Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Jonah, Micah Part 2 • Dr. Joshua Sears • Nov. 21 - 27

Episode Date: November 16, 2022

Dr. Sears continues to explore the Book of Amos and the importance of the minor prophets, the concept of hesed, and the importance of the Everlasting Covenant.Please rate and review the podcast!Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/old-testament/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/follow-him-a-come-follow-me-podcast/id1545433056Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15G9TTz8yLp0dQyEcBQ8BYThanks to the follow HIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producers, SponsorsDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Welcome to part two of Dr. Josh Sears, the books of Jonah and Micah. Well, this has been wonderful about Jonah. The next book is Micah, and I'm excited to look at this. Where do you want to go with this one, Josh? Well, I'm really excited. Micah is one of my favorite books of the Bible. And when I was here last time, and we were in second kings, I mentioned that my first born son

we named Josiah after King Josiah there. My second born son is named Micah after this book right here just because I like it. Well, if Micah's out there listening, hello Micah. Yeah. We love you. Here it follow him. So I've trained him what his name means. Micah, Mika means literally who is like with the question mark. And that sounds funny, but there's longer versions of the name also in Israel. You can have Micahia, which means who is like Yahweh, and you can have Michael, Micah-L, who is like God. Micah is like the shortened version of that name that doesn't have the God you're talking about there.

So it's kind of implied that Micah probably still means something like who is like God or who is like Yahweh, Jehovah. It's just clipped right there. So that's what his name means, which is fun because at the end of the book he's got a little playoff his own name. He says, who is a God like you that's like this? And it's really trying to get them to understand the incomparable nature of the God of Israel. Oh, that's fantastic. Who is like? So Micah, one way you could think about him, he's the less famous brother of Isaiah. He's not literally his brother,

but the book is like a sibling to Isaiah. Oh, okay. Micah is the Sam or the Shiblon to Isaiah's Nephi and Helemen. They live at the same time, so they very well could have known each other. And the book covers many of the same themes and topics that Isaiah does, and they even share for word-for-word some of the same prophecies. So there's a lot of connections between the book. And one thing that also brings them together is that in 3 Nephi, when Jesus is teaching the Nephi

to about the last days, he draws heavily on Isaiah to do that and on the prophet Micah. Really? They believe both of them together in there. So part of what I would Isaiah to do that and on the prophet Micah. No really. They've moved both of them together in there. So part of what I would love to do today is when we get to those parts, we'll jump to third Nephi and see what Jesus is doing with Micah. Okay, that'd be fantastic. I love that.

Micah's got all this stuff going for it. But because it's overshadowed by his more famous older brother book, Isaiah, people tend not to know him as well. But I think he's every bit as worth the attention that he's giving. He's every bit as prophetic and important here, just on a much smaller scale, seven chapters instead of 66. So Isaiah gets all the spotlight,

but Micah is right in there in the ring with him, fighting the good fight like a Samarish Shiblon. Yeah, I wrote that down. Micah is to his Isaiah as Sam is to Nephi. Yeah. Good guys, just with a lot more famous person next to him, but no less serviceable. So again, Micah lives the same time as Isaiah. You've got four of these great eighth century prophets. Micah, Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea all live kind of in the same time period there. So

might have known each other, but we don't know. They never say such a thing. It's fun to imagine what going to church with Isaiah and Micah might have been like. So, Micah's got seven chapters. It's hard to know exactly how to structure them. It depends on what kind of features you decide to look for. But there is what everybody agrees on. There's an interesting back and forth dynamic between judgment and justice and destruction and those kind of prophecies, and then bright rays of hope about a better future. And then it goes back to the present dark times and then back to the good times coming in the future. So you do see that switch going back and forth

throughout the book. That sounds like Isaiah as well. Yep, Isaiah does that as well. So here's the thing, we really can't cover every verse in depth, even though there's only seven chapters. I really feel for people like Jan Martin, who he made cover like the whole book of Ezekiel in one go. But even though we have fewer chapters to go through,

they're just really rich. So I'm gonna go through some parts fast and then we'll slow down at more relevant parts, especially the parts where again, Jesus is gonna incorporate it into third Nephi because I think that'll be the biggest payoff for a lot of our listeners here because it'll help make more sense

of what Jesus is saying in the book of Mormon, which is always a good thing. Let's get to it. Verse one, the word of the Lord that came to Micah, the Morah shite, that means he's from the village of Morah shite. In the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. The living in the days of Ahaz and Hezekiah,

and these guys like Isaiah, you gotta bring back all that context from the book of Isaiah, what's going on? What's all the wickedness going on in Jerusalem? The predictions that the Syrians are going to come and destroy Judah, all that stuff is playing in here. So we got to kind of get back in that dynamic. Thinking of all those things. And he starts off in verse two, here, all ye people, harken, O earth, and all that therein is, and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple, for behold, the Lord come with forth out of his place and will come down and tread upon the high places

of the earth, and the mountain shall be molten under him, and the valley shall be cleft as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. For the transgression of Jacob is all this and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? Therefore, I will make Samaria as a heap of the field and as plantings of a vineyard. And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley and I will discover the foundations thereof. So valley and I will discover the foundations

thereof. So you remember in Isaiah's time, I know you cover, I'll keep referring to Isaiah by comparison, because I know you spent five weeks on Isaiah. But in Isaiah's lifetime, and Micah's the northern kingdom of Israel with its capital at Samaria, it's going to get destroyed by the Assyrians. And the southern kingdom of Judah is going to get almost destroyed, which Jerusalem getting saved in the nick of time. So all that dynamic is behind this as he criticizes both the Northern kingdom and the southern kingdom for all the things that they're doing wrong. Josh, I just got to say as I think of Jonah, Jonah was like, this is what I wanted. Yeah.

I wanted fire coming down. I want to know it's like wax. Yeah. But it's important to note, Micah, you know, we can joke about Jonah because he would have, yeah, but Micah is really upset by this in verse eight. He says, therefore, because of all that I just said, I will wail and howl. I will go stripped and naked. I will make a wailing like the dragons and morning like the owls.

So dragons and owls probably better translated jackals and ostriches. It's this image of desolation and ruin these wild animals that are just going through what was once civilized territory there. So, he's wailing and howl. Yeah, he kind of hates the fact that he's got a prophesy of these terrible things going on. I just thought of Jonah going, give me that job. That's the one I wanted. But what did you say about the dragons? Modern translations usually use jackals. Oh, okay. The King James translators, if they didn't know what an animal was, they'd sometimes stick in a fantastical animal as a placeholder. Like, we don't know what it is.

So here's something you know it's not. And there you go. Here we go. So dragons and satyrs and things like that in there, but these wild animals. So then the rest of chapter one is just predictions of destruction. So, verses 10 through 15, he lists all sorts of towns that are all towns in Judah, and what he might be doing given his context is listing places that the Assyrians are going to come destroy. He's really clever with the way he does it. All the town names have a meaning in Hebrew, and the image of destruction that he pairs with that town name is a pun or a play on words on the name of the town. The footnotes give you the first one, what Afra means right there,

and then it points out that this is going on for the others rather than explain all of them. Afra there means dust, so it says, at this town rolled by self in the dust. So the action that he predicts is based off the town name, and it's like that for all the others. So like the footnotes, I'm gonna take a cop out and not give you all the details. You can look those up in a good study Bible, but for the sake of time, we'll keep going.

Even though the linguistics of it all is fun and you can see Micah's really creative. I think it helps us to know that this isn't just somebody jotting down something real quick when this was originally written. We missed that because we're not seeing it in Hebrew, but this was crafted and poured over. And I like knowing that. The footnote says, each of the cities named in verses 10 through 16 will meet a fate appropriate to the meaning of its name. Yep. It'd be like saying, oh, Los Angeles will be destroyed and the angels will come over through it, you know, because Los Angeles means the angels. It's something like that. Pull the drapes on draper and sandy will be a sandstorm. Yeah. So like Isaiah, Micah is a poet and these prophecies are all in poetic form. It's so very creative, very, lots of very imaginative interviews. I bought you guys to keep doing that. That was really fun.

