Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

The previous section in Micah describes a time of trouble for Israel, culminating in an experience of humiliation for their king when a conqueror would show his contempt for the king by smiting him on his face with a rod. Such an action showed the utter weakness, the complete powerlessness and inability of the king of Israel. One obvious feature is that he would be unable to deliver his people.    If that was all that Micah had to say, then there would not be any hope for Israel. The collapse of the monarchy in this way would lead to the demise of the nation. There would be no national future. Instead they would be numbered in the list of conquered peoples that can be found in history books.  Yet Micah did not stop with his message of judgement and humiliation. Instead, he went on to describe a very bright future for God’s kingdom. But he cautioned it would have this recovery and prosperity at a time when another king would come, and there would be unusual features about ...

The book of Isaiah contains numerous prophecies about Jesus, both about his birth and his death, but also about many other details connected to his life and work. I have never seen a book that classified them all, although someone is bound to have done so. It is a very profitable task to go through the book of the evangelical prophet and take note of the many amazing things he says about Jesus. And among them is the set of verses from Isaiah 9 describing great blessings that would come to Gentiles after he was born.   His arrival Isaiah says three things in this section of the verse. Two of them are about Jesus and one is about the recipients, the ones called ‘us’. What is said about Jesus? Isaiah says that he is a child born  for  us and he is a son given  to  us. We can see that he is born to be a king, and as a king he is the son given to us. How can he be both  for  us and given  to  us? Obviously, the Father is the one who has given his ...