Micah’s First Sermon – Covenant Warning

Micah 1:2 Hear, you peoples, all of you.
Listen, O earth, and all that is therein:
and let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.
3 For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place,
and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.
4 The mountains melt under him,
and the valleys split apart,
like wax before the fire,
like waters that are poured down a steep place.

Micah begins each of his three sermons with the command, hear/listen. In other words, he is telling the people, “Listen, you need to hear this.” This is not going to be the typical comfortable or seeker- friendly message that the Church has grown accustomed to and expects to hear today. No, this is an important message straight from the throne room of God in His heavenly Holy Temple. Micah’s contemporaries needed to hear this, and the Church today needs to hear this, the Word of God.

What is the message that God wants everyone to understand?

God was coming to His people, and this was not a social visit. God was coming as a witness against His people. And His coming would be fearsome, described as mountains melting, valleys splitting apart, wax in a fire and a flood pouring down a steep mountain.

Why is God coming in judgment against his Old Covenant Church, His chosen people?

Micah 1:5 “All this is for the disobedience of Jacob,
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the disobedience of Jacob?
Isn’t it Samaria?
And what are the high places of Judah?
Aren’t they Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field,
like places for planting vineyards;
and I will pour down its stones into the valley,
and I will uncover its foundations.
7 All her idols will be beaten to pieces,
and all her temple gifts will be burned with fire,
and all her images I will destroy;
for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them,
and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return.”

Corruption had taken root in the highest places of both the government and the Church. From these seats of power corruption flowed down into the whole land. This is nothing new, we still see it and speak of the same thing almost every day.

What is the disobedience of the United States?
Isn’t it Washington D.C?

The corruption in Washington has consequences throughout the whole nation.

God is saying the same thing here.

What is the disobedience of Jacob?
Isn’t it Samaria?

Corruption and all evil practices originated in and were supported by the king in the capitol of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Samaria.

After the Northern Kingdom seceded from the Southern Kingdom the king introduced idolatry in the north so that his citizens would no longer travel to Jerusalem to worship.

For purely political reasons, to cement his power, Jeroboam had been willing to disregard the commands of God.

And what are the high places of Judah?
Aren’t they Jerusalem?

The corruption and all of the evil practices that had originated in Samaria had also taken root in the capitol of the Southern Kingdom, Jerusalem.

Because the Old Covenant Church worshipped worthless idols, believing that these idols would bring them peace and prosperity, God was going to come and destroy their temples, their idols, and their economy; fields, vineyards, buildings, and banking: everything that they trusted in.

God was going to take the wealth that they attributed to their devotion to their false gods, gods which they supported through worship, offerings and fornication with the temple prostitutes, and give that wealth to their pagan invaders.

For of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them,
and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return.

What was Micah’s personal reaction to this word of judgment from God?

Micah’s reaction was much like our reaction would be if God told us that our nation, our churches, and our families would be displaced and destroyed.

Micah 1:8 For this I will lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked;
I will howl like the jackals,
and moan like the daughters of owls.
9 For her wounds are incurable;
for it has come even to Judah.
It reaches to the gate of my people,
even to Jerusalem.
10 Don’t tell it in Gath.
Don’t weep at all.
At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust.
11 Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame.
The inhabitant of Zaanan won’t come out.
The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection.
12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good,
because evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem.

Micah is heartbroken that the people of God had persisted in disobedience. Micah lamented, crying, howling, and moaning because God was going to honor His promise to judge His unfaithful Covenant people…

It shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you and overtake you. You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field. Deuteronomy 28:15-16

Micah was not only heart broken, he was also ashamed that the apostasy and the accompanying wickedness practiced in the Northern Kingdom of Israel had come even to Judah, reaching the gate of Micah’s own people, even to Jerusalem.

In Psalm 25:2 David asked of God, Do not let my enemies rejoice in my defeat. As Micah is lamenting over God’s destruction of the people, he expresses the same concern. He doesn’t want the insults and mocking of Jerusalem’s enemies added to injury of God’s judgment. In Micah’s lament he pleads, Don’t tell it to Gath. Gath was one of the principal cities of Judah’s ancient foes, Philistia. Micah knows that Gath would love to gloat over and mock the destruction of God’s people.

