Micah—God’s People Rise Up as His Enemy

 

Chapter 1: Hear This

Micah, a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah and Hosea, wrote this message about the year 750 b.c. What most people do not understand is that the primary emphasis in this book is on God’s own Church. This message, over 2,500 years old, gives us more understanding about the end-time Laodicean and Philadelphian churches. The greatest catastrophe in this end time is occurring inside God’s Church! Many members are losing their eternal lives. No crisis exceeds this one. Micah makes this very clear.

The name Micah means “who is like unto our God.” That meaning is interwoven with the theme of the entire book. We must have a proper love, respect and awe for the great Eternal God.

Micah’s primary message is to His Church and the nations of Israel which do not have this respect for God. It also speaks of another end-time church that does love, respect and revere God, and which consequently receives His revelation.

Revelation to One Man

“The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem” (Micah 1:1). Micah did not have a dream or vision. Revelation from God simply came into his mind. That may sound commonplace to some people, but it is very rare. If you want to find God’s very elect today, they will be the people receiving this revelation.

When God’s word comes into our lives, it ought to carry enormous weight. It changed Micah’s whole life. After all, it is the word of the great God, not of a puny man.

Micah’s message is mainly for the end time. So revelation from this book today will be given to those people who are doing Micah’s work in these latter days. But that will only be a small minority of God’s own people. The majority of God’s Church is not receiving revelation from God today. This is the crisis Micah’s prophecy is most concerned about. He tells us why the Laodicean Church is not given God’s revealed prophecy.

What was the message given to Micah? “Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple” (verse 2). Micah says, “Hear all ye peoples [the Hebrew is plural]; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is.” This message is for all the world, people of all religions and, in particular, a certain end-time church. God is saying He will be a witness to mankind from His holy temple, the Church. But which church? We shall see that God clearly condemns one end-time church and praises another.

This revelation came to one man. That is the way God does His Work. That man says “hear this” to the whole world (see also Joel 1:2; Amos 3:1; Micah 3:9). God chooses other deeply converted people to help His chosen leader deliver that message.

Most of God’s own people have rejected God’s method of doing His Work. Herbert W. Armstrong, one man, was used to do the Work of God in this end time. Most of those he taught have rejected the government God established through him.

You will find God’s revelation only in God’s holy temple, or Church. If you are receiving and acting on God’s revealed prophecy, then you are in that holy temple. There is only one true Church. That is where God is—it is the most important place on this Earth!

It is essential that we find the holy Church from which God Himself speaks. We are not talking about a message from man. We must learn to distinguish between the word of God and the word of man. Every minister thinks he is speaking for God, but only one work actually does. When we know the difference, God commands us to “hear this”! That is a command to every person on this Earth.

When God’s very elect receive revelation from God, they have the sobering responsibility from God to proclaim to the world, “Hear this”! When God’s word comes to us, it changes our whole life! We then “let the Lord God be witness against you.” Once these precious revelations come, God holds everybody accountable for what they hear and do with the message! He holds each one of us responsible. God always works through men who say “hear this” for Him.

Incurable Wound

Because of the sins of the house of Israel, God is coming to Earth like a consuming fire! (Micah 1:3-6). Micah tells us there will be such devastation and destruction that trees and vineyards will eventually be planted where buildings used to be! As sure as there is a God, a great amount of destruction is coming, and Israel will be in ruins for a long time. Micah is an end-time book. It is talking about us today. In Micah 1:7, God speaks of nuclear fire that will desolate the land and the false idols which take people away from Him (see also Ezekiel 6:6).

God’s people have heard such prophecies for years. If we are not careful, it is easy to fall asleep, to fail to grasp their significance. God’s Church must awaken! We don’t want to overemphasize prophecy, but we need to understand what it is like when a nation is under nuclear attack. It is a mind-paralyzing nightmare.

Look at how seriously Micah took these prophecies. “Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons [jackals], and mourning as the owls [ostriches]. For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem” (verses 8-9). He is discussing total nuclear destruction that is coming on the peoples of America and Britain and the little nation called “Israel.” What does he mean by “incurable wound”? At this point, it means there is no hope that the nations of Israel will repent. But there is still hope for many individuals. Of course, most of Israel will repent in the future, after they have suffered as no people ever have on this Earth. Our message today will be a witness against them.

Micah reacted with extreme emotion to this prophecy in his time, which was only a type of the far greater end-time destruction. He said he would make a shrill, mournful cry like an ostrich or the long piteous howl of a jackal. He was willing to go stripped and naked. Micah would do all of this to bring attention to God’s message and save people physically and spiritually!

This verse illustrates the kind of extreme dedication we need to have in supporting God’s warning message. We don’t make the attention-getting howls of the jackals and shrieks of the ostriches, but we do let these expressions help build in us the very extreme dedication we must have for God’s Work!

How deeply are we stirred to get behind the most important message on Earth? Do we have Micah’s passion? Would we go to such extremes as shrieking like an ostrich? Or making a long, pitiful howl like a jackal? Would we do anything possible to warn people of the worst suffering ever to come to this Earth?

We must have urgency to fit the times! I think we all need to be more urgent if we fully understand what is coming upon this Earth!

Micah’s intense emotion was a product of God’s Holy Spirit. He was full of the Spirit (Micah 3:8). He was urgent like God. Our goal must be to have God’s emotionsGod’s urgency! Just seeing some great catastrophe could never make us urgent like God. But being filled with God’s Holy Spirit can—and will.

I know that every one of God’s very elect needs more of this fervency. Not one of us measures up to Micah’s passion for God’s Work!

We need a war-time mentality to deliver God’s final warning to a dying world! That is our responsibility.

Lachish and Adullam

“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” (Micah 1:13). The word Lachish means obstinate, and the root word means smitten and taken captive, which is exactly what will happen to the sinning Laodicean Church—captivity! The New Bible Dictionary says Lachish is “an important fortified city … guarding the main road … to Jerusalem.” The Soncino Commentary relates that Lachish is “the last outpost” on the south, guarding Jerusalem from Egypt—a type of the world. There is a lot of symbolism in this end-time book.

Micah is saying that the Church (Zion) is sinning by letting the ways of the world enter and influence it. There is a city in Zion, or God’s Church, that should be its protector. Instead of protecting the people of God, this city led them into a great rebellion! This, no doubt, refers to the headquarters city of God’s Laodicean Church today. There is a certain city that “is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.” This is talking about God’s people who have begun to sin because they sin as the nations around them sin!