And then chapter two is mostly all more judgment and destruction, but the last two verses of chapter two give us that first little ray of hope as we give that there. So chapter two gets into more what are these people doing that's so bad? So verse one, woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds. You can just imagine them lying there like dreaming of all the iniquity they're going to do when they get up in the morning When the morning is light they practice it because it is in the power of their hand and They covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away So they oppress a man in his house even a man and his heritage

Therefore, thus say at the Lord be hold against this family Do I devise an evil from which he shall not remove your necks, and either still you go hotly for this time as evil. So the thing about coveting fields and taking them and grabbing houses, this gets back to something Isaiah also talked a lot about about the social injustice going on, where you have joining house to house. Isaiah said, yeah, joining house to house, gobbling up these, the property belonging to these poor families so they can create these big, vast estates and make lots more money that way. So Micah, it'll have a lot of things about that too about how judgment is being denied to the poor in the oppressed. So Isaiah had similar language there, so does Amos, all these things

about exploiting people who are poor and can't fend for themselves in the corruption of the legal system and all that. So Micah's got lots of that. So the rest of verse chapter two, it's starting verse four. So one's gonna take up a parable or a taunt song here against you and lament about you. And then it's got the people in verse six saying, prophesy ye not say they to them that prophesy,

they shall not prophesy to them that they shall not take shame. The word here is not the usual word for prophesy. So often translations will have preach the usual word for prophesy, so often translations will have preach or teach instead of prophesy, but they're basically saying, don't prophesy to us stuff that we don't want to hear about. Don't put us to shame with your words here. The guilty take it the truth to be hard. We don't want to hear this. Is it Isaiah 3010 where prophesied smooth things prophesied to seats?

I think this is in the same mode. And look, jump down a few verses to 11. If a man walking in this 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 or the preacher of this people. So it's these people saying, we don't like the prophets that are telling us what we don't want to hear. But if you have people claiming this authority that are telling you to live it up and do the bad things you want to do, then you accept him as an authoritative teacher. Oh, that is so Samuel, the Lamanite, and I look in there's the footnote, Helaman 1327. I think we ought to go to Helaman 13

and have John read that. Helaman 1326 and 27. There's Sammy the Lamanite starting in verse 26, Behold, he are worse than they for as the Lord liveeth if a prophet come among you and declare a thundered you the word of the Lord, which testify of your sins and iniquities, your anger with him and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him. You will say that he is a false prophet and that he is a sinner and of the devil

because he testify that you're deed to evil. But behold, if a man shall come among you and say, and shall say, do this, there is no antiquity, do that, you shall not suffer. Ye he will say, walk after the pride of your own hearts, ye walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desires. If a man shall come among you and say this, you will receive him and say that he is a prophet. You lift him up, you'll give unto him your substance, you'll give unto him your gold and of your silver, you will close him and costly a peril. And because he speak of flattering words unto you, and he say it that all is well, then you will not find fault with him.

Yeah, you're golden, your silver, and your podcast subscriptions and your likes and currency of today We've got these people here. I think exactly the same sentiment in 11 someone says I'll prophesy to you saying It's okay to go after wine and strong drink. Oh, yeah, that I like that one Let me keep shopping until I find a profit that I like We'll skip around a little here chapter three verse five Micah says that I like. We'll skip around a little here. Chapter three, verse five, Micah says, thus say at the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people error, that bite with their teeth and cry peace. So I think that means who who say peace to people who give them something to eat, but they make war against tea that put it not into their mouths. So again, you've got these people

that are like prophets for hire that'll say whoever gives them money. So a cry piece to people who give them stuff, something to bite with their teeth food, but then they prepare war against people that aren't going to give them anything. So you've got these people that are setting themselves up as authority, but are just going for whatever would get them the most money or something in return here. They'll say whatever people want to hear. And you got people who that's what they want. Tell us what we want to hear and then we'll prop you up. These true and false prophetic voices here is a problem.

And then Micah responds famously in chapter 3, verse 8. He contrasts himself to all those false teachers. But truly I, Micah, am full of power by the spirit of the Lord and of judgment, the word there means justice, and of might. So I'm full of power and of justice and of might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. And that's the burden of the true prophets. They have to tell the people what they don't want to hear. They have to tell the truth. They have to tell them that they're sinning and what are the consequences of sin.

And that's what Micah imagining he doesn't get stuff to bite with his teeth because this isn't what people want to hear But it's what the Lord's called him to say. Oh, I like it. I like his confidence there I am full of the power of the spirit of the Lord. I Reminds me of President Nelson three years ago now before COVID so it seems like forever ago But he came to be why you his most recent devotional it was called the love and the laws of God. And he discussed this kind of burden that the prophetic mantle places on him. So here's his quote, the arbiter or truth is God, not your favorite social media news feed, not Google, and certainly not those who are disaffected from the church.

Many now claim that truth is relative, and that there's no such thing as divine law or a divine plan. Such a claim is simply not true. There is a difference between right and wrong. Truth is based upon the laws God has established for the dependability, protection, and nurturing of his children. Eternal laws operate in and affect each of our lives,

whether we believe in them or not. Sometimes we as leaders of the church are criticized for holding firm to the laws of God, defending the Savior's doctrine and resisting the social pressures of our day. But our commission, this is like Micah, as ordained apostles, is to go into all the world and preach his gospel to every creature. That means we are commanded to teach truth.

In doing so, sometimes we are accused of being uncaring as we teach the Father's requirements for exaltation in the celestial kingdom. But wouldn't it be far more uncaring for us not to tell the truth, not to teach what God has revealed, it is precisely because we do deeply care about all of God's children that we proclaim his truth. We may not always tell people what they want to hear. Profits are rarely popular, but we will always teach the truth. And I think Micah really feels that burden there. As he points out these professional prophets that are just saying whatever people will pay them to say,

versus Micah who truly does have the spirit, but that means he's got the responsibility to declare transgression and sin. That's what he's got to do. He's probably not biting with his teeth very much. That's true. No one's paying him. All right. Now the rest of chapter 3, verse 12, famously says,

"'Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high place of the forest.'" Now the reason I say that's famous is because it appears in another story, Jeremiah, like a hundred years later, is on trial. There's this great story where he's Jerusalem will be destroyed and that sets everybody and they're planning whether they, what they should do with them. And someone quotes this from Micah,

profit from a hundred years before going, well Micah did say Jerusalem would be destroyed. So maybe there's some precedent for this idea. We can't just dismiss Jeremiah outright. Maybe. So that's really interesting that they had access to Micah's words and people are looking at this and wrestling with, what does this mean?

Maybe this is another place to talk about. The Old Testament is not necessarily chronological. Yeah. These prophetic books are not in order. We read all these history stories and you get the historical frame and then you get to the prophetic books, you have to figure out, okay, where am I in the story? Where does he fit in the history? Yeah.

