15: Minor Prophets - Micah 1-3:12

[Dunkle] Welcome back to Minor Prophets class. This amounts to the second half because I divide the class with a test after Jonah. Those of you watching the video later, I didn't give you a test, so you don't have to worry about it.

But we're now beginning the book of Micah, and as we like to do, we're going to begin with the five Ws. My Ws for Micah are fairly brief.

The who: we believe Micah was the author. Micah in Hebrew seems to be short for the longer name Micaiah. And you see somebody named Micah in 1 Kings 22, but we think it's a different Micah. There are seven different Micahs named in the Bible. It was a popular name, partly because in the Hebrew it means, who is like Yahweh? Or, if you prefer, who is like the Eternal God?

Now, as we go into it, we'll see there's no narrative, so we don't see a lot about Micah. We don't learn much about him. So let's move on to when.

He prophesied, as it says right at the beginning of the book, during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah in the southern kingdom of Judah. Hezekiah is one of those we remember the most because Hezekiah is figured prominently not only in Kings, but in the book of Isaiah.

In Israel, he prophesied during the reigns of Pekah and Hoshea, who we don't hear a lot about. But I will say Hoshea was the last of Israel's kings. So Micah is prophesying during the time the northern kingdom is conquered by Assyria and taken away.

So if we want to do numbers, it's a little bit vague, but we think between about 755 BC and 700 BC. So in that range, it's a long range, and we don't know that Micah lived and worked during all of that. Probably lived during all of it.

Micah seems to have lived to have seen much of his prophecies fulfilled, at least prophecies that weren't dual or end time. Because, as I said, he saw the Assyrian armies conquer Israel, saw them invade Judah and conquer many of those cities, but then leave.

Because you know the story in Isaiah that God sent an angel and conquered an entire... What did I say? God sent an angel and conquered an entire army, and they left. Consequently, when we're saying when, Micah was definitely contemporary with the prophet Isaiah, possibly also with Hosea and Amos. I'm saying possibly there because there is some question about when Hosea and Amos prophesied, but I think they overlap.

That leads us to talk about where.

Micah was from the rural village of Moresheth Gath. Okay, not the other Moresheth that was somewhere else, but Moresheth Gath was in the lowlands of Judea toward the Philistine cities. So it's the Moresheth that's closest to Gath, as a way of saying it, about 20 miles to the southwest of Jerusalem.

I mentioned he was contemporary with Isaiah. Isaiah, we'll see later in another class, was often working in the city and had access to the palace. Isaiah would go and talk to King Hezekiah in person. So think of Isaiah as the prophet in the city. Think of Micah as the prophet out in the country. So big difference: city prophet, country prophet, even though they overlap and have a lot of the same message. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about the what.

The major theme we see in the book of Micah is God's punishment, especially on bad leaders. God's calling out the leaders. But along with punishment, there's a call for repentance, implying eventual redemption. Because we know God's word always shows forgiveness when there's repentance, and God has this plan that will repentance and forgiveness. Of course, that's what Christ's sacrifice is all about.

While we're talking about the what, let's say the language. Hebrew scholars say that Micah's language is simple but elegant. And I think that phrase is pretty simple but eloquent. As I said, I don't read Hebrew, but I study scholars who do.

Some also say that Micah could be considered as Isaiah in shorthand. Isaiah in shorthand. And I say that because he covers several of the same ideas as Isaiah, but at, what are we, seven chapters long. Let me make sure that's seven. I'm supposed to know that. Yeah. Quite a bit less than the 66 in Isaiah.

So Isaiah: long-form, a lot of detailed, vivid imagery. Micah: down to the point.

Let's talk about why. And this overlaps, admittedly.

The prophecies are to warn Israel and Judah of coming punishment and to encourage them to repent. Now look, stop sinning. You're going to be punished if you don't stop sinning. Repent.

That brings to mind one of the reasons it's such a valid book for us to study, because those themes apply to every person any time they are. It applies to us. If we're sinning, we should stop. We should repent to avoid God's punishment and God's displeasure.

But having said that, this is certainly in the setting of Israel as it's been caught up in sin, and it's about to reach its downfall at the hands of Assyria.

So let's get into the chapter and verse.

