6:1 Listen now to what Yahweh says:
“Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear what you have to say.
2 Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s indictment,
and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for Yahweh has a case against his people,
and he will contend with Israel.
Have you ever been speaking to and pleading with someone who refused to listen, and thought to yourself that you may as well be speaking to a brick wall?
God is saying the same thing here. He is pleading with the people, through the prophet Micah, to listen, to heed His warning, but because they refuse to listen, He turns instead to the rocks in the mountains. Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s indictment, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Yahweh has a case against his people, and he will contend with Israel.
Christ used a similar proverbial statement: if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. Luke 19:40 Even if His own disciples refused to be obedient the stones would listen and speak up.
Because they had refused to listen, Micah summons the people of Israel to God’s courtroom. God asks the people to give a defense for their behavior. God asks…
Micah 6:3 My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you?
Answer me!
God asks if His loving actions on behalf of His people are a burden to them. God recounts how He rescued the Old Covenant Church from slavery in Egypt. How He gave them great leaders; Moses, Aaron and Miriam. How He got them safely across the wilderness, preventing Balaam from cursing Israel. And God did all of these things so that the people would know Him.
Micah 6:4 For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
and redeemed you out of the house of bondage.
I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5 My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised,
and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of Yahweh.”
The people answered God’s indictment by defending themselves with a pretty weak response.
Micah 6:6 With what shall I come before Yahweh,
and bow myself before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams?
With tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience?
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
The people were familiar enough with the outward requirements of the law to think that they had a good answer for God. After all, they brought their burnt offerings of calves and rams as required by Leviticus 1 They brought oil. Leviticus 2 They even dedicated their firstborn to the Lord. Exodus 13:13
But God knew the hearts of His people. God’s laws had become a burden to them. Worship had become a formality, an empty ritual. While they may have been following the outward requirements of the law, they had neglected the intent of the law. They had even forgotten God’s mighty acts of salvation on their behalf. They had come to believe that their actions would save them. They turned to worship other gods. God’s people were compromised and were pursuing the worthless practices of their pagan neighbors.
They set up for themselves pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill, and under every green tree; and there they burned incense in all the high places…
2 Kings 17:10-11
They made molten images for themselves, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served Baal. They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, used divination and enchantments…
2 King 17:16-17
Centuries later Christ said the same thing to the people of Israel:
These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain…
Matthew 15:8-9
And Christ said the same thing, accusing the Church of going through the motions, in His letter to the seven Churches in the book of Revelation:
- You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. Revelation 2:20
- I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Revelation 3:1
- I know your deeds… 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… Revelation 3:15-18
The Old Covenant Church rationalized, “we can please God by bringing rams and oil to the temple, after all, we can afford it. And to stay in good standing with our neighbors and their gods, to be on the safe side, let us also join them in worship. Who knows, perhaps their gods will bless as well.”
Likewise the early New Covenant Church rationalized, “we are being persecuted and accused of being atheists because we don’t honor the gods of the Empire. We are ostracized and we are losing our jobs. We need to feed our families, what can it hurt to secretly believe in Christ in our hearts and also go along with the norms of our community, sacrificing to their gods and participating in their temple rituals?”
Do Christians today ever compromise with the culture, following false gods, diluting or blatantly disobeying the Word of God in order to gain the acceptance of unbelievers?
The dumbing down of the culture has been followed by the dumbing down of the Church. Sadly, many churches have surrendered to the standards of contemporary culture and become places of entertainment rather than places of worship. Deeply exegetical and theological sermons have become endangered species, having been replaced by vacuous therapeutic messages and mindless pop-psychology. In the eight century B.C. the prophet Hosea declared the Word of the lord, saying: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6 Such a lament is not inappropriate in today’s anti-intellectual climate in which many Christians have lost the ability to think.
(Keith Mathison, Modern Cultic Tendencies, Ligonier.org)
In effect, because they did not understand the Gospel, Israel had answered God’s challenge the same way many in the modern Western Church answer God’s challenge. “We go to Church as often as it is convenient. Hebrews 10:25 We place some money in the offering plate. 2 Corinthians 9:7 We might even sing along with Christian radio. Ephesians 5:19 God should be pleased with us.”