Contrast that with the last part of verse 15. The New King James Version says, “The glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.” There is great meaning in the word Adullam. Remember, the subject is God’s Church, in which some people do things right spiritually, and some reject God’s word.

In 1 Samuel 21:10, we see that David was running from Saul. In verse 1 of chapter 22, David “escaped to the cave Adullam.” David started with a small group of people, strongly dedicated to God, whose place of safety was Adullam. The tiny band grew from there.

The Cambridge Commentary makes it a little more clear. It says “the worthy part of Israel,” or the worthy part of Zion—the Church—“is to take refuge in the fort or cave which once harbored David and his band.” Soncino Commentary says, “The phrase means that Israel’s nobility will take refuge in a cave.”

David and God’s people came into power shortly after they left the cave. They ruled Israel and the world. That will also happen to the noble group after they are protected in a “cave” today. They will rule the whole world under Jesus Christ—who will be sitting on David’s throne. David will be resurrected and again rule over Israel. What a magnificent future this world is about to experience!

If you put all the prophecies together, God tells you very specifically what is to happen to His very elect!

God is contrasting two groups of people. One is God’s own lukewarm Church heading into the Tribulation, and the other is God’s nobility who will be taken to a place of refuge. If we continue in obedience to God, this noble Philadelphian group will grow like David’s group; and God will save this little Church from the terrible holocaust soon to come upon the world. Remember, God says one of His churches will go to a place of safety. The group that will be taken to a “cave” are the inhabitants of Mareshah (Micah 1:15), which means “summit or chief place.”

God’s nobility are the people who reject the evil ways of the Laodiceans. They hold fast to all the revelation God has already given them. Because of this attitude, God continues to give them revelation as He did Micah. They, like Micah, say “hear this” for God. As a reward, God delivers them to a place of safety (Revelation 12:14).

Because they protected God’s government and all of His revealed truth, He protects them physically.

It all fits into Revelation 3 and other scriptures. We should not put the place of safety first in our thinking, but we must remember that it is part of the equation. After all, Germany is on the rise! And Germany, in the book of Micah, is labeled as the one to destroy the American and British peoples! We must keep our eyes on Germany—and we had better have a place of safety, because we are going to need it! God says we can escape these problems if we listen to Him. Those who don’t listen to God and won’t speak God’s prophecies today must repent in the Tribulation, or they won’t be in God’s Kingdom!

Why is a cave mentioned for God’s very elect in this end time? Doesn’t it likely mean that God will protect His noble flock in an area with caves? If that is not so, then why is the cave of Adullam even mentioned? Remember, this is a prophecy for the end time.

“Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee” (verse 16). God’s Church and the nations of Israel are going into captivity. That is why a place of safety is needed. Those who fail to escape will “enlarge their baldness.” This symbolizes acute distress in the Great Tribulation. The small, delicate children will suffer as no children ever have because of their rebellious parents.

A Prophecy Battle

Look at Micah 2:1 and see what a godless society this has become. Some people think about evil while lying in bed, and the next day they get up and do it! This is the way it is with the American and British peoples, or the Israelitish nations today. God is talking about people continually devising evil. Verse 2 is referring to legalized robbery. It is happening to people all over America, Britain and Judah right now. It is all based on greed and the get way of life!

“Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil …” (verse 3). In this context, God doesn’t call them “my family”; it is “this family.” They were at one time His family, but not anymore. What problem is more serious than that one? God says He will devise evil—and this nation won’t get out of it! This is evil that God is bringing upon Israel. He will put this nation’s neck in the Assyrian yoke, just like an animal!

When will this evil happen? Read verse 4. It happens “in that day,” when the Tribulation is here and Christ’s return is imminent. “In that day” there will be total destruction! Shouldn’t we live like we believe it?

“Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord” (verse 5). God originally divided the land of Israel (Joshua 13:6). The leaders had a line, or cord, for measuring. That is only a type of what it means for us today. The context shows us that.

God is addressing His congregation, the people sanctified by Him. This refers to God’s Church, which was set apart by God to do His Work. The Laodiceans are failing to do what they were called to do. They once knew how to measure. But not now. God says “none” can measure spiritually! That is an astounding statement.

Anybody can prove, or measure, where God’s Work is if they just will. But only a small remnant is willing to rise up and measure for God (Revelation 11:1-2).

Micah discusses a specific area where most of God’s people refuse to measure. “Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame” (Micah 2:6). Those who prophesy for God are told not to prophesy!

The Revised Standard Version reads, “one should not preach of such things.” It is addressed specifically to a man. There is a man prophesying from Micah and all the major and minor prophets. Who is he? Where is he? You are reading his message now. (Write for our free book Malachi’s Message to God’s Church Today for more information.)

Remove the voice of one man and you would not find God’s message proclaimed to the world. Spiritually, it would be the blackest of black holes.

God’s own people are telling God’s very elect not to prophesy! They blatantly fight against revealed prophecy from God! The specific prophecy mentioned here is the message in Micah. But it also applies to other prophecies that God revealed before and after the death of Herbert W. Armstrong. The Laodiceans have rejected all of the prophecy revealed since his death! And much of what was revealed to Mr. Armstrong. That is why God says none of them can measure. They are all blind (Revelation 3:14-19).

The Laodiceans say that “they shall not take shame.” They believe that they won’t be punished for fighting against revealed prophecy from the major and minor prophets. The truth is just the opposite. Almost all of the revealed prophecies given since Mr. Armstrong died are about the grotesque shame coming upon the Laodiceans because of their “prophesy not” attitude!

The book of Micah is about a battle between the Philadelphians and Laodiceans primarily—and it revolves around prophecy. The battle is between those who can measure prophecy and those who cannot. Are you sure that you can measure prophecy?

This revelation you are now reading is about a multitude of physical catastrophes! We must learn to totally submit to the universe-creating God behind the revelation. Great nations are going to die because they fail to accept God’s revealed prophecies! When the all-powerful God speaks, men must learn to listen, or they have no future.

“O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” (Micah 2:7). God reveals through His Spirit. He asks if the Holy Spirit can be restricted. Does anyone believe they can hinder God’s powerful Work?