The first verse really is talking about the time and place. It's "The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth," and so how the word came, we're not told whether God spoke to him directly or gave him visions. But we know it's God's word.

"In the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem." (Micah 1:1)

 So he mentions the two capital cities, but we would say that those cities are representative of their countries. Just like we often will refer to, like, if I talk about talks between the US and Russia, I might say Washington and Moscow are having these talks, or Washington and London. So Samaria and Jerusalem are representing their nations as well as just the cities.

And so we start with the first message.

Verse 2: "Hear, all you peoples." Notice all peoples. He's going to call out the leaders, but it's not just for the leaders. "And listen, O earth, and all that's in it."

The Hebrew word erets can be spelled E-R-E-T-S. It can mean earth, like the planet, but most often it means the land or the territory. So he's talking about the country and all the people in it.

"Let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple."  (Micah 1:2)

I'm out of space. I put this up here in advance, so we'll refer to that later. But I want to note that Lord God, it's L-small-o-r-d and then all caps G-O-D. So the Hebrew there is Adonai Yahweh. We see that here and there in the Bible. Even though God is normally from Elohim, we don't see Elohim here.

But because... Sorry, I need to learn how to spell. Four-letter words don't have five letters. But the word Adonai means lord as in boss or master. So it's that lord, not the self-existing one that the tetragrammaton means. So since we then have that here, we didn't want to say Lord, Lord when they translated. So Lord God. Small technical detail. Remember that for when you're doing biblical Trivial Pursuit.

Otherwise, it doesn't come up a whole lot. Okay, but He's witness...

 

"Let the Lord God be a witness against you from His holy temple."

Okay, He's talking to the peoples of the land from His holy temple. We'll note, of course, God isn't confined to a building. You know, He's in heaven. And Solomon said, the heaven of heavens can't contain you, much less this building. But God did promise to Solomon at that time that He would... He put His name on that temple, and He would keep His eyes there. He would listen to the prayers. So the temple can represent God's presence.

2 Chronicles 7:15-16, to pull those together.

But I'll also make a reference to something. Jeremiah chapter 7 has an important address by Jeremiah in the temple, where he makes the point that the building itself is no protection. Just because Judah had the temple didn't mean God wouldn't punish them when they went into sin. So I want to tie this in because he's speaking from His holy temple. Of course, in modern times, we would say the Church of God is a spiritual temple, and we hope God will be a witness in that way.

But let's move on for the message at hand for Judah and Israel at that time.

"Behold the LORD"—this is the LORD in all caps, the tetragrammaton— "He's coming out of His place. He'll come down and tread on the high places of the earth." (Micah 1:3)

This is direct intervention. God is doing this, even when He uses the nation of Assyria. He'll use the Assyrians. Isaiah 10:5, I believe it is, calls Assyria the rod of mine anger. So Assyria is a tool in God's hands.

And I'm making the point: God is coming down. He's treading on the earth. It says, "The mountains will melt under Him. The valleys will split like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place." (Micah 1:4)

This is good, evocative imagery. If we want to be literal, it seems to imply even volcanic activity. Volcanic activity and earthquakes go together. I mention that because in ancient Israel's history, although there were some earthquakes, there was no mention of volcanoes. In end-time prophecy, if you look through Revelation, you can see what looks like volcanic activity, and certainly earthquakes.

Revelation 16:18 is a good reference to earthquake. I'll also mention that it says the valleys split. And Zechariah 14:4 is where it says that when Christ lands on the Mount of Olives, the valley will be split in two. We've got a song in our hymnal that we talk about—you know, half will move to the north and half to the south.

So we see here what looks like a bit of dual prophecy: warning Israel in Micah's time, but also looking ahead to the end time. And he tells us why this is going to happen in verse 5. 

"All this"—mountains melting, valleys splitting— "all this for the transgression of Jacob, the sin of Jacob, the sins of the house of Israel." (Micah 1:5)

"What's the transgression of Jacob? Isn't it Samaria? The high places of Judah—aren't they Jerusalem?" 

Okay, the coming destruction is punishment for sin. It's interesting we note Jacob as well as it's saying the... sorry, I want to make a look... the transgression of Jacob, the house of Israel. They're synonymous. We know the man Jacob would have his name changed to Israel.

