Three Strikes (Kings) and You're Out: Micah in Context

Context is everything when you study the Word. Let's put Micah in his context:

Micah prophesied during the reigns of the Judean kings Jotham (750–735 B.C.), Ahaz (735–715), and Hezekiah (715–687). This was about the same time as Hosea and Isaiah, though Micah may have served somewhat later. The length of Micah’s public activity may have been about 20 to 25 years. [1]

I find it fascinating that God is speaking through Micah to both Samaria (northern kingdom) and Jerusalem (in the southern kingdom of Judah), extorting His people to turn away from sin and live. 

Funny how, when we read Scripture, we read the words of a prophet and think, BAM! the words come true very quickly, with chaos and destruction raining down in a mighty and inexorable way. We think,

Wow, God didn't give them a chance, did He?  His prophets speak and down comes judgment. God seems to be more into judgment than mercy and grace.  But that's the Old Testament for you. God is angry and ready to let destruction happen, but in the New Testament, God is filled with love and mercy for all of us.

Not true.  

First of all, the God of the OT is God the Father of Jesus in the NT.  Would Jesus have taken this position of God being of a different mindset than the One He called, "Father"? 

The NT wasn't even written until many years after He ascended to heaven; He read and used Scripture to illuminate all things He taught about God, mercy, judgement, compassion, justice and righteousness. The OT was the only scripture Jesus read; the God He read about was His Father and the One who sent Him to seek and save those who were lost. 

Consider that Micah speaks for 20-25 years.  

That is a long time to warn and invite repentance. 

That is not God warning His people and then judging them in a heartbeat when they don't respond. 

Let's look at the kings that Micah is engaged with, and maybe that will give us some context. Let's briefly look at Jotham. 

According to 2 Chronicles 27:2:

He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done, but unlike him he did not enter the temple of the Lord. The people, however, continued their corrupt practices.

OK.  We have a good king of Judah, and one who remains loyal to God.  But his people continue to engage in idolatry. Sadly, the king's example was not enough to remind the people that following and being obedient to Yahweh is what the covenant is all about and leads to a just society.  

But 2 Kings 15:35 tells us why his example was not sufficient:  

The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple of the Lord.

Justice is compromised here when we read these two simple but telling sentences.  

If the leader is moral, sets a positive example and leads with justice and mercy that is born out of a character molded by a transcendent code of right and wrong, the people under him or her will benefit personally and societally. 

If a leader fails to reform the society in which the people are spiraling down, by allowing them to access the very things that are destroying themselves and the nation, then that leader is being unjust. 

You can be personally good but if you are watching others destroy themselves by engaging in dehumanizing and enslaving actions, you have perverted justice. 

So, King Jotham fails the Just Leader Profile.  Building a gate is not enough.  

Next up, Ahaz: 

Despite Jotham’s godly example, his son Ahaz proved to be a wicked king. [2]

2 Kings 16:3 tells us the repugnant story:

He followed the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

Did Ahaz crave the popular support of his people? Did he want them to see him as part of their world,  not standing aloof in some self-righteous-Yahweh-supporting way? Did he feel the same pull towards the gods and their demands, desiring the "power" they could give him, and considered the ways of the covenant outdated and ineffective?

Who knows?  But he gave his people's actions respectability because he joined in: 

Look at the King!  He gets it!  We like this guy!  Yeah, he is picked by Yahweh, but we know where he gets his power from!

King Ahaz enters the Hall of  Shame with flying colors. 

Finally, let's consider one more king who tried to turn back the tide: Hezekiah. 

2 Chronicles 29:2 says, 

He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.

Was Samaria watching this sad parade of the pendulum swing of the good/bad/good kings of Judah?  More to the point, did they think,

Hey, despite all this, even to the point of hucking your kid into the fire--we do that too, you know--Yahweh didn't do anything!  You'd think He would have rained fire and brimstone on Ahaz's head, but nope.  Nothing. Oh well. Let's not worry about it.  Let's not listen to that dope Micah. 

Yahweh doesn't either care, or that prophet is making a bigger deal about what we do than even Yahweh does.  He's letting Judah carry on, even to the point where Ahaz won a battle against his enemies! C'mon!

Micah keeps speaking.

The people keep sinning.

The kings keep going back and forth.

But, at the core of it all, Judah and Samaria perverted justice by not holding fast to the covenant. They may have seen God's "inaction" (but He was acting through His prophets) as a kind of rubber stamp of either approval or He was simply being indifferent. 

Either way, the God of the OT was just in that He reminded them of what His covenant meant: by honoring Him, they honored each other. 