People fear to believe God’s truth. However, it always brings blessings to God’s obedient people.

“Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war” (verse 8). God’s own Church has become His enemy! And it happened “of late.” The Hebrew reads yesterday—that is, in this very recent end time. They were loyal to God and then became an enemy in the latter days.

How did God’s own people become His enemy? This is the worst possible catastrophe! They pull off the members’ robes and garments. John wrote that “fine linen is the righteousness of the saints” (Revelation 19:8). So these vile leaders are violently stripping the righteousness and truth away from God’s people.

That is how the Laodiceans become “naked” (Revelation 3:17). They let men strip their righteousness away.

This only happens to the spiritually timid—those who “pass by securely as men averse from war.” They are too weak to fight for God. They no longer have God’s power. Then they become spiritual dupes and are used by Satan in his war against God.

They have forgotten that God called us into a great spiritual war! We are soldiers (2 Timothy 2), and soldiers must fight—even die, if necessary. These weak Laodiceans would rather surrender to Satan than fight for God’s truth and prophecy.

Some of God’s own people fought us in court. They label the books and booklets of Herbert W. Armstrong as heresy. Their hatred is so great that they don’t want any of his writings published.

However, it was Mr. Armstrong’s obvious intent that this material be printed. So we are printing it—trying to reach “the largest audience possible,” as he expressed it.

Their only motive was to stop God’s prophecy and “cast down the truth to the ground” (Daniel 8:12; write for our free booklet Daniel Unlocks Revelation for more details).

Many of the other people who came out of the Worldwide Church of God also fight against our work.

All of the Laodiceans think they are fighting against us. But God cuts to the heart of the problem. They are fighting against God! They have become His enemy!

They were called to fight for God. That is why they understand much of God’s truth today. Instead, they have become traitors and left their posts in a time of war.

But that is not the worst part. Now they have taken up arms against God. What an abominable treachery!

What is happening to God’s people? Micah says the Laodicean leaders “pull off the robe with the garment.” Fine linen is the righteousness of the saints (Revelation 19:8). The saints are being stripped of their wedding garments. They have been stripped “naked.”

This is the Bride of Christ being stripped of her righteous garments, or doctrines and character! What a grotesque, monstrous sin! This is the worst possible disaster!

They are losing their eternal “glory” (verse 9). The stakes are enormous.

Now the Laodiceans wear “strange apparel” (Zephaniah 1:8).

Skinned Alive

In Micah 3:1-3, God compares the way people do business today to cannibalism. They “eat you alive” if you aren’t careful! You have to continually watch out for yourself or they will prey on you and get everything you have! It is considered “good business” today to make money and not worry about how you got it. We live in times of terrible evil!

In verse 5, false prophets say “we will have peace.” They say what the people want to hear. If God’s very elect disagree with them, those false prophets will make war against them! God is saying, even though they talk about peace, they can be very cruel. So watch out!

“Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him” (Micah 3:5). The Revised Standard Version reads, “prophets that lead my people astray.” This is a more accurate translation, because God’s people were given the truth and then led away from it. You cannot be led astray if you never had the truth.

God’s own people are being led astray by their ministers! It is all happening because they are not measuring with God’s truth.

“Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them” (verse 6). The Laodiceans are now in darkness, without vision or revealed prophecy. They no longer have God’s secret. They were taught the truth. The sun was up, but later went down. Their lives were filled with the spiritual sun; now they live in a world of black darkness. Spiritually, this is the blackest nightmare!

They have become so blind that they cannot even see what has happened to themselves!

The people of physical and spiritual Israel are having their skin ripped off their bodies and the flesh torn from their bones (verses 1-2). Israel was Jacob’s name after he was converted. So these two names refer to physical and spiritual Israel.

We continually teach the truths God revealed to Herbert W. Armstrong. If you understand what he taught, then you know that the church he founded, the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), is presently a different church. Here is a quote from the leader of that church today, Joseph Tkach Jr., and a list of a few of the changes he has made: “I am grateful to those who continue to assist me as we yield to the authority of Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit. Gone is the obsession of the WCG with a legalistic interpretation of the Old Testament, our belief in British Israelism, our insistence on the fellowship’s exclusive relationship with God. … Gone is the long-held view of God as a family of multiple spirit beings into which humans can be born, replaced by a biblically accurate view of one God who exists eternally in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. …

“Christ’s saving work on behalf of humanity is now the focus of our flagship magazine, the Plain Truth, rather than the end-time prophetic speculations. We proclaim the sufficiency of our Lord’s substitutionary sacrifice to save us from the death penalty for sin. We teach salvation by grace, based on faith alone, without resort to works of any kind. … My father articulated to the church the scriptural teaching that Christians are under the New Covenant, not the Old. This teaching resulted in our abandoning past requirements that Christians observe the seventh-day Sabbath as holy time, that Christians are obligated to observe the annual feasts, demanded to Israel in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. … And all of these changes in the space of 10 years” (Christian Research Institute).

Spiritually, the members of that church have been skinned and had the flesh ripped from their bones! Their leaders have no more true love for them than a butcher has for a piece of meat (verse 3). Our job is to warn the leaders of God’s people about the extent of this unparalleled disaster. God specifically tells us to warn the “heads” (verse 1). Nobody is exempt!

The primary warning is against God’s own Laodicean leaders. They have betrayed God’s people! We must warn our own family out of love (Revelation 3:19). How can we do less and still say we love them?

“But truly [Micah says] I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment …” (Micah 3:8). Notice, mercy is not mentioned here. The point has been reached where there isn’t going to be any mercy—only judgment—it is too late for most people to repent! Micah is saying that he comes with the power of God, and he is bringing a message of judgment to the Laodicean Church (Zion) and the nations of Israel. He is not talking about the mercy of God. This time it is only a hard message about the soon-coming judgment and fall of our nations because of their sins!

Micah declared this warning because he was filled with God’s Holy Spirit. Our urgency in this Work of God will directly relate to how close we are to God.

These false leaders “pervert all equity” (verse 9). The Hebrew reads, “twist all that is straight.” The Laodicean leaders did have the precious truth of God, then twisted all that was true. Now they talk about love, love, love, as they twist and twist and twist!

Now we must say “hear this” for God. It takes deep faith to know when you have God’s own message—that you speak for the living God! This means that you also know how evil these false leaders are.

