THE FIRST ORACLE OF THE PROPHET MICAH: HOPE REMAINS
Micah, like his great contemporaries Isaiah and Amos, prophesied during the eighth century BC, a time when Israel and Judah had risen to heights of economic affluence but had fallen to depths of spiritual decadence. People in Israel enjoyed a luxurious life at this time not unlike the prosperity the United States has experienced as a nation over the past century.
Israel like our country appeared to be strong, but the worship of pagan gods and idols along with moral decay, the nation was crumbling from within. Their continual manifestation of social wrongs were indications of internal sicknesses. The days of peace were destined to end due to the internal strife of the nation. Sound familiar?
If you read of the reign of Hezekiah, you see the external threats that were coming Israel’s way due to their internal unhealth and worship of pagan gods and idols. Leadership need was at an all-time high in Israel as it is in our nation today.
This article is the first in a series called ORACLES from the book of Micah.
Do you know what an oracle is?
An oracle can be a revelation or the person through whom the revelation is given.
The oracle deals with the reality in front of him or her with no thought of persuasion. In this article I seek to answer the question,
”What are God’s prophetic revelations to us due to our unwillingness to repent?”
Micah 1:1 says, “The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.”
Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah and Amos.
His unique contribution to the prophets is his emphasis on the remnant and how the remnant of God (His people) was the sign of God’s ongoing and coming hope. Micah wants us to know, we as followers of Yahweh represent the hope of God to this world. Jesus said it this way, “You are the salt and light of this earth.”
Micah addresses immediately the impending judgment that awaits God’s people because of their numbness and disinterest in the things of the Lord.
Micah addresses The Coming Destruction…
Micah 1:2 Hear, you peoples, all of you;[a] pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
Micah is clear, God is on His way!
Micah describes what will occur as the Lord comes…
Micah 1:4 Like waters poured down a steep place. 5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
Micah is making it clear that sins unaccounted for is God’s reason for coming to them.
PROPHETIC REVELATION #1: OVERLOOKED SIN LEADS TO DIVINE CONFRONTATION.
I remember when I was a kid, my sister and I were fighting and we were pushing each other. We were knocking each other into the closet doors and making a lot of ruckus. My dad warned us to stop time and time again and finally he said, “If I have to tell you one more time, I am gonna come in there.” We didn’t stop and immediately we heard his footsteps. We knew why he was headed our way, same with Israel, Micah was giving them a warning that he was coming to make good on his promise of addressing them for their actions and behavior.
Upon God’s arrival He says He will…
Micah 1:6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards,and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. 7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
What is going on here?
God was coming to this capital city of Israel to lay waste its idols and make bare her foundations, meaning, He was coming to expose her sin.
God tells Samaria that she gathered these idols through the fee of a prostitute meaning they charged the people to worship these pagan idols and he would return them to where they came from, meaning, the judgment was coming from without from the nations who gave them these pagan idols.
When we worship the things of this world, God uses them eventually to judge us with them.
PROPHETIC REVELATION #2: GOD USES THE THINGS WE WORSHIP TO JUDGE US.
For example, if worship fame, he will use fame to expose.
If we worship sexual sins, he will use sexual sin to expose us.
If we seek material gain, he will use material gain to judge us.
Whatever we worship, if it is not Him, becomes the vehicle by which He judges us.
If the media makes you famous, the media will be used to bring you down.
If money made you famous, money will be used to bring you down. If abuse is how you got ahead, abuse is what God will allow to expose you.
So, whatever it is you are so eager to seek and worship will become the vehicle God uses to judge you and me.
And then God says through Micah….
Micah 1:8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches. 9 For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
Excerpt taken from New International Commentary:
Verses 10-16 Begins with the words that recall David’s lament at the death of Saul and ends with the name of the cave where David hid from Saul. These dark moments in David’s life form a gloomy backdrop to the description of the fall of the towns Micah spoke of. Though he is never directly mentioned, the figure of David appears hauntingly in the tapestry of destruction—not a David standing tall in triumph, but a David bowed down by humiliation. It is as if Micah saw in the fall of each town and the eventual captivity of the two kingdoms the final dissolution of the Davidic monarchy. Like David, the glory of Israel would come to Adullam.
Micah 1:10 Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all; in Beth-le-aphrah roll yourselves in the dust. 11 Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame; the inhabitants of Zaanan do not come out; the lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place.
Shaphir means beautiful or pleasant but what they are gonna experience is just the opposite of that, in nakedness and shame.
Micah 1:12 For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good, because disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.
Micah 1:13 Harness the steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish; it was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel. 14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts[b] to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. 15 I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.
Micah 1:16 Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair, for the children of your delight; make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they shall go from you into exile.
Why the children?
Because sadly it is always the children that suffer the most and impacted the most by the sins of their parents and grandparents.
PROPHETIC REVELATION #3: GENERATIONAL SIN REPERCUSSIONS ARE REAL.
Sadly the judgment that potentially awaits our nation will be on our children. If you don’t want to turn back to God for yourselves, at least consider your children in the equation.
The mass exit of Christians who have left the church and the study of God’s Word is quickly catching up to us as a society and we are seeing it. Over the course of two generations the lack of godly counsel and close fellowship to the Lord’s church begins to show up but then the price must be paid.
Micah 2:1 Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord: behold, against this family I am devising disaster,[a] from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster.
Curious word God uses here, “Family.”
What family?
His family! There is nothing more painful than having to judge your own family. I have experienced and I have lived through it, I assume you have as well.
God was acknowledging the personal nature of this moment. This was not lost on Him. This is His family, Israel was His chosen people.
PROPHETIC REVELATION #4: JUDGING YOU IS PERSONAL TO GOD.
He cares, that is why He is engaging you in this way. He loves you enough not to leave you in your sin. He knows that without discipline and sometimes devastating judgment, you don’t come back.
Micah continues…
Micah 2:4 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, “We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.”
What does it mean for an apostate to have our fields?
An apostate is an unbeliever, it is another way to the say “the world.”
PROPHETIC REVELATION # 5: GOD’S JUGEMENT FORFEITS OUR BLESSINGS TO THE WORLD.
Micah 2:5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord. 6 “Do not preach”—thus they preach—“one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.” 7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Has the Lord grown impatient?[b] Are these his deeds? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?
8 But lately my people have risen up as an enemy; you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war.[c] 9 The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses; from their young children you take away my splendor forever.
10 Arise and go, for this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction. 11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink, ”he would be the preacher for this people!
It seems so hopeless doesn’t it? Maybe we can relate in our lives. But look at what the Lord says…
Micah 2:12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.
13 He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head.
What is Micah saying here? God tells us in these dire circumstances He will gather the remnant of Israel, those who are His and in the midst of all this devastation, He will open the breach and we will break through and pass through the gate, GOING OUT BY IT. Their king passes on before them, and THE LORD AT THEIR HEAD.
No matter how bad your life gets due to the judgement of God, there is always HOPE.
PROPHETIC REVELATION # 6: HOPE ALWAYS RESIDES IN THE DARKEST OF JUDGMENTS.
CONCLUSION: No matter how gleam the circumstances that surround you might be, God can redeem you in it. Hope remains!
God can give you light, life, and hope again, no matter how dark your life has become. Look up and say to the Lord, “Forgive me Lord, restore me Lord, bless me again Lord.”
And guess what?
HE WILL!
HE’S JUST THAT GOOD!
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