To which Micah responds, God rejects your pitiful defense; your attempts at self-salvation. Your worship is in vain. You have missed the entire point of worship. Like ancient Israel, God has rescued His New Covenant Church from slavery. God has offered you forgiveness of sins; forgiveness that you could not earn or deserve. God freely offers you the security and joy of eternal life. Stop and reconsider the predicament you were caught in. You were captive to Satan and his lies and believed that following the desires of your heart, your passions, your sins, would bring you freedom. You are slaves of the one you obey… you are slaves to sin, which leads to death. Romans 6:16 But instead of freedom you were left with fear, anxiety, futility, and condemnation. And despite experiencing fleeting pleasures and joys there was always lurking in the background the cold reality of death and the reality of hell.
Stop going through the motions, stop compromising, realize all that God has done for you, and become a disciple, accept the free gift, and filled with the Spirit begin imitating Christ. Enter into life, keep the commandments. Matthew 19:17
What does God require of His children?
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good.
What does Yahweh require of you,
but to act justly,
to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah may as well have been preaching to the mountains for all the people learned from his first two sermons.
Micah had shown the people that they had been haughty. Micah 2:3 They refused to be humble before God acknowledging Him as their Creator, sustainer, and Savior. Instead they had placed their own covetous desires over God’s Word.
In his first sermon Micah had pointed out that Israel did not show mercy. Micah 2:9 Rather than caring for the women and children in the society the powerful stayed up late at night devising ways to cheat the weak and powerless.
In his second sermon Micah had pointed out that the leaders, priests and prophets were not just. Micah 3:9 The judges accepted bribes from the powerful, denying justice to the people who had been cheated.
Here in his third and final sermon, with Israel on trial in God’s Covenant Courtroom, Micah brings all three threads together. The worship that God seeks is not a performance based outward show. God seeks the repentant heart. Humility, mercy and justice, are the visible outworking of God’s internalized law. The external evidence of the Word of God, empowered by the Spirit is hidden in the heart. Psalm 119:11
Even now, declares the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.
Rend your heart not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love…
Joel 2:12-13
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
1 Samuel 15:22
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6
The outward sacrifices of the ceremonial law were designed as graphic pictures for Israel, explaining and demonstrating for them the coming Promised sacrifice of Christ on their behalf. And by His sacrifice Christ embodied the heart of God, John 4:34, 6:38, for His wayward, sinful, rebellious children.
1. In humble obedience to the Father, Christ was willing to give up His place in heaven to become a servant – even to death on a cross.
Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:6-8
2. Christ displayed the incomparable mercy of God by having mercy on His disobedient children, willfully taking our sin and filth upon Himself on the cross.
Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 2:4-5
3. Christ displayed the justice of God as He endured searing pain and humiliation as the wrath of God’s hatred for our sin was poured out on Him on the cross.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh…
1 Peter 3:18
As Christians, saved by the mercy of Christ, we are to display the same heart as Christ as we imitate Him.
Be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us…
Ephesians 5:1-2
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
Matthew 16:24-27
How are we to imitate Christ?
What does Yahweh require?
Look again at Micah’s instructions.
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good.
What does Yahweh require of you,
but to act justly,
to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Notice that God does not just give us three intellectual concepts to aspire to: justice, mercy, and humility. Because God pairs each concept with a verb, act justly, love mercy, walk humbly, God is giving us three actions to follow. Faith is not something we keep hidden in our hearts as if it is a delicate flower that must be hidden and protected. Faith displays itself in concrete actions defined by God that we are to act on. We are to live out loud.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James 2:14-17
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:14-16
1. Justice is not an esoteric concept. Justice is always and only to be an action based on God’s law. Justice is never to be based on individual preference or feelings. Justice is not based on partisan politics. Justice is not based on the demands or bribes of the wealthy, the powerful, the demands of the mob, or on threats of retaliation. In the West, Lady Justice is depicted both blindfolded and holding a scales to represent impartiality. She is also depicted with a double edged sword pointing down to the Bible representing that her impartial decisions are founded solely upon God’s Law. Read through God’s concise summary of the Law, the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:1-17 We are to worship God alone, never other gods. We are to honor God’s holy name and set one day aside each week to pursue God. We are to honor our parents. We are not to murder, commit adultery, steal, lie or covet what is not ours.
This is what the LORD Almighty said: Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.
