Thursday, May 3, 2012

Could Micah’s Good Man refer to the Body?


I heard a non-mid-Acts dispensational prophecy teacher say that ‘the good man' in this passage refers to the Church the Body of Christ.....

Micah 7:1-2
Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.  The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

....and that this is a reference to the Rapture.  I know that the Church the Body of Christ was kept secret, so this can't be a veiled reference can it?  To me, verse 2 just means that the world has become very wicked.  His point was that the timing of the Rapture might be somewhere in between the Spring and Fall Feasts.  I know that it is easy to read anything into Scripture if you have an imagination.

Yes, it is easy to read anything into Scripture and no, this cannot be a veiled reference to the Rapture.  It is an historical prophecy about the nation of Israel, and it is also a future prophecy about the people of Israel and the followers of Antichrist during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble – the 70th Week of Daniel.

‘Non-mid-Acts dispensational’ is the key term.  Bible teachers who do not know how to rightly divide have no clue that the Body of Christ is nowhere in sight in Micah 7.

The Body of Christ began with the Apostle Paul, and if we had to pick a spot in Scripture it would be Acts 9; although doctrine in the book of Acts is written to, for and about the nation of Israel.  The book of Acts is for our learning.  Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, speak directly to us and they are for us and about us.  In Acts 9 the Apostle Paul is saved by God’s grace through faith in the risen Savior.

This non-mid-Acts prophecy teacher says that ‘the good man’ in Micah is the Body of Christ but that is not true.  Although there are sections of Scripture in which we can see a type and shadow of the Body of Christ, such as Adam and Eve and their marriage.  In Ephesians Paul refers to this in regard to the relationship of Christ to the church.

Ephesians 5:30-32

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother [Genesis 2:24], and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Enoch (the seventh from Adam):

Genesis 5:24

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

But notice that those things were before God dealt with Abraham and the nation of Israel.  Once Abram, the Hebrew, and his people became the issue with God, those things became a picture and type of the nation of Israel.

Back to our text in question…

Micah 7:1-2
Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.  The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

Could this teacher be thinking that there could be a spiritual application?  Could this apply to the timing of the Rapture?  Perhaps.  It is true that at the Rapture all the godly people will be gone.

But these verses are Prophecy (that which and not the Mystery so it isn’t talking about the Body of Christ.  That ‘good man’ is the believing Jew (both in the Old Testament and in the future Tribulation period).

‘Perish’ has to do with death.  It isn’t talking about the Rapture which is not death; it is resurrection life!  So it cannot be talking about the Body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15: 51-53
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

That is the Body of Christ.  That is the Rapture.  That is when we go out of the earth.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

But that is part of the Mystery - a secret.  Behold I show you a mystery.  If it is a secret which is not made known unto the sons of man in Time Past…

Ephesians 3:4-5

Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ),  Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

… then Micah didn’t know anything about the Body of Christ in Time Past; nor did he know anything about the Rapture.  So who is the good man that perisheth out of the earth?  It is the believing remnant. 

It is like when Cain killed Abel (that righteous man back in Time Past); the unrighteous in Israel will destroy his brother.  Obviously in the future there will be the unrighteous in the land, the Antichrist, and even some Jews.  The Lord told his disciples that a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.

Matthew 10:35-36

For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.  And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

And notice the rest of Micah 7:2:

…and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

You can see in this verse that there are those in Israel who hate the believing remnant, the godly Jew, and they kill them for their faith in God, (and in the future for their faith in Christ).  In Micah’s day it was Jehovah God, but in the future context it is Christ.

So this passage has nothing to do with the Rapture, it has to do with being killed for their faith.  It’s right there in the verse.

they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

Let’s look at a couple of other passages.  A cursory study of Scripture would show that this is consistent throughout the prophetic Scriptures regarding Israel.

Psalm 12:1-3, 5

Help, LORD…

This is a psalm of David.  The Little Flock, the believing remnant is saying ‘help Lord.’  Why do they want His help?

…for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They [their enemies] speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:  For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

The wicked in Israel are persecuting and destroying godly men.  Micah 7 uses the word ‘perish.’  Here it says ‘for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.’  This is because their brethren are treating them with disdain.

Isaiah 57:1-2

The righteous perisheth [the same word in Micah 7:2; perisheth = continually], and no man layeth it to heart:

These men are being persecuted for their faith in the true and living God and not worshipping idols (Matthew 23:37).  The ungodly men in Israel don’t layeth it to heart; they don’t care anything about it.  They were not merciful.

…and merciful men are taken away…

Matthew 5:7

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy [in the Kingdom of God]. 

…none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.  He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

Interesting!  The Lord allows the righteous to perish.

Psalm 116:15

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

That has to do with the future when God allows some of the believing remnant to be persecuted by the Antichrist.  Many of them will be martyred, killed for their faith in Jesus Christ.  Many will have their heads cut off for believing in Christ, the true and living God and not the false gods that will be in the land of Israel.

Revelation 6:9-11

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:   And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?   And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

Revelation 12:17

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 12:11

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Revelation 20:4

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

There will be deliverance for some of the believing remnant in the Tribulation period of the prophetic program; but many will be martyred and die for their faith.

So Micah 7:2 could not be referring to the Rapture because in I Corinthians 15:51 Paul says, “Behold I show you a Mystery.”  This is part of the Mystery given only to Paul.

+++

You wrote that ‘the world had become very wicked.’  Although the world is wicked, this passage is not talking about the world.  In context of Micah 7, it is the nation of Israel and the Promised Land: in Micah’s time and also in the future.  You’re right, the world has become very wicked; and in Micah 7 it is Israel that had become very wicked.

+++

You wrote that his point was that the timing of the Rapture might be somewhere in between the Spring and Fall Feasts. That is a whole other issue.  He could be right but nobody knows.  The Spring and Fall feasts are focused on the nation of Israel in Prophecy.  They are appointed feast days from Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 28.  The focus of the feast days is Israel.  God’s focus today is on the Body of Christ, the Mystery. 

You could speculate all you want and he could be right about that if God is on a certain time schedule; but nobody knows for sure.  The Rapture could come at any time.  It is imminent. 

Again, the Spring and Fall feasts pertain particularly to the nation of Israel and the coming of Christ to them.

The first four feasts in the Spring (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost) were fulfilled at Christ’s first coming:


Passover   (His Death)

Unleavened Bread   (His Burial)

First Fruits   (His Resurrection)

Pentecost (50 days later) – bringing in the sheaths for a wave offering   (the Little Flock)

There is the Spring when you sow the seed, a seven-month gap, and then the Harvest.

The last three feasts in the Fall (Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles) will be fulfilled at His Second Coming:

Trumpets   (The re-gathering of Israel when the Lord returns)

Day of Atonement   (A national Day of Atonement when Israel will dedicate His blood)

Tabernacles   (Coronation of Christ as King – God With Us)

With the Jew, there is individual and national fulfillment.  Passover was individual, where the blood was applied to their account.

The Day of Atonement is national.  God dealt with the Jews’ justification and sanctification simultaneously.  He separates ours in the Age of Grace.  You can be justified unto eternal life as a believer today and not do one thing towards sanctification, but you will still be in the Kingdom of God.  But it was not the same for the Jews; God justified the individual in Israel in a national context.

So the timing of the Rapture could be somewhere between the Spring and Fall Feasts (only God knows), but that is not the focus of the Mystery.  Paul does not give us any information that the Fall Feasts have anything to do with the Body of Christ.


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