Monday - Micah 3 - A Juxtaposition of Weakness against Power

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HERE is a stark contrast presented in this chapter between Micah & the Jewish leaders of his day. The bulk of the chapter aims to describe the inadequacies that were present in the "heads" of Israel. But, verse 8 erupts into the middle of this section with a wonderful testimony about the holy calling and competency of the great prophet Micah. It may sound boastful on the surface, but really, Micah is presenting the pure and perfect power of God in the middle of a pitiful pile of spiritual wickedness & weakness.

So, let's look at the guilt of the leaders of Israel and Judah. They were supposed to be the defenders of righteousness. Instead, they "hated good and loved evil" (vs. 2 & 9). They used and abused the people whom they were supposed to help (vs. 3 & 5). And, the things that they did do, they did for personal profit alone (vs. 11).

The consequences for Israel's leaders' errors were heavy. While they had been given their position, authority and influence by God, He promised (not threatened, promised) to desert them. He would not bless them, utilize them or work through them any more in any positive way (vs. 6-7). Additionally, God indicated emphatically that He would not only be removing the leaders from their positions, He would also be removing their territory altogether. In other words, if there were no more inhabitants over which to rule, then there could be no more evil rulers.

Friday - Micah 2 - Can Someone Please Find us a Liar?

  

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OME people would rather be flattered than instructed. The Jews of Micah's day were of that brand of fool. They were creative people, but their imagination & ingenuity were used to contrive evil things (Micah 2:1, Ecclesiastes 7:29, Proverbs 24:8 & Genesis 6:5). So, they were destined for woe. Evil men are not the only creative ones though. God is the originator of creativity. Micah 2:3 speaks of how God was willing to do some of His own devising. But He invents the hard consequences of sin, not the sin itself. God is a designer of punishment. After all, he made hell.

Now, much like in some of today's churches, the people of Micah's day did not want the unadulterated truth. It was too harsh & hard for them. They wanted lies. They preferred a gentle & appealing message (vs. 6). Truth will always help, if it is used properly, but what good can lies do (vs. 7)? The misbehavior of the Jews had to be punished, but they didn't want to hear anything about it. They wanted a preacher who would only commend them (vs. 11). They just wanted to be encouraged, commended, entertained & soothed. Yet, they had troubles aplenty on the way (vs. 12-13).

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.