Unbelievers frequently revel in mocking the Church when calamity calls, saying that suffering is either proof that God is capricious and does not really love His children or, alternatively, that God is not powerful enough to prevent evil. Either way unbelievers argue, if God is not loving, or if God is not really powerful, why should we believe in Him?

Despite their mocking we can take comfort because though we may not understand God’s plan…

How unsearchable his judgments,
and His paths beyond tracing out! Romans 11:33

We are assured that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

According to the Westminster Confession of Faith:

God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.
(Westminster Confession of Faith 5.1)

C.S.Lewis explains that God uses calamity and pain to arouse us from our illusion of self-sufficiency and to turn us back to reality.

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world… The creature’s illusion of sufficiency must, for the creature’s sake, be shattered…therefore, misfortune must fall.
(C.S.Lewis, The Problem of Pain, Simon & Schuster, 1977)

Sometimes, just like in the Old Covenant Church, the New Covenant Church brings the mocking of the unbelievers down on ourselves when God rightly judges us for our disobedience.

There are other times, just like when King Jotham had compromised with the pagan culture, when both leaders within the Church and fellow believers today persist in mistakenly believing that they can earn the respect of unbelievers in our culture by compromising with them. You will hear otherwise faithful pastors who are being enticed by the false prophets of Baal who have crept into the Church unnoticed, Jude 1:4, use terms such as ‘cultural engagement, human flourishing, and social justice.’ to soften the Gospel. But a watered down Gospel cannot bring the healing that sinful rebels require. Instead of impressing the world, these so-called Christian progressives are inviting down upon themselves and their churches the wrath of God.

We tone down our denunciations of sin lest we be accused of being “judgmental”, we minimize doctrinal distinctive lest we be accused of being “divisive”, we blur boundaries between virtue and vice lest we be accused of being “legalistic”, we brush off heresy and heterodoxy lest we be accused of being “intolerant”, and we veil our concerns about societal disarray lest we be accused of being “political”… Today it is far better to be witty than to be weighty. We want soft-sell. We want relevance. We want acceptance. We want an upbeat, low-key, clever, motivational, friendly, informal, and abbreviated faith.
(George Grant, The Micah Mandate, Moody Press, 1995)

Yet the world mocks us because they know that they gain nothing when we imitate them and offer them the warmed over things that they already know cannot satisfy them. The world gains when we, without fear, offer them what they need the most, the hard but glorious truth. They need to be confronted with the bad news, so that they may come to realize that they are sinners, condemned and standing, by their own choice, as outsiders to God’s family, before they will understand the miracle of Christ taking their sins upon Himself, nailing them to His cross.

The idea that to reach Millennials and Gen Z we need better branding or a new website is really a misread on what these generations actually want. They have been marketed and advertised to at an unprecedented rate their entire lives. What do they want? Depth. In a superficial culture, depth is attractive:
1. Bible teaching and doctrine,
2. Content-driven courses in a fluid, shifting world,
3. Authentic community…
(Benjamin Windle, benjaminwindle.com)

Therefore you are no longer outsiders (exiles, migrants, and aliens, excluded from the rights of citizens), but you now share citizenship with the saints (God’s own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself); and you belong to God’s [own] household. Ephesians 2:19 AMPC

Without going into greater detail here, as you read through Micah ask yourself, was Micah concerned with ‘cultural engagement’ to win the hearts of the unbelievers, or was he concerned with proclaiming to them the Words of God so that the unbelievers understood both the judgment that they were facing and the Promise of life that was being offered to them?

If we abandon the Biblical teaching about heaven and hell and Christ as the only way, if we work to make life better in this world and ignore the reality of the life to come, we are sacrificing the eternal on the altar of the temporal. We are trading heaven for earth and eternity for time. We are forgetting that, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, and that our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 10:31, 12:29
(Erwin Lutzer, We Will Not Be Silenced, Harvest House, 2020)

How was the apostasy of the North able to creep into the Jerusalem?