So yeah, we already covered Jeremiah and our come follow me reading, but Micah's before him. Before Jeremiah. Okay. Now, the last two verses of chapter two, if we can go back, are important. This is where we get that ray of hope that you get in the midst of all the judgment. 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 Bowsra, as the flock in the midst of their fold. They shall make great noise by

reason of the multitude of men. The breaker has 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. So you get images of gathering, you get images of Jehovah being a shepherd, a king who's gathered his flock, and he's kind of leading them out of this gate off like a king like an a new Exodus and all that. But there's an important concept that appears here for the first time in Micah, but not the last time and that's the remnant of Israel. So we need to talk about that for a minute. And here's why you open up the Book of Mormon to the title page. And like John mentioned earlier, it says,

what's the Book of Mormon supposed to be doing here? The big purposes. So the Book of Mormon is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord had done for their fathers and that they may know the covenants of the Lord that they are not cast off forever. So right from the Gico, the Book of Mormon is framing itself as a book about remnants,

written to remnants, to talk about stuff that's happened to remnants right there. And the problem with that is Moroni, and then you get in a Nephi and the others, they're assuming that we've read our Old Testament, and that we have Old Testament 101 down in our heads, and that we know what they mean by remnants right there. So the book of Mormon is saturated with this remnant idea there, but they're assuming that you've read Isaiah, Micah, Amos, these other prophetic books of the Old Testament, the outline, the idea of what it means to be a remnant of Israel,

and the Book of Mormon's gonna go deeper with that idea. But if we haven't really studied up an Old Testament prophetic ideas, then we're not fully understanding what the Book of Mormon's doing with those messages. Yeah, I can just hear Nephi, what? You don't know, Micah? Yeah, he's like, the angel told me,

you've got the Old Testament. Yeah. Why haven't you? How do you not know this? I am assuming here. So remnants are really important. So here's a little bit of background so we can make sense of this.

A remnant dictionary definition, you know, it's a small part of a greater whole. It's a piece of something, piece of the puzzle. So a remnant of Israel is like a chunk of Israel, a subgroup of Israel. So when you're using Israel as I can analogy to a tree, a remnant's could be like the different branches. So you don't have a talk of a remnant early in the story

of the Abrahamic covenant. It's just, here's the covenant family, Abraham and Sarah. And the Abrahamic covenant. It's just here's the covenant family Abraham and Sarah and The Abrahamic covenant is presented in Genesis as a solution to the world's problems again There's wickedness those violence how we're gonna bring peace and righteousness and bring the covenant everyone on earth It's through this family here So you got this big world problem and the Abrahamic covenant is a solution But then as you keep going through the story, a new problem develops, where yeah, it sounds great in the ideal.

This family goes and just shares with everybody, but it doesn't quite go like that. First off, Israel, this family, they're imperfect themselves. They can't get their own act together. You've got Isaac versus Ishmael, and then you've got Esau versus Jacob, and then Joseph versus his brothers, like

this family is having so much interpersonal conflict themselves, how they supposed to be a light to the nations. How are they going to bless the world when they're fighting with each other? Yeah. And then eventually, when they come out of Egypt and settle back in there, they can't get along so badly, they split into two different countries. You got the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. They just cannot be unified.

So it really impedes their ability to tell everyone, hey, live like us and you can have peace and prosperity in all these blessings when they're so messed up. So what's the solution to this problem? How can God use such a messed up group of humans to still get the job done of taking the covenant to the whole world? And the answer does not come in Genesis, nor in the historical books of the Old Testament. You read Samuel and Kings, it's just the story of these problem children. And Kings ends with them in exile, like there's no solution here. So where you get the solution to this problem is in the prophetic books of the Old Testament, Isaiah, Micah, Amos, these others. They try to work this out. How can God still use Israel when they're so imperfect to still get the job done?

Does still fulfill the covenant and the answer to that is Remnants remnants is the solution to this problem and why is that because if you take Israel as a wicked whole You can reduce them down to a righteous remnant a righteous minority that can still get the job done and Remnants give you some flexibility rather than having all of Israel in one spot where they're just kind of doing their thing as a nation. Remnants gives God the flexibility to move different groups of Israelites physically to different spaces so that they can reach more Gentiles and thus be a light to more people around the world. I'm pretty sure you've read Jacob chapter 5.

Yeah, that's exactly Jacob 5. Move those branches around to different trees so you can around the world. I'm pretty sure you've read Jacob chapter five. Yeah, that's exactly Jacob five. Move those branches around to different trees so you can spread the fruit. That's exactly it. If it's all stuck in one tree, you can't bring the goodness of the good fruit to all the other trees in the vineyard. That's exactly it.

Well, and that is an Old Testament allegory. We just don't have zenith in our current Old Testament. Exactly. So if you want more background on this Old Testament concept, one good resource to go to that I'd recommend to people, there was an article presented at the Sparry Symposium a few years ago by our colleague Joseph Spencer,

and it's called the Profits Remnant Theology. And it's just going through setting up what all the Old Testament prophets say about this. And you can read that online for free at the Religious Studies Center website, rsc.byu.edu. We'll put a link in our show notes follow him.co follow him.co you can find it there too. And he starts off by pointing out that the Book of Mormon talks a lot about remnants,

but it's kind of assuming we know the Old Testament background. So he's like, here's the Old Testament background. So then the Book of Mormon makes more sense. So that's a great kind of quick review for a Latter-day Saint context of this remnant idea. So, Maika here brings up this concept of a remnant and he's very similar in how he talks about it to what Isaiah does. And since these remnant stories are gonna be brought together

in third Nephi, it's worth maybe doing a quick review of what Isaiah says. Sorry, I'll all this background just to get back to verse 12. Isaiah talks a lot about remnant. And in the book of Isaiah, if you look step back and look at Isaiah as a whole, it's the story of two different remnants, primarily. The first half of the book, chapters one through 39, is one remnant story, and chapters

40 through 66, the second half of the story about a different remnant. So the first half of the book, the first remnant, is the one that's in Isaiah's day, where Judah is wicked. Those Assyrians are on the horizon. They're going to come to story of everybody. Isaiah is trying to preach to them. And what Isaiah's warning is that God is going to reduce wicked Judah down, down, down, down, until you just get the righteous people left. So this righteous remnant that survives the destruction. In Isaiah 6, God even puts a number on this. He says, a 10th shall return. So it's like 10% of them. And there's all sorts of places where Isaiah talks about this.

He says that we're going to, those, the survivors that are left in Jerusalem will be holy. Everyone that is counted among the living in Jerusalem. He talks about a holy seed kind of replanting the tree of Judah after it's chopped down. All sorts of images getting at this remnant idea. You can tell how important this is to Isaiah because he names his son, Sh-Ar-Jashub, which means Sh-Ar-Aremnant. Sh-Ar-Jashub will return. Okay.

He likes to give kids these message names. So they're walking billboards for the big points he's trying to make. Maharshalah Hashbaz, right? Yeah. Emmanuel. God is with us, right? So Shiaari Yashub, Shiaar is the term for remnant that he typically uses right there. So a remnant shall return, a remnant will survive is a big deal for him. So then the Assyrians come and we've got the Hezekiah story

and you just have these survivors and Jerusalem that repented and turned to Jehovah and trust like Hezekiah. So that's the righteous remnant there. And now they're prepared to do the job of Israel because instead of having 90% of Israel's wicked, now you've got 10% left, but they're gleeced their righteous. They can keep the commandments, they can be the light that they're supposed to be, they can do the job properly now. So that's one function of creating a remnant. The second half of the book of Isaiah has the remnant different story now. You've got this group that

has been exiled to captivity in Babylon. So the way they were created as a remnant is the Babylonians came scooped up this chunk of people and physically relocated them to Babylon and dumped them there. And now there are a remnant that's operating there. And God promises to redeem them, to get them out of Babylon, physically gather them back to the land of their inheritance where they can rebuild Jerusalem. So it's a different remnant story. And it's kind of nice comparing and contrasting those two stories because Nephi wants to talk

about remnants in the book of Mormon so he can liken these stories to the last days. And Nephi's got two stories in Isaiah he can turn to. So the first story is more handy to make certain points. And then the second story is more handy to make other points. So Nephi's got two kind of stories he can draw from. So for example, when Nephi wants to focus on God's destruction on the wicked, mean Gentiles oppressing the remnant, the best resource for that is the first half of Isaiah, where you get the destruction of the Syrians. You do get the destruction of Babylon in the second half, but it's mostly applied.