Zechariah 7:9
2. Mercy is not something that we grudgingly do, as if God has to drag it out of us. Though we were thoroughly undeserving, lost and hopeless sinners, we were saved by God’s mercy. We are to love mercy. As God showed mercy to us we are to love mercy, offering it freely to everyone. As T Bone Burnett sang in his song, The Wild Truth, ‘Mercy, it’s the only thing worth taking seriously.’
Why is mercy the only thing worth taking seriously?
We deserved justice but God showed us mercy by pouring His just wrath out on His Son.
Be merciful, as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:36
Show mercy. Jude 1:23
Mercy detached from justice, grows unmerciful. That is an important paradox. As there are plants which will flourish only in mountain soil, so Mercy will flower only when it grows in the crannies of the rock of Justice: transplanted to the marshlands of humanitarianism, it becomes a man-eating weed, all the more dangerous because it is still called by the same name as the mountain variety.
(C.S.Lewis, God in the Dock, Eerdmans)
Amazingly, Lewis foresaw the destruction that would be unleashed on society when mercy is untethered from justice with open borders, open prisons, open bail, unpunished crime, and much more. And, of course, the same is true of the Church courts who turn a blind eye to apostasy. When mercy is not grounded in justice societies, families, and churches quickly devolve into dangerous anarchy.
3. Humility is not something that we pride ourselves for. We must acknowledge that God is the source of all that is good, true, beautiful, and eternal and we must walk humbly with Him. In practical terms this means that we must submit to God’s definition of justice and imitate the sacrificial mercy of Christ.
Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up.
James 4:10
In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Philippians 2:3-4
Those who humble themselves and walk in God’s ways will be blessed. What could be better than to be blessed by God?
How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
Who walks in His ways.
Psalm 128:1
You may be thinking, “This all sounds good but how am I going to walk, act, and love these things: humility, justice and mercy?”
Christ explained to His disciples how they would be able to do these things:
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
Acts 1:8
And that is exactly what happened not only to the disciples but to everyone who is a disciple of Christ. Our very nature has been changed. We must no longer excuse or cling to our old desires and lusts. We should join with the Apostle Paul in praying that we come to understand and lean on the awesome power that God grants every believer through the Spirit. Jesus is not only the Author of our faith. He is also the Finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:2
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Ephesians 1:18-23
The people pretended to honor God by going through the ritual motions but they didn’t really love God. They had come to believe that God was burdensome. Or in today’s language, they saw God and His law as toxic because it demanded that they give up sins, lusts, and passions that they cherished.
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
1 John 5:3
God’s commands are freeing and life giving. God had chosen a people for Himself and granted them life, liberty, and the freedom of salvation. Rather than being thankful, because the people viewed God’s Law as burdensome, they only followed out of obligation, hollowly going through the motions: while on the other hand they wholeheartedly followed the evil practices of their pagan neighbors and enthusiastically worshiped worthless idols. They even went so far as to sacrifice the children that God had blessed them with.
But because Israel would not listen to God, because Israel would not pursue justice, love mercy, and walk humbly, God announces the verdict in the court case against Israel. They are guilty. The sentence? Because they are guilty God is coming to discipline them.
Micah 6:9 Listen, Yahweh’s voice calls to the city,
To fear your name is wisdom:
“Listen to the rod,
and he who appointed it.
There are times when God’s children refuse to listen to His pleas. As Jesus pointed out when pleading with Israel,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Matthew 23:37
God is patient and long suffering but there comes a time when His patience runs out and He is forced to bring the rod of His discipline against them. This is one of those times.
Micah 6:10 Are there ill-gotten treasures of wickedness
in the house of the wicked,
and a short ephah that is accursed?
11 Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales,
and with a bag of deceitful weights?
12 Her rich men are full of violence,
her inhabitants speak lies,
and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.
13 Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound.
I have made you desolate because of your sins.
14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied.
Your humiliation will be within you.
You will store up, but not save;
and that which you save I will give up to the sword.
15 You will sow, but won’t reap.
You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil;
and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.
16 For the statutes of Omri are kept,
and all the works of Ahab’s house.
You walk in their counsels,
that I may make you a ruin,
and her inhabitants a hissing;
And you will bear the reproach of my people.”
Before pronouncing judgment God asks two questions which summarize Micah’s first two sermons.
