{"id":1353,"date":"2013-03-05T05:26:49","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T13:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/?page_id=1353"},"modified":"2013-03-05T05:26:49","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T13:26:49","slug":"intro-to-micah","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/?page_id=1353","title":{"rendered":"Intro to Micah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our English version of the Old Testament is arranged in a similar way to a popular version used in the time of Jesus, the Septuagint.\u00a0 The name means \u201cSeventy\u201d in Latin.\u00a0 The Old Testament was originally written mostly in Hebrew.\u00a0 In the third century before Christ was born the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek (the common language of Jesus\u2019 day).\u00a0 According to tradition the translation was done by about seventy translators who worked independently and then brought their work together to form that Greek translation.\u00a0 When Bible scholars look closely at the language of quotations of the Old Testament in the New Testament they can often tell whether the writer was making their own translation directly from a Hebrew version or quoting the Septuagint.\u00a0\u00a0 Often they were quoting the Septuagint.\u00a0 So the Septuagint was an accepted translation of the Old Testament in Jesus\u2019 day and by Jesus and his original followers.<\/p>\n

Although we often talk about the Bible as being a book (in fact the word \u201cbible\u201d traces all the way back to Hebrew and was the word for papyrus scrolls on which people would write, so the work \u201cbible\u201d means book), the Bible is really a collection of writings by at least 39 authors written over a period of 1500 years (Moses wrote at least the first five \u201cbooks\u201d of the Bible around 1400 BC and John wrote the last \u201cbook\u201d, Revelation, about 95 AD).\u00a0 Although \u201cThe Book\u201d, the Bible, was written and collected together this way it really is one book with one main theme (See “The Old Testament Connection\u201d<\/a>) and is amazingly consistent.<\/p>\n

In the older Hebrew collection of the Old Testament the various writings were collected together and arranged in groups.\u00a0 The first group was the \u201cThe Law\u201d and was the first five books of the Old Testament (Sometimes these five are referred to as the Torah).\u00a0 The next group was the Prophets and Included Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve shorter books, Hosea through Malachi.\u00a0 Those twelve prophetical books are often called the minor prophets, not because their writings are less important but just because their \u201cbooks\u201d are shorter.\u00a0 In the older Hebrew arrangement the Prophets also included the books of Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, and 1&2 Kings.\u00a0 Also in older Hebrew \u201cBibles\u201d (Just the Old Testament) Daniel (who\u2019s writings contain some very important prophetical information) and Lamentations (written by the prophet Jeremiah) are part of the third group, often referred to as the writings.\u00a0 The writings also included the rest of the \u201cbooks\u201d that make up our Old Testament.<\/p>\n

Micah was a prophet (a messenger for God) at the same time that Isaiah was (Unfortunately I never wrote the Intro to Isaiah).\u00a0 Micah indicates that he wrote, or at least received his message, from God during the reign of three kings of Judah (the Southern Kingdom after the nation of Israel split), Jotham (750-731 BC), Ahaz (743-715 BC), and Hezekiah (728-686 BC) (Kings would sometimes share their rule with their son or father that is why the dates overlap) .\u00a0 Micah tells us that he was from Moresheth.\u00a0 The land of Israel is bordered on the west by the Mediterranean Sea.\u00a0 As you move inland you cross a broad plain (much like the Los Angeles\/Orange county area).\u00a0 Further inland lie the Judean Hills, this range is about the same elevation as the Santa Ana mountains here in Orange County of which Saddleback peak is a part.\u00a0 East of the mountains is a deep depression in the earth known as the Dead Sea Rift or Jordan Rift Valley.\u00a0 It is a valley that contains the lowest elevation on Earth (that is not under water) along the shore of the Dead Sea (-1401 Feet).\u00a0 The plain between the coast and the mountains was known as the Shephelah.\u00a0 Micah tells us he is from Moresheth.\u00a0 That word means \u201cbelonging to\u201d or \u201cin the neighborhood of\u201d.\u00a0 In Micah 1:14 the word is linked to the name of a town in the Shephelah called Gath.\u00a0 Gath was west of Jerusalem about two thirds of the way to the Mediterranean Sea.\u00a0 Micah was evidently from that area and so was a part of the Southern Kingdom.\u00a0 Although his message is about both parts of Israel he probably uses the names of southern kings for two reasons, because he was from the south and also because, as a prophet, he would recognize Jerusalem as the true center of worship and government for the whole nation.<\/p>\n

From the first few verses of the book we learn that the message is for both the Southern and Northern Kingdoms.\u00a0 He uses the term Samaria for the Northern Kingdom (Samaria was the name of a capital city for the kingdom) and he calls the Southern Kingdom Judah.\u00a0 The message is different for the two kingdoms, as we shall see.\u00a0 Micah 1:2 seems to tell us though that the message is also for all the inhabitants of the Earth.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve read \u201cThe Old Testament Connection\u201d you will know that that is consistent with the purpose of the nation of Israel, they were to help the world see God, our broken relationship with Him, and His love for mankind.<\/p>\n

The northern part of the nation or Northern Kingdom was in steep spiritual decline during the days of Micah.\u00a0 In fact from the beginning it had defected from God setting up alternate worship in various cities.\u00a0 After many warnings (Hosea was a prophet from the Northern Kingdom and both he and Amos had messages directed to that part of the nation).\u00a0 In 722 BC the Assyrians (a powerful people group who\u2019s capital, Ninevah, was in what is modern day Iraq) invaded the Northern Kingdom.\u00a0 Many of the northern Israelites were relocated in various parts of the Assyrian empire and other people were brought in to intermarry with the remaining Israelites.\u00a0 The Assyrian strategy was to destroy the identity of a group of people which would hopefully bring them into submission to their new rules. Thus the Northern Kingdom came to an end.<\/p>\n

As the Assyrian empire increased in power in the years before the invasion of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) Israel prepared for the invasion by forming an alliance with Syria.\u00a0 This coalition tried to force the southern kingdom (Judah) to join them.\u00a0 The response of the kings of the southern kingdom was to ask Assyria for help against this alliance.\u00a0 If you read through Isaiah with us you might remember that God was very displeased with this response.\u00a0 Later during this period the southern kings would make various alliances against Assyria, again a move which God was not happy about.\u00a0 It was during this time of spiritual defection in the North and lack of faith in the south that Micah wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our English version of the Old Testament is arranged in a similar way to a popular version used in the time of Jesus, the Septuagint.\u00a0 The name means \u201cSeventy\u201d in Latin.\u00a0 The Old Testament was originally written mostly in Hebrew.\u00a0 In the third century before Christ was born the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":50,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1353","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1354,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1353\/revisions\/1354"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}