Micah
Notes
Transcript
We always start a new book with some background about it.
We always start a new book with some background about it.
The book of Micah like other minor prophets is a bit judgmental. Those judgments don’t come without hope though. Micah was a prophet from Moresheth a small town in Judah (The Southern Kingdom) 20-25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. He was active during the 8th century BC and his prophecy concerned most immediately Samaria (which is the Northern Kingdom) and Jerusalem. We get this information from the first verse.
The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Micah is one of the earlier prophets as far as chronology goes. It’s likely only Hosea, Amos, and Jonah proceeded him. Isaiah was a prophet at the same time as Micah. In the bigger picture Assyria was rising in power and was in the spared time from responding to Jonah preaching the words of God to them. Israel’s wealth was increasing and so was the rate of their sin and disobedience. After looking at several way to break down this book into sections or outlines I liked the one that splits the book into 3 parts. Each part has Gloom and Glory. The first and the third have more gloom than glory. Which means the more important emphasis being in the middle is actually more glory than gloom. Things won’t break down to just those sections each week but I do still plan on making this 7 chapter book a 6 week study. So the plan is two chapters in week 4… we’ll see how it goes and whether or not we can get Fuzzy on the over/under.
This starts however with some gloom and so begins our proceedings to deal with this breaking of the law.
Hear, you peoples, all of you;
pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and let the Lord God be a witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.
This opens in the way each of our three major sections will open. With a command to HEAR, or Shema. I believe I have mentioned before but this can be one of those keywords we’ve talked about. It’s one that is very important and that every Jew knows to this day because they recite it.
Deut 6.4 ““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
Shema Yisrael Yahweh Elohenu Yahweh ehad.
It goes on to form the greatest commandment and then how to remember it.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
So this is a fundamentally important thing. Hear, O Israel? No Hear you peoples (or nations) pay attention, O earth. This is a message that speaks to everyone. Sure we are focused in Israel, the northern kingdom and Jerusalem but never ever forget the message of God was never exclusive to Israel, his redemption may come through the line of Abraham Isaac and Jacob through David as king but it never excluded the rest of the world in His plan for redemption, nor in the wrath that comes upon the wicked.
For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place,
and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
And the mountains will melt under him,
and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
like waters poured down a steep place.
The Lord is coming!? Yes! and he’s going to grind down the “high places” we’ve heard this term enough in our series what are “high places?”
Yes they’re the pagan sites on hilltops.
When God arrives nature is disrupted, mountains those big things made of rock, some of the most resilient things on the planet will melt under him. The valleys will part for him. This same kind of language is used in other places where God arrives on earth. Exod 19:19 the mountain trembles, Nah 1.5 mountains quake and hills melt, back in Hab 3.6 the mountains scattered and hills sank low. Why is this happening though?
All this is for the transgression of Jacob
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
There are some rhetorical questions and possibly some unclear meanings here. If we read this straight as it’s translated in most Bibles we might think the existence of Samaria is the transgression, and that we just get some facts that yes Jerusalem is the high place (worship center) of Judah. It’s most likely that we’re pointing more and more to who’s at fault for transgression or where it’s center of power is. The rhetorical questions, as they usually are asked in the minor prophets expect a yes of course answer.
Who’s to blame for the transgression of Jacob (northern kingdom) Isn’t it Samaria? Yeah duh
Where are the pagan centers of worship in Judah? Isn’t it Jerusalem? Yeah duh
So what’s God going to do about this?
Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones into the valley
and uncover her foundations.
All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
Um… yeah smashed to pieces and burning in a dumpster fire. All the wealth stolen to pay for hookers… that’s a heck of a smack down. Epic rap battle’s have nothing on the minor prophets...
Does God delight in the judgment as the ultimate end? It doesn’t seem like it. The prophet tells us of his own lament through the rest of the chapter.
For this I will lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
and mourning like the ostriches.
For her wound is incurable,
and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.
He’s connected the failure of all the Northern Kingdom in its idolatry as an infection that’s made it’s way to Jerusalem which will then be the downfall of all the Southern Kingdom, Judah.
All the rest of the chapter is a wordplay with some of the cities and their judgments which are often similar sounding words.
Tell it not in Gath;
weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
roll yourselves in the dust.
Tell and Gath have similar sounds
Beth-le-aphrah means house of dust
Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
shall take away from you its standing place.
Zaanan sounds similar to the verb for “come out” in contrast to them not being able to leave
and so on… these cities also loosely chart the path that Assyria will eventually take to come through and conquer Jerusalem 100+ years after they conquer the Northern kingdom.
For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down from the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.
Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
the transgressions of Israel.
Therefore you shall give parting gifts
to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.
I will again bring a conqueror to you,
inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to Adullam.
Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
for the children of your delight;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.
Micah has laid out the sin, it’s root, and it’s judgments in a path that is executed by a pagan king. God’s judgment is often at the hand of other nations. Next week we continue with warnings but for this week we should reflect on the mourning for judgment in our hope for those around us to be saved.
ADVERTISEMENT