The clock was ticking, and Micah, along with Isaiah and Amos [3], reminded the people: 

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

The opposite is equally true: 

  

If my people, who are called by my name, do not humble themselves and do not pray and do not seek my face and refuse to turn from their wicked ways, then I will judge from heaven, and I will repudiate their their sin and will take away their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14--modified version)

Those words still ring true. 

[1] https://www.gotquestions.org/when-was-Micah-written.html

[2] https://www.gotquestions.org/King-Ahaz.html

[3] https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/3-things-micah

 

"Should You Not Know Justice" (Micah 3:1-4)

We just read how the Lord will deliver His people--"the remnant of Israel"--and how He will lead them.  He will "bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture."  

The shepherd lovingly cares for his sheep, by providing them with safety, guidance and protection. This metaphor for the people of Israel is very comforting to them, when they hear Micah proclaim it. It silences, for a moment, the dire predictions of what's to come, due to their disobedience and idolatry. 

It reminds them, though they will be exiled abroad, He is faithful and will allow a remnant to return to the land. 

But the prophet cannot just speak of that day. Why not focus on the Hollywood ending of restoration, returning and rejoicing?

Because injustice is going on right now, and needs to be addressed. The people must address it, not to  get them out of what's to come (it will have that effect, but it should not be the people's only motivation) but because it's the right thing to do. It honors Yahweh, the covenant and the mission of Israel to be a blessing to all nations, just as the Lord had proclaimed to Abraham.

Here is the injustice that inflames the ire of the prophet, and the One he speaks for:

Then I said,

“Listen, you leaders of Jacob,
   you rulers of Israel.
Should you not embrace justice,
   you who hate good and love evil;
who tear the skin from my people
   and the flesh from their bones;
who eat my people’s flesh,
   strip off their skin
   and break their bones in pieces;
   who chop them up like meat for the pan,
   like flesh for the pot?” (3:1-3)

The shepherds have become ravenous wolves.  Instead of honoring the one true Shepherd, they prey upon the very people they are to keep safe, guide and protect. They fail to embrace justice, which means they exploit the weak, care not a wit for the poor, ignore the marginalized and see society as one big banquet table, set solely for the purpose of satiating their appetite for power and wealth.  

They hate good, because it gets in the way of their self-centered ways and demands that they see other people not only as fellow human beings, but must treat them accordingly.

They love evil because it gives full rein to the flesh, because controlling the flesh implies there is a  right and wrong. 

By tearing away their flesh metaphorically, the leaders dehumanized the people.  The people are no longer seen as individuals but as a nameless, faceless mass whose only purpose is to make the rich richer. 

Then once they have torn them apart, the leaders throw the people into a pot. The people slowly simmer away, unrecognizable as people of the covenant. 

The leaders have become an exclusive group, who laugh and mock the very covenant of Yahweh by their actions.   

But as the leaders sit down and feast, the doors will fly open and an invading army will pull them from their chairs and treat them with brutality and contempt. Micah sets the scene:

Then they will cry out to the Lord,
but he will not answer them.
At that time he will hide his face from them
because of the evil they have done. (3:4)

Where does the abuse of justice begin?  From a study of history, it begins at the top, where power is plentiful to perpetrate the injustice.  Think of it this way: Hitler was either an antisemite before coming to Vienna, or he became one.  Either way, at most, he could have terrorized only a small number of Jewish people in the streets of Vienna.  Antisemitism was rife there.  He could have even enlisted some friends or followers to help him.

But he worked his way into the German government, and armed with a large number of followers, and with all of the power he needed at his disposal, he was able to wage war on Europe and on the Jewish people. He used his power to convince his nation that the Jews and other "undesirables" had to go.  The people allowed him to carry out his reconstructing of German society, based on the idea of the Master Race.  Justice was solely what the Nazis said it was.    

Leaders have power because the people have, in some way, consented to give it to them. In our modern era, elections provide the consent. Think of our Declaration of Independence and how it states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

This is a radical approach to how people rule others. The power to rule is given by the people to other people; the people's rights are not dependent on the leaders giving them out. The people's rights are given to them by God, not by a government, who can capriciously take them away.

Our founding fathers knew how accountability for those in power was essential.   

Yahweh gave His people their "rights": to be blessed by Him; to multiply and become like the grains of sand; to have the land; to become a great nation; to have Him as their God and they would be His people and to see these blessings poured out on succeeding generations. But, He could also take these rights away if they disobeyed.  

Clearly, when you listen to the prophets, you see that the one thing He demanded of His people was justice, and when the leaders dishonored Him by being unjust with the people, He acted. 