I've seen some scholars point out that as you look through the prophecies, sometimes you see the name Jacob referred to more when it's talking about Israel physically and their sin, and Israel more often when we're dealing with spiritual matters. Now, I use the phrase more often because it's not a hard and fast rule. So the use of one term or another sometimes might be related to simply poetry, but it's worth noting when God uses one or the other.

At any point, the nation of Israel is sinning, and Samaria is pointed out as the capital. Samaria became a center point for that sin, as sadly did Judah—or, I mean, Jerusalem—for the southern nation of Judah. It became a center of idol worship, even though it wasn't meant to be.

So as we go on in verse 6, "Therefore I’ll make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, places for planting a vineyard" (Micah 1:6). By the way, the hill on which Samaria was built, before it was made into a city, had been covered with vineyards. So God is promising to restore it to its previous state. He's going to undo the building.

He says, "I’ll pour down her stones into the valley, uncover her foundations. All her carved images, those idols, will be beaten to pieces. All her pay as a harlot will be burned with fire, all her idols desolate. She gathered it from the pay of a harlot; they’ll return to the pay of a harlot" (Micah 1:6–7).

A lot of harlotry going on here. We want to remember... sorry, I shouldn't be chuckling about harlotry. What I want to say is, adultery, harlotry, is usually symbolic of worshiping these false idols. I mean, God was married to Israel, and Israel cheated on the marriage by worshiping false gods. So if you're harking back to our discussion early on in the book of Hosea, the same imagery comes back again. So it's pointing out the idolatry more than sex workers or anything like that.

So we see this image of Israel is sinning and Judah also is sinning, and there's idolatry. In verse 8, it seems to possibly be Micah expressing his thoughts. It says, "Therefore I’ll wail and howl." Micah, as a representative of God, is showing his distress and upset. I'd like to say, if he's upset and showing emotion, that might also be representative of the feelings and emotions that God Himself has. God is upset, and it hurts Him in His heart to have to punish.

Now, it says, "I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches."(Micah 1:8)

Stripped and naked in this case, it probably means walking barefoot and bare-chested, not necessarily bare-necked, as my friend Ryan Hall used to say when he'd talk here. You know, the southern phrase, naked, he's not completely naked, but he is having a symbolic nudity by walking without his shoes, maybe a shirt and his head uncovered. So it's a sign of mourning, in a sense.

By the way, you will see this with Isaiah also in Isaiah 20 and verse 2. So Micah and Isaiah share that.

And it goes on in verse 9, saying, "her wounds are incurable" (Micah 1:9). Is incurable possible for God? I think it's saying her wounds, the punishment, won't be cured because they won't repent. So it's not that God is limited, it's that Israel is limited in what they're willing to do. "It’s come to Judah, it’s come to the gate of my people—to Jerusalem" (Micah 1:9), implying that the sin is moving from the northern nation and it's also infiltrated the south. It's there in Judah, they have idolatry. They're looking to alliances with other nations as well, right up to Jerusalem. And God is upset about that.

So in verse 10, we'll see a phrase that we might remember from when David was lamenting the loss of his friend Jonathan and Jonathan's father, King Saul, where it says, "Tell it not in Gath" (2 Samuel 1:20). We'll see that phrase in 2 Samuel chapter 1 verse 20. It's a type of lament, and it's saying, don't tell our enemies this bad thing that's happening to us because they'll rejoice at it.

And then we're going to see Micah is going to continue from here, and he's going to use several, we could say puns. What's a pun? You know, it's a play on word, partly for amusement or partly to get a message. So with all of what we're going to see here, he's going to mention these different little towns and villages in Judah and make a play on words, or we could say a pun, symbolic meaning tied to the sound of their name that ties into their destruction. I'm not sure if I'm saying that pretty clear, but I want you to think plays on words and puns. So let's look at it.

"Weep not at all in Beth Ephrah" (Micah 1:10). Beth Ephrah means house of dust. And he says, okay, Beth Ephrah, you're going to roll in the dust. You people in the house of dust, you're going to roll in dust in mourning.

Verse 11, "Pass by naked in shame, you inhabitant of Shaphir" (Micah 1:11). Shaphir means beauty, but you see they're going to be in shame. So from beauty to shame.

