2023 - MSB intro to Jonah:
Jonah means "dove".  The book never references its writer.  We assume Jonah, and find nothing unique to say that it isn't him.  Much of the book is in third person, but we see this in Ex 11.3 and 1Sa 12.11.  The opening is also similar to other books - Hosea, Zeph, Haggai, Zech.  2Kg 14.25 mentions Jonah as coming from Gath-hepher, near Nazareth.  Since he is mentioned here, we know how to place him chronologically.  He lived during the reign of Jereboam II, 793-753 BC.  Jonah was therefore in the Northern Kingdom, just prior to Amos.  Hmm...MSB says the Pharisees are therefore wrong to say no prophet ever arose from Galilee in Jn 7.52.  MSB includes this sentence, which it does not amplify:  "Nineveh's repentance may have been aided by the two plagues (765-759 BC) and a solar eclipse (763 BC) preparing them for Jonah's judgment message."  I assume these things are independently verified, perhaps from extra-Biblical sources.  

Ninevah was the capital of Assyria, and not exactly known for kindness.  It was the nemesis of both Judah and Israel.  It was infamous for its cruelty.  So maybe Jonah was not so much racist as he was frightened to death of the prospect of going to such a place, and judgmental in the extreme about their proper fate.  Ninevah was founded by Nimrod, Noah's great-grandson (Gen 10:6-12).  It was destroyed in 612 BC, about 150 years after Jonah was there - as Nahum said it would be!  

Jonah was sent to Ninevah in part to shame Israel for being so arrogant about being God's chosen people.  Jonah is himself a picture of Israel in that he was chosen by God, he rebelled, but ultimately followed God's will and was a witness to the world.  This book is to be taken as historically true in all its details, rather than as allegory or parable, because Jesus talked about it as depicting real events in Mt 12:3/-41; 16.4; Lk 11.29-32.

Chapter 1
(Ninevah is on the east bank of the Tigris river.  Today, across the Tigris on the west bank, is the city of Mosul, where so much destruction occurred during the Iraq war and its aftermath.)

God calls Jonah to Ninevah, he pays the fare on a boat to Tarshish.  A very specific call ignored.  The storm this causes upset many around Jonah, but he himself was found asleep, unaware of the danger.  Choosing to go in another direction than God chooses for us can make us comfortable with wrong choices.  So comfortable that we don't even feel guilty about it for some time.  But here's the thing.  When life throws you overboard, as it eventually will, and you hit that cold water, then you will have to pray for a miracle, not just for a nudge back in the right direction.  Guess which is most likely to get answered?
Possible FB post, noted 9/1/20.  Need a verse though.
They wake him up and ask what to do, and he tells them to throw him in.  He doesn't jump.  And they refuse to throw him overboard!  Even once they know it is on his account that their lives are in danger, they row even harder.  But they cannot overcome God's will, though they don't believe in Him...yet.  So they ask forgiveness, and then do as the prophet has told them.  And the sea calms.  And they fear God, and believe, and make sacrifices and vows.  Jonah also is rescued, by a fish appointed to the purpose.  Not a random fish.

2023 - This:  6 So the captain came and said to him, "What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish." [Jon 1:6 ESV].  Does this remind at all about the line from Dune that says "The sleeper awakes"?  Wonder if that is where Herbert got it?
How about this phrase:  10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, "What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. [Jon 1:10 ESV].  Another recognizable phrase.

7/23/23 - On the way to church this morning Alistair Begg was preaching on Jonah.  This is kind of what he said, that really  hit me, and which had never occurred to me before.  In his words, as best as I can remember:
Let it not be true that Jonah, below the ships deck, is a picture of the modern church.  Let it not be that the church is sleeping away, unconcerned, as the storm rages all around.  Let the church not be sleeping while those above are fearful of their very lives.  Let it not be that the church is sleeping while those all around it are trying anything they can to save themselves, from throwing away whatever they can to praying and sacrificing to any god they can think of.  And let it not be that when these people come down to where the church is asleep that they should have to ask who we are and what we are here for.  Let them not ask us what our purpose might be, and most of all, let them not have to ask us if we have a God and if so, might he be of some help at this time.
What a picture.  What a statement.  What a preacher!

2024 - This verse:
16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. [Jon 1:16 ESV].  Here is an interesting thing.  In books and movies, people always make a deal with God BEFORE he will help them.  Often as not, once free and clear of danger, such promises are conveniently forgotten.  This shows us that the Biblical example is otherwise.  The sailors on this ship first tried the physical - they threw the cargo overboard to lighten the load.  Next, they tried praying, each to his own god.  Then they set about making sure everyone in the storm with them was also praying.  They recognized that Daniel's God was unlike their own, and that none of their efforts or their own gods had stopped the storm, so Daniel's God was the one in control.  They did as God's prophet recommended, and the storm ceased.  THEN, they offered sacrifices and THEN they made promises.  I would suggest that we too ought to make our vows after God has delivered us rather than trying to "cut deals" with the living God.  I think we'd be a lot more likely to keep such vows, made in good weather rather than bad, and I think God would be more likely to honor them.
Possible FB post.

