generations.

Like you don't want to let that go.

He's upset.

So he goes back to his palace and he gets on his bed and he sucks like a little teenage girl.

The scripture says he wouldn't even eat, and he turned his face toward the wall.

Little sissy.

She comes in.

She said, What's going on?

And he's oh Davus.

Give me the vineyard.

I want that vineyard.

Give me the vineyard.

And Jezebel goes, are you not the ruler of Israel?

Quit crying.

Get some dinner.

You're kind of hangry.

And I'm gonna make sure you get that vineyard.

And you know what she did?

She sat down and wrote letters in the name of King Ahab.

Use his official seal on the letters and symmet to the elders and the rulers of the city where Naboth lived.

And it went like this.

The letters paraphrase.

Um I need you guys to proclaim a feast.

Go a city wide party, proclaim a feast.

And I want you to get two worthless men to sit opposite of Naboth at his feast and accuse Naboth of cursing God and the king.

Find him guilty and go stone him.

That's what they did.

They set him up.

They had a dinner.

They accused him of cursing God and the king, which was capital offenses.

And they dragged him outside the city, they stone him, they write a letter back to the palace and said, Naboth is dead.

Jezebel goes inside and she tells, you know, King Ahab, she says, Hey, remember that vineyard the ever morning?

Arise and go get it.

Naboth is dead.

So King Ahab goes and he's walking through the vineyard, he's checking it out.

About that time, the Lord gives the prophet Elijah a message.

He says, Hey, go confront the king.

So the prophet Elijah goes in and he starts confronting the king and he says, How you killed somebody and now you're taking possession of it?

He said, I tell you what, where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs are gonna lick up the blood of you.

In fact, in fact, the dogs are gonna eat Jezebel, and then they're gonna lick up your blood.

And there's not gonna be anybody left in your family.

We're gonna remove them from this whole situation.

Now, Ahab did kind of repent at that word, but it came to pass.

And the Lord cut off his family.

Why?

Covetousness.

Think about everything that transpired simply because of covetousness.

Ahab coveted that land.

I won it and I deserve it.

It's mine, it should be mine.

And that put things into motion.

It disregarded the covenant made with God.

It disregarded Naboth's family history.

It disregarded Naboth's life.

He ended up dying for it.

All because Ahab coveted the land.

Now, when are, and it was so serious, just like Micah said, this is such a grievous sin that you're going to be removed out of the land and you're not even going to have anyone to come back in when the land is realotted after they come back from exile.

So Ahab and them, their family line was decimated from that because of that sin.

That's how serious it is.

We gloss over this today in our culture because our culture is so materialistic that it's almost like it's a good thing to be covetous.

Like it's a good thing in our culture to covet because it's mine and I want it, and I'll do whatever it takes, and I'll build this big brand and I'll build this big business and I'll be successful because that's mine and I deserve it and I want it at all costs.

Oh my friend.

If you have that mindset and that mentality, you are committing grievous sin against God.

Now, how does this apply to us today?

Man, there are so many ways, but for sake of time, I'm just gonna name three and kind of give you a little bit of detail.

Three ways this applies to us today.

First, consider the core issue of coveting.

Consider the core issue of coveting.

Covetousness or coveting is a core issue because it is breaking the commandments of God.

If you want to get real specific, the tenth commandment.

Listen to this.

Exodus chapter 20 and verse number 17.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.

You don't covet.

Like you look at it and you want it, you think you deserve it, and it should be yours, and you're willing to do whatever it takes to get it.

That is a violation of the 10th commandment.

It is sinning against God, it is breaking the covenant with God.

And the reason why covetousness is such a core issue is because it reveals the core of a man.

Listen to this.

Mark, the gospel of Mark, chapter 7, verses 20 through 23.

Mark 7:20–23

Jesus said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

For from within, out of the heart of man Come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all of these things come from within and they defile a person.

The reason why covetedness is such a core issue is because it violates the core commandments of a covenant-keeping God.

And it reveals that something is desperately wrong with your heart.

Because it's out of there that comes coveting.

And look, this is vastly different than a Christian work ethic.

As Christians, we work hard as to the Lord.

And everything we do, we do for the glory of God.

And if God sees fit, then He will bless us with fruit of our labor.

And then we're able to use that to do certain things, you know, to advance God's kingdom and so on.

That's what I'm not talking about a work ethic.

I'm talking about your coveting and you're willing to shortcut the circuit.

You're willing to do whatever it takes to get something that doesn't belong to you simply because you think you deserve it and you want it.

It reveals that something is desperately wrong with your heart.

Which leads me to the second way that this applies to us.

Consider the cost of coveting.

Consider the cost of coveting.

In Ephesians chapter 5, verses 3 through 6, we read.

Ephesians 5:3–6

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater.

Notice that.

That's what you serve.

That's why you're willing to do anything to get it.

See, if God is your God, then that's who you serve, and you'll do anything in order to please him.

You'll do anything to serve him, you'll do anything that he commands.

But of materials and land and you know, money and inheritance and so on.

