CHAPTER ONE

Contents: Jehovah's case against Israel. Impending judgment.

Characters: God, Micah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah.

Conclusion: There conies a time when men who have persisted in sin must face ruin without remedy. God cannot help them because they will not by repentance and reformation help themselves.

Key Word: Incurable, v. 9.

Strong Verses:   3, 4.

Striking Facts: vv. 6-16. describes the Syrian invasion. This gives rise to the prophecy of the greater invasion in the last days (4:9-13), and of Christ's deliverance at Armageddon (Rev. 16:14; 19:17).

CHAPTER TWO

Contents: Jehovah's case against Israel, continued. Future deliverance of a remnant.

Characters: God, Holy Spirit.

Conclusion: Sinners cannot expect to rest in a land which they have polluted by their sins against God, for He will certainly cause it to spew them out with terrible judgments. With every threatening of judgment, however, there is a promise of mercy for a remnant who will acknowledge their King and walk in His ways.

Key Word: Sore destruction, v. 10.

Strong Verses:   1, 7.

Striking Facts: v. 13. Christ is the King who will, after the great Armageddon, pass before Israel to bring them into the land of their rest. While there is in this age an election out of Israel, the promises of restoration to the land here given will only have their accomplishment at Christ's Second Coming.

CHAPTER THREE

Contents: Coming judgments of the captivities. The priests and prophets rebuked.

Characters: God, Holy Spirit, princes, prophets.

Conclusion: Men cannot expect to do ill and fare well simply because they are recognized as religious. The time will come when those who have shown no mercy shall have judgment without mercy, for God will hide His face when they are sorely in need of His favor.

Key Word: Israel's sin, v. 8.

Strong Verses:   4.

CHAPTER FOUR

Contents: The future kingdom of Christ on earth and Israel's happy regathering. Battle of Armageddon.

Characters: God, Christ.

Conclusion: In the last days of the age, the Kingdom of Christ shall be manifested in the earth with a lustre no earth kingdom has ever had. It will be a kingdom universal, peaceful, prosperous, and of the increase of Christ's government, and peace there shall be no end. Israel, long dispersed and cast off, will have a place of glory in the earth, recognizing Christ as King and Lord.

Key Word: Mountain of the Lord, v. 1.

Strong Verses:   1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Striking Facts: vv. 1, 2. A mountain in Scripture is a symbol of great earth power (Dan. 2:35). The ultimate establishment of Christ's earthly kingdom is here foretold. Christ will be the King (v. 7) to protect and govern it and to order its affairs for the best to the end of time.

CHAPTER FIVE

Contents: The birth and rejection of Christ foretold. His ultimate eternal kingdom after His rejection.

Characters: God, Christ. Conclusion: Christ, who existed from eternity as Son of God, was to be born into the world as the child of woman, to be the Saviour of the world.Rejected, except by a remnant, He would await the consummation of the age, when He will be given a kingdom glorious to Himself; happy for His subjects; disastrous to sinners.

Key Word: Israel's ruler (Christ), v. 2.

Strong Verses:   2, 4.

Striking Facts: . v. 2. See Isa. 7:13, 14; 9:6, 7. Note that the "child" was born in Bethlehem, but the "Son" was "from everlasting." Christ was pre-existent, else He could not have by His atonement made propitiation for the sin of the world.

CHAPTER SIX

Contents: Jehovah's controversy with Israel's past and present.

Characters: God, Omri, Ahab, Balak, Balaam.

Conclusion: God issues a challenge to all who have ever professed belief in Him, but have wandered from Him, to testify against Him, if they have found His demands unreasonable, or if He has not fully paid His accounts. If our ceremonies be accepted of Him, they must be backed by lives conformed to His will and in communion with Him, for He cannot be deceived by external ceremonies. If professors of religion ruin themselves by sin, it will be the most terrible of any ruin.

Key Word: Controversy, v. 2.

Strong Verses:   3, 7, 8.

Striking Facts: v. 7. Sacrifices and ceremonies have their value from the reference they have to Christ, the great propitiation, but if the believer disregards their meaning, they are an abomination. Thousands of rams and rivers of oil cannot take the place of one little stream of the blood of Christ, the power of which is truly appropriated to the heart.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Contents: Israel's sad present condition. The voice of the remnant in the last days.

Characters: God, Micah.

Conclusion: When a child of God has much occasion to cry "Woe is me" when it seems that all flesh has corrupted their way it is a great comfort that he has a God to look to, in whom there is rejoicing and satisfaction always. He cannot but marvel at God's pardoning mercy to men and rejoice at the promise that He shall yet reign supreme in the earth.

Key Word: God, my salvation, v. 7.

Strong Verses:   7, 9, 18, 19.

Striking Facts: v. 19. The gracious God is ready, because of the sacrifice of His Son, to pardon and pass over the iniquity of His people upon their repentance and turning to Him. Let the pardoned sinner remember that if he has not been dealt with according to his deserts, it is because Jesus Christ bore his sins on the cross, and made it possible for God to put His sins in the depths of the sea.