The leaders not only set the tone for the nation, but gave idolatrous behavior a respectable patina, so the people feel they can do likewise, with no consequences

Looking again at our example of Hitler:  If a few people follow an unjust leader, only those few would be affected.  But if that leader joined others and they have a great amount of power and influence, they can bring a whole nation into error and disobedience.

Justice becomes then a kind of litmus test of how the leaders are doing. 

The northern kingdom of Israel is failing the test. 

It's Not About Breaking a Rule; It's About Restoring a Relationship (Micah 2:12-13)

We have been studying the ominous words of Micah to the northern kingdom of Samaria.

Let's review what they have done to warrant the prophet to speak out against them and admonish them unapologetically for their behavior. 

The transgression of Samaria is idolatry.  The people have erected temples where idols are worshipped. Why is this so abhorrent to God?  Because false gods lead to false worship and false worship leads to wrong action. And not just wrong in a morally abstract way; it is allowing the flesh full rein, to the point where the flesh decides what is right and wrong. 

How can broken determine brokenness?

How can evil fully assess the true nature of evil?

How can the lost read the moral road map and find a way home?

How can chaos conquer chaos? 

Idolatry is really placing gods on a pedestal that fully reflect what humanity thinks is the truth. The idols are lies and the value system they promote is as well.   

Micah goes on to accuse the wealthy of stealing from the poor and listening to false prophets.

Why not steal? Who cares about the poor? Who cares what people preach?  

Human nature is on full display when the human heart is untethered to God's value system. Paul gives us an unflattering laundry list of the flesh in all its wretched glory: 

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God (5:19-21). 

He also describes how people behave when a society has abandoned all pretense of following God, that will characterize the end times, but also repeats through history: 

You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that! (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

This is a brilliant description of idolatry. 

The society that results from the worship of the self is destructive and cruel.

But God is not standing there, wagging His finger because people have broken the rules.  He is standing there wanting us to repent, because the sin of worshipping the self ultimately breaks the relationship between His children and Himself. 

Think of the father of the prodigal son.  He could have lectured his son, upon the son's return, about all of the rules he broke and why each one was wrong.  Yes, there were consequences from the young man's sin (the older brother is the saddest casualty) but the father celebrated his son's return and repentance, because the relationship between them was restored.

Return.

Repentance. 

Restoration.  

That is why God had His prophets preach. 

Look what God says to His people after He has been very specific about their behavior and how it deeply offends Him: 

Someday, O Israel, I will gather you;
I will gather the remnant who are left.
I will bring you together again like sheep in a pen,
like a flock in its pasture.
Yes, your land will again
be filled with noisy crowds!
Your leader will break out
and lead you out of exile,
out through the gates of the enemy cities,
back to your own land.
Your king will lead you;
the Lord himself will guide you. (2:12-13)

God has Micah describe the people's sin, but then He has him speak about a day of coming home: 

Return, not exile.

Repentance, not rejection.  

Restoration, not rebuke. 

Relationship, not rules.

Why?  Because when you love God and I mean truly love Him, you want to obey Him.  You humble yourself and He raises you up and wraps that robe around you and puts sandals on your feet.

The self enslaves and leaves you ragged and empty. 

Thus, the words of the prophets.

Thus, the words of the Prophet to come who will undergird His words with a willingness to die a horrible death, all for our restoration. 

 

 

   

It's All About the Sin (Micah 2:8-13)

We are listening to Micah speak for God about the false prophets that come and seduce the people into thinking that sin has no real consequences.  

But what if we knew that the sin we were about to embark upon did have consequences?  

If the man who is drinking at the bar, knew that in 30 minutes after leaving, he would hit and kill two teenagers with his car, would he stop, order no more drinks and wait in his car until he felt sober?

If a man, who is screaming at his wife, knew that in 30 minutes after chasing her into the kitchen, he would grab a knife off the counter and plunge it into her back, would he stop, go outside for a long walk and wait until his anger abated?  

Does knowing something for sure the only way we can grasp the consequence of sin? 

Or would we, with this startling revelation of assured consequences, still deny its truth and say, 

But I wouldn't do that!  I am not the kind of person!  I might think about it, but I wouldn't do it!  

Or someone, dismissive of the weight of the sin might say,

Oh, c'mon!  You are making too big a deal out of this!  It's not that bad.  The vast number of people are doing it, so are you saying they're all wrong?

Whatever the reaction, people will not admit that they are breaking God's moral code. They are either too "good" to do that, or what they are doing does not constitute a big sin.  A little one, maybe, but not the big ones out there.  

But James zeroes in on the heart of the matter:  

You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world's friend becomes God's enemy. (4:4)

Micah says that the people, unwilling to believe that God will bring judgment, keep acting in sinful ways. If we do not listen to what God tells us, we become an enemy to Him. The word "enemy" in Hebrew means, "one who hates." [1]

Lately my people have risen up
like an enemy. (v.8) 

Sounds harsh? 