Chapter 2
Jonah prays from inside the fish.  

2024 - In 2:2b, Jonah says "I cried for help.  You heard my voice.  Transliterated this is only three words.  Phonetically, they are shah-vah, shah-ma, cole. At least that is what the root words are.  I really don't know how it sounds with "endings" it has.  I would like to figure it out.  Here is what it looks like in Hebrew:  שִׁוַּעְתִּי שָׁמַעְתָּ קוֹלִי׃
Remember that it reads right to left.

4 Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.' [Jon 2:4 ESV]  As a result of his repentance, God speaks to the fish, and it vomits Jonah up on dry land.
I like this translation best though:
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. [Jon 2:4 KJV]

2024 - Oh my!  Jonah behaves the same as the sailors did.  It was AFTER he was saved that he made his vows.  Here is the verse:
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!" [Jon 2:9 ESV].  God delivered Jonah in 6b.  Then the vows.  Maybe...it isn't until 10 that the fish spits him out.

Chapter 3
God tells Jonah again.  To make sure there is no doubt?  To see if Jonah will obey this command.  This time Jonah does, and that whole city - three days just to cross from one side to the other - repents.  What a revival!  They all believe what Jonah says, and they pray that the sentence pronounced on them will be repealed.  Even the King declares a fast, saying that not even animals can eat.  And God relents.  He does not send the intended disaster.

Chapter 4
And Jonah is hopping mad at this result.  Jonah asks God to take his life, because that is better than seeing these evil people in Ninevah saved.  He really had something personal against them it seems.  God asks "Do you do well to be angry?", Jonah 4:4  That is a question for us all!
The booth, the plant.  Jonah is very hardheaded.  But the lesson is that if Jonah is angry that the plant died - the plant he didn't plant, didn't labor to maintain, and so on - why would God not rather save than destroy?
2022 - These verses:
"And the LORD said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night." [Jon 4:10 ESV]
"And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"" [Jon 4:11 ESV]
Jonah has mercy on a mere plant - he mourns its loss, because it gave him a little relief from the sun.  Jonah is angry at the loss of a bush.  Yet he is angry at God for sparing 120,000 walking talking people in Ninevah, who didn't know any better until Jonah got there and told them.  These will pray to God for many years.  He will receive their worship, and that is a better thing than destroying them.
2023 - In context of today's culture. Jonah might have been a racist.  Maybe that's exactly why God sent him.  He seems to hate Ninevah with an irrational hate...but I don't know enough about the time or the nations involved to be sure of that.  That kind of prejudicial thinking might explain Jonah's attitude about Ninevah.  He hated them as a people, to the point he would prefer that they be wiped out than saved by repentance.  He wanted them in hell.  We don't see many in the Bible that hate like this.

2024 - This verse:  1
1 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?" [Jon 4:11 ESV].  
Let it never be said that God saves only the brilliant.  These people in Ninevah were dumb as rocks, but God still chose to save them.  I would suggest that enough repented to forestall God's wrath, but that not everyone did.  Some would likely have continued right on as they were.  After all, it was a big place.  So God gave them time, that those who had seen the light might witness and preach and make converts, so that the city might be forever saved.  But from Nahum, we know that did not happen.  Ninevah went right back to her old ways, to evil instead of good, and as a result....
"Based on this account, it is clear that the siege of Nineveh came at the hands of the king of Akkad and the king of Media during the summer of 612 B.C. Three months later, the city fell. The king of Assyria died, and the city was plundered until September 14 when the invading army departed. By 605 B.C. the Assyrian Kingdom officially ended, and Babylonia was on the rise."  https://www.gotquestions.org/Nineveh-destroyed.html.  Jonah was there in about 760 BC.

2024 - Micah is the author, per 1:1.  He lived 25 mi SW of Jerusalem in Moresheth.  He prophesied during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.  in total, that's from 750-686 BC.  He was contemporary with Isaiah and Hosea.  He foretells the fall of Samaria, which occurred in 722BC, so we place his active prophetic ministry from about 735-710 BC.  
He mostly preached to the Southern Kingdom, though he did occasionally have some word for the North.  When Samaria fail, the refugees flooded into the south, and the syncretism practiced in the north grew popular in the south also.  Syncretism is merging two or more religions into one practice.  Hmm...the Catholic church has made good use of this over the years, resulting in a lot of our holidays. In practice, the South began to incorporate Baal worship into the sacrificial system.  Even so, "...it was the disintegration of personal and social values to which he delivered his most stinging rebukes..."  I wonder if we today are approaching this level of disintegration in our values with our LGBTQ stuff, constantly embracing perversions more and more distant from Biblical teaching.  But...do we really sit around all planning ways to cheat our neighbors and sleep with their wives?  Does pretty much everyone cheat?  I don't think so...but I could be naive.  

