The Minor Prophets and the End Time Church, Part 12
The Book of Micah
(Conclusion)
By: Darryl Henson
God indicts, through the prophet Micah, Israel and Judah, Samaria and Jerusalem for sin. He zeros in somewhat on the leadership of both Worldwide Church of God--in this case Israel, and the splits--Samaria. He does not like the leadership that He is seeing, I believe, in either case, because He addresses the whole house of Israel, the whole Israel of God--the church.
He then begins to initiate the idea of the times of restitution of all things, when God is going to put at least the remnant of the church back together in the personage of "a daughter of Zion," which Proverbs 31 says "excels them all." "To this daughter of Zion the remnant will come," as Haggai and other Scriptures show. We'll see that as we get on into the series.
She will be given first dominion--first rule, first leadership--in the beginning of restoring peace and unity in the church of God--the bride of Christ--as we continue on into this end time period of time that we have now entered. She is instructed to be in pain, to travail, to give birth to holiness, to become like Christ, for she is to be His bride. That is what we are travailing to do. We are travailing to produce Christ-like character in ourselves to be like Him. She is also to produce the new temple--to bring forth the latter temple--as the current temple is being destroyed.
Micah 4 talks about how her enemies will gather against her as she attempts to restore that which is correct and right. Verse 13 says that she is to "Arise and thresh." She is not to sit back passively, but that she will be given dominion over her enemies. We'll see that more clearly as we go.
I want to go back and use a companion Scripture to add some strength to this. It's a chapter that has been pretty enigmatic throughout, perhaps, the centuries. It's Ezekiel 17. It talks here that Ezekiel is supposed to put forth both a riddle and a parable. Well, that's double jeopardy. Sometimes it's hard just to understand Christ's parables about the Kingdom of God, about the church, about Himself, and about His bride in the New Testament. And yet He is the same One who wrote the Old Testament through these prophets and various other men, and produces a parable here.
This is a parable about the church, which is in keeping with the way He approached it in the New Testament. It is to the house of Israel, which we understand is the Israel of God today--the church. If you are still a bit lagging in your thinking along these lines that these prophecies are speaking to the church, just wait until you see how closely this fits, how every piece of this puzzle fits the church today. When we get done, I think you'll see that the riddle is solved, and very clearly so.
Ezekiel 16 is just before it, which is a strong indictment of the bride of Christ and how she has gone whoring after others, and how He will punish her, but how He will also swaddle her and take care of her and restore her eventually. In spite of her sins, He will forgive. That is the setting before He starts this parable and riddle of chapter 17.
"And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great eagle with great wings,..." (Ezekiel 17:3).
This I believe to be Herbert W. Armstrong. A leader or a king is typified by an eagle, so eventually a great leader, whether he be great in character or whether he is just great in terms of those he rules over, the size of the group that he leads. There is some strength in the analogy here to lend itself to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who was in that sense a great leader though he had lousy character. The commentaries do not apply it to the church even though my King James Bible does talk about the gospel here and refers to it as "the church." Amazing.
"...A great eagle [Herbert Armstrong with great wings, longwinged [had great reach], full of feathers, which had many colours [his influence spread to all languages, tongues, peoples around the world], came to Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:" (Ezekiel 17:3).
The church, or the temple, is the type here of the cedar. It is interesting that the campus in Pasadena had quite a few of the great stately cedars of Lebanon. Mr. Armstrong liked to point that out to people because of the analogy in the Bible of the "cedars of Lebanon" and how so many of them were used in the building of the temple of God in Jerusalem. That is in here. Cedars were used to build the temple.
"He cropped off the top of its young twigs, and carried it into a land of trade; he set it in a city of merchants" (Ezekiel 17:4).
Herbert Armstrong began being involved with the church in Oregon and took a few twigs from there from the biggest body of the church that was left at that time even though it was perhaps somewhat dead. It turned Sardis. That is what he became involved with. He carried it into a land of traffic. He set it in a city of merchants. That is a good description of Los Angeles, and it will get to be an even greater description as we go on through here.
"He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field;..." (Ezekiel 17:5).
He took of the people of Israel, sowed them, and then began to reap that. It was planted in a fruitful field--an area of doctrine, an area of belief that was fruitful to God that had a rich soil.
"...he placed it by great waters [i.e., proper doctrine and the word of God], and set it as a willow tree" (Ezekiel 17:5).
He mixes His metaphors a little bit--cedar to willow. Willows grow near water. We sing the song, "By the waters of Babylon, there we wept and there sat down. We hung our harps on a willow tree,…" There is captivity involved here. We'll see that as we continue.
"And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature,..." (Ezekiel 17:6).
It didn't become a stately cedar that the whole world would look to. It became a spreading vine, which spread over a great area. It didn't have a great deal of fame from the world. In fact the religions of this world persecuted and hated and did not like it. They ridiculed it as Jewish, or however else they termed it.
"...whose branches turned toward him,..." (Ezekiel 17:6).
