All Articles For Micah

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? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:6-8 As synod...

God has promised that He will save all Israel. What, exactly, does this promise mean? Many have taken this to mean that at some point in the future the earthly nation of Israel is going to be converted. The earthly nation as we know it today remains in unbelief. But those who hold to such a position say that a radical change is someday going to take place, and the nation of Israel is going to repent of their sins and turn to God in faith. Is this really true? Are we to expect such a conversion? This would be unlike anything...

Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. God will ever see to it that there is a people on earth who serve Him even in the midst of the most hardened and callous spiritual apathy. As a jewel cast on a pile of coal, so in this section of Malachi we are shown a God-fearing remnant in the midst of the most blatant and blasphemous religious indifference. The words ofRomans 11:5 are underscored by our lesson: “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (see Rom. 11:3-6)....

Arie den Hartog is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin. What a wonderful blessing is God’s forgiveness! It is really the basis for all the other blessings of salvation which the Lord in His grace bestows upon us. Because He is a God Who forgives, there therefore He did not impute our trespasses unto us, and reconciled us to Himself through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though we are by nature guilty and damnworthy sinners, He counted us perfectly righteous because of the sacrifice of His only beloved Son. There is therefore now no condemnation...

It is well that we have the words of Micah 6:8 clearly before our mind. The text reads as follows: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” We should notice that the text contains one positive, strong assertion: “He hath shewed thee what is good.” The text ends with asking three things which show us really what are the particulars of the “good’ which the LORD has showed to Israel. In our former article we reflected just...

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,  Saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.  Matthew 2:1, 2

Prof. Gritters is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The beginning of faith is humility…  (Calvin, on Isaiah) The whole humility of man consists in the knowledge of himself.  (Calvin, on the Psalms) The grimmest evil in this sad world is the evil of pride. In the maelstrom of that root sin that thrashes families and marriages, divides churches, and separates very friends, God’s power is most evident when He graces His people with humility. If you believe that, you have reason to give serious consideration to what the Reformer said, “The beginning of faith is humility,”...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church in Byron Center, Michigan. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be...

The prophet again beholds all the nations gathered against Jerusalem. Also 12:1-9 speaks of a conflict between Jerusalem and all the nations. But there the enemies are described as smitten, cut in pieces; no mention is made of an initial Capture of the city by the adversary. But here the announcement is that “the city shall be taken, and the houses spoiled and the women raped and half of the city shall go forth into captivity.” Only then will Jehovah appear for the salvation of the remnant and for the setting up of His kingdom (1-7).

Several truths which have implications for missions emerge out of the Old Testament Scriptures. We noted in our previous article that the Old Testament teaches that all the nations will ultimately come into the Kingdom of God. It is also plain from the Old Testament that God did not leave Himself without witness to the whole world. In the earliest period of Old Testament history we find this phenomenon.