Chapter 1
In the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.  Amos was in the days of Uzziah, so it would seem that Micah is at least several years later.  Hezekiah is after the fall of Israel.  The prophecy concerns both Samaria and Judah.

5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? [Mic 1:5 ESV]
Amos also used the phrase "...the transgression of Jacob..." as a reference to ALL Israel, because it was not just the northern tribes that were descended from the sons of Jacob.

Foretelling of an apocalyptic destruction coming to Israel.  The idols and high places are to be brought low.  And there is this phrase:
7 ...for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return. [Mic 1:7 ESV]
MSB says the pagan temples were financed by the temple prostitutes.  So these idols were literally sourced from funds paid for prostitutes.  And yet they worshiped the idols.

Vss 8, 9 extend the prophecy to Jerusalem, not restricting it to just Samaria.   This verse:
9 For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem. [Mic 1:9 ESV]
The whole nation of Israel is here pronounced incurable.  It is beyond repentance -  or at least, they will not repent.  God knows where the line is, beyond which a nation cannot return.  Only He knows it and only He knows when the line has been crossed.  This verse implies that it is contagious.
2022 - They are lost.  Saved people are never incurable.  

2024 - This verse:  13 Harness the steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish; it was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel. [Mic 1:13 ESV].  I see more and more about Lachish.  Sennacherib had it under siege I think when he sent his envoys to Hezekiah and told him to surrender.  I have seen photos of it.  It is pretty famous as an archeological site.  And look what it is here.  "...the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion".  It is like something happened in this city, and it was corrupt - perhaps it was the syncretism the intro mentions - and it was popular in Lachish, and from there it spread, particularly to the North.
It is not where I thought it was.  I thought it was NE of Jerusalem, but it is well to the SW, near Gath.  Why was that under attack before Jerusalem?  

https://21111333.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/21111333/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/7-7-copy-Jul-08-2022-02-44-10-03-PM.jpg?width=570&height=335&name=7-7-copy-Jul-08-2022-02-44-10-03-PM.jpg

Through 16 is difficult for me.  Many place names.  And I cannot tell if they are in Israel, or are nearby and are to fall with it.  The chapter ends with "...for they shall go from you into exile."  This seems to imply that the place names are cities that surround Israel, and that Israel will be taken from them though they are left.  It is Samaria that will go into exile.

Chapter 2
A listing of the sins for which Israel will be punished.  Mostly, it is about the greed of the rich and their injustice to the poor as they continue to accumulate what they do not need.  They cheat and lie for themselves.
They also tell the prophets not to preach about judgement, because "it is not proper":
6 "Do not preach"--thus they preach-- "one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us." 7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Has the LORD grown impatient? Are these his deeds? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly? [Mic 2:6-7 ESV]

And look at this verse!  Never noticed this one before:
11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, "I will preach to you of wine and strong drink," he would be the preacher for this people! [Mic 2:11 ESV]  Good one for FB!  Clearly, indulgence with alcohol is a bad thing.  An undermining thing.  A preventative against repentance!  This people, who aren't going to repent anyway, are a congregation of drinkers.  Constant alcohol consumption never leads back to repentance.  That is why such a preacher is perfect for this people.
2022 - We saw this same charge about alcohol just a little while back...It was in Joel 1:5.  Both places.  Are Joel and Micah concurrent?  MSB says maybe Joel was late 9th century BC.  There is really not much to secure a date.  Micah is 750-686 BC, pretty firmly.  So Joel is about 50 years before Micah starts, by this reckoning.

Chapter 3
Starts with an accusation against the rulers of Israel, in cannibalistic terms.  They are "feeding" on their own people, on the poor and needy.  They consider them food to gorge on, as they take advantage of them in whatever way they can.  These first three verses show the depth to which Israel has fallen.  Those in power see everything around them as a resource to accumulate - even the people they "serve".  For them, the purpose of life is to accumulate - riches, power, and so on, and this is done by any means required to accomplish it.  There is no moral check and balance on behavior.  It reminds me of what Jordan Peterson said about Foucault (?).  What was his philosophy called?   Micah is speaking of an elite, oppressive, self-enriching government that increases itself at the cost of its people.  Sound familiar at all???  I am putting in all of the first three verses, because the wording here is so descriptive of how bad Israel had gotten.  It sort of gives me hope, because I do not see ALL of American government to be this far gone.  Some most certainly is, but I don't think all.  I hope I am not just being naive!  Here are the verses:
1 And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?-- 2 you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones, 3 who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron. [Mic 3:1-3 ESV]
They see people as mere resource.  Amos said they trade people for a pair of sandals.  Human life means nothing to them.