"The inhabitant of Zaanan does not go out" (Micah 1:11). Zaanan is a homonym, something that sounds like zenin, which means willing to flee or someone who flees. So here it's saying, you know, the inhabitant of Zaanan who's willing to flee doesn't go out. It's sort of like saying, you might want to get away, but you can't. You're not going to.

"Beth Ezel mourns. Its place to stand is taken away" (Micah 1:11). Beth Ezel means a place that's near. They mourn. Its place to stand is taken away. So it's referring to being nearby, but that place nearby is taken away. So again, it's using poetry to convey God's punishment.

Verse 12 here. "The inhabitant of Maroth pines for good, but disaster came down from the Lord" (Micah 1:12). Maroth means bitterness, disaster. So it's a bitter punishment coming from God.

"O inhabitant of Lachish, harness the chariot to the swift steeds, the beginning of sin for the daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you" (Micah 1:13). Lachish, that's a city we see mentioned more often, but it's another homonym. The name Lachish sounds like the Hebrew word that means swift horse. So you inhabitants of the town that sounds like a swift horse, you're going to need swift horses. Harness them up to the chariot. You're going to have to flee to get away.

Verse 14. "Therefore you’ll give presents to Moresheth Gath" (Micah 1:14). Moresheth Gath, the Moresheth part, refers to an inheritance or a possession. So you'll give presents. So your inheritance is going to be taken away, basically. It's going to go to someone else. We'll see this idea come up again.

"The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel" (Micah 1:14). Achzib can mean deceit. So the houses, or even the fortifications, of deceit, are a lie. You know, false hope in these fortifications, something you think will keep you safe.

You see what I mean by these plays on words?

And I can—there we're going to cover the others—but I'll say all of this is saying you're going to be punished for sin, and I'm going to tell you you'll be punished for sin in a clever way. I'm not sure if the inhabitants of these cities were thinking about how clever it was, but we can think about it.

In verse 15, he says, "I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah" (Micah 1:15). Mareshah is very similar to Moresheth, we saw, and it translates to mean an inheritance or a possession. I'll bring an heir—someone else is going to take possession.

"The glory of Israel shall come to Adullam" (Micah 1:15), and Adullam means refuge. So the glory of Israel could be a reference to God and His power coming up against your refuge. If God attacks a refuge, who wins? Not the refuge. God can penetrate any fortifications, we could say. So basically he's saying all of these things will be overcome.

And to wrap up the chapter in verse 16, he's going to make reference to the imagery of mourning and sadness. "Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, because of your precious children; enlarge your baldness like an eagle, for they shall go from you into captivity" (Micah 1:16). That's not a new fashion trend—it's a sign that we're in mourning and sad. Getting down to what's going to happen to Israel—going into captivity. The Assyrians would conquer their cities, kill most of the people, and take what's left away as slaves.

I'm pausing because we have a chapter break, but we're going to plunge ahead into chapter two. So let's read the first couple of verses together.

"Woe to those who devise iniquity, and work out evil on their beds! At morning light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand" (Micah 2:1).

So they're laying in bed thinking, what evil thing can I do? "And in the morning light, they practice it." So I imagine, because I often wake up before the dawn and sometimes I think about things I have to do, these guys are thinking about the evil things, and then the sun comes up and they go to do it. And the last part of verse 1 is the worst, "because it's in the power of their hand." He's talking about scheming to do something because you can get away with it. And God says, woe to those people. That's something we don't want to do. No one ever wants to do something just because you can.

"They covet fields and take them by violence, also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance" (Micah 2:2). We see rich and powerful people using their wealth and their power to take away from those who are poor and can't defend themselves. Terrible situation.

It reminds me to note in the prophets that God is highly upset at idolatry. He doesn't like it when people disrespect Him, but God is also highly upset when people mistreat each other. He doesn't want people to break the latter five—or ten... not five or ten—the latter half of the Ten Commandments is what I meant. Don't steal, don't kill, don't lie. He's bothered by that in the same way He's bothered by Sabbath breaking and idolatry and taking His name in vain. He wants people to show love and compassion to each other.

So let's go on in verse 3.

"Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks; nor shall you walk haughtily, for this is an evil time’" (Micah 2:3).

Which means it's like the imagery of taking off a yoke. You know, animals have a yoke on them to force them to work, and they can't take the yoke off themselves. The yoke of punishment that's being put on Israel, they couldn't take off. They couldn't get away from it, could not avoid God's punishment. Nor shall you walk haughtily—don't walk with pride. It's an evil time.

"In that day one shall take up a proverb against you, and lament with a bitter lamentation, saying, ‘We are utterly destroyed! He has changed the heritage of my people; how He has removed it from me! To a turncoat He has divided our fields’" (Micah 2:4).

Let me add verse 5 because that helps tie this together: "Therefore you will have no one to determine boundaries by lot" (Micah 2:5).

Determining boundaries by lot seems to be a reference to what we saw in Joshua chapter 13 when Israel—well, I don't have the map I want—you know, they took over the Promised Land. They cast lots to see which tribe would get what territory. And so God is referring back to that and saying, that's coming to an end. I'm changing the inheritance. I'm going to give it to people who are not Israel.

The Israelites would be taken away by the Assyrians. And if you pay attention to the story in 2 Kings, the Assyrians sent other peoples in there—people from back near Mesopotamia and such. And in that story, lions started coming around and killing people. So they said, send us one of the priests from the land to teach us how to appease these gods. And sadly, they sent priests to worship those golden calves that Jeroboam had made. So it wasn't really a good solution for them.

Point here in Micah is you're losing your inheritance. So you lost it because of sin.

Now coming to Micah 2:6: "Do not prattle," you know, don't rattle on, don't be talking. "You say to those who prophesy, ‘Do not prophesy’" (Micah 2:6). Israel didn't want to hear God's message. They might tell Micah himself, don't tell us this stuff. "So they shall not prophesy to you; they shall not return insult for insult" (Micah 2:6). It's like God's saying, I'm not going to sit here and argue with you.

"You who are named the house of Jacob: is the Spirit of the Lord restricted? Are these His doings?" (Micah 2:7). And that's a rhetorical question. God's not limited. You know, God is not restricted. He can carry out His will.

And at the end of verse 7, it says, "Do not My words do good to him who walks uprightly?" (Micah 2:7). And that's another rhetorical question. God's word is always good if you're listening, if you obey God. So at the start of verse 6, they're saying, don't tell us, don't tell us God's word. But God is saying, if you're walking uprightly, it does you good. So you don't need to silence God's word.

But we see the opposite happening in verse 8.

"Lately My people have risen up as an enemy—you pull off the robe with the garment from those who trust you, as they pass by" (Micah 2:8). It's like muggers out on the street, stealing from people—even their clothes.

"The women of My people you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children you have taken away My glory forever" (Micah 2:9). So this is people mistreating each other.

And that alone is enough. Some people have wondered if this might be symbolic of when the nation of Israel made an alliance with Syria. So Israel is here, Syria is up here. And we see this described in Isaiah, I think starting around chapter 8, that they made an alliance to go in and invade Judah. So it's Israel fighting against fellow Israelites. This might be a reference to that—you know, My people have risen up as an enemy against their own people. God is not happy with it.

In verse 10, He says, "Arise and depart, for this is not your rest; because it is defiled, it shall destroy, yes, with utter destruction" (Micah 2:10).

This isn't your rest. And I say that if you reference Hebrews chapter 4—I won't turn there—but in Hebrews 4, the author, I think the Apostle Paul, is referring to the Promised Land as the rest that Israel would inherit, and it's used as a type of the Kingdom of God. But now God is telling Israel, this isn't your rest—not anymore. You're going to be kicked out. You know, it was meant to be the rest, but they lost their chance.

And now in verse 11, as though he's referring back to not wanting to hear the prophets prattle—they said, don't tell us that—he says, "If a man should walk in a false spirit and speak a lie, saying, ‘I will prophesy to you of wine and drink,’ even he would be the prattler of this people" (Micah 2:11).

It's saying you want to hear something that makes you feel good. Let me give you the translation of that verse that's in the New Living Translation, because I think it sums it up pretty well. It says, suppose a prophet full of lies were to say to you, I'll preach to you the joys of wine and drink—well, that's the kind of prophet you would like.

