Micah

Chapters One & Two

Introduction

Ask most people if they are easily influenced and they will say "No." The truth is, we are more easily influenced than we like to admit. You see it in your kids as they are influenced by their friends and the latest trends. They see it in you as you are influenced by your friends and the latest trends!

The world around you exerts a powerful influence, often for evil. If you don’t admit the possibility you can and are being influenced, you won’t even realize it is happening.

Bad influence was a problem the prophet Micah addressed in the opening chapters of his book. The Contemporay English Version of the Bible renders the last phrase of verse five, "Samaria has led Israel to sin, and pagan altars at Jerusalem have made Judah sin."

Samaria was the capital of the Northern kingdom of Israel; Jerusalem was the capital of the Southern kingdom of Judah. Those cities were exerting a bad influence on the rest of their countries, leading the people of God in the rural areas to sin.

We understand this. Let’s face it – many people move here to the Central Valley hoping to get away from the bad influences of Southern California or the Bay Area. Just because you live here, though, don’t think you are not subject to the world’s powerful influences.

Micah gives two warning signs that you are succumbing to the world’s bad influence: imitating the world, and ignoring God’s Word. We’ll organize our thoughts around those two warning signs and say, #1 Be Careful You Are Not Influenced To Imitate The World, and #2 Be Careful You Are Not Influenced To Ignore God’s Word.

#1 Be Careful You Are Not Influenced

To Imitate The World

The book opens with some background information:

Micah 1:1 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.

There are three distinct messages in the book, each introduced by the word "Hear." Chapters one and two are a message; so are chapters three, four and five; so are chapters six and seven.

Micah’s first message is about the subtle power of influence. In chapter one you see that the people in the rural areas were not as isolated as they thought. They were doing the same things that the people in the cities were doing. They were imitating the sins of the cities.

Micah warned them of God’s coming judgement:

Micah 1:2 Hear, all you peoples! Listen, O earth, and all that is in it! Let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.

Micah 1:3 For behold, the LORD is coming out of His place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.

Micah 1:4 The mountains will melt under Him, and the valleys will split like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.

God was to be worshipped in the Temple at Jerusalem. When the Jews split into two separate kingdoms, the Northern kingdom of Israel set-up centers of worship to keep the people from going to Jerusalem in the south. These "high places" of worship were evil centers of pagan idolatry. Micah pictured the Lord as leaving the true Temple in heaven to tread down the high places. He would accomplish this by sending the Assyrian Empire to destroy Israel.

Micah 1:5 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 are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?

Micah 1:6 "Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, places for planting a vineyard; I will pour down her stones into the valley, and I will uncover her foundations.

Micah 1:7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire; all her idols I will lay desolate, for she gathered it from the pay of a harlot, and they shall return to the pay of a harlot."

Micah compares Israel to a "harlot" in verse seven because the worship of pagan idols on the high places involved paying to have sex with prostitutes. God’s people were like an unfaithful wife who had become a prostitute.

Micah 1:8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches,

Micah 1:9 For her wounds are incurable. For it has come to Judah; it has come to the gate of My people - to Jerusalem.

God’s judgement on the Northern kingdom could no longer be avoided. I’m sure that the people of Judah would agree Israel deserved judgement. But then a shocking statement comes at the end of verse nine. The same judgement was coming against Judah in the south because Judah had succumbed to the influence of Israel and was imitating her sins.

Perhaps the people of Judah in the south might still repent… Apparently Micah went around naked, wailing like a jackal and mourning like an ostrich. Let’s just say he was serious about repentance! And let’s be happy we are not Old Testament prophets!!

Gath is actually a Philistine city. Gath is similar to the Hebrew word for "tell." Thus he wrote, "Tell it not in Gath." This refers to a verse in Second Samuel where David mourns over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan and says "tell it not in Gath…" lest the enemies of Israel rejoice. Their enemies would rejoice as Assyria conquered in the south.

Beth Ophrah means "house of dust." Thus he wrote, "Roll in the dust." The people would cover themselves with dust in their mourning.

The people of Shaphir, which means "pleasant, beautiful," would look neither beautiful nor pleasant when they were led-off naked as prisoners.

Zaanan means "come out," but the people would not be able to come out because of the danger. They will be caged-up in their city, under siege.

Beth Ezel means "house of taking away," and that is what would happen to them.

Maroth is related to "mara" or "myrhh" and means bitterness, and the city would experience bitter calamity.

Lachish sounds like the Hebrew word for "a team of swift horses," he told them to harness their horses to chariots and try to escape.

Micah mentioned his own city, Moresheth, which sounds like the Hebrew word meaning "betrothed." She would be given away as a bride – but as a bride to the invaders.