Then the prophets - false prophets, who also prophesy for their own enrichment - are indicted.  Look at this verse:
5 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. [Mic 3:5 ESV]
These prophets are so corrupt that they condemn publicly anyone who questions them, who fails to support them, and they "bless" those who support them financially.  In our day that plays out as labeling as racist those who do not support them, and blessing even murdering felons to advance their cause.  These are what pass for prophets today.  They call evil good and good evil.  Those who do such things are giving us a flashing red neon sign that they are false prophets, all about money, and not at all about justice.  The verse above identifies them, and these next verses tell us their fate, leaving no doubt that God is against such shallow tactics:
6 ...The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them; 7 the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. [Mic 3:6b, 7 ESV
This really needs to go on FB!

This is very direct, a good summary.  Leaders, priests, and prophets, all in it for the money, yet they all say "God is with us, disaster cannot come".  Such compelling verses:
11 Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, "Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us." 12 Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height. [Mic 3:11-12 ESV]  So Judah is now included in the prophecy.
Good for FB also.  Maybe several from Micah on successive days.

Chapter 4
A switch in time.  Instead of the immediate coming destruction, we hear about the ultimate establishment of Israel as the head of nations.  I think these verses are about the Millennial reign of Christ.  This is where the phrases "swords into plowshares", and "neither shall they learn war anymore" come from.
6, 7 seem to be about the return of the people from where ever they have been scattered.  This return is also a common theme.  This has to be about Israel, not about the church.  
2022 - Here are the first two verses:
"It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it," [Mic 4:1 ESV]
"and many nations shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." [Mic 4:2 ESV]
Something cataclysmic must happen for the mountain of the house to be THE highest of the mountains.  Lifted above the hills.  We could "interpret" this as highest authority, but why both mountains and hills if we are talking about authority?  Instead, we could just "translate" it, and say that it means what it says.

2022 - Next:
"He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore;" [Mic 4:3 ESV]
This is the Millennial.  Christ reigning on the earth, over all the earth.  1000 years of peace.  No need for war, no war allowed is maybe a better phrase.
2024 - A little more context here:
4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. [Isa 2:4 ESV].  If we look at vss 2-4 here, it is quite certain that we are talking about the Millennial Reign.  This is a time when there will be no war in Israel.  They just won't have any need for weapons.  I think we can be quite certain that this time is still in the future.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, "I am a warrior." [Joe 3:10 ESV].  Also this:  14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. [Joe 3:14-15 ESV].  Joel seems to be talking about an earlier time, as Israel arms itself for battle.  We can almost see 1948 in this description.  But I think it is about a still future time.  We can tie vs 15 to Revelation 6.   I think these signs accompany the rapture- shortly before or shortly after.  So...In Joel the plowshares are turned to swords at the beginning of the last 3 1/2 years, and in Micah, the swords are turned BACK into plowshares in anticipation of a thousand years of peace.  Copying this to Joel 3...
((NOTE 2024 - I added a LOT to this line of thought in Joel 3, under "2024 - Later" tags.  Based on what is there, these verses in Micah are post 70th week, pre-Millennial judgment.  The argument is, I think, pretty strong.))

Note that this can go two ways, and both are mentioned.  In Isaiah, the first time we see this phrasing, we are going from swords to plowshares, from war to peace.
In Joel's description, we are turning farm tools to swords, so going to war.  
Then in Micah, back to peace.  Surely there is a study here!  

2022 - Then these two:
"but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken." [Mic 4:4 ESV]
"For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever." [Mic 4:5 ESV]
This instead of war.  Worldwide peace, safety, security of ones place and possessions.  
But vs 5...doesn't that seem to imply that even during this time, much of the world will still be going its own way?  That only in Zion will God be worshiped exclusively?  Maybe even uniquely in that place, while the rest of the world, though humbled and submitting to his power, worships as they choose?

10 Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. [Mic 4:10 ESV]  This one verse covers 70 years of Babylonian captivity, and also prophesies that they will return from there.

The next verse tells how the nations of the world will view the fate of Samaria:
11 Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, "Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion." [Mic 4:11 ESV]
The whole world hates the US, because of our success, our riches, and now, because of our greed and shallowness.  They aren't out there praying that we will come to our senses.  They are rejoicing in our self-destruction.  This is the pattern!

And look at this verse:
12 But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor. [Mic 4:12 ESV]
The reason behind the captivity:  so that the good ones could be separated from the stubble.  So that God could "concentrate" those who love Him, but who have been diluted by the greed of those in power.  God's reason for the next several hundred years revealed by one prophet in one verse.

I don't really see this, however, as God's plan for the US.  If we go down, I think we are down to stay.  Micah was not written about the US.  Patterns are recognizable, especially with we have the object lessons in the news every day.  But the whole scheme of God's plan here is about the promises to Abraham, the redemption of the Gentiles, and Christ on the throne of David.  That's what the plan is about.