We all looked to Herbert Armstrong as the leader. He was the overall leader of the church hands down, no question, and all the branches turned toward him.
"...and its roots were under him:..." (Ezekiel 17:6).
This vine was very very much dependent upon its leader. Of course I understand Jesus Christ built the church and He is the overall leader. That is always behind this, but He does use men, and as a physical personage, Herbert Armstrong was unquestionably the leader.
So it became a vine and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs (verse 6). There were branch offices all over the world. Local congregations were here, there, and everywhere.
"There was also another great eagle..." (Ezekiel 17:7).
Not an eaglet. Not that which this eagle produced, but another great eagle, in that sense, in its own right.
"...with great wings and many feathers:..." (Ezekiel 17:7).
It doesn't talk about the colors here.
"...and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him,..." (Ezekiel 17:7).
So the vine that Herbert Armstrong built began to bends its roots toward another leader--toward Protestantism as an ideology, toward some of those under Herbert Armstrong who began to teach and preach Protestant doctrines. When he came back from his illness and began to regain some strength, Mr. Armstrong realized that the branches had begun to turn away from him and turn toward others. He fought it and fought it, and it was very, very difficult to try to put it back on track as he said. So they started to grow toward this new eagle.
"...and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation. It was planted in a good soil by great waters,..." (Ezekiel 17:7-8).
The church had been planted in fertile soil--good doctrine. It was all there.
"...that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a well favoured vine" (Ezekiel 17:8).
So this new leader who is appearing on the scene had every chance to cause this vine to flourish and to produce fruit. But is that what happened?
Say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither?..." (Ezekiel 17:9).
So this new leader was going to do damage to the church that he was supposedly going to lead.
"...it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by its roots" (Ezekiel 17:9).
It wasn't like, let's say fifty thousand people grabbed hold of it and jerked it out of the ground and caused it to wither, but just a few men at headquarters began to cause this thing to wither and die. You know, how the wind will blow against something and pull it up a little bit, and then it slowly begins to die.
"Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew" (Ezekiel 17:10).
Let's tie Jeremiah 18 into this a little bit.
"Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;" (Jeremiah 18:15).
"I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity" (Jeremiah 18:17).
We wonder why we have trouble getting prayers answered.
Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah;..." (Jeremiah 18:18).
Jeremiah said, "You're going to be scattered. You're going to be punished for sin." They did not like to hear that message.
"...for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet...."
The ministry said, "Oh, we're not going to change anything. God will still bless us." And then they changed everything, and God didn't bless. And now those who broke off from Worldwide are beginning to change things, and God is becoming more angry with them-- treacherous sister Judah also.
"...Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words" (Jeremiah 18:18).
"We don't want to hear that kind of message" they said. But that kind of message needs to be heard.
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Say now to the rebellious house,..." (Ezekiel 17:11-12).
Now who is a rebellious house? There is only one book in the Bible that talks about the rebellious house, and it's Ezekiel, and he does it several times.
"And he said to me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even to this very day. For they are impudent children and obstinate in heart. I send thee to them; and thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord GOD. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them. ¶ And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. And thou shalt speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious" (Ezekiel 2:3-7).
And then in verse 8 He tells Ezekiel not to be rebellious and dare not to preach what God told him to preach. A strong message needs to be heard, and that's the way Ezekiel is addressing the house of Israel, the Israel of God--the church today.
"Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon [Joe Tkach, the second eagle] hath come to Jerusalem [the church], and hath taken its king, and its princes, and led them with him to Babylon; (Ezekiel 17:12).
The whole church began to slide, and Herbert Armstrong was sort of caught up in the vortex of it. He was struggling against it, but the church was sliding that way in spite of him trying to get it back on the track, and inexorably it pulled him to some degree along with it. He fought it, and fought it, and fought it to the death. He never was able to get it back to where it had been. He was helpless before the onslaught of false doctrine that appealed to people--love, love, love; no works; trinity, . . . and on and on.
"...and hath taken its king, and its princes, and led them with him to Babylon;" (Ezekiel 17:12).
Many of the evangelists and the leaders under Herbert Armstrong went right along with the program.
"And hath taken of the king's seed, and made a covenant with him, and hath taken an oath from him:..." (Ezekiel 17:13).
The Tkachs took over the king's seed, the church,--that which had been produced; that which had been planted and grown in the church. They had made a covenant with Mr. Armstrong that they would continue as he taught. You probably remember right after Herbert Armstrong's death that Joe Tkach said, "We can't walk in his shoes, but we'll certainly follow his footsteps."
Now there's a joke for you.
"...he hath also taken the mighty of the land:" (Ezekiel 17:13).
Much of the leadership went right along with it.
"That the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand" (Ezekiel 17:14).
My margin here says, "That the kingdom might be base, to keep his covenant, to stand to it." In other words, they would not live up to the covenant they made with Herbert Armstrong. They would go another direction.