There's not as much destruction language there. On the flip side, when you want to talk about remnants that physically gather back after being scattered, you got to go to the second half of Isaiah. Because in the first half, the remnant doesn't go anywhere. They're just in Jerusalem the whole time. They don't move. It's in the second half where they got to make a physical journey. So when NIFI wants to talk about that aspect of it, he's got to go to the second half of Isaiah. Or when NIFI wants to talk about this dynamic of nice Gentiles who are helping the remnants, he's got to go to the second half because those Persians are the nice Gentiles that help

out the remnant there. There's no nice Gentiles in the first half. It's just the Assyrians, these mean Gentiles there. So when Nephi wants to talk about a contrast between mean Wicca Gentiles and nice helpful Gentiles, he's got to go to the second half of Isaiah and quote from there. So Nephi is very much aware of the dynamic of these two remnant stories and he very powerfully draws upon them to liken it to the latter day remnants and what their situation is such as the Lamanites. So back to Micah. Then all that being said, verse 12 and chapter 2 again, I will surely assemble O Jacob all of

the I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. The remnant is always a promise that only a minority of you are going to make it through this, but there will always be that minority that survives. There's a protection clause in the Abrahamic covenant that God won't let Israel get completely destroyed. They're always going to survive and he'll then he'll keep working with them. So you see this like in the book of Mormon, powerful contrast between the children of Lehigh who are part of the covenant, and when they go apostate,

they have a remnant that survives to the last days so that they can come back eventually. Then there's the Gerardites by contrast or Gentiles, they're not part of the covenant, and when they go apostate, they're completely destroyed. There is no root nor branch. There's no remnant to survive to the last days, Latter-day Gerardites coming back so they don't have the protection is no root nor branch. There's no remnant to survive for the last day's

Latter-day Jaredites coming back so they don't have the protection clause that's built in. Josh, doesn't Isaiah use it as like a tree that's been chopped down but a piece then starts growing again out of the trunk? Yes. A few places Isaiah uses that image of the chop down tree and then the holy seed that sprouts like a root

or a chute or a rod that comes out and can regrow the tree. The teal tree or the oak. Contary ball says those are trees that can be, you can have all the leaves eaten off, but it will still come back because there's a remnant or a sap within. Yeah. So this remnant idea is very powerful for the prophets because on the one hand, it's a promise that God won't let Israel be completely destroyed. He'll make them igleast a small part of them survive so they can live and grow another day. And on the other hand, it gives God the ability

to now have some flexibility to still work with Israel in either to produce a righteous group that can get the job done or to move them around in new Gentile areas, mix them up a little bit. But either way, that helps God use Israel to fulfill the purposes of the Abrahamic covenant to bring the blessings of the everlasting covenant to fulfill the purposes of the Abrahamic covenant to bring the blessings

of the everlasting covenant to all the nations of the earth. So remnants are key to making this work. If they're all stuck in one group and you had to take them all or nothing, it really halt God's ability to work with them here. So remnants is a key and powerful idea. So the scattering is a good thing. It put them into these remnants. Yeah, it can be a good thing to get them out there.

Like the Nephites go to the Americas and now they can do missionary work among the natives that are there, the Gentiles there. You have Book of Mormon hints about that. Sometimes it's punishment, but even then when it's a punishment, he'll use the unfortunate situation they're in in order to still get the job done. Like Isaiah 49, God says to the remnant in Judah, yeah, I'll get you out of Babylon, but that's too light of a thing. I'm also want you to be a light to the nations so we can bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. Like, let's do this. Let's get back to basics here. So Micah talks a lot about this Remnant idea in the same vein of Isaiah, but he's also going to add a little bit more detail about a certain aspect of the Remnant that Isaiah does not do, which is why one reason I think at 3rd Nephi, Jesus quotes Micah

instead of just sticking with Isaiah. So we'll get there. Anyway, let's go to chapter 4 now and continue through the book. So chapter 3 ended, remember with Jerusalem getting plowed. And then it says, the mountain of the house will be as a high place to the forest, meaning it'll be like just bear. It'll be like an open field out in the wilderness, or just bulldozed. And that transitions into chapter 4, which has a lot of hope opens right here,

and it opens with a prophecy that will sound very familiar, because it's almost word for the word the same as Isaiah chapter two. But in the last days, so now we're moving from Micah's time and looking forward to like a hopeful future. In the last days, it shall come to pass to the mountain of the house of the Lord, so that's the same thing that just got destroyed into chapter 3, but is now apparently rebuilt and restored. The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and

to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into plough shares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Sounds familiar. Yeah, sounds very familiar. There's a few differences, but it's mostly the same here as Isaiah.

So people have asked, did Micah take this from Isaiah or did I say this from Micah? And officially we don't know. Scholars have argued that Isaiah was first and Micah copied it. Others have argued that Micah's first and Isaiah copied it. Others have argued that they're both taking it from a third source that we don't know about. I think Latter-day Saints have often assumed that Isaiah was first, but that's just because we think Isaiah's awesome. So we just jumped to that. And he comes first in the, as you read, right? If you're reading the Old Testament, he comes first, so you kind of automatically think that way, but they're

not in chronological order. So the interesting thing here is though, they frame this prophecy a little bit differently. In Isaiah, he's contrasting this amazing future with the wicked present we have right now. And like get your act together guys, you're sending, you need to repent so we can work towards this future.

In Micah, he's just said, Jerusalem's gonna be destroyed, you're all gonna be plowed, but someday things are gonna be better. So then he contrasts that with the temples, gonna be rebuilt, Jerusalem's gonna be destroyed. You're all gonna be plowed, but someday things are gonna be better. So then he contrasts that with the temples gonna be rebuilt and everyone's gonna come here. And like in Isaiah, it's important here that you've got all these nations and these peoples that are coming to the temple, coming to the house of the Lord.

Because again, the Abrahamic covenant is all about Gentiles coming and joining Israel, being adopted, becoming numbered with the house of Israel. And you get that dynamic very beautifully presented here. And the way that Micah talks about the remnant before this and he's going to talk about the remnant after this suggests that remnants are tied into this, that it's by creating a remnant that God can do this work of bringing these Gentiles into the house of Israel. So we'll move on to chapter 6. In that day, say at the Lord, so still talking about this future time, will I assemble, heard that halteth or is lame,

and I will gather her that is driven out and her that I have afflicted, and I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast afar off a strong nation. And the Lord shall reign over them in mountain Zion from henceforth, even forever. Israel's been, they're like walking lamely, they've been injured, he's afflicted them, they're all over the place, they're scattered, but he's going to bring them together and remnants are the way that he's going to do it. We're going to gather in these pockets of Israel that are scattered

in all the nations of the earth. And there's that her again, like she's the bride. Yep, bringing them back. Then the rest of chapter four is more talking about destruction and things. So it's like verse 10 says that Zion is like a woman in travail, a woman in labor. So they're having these birth pains and they're shrieking and stuff like that. You're going through this awful painful experience But what always happens the end of the labor you get the baby and it's nice again, right? So that's what he's using he has a little illusion here to the Babylonian exile that still hundred years out

They'll go even to Babylon and there shall that be delivered So that's a play on here both be delivered of the baby You've gotten through the birth pains now and you're gonna be delivered from Babylon baby, you've gotten through the birth pains now, and you're gonna be delivered from Babylon, redeeming for sale, right? The Lord shall redeem thee from the hands of the enemies. So basically, it's saying, hey, Remnant, I'm gonna save you, but you're gonna have to go through some hard times first.

You might feel sometimes like you're in the middle of labor, and that's what you gotta get through if you're gonna get to the joy that's on the other side of the labor. He's promising eventual salvation for the Remnant, but it doesn't mean there's not going to be a painful difficult road to get there before you get to that final restoration. So then, verses 11, 12, 13, start to get into the stuff. We're going to quote in the book of Mormon. So I'll read this. Now, also many nations are gathered against the, let her be defiled and let her

eye look upon Zion. So you got these antagonistic Gentiles, they're antagonistic to the remnant, but they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel. For he, the Lord, shall gather them, meaning the remnant, as the sheaves into the floor, the sheaves into the threshing floor. So gathering image, arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thie hooves 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.