2024 - Again, these two verses, together:
11 Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, "Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion." 12 But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor. [Mic 4:11-12 ESV].  I see this now as a description of the final days before Jesus arrives on his white horse.  The whole world has identified Israel as the cause of all their problems - an idea certainly planted and nurtured by Satan through MoL.  They all gather at Megiddo and surrounding Jerusalem to rid themselves of all things Godly once and for all.  But they do not realize that God has just gathered and stacked them, concentrated his enemies, to make it that much easier for he and his armies to eliminate them at Megiddo, and then to judge them at Jerusalem.  
2024 - This also:
10 Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. [Mic 4:10 ESV].  This could be Micah prophesying about the Babylonian captivity, but I don't think that interpretation will fit with vss 11-12.  I think the MoL will be based in Babylon and move his armies toward Megiddo.  At the same time, Israel will march out from Jerusalem headed for that same place.  Jerusalem has no King as they start this...but they come back home with one!  A King to sit on David's throne!!!  I think this interpretation makes everything fit together very very well.

Chapter 5
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. [Mic 5:2 ESV]
Micah is the one who foretells that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem.  There are very many demonstrable predictions in this book.  Perhaps it should be read early and often, to maintain perspective.

2024 - As the previous chapter asked "Is there no king in you", this chapter identifies the coming king.  What an amazing connection.  The same King who comes as a baby in Bethlehem will come again to rule his people as King forever.  Who but God could "connect" these scriptures in this way???  As you keep reading, this is surely about a King born in Bethlehem ruling in the Millennial.

Does verse 3 correspond to the Chapter in Revelation where the woman is with child as the beast waits?  Worth a look!
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. [Mic 5:3 ESV]
Perhaps this means that once the Jews reject Christ, he will blind them and leave them on their own during the Age of the Gentiles, until that time in the last seven years when he will once again own them and protect them from the beast that would destroy the Messiah and His people???
This is a great idea for a study!
2022 - Seems more likely today that since it says "...give them up until the time...then the rest of his brothers shall return..." that we are talking about God not "intervening" in the history of Israel again UNTIL the time of Christ.  They sort of go through the motions, but in the last books of the OT, they don't really seem blessed.  And then there are 400 years of silence.  Doesn't that sound like giving them up until time for Christ to come, and open the way not only for Israel, but for all mankind - Jews and Gentiles alike?
2023 - I don't see how to tie this to anything but Revelation 12, even though Revelation won't be written for what, another 500 years?  In Rev 12, the son is caught up to heaven, and THEN the woman - Israel - is nourished by God for 1260 days.  But...it says until she has given birth...and truly, the Jews did not accept him.  Yet again, that birth was God's redemptive plan not only for the church, but ultimately for the Gentiles.  The birth of Christ, as heir to the throne of David, is in fact the beginning of God's recovery of Israel.

2023 - These verses:
7 Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man. 8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver. [Mic 5:7-8 ESV].  This strikes me as God's way of "hiding and preserving" Israel through their time of blindness.  While Satan is in power on earth, and could focus on destroying them much more easily if they were all in one place. he just cannot get them all if they are scattered all over the planet.  He just does not have the power to do that.  And it is worded as if the Jews will be a blessing to those peoples among whom they are scattered.  They are lions, in that ultimately, they will be unassailably over all the nations.  
So...Hitler...was perhaps taking advantage of the Jews being more concentrated, more identifiable in their ghettos and their villages, than they had been in centuries.  Russia concentrated them, Poland concentrated them, Germany certainly did...They had no country, yet they were very concentrated in these three areas.  So Satan struck, taking advantage of the best chance he'd had to get them all since perhaps 70 AD.  Finally, Hitler makes sense.

Chapter 6
The Lord speaks directly - He Himself accuses Israel with a question:  How have I wearied you?  Then He recounts all the times He acted in their favor.  This is vss 1-5.

2024 - This verse:
4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. [Mic 6:4 ESV].  If I wanted to make a case for women in leadership roles, I would hang a big hat on this verse.  Miriam is surely put into the same rank as Moses and Aaron here.  I checked the Hebrew in BLB, and this is not an insert, her name is there.  Not only that, but this is Micah giving us God's own words to Israel.  This gives me pause...it is not the church...but still...

