I said, “Listen, you leaders of Israel! You are supposed to know right from wrong, but you are the very ones who hate good and love evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh from their bones. Yes, you eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and break their bones. You chop them up like meat for the cooking pot. Then you beg the Lord for help in times of trouble! Do you really expect Him to answer? After all the evil you have done, He won’t even look at you!” Micah 3: 1-4Wow, Israel was into some sick stuff! Those words coming out of Micah’s mouth are true even of some today… you can’t treat God as a light switch to be turned on only as needed!! The church doesn’t need any more hypocrites! Do you think you can go to church for an hour or two each week, but then live like the devil the remainder of the week AND expect God’s approval?? I’m sure that’s what Micah would say if he was living in the here and now.
“Because of you, Mount Zion will be plowed like an open field; Jerusalem will be reduced to ruins! A thicket will grow on the heights where the temple now stands. But why are you now screaming in terror? Have you no king to lead you? Have your wise people all died? Pain has gripped you like a woman in childbirth. Writhe and groan like a woman in labor, you people of Jerusalem, for now you must leave this city to live in the open country. You will soon be sent in exile to distant Babylon. But the Lord will rescue you there; he will redeem you from the grip of your enemies.” Micah 3: 12, 9-10
Micah predicted the end of Israel’s kings. The end of their kings was one of the most devastating things to hear— they thought their kingdom would last forever! Like his contemporaries Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah, Micah prophesied Jerusalem would be made captive and be destroyed; we know that happened when King Nebby and the Babylonian Army attacked in 586 B.C.
“Now many nations have gathered against you. “Let her be desecrated,” they say. “Let us see the destruction of Jerusalem. But they do not know the Lord’s thoughts or understand his plan. These nations don’t know that he is gathering them together to be beaten and trampled like sheaves of grain on a threshing floor. ‘Rise up and crush the nations, O Jerusalem!’ says the Lord. ‘For I will give you iron horns and bronze hooves, so you can trample many nations to pieces. You will present their stolen riches to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth. Mobilize! Marshal your troops! The enemy is laying siege to Jerusalem. They will strike Israel’s leader in the face with a rod.” Micah 4: 11-13, 5: 1
But also like Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah, he saw a return which would bring back a remnant of people who would see a new beginning.
Please know that I’m learning alongside you as I write these posts, and what I see as a reoccurring thing about prophecy is that… I think God reveals future events to us because He wants us to change our present behavior because of what we know about the future. Does that make any sense? I think this because when we get a glimpse of God’s plans for His followers, it should motivate us to serve Him – and it shouldn’t matter as to what the rest of the world is doing.
Though Babylon destroys the land of Judah and carries away its king, we see that Chapter 5 eludes to King Jesus! Stay tuned!