Think about it.  If you are an enemy of God, you hate His people, His ways, His prophets and His truth.  In the Israelites' effort to be friends to the pagan world around them, they have become enemies of God.  They wouldn't see it that way, because they would justify their sin, but their actions would speak volumes:  

You strip off the rich robe
from those who pass by without a care,
like men returning from battle.
You drive the women of my people
from their pleasant homes.
You take away my blessing
from their children forever.(8-9) 

You are acting like a conquering army, who takes whatever it wants from people.  You don't care that, because of your greed, you steal from your fellow Israelites.  Worst of all, you fail to teach your children the richness and blessings of the covenant.  They live and die not knowing who they truly are. 

God tells them, in no uncertain terms, what state Israel is in:  

10 Get up, go away!
For this is not your resting place,
because it is defiled,
it is ruined, beyond all remedy. (10)

Why?  Because the people do not want the truth.  

Truth is not condemnation.  It is liberation.  Deception drives people deeper and deeper into more deception, and soon people have utterly lost their way.  They are then vulnerable to suggestion and become even more willing to listen to falsehood. 

Then false prophets says exactly what the people want to hear, and thus the people go deeper into deception:   

If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’
that would be just the prophet for this people! (11) 

Paul will address this in his day and warns Timothy what a false teacher does and why people gather around him: 

There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. They will collect teachers who say what they want to hear because they are self-centered. (2 Tim. 4:3) 

Self-centered.

Greedy.

Unwilling to admit a departure from God's moral code.

Teachers who tell lie after lie, and have no trouble attracting followers.

Sounds like the northern kingdom of Israel. 

Sounds like us.  

[1] https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/enemy/

 

It's All About the Spin (Micah 2:6-7)

I was on vacation!  Glad to be back and looking forward to diving into the book of Micah!

Paul, a man completely immersed in the river of the Hebrew Scriptures, may have been echoing what Micah (and many of the prophets, such as Jeremiah) had said of the people of Samaria when he wrote to Pastor Timothy about the people in his day: 

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Tim. 4:3 NIV).  

The Message says it this way: 

You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you—keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant.

Micah takes direct aim at the utter nonsense the "prophets" are saying. He knows that this nonsense has a deadly sting:  The people will justify their actions by what these "prophets" are saying and not look any deeper.  Why?  The message fits with what they already believe.

They can now point and say, 

See!  God is totally fine with what we are doing. His prophets are saying so!  Why should we then listen to that naysayer, Micah?  He's the odd man out--he's the false prophet.  Those men of God all agree.  Majority rules, huh?

So what are these men saying that is so seductive to their hearts?  Micah tells us:

“Do not prophesy,” their prophets say.

“Do not prophesy about these things;
disgrace will not overtake us.” (2:6)

Well, that sounds comforting.  The people are boasting: 

Nothing bad will happen, and we will continue to walk tall as God's people.

What?  You are God's people and yet you act no differently than those around you who could care less about Yahweh?  It's "God's people" when it suits you and is easy, but when that siren call of sin beckons, then away you go, and your part of the covenant--obedience and devotion--goes by the wayside. 

Now, the argument against Micah's kind of prophetic utterances heats up:

You descendants of Jacob, should it be said,
“Does the Lord become impatient?
Does he do such things?” (v.7) 

The people are knee-deep in the "we're the chosen!" pride, even though their actions are quite the opposite from what that "chosen" label looks like. 

The people are probably thinking: 

C'mon, Micah.  God doesn't do the kind of things you say He does.  He's, well, God, and He doesn't lose His temper and come down in judgement, striding across the hills like you say He will.  We know God better than you do. You know why?  Yeah, this pagan thing has been going on for a while, and guess what?  Nothing's happened!  So if Yahweh is as torqued sith us as you say He is, then we'd all be like goats in a landslide--buried ten feet under His wrath, with no way out. So there.  

But if you are still willing to listen to the words of the prophets--those who are called by God, to speak for God--then His words will cut you to the quick and repentance, not pride, will be your reaction.  In other words, the messages of the prophets are meant to redirect the people's attention back to a holy God.  

God's words are balm to the soul that has lost its way.  Micah says, 

“Do not my words do good

to the one whose ways are upright?" (v.7)

Micah echoes Isaiah's words:

Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." (55:6-11)

God's words are the truth.  That is one of many reasons Jesus is the Word of God.  He is the Truth. What He said is both the words of God and He embodies those very words, giving us life in His name. 

No spin. Straight up truth.

Refreshing to those who are thirsty.

Disgusting to those who are disobedient.