“They build up Zion with blood” (verse 10). This means their followers will die brutal deaths in the Great Tribulation if they don’t wake up. Many of them will then lose their eternal lives.

What upsets God most about His Laodicean Church? Part of the answer is in verse 11. “The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money.” Remember, we are talking about Zion, the Church of God. “Yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.” They are saying that no evil will come on them because they are God’s Church. God says if the Laodicean ministers decide to keep their nice salaries instead of obeying and following Christ, then they are teaching for hire!

These ministers make a very good salary. There is nothing wrong with that, and it should not be condemned. But if they reach a point where they won’t follow God because of money, or substance, or a family member, then they have a serious problem—they are not walking by faith. God takes that personally! He says, “As a minister, you are supposed to walk by faith, not preach for hire!” God is saying that He is their sustainer and provider. Many Laodicean ministers will have to answer to this prophecy!

In verse 12, God talks about Zion and people in the Laodicean Church who trust themselves. God says He will plow them like a field—total destruction! Even though they say, “We are God’s Church. No evil will come upon us—we’ll go to a place of safety—if there is one.” God says to Zion, “You’d better wake up! I’m going to plow you like a field!” This is not an ordinary destruction.

These people urgently need to accept God’s warning. He simply says there will be judgment, they will be condemned, and they are going into the Tribulation!

Most of the Laodicean Christians may have already waited too long. They are not responding to Malachi’s Message the way they should. It is the revelation of God! People who are responding and coming into the Philadelphia Church know that Malachi’s Message is not from Gerald Flurry. They are not looking to a man—they are looking to God and His revelation!

In the Laodicean churches of God, the people are looking to men. And their leaders act very righteous as they spiritually tear the flesh from the members’ bones!

The nations of Israel will become like a mountainous garbage dump! Micah has an extremely strong message—for both physical and spiritual Israel today.

Chapter 2: Who Is the Breaker?

Did God prophesy over 2,700 years ago that He would raise up an end-time leader who would be forced to “break away” in order to follow Jesus Christ’s leadership? Was that leader and the little group that followed him prophesied to separate themselves from the main body of the Church of God in order to continue preaching the truth as God had revealed it through the late Herbert W. Armstrong?

In Micah 2:12-13, God says through the Prophet Micah, “I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel: I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them.”

To the world, those are very obscure verses. That is obvious because there is such a variety of opinions expressed in the biblical commentaries. Only a few commentaries show any depth of understanding about these two verses, and that only from a physical rather than a spiritual viewpoint.

God has now revealed the plain truth of these verses which had been locked away since the time of their writing by the hand of Micah. Thousands of years have passed since these verses were first written, and many prophecies had to be fulfilled, and viewed in retrospect, before they could be understood.

A major piece of the puzzle was that the end-time “Elijah,” prophesied by Christ in Matthew 17:10-13, came and went, and his office was unrecognized by the majority of God’s people because “they knew him not,” just as foretold.

Then the prophesied great “falling away” occurred in God’s Church (2 Thessalonians 2:3) and events unfolded to confirm that the Laodicean era had begun (Revelation 3:14-19). What followed those events is an amazing story of struggle and great spiritual courage, encapsulated in Micah 2:12-13!

A Remnant Work

As shown in the main body of Micah, a great catastrophe was prophesied to occur in God’s end-time Laodicean Church. The leaders of the Laodicean churches were prophesied to lead their followers into a very treacherous form of satanic spiritual captivity, with only a very few—a remnant—escaping that captivity.

Verse 12 of Micah 2 begins with God’s statement that He “will surely gather the remnant of Israel,” meaning those who escape Satan’s spiritual captivity. This verse is discussing a small but faithful remnant group of God’s people today (spiritual Israel—the Church) which would be gathered together by God out of a great churchwide captivity and apostasy from His truth.

The “sheep of Bozrah” in Micah 2:12—the little remnant group—are described there and in verse 13 as being led out of spiritual captivity back to the safety of their sheepfold. Bozrah is a place of great destruction wrought by God because His people have turned from Him (Amos 1:12; Jeremiah 49:13; 48:21-24; Isaiah 34:6). This little remnant of sheep from Bozrah receive God’s blessings to escape that punishment!

Today, God is severely punishing the Laodicean churches because they have rejected and abandoned His truth. And these sheep—God’s precious remnant people—have been led out of that destructive captivity in this end of the end time, back into the safety of God’s truth as restored by God to the Church through Herbert Armstrong. Isaiah 58:1, Jeremiah 7:1-3 and 26:1-6, as well as many other scriptures, confirm that this faithful little remnant is commissioned by God to perform the tremendous task of warning a sinning church!

A Great Noise

The phrase in Micah 2:12 “they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men” is a Hebrew idiom that has obviously distressed the translators because of the differences of opinion among them. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament is very helpful by saying this of the word translated “noise”: “The basic meaning of this root seems to be a severe disturbance, i.e. ‘to disturb greatly,’ ‘stir,’ ‘discomfit.’ … the earth (or land) which ‘is shaken’ ….”

In Joshua 6:16, the same word translated “noise” in Micah 2:12 is translated “shout,” in what Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon calls a “warlike clamor.” The same word is also translated in Numbers 10:9 as “blow an alarm” on a trumpet and in Joel 2:1 as “sound an alarm.” God has commissioned a small but righteous remnant group to “cry aloud” (Isaiah 58:1), or “make great noise,” and warn the larger sinning group that they have dealt treacherously against God and that great judgment is rapidly bearing down upon them. God has turned His back on His sinning people, and hearing the warning message and responding is their only hope (Hosea 5:5-8).

Verse 12 reveals that, in the very end of the end time, a remnant Philadelphian group of God’s people, His faithful sheep, were prophesied to hold fast to God’s truth and make a “great noise” or a “warlike clamor” as they “blow an alarm”—a trumpet.

Those in the adulterous Laodicean Church who abandoned God’s truth were to be severely shaken by that warning message emanating from an “office” established by God.

The “Breaker” Arises

Micah 2:13 reads, “The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them.” Who is the “breaker,” and what is his role in the end-time split of the two churches?