2025 - 4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. [Mic 6:4 ESV]
4 "Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt And ransomed you from the house of slavery, And I sent before you Moses, Aaron and Miriam. [Mic 6:4 NASB95]
Dt 7:8; 15:15 are the same thought, and the same word.  
Ransomed and redeemed are the two words used here in most translations.  It is the same word used of the first born.  They had to be redeemed with a sacrifice.  We readily see the connection to Jesus' crucifixion being our redemption from sin.  There is always a redemption price, paid by one for the benefit of another.  What was the redemption price for Israel from Egypt?  What was paid?  Maybe the answer is here:  26 And I prayed to the LORD, 'O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. [Deu 9:26 ESV].  Perhaps the greater can demand the release of a slave from the lesser.  Perhaps it was ownership.  They were God's people and they were illegally held.  Yes...that is the difference!  They became slaves in Egypt but they did not go in there as slaves.  They went as honored guests.  How did it change I wonder.  But that's it.  God's own people were enslaved though no purchase price was paid for them.  They were taken by "might", they were released the same way.

vss 6-8 are the answer.  Then the answer, vs 8 that I copied out the first time I read this.  It has already been on FB.  What to do is pretty simple to say, but hard in practice.

2024-Another interesting verse:
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, 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?" [Mic 6:7 ESV].  This seems to ask if human sacrifice is what God wants in order to restore Israel.  Note that it is NOT God that brings this up but those who reply.  The answer is very clear that God does not want human sacrifice, nor any other sacrifice.  What God says he wants most from us is:
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? [Mic 6:8 ESV].

The rest of the chapter recounts the sins of the people.  Greed, violence, and lies.

Chapter 7
2 The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. [Mic 7:2 ESV]
When is this?  After the rapture?  No, the Millennial will be still future.  Maybe at the end of the Millennial, when the old earth is to perish by fire.  Only the evil will remain at that time.
Hmm...reading on through vs 7 this may be a further indictment of Samaria at the time of Micah.  More reasons for its coming destruction.  Its permanent destruction.  In 2020, I think this is about Samaria in Micah's time.  This verse also:
3 Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. [Mic 7:3 ESV]
They practice doing evil well, the government is corrupt, the justice system is corrupt, and celebrities indulge their basest desires with impunity.  They are all in it together.  How totally "current" is this verse!

What do we do about all this?  The answer is in vvs 5-7.  5 and 6 tells us what to be careful of, what to watch out for, and it is pretty dire.  We must not trust even those closest to us.  I think it will have to be worse than it is now in this country for us to get there.  It reads like Hitler's Germany, where citizens were encouraged to rat each other out to the government.  You couldn't trust your own family.  As things go from bad to worse, this sort of thing will begin to happen and then become common.  We must be careful of it.  And then the last verse, 7, tells us what we need to do:
7 But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. [Mic 7:7 ESV]
A prayer for every day.  FB post after all the "horror".  Micah gives us a highest hope for the lowest times.

Then a recounting of the time when Israel will again be supreme, and all nations will tremble at its power.

2023 - Look at these verses, and consider the implications:
11 A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended. 12 In that day they will come to you, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. 13 But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds. [Mic 7:11-13 ESV].  Imagine what the earth will look like after the 7th bowl.  It will be desolate, the smell of death will be in the air no matter what direction it blows, water will be polluted, plant life gone, and hateful angry people will scream for the defeat of God Almighty.  Into this, Satan will come and raise an army, and sides will be chosen.  Some, many, most will gather at Armageddon to fight against God.  But some will pour toward Jerusalem.  The remnant will go there, and prepare defenses for the onslaught.  But it will not come.  Jesus will appear on a white horse, leading his saints and his angels, and rather than defend, Jesus will attack and end the beast and his mouthpiece and all who follow them. 

Chapter 1
Possibly written in 647 BC, with a question mark, and possibly by Nahum - again with a question mark.  My big question is whether it was written before or after Jonah went to Ninevah?  MSB says no mention of any Kings at the beginning of this book, so dating it comes only from internal clues, and MSB best guess is between 695-642 BC.  There are also three widely divergent possibilities for the location of its writing - from Iraq to southern Israel.  The background information says it was written a hundred years after Jonah.  It also points out, and I did not know - or had forgotten - that Ninevah was the capitol city of Assyria.  One of the notes says that Nahum was written after Assyria had recovered from Sennacherib's defeat.  One final thing - after the fall of Ninevah to the Babylonians in 612 BC, it was not "rediscovered" until 1842.  It lay buried during all that intervening time.  Essentially wiped off the map.