So two images here. Verse 12 has this image of gathering, the remnant together. And in verse 13 says that Zion here is going to have a horn of iron, which is like an image of strength, and hooves of bronze, which is like an image of hardness. And then they are going to go beat in people, beaten pieces, these people, these antagonistic Gentiles that are trying to fight them. So you get this image of the remnant being the instrument in the Lord's hand to then go and beat these wicked oppressive Gentiles that are trying to destroy them. So that'll become important third Nephi. So we'll move on and then circle back to this.

So he's saying this will happen in a future date. Where Jerusalem's going to suffer all this destruction, but this remnant will have powered a future date. Yeah, they'll be gathered and then they'll be strengthened. So instead of getting beaten up, they will then be hardened and strengthened so they can then beat their oppressors. Chapter 5 verse 1 is kind of continuing that same general train of thought. Now, gather thyself and troops, O'Dotter of Troops, heath laid siege against us. They shall smite the judge of Israel with the rod upon the cheek. So this image of getting oppressed and the leader of Israel is getting smacked. Maybe as they first understood it,

this could be like synacrib and baiting Jerusalem and attacking Hezekiah, something like that, but certainly it's part of this military imagery we're getting here in 12 and 13. And then chapter 5 verse 2 kind of starts a new section that's really important because it describes this king from the line of David who's gonna come and make everything good. So I think we can all guess where that is going and we're listening to this right before Christmas so this is an important passage to get into and it tells us where this king's gonna come from. Exactly. So but thou Bethlehem of Ephritha

Ephritha might be like and We're not sure what that means exactly. It might be an archaic equivalent to Bethlehem of Ephrathah, Ephrathah might be like, and we're not sure what that means, exactly, it might be an archaic equivalent to Bethlehem or somewhere nearby, identifying the region. So Bethlehem, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, like these villages, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, God, that is to be a ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old from everlasting. So the reference to Bethlehem seems to be suggesting that this ruler is going to be from the

line of David. David is from Bethlehem, and that's where the prophet Samuel anointed him to be king. So even though the Davidic line did not live in Bethlehem after that, it's probably invoking Bethlehem there to say, yeah, this king is going to come from Bethlehem Either physically because they actually still come from that village or at least invoking that idea that King David was from there And we're that nivitic line. So this is the verse that of course is quoted in the Gospel of Matthew Yeah, when you've got the wise men going to Herod and they're like, where is he that is born the king of the Jews? And that makes Herod panic because he's not born king of the Jews, he's a Roman appointee, so he's sensitive about his position. And then he asks the guys, and they go, look, and they say, well, in the prophet, it has written, I'm Luzana Micah, and then they quote chapter 5 verse 2, right? Well, look, it says he's going to come out of Bethlehem,

and that's how the wise men know to go to Bethlehem, and that's then Herod, of course, hatches his evil plot to go murder all the babies in Bethlehem and keep this guy who's born King of the Jews from coming and doing all these things. Okay. So we get that Christmas reference very clearly there, but reading the rest of the verses is interesting, because it continues to talk about in this prophecy what this king from the line of David is going to do. So in verse three, therefore will he give them up until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth? So that's

a reference back to chapter four, where Israel is like this woman that's in labor and we're waiting for that time of deliverance there. So it seems like it's hard to say what this means, but somehow he's being kind of held back and tell the right moment. Then the remnant, there's that word again of his brethren, shall return unto the children of Israel, and he, still this kingly figure, shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord. Feeding means like a shepherd, you're feeding your flock. In the majesty of the name of the Lord, his God, and they shall abide. For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth, and this man shall be the

peace, or the one of peace. When the Assyrian shall come into our land, when he shall tread in our palaces, then we will rise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men, and they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof. Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian when he come into our land and when he treadeth within our borders." So this is interesting, because it it uses a Syria as this image, but we have no indication in the scriptures that a king of Judah ever takes the fight to the land of a Syria and

fights them there for having invaded Judah. So I take this as using the imagery that would familiar to them in their time, but still using it symbolically of a greater evil that's going to attack Israel in the future. And you've got this king of David coming forth, this ruler in Israel who's going to gather their remnant and he's going to take the fight to their enemies and he's going to conquer and feed them as a shepherd and lead them to victory and peace.

Right there. So the fact that the Matthew identifies us as Jesus is very significant, that Jesus is the King of Israel who will come and as the Redeemer of Israel gather their remnants in the last days, preserve and protect them and lead them in the fight against their enemies. Verse 7, And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, so presumably Gentiles non-covenant people, as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarryeth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. People have read this as either the remnant being positive

in its relationship to these peoples or negative. You could see it both ways. That first aid is clearly negative. It's an antagonistic relationship. So if first seven is positive, it's like image, you know, do being nourishing and life-giving and refreshing. But there are other spots in the Old Testament

where it uses the dew falling on everything as a military image to say, we're just gonna fall on all these guys and cover them completely and take them out. Like, second Samuel 1712 uses the dew in that way. So you can either read it as a positive negative compare contrast or that they're both negative and discussing what's going to happen. So verse 8, this is getting down to the part Jesus will quote, and the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of the sheep.

So the remnant of Israel is the lion and the Gentiles are like the sheep. And then you just imagine if you let a lion loose in a flock of sheep, what is going to happen? It's going to be a fight, it's going to be a bloodbath, but it's very one-sided. So who, if he go through both treetith down and tariff in pieces and none can deliver? Thy hand shall be lifted up upon nine adversaries and all nine enemies shall be cut off. So you got the remnant taking out these Gentiles and ripping them to pieces and destroying them, and no one can save them. Then, verses 10 through 15, have a new thought. It shall come to pass in that day, say at the Lord that I will cut off,

and then it starts to list all these bad things that he's gonna remove. And the sense you get here in Micah is that now he's talking to Israel that he's gonna purge them too, because he lists specific things that were problems for the Israelites in their

particular kind of covenant context. So he says, I'll cut off the horses out of the midst of the in I'll destroy the chariots. That's military image obviously, but it's important because the prophets often equate Judah gathering and amassing horses and chariots as a bad thing, because it means they're trusting in military stuff to save them and not God to save them. So he says, who get rid of those things and the cities and throw down the stronghold, so he's getting rid of all the military protection that they've trusted him before, because now they got to trust in him.

And then in verse 12, he'll cut off witchcrafts, soothsayers, verse 13, graven images, standing images, the work of your hand, so idols are all getting taken off. Verse 14, the groves he'll take out, like these ashera poles that they're worshiping, he's going to destroy these cities. So it's stuff that usually you hear in context of what Israel is doing wrong. So he sounds like he's kind of critiquing Israel here. But then verse 15 returns to the Gentiles. I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, though Hebrew were theirs, Goyim, which is usually translated as either nations or Gentiles.

Heathen has kind of a weird connotation in modern English, right? Like that. But it's Gentiles. So God will also execute vengeance and anger and fury upon the Gentiles, such as they have not heard. And the word heard there often is translated as obey, Shema there. So it could be these Gentiles that have not obeyed, could be another way to translate it. So you get this interesting tension here in this section that you've got the remnant is gonna be empowered to destroy these Gentiles, but then God's also gonna purge Israel of its issues,

and then it returns finally to the thought again about these wicked Gentiles getting destroyed. So you get all that in there. So let's jump to 3rd Nephi chapter 20. This is the second day of Jesus' sermons to the Nephites there. So I thought this would be interesting to look at because I know in Come Follow Me in a couple of years we'll get back to 3rd Nephi, but there's so much going on there. Nobody's going to take the time to really be like, let's explore Micah in depth. So this is probably your best launching pad to go see what's going on specifically with that.