The Hebrew word translated “breaker” in the King James Version is parats (pronounced paw-rats). In the New International and New King James versions, this word is rendered the “one who breaks open.” The Lamsa Translation From Ancient Eastern Manuscripts uses the term “pathbreaker,” and the New English Bible simply translates this word as the “leader.” The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament states about this word, “God looks for a man ‘to stand in the breach/gap’ in front of Him when He views the idolatry in Jerusalem”—meaning spiritual adultery in spiritual Israel.

Strong’s Concordance says parats is from a primary root word meaning “to break out” or “break away.” Gesenius’ Lexicon defines the word as “to break off, i.e., to separate oneself from any one [or group].” It is these definitions which first begin shedding light on the identity of the “breaker.”

The Breaker in Context

Backing up to verse 6 of Micah 2, we can see the context in which we find verse 13. There we can see two very distinct groups being contrasted one to another in this and succeeding verses.

Micah 2:6 says, “Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy ….” God is stating that there is an end-time church which has stopped prophesying! It is happening just the way God said it would happen in Amos 2:11-12.

In verse 8 of Micah 2, we find that Church which no longer prophesies described as rising up like an “enemy” of God! “My people,” God calls them. Yet they are His enemy! In Micah 6:2, it tells us that “the Lord hath a controversy with his people.” In contrast, the other church, the faithful little remnant, “breaks away” from that controversy and from being God’s Laodicean enemy.

In Micah 2:10, there is a chilling warning to the little church which is listening to God through His prophecies: “Arise ye, and depart”! Clarke’s Commentary says that phrase is an “exhortation to the godly to leave a land [a spiritual nation] that is to be destroyed so speedily.”

Verse 10 continues, “for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.” God is saying that this faithful minority in God’s Church would be forced to leave that polluted spiritual nation! Malachi 1:7 reveals that the Laodicean Church has polluted God’s truth and the little remnant must depart! Clarke’s Commentary goes on to say, if the people didn’t leave quickly, that “the land shall vomit you out into captivity”! This is a frightful warning filled with great urgency to get out of that deceived spiritual nation or suffer in its mind-numbing spiritual captivity, as well as its horrific and deadly physical captivity during the Great Tribulation!

In Micah 2:11, the subject returns to the enemy Church of God. “If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.” God is saying that lying leaders in the end-time Laodicean churches would fail to warn about the terrible times ahead! This verse indicates that the Laodiceans would imply that the “good times” would continue almost endlessly.

Such statements would clearly show to those who were awake spiritually that the Laodiceans had abandoned their responsibility as the “watchman” which God prophesied in Ezekiel 33 and other scriptures, and that God would have to raise up another end-time watchman to fulfill that prophecy.

The Gate of Escape

“The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it …” (Micah 2:13). The New English Bible says, “So their leader breaks out before them, and they all break through the gate and escape ….”

Isn’t God saying that a human leader would be separated, or “broken away,” from the Laodicean Church before the faithful sheep of God’s flock are taken to a spiritual place of safety? That this leader, the “breaker,” would lead the way out of spiritual confusion, and that the people who follow the breaker shall escape through a gate and avoid captivity and destruction?

But, one might ask, how does one find the right “gate”? Which gate leads to escape? Jesus Christ gives us the answer in Matthew 7:14: “[S}trait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” That is the gate of righteousness leading to escape which only the very few find—only the very elect (Matthew 24:24) who hold fast to God’s instructions (2 Thessalonians 2:15) and then follow where Jesus Christ leads!

As Matthew 7:13 says, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” The “many,” meaning the multitude or the majority, go through the wide and easy gate by following deceitful leaders who are led only by their own sinning heart and mind! They are ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing seeking to devour the flock of God! (verse 15).

Micah 2:13 concludes, “… and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them.”

Isn’t God saying that a human agent—a particular prophesied man—will be separated, or “broken away,” from the Laodicean Church just before the faithful sheep of God’s flock are led out of spiritual confusion?

Like Noah prior to the Flood, one man today was prophesied to lead a small end-time group from certain destruction. Verse 13 indicates that God would raise up one man, the “breaker,” or, as translated in the Revised Standard Version, “he who opens the breach,” before God led His faithful end-time people to a place of spiritual and doctrinal safety.

At that critical time, like Moses before the Exodus, a man in God’s end-time Church was prophesied to be raised up and given a certain amount of “kingly” power in order to assist God in gathering the faithful sheep out of His sinning Church.

The “breaker” and the “king” mentioned in verse 13 are one and the same office, although some commentaries wrongly state that the word “king” is referring to Jesus Christ. But that is not logical, because in the next portion of verse 13 after the “king” is mentioned, it says “and the Lord on [or ‘at’] the head of them”—referring to Jesus Christ, the King of kings (1 Timothy 6:14-15; Revelation 17:14; 19:16), leading the human king. The main meaning and usage is king (Strong’s Concordance 4428), used hundreds of times as king!

Micah 4:8-10 clearly reveal a church, the daughter of Zion, which is going into the Great Tribulation because there is no king or counselor in it. Such a king or counselor can certainly refer to God (Isaiah 9:6), but it is asking the question, “Is there no king in thee?”—meaning no physical king in spiritual Israel, the Laodicean Church (Zion)—no human leader who is looking to God for guidance.

The Laodicean Church has no such king or counselor—no godly government in God’s own Church! Therefore, God cannot rule it. He says in effect, “Do you not have a leader (or king) who gets counsel from God? Is there no one whom I can use as a counselor or leader of my people?”

The Laodiceans are not getting counsel from God, because they don’t have one-man rule—they don’t have God’s government—the family government which was so successfully established under Mr. Armstrong for 57 years and down through the ages in God’s Church prior to him! The Laodiceans don’t have a king, or leader, who has God as his Head!

The Philadelphia Church of God (pcg) broke away because the Laodiceans would not follow their Head, Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:19; Ephesians 4:15). God sent a breaker (a king or leader) to lead the way so His faithful remnant sheep could know where God was working. God then gave His tiny remnant the little book—Malachi’s Message to God’s Church Today—so they could understand what had occurred and what He was commissioning the breaker and the little group to do (Revelation 10:1-10). The loyal sheep “broke away” in order to follow their Head.

Christ Our Head

In contrast to the headless Laodiceans, it is Jesus Christ who leads the breaker—God’s specially chosen human leader—through a gate of righteousness and out of a deceived and sinning Laodicean Church of God! We are to follow our leaders as they follow Christ! (1 Corinthians 11:1; 4:14-16).