Micah 1:13 Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish.
She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion;
For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
14 Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath.
The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.
15 I will yet bring to you, inhabitant of Mareshah, him who will possess you.
He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adullam.
16 Shave your heads,
and cut off your hair for the children of your delight.
Enlarge your baldness like the vulture;
for they have gone into captivity from you!

How was the apostasy of the North able to creep into the South?

Micah explains that the compromise began in town of Lachish: She was the beginning of the sin of the daughter of Zion. The transgressions of Israel were found in you. In other words the people in Laschish began to follow the pagan idolatrous practices of her northern neighbors, Israel. To increase their wealth and well-being they not only participated in pagan fertility rites and idol worship, but they even sacrificed their children in the fires of Molech. Having gained a foothold in the south this apostasy began to spread reaching even Micah’s hometown, Micah 1:1, Moresheth.

Though we don’t practice this today, in ancient times when a daughter was to be married, her father gave a dowry to her new husband. With this in mind, in a perverse twist of the custom, Micah is saying that when God gives Moresheth over to her invaders they will take with them the dowry. Just like in a marriage, parting gifts will be given to him who will possess you.

To buy blessing from the false gods Israel was willing to pay their hard earned money to the temple prostitutes, for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them. But God stated that there would be no blessing. Instead the wages that the prostitutes earned would be confiscated by the invading Assyrian army. God would instead bless those who came bringing God’s rod of discipline with parting gifts. The irony, of course, is that it was the pagan Assyrians, not God’s own chosen people, who were doing God’s bidding by invading Israel.

Micah is warning the people that their Holy God does not take their sins lightly. He will no longer look the other way. His patience has run out and he is coming to discipline His children with a harsh discipline.  Evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem. Micah 1:12 Because of their disobedience even their precious children, in whom they delight, will be taken into captivity by a ruthless foreign army. The children of your delight… have gone into captivity.

For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 1 Peter 4.17

Just like the Old Covenant Church, somehow the New Covenant Church has come to believe that God won’t judge her, as if God didn’t love His children enough to discipline them.

Micah 1:16 Shave your heads,
and cut off your hair for the children of your delight.
Enlarge your baldness like the vulture;
for they have gone into captivity from you!

In 722 BC, even as Micah was sounding the warning, because the Northern Kingdom had become completely corrupt, God sent the Assyrian King Sargon II as His instrument to invade Israel and carry her off into captivity. God spared the Southern Kingdom at that time because her compromise with the unbelieving pagans was not yet complete. Judah was given more time to repent. And, in fact, as we saw, King Hezekiah took Micah’s warnings seriously and began reform. Additionally, Hezekiah’s great-grandson King Josiah also took the prophet Zephaniah’s warning seriously and again attempted reform. But reform was never long lasting as both Hezekiah’s sons and Josiah’s sons led Judah into grave sin. One hundred years after Micah brought God’s Word to Judah, Babylon invaded and carried Judah off into captivity.

God has, throughout history, called His children to repent of their sins against Him. After acknowledging their sin, God reveals to His children the way to live fulfilling and joyful lives. As Christ would teach centuries later, I have come that you may have life and have it to the full. John 10:10 Or as God had explained to Israel, Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always… That it may always go well with you and with your children. Deuteronomy 11:1, 12:28

The Apostle Paul elaborated on the benefits of grounding our lives, thoughts, and actions on the foundation of God’s Revelation; Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Because God had graciously given them His Revelation, the people of Israel and the people of Judah were thoroughly equipped to live as their Creator intended. But as we have seen, though Israel was blessed by their God beyond imagination, Ephesians 3:20, they irrationally had convinced themselves that they needed to follow the destructive and worthless customs, pursuits, and religious practices of their unbelieving pagan neighbors, going so far as to sacrifice, in the fires of Molech, the children that God had blessed them with. Psalm 127:3

But before we allow ourselves to get too judgmental with the Old Covenant Church of Israel, ask yourself: Has apostasy, has abandoning God’s revelation and following the beliefs and practices of the unbelievers in the culture found its way into the New Covenant Church today?