So chapter 20 verse 10 is a section where Jesus is kind of returning to what he started to talk about the first day about Isaiah and scattering and gathering and remnants and all that. And you remember the Nephites their eyes get glazed over and they think Isaiah and then Jesus pauses and says, let's let you go home and my time is at hand. Yeah, you can understand everything. Go home, go ponder, go pray, go sleep. So he had a really important stuff to discuss with them. So here he's returning to where he left off the first day

and now he's going to continue with that thought. So verse 12, he says, I'm going to talk about the time in the last days, the fulfilling of the covenant, which the father had made with his people, O house of Israel, and verse 13, then shall the remnants, which shall be scattered or brought upon the face of the earth be gathered in from all these directions, and they shall be brought to a knowledge of the Lord their God who hath redeemed in.

So they're gathered both physically and spiritually, but gathered back to knowledge there. And then he says to this, the Leehites are going to be a remnant. There's me a laymanite remnant in the last days. And he says in verse 14 that the Father's given you guys this land for your inheritance. It's not Jerusalem, your own remnant now you get your own land. And in verse 15, he starts this news kind of subsection. And I say to you that if the Gentiles in the last days do not repent after the blessing which they shall receive, meaning the restored gospel,

after they have scattered my people and then we get into our Micah quote. do not repent after the blessing which they shall receive, meaning the restored gospel, after they have scattered my people, and then we get into our Micah quote. So he first, he quotes Micah chapter five, verses eight and nine, but in Micah five, eight and nine, it talked about the remnant in the third person, those guys over there, but Jesus is talking to a remnant, and so he switches it to talk in the second person,

directly to them. Then shall ye who are a remnant of the house of Jacob go forth among them, meaning the Gentiles, and ye shall be in the midst of them who shall be many, and ye shall be among them as a lion among the beast of the forest and as a young lion among the shot flocks of sheep, who if he go through both treaded down in tarot and pieces and none can deliver. Thy hand shall be lifted up upon all by an adversaries and all the enemies shall be cut off. So this laymanite remnant is told, you're going to have Gentiles that'll flick to you, smite you, scatter you, beat you up. But eventually, if

those Gentiles do not repent and embrace the gospel, then I'm going to empower you and the tables are going to turn. You'll suddenly be like a lion, they'll be like sheep, and you're going to tear them to pieces and you'll be freed from the suppression that you've had. Then as he goes on, he jumps back to Micah 4. And we get Micah 4, the second half of verse 12 and Micah 4, 13. So this starts in 3rd Nephi 20 verse 18. And I will gather my people as a man, gather the sheaves into the floor, for I will make my people with whom the father hath covenanted.

Yeah, I will make thai horn iron. So he's adding a little bit to Micah. I will make Thay horn iron. They hooves brass and you'll beat in people many pieces. And then he concludes that first 19 by adding something that's not in Micah saying, behold, I am he who doeth it. So again, you get this interesting dynamic. If you've got the remnant who are the agents acting as the agents of destruction,

they're the ones doing the destruction directly. But he does add here that God is behind that. He's empowering the remnant, he approves of this. He's behind their sudden success as the tables have turned. And then in verse 20, he concludes with this final recap of what the point of all this is. It shall come to pass, say at the Father, that the sword of my justice shall hang over them at that day, and accept they repent, it shall fall upon them, say at the Father, yet even upon all the nations of the Gentiles. So this warning to Gentiles in the last days, that these remnants of Israel, such as the Lamanites, you'll get to beat them up and oppress them and abuse them and scatter them for only so long, but if you continually don't repent and don't embrace the restored gospel,

and you just keep going on with your wicked and oppressive ways, eventually these remnants that will be empowered to turn the tables and they'll come and destroy you and your wickedness there. Now at this point, we might have people reading the book of Mormon or the Bible going, okay, well, that's not me. I'm not a Gentile. I'm a member of the House of Israel. I have a patriarchal blessing that proves it. So to that, I want to suggest, well, yes, but there's a caveat here. According to the Book of Mormon, it is possible for people in the last days

to be both a descendant of Israel and a Gentile. How does that work? It's basically because you can have Abraham's genes in your DNA, You can be a lost member of Israel. And that can be your covenant heritage going back and everything. But if you belong to a Gentile nation, that can be your citizenship. If you belong to a Gentile culture, that can be your cultural orientation. For example, in 2nd Nephi 3, Joseph Smith is identified as a descendant of Joseph of Egypt. So he's got the Israelite DNA.

But then in the title page of the book of Mormon, Moroni says the book of Mormon comes forth by way of the Gentile, seemingly calling Joseph Smith a Gentile, because he's a citizen of a Gentile nation right there, even though he's got the DNA. So you really can be bold. You can be Israelite in your ancestry and a Gentile in your culture and national affiliation. So that suggests that rather than just quickly going, and this is talking about other people, not me, this has nothing to do for me, there might be a warning for us too. Because in as much as we participate in Gentile culture, which is secularism and pop stars and violence and participating in economic systems that exploit people,

all the things that Gentile culture does wrong. In as much as we participate in any of that, this can also be a warning to us. Are we going to be true to our Israelite heritage and turn to God for answers or are we doing what our Gentile culture tells us to do to get answers in the way we should live? And in as much as we give any loyalty to the Gentile culture, we are susceptible, I think loyalty to the Gentile culture, we are susceptible, I think, to the warnings that he's trying to give here. Yeah, verse 20, the sword of my justice, hang over them, accept their repent, talking to us. Yeah, and so you can ask yourself this in a bunch of ways. When you have deep spiritual questions,

for example, do you go into the Lord in prayer? Do you listen to the prophets? Do you read the scriptures? Or do you do the typical thing that anyone in the world would do? Google your deep spiritual questions. Listen to podcasts from people who are antagonistic. Listen to people who don't even believe in God and get their framework, right? Which way are you turning? That's something we all have to figure out

because we all have kind of these dual identities as members of a modern secular culture and as people who have covenanted in the church to follow Jesus Christ. Yeah, and I noticed in the next verse, the Lord says, I will establish my people. Not I might or I'm going to try.

I will establish my people, oh, house of Israel. So if you want to get on the team, come beyond the team, come repent. And I think repent is the keyword that I'm looking at. Second Nephi, chapter 30 verse two. For behold, I say into you that as many of the Gentiles, as will repent, are the covenant people of the Lord.

And as many of the Jews as will not repent, shall be cast off for the Lord covenant with none, save it be them that repent and believe in his son, who is the Holy One of Israel. So bottom line, repent. Yeah, in fact, that's a beautiful lead-in. If we can just go really quickly to chapter 21, the second Micah quote,

he's using it to make that exact point, John. So I'm glad you're cross referencing that back to Nephi. So chapter 21, verse 11. This is third Nephi, 21, right? Third Nephi, 21, verse 11. So Jesus here now has a warning not just to Latter-day Wicked Gentiles, but Latter-day Wicked Israel. Because like John read from 2nd Nephi, nobody's off the hook here.

So verse 11, therefore it shall come to pass that who so ever, Jew or Gentile, will not believe in my words who M. Jesus Christ, which the Father shall cause him to bring forth under the Gentiles. Skipping ahead, they shall be cut off from among my people who are of the covenant. In the context, we've been talking about the Book of Mormon coming forth, so he's saying, whosoever will not believe my words that I'm presenting to the people in the last days through the Book of Mormon, they'll be cut off from my people who are of the covenant. And then he quotes Micah again.

So we're back to chapter 5, starting in verse 8, but this time instead of doing verses 8 and 9, he goes all the way to verse 15. Man, Jesus knows his scriptures, Josh. He does. And my people who are remnant of Jacob, shall be among the Gentiles, ye in the midst of them, and then we get the lion imagery again,

tearing in pieces, nunchin deliverer, all that stuff. But Jesus adds an interesting lion in verse 14, ye woe beyond to the Gentiles unless they repent. And then it continues going through the things that we read in Micah that sounded like they're about the Israelites, like a cut off they cherish it, they horses, they strongholds, they witchcraft, soothsayer, graven images, all that stuff right there. So he's he talking to, he's still talking to Israelites like in Micah or is he talking to Gentiles? So you look at verse 14, it mentions Gentiles, but in verse 12, it mentions my people.