The last part of Micah 2:13 reads, “their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them.” The faithful, prophesying little church and its leader are, without a doubt, being led by the Lord Jesus Christ—the true Head of the pcg!

The other church, in contrast, is God’s “enemy” (Micah 2:8)—the Laodicean Church—which Christ is no longer leading, and which must go into a fiery holocaust!

The pcg is the only church through which Jesus Christ is doing His Work today. The Laodicean Church is truly groping like blind men, confounded by spiritual darkness, without Jesus Christ leading them. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world (John 1:4-9), but those who reject His leadership are groping in dismal darkness!

God has prophesied that this “break away” leader, with Jesus Christ as his Head, will lead those who will repent and follow.

Clarke’s Commentary says the “breaker” is “He who is to give them [the ‘remnant’ of Micah 2:12] deliverance, and lead them out of the way of their return. He who takes down the hurdles, or makes a gap in the wall or hedge, to permit them to pass through.” Careful examination of God’s revelation about this end-time Church leader who is forced to “break away” reveals much about events in God’s Church just prior to Christ’s Second Coming.

Lange’s Commentary further qualifies the identity of the breaker by stating, “He that breaks through: the head, the leader whom they will set over them …. They break through, pass into the gate, and go out through it. And their king passes on before them, for no other than the king, out of the house of David, can be that ‘breaker’ (Amos 9:11), and Jehovah at their head, as in the marches in the desert (Numbers 10:35; Exodus 13:21).” So in the opinion of Lange’s Commentary, the breaker will be of the lineage of King David, a physical as well as a spiritual Jew!

Who Is the Breaker?

Approximately 2,740 years ago, God foretold through the Prophet Micah that a leader would arise in His end-time Church who must “break away” while following Christ’s leadership. That leader was prophesied to separate himself from the main body of the Church of God so that he could continue preaching the truth as God had revealed it through Herbert Armstrong!

Has anyone done that in this end of the end time? Among the “king-priests” (Revelation 1:6; 5:10) in this end-time Work of the living God, has any one leader who is of the lineage of King David been raised up to fulfill this office of the breaker after the death of Mr. Armstrong? The answer is yes! The question is now: Are you spiritually awake enough to recognize that leader?

Only after the death of Herbert Armstrong could this prophecy even be understood! It could not be comprehended until after the Worldwide Church of God veered radically from the truth of God as revealed to the Philadelphia era apostle, Herbert W. Armstrong. Only just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ has God raised up an end-time break-away church following a break-away leader who is following Christ.

It is now up to God’s very elect (Matthew 24:24), to back up, support and follow the “breaker” through the righteous gate of escape, all the while finishing this great warning commission, as we follow the true Head of the Philadelphia Church of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord and soon-coming Husband and King!

Chapter 3: Who Is Like Unto Our God?

In Micah 4:1-8, we see the good news of the Millennium in a magnificent prophecy of the perfect peace, security, radiant prosperity and everlasting duration of God’s Kingdom. The Eternal exhorts the people of Israel not to be discouraged at their approaching captivity; because in due time, they will not only be delivered from it, but will also be victorious over all their enemies.

In verses 1 and 2 of chapter 4, Micah says the law of God in the last days will “be established in the top of the mountains … exalted above the hills,” and that “the law shall go forth of Zion”—God’s Church.

What God wants us to have is an education in the law of God, because that is what will go out from Zion. How educated are you in the law of God? How much could you teach about the law of God?

How can anyone justify not keeping God’s law? Keeping that law will solve all the problems of this whole world very soon. It isn’t the knowledge of this world that we need. We must become experts in applying God’s law today, or we can’t be used by God to rule with Him in the beautiful world just ahead. This is the only way to bring peace into our individual lives—as well as into our families and our nations!

“And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it” (verses 3-4).

The world today is filled with violence and wars. People live in agonizing fear. But imagine a time when there will be no armaments or war—fear of violence will be removed from the Earth forever!

Disarmament is in the news almost daily. But do people really think they can disarm their way to a lasting peace? Men have been fighting and warring from the beginning of our history. Mankind does not know the way of peace—the way of God’s law. But they are about to learn it.

Do we really believe God? Not just believe in God—do we believe God? Do we truly understand that this Earth is about to become a glorious paradise?

The ambassadors of peace will never achieve peace today. But peace is coming. God is about to rebuke the nations. There shall never be war again. Get ready for a revolutionary change. God will usher in peace and prosperity forever.

Each family will have their own plot of land, and nobody will make them afraid. Only God could effect such a change and give such marvelous protection.

How different that world will be from the vile cities we see on Earth today. This will happen without fail—God cannot lie!

The “mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.” This vision is right out of God’s own mouth! The mouth of the omnipotent “Lord of hosts”—Lord of everything! All we need is the faith to believe God! But that kind of faith is so rare today.

Greatly Misunderstood Promise

Men ought to be rejoicing in this vision right now. “For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever” (Micah 4:5). This is one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible! It is also one of the most inspiring, if we understand it.

We will all “walk in the name of the Lord our God.” But what does it mean, “all people will walk in the name of his god”? It means just what it says. There will be other gods born into the God Family! Genesis 1 says the animals are born after the animal kind, but man was made in the likeness (physical features) and image (character) of God (verse 26).

This may sound like blasphemy to carnal men. But you were created to become members of the God Family! God explained this at the very beginning (see Psalm 17:15; Philippians 3:21).

Men are not animals! We were created to become Gods! (Write for our free booklet God Is a Family.)

The firstfruits are being discussed here (Micah 4:5). A little logic should help us see why God is calling us today. We can be on the highest level of God’s future government if we submit to Him today. We have the potential to be the wife of Christ—not on the child level in God’s Family! What a magnificent reward God gives the firstfruits—those called out today.

Micah prophesies about the worst time of suffering ever on this Earth. However, he still leaves us inspired, because he details this awesome vision of our reward and potential!

Be in Pain

“In that day” means this end time (verse 6). “And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem” (verse 8). The tower of the flock is to watch and warn Zion, God’s Church today, of any danger. It is like a watchtower.

The “first dominion” means the “first in time or place, in the first rank, in front, foremost” (see Gesenius’ Lexicon). This refers to God’s own Church, especially the ministers. They should be watching and warning their own people and the world of what is coming.