God is saying, you don't want to hear the truth. You want to hear these false things that aren't doing you any good. Yeah—and that's what you like. That's not going to do you any good.

Think back in verse 7, where God says that His word will do good to those who do uprightly: "Do not My words do good to him who walks uprightly?" (Micah 2:7).

Don't look for something that feels good. We need to look for something that is good, and that'll feel good in the long run. I should pause—I sense that I'm getting preachy, which sometimes these messages inspire in me. We do want to pay attention to that.

But it's worth a pause because the next couple of verses are where God sort of turns His tone and He wants to look ahead. We could even call it one of those great "yet I" moments, even though that phrase isn't there. He's going to start talking about God's mercy, about Israel's future redemption.

So in verse 12, he says, "I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together like sheep of the fold, like a flock in the midst of their pasture; they shall make a loud noise because of so many people" (Micah 2:12).

We know there are many prophecies of that happening soon after Christ returns—the remnant of Israel being gathered together in the actual promised land. We don't know how many will still be left alive at the end of all the trumpet plagues and the vial plagues, but they'll be brought back. And this seems to be speaking of that.

I'll put them together like sheep of the fold, like a flock in the midst of their pasture, and they'll make loud noise because of so many people. You know, they're gathering together instead of being dispersed around the world.

And "the one who breaks open will come up before them; they will break out, pass through the gate, and go out by it; their king will pass before them, with the Lord at their head" (Micah 2:13). There are prophecies—particularly I'll mention Jeremiah 30 and verse 9. And Jeremiah 30 verse 9, it references their King David, who will be resurrected and will be the king over Israel, serving underneath Jesus Christ, who will be the King of kings. And this seems to be a reference to that. Israel will be gathered, become a unified nation, and have a king who serves God.

Now, that's exciting to think about. Exciting for me to take a pause and soothe my throat.

Okay, we're going through Micah rather quickly because they're themes we know, so we'll plunge ahead into chapter 3.

"And I said," seems to be Micah, of course, speaking for God: "Hear now, O heads of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel." (Micah 3:1). Okay, I think I mentioned that God is going to call out the rulers. Earlier He said, all of you people listen, but He's calling out the leaders, and He's going to talk about what they did. "Is it not for you to know justice?" Leaders should know justice, and they should impose justice.

"You who hate good and love evil"—oh, these aren't good leaders. They hate good. They love evil. "Who strip the skin from My people and the flesh from their bones, who also eat the flesh of My people" (Micah 3:2–3).

Now, we believe this is symbolic. There was no actual cannibalism going on in Israel at that time that we know of. But remember, leaders are often portrayed as shepherds and the people as sheep. So think of that— "Break their bones, chop them in pieces like meat for the pot, like flesh for the caldron." It's saying these leaders were supposed to be shepherds, but instead they're like shepherds who slaughter the sheep and eat them. Well, that's not what they're supposed to be doing, and God is going to hold them accountable.

I will mention, though, that although Israelites didn't practice this kind of torture, Assyrians did. There are historical records that the Assyrian armies practiced torture and cruelty in a way that's really—it's terrifying to read. It's just really bad. It includes flaying the flesh of people and skinning people while they're still alive. I don't want to go into more detail, but I don't think the leaders of Israel did this, but the Assyrians would come and put it into practice.

So then verse 4 says, "Then they will cry to the Lord" (Micah 3:4).

When the people are suffering, they call out to God. That's a story we see in the book of Judges, and we see especially through the Kings. But He won't hear them. There's a point where God says, I'm not listening anymore. I've delivered you over and over and over. Now the punishment is going to come, and the punishment will stand. That's what we see described here in Micah 3:4.

He will even hide His face from them because they have been evil in their deeds. So I'll make another reference to Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 11:14 is one place that God tells Jeremiah, don't pray for these people. Don't pray for their good. You know, it's a sad state when the nation gets to be so evil that God tells His servants, don't even pray for them anymore. It doesn't mean God doesn't love them, but God is going to bring the punishment to help them learn their lesson. So that's what we see happening here.

Let's go on in verse 5.

"Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets," And I'm going to say here, false prophets, because they're prophets… "who make My people stray; who chant ‘Peace’ while they chew with their teeth, but who prepare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths" (Micah 3:5). 

So yeah, invite me over to dinner, give me a good steak, and I'll prophesy good things about you. You don't give me anything? I'll make war against you. So these prophets are in it for the money, you could say, in it for self-gain. So that's why they're false prophets. They're bad prophets.

Okay, so God is going to cut them off.

Verse 6: "Therefore you shall have night without vision," That represents a lack of spiritual vision. It's not talking about it's going to be dark so you can't see, because you could whip out a flashlight—although back then they'd have to light a torch. "And you shall have darkness without divination; the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them" (Micah 3:6).

I'm going to cut off spiritual revelation, God is saying. And by comparison, Christ called Himself the light of the world. He told Christians they would also be the light of the world. So we're to be the opposite of what God says about these false prophets—He's giving them darkness; we're to be light. And the light comes from a connection with God and from His truth.

So in verse 7, He says, "So the seers shall be ashamed,"  These seers will be ashamed—these seers, false prophets. "And the diviners abashed; indeed they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God" (Micah 3:7).

Now in verse 8, it seems to be a contrast. Seems to be a contrast from these false prophets being silenced, being in the dark.

Micah seems to be speaking in verse 8, but he says, "But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might." So he's not silenced. He's not going without vision. "To declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin" (Micah 3:8). That's part of the job of a prophet, especially at that era.

You could make a connection of this to Isaiah 58:1, where God says to "Lift up your voice like a trumpet and tell My people their transgression." 

Micah is doing that. Notice the parallel between Isaiah and Micah.

Okay, so verse 9, he's going to tell them, "Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity" (Micah 3:9). Rulers are supposed to impose justice, not abhor it.

"Who build up Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity" (Micah 3:10). Okay, they're building up their empires on the backs of people. There's bloodshed and sin. You know, they're making a fortune. They're exerting control.

Here we could question—you know, Zion can refer to Jerusalem, but it's also sometimes a symbol of God's Church. Have leaders of God's Church sometimes built on faulty foundations? I'm not accusing anybody, but in the past we can look and say sometimes we got off track, and we want to make sure we never do that.

Anyways, going on in verse 11: "Her heads judge for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us’" (Micah 3:11).

Okay, I don't think that applies to the Church, but it did in ancient Israel. Leaders were taking bribes. Her priests teach for pay. Prophets divine for money. Yeah, again, I'm doing this for the money. I'm not really connected to God. I just have to get a paycheck.

"Yet they lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? No harm can come on us." Well, they're wrong about that. And what many, especially in Jerusalem, believed was, we've got the temple. As long as we've got the temple, nothing can hurt us. God won't let that happen.

Well, in Jeremiah 7, God had Jeremiah come and tell them, no—go check out what happened in Shiloh. See what I did to that place. I'm going to do the same thing to Jerusalem. So He would be telling these false prophets and diviners, don't think no harm can come.

And there we do want to look to modern times and say, just because we're in the Church of God doesn't mean no harm can come to us if we turn to sin. You know, so we individually have to seek God, not just rely on someone else to seek God for us. And I believe that's what we're trying to do, of course.

So in verse 12: "Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the temple like the bare hills of the forest" (Micah 3:12).

This is prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple. Jeremiah 26:18 quotes this very verse. And remember, Jeremiah prophesied, we think, a bit more than 100 years later. So the book of Micah was written—Jeremiah probably had access to it. He quotes this.

And it's interesting where it says, Zion shall be plowed like a field. Nebuchadnezzar's armies did not do that, but the Roman general—Tertius Rufus Titus, you know, these long names—he actually did have them bring plowshares to the temple mount and to Zion and drag them across after he destroyed it, symbolically showing this is only fit for agriculture from now on.

Now, of course, Jerusalem would much later be rebuilt, but it had some hard times. So Micah's prophecy would eventually be fulfilled in a way not necessarily expected.

Boy, we powered through a lot. My voice is getting weak. So tell you what, let's stop here at the end of chapter 3. Next time we can pick up with chapter 4. I hope you'll understand we're moving across this fairly quickly, hitting these well-understood themes. So next time we'll pick up with Micah chapter 4.