So whoever the thys or the yores in verses like 14 through 19, it could be both. Really, you could read it that way. It could be the Gentiles here, it could still be the Israelites. This might be a good place to mention that our friend Dana Pike, who has been on your podcast this year. He just wrote a fantastic book chapter on Micah here in Third Nephi and how it's used. It's in this new book that just came out. They shall grow together the Bible in the Book of Mormon, which is just full of fantastic articles about

the dynamic between the Bible and the Book of Mormon. That's printed by the RSC. Yeah, Religious Study Center and Deseret Book. So this just came out and Dana Pike has what I think is the best take on Micah in the book of Mormon that's ever been done. I'm getting some of my stuff from him here. I'll just say that. So like Dana Pike, for example, on this question of in these verses here, are we talking warning to Gentile,

warning to Israel? He thinks it's perhaps intentional ambiguity going on here because we got two kind of references we could go back to. Everybody's being critiqued right here. Jumping down to verse 18, this is the end of the Micah quote, I will pluck up that groves out of the midst of the, so I will destroy thy cities. And then verses 19 and 20 have stuff that Jesus now adds

into the quote from Micah. It shall come to pass that all lyings and deceivings and envings and strife and priest crafts and hordoms shall be done away. For it shall come to pass, say to the Father, that on that day, and envings and strife and priest crafts and hordoms shall be done away. For it shall come to pass, say to the Father, that on that day, whosoever will not repent and come unto my beloved son, then will I cut off from among my people, oh, house of Israel.

So he repeats this idea. Doesn't matter what your background is, covenant non-covenant, whatever, anybody who does not repent will be cut off from the people. And then he returns to the quote from Micah in verse 21, and I will execute vengeance and fury upon them even as upon the heven such as they have not heard. Now the switch he does there is in the original Micah verse, Micah 5 verse 15, he says, I'll execute vengeance on the heathen on these Gentiles. So it's just all about the Gentiles there. But here he says, whoever doesn't accept Jesus Christ and whoever does not repent will be cut off from the house of

Israel just like the heathens, just like the Gentiles. So there, it's a very clear warning to Israel that if you do not repent and believe in Jesus and follow him, it doesn't matter what your background is or what Coven's you have made. You'll be cut off and you'll be just like a Gentile, basically. So throughout 3rd Nephi, Jesus is painting this dynamic. Like back in 3rd Nephi 16, he said, the remnant is going to be brought to the knowledge of me, their redeemer. So you can find these remnants, gather them into the covenant. He also said in 3rd Nephi 16 that if the Gentiles will repent and come unto me, then they can be numbered among my people. So everybody's invited into the covenant in the last days. But then you can also get out of the covenant. So like here in 21, he had said,

whoever will not believe in Jesus Christ, she'll be cut off from among like people who are the covenant, and then he repeated here. If the Gentiles don't repent, the sort of my justice will hang over them. So his point is, it really doesn't matter who your ancestor was. It really doesn't matter what covenants who have made if you're not Repenting if you're not believing the Book of Mormon and coming unto Jesus Christ

Those are the things that ultimately matter and President Nelson has said the same thing It doesn't matter if you're literal descendant of Israel or you're just adopted in the blessings are the same What matters in the end is covenant keeping? Whatever your background is and that's really what he wants to stress here in 3rd Nephi. So before we leave 3rd Nephi, I'll just make a comment on this. So why is he quoting from Micah to make this point? Why not just stick with Isaiah? Because he puts lots of Isaiah too. There's probably lots of reasons, so I'll just suggest one of them here. Micah has these images from both chapter four and chapter five

about the remnant directly being the instrument of destruction on these wicked, unrepentant Gentiles. Your horn will be iron and they hoof is brass and you'll be like a lion among sheep. So they're the direct agents of destruction. Somehow God's gonna use the remnant to destroy these wicked, unrepentant Gentiles. In the book of Isaiah, you don't really find an image like that.

You get a few verses that are sort of maybe, but nothing really direct. Part of the reason for that is in the stories of remnants that Isaiah is telling, the remnants always pretty powerless. Whether it's that the people getting beat up by these serians and they're left there in Jerusalem, or this remnant of Jews exiled in Babylon, both of them need a lot of help to get out,

and in both cases it's God kind of doing all the destruction of thing or using the Persians to do it. So it's other people doing it. It's not the remnant themselves that are ever powerful in those stories. So Isaiah really doesn't give you a lot of material to make that kind of a picture. Whereas Micah does, he's got this image of remnants who are like the lions doing the tearing and the treading down. So when Jesus wants to make this point in 3 Nephi, that part of the destruction on the wicked will come through the instrumentality of the remnant with him empowering them.

He can't go to Isaiah really for, to get an image for that. He's gotta go to the book of Micah. So I think that's one reason why he's using Micah here in a long, long side Isaiah. And just as a side though, I'm so impressed with the book of Mormon at this point with how well the Savior,

the Savior is using Micah and then adding to it, changing it to adapt to the message he wants to give. I mean, I was sitting here hanging, going, yeah, like Joseph Smith, he made this up and it just poured out of him, right? He had Micah memorized and then just adjusted right there on the spot for the message. Yeah, Jesus, we've a lot of stuff together here. And he changes wording. He interprets it different ways, but I can't imagine anyone complaining to him because he'll just ask, well, who do you think gave it to Mike and Isaiah? And these guys in the first place was me, which is really cool.

Like because Jesus is going to quote Malachi later. And it's like, well, you gave that to Malachi. You just could have said it, but I love that he honors his prophets that way and says, let me quote the words which basically he gave to Malachi. Jesus is a scripture studier. See, studies the scriptures, even as a resurrected being, he's quoting scripture. So why don't we return now to Micah 6 and 7? We'll take this home. Okay. The last two chapters of Micah go together right here.

And again, we're not going to read every verse in detail, but Micah chapter six starts off with kind of this, a, profits do this where it's kind of like a lawsuit where the profit is kind of critiquing the people like a lawyer saying you've been unfaithful to God and he kind of proves the case against them. So like in verse three, God asks, oh my people, this is Micah 6, 3, oh my people, what have I done unto thee?

And wherein have I weared thee, testify against me, like have I broken the terms of the covenant, have I been unfaithful, have I ever let you down? Tell me, bring your case. And then he invokes in verse four, I got you out of Egypt, I gave you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. In verse five, he invokes in verse four, I got you out of Egypt. I gave you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. In verse five, he invokes other stories. And so he's accusing them of really being unfaithful, even though he's always done his job.

And then Micah six, verses six and seven, has the people's response. They're like, well, what do you want us to do about this? Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Like, how do we make this right? Should we bring a bunch of sacrifices for seven? Will the Lord be

pleased with thousands of rams or with 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? They're like, what do you want? Rivers of oil, thousands of sacrifices. I could offer my firstborn son as a sacrifice. What would appease you? What would make you happy God? Yeah, I'm willing to repent. What do you want me to do? And then verse eight, Micah responds with this really classic beautiful image that's probably one of the most

famous verses of Micah. He have showed the Oman what is good, like why you even asking. He said this a thousand times if he has ever said it. What death the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God? And guess what the word is behind mercy there? It's Hesid. It's Hesid again. Yeah, God wants you to do justly treat people right to love Hesid and to walk humbly before God. You be faithful and loyal in loving to me.

And that's really, you know what Jesus was getting at. What are the two greatest commandments? Love God, love your neighbor. That's what we get beautifully expressed here, I think. That's really nice, because there is something that you can do. Yeah. And you don't have to go to these extremes, like rivers of oil and thousands of sacrifice.

It's like, look, all I want you to do is love me, be true to your covenants and treat people, right? It's a broken heart, contrite spirit. You don't have to bring literal sacrifices. Just bring you, bring your heart. And I think that's what in third Nephi, Jesus says, okay, no more animal sacrifice. You are the sacrifice.