The Church has a fabulous future, but at this point it is crying out in anguish. Why? “Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies” (verses 9-10). Repeatedly, God’s Church is referred to as a woman in travail. She is going into the Great Tribulation. There, God’s Laodicean Church will struggle to be born into God’s Family.

God is taunting the Church (the “daughter of Zion”) because of its foolishness. This is the same prophecy as in Jeremiah 30—God’s Church is like a “woman in travail” who is being delivered into captivity. God says, “Be in pain.” Micah gives the impression that there is virtually no chance to repent at this point! God says we must labor like a woman in travail; because when the Tribulation comes, 50 percent of the Laodiceans will lose their salvation! Our trials now are nothing like what people will see later in the Great Tribulation! We take our tribulation now, a little at a time. God does not want any of His people to go through the Great Tribulation. We must labor, if we want our salvation.

The Laodicean Church has no king or counselor (this is often applied to God—see Gesenius’ Lexicon). God’s government is not in His own Church, therefore He can’t rule His people!

There is not one leader in the Laodicean churches who leads the people to God! Not one. The Laodicean members are crying out in anguish because they followed the wrong leaders! That is their paralyzing penalty for loving deceit.

Their leadership has lost the clear vision of being born into God’s Family. The Laodiceans are taken prisoner by Babylon—the Holy Roman Empire. It is there that they must die in faith or lose their eternal lives! It is there that they must repent. God has to send the Laodiceans into Babylon physically because they have already gone there spiritually! Then they will know that there is no hope except in God.

Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion” (verse 11). When the book of Micah is fully revealed, there are many nations against physical and spiritual Israel. Neither of them have heeded God’s warning message. That is the now to which Micah refers.

God is saying, “If you repent and follow me, then after the Tribulation I will use you to rule this world.” But He is talking about a Zion that is in trouble now. This does not mean the little Zion that will be taken to the “cave.” It is discussing the Zion which won’t be delivered. Just as in the book of Malachi, the minority is not discussed as much. It is the majority of the ministers that is causing most of God’s people to stumble at God’s law (Malachi 2:8).

When we know that the Laodicean era is prophesied for this end time, how can God’s people dare relax about God’s truth and prophecy?

“But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth” (verses 12-13). Zion is told to “arise and thresh.” God threshes His people in the Tribulation. This message is not about destruction. God is separating the wheat from the chaff. He is trying and testing us so we can be born into His Family!

This world and God’s Church are being threshed to save them. We are all in a process of being born into God’s Family. God wants all of us to repent now, when we hear the warning. If we fail to do so, God takes us to the next stage. He scourges us in the Tribulation.

The Throne of David

Micah 5:1 says that the leaders of Israel will be personally insulted. But in the very next verse, we are reminded again of our great hope.

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (verse 2). Bethlehem was the birthplace of Christ. David was the son of Jesse—an Ephrathite of Bethlehem (1 Samuel 17:12). This refers to Christ and David’s throne—the lineage of Christ and David. A ruler is to come from that line. He has been “from of old, from everlasting” (or the days of eternity). Obviously this refers to Christ. The Revised Standard Version states that Christ “shall come forth for me”—speaking of God the Father.

“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:30-33). This is the same message. Christ is the “Son of the Highest” (or the Father). The Father outranks Christ, who will rule on the throne of David when He returns to this Earth.

Christ is the “Son of the Highest,” which again directs us to God’s Family. So this is a family throne. All of these terrifying problems coming upon this world will lead us into the God Family!

If the firstfruits—those called out before Christ’s Second Coming—submit to God, they get to share Christ’s throne (Revelation 3:21).

There is the Father, the Son (or Husband) and the Church (or Bride). Then those called after Christ’s return are on the children level. That is God’s Family.

If only men could see their potential now! Then we could prevent the unparalleled suffering of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.

“Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel” (Micah 5:3). All of God’s people suffer trials. But the main focus here is on God’s Laodicean Church. The Laodiceans travail in the Tribulation until they have been “brought forth”—born into God’s Family! Man was created to be born into God’s Family. That is why we are here!

The word “children” should read sons. God’s ultimate goal for everything happening on this Earth is the birth of sons into His Family.

The rebellious Laodiceans will have to suffer indescribably in the Tribulation to qualify to be sons for all eternity! Because they become God’s enemy, 50 percent of them die forever.

Verse 2 discusses the everlasting, or the “days of eternity” as it says in the Hebrew. This is about living forever and ever! God is not that concerned about the temporary. He wants sons forever. The stakes are eternal!

The Laodiceans have forgotten who they are. They are “the remnant of His [Christ’s] brethren”—the spiritual brothers of Jesus Christ!

The Assyrian

In verse 6, God talks about the Assyrians, or modern-day Germany. God doesn’t talk here about the “ten toes,” or the European combine. He just says He will “deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.” This is why we are so concerned about Germany. They will come into our land and into our borders!

But where will the Church be? We had better have a cave we can run to, like Adullam, or Petra, or some place like that! God will deliver only the very elect of His Church from the Germans.

Should the Germans rejoice in all of this? God says to them, “Don’t you rejoice, because right after all this happens, I am going to smash you like you’ve never been smashed!” So none of these sinning people should be rejoicing!

Author and historian Walter Russell Meade puts it simply: “The Germans are back and ready to lead. There is no doubt that an awesome new European superpower is in the formation stage, forming around a reunified and confident Germany.” “This Germany,” wrote A.M. Rosenthal of the New York Times, “is destined to be the most powerful nation on Earth.”

Let the Hills Hear Your Voice

God is pleading with His people to listen. In Micah 6:1-4, God is talking to His end-time churches. He says we are His people; He brought us out of Egypt—this present evil society. This could not apply to the world!

God is saying, “Tell me what I have done wrong.” Where has God wronged us? What has He done to hurt us? He has brought us out of the evil ways of this world and shown us His precious truth. He is about to give us the very highest positions in the World Tomorrow!

We need to realize what a blessed people we are. There is nobody on this Earth blessed as we are! God truly pours out blessings on His people when they please Him. We ought to be thanking and praising God daily for what He has done for us!