Or perhaps a better question to explore is: How has the Church been unfaithful to God?

In a culture that is rejecting the truth more and more Christ warned: Watch out for false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” Matthew 7:15

There are at least four main signs that can help us identify false beliefs that we hold.

First, questioning and raising doubts about the truthfulness and accuracy of God’s Word is a foundational false teaching of the wolves within the Church. The Bible is presented as a book that is the result of mankind’s search for God. Sometimes those searching for God found the truth, as such the Bible may contain some of the Words of God. You know, every once in a while a blind squirrel may find a nut. But other times those searching for God missed the mark. For example you may hear that because Paul represented the first century patriarchy his teachings on women, homosexuality, marriage, fidelity, love, repentance, judgment, or fill-in-the-blank, do not apply to the Church today.

Second, having concluded, at best, that the Bible only contains portions of God’s Revelation, the false teachers and their followers set themselves up as the arbiters of truth, picking and choosing what they like and discarding the rest. They see themselves as the ultimate authority over God’s Word. Believing that they get to decide what is true and what is false they are increasingly pulled toward the culture’s sexual ethic. In fact, Ligonier Ministries’ 2022 thestateoftheology.com survey found that 53% of Evangelical Christians believe that the Bible contains ancient myths that are not literally true.

Third, this places the feelings of the “believer” over the facts of God’s Revelation. Any teaching that does not resonate with their feelings is to be discarded. You may, when talking to such a person hear them say, “My god would never require me to… or my god would never teach that I must…” fill-in-the blank… for whatever behavior they are trying to rationalize and justify.  And, in fact they are correct because their god is their feelings and not the God as revealed in the Scriptures.

Fourth, having placed their feelings, which amounts to self-worship, above the Word of God, the entire Bible is now open to their new and unique interpretation. We are embarrassed by some of the Bible’s politically incorrect or culturally insensitive teachings so we delete or amend them to suit our ‘modern, sensibilities. For example perhaps you have heard:

God never required a sacrifice for sin. Early Christians were confused because they were influenced by the pagan practices of human or animal sacrifice.

Christ did not come to die as a substitute in our place. Christ came so that we can live lives of love. Christ’s mission was to show the world what true love looks like.

Christ didn’t literally raise from the dead. It is enough that the disciples experienced Christ’s resurrection in their hearts.

The Bible’s teachings on sex and marriage are archaic. Love is not found in keeping those old commands, rather love is how I feel toward others regardless of sex or gender.

The archaic teaching that homosexuality is an abomination is repugnant and offensive. In fact the church benefits from the unique gifts that LGBTQ pastors bring to their ministry.

Marriage is not a real Covenanted relationship. In fact, divorce is a journey of self-discovery bringing spiritual and emotional growth.

Paul was mistaken when he commanded wives and husbands to never separate. As we grow, our feelings change and our god expects us to enjoy other relationships.

Love is not found in living sacrificial lives for others but rather love is found in discovering and being true to ourselves.

The idea of hell of offensive. Our god of love would never punish anyone for being true to themselves.

Our misdeeds and mistakes could never separate us from god. Our god says that he made us in his image and that we are good.

Christians who call people to repent of their sins as Peter and Paul did are actually teaching a false toxic gospel, alienating people from the unconditional love of god.

The reason why there is so much confusion over sin is because there is confusion over who God is. Most people don’t have a Biblical view of God. Their view of God is based on their own opinions. So, what most people do is they make a god in their own image and likeness. So, the god they’ve made likes the things they like and hates the things they hate.
(Paul Washer, Solomon’s Porch, facebook.com)

In summary,

False teachers who promote these ideas are under the delusion that they are supreme saying,

I am the one! There is none beside me. Zephaniah 2:15…

These apostates:

1. doubt that God’s Word is sufficient and true,
2. set themselves up as the authority over God’s Word,
3. use their subjective feelings to,
4. reinterpret, redefine, and ultimately ignore God’s truth as it suits them.