1. Are there ill-gotten treasures of wickedness
in the house of the wicked,
and a short ephah that is accursed?
2. Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales,
and with a bag of deceitful weights?
In other words, have you loved mercy or have you cheated the poor and powerless to amass ill-gotten treasures?
Have you acted justly or have you lied, weighing out produce with dishonest scales?
The verdict?
Because the people were violent, lying, merciless, and unjust, refusing to humbly serve their God, they would face humiliation. They would be struck with a grievous wound. They would be made desolate because of their sins.
What they stored up will be taken by the sword. What they sow they will not reap. They won’t have the use of their oil nor will they drink their wine.
In fact God says, referring to precedent; You keep the statutes of Omri and follow the works of Ahab.
What is God referring to?
In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah. He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill. But Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord and sinned more than all those before him. He… aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by worthless idols.
Ahab his son succeeded him as king. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.
1 Kings 16:23-33
Do you remember what Micah said in his first sermon?
What is the disobedience of Jacob?
Isn’t it Samaria? Micah 1:5
The introduction of false teaching and idolatry into the Old Covenant Church began in Samaria, the city that Omri founded where the worship of worthless idols was allowed into Israel. And as wicked as Omri was, his son Ahab did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all of the kings of Israel before him.
In His verdict God is saying that because the people have followed in the counsel of Omri and Ahab, God is going to bring them to ruin.
This is precisely how we are to present the Gospel to the people we meet.
Because people are often under the mistaken impression that because they are pretty good, believing they will be able to earn or deserve their way into heaven after death, they must first be shown the law. The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3:24 The law is presented to show people not only can they not earn their way into heaven, but that they need to acknowledge and repent of their sins.
Micah 7:1 Misery is mine!
Indeed, I am like one who gathers the summer fruits, as gleanings of the vineyard:
There is no cluster of grapes to eat.
My soul desires to eat the early fig.
2 The godly man has perished out of the earth,
and there is no one upright among men.
With the pronouncement of God’s judgment Micah again finds himself in despair just like he did in his first sermon when he said:
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.
Micah laments that there is no one upright among men. He has looked for upright men like someone who goes out after the harvest looking for crops. They have all been picked and there is nothing left to glean. There are no upright people to be found.
It is very hard and lonely to swim against the tide of the culture, particularly when that culture has infiltrated the Church. Those who are faithfully proclaiming God’s Word frequently feel alone. Listen to the lament of Elijah:
I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.
1 Kings 19:14
That is why it is so tempting to compromise trying to gain the approval and acceptance of the culture. That is why the Churches that Christ addressed in Revelation 2 and 3 were willing to compromise. That is why pastors are willing to compromise today, rationalizing and softening the hard Words of God. Preaching Peace, Peace, where there is no peace at all. Jeremiah 6:14 teaching false visions and lying divinations… whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built. Ezekiel 13:9-10
Our Lord attracted sinners because He was different. They drew near to Him because they felt that there was something different about Him… And the world always expects us to be different. This idea that you are going to win people to the Christian faith by showing them that after all you are remarkably like them, is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder.
(Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, Zondervan, 1972)
Micah 7:2B They all lie in wait for blood;
every man hunts his brother with a net.
3 Both hands are skilled in diligently doing evil.
The ruler and judge ask for a bribe;
and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul.
They all conspire together.
4 The best of them is like a brier.
The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen has come.
The day Yahweh visits you has come;
now is the time of their confusion.
5 Don’t trust in a neighbor.
Don’t put confidence in a friend.
With the woman lying in your embrace,
be careful of the words of your mouth!
6 For the son dishonors the father,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
There is a conspiracy. The powerful have learned how to manipulate the system by conspiring together to buy off the judges. As a result the evil and injustice has grown so great in the land that it’s every man for himself. Every man hunts his brother with a net. Don’t trust anyone, your neighbor, your wife, your in-laws, your children. Don’t trust in a neighbor. Don’t put confidence in a friend… A man’s enemies are the men of his own house. To save their own skin everyone will be willing to betray a loved one. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
People will not just do evil, no, they will make it their mission in life to excel at pursuing evil. Both hands are skilled in diligently doing evil. And don’t expect to gain any mercy or justice from the ruling elite or from the compromised teachers in the Church. The very best person, the most upright, will still be like a hard and piercing brier that painfully tears at your flesh. The nicest thing that you can say about the most upright is that they are worse than a thorn hedge that entraps you and tears you apart.
