The
Heir
Micah 1:13 “O thou inhabitant of Lachish,
bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the
beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for
the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.
14 Therefore shalt thou give
presents to Moreshethgath: the houses of Achzib
shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.
15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O
inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam
the glory of Israel.
16 Make
thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children;
enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone
into captivity from thee.”
1. The Beginning of Sin
2. The Interim
Lies
3. The Final Glory
We all have a point in our life which is a … beginning to sin.
Every one of us has this Achilles heel whereby we are vulnerable to going astray. [We have gone astray.] “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” [Isaiah 53:6]
1. The Beginning of Sin
Verse thirteen: “O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.”
For some reason God had instructed the people of Israel to not “multiply” horses to themselves in the wilderness. This is what it says in Deuteronomy chapter seventeen.
Look at verse sixteen: “But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.” [Deuteronomy 17:16]
The practice of multiplying of horses is connected with causing the people to dwell on returning to Egypt.
Now, why is that a bad thing, you say?
This is why it is a BAD thing. The nation of Israel was in bondage for hundreds of years in Egypt. They were slaves! Why would one want to go back into bondage once he has been made free? Are horses bad? Horses are not bad … in themselves.
However, in the case of Israel, they were. God knew the practice of the multiplying of horses would tend to cause the people to want to return to Egypt … to go back into BONDAGE.
Now, we can learn from the Bible that Egypt is a type of the world.
• God brought Israel out of Egypt just as God brings the Christian out of this world. “He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.” [Acts 7:36]
“For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” [Micah 6:4]
“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:” [Galatians 1:4]
• The Jews were strangers in Egypt just as the believers in Jesus Christ are strangers in this world: “they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” [Hebrews 11:13, 13:2]
God desired for Israel to stay away from Egypt which is a type of the world. Why? In the book of Numbers, in chapter eleven, verse five, we have this: “We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:” [Numbers 11:5].
However, the problem Israel had was far greater than their love for the leeks and the cucumbers. They remembered Egypt, but worse they TRUSTED in Egypt. There greatest problem Israel had was their trust that they put into Egypt [the world].
They trusted in the help from Egypt rather than depending on God’s provision. “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord!” [Isaiah 31:1]
Trusting in the things of this world was the problem to them as it is for us today. “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,” [Colossians 2:20]
It is all about a matter of who or what you will trust in. Will you trust in God or will you trust in this world? [This is a good question for you and me both.]
Something else, the people in this world … walk in the pattern of this world …. according to the book of Ephesians chapter two, verse two: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” [Ephesians 2:2].
Furthermore, the trust we place in this world shows our friendship with the world.
Now, God comes down hard on our friendship with this world in James chapter four, verse four: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” [James 4:4]
2. The Interim Lies
Verse fourteen: “Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.”
Now, when we begin to sin … as Israel began to sin through the practice of multiplying of horses, we open ourselves up to being deceived by others [devils and men]. We are more apt to believe a LIE [from the Devil or men]. The practice of the multiplying of horses for Israel was for them [Israel] the beginning of the slippery slide down the hill to their own destruction as a nation, but what of us?
For us, [who live at the end of the times of the Gentiles] the beginning to a slippery slide down to the hill to our destruction … is when we cease to “put off” certain things and fail to “put on” certain things in our life.
This whole thing is shown to the Bible-believing Christian in the book of Ephesians. The Apostle Paul by the Holy Ghost warns the true Christian to “put off” certain things and to “put on” certain things.
Read chapter four verses twenty-two through verse twenty-five: “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.” [Ephesians 4:22-25]
We need to “put off” certain things and to “put on” new things.
This involves “circumcision” [by the Holy Ghost] which is both an event [called justification] and an on-going process [called sanctification].
This in Colossians chapter two, verse eleven: “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:” Colossians 2:11]
We need to “put off” things:
a. We need to “put off” the
“conversation” or ways of the
“the old man”.
b. We need to
“put away” lying.
We need to
“put on” things:
a) We need
to “put on” the new man.
b)
We need to “put on” “the breastplate of
faith and love”.
We see this summed up in First Thessalonians chapter five, verse eight: “But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.” [1 Thessalonians 5:8]
3. The Final Glory
Verse fifteen and sixteen: “Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel. Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.”
The captivity is before them. The Assyrians have already taken the northern ten tribes of Israel.
Now the Babylonians have come to do the same to the people of Judah. This was a time [according to verse sixteen] to poll their heads, and to make themselves bald over the loss of their children. But we to need to notice something in verse fifteen that is great promise to comfort the heart in the midst of judgment. See this: “he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel”.
This is none other but Jesus Christ.
The heir is coming to claim what is HIS: “he shall come”.
What we have here is a complete affirmation of the promise of God that the Son of God coming to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on this earth in Israel: “he shall come”. Amen! “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” [Hebrews 1:2] “A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” [Luke 2:32] “And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.” [Ezekiel 43:2]
Put your trust into Jesus Christ!