Thursday - Micah 1 - An Incurable Wound

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URING the time that Isaiah was preaching to the Jews of Jerusalem & Judah, Micah was preaching to all of the Jews in both Israel & Judah; Samaria & Jerusalem. According to C. I. Scofield (page 712) and James Ussher, the chronological order of the writing prophets generally went like this: Obadiah, Jonah, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi. Micah prophesied during the time that the Assyrians were waxing strong & moving into the land of the Jews, taking what they wanted. They were sent by God to punish His wayward people (2^nd Kings 17:23). Among other things, Micah wrote about this judgment against God's people.  He wrote about judgment that was sure and inevitable.  He wrote about an incurable wound.

The great offense of humanity is idolatry: aiming worship at any object other than Jehovah. This was the root problem in Judaism (Micah 1:7). This was what brought about the inevitable Assyrian invasion of Israel and the Babylonian invasion of Judah. Inevitable, because the Jews had crossed a line; a point of no return (Micah 1:9). God had determined that no matter what happened, they were going into captivity for their generations of decadence.

The idea of having a spiritual wound that is incurable is truly horrifying. For a nation or for an individual, crossing the Rubicon in an encroachment against God is incomprehensibly foolish. Remember, He said that His Spirit would not always strive with men.  The Jews crossed over into the land of inevitable judgment.