Aczib means "deception." Apparently her citizens tried to form an alliance, perhaps with the Philistines; but it was to no avail.

Mareshah is related to the word "possession." Her citizens would become the possession of their enemies.

Adullam was the place David once sought refuge. Many would flee seeking refuge.

The chapter closes with an appeal. Jerusalem is pictured as the father of these cities, but Jerusalem had been a bad influence as a father.

Micah 1:16 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.

"Baldness" from "cut[ting] off your hair" was a sign of intense sorrow. Jerusalem should repent and express intense sorrow.

Samaria’s bad influence spread through her cities, then to Jerusalem, and then to her cities. The people were influenced and began to imitate what was going on in the big cities. It was subtle, but real.

Before we look at chapter two, let me make a few simple applications from chapter one:

1. Admit that you are more easily influenced than you like to think you are.
2. Acknowledge areas where you are imitating the world.
3. Analyze your own influence towards others.

#2 Be Careful You Are Not Influenced

To Ignore God’s Word

As we work through chapter two you will see that the people were ignoring God’s Word. They were ignoring its precepts, its preaching, and its prophecy.

In verses one through five, the people were ignoring precepts:

Micah 2:1 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 2:2 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.

The rich were oppressing the poor; nothing new there! You need to understand God’s point. The word "inheritance" is the key word. According to God’s Word, God owned and owns all of the land and leases it out to the families of the Jews. There are laws in the Old Testament which strictly protect a family’s perpetual inheritance of their land. The rich were ignoring these precepts.

Micah 2:3 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 2:4 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 2:5 Therefore you will have no one to determine boundaries by lot in the assembly of the LORD.

Here is another precept: You will reap what you have sown! If these Jews wanted to oppress their fellow Jews out of their God-appointed inheritance, God would allow the Assyrians and others to oppress them and possess their lands.

Again, the problem is one of influence – the world’s bad influence. Ignoring God’s precepts seems to be profitable. And it can be profitable in a material sense… But never in a spiritual sense. Let the Word of God direct you in the world rather than letting the world influence you to ignore God’s word.

In verses six through nine, the people were ignoring preaching:

Micah 2:6 "Do not prattle," you say to those who prophesy. So they shall not prophesy to you; they shall not return insult for insult.

An alternate translation reads, "Enough of your preaching." The Jews were tired of listening to God’s word being taught.

Micah 2:7 You who are named the house of Jacob: "Is the Spirit of the LORD restricted? Are these His doings? Do not My words do good to him who walks uprightly?"

Apparently the people were arguing that God would not act in judgement toward them; that it was not His nature to be angry with them. But God would not be "restricted" from acting in judgement. He would be consistent with His character, which is to discipline His children when necessary. Yes, God desired to "do good" to them… But He could not "do good" unless they began to "walk uprightly."

One of the benefits of listening to Bible preaching is that our own ideas about God are challenged by what He has actually revealed about Himself in His word.

Micah 2:8 "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, like men returned from war.

Micah 2:9 "The women of My people you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children you have taken away My glory forever."

The people were carefree – like a richly robed man walking down the street, or a victorious soldier returning from conflict. These carefree strollers would be robbed! God would come against them because of their oppression of even women and children.

Ignore preaching and you will walk around carefree when you need to be convicted.

In verses ten and eleven, the people were ignoring prophecy:

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

Micah 2:11 "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 was prophesying destruction. They were ignoring prophecy by listening to false prophecies of "wine and drink."

One of the signs of the Last Days is that people will ignore the prophecies of God’s word and turn to messages that tell them everything is OK, messages that appeal to their own lusts. We should understand instead that Jesus is coming quickly, imminently, and live accordingly.

The world exerts a powerful influence for you to ignore God’s word:

1. You’re influenced to ignore God’s precepts and prosper materially.
2. You’re influenced to ignore God’s preaching and prefer your own ideas about God over His revelation about Himself.
3. You’re influenced to ignore God’s prophecies and pursue your own priorities as if this life alone were all that mattered.

The application is simple: Get into God’s word and let it overcome the influence of the world!

Conclusion

The chapter ends with a word of encouragement for the far future of both Israel and Judah:

Micah 2:12 "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 2:13 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."

Each of Micah’s three messages has a word of hope for the far future of the Jews in the Millennial Kingdom. God will then be their Shepherd-King and lead them in glory and triumph over the nations of the world.

The far future is sure – both for believing Jews and believers. The assurance of your future should not cause you to become lax in the present. The world exerts a powerful bad influence against the Christian – more of a bad influence than we like to admit.

Be careful you’re not imitating the world; be careful you’re not ignoring God’s word.