Try critiquing a corrupt government’s mandates and you will be ripped apart. In fact, such corrupt governments rely on sons turning on fathers and daughters rising up against mothers to maintain their totalitarian control. But for 2,000 years the Church has been obeying the laws of God over and against the corrupt laws of man. Acts 4:19
Or try critiquing a corrupt Church, Episcopate, Presbytery, or other Church Hierarchy and you may find yourself brought up on charges of being unloving and divisive. Or you may simply be accused of breaking the Ninth Commandment: lying, bearing false testimony. As Jesus taught, Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most has grown cold. Matthew 24:12
Not to rebuke sin is a form of hatred, not love. Leviticus 19:17 Refusing to warn a person about his sin is just as unloving as refusing to warn him about a serious disease he may have. A person who does not warn a friend about his sin cannot claim love as his motive.
(Charles Spurgeon, Commentary on Matthew, Moody Press, 1985)
Although wicked people refuse to understand and acknowledge it, creation is made to function according to God’s laws. Truth, justice, and love are objective realities in the same way that gravity is an objective reality. If you did not believe in gravity and stepped off of the precipice of a tall building you would still end up as a bloody stain in the sidewalk below. The objective truth of gravity does not care about your subjective feelings about truth. In the same way, societies or Churches that do not believe in or practice truth end up as bloody stains. The people had ignored the watchmen that God had sent to warn them. When people refuse to acknowledge the transcendent reality of God and live within the prescribed reality of creation they go off the rails. It always ends up the same way. The man who wanders from the way of understanding, will rest in the assembly of the dead. Proverbs 21:16
Just like our first parents, Adam and Eve, we all begin to drift away from the truth when we question God and think that we have a better way to pursue and find true and lasting fulfillment. And as we have seen, no one is immune. Even Church leaders are tempted to compromise.
This is exactly where Asaph, the worship leader in the Old Covenant Church, found himself as he struggled with compromise:
For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from common human burdens;
they are not plagued by human ills.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
their evil imaginations have no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice;
with arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.
They say, “How would God know?
Does the Most High know anything?”
This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.
Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure.
Psalm 73:3-14
Asaph envied the wicked because, although they ignored God and His law, they were healthy, wealthy, and carefree. Seeing the carefree lives of the wicked, Asaph lost track of the truth and began to drift away thinking, in vain I have kept my heart pure.
But the carefree lives of the wicked were only a fleeting illusion because in reality they were only prospering because God was being patient with them. And because God is patient, we end up having to learn the lessons of reality the hard way. Because the sentence against evil is not executed speedily, the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Ecclesiastes 8:11
Paul explains it this way…
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:21-32
Everyone knows that reality exists. No one steps off of a tall building thinking that gravity is not objectively real. But when people, societies or Churches become willing to live as if God’s moral laws are not real, God allows them to wander away from the truth until they experience first hand the natural consequences of their decision. When they do not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God… they become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. Where there is no justice societies break down into crime.
People think God is trying to spoil all their fun, but really, what He is trying to do is allow us happiness. Safety. Security. Love…The Ten Commandments are a good place to see the order He was implementing in the home. First, of course, is to love and obey Him supremely. But then He goes on to discuss family and neighbor life. Honor your parents. Don’t kill. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Don’t covet. Exodus. 20.1-17 It is a beautiful thing to observe God’s wisdom and care for humanity. He knows that keeping these Laws will preserve the home and society at large. And yet, we think we know better, and it all breaks down.
(T.M.Moore, Scriptorium Studies: Micah, ailbe.org)
Just because corrupt societies become bloodstains on the sidewalk of history doesn’t mean that God has abandoned His children. No one ever wants to face discipline because no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11 We are being trained by God to hate the evil that we pursued with both hands and turn to God, with outstretched hands, in repentance.
As in his previous two sermons, after preaching the law, bringing the nation face to face with the coming consequences of their wickedness, the Day of the Lord’s judgment, Micah ends his third sermon with the hope of the Gospel; the Promise of a Shepherd King who will recalibrate everything, pardoning sin and offering salvation. God teaches His people hard lessons, but He never abandons His people leaving them without hope. No matter how bad the news, God is merciful. Hope remains for God’s children.