“Hear ye now what the Lord saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice” (Micah 6:1). This warning message must also go to the nations (“mountains” and “hills”). God’s very elect are commanded to “let the hills hear thy voice”! All people must hear what the Lord says. This is the word of the living God. It is for the highest and lowest places on this Earth—for everybody.

We are to “arise, contend,” or fight for God’s message and Work! That is where the Laodiceans have failed—they are fighting against God!

Micah fought with all his might to deliver God’s message. Nothing could stop him from doing God’s Work. Nothing!

True Repentance

“O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord” (verse 5). Shittim and Gilgal were the last camping stations before Israel entered the Promised Land. Moses was dead, and Israel had powerful enemies like Balak and Balaam.

God’s end-time Elijah—Herbert W. Armstrong—is dead, and we are just about to enter into the eternal Promised Land.

We are commanded to “remember” what we were taught before we got to Shittim and Gilgal in this end time (Malachi 3:16). We must remember if we are to get into the Kingdom of God. (Our free book Malachi’s Message discusses this subject in depth.)

Verses 6 and 7 of chapter 6 discuss physical sacrifices in the temple. But today God is addressing the subject of spiritual sacrifices in His Church. “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or 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?” (verse 7). Physical sacrifices are not what God wants. Even if you were willing to give up your firstborn, that is not what He wants. He wants you to give up yourself and surrender yourself to Him!

Here is the kind of repentance God wants: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (verse 8). This isn’t too much to ask. All that amounts to is true repentance. That is all God wants from us.

God wants us to love mercy, which, in Hebrew, means mercy with deeds. We must have mercy with deeds, so that we are not just saying, “Mercy, mercy—I just love that person, and I pray for that person here and those over there.” We must back up our mercy with deeds. We love the people in God’s lukewarm Church and want to embrace them. We do everything we can to help them because that is God’s way.

Micah says that God “has showed you” what is good. God has specifically shown only His Church in the end time. He did it through the end-time Elijah. We are without excuse. God is obviously speaking to His own people. God has shown us His truth. Now He expects faith with works!

What happens to those who fail to live as God asked of them? In verse 9, God says the rod of the Assyrians should be heeded because He has appointed it. In Isaiah 10:5, God relates that the Assyrians are the rod of His anger! Then in verse 24, God says, “O my people that dwellest in Zion [the Church], be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee ….” God is talking to the Church! He is saying, “Yes, Zion, the Assyrian will smite you with a rod!” Which Zion is that? It is the Laodicean Zion—those who become God’s enemy!

“For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people” (Micah 6:16). Omri was the father of Ahab, the most evil king in Israel. Both of these men led Israel to destruction. Ahab brought in the worship of Baal—even worse than the “statutes” of his father.

Has there been a father and son team today that has destroyed spiritual Israel by bringing into God’s own Church the worship of Baal?

Anybody who knows anything about God’s Church knows that such an evil team has inflicted indescribable and unparalleled destruction on God’s end-time Church! We must never forget that this book is very specific prophecy for today!

In Micah 7:4, God warns, “The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh.” The Tribulation and Christ’s return are imminent! A true watchman warns the people that these things are coming. Ezekiel 3 and 33 talk only about a warning to be delivered by God’s people. No gospel message there, just a warning—because we have reached the time of the watchman. It is time to warn people about the sword and the end that is coming! A watchman sees what is happening in Germany and he knows God is raising up the Germans as the rod of His anger! God’s people must heed that warning—and then labor if their spiritual lives have become lax or if they have a Laodicean attitude.

God’s warning message has been preached for over 70 years—first by Herbert W. Armstrong, and now by the Philadelphia Church of God. These watchman prophecies are upon us!

Verse 4 concludes, “Now shall be their perplexity”—their confusion, acute agony and suffering! This is the short-term message of God’s true watchman. The Great Tribulation is extremely close. There is little time left to repent.

There is a great breakdown in loyalty with friends and family—the very closest relationships we have (verses 5-6). That also includes spiritual family, where there have been a multitude of betrayals.

The Millennium

In Micah 7:11-16, it again talks about the good news of the Millennium. Micah prophesies the great prosperity and increase of Israel. Even though the whole land must first be made desolate because of the great wickedness of its inhabitants, our merciful God promises a future restoration and prosperity for Israel. It will also be a time for learning tremendous lessons.

The Assyrians will shut their mouths when they see that God gave them all that power. They will understand that He opened the door by taking the Communists out of the way after 40 years. They will see that God made it all possible, and they were so dangerously arrogant! They’ll see that it was God doing those things, not the Assyrians, because the only real power is God. Then they’ll begin to repent and turn to God like everyone else.

In verse 17, God says He will really humble the Assyrians, and they will learn to fear Him. That’s what God wants us to do nowfear Him so we won’t have to be humbled by those terrible, humiliating, horrifying experiences in the near future!

Verse 18 says God will not retain His anger forever, and that He delights in being merciful. When we have done something sinful, He delights when we repent so He can show mercy, and forgive us, and forget our sins.

Micah’s name means “who is like unto God?” Soon everybody will see the abundant mercy and forgiveness of our loving God. Soon the whole world will see what Micah saw.

This is what man needs to understand about God. It is not physical miracles from God that we need to see. We need to understand the perfect character of our loving God. We get that understanding from this new revelation from Micah—not a physical miracle from God. If we wait to see most of the physical miracles, it will be too late to save our lives. We’ll be in the Great Tribulation. God showed a plethora of miracles to the people of ancient Israel, but they never understood or obeyed Him. And all the adults died in the wilderness.

We as God’s people now need all the help we can get to declare the revelation that God is giving us. Then you will be involved in the greatest miracle of all—helping people into the God Family! Help us to say “hear this” from the all-powerful God!

Verse 19 says that God “will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities.” That is a powerful statement we don’t want to miss. God will subdue our iniquities. It has nothing to do with our intelligence. That is what He is telling His people. He will subdue our iniquity; as long as we do our part, then He (living in us) will do battle with our sins, overcome them, and cast them “into the depths of the sea.”

In verse 20 of the Living Bible, Micah says to God, “You will bless us as you promised Jacob long ago. You will set your love upon us, as you promised our father Abraham.”

Micah is right. How great is the Eternal God who deserves our love, respect and awe! All of these tragic catastrophes will be used by God to help usher in the glorious World Tomorrow.

Who is a God like unto our God?