Bring your broken heart and your contrite spirit. Or in other words, do justly. Love mercy, walk humbly. That's a great little summary in their in verse eight. If you want to please me change your heart. I love that. I don't need thousands of rams. I don't need a thousand rivers of oil. I definitely don't need your firstborn. I just need you. Yeah. This is one of those verses that's good to put on a t-shirt.

Really gets back to those basics. Do justly. Love mercy and walk humbly. Can you spell, has said for me, so I can put it in my margin, and then I can tell myself how to pronounce it. So your simplest English spelling is H-E-S-E-D, has it. Because that's come up a lot. It sounds like it's a favorite word in the Old Testament.

Yeah, and now that President Nelson is making it mainstream, we get to run with this now. We get to use it all the time. He's been several paragraphs on it in his article saying we got to understand this. This new October, Leahona, article brand new. I will say too, I didn't mention this earlier, but in the article, President Nelson says, in an end note, he says, if you want a fuller discussion with more details about Hesid and about the covenant as a whole,

there's a book that he recommends. I brought it here. It's God will prevail by Carrie Mulestein, friend of the podcast. Isn't that wonderful. This book gets an endorsement from President Nelson in the in notes of the article. So it is fantastic and I hope people will take at President Nelson's invitation and really make this a matter of study. The covenant and the Hesid and that love and loyalty there. And Carrie's book goes over this beautifully. You can't get a better endorsement than president Nelson. I would look at that book. All right.

And then the rest of Micah 6 is more just critiquing them and saying that they're wicked. So for the sake of time, we'll just move on. Chapter 7 has Micah starting out, whoa is me. And then he points out that nobody's good in society, everybody's a liar, everybody's cheating each other. And so it's either Micah or him kind of personifying Israel, just lamenting the sad state that they're in. And it goes over that for several verses.

Until you get to verse 7 and then either Micah or again, kind of the good people personified, say, you know what, I can't trust anyone. Everyone's cheating me. Society's topsy-turvy, but in verse seven, therefore I will look unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, oh, my enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. So I love this here. If someone's saying, you know what, my life stinks,

I'm surrounded by people I don't trust. Everything is just miserable. But what am I going to do about this? Am I going to give into despair? No, I'm going to look to the Lord. He's going to hear me when I'm in darkness. He'll be my light. That's a good application for us.

If the world's getting you down, look to the Lord, wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Because sometimes you watch the news, wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Because sometimes you watch the news and you think, man, what world do we live in? So verses like this stand out as ways to kind of re-center yourself. I like that the word look there reminds me also of

President Nelson's kind of famous quotation that our happiness, what is it, has less to do with the circumstances of our lives and more to do with the focus of our lives. So we look and focus on the Lord instead. Which way do you face? Yeah. What are we focusing on? Because if you focus on the news, yeah, that's a bad day, but if you focus on.

And then why don't we jump to the last three verses and we'll take, bring this home here. The last three verses are also famous. The preceding verses, he has another image of God feeding his flock like a shepherd and kind of nurturing them despite all that they've done wrong. So in verse 18, Micah asked this, who is a God like unto thee? And that's where you get kind of the play on Micah's name. Who is like Mika? Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of thy heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy, which is in the Hebrew he delighteth in Hesid. Right there. You get that word again. Tied to this Remnant idea that as you're

gathered into this Remnant of Israel and you're that righteous Remnant, he delights in Hesid. He delights in extending that love and mercy and loyalty to us. It's not like he's grumbling about it. Like, oh man, you messed up again. Now I gonna have to forgive you, I guess. Now he delights in it. He loves extending mercy. He loves forgiving. This is what gets him happy is being able to extend that kind of love and mercy to us. So Micah just says, wow, can I even imagine another God

like that, who's just so quick to pardon iniquity that just passes by your transgression like it never happened Doesn't not retain his anger forever in just the lights. What a great verse like a 718 And then it doesn't stop these are three good verses you put these all in the shirt Verse 19 he will turn again He will have compassion on us He will subdue our Iniquities and then it says their sins, but other man he

scripts will have our sins. That will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. And the verb there is like to hurl something. He's going to take your sins and not just sweep them under the rug, not just put them in the closet

and close the door. He's going to take those sins. He's going to pick them up. He's going to go over to the edge of the cliff and he's going to hurl them with all his might into the depths of the sea where they're just going to disappear forever. Get rid of those things. And then out and, he's going to go over to the edge of the cliff and he's going to hurl them with all his might into the depths of the sea where they're just going to disappear forever. Get rid of those

things and then out and then he's going to forget them. Verse 20, that will perform the truth to Jacob or show faithfulness to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham. And that's Hesid once again, you're going to do Hesid to Abraham. You're going to be true to the covenant that you made with him, that these people, no matter how bad they mess up and no matter how long it takes, you're going to forgive them and make sure the covenant is fulfilled. So you'll have Hesid to Abraham, which thou hast sworn into her fathers from the days of old. And that's the note that we end on. Wow. What a final message for Micah. I'm reminded of Elder Jeff Yard Holland who said, surely the thing God enjoys most about being God

is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don't expect it and often feel they don't deserve it. That sounds like verse 18 to me, the lights in mercy. And here I can read the end of President Nelson's October 2022, Leahona article. This is what he says. The covenant path is a pass of love, that incredible

hecid, that compassionate caring for and reaching out to each other. Feeling that love is liberating and uplifting. The greatest joy you will ever experience is when you are consumed with love for God and for all his children. Loving God more than anything or anyone else is the condition that brings true peace, comfort, confidence, and joy. The covenant path is all about our relationship with God,

our HECID relationship with Him. When we enter a covenant with God, we have made a covenant with Him who will always keep His Word. He will do everything He can without infringing on our agency to help us keep ours. My dear brothers and sisters, we have been called at this pivoltime in the history of the earth to teach the world about the beauty and power of the everlasting covenant, our Heavenly Father trusts us implicitly to do this great work. I'm just really inspired by that. And a prophet who can take these truths that have been taught 2,800 years ago, a lot of centuries ago, and show us just how

relevant this is for us in our day. I love to think of God, how merciful he is, and the fact that he's so loyal to us because of this covenant we have made. There's a lot of people who sin, loyal to us because of this covenant we have made. There's a lot of people who sin and think, have I gone too far? Have I looked at pornography too much? I can never be forgiven again. Have I lied so often that I can never be forgiven? Have I done damage so great that it can never get healed? Or maybe people are fine themselves, but they have family members that they're just aching over. People who were baptized and grew up in the church, maybe even covenanted in the temple, but have since left the covenant path.

And we wonder, are they so far gone now that God can't call them back? That I think the promise here of the prophets is that no, you or they are never so far gone that the light of that love that he has that stems from his covenant with us can't reach us and them. No matter how long it takes, no matter what he's gone to do, he's never going to be unfaithful to that covenant loyalty that he has. He'll reach out,

he'll humble us if he needs to. He'll do whatever it takes to call and plead, and as soon as we turn to him, sincerely repenting and wanting to make that relationship whole again, he will delight in forgetting all that happened and welcoming us back as if it never happened and just hurling those sins into the sea to be forgotten forever. Wow, absolutely perfect. John, what a great day. I understand Jonah more and I love Micah. Yeah, that verse 18, what is God like? Here's an answer, a beautiful answer. Yeah. Along with what?

Josh, we just read from President Nelson. I can't wait to go read that article. Who is a God like unto thee? Yeah. I love it. We want to thank Dr. Josh Sears for being with us today. What a wonderful day. We'll certainly have him back. We're grateful for being with us today. What a wonderful day.

We'll certainly have him back. We're grateful for him. We want to thank our executive producers, Steve and Shannon Sonson, our sponsors, David and Verla Sonson, and we hope all of you will join us next week on Follow Him. We have an amazing production crew we want you to know about David Perry, Lisa Spice, Jamie Nielsen, Will Stoten, Crystal Roberts, and Al Kouadra. Thank you to our amazing production team.