If that's your God, then you're willing to do whatever it takes to get money and to keep money, even if it means sinning against God.

That's why covetousness is an idolater.

Anyway, he goes on to say that that person has no inheritance of the kingdom of Christ in God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

See, covetousness is so serious that it reveals the wickedness of your heart.

And if if you covet, like that's what you do on the daily, like it's one thing to fall into sin.

Okay?

It's another thing to scheme and to plan.

Like, this is who I am, this is what I do.

If that is your heart, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.

All right, let me write you this way.

You are not saved.

It is a clear indication of how wicked your heart really is before God.

That's okay.

I wouldn't expect him to be amen today anyway.

Listen to this.

Galatians chapter 5, verses 19 through 21.

Galatians 5:19–21

We're talking about the cost of being uh coveto, one who covets.

Listen to this.

Paul writes in Galatians 5, 19 through 21.

Now the works of the flesh are evident.

Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry.

Now, what were we just told?

What equals idolatry?

Covetousness, remember?

In Ephesians, he makes a point to say covetousness is idolatry.

So here Paul just says, he lumps it all together and says, idolatry.

Sorcery.

So if you're into witchcraft and so on, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Listen, I realize that this is a very pointed, very direct message.

But the Lord knew before time began that we preaching this message right here today.

So what that tells me is someone is battling this in their heart.

And I've been sent to confront you.

Not out of hatred or with malice, but out of love and concern for your soul.

Do not fall into the trap of cavity.

It's your soul.

Not to mention all the damage that you cause in the process of getting whatever you think you deserve.

What do we do?

What do we do?

Well, here's the third way this applies.

Because look, you could be a born-again Christian in this place, love God, and still battle this.

Still battle certain sins, right?

Unfortunately, we still have the rudiments of our idamic sin nature, and we have to battle things.

And so this could be an issue for people, especially in America, and especially in the Western world.

So, how do we combat this?

There are three things that you can do.

Number one, commit to Christ.

Like, that's the starting point, Christ.

Come to Christ.

In Matthew chapter 19, verses 16 through 22, we read, Behold, a man came up to him saying, Teacher, what good deed must I do to inherit eternal life?

Matthew 19:16–22

And he said to him, Why do you ask me about what is good?

There's only one who is good.

If you would enter life, keep the commandments.

He said to him, Well, which what?

And Jesus said, You shall not commit murder, you should not commit adultery, you should not steal, you should not bear false witness.

Honor your father and mother, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And the young man said to him, Yeah, all these I've kept.

What do I still lack?

Jesus said to him, If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

And come follow me.

And when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Ah.

The man sin that he wouldn't let go of coveting.

Idolatry.

Jesus just used an illustration to point it out.

Because obviously that's not the that's not prescribed in order to be a child of God, right?

In other words, okay, so let's say I give an altar call today and a person comes forward and says, Yes, I want to commit my life to Christ.

Well, I don't tell them, hey man, I'm so glad.

What we got to do is we got to go empty out your bank account.

You got to sell everything, and we and we gotta go, we gotta go downtown Memphis.

We gotta find somebody, we gotta give them all your money.

All right, if you do that, then you're saved.

Like that's nowhere in the scripture, right?

We're saved by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone for the glory of God alone.

So that's not prescriptive.

However, however, what Jesus was doing was pointing out the man's issue.

He really didn't want to commit to Christ because he was an idolater.

He really didn't want to commit to Christ because he was in coveted.

He coveted, he wanted possessions.

The sad reality is the possessions possessed him.

Commit to Christ.

In Matthew chapter 6, we're probably most familiar with the quote-unquote Lord's prayer in that particular passage.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

But listen to this.

In Matthew chapter 6, verses 31 through 33, it says, Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?

Matthew 6:31–33

For the Gentiles, the heathen, the pagans, seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

The key is to commit to Christ.

And Christ, the one who owns the universe and the fullness thereof, who owns the cattle of a thousand hills, will give it to you.

Don't you love that one old preacher?

It may have been H.

B.

Charles Jr.

You know, it says the cattle of a thousand hills.

In other words, God owns everything, then it was a whole lot easier to own the hills that contain cattle than to count the cattle.

It's like just everything on those thousand hills.

And by the way, it's not like you get to the thousand first hill and all of a sudden God doesn't own that.

Right?

This is prophetic language.

I mean God owns everything.

And if you commit to Christ, he will make sure that you have what you need.

Which brings me to point number two.

If you want to combat coveting, then you commit to Christ and you practice contentment.

This is what the scripture tells us in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 6 through 10.

1 Timothy 6:6–10

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of the world.

But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

Yes.

Contentment.

Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5.

Hebrews 13:5

Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Be content with what you have.

Isn't that interesting?

Be content with what you have, for I would never leave you nor forsake you.

The implication is you find contentment in Christ.

You do not find contentment in possessions.

You don't find contentment in your house or your cars or your thank you for listening to the Carival Grace Chapel Podcast.

Make sure that you like, share, follow us on socials.

I'm Dr.

Jason Murphy, proclaiming grace, transforming culture.