Those who follow these false teachings are actually ignoring the harsh reality of their sin. God says that the wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23 In other words, by pursuing sin we earn the wage of death. Every religion in the world, even the false religion followed by the apostates in the Old Covenant Church, is based on the same mistaken idea. All religions teach that if you will just do enough good to out weigh your sin the gods will welcome you into heaven. The gods must be appeased.

But God cannot work that way. As you stand before the Court of God you hear the verdict: guilty, and the sentence: death. But when all hope is lost God provides for the Old Covenant Church the death of a lamb to stand as a substitute in your place. This Old Covenant lamb was a placeholder for the New Covenant Lamb, God Himself in the person of Christ. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, paid the wage that you owed: death. This is why Romans 6:23 goes on to say, the gift of God is eternal life.

Do you understand the contrast?

Our wage is what we work for and deserve. By our sinful works we earned death.

A gift is undeserved. By Christ’s gift we are offered life.

Having freely given us life God had called His children to live holy lives; Be holy as I am holy. Leviticus 11:44 And notice, God is the standard of holiness against which we measure ourselves.

The difference between an admirer and a follower still remains, no matter where you are. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, he renounces nothing, gives up nothing, will not reconstruct his life, will not be what he admires, and will not let his life express what it is he supposedly admires.
(Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, Plough Publishing)

But because Israel had no fear of the Lord before their eyes, Psalm 36:1, she became haughty and ignored God’s Word. She rejected the free gift of life and, like her neighbors, tried to earn the favor of the gods.

Micah goes on to catalogue the sins that both Israel and Judah pursued.

Micah 2:1 Woe to those who devise iniquity
and work evil on their beds!
When the morning is light, they practice it,
because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields, and seize them;
and houses, and take them away:
and they oppress a man and his house,
even a man and his heritage.
3 Therefore Yahweh says:
“Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster,
from which you will not remove your necks,
neither will you walk haughtily;
for it is an evil time.
4 In that day they will take up a parable against you,
and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying,
‘We are utterly ruined!
My people’s possession is divided up.
Indeed he takes it from me
and assigns our fields to traitors!’”
5 Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in Yahweh’s assembly.

The people had forgotten God. They become so arrogant and haughty that they stayed up late at night scheming how they could cheat people to their own advantage. And as soon as it was morning they put their evil plans into action. They had no thought of God. They had no use for His eternal truths. Their thoughts were temporal, how they could find fulfillment here and now. Their thoughts were of fulfilling their covetous plans as if God was unaware of their sin. Like unjust governments today who print worthless money causing inflation or devise things such as eminent domain laws, these unjust people confiscated the wealth, land and houses that they wanted.

When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed.
(Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Penguin Publishing)

Or, similarly, like the modern wolves we see in the Church today, they molest women, groom children, siphon off funds, and defensively lord their position and power over any who would question them. Mark 10:42

As a result God declares, you steal others inheritance but in the end you will be unable to leave an inheritance: you will have no one who divides the land by lot in Yahweh’s assembly. In modern terms, because there will be no executor to oversee your estate there will be no inheritance for your descendants. 

But in an ironic twist, God says that while they were staying up late devising their plans, God too, was staying up late planning against these people a disaster. In fact the disaster that God was going to bring against His Church was so epic that it would be remembered in song. Though the song loses some of its impact when translated from Hebrew, nevertheless it rings true:

‘We are utterly ruined! My people’s possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!

Micah sang the blues for the people. They would be utterly ruined. The fruits of all of their scheming and hard work would be taken from them and given to another. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul. Mark 8:36 And lest we, the New Covenant Church grow smug and haughty in our attitude toward the Old Covenant Church, listen to the fearsome words of warning that Christ had for His New Covenant Church; warnings that He has for us!

• Consider how far you have fallen. If you do not repent I will come and remove your lamp-stand. Revelation 2:5
• Repent, otherwise I will come and fight against you with the sword of My mouth. Revelation 2:16
• Unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Revelation 2:22-23
• Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Revelation 3:2-3
• Because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Revelation 3:16-19

These hard words of warning were spoken by Christ to His New Testament Church. Christ has been nothing but merciful to us in as much as when we were still sinners He died for us. Romans 5:8 As Micah will say in his third sermon, Christ delights in mercy. Micah 7:18 And yet, how quickly we forget Christ and go our own way.