1:1 says it's about Ninevah, and is a vision of Nahum of Elkosh.  (Incidentally, they still don't know where Elkosh is).  Some form of "vengeance" is used three times in vs 2.  Next few verses go on to say first that God stores up wrath for his enemies, and then through verse five the power of God is announced - power over the sea and rivers, mountains, earth - the whole world.  So God's power over all nature is established.  (This is important, because Ninevah fell due to a flood of the Tigris river undermining the 100' walls of the city.  (The account here makes no mention of a flood.  Perhaps where ever I got that (I got it in vs 8 of chapter 1!) used "flood" metaphorically.  The account here, https://www.gotquestions.org/Nineveh-destroyed.html , says two kings combined their power - the King of Akkad and the King of Media - and besieged and conquered Nineveh in 3 months.  This seems an extremely short siege for such a great city...so perhaps natural causes had something to do with it.  This conquest was in 612 BC, and is corroborated by at least one extra biblical source.  A case where God used natural, rather than supernatural events to accomplish his ends.)  
2022 - Recent correspondence made this verse of great interest:
"The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies." [Nah 1:2 ESV]
His wrath is ONLY for his enemies.  And a bit later this one:
"The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him." [Nah 1:7 ESV]
"But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness." [Nah 1:8 ESV]  WRATH

Then this verse:
8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. [Nah 1:8 ESV]
If I were a skeptic, I would be forced, absolutely forced, to argue not that the prophecy was a lucky shot, but that it was written after the fact.  No one would ever "guess" that a flood would cause the end of a city like Ninevah.  BUT, if this is just a metaphor for what happened, then I am not forced to do anything.  Note vs 9:
9 What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. [Nah 1:9 ESV]  It is true that Assyria never again played a role in history.  They were "ended" in 612 BC.  

What was it about Nineveh that made it the target first of God's redemption via Jonah, and then the target of his vengeance, as in vs 2, and because of the guilty, vs 3?  It was the capitol of Assyria.  God used Assyria to carry off the northern tribes.  That is perhaps why Assyria was allowed to rise, and once God used them for the purpose He intended, they were just too powerful a force for evil to leave around.  It is not like they paid homage in any form to the living God.  Maybe this is part of the answer, though it still leaves a pretty big mystery:
11 From you came one who plotted evil against the LORD, a worthless counselor. [Nah 1:11 ESV]  Who is this about, this counselor who may well have been the root cause of God's destruction of Nineveh?  Nimrod, perhaps?  Was this where he raised the tower?  I get that the whole place was evil in Jonah's time, repented, and then likely turned right back to the old ways later.  But perhaps this worthless counselor was where Nineveh crossed the line.  MSB says this could refer to Satanic influence directly over a king or the kings of Assyria - Ashurbanipal or Sennacherib.  Someone got them to invade first Israel, and then Judah - surely both an affront to God, even though he sent them.  MSB says this same kind of language is used by Isa in 10:7, but I don't see the similarity.

Rest of the chapter makes clear that this action against Ninevah will be permanent.  It will not rise again.  Besides vs 8 above, vs 12 says they will be cut down and pass away, vs 14 says no more will your name be perpetuated. Ninevah is across the Tigris river to the East of the modern day city of Mosul in northern Iraq.  It is not very far at all from the border with Turkey.

Then we get this verse, which seems out of place to me:
15 Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off. [Nah 1:15 ESV]  Surely this must be copied from Isaiah 52:7???  Nahum must have read Isaiah's work?  The verse was first used to celebrate the announcement of deliverance from Babylon.  In this case, the news is of the fall of Nineveh and Assyria.
2022 - But...Babylon was AFTER the fall of Ninevah and Assyria.  So something else is gong on here...This becomes almost a Millennial prophecy, and the bringer of good news is Christ at his second coming.

2024 - Or...if Nahum goes back further than Isaiah, perhaps Isaiah had read Nahum, and added to what Nahum had started here.  I note that in Hebrew, 1:15 is actually 2:1, and it does seem like a pretty clean break with what went before.  

Chapter 2
Starts with this:
1 The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength. [Nah 2:1 ESV]
vss 2-9 seem to be a description of the chaos in Ninevah as the Babylonians enter it in conquest, pillaging, looting, taking anything of value and taking slaves.

2024 - This from Wikipedia:
"In 612 BC, the Babylonians mustered their army again and joined with Median king Cyaxares encamping against Nineveh. They laid siege to the city for three months and, in August, finally broke through the defenses and began plundering and burning the city."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nineveh_(612_BC)
So the description of chaos in the city streets seems to be pretty much spot on.

10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale! [Nah 2:10 ESV]
A picturesque description of the fear felt by those conquered.    The language is direct - you can feel the fear.
A short chapter, written almost as if Nahum was inside the city when the Babylonians broke through.  Almost first person language.

2024 - Then the last verse of the chapter:
13 Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard. [Nah 2:13 ESV].  Who is this about, conquering or conquered?  Does it refer back to the feet of the messenger in 1:15?
2024 - Was 1:15 about Jonah?  Was he the messenger who'd come and brought peace to the city for a time?  But then what's the last half of the verse about?  Maybe the last half of the verse should be 2:1?  Maybe it is telling Judah they won't have to worry about Assyria anymore.  Hmm....in that case, then the messenger of peace might be the one bringing news of the downfall of Ninevah?  Assyria will never again invade Judah.  Then 2:1 actual begins the POV description of the fall of Ninevah.
The lions and young lions of vs 13 connect us back to the questions in 10-12, showing that vs 13 is about the end of Ninevah, just in simple verse, not prose.

