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.
Hopefully
this helps!
†††
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