Christ loves His Church, His special possession. Christ gave His life and offered us the free gift of salvation but He expects His children to imitate Him, following the ways of life. We are not to continue imitating the wicked ways of the world that lead to death. When we take lightly the words of the Lord we will face His discipline. Proverbs 3:11

Despite the hardness of these words, God’s words are always good.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. Psalm 19:7

You show me the path to life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forever more. Psalm 16:11

What was the people’s response to Micah’s prophesy?

They yelled at him to shut up!

Micah 2:6 “Don’t prophesy!”
“Don’t prophesy about these things.
Disgrace won’t overtake us.”       

They did not want to hear God’s words. Of course this is nothing new. Even today pastors who preach convicting sermons, honestly conveying the hard words of God’s truth and the sure judgment to come as written in the Scriptures, calling the Church to repentance, risk being called harsh, critical, toxic, unloving, fundamentalist, and confessional. They are accused of not being seeker-friendly. They are accused of driving people away from the Church.

Regardless of what people may demand, what is the preacher’s appointed task?

The Spirit of God maketh the… preaching of the Word, an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners; of driving them out of themselves, and drawing them unto Christ; of conforming them to His image, and subduing them to His will; of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions; of building them up in grace, and establishing their hearts in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.
(Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger Catechism Q. 155)

And that is exactly what Micah was doing. The people were haughty and needed to be humbled by God. The Holy Spirit uses the faithful preaching of God’s Law as a wake-up call, “humbling sinners”, “driving them out of themselves and drawing them to Christ.” And as we have seen, of the five kings that heard Micah’s message, God was pleased to change the hearts of two, Jotham and Hezekiah.

There are certain pious moderns who will not allow the preacher to speak upon anything but those doctrinal statements concerning the way of salvation which are known as “the Gospel.” But… the law must be preached, for what the law demands of us, the Gospel produces in us, else ours is no Gospel at all.
Charles Spurgeon (Harold Latternic, Spurgeon and Society, London: New Baptist Union)                           

Micah 2:7 Shall it be said, O house of Jacob:
“Is Yahweh’s Spirit angry?
Are these his doings?
Don’t my words do good to him who walks blamelessly?”
8 But lately my people have risen up as an enemy.
You strip the robe and clothing from those who pass by without a care, returning from battle.
9 You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses;
from their young children you take away my blessing forever.
10 Arise, and depart!
For this is not your resting place,
because of uncleanness that destroys,
even with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies:
“I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink;”
he would be the prophet of this people.

Rather than obeying the demands of the people by shutting up and softening or changing his message so as to be accepted and esteemed by the people, Micah doubled down asking, Don’t My words do good to him who walks blamelessly? But, instead, because of their disobedience, because they ignored God’s Word and chased after other gods, they had actually become God’s enemy.

Do you understand that God considers people who intentionally ignore, alter, or obfuscate, His Word, enemies?

It is a dreadful thing to be an enemy of the Creator God.

Hebrews 10:31 It is always a losing proposition.

Micah then accused the people of being merciless. They cheated defenseless women and children, driving the women out from their pleasant houses and stripping the robe and clothing from those who pass by.

But rather than listen to God’s appointed prophet and repent, these haughty and merciless people sought after prophets who would tell them what they wanted to hear; ‘Your Best Life Now, 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential.’  Because they only wanted to hear about prosperity, they accused Micah of being unnecessarily negative. Instead Israel preferred prophets who would prophesy of wine and strong drink, cannabis and free love. The people demanded, tell us what we want to hear so that we can enjoy life like our pagan neighbors.

Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions. Isaiah 30:10

But God deals in the reality that He created and exposes the illusions that we create. God, the Creator and sustainer of His immutable reality is under no obligation to play along with our delusional thinking. Colossians 1:16-17

Back to Micah home page.

To next Chapter