Chapter 3
Verses 1-3 seem to be a continuation of the description of the fall itself.  But this very interesting verse, giving the reason for the fall, seems to tie right in with the description of Babylon's fall in Revelation:
4 And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms. [Nah 3:4 ESV]
3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living." [Rev 18:3 ESV]
A pretty undeniable parallel.  Also a good argument that Rev. 18 is about the destruction of a place on the planet, and not necessarily about the destruction of a greedy, immoral world system.  Greed and immorality reside in people, not in places.
2024 - Or...is the prostitute the replacement of the idolatry that came before?  Do we no longer worship idols of wood, stone, gold and silver, but we worship the gold and the silver!  We dedicate our lives not to sacrificing to mute idols but we give up everything, even family, for acquisition of power and wealth.  The combination of those too is almost irresistible.  Just look at what happens to US Congressmen and Senators.  They get richer and more powerful as they remain in Congress.  The temptation to be bribed for your power and influence must be tremendous.  Is that it?  Babylon is representative government, giving to many the power previously reserved to Kings?  Such that the corruption knows no bounds?  A king can only be so corrupt, but a whole government?  Tens of thousands of corrupt representative - both elected and appointed - all bent on enriching themselves at the expense of the people?  Is this not what was going on in Samaria and in Jerusalem before they fell?  No limit to evil, no good men to counter it?  If so, then Babylon, the seat of such power, would be both a system and a place.  Makes sense that it might be the capitol city of the MoL, and the seat of a corrupt government concentrating the wealth of the planet into the hands of so very few favorites of the MoL as he rules.  And all the world trying to curry favor with those, enriching themselves by network with those.  And where is this capitol city?  We get an idea from the description of the Valley of Jehoshaphat back in Joel/Micah.  Or do we not...
2024 - Went back and checked my notes there.  I changed from unconfused to confused.  

2024 - This map from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/map-of-the-babylonian-empire-under-king-nebukhadnetzar


Babylon...maybe the Kings of the East come from there.  Maybe old Babylon is where the MoL sets up his kingdom.  Then he marches over the plain of the world to the camp and the city - to Megiddo and Jerusalem.  Megiddo is WSW of the Sea of Galilee, between there and the Med.  If you march around the horn in this map, it is pretty much on the way.  At the scale of this map, the two places are quite close together.
Yeah, in 2024 what seemed to be clearing up faded right back out.  I need to spend more time with Micah, Joel and now Nahum.  I think they all bear on this question of which battle is referenced in what verses.  There ARE two battles.  One before the Millennial, when Jesus comes on his white horse.  And one when Satan is released at the end of the thousand years.  There ought to be a "timeline" that tells us which of these concerns the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
But I am letting it go for today.

vss 5-7 continue to recount the fall of Ninevah.  She is to be shamed before the nations, her nakedness exposed.  vs 6...:
6 I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. [Nah 3:6 ESV]
Game of Thrones, when Cerci had to walk the walk.  Shamed, held in contempt, a spectacle.  Is this where they got that?

Nineveh's fall compared to the fall of Thebes.  I don't know that story.  MSB says Thebes was conquered by the King of Ninevah - by Assyria, though it was surrounded by strong cities, and by natural barriers of water.  If it fell, with the same kind of defenses as Ninevah, why did thy not see it coming?  MSB says there are three charges made against Ninevah in this chapter.
1.  vs 1-3, Assyria was an unusually cruel and bloodthirsty nation.
2.  vs 4-7, Spiritual and moral harlotry
3.  vs 8-19, They had not learned from Thebes

Verse 19 sums up Nineveh's end:
19 There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil? [Nah 3:19 ESV]
Again, the similarity to Babylon in Revelation is striking.  Such a "great" city is fallen, and the world is happy about it.  

2022 - This seems today to be more about the collapse of Assyria than to be specifically about Ninevah.  The similarity to Babylon, and perhaps a key to understanding the Babylon of Revelation, is in the violence and sinfulness that Assyria perpetrated on the world.  It is there in that last verse:  "upon whom has not come your unceasing evil".  This most certainly corresponds to the descriptions of Babylon in Revelation. A nation of takers.  Unmerciful.  Brutally efficient, perhaps like Germany, using up the non-Germans for their own ends, with no pity, no mercy, no care for the fate of any others.  Single-mindedly self-serving, with individuals only servants of the state.  Maybe that is what it is all about.  A nation that is itself more important than any citizen.  Where men are subservient and the state is supreme.  Now isn't that a thought!  (SOCIALISM)

2023 - https://www.dailyhistory.org/How_Did_the_Ancient_City_of_Nineveh_Fall
This links to a pretty interesting history of and a recounting of the fall, of Ninevah.  They were a brutal conqueror.