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INTRODUCTION

We begin the second cycle of prophetic ministry from the great prophet Micah. Remember that he ministered over the course of forty years or so, and yet was able to summarize his message in these seven short chapters. That is probably one of the reasons why his words are so potent.

In this second cycle, the words of warning and the words of judgment are combined, and so the next message will go straight to the words of consolation.

THE TEXT

“And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; Who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; And they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron . . .” (Micah 3:1–12)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Micah begins by addressing the civil rulers. Hear, oh you heads and princes. Shouldn’t you understand judgment (v. 1)? But instead you have inverted everything, hating the good and loving evil (v. 2). Instead of feeding your people, you feed on them. You flay them, you pull the flesh off their bones in order to eat it, you break their bones, and chop them up in pieces so that they might fit in your cauldrons (vv. 2-3). When they get in trouble, and cry out to Jehovah, He will be merciless to those who have been merciless (v. 4). He will turn away His face. The prophets who spoke lying words, who would bite with their words while mouthing peace, plotting their war again Jehovah, what will come of them (v. 5)? Instead of a vision, their night will be pitch black. The sun will go down on their prophecies, and they will minister in darkness (v. 6). Their seers and diviners will be abashed, and will have no answer from God (v. 7).

But Micah was ready to stand against them all. He was filled of Jehovah’s power, and fully ready to declare the sin and transgression of Jacob and Israel both (v. 8). Hear this word, you princes who twist everything (v. 9). You seek to build your city on the foundation of blood and iniquity (v. 10), which is why it will come to nothing. Your judges look for bribes, your priests are hirelings, and your prophets are willing to see visions for a fee (v. 11). Is it any wonder that everything is corrupted? Even so, your will dare to claim the presence and protection of Jehovah (v. 11b). And this is the reason why Zion will be plowed under. It is the reason why Jerusalem is going to be transformed into heaps of rubble. The mount of the house (i.e. the Temple) will be like the high places of the forest, meaning that trees will grow there (v. 12).

Some years later, when Jeremiah prophesied that the Temple of the Lord would be laid flat like Shiloh (Jer. 26:6, 9), the priests and prophets and people gathered against Jeremiah to kill him. The princes of the land refused to kill Jeremiah, and the elders of the land defended him by pointing to this verse from Micah (Jer. 26:18; Mic. 3:12).

MORAL INVERSION

Isaiah pronounces a judgment on those who invert all the basic moral categories (Is. 5:20). Micah charges the rulers of both kingdoms with a gross dereliction of their duty—weren’t you supposed to know what justice is (v. 1)? But instead of that, you have decided to hate what is good, and to embrace what is evil.

This is an inescapable reality. There is no way for rulers abandon good in order to adopt a studied neutrality. There is no such neutrality. To decide to celebrate wickedness is therefore a decision to persecute those who testify that your deeds are evil.

CRUELTY & ITS PRETENSES

Their rhetoric and their stock photos are all about normal, happy people, and the cry goes up that we should coexist, and love everybody, and make no distinctions, no exceptions. You have seen the bumper stickers.

But it always ends in blood (v. 10). At the first they keep up the pretense, but a time eventually comes when all the hot bile of their hatred comes pouring out. They flay their victims. They crush their bones. They chop the meat of their people up, and then stuff their stew kettles full. They despise the people they rule over. And as they are shepherds who feed only themselves (Eze. 34:2), the time necessarily comes when they feed on the flocks—instead of feeding the flocks.

AVARICE IS WHERE IT BEGINS

The mission of those who love the law of God is to uphold justice, and the only basis for justice, which is the holy character of God. When rulers—whether princes, judges, prophets, priests—decide that the first thing is to “get ahead,” it is not long before they are pursuing mammon instead of justice. The heads judge for reward (v. 11). The priests will teach you about the grace of God for a sum (v. 11). The prophets will give you a word from God if you cross their palms (v. 11). What is the end result of all such mercenary ministry? The end result is that all true justice is abhorred (v. 9), and the meaning of equity is distorted beyond all recognition (v. 9). This should not surprise us. We live in a time when words like justice, and equity, and reconciliation, and love is love is love derive all their definitions from the lexicons of Hell. And it all began with mammon.

INEXORABLE JUSTICE

But God is hard to those who are hard. God is merciless to the merciless, and those who love their cruelties drag a host of cruelties down upon their own heads.

God put no words in the mouths of these characters (v. 5), so they come up with the word peace all by themselves (v. 5). But while they speak that word with their mouths, they also bite with that same mouth (v. 5), and they war against God. Very well, then. God will return fire (vv. 6-7).

THE COURAGE OF MICAH

On one side were arrayed regiments of falsehood and unbelief, and on the other side was Micah. Micah was clothed in power, judgment, and might, and this enabled him to tell both nations what their sin was. He was equipped to do this without a spirit of timidity. His message was not an “it seems to me” message, but rather a “thus saith the Lord” message. And is this not what our diseased generation needs to hear? Hear the Words of God, you sinners.

CONSOLATION COMING

In the text of Micah, we will come to the consolation in our next message. That consolation, that salvation, comes through Christ and only through Christ. But before we come to that point, we need to let the message of this chapter settle down into our bones. We tend to have shallow views of Christ because we have shallow views of our sin. We heal the wound lightly, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace (Jer. 8:11). We want a slightly damp Jesus-washcloth that we can use to dab around the edge of our wound. But the wound is deep, and gangrenous, and self-inflicted, and we are entirely unconscious, and only the grace of God can admit us into His ICU—a place where He makes all the decisions. Our condition is indeed desperate. In fact, the image of an ICU patient is too weak—we are actually dead (Eph. 2:1-2).

But Christ is the resurrection and the life.

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INTRODUCTION

We have now come to the conclusion of the first cycle of Micah’s prophecy. Here we find a brief word of consolation, which, given what has come before, stands out in sharp relief.

THE TEXT

“I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The breaker is come up before them: They have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: And their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them” (Micah 2:12–13).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The woes declared have fallen, and it is time for the Lord to restore His people. The people were scattered, Israel first by Assyria, and Judah by Babylon. In verse 12, Jehovah promises to gather them up again. First He says that He will gather up “all” of Jacob, and then He says He will “surely” gather up the remnant of Israel (v. 12a). He will gather them into one great block, like the sheep of Bozrah. Bozrah was a very fruitful place, with lush pastures. The sheep there were plentiful, and God says that when He gathers His people back together again, it will be like that. They will all be like sheep in one fold (v. 12b). There will be a great noise, not because of any calamity, but rather because of the multitude of men. The sheep here in the figure are the men of the restored Israel. A “breaker” is going to come first, clearing the path for them (v. 13a). That breaker is going to make a way, and pass through the gate, and the people will follow him out. Once this is done, their king will arrive, and He will pass before them, the Lord at the head of them.

A GLIMMER OF HOPE

We have had almost two complete chapters of woe and judgment, and God here gives the people a glimmer of hope. The judgment is true, and it will be severe. Their sin was really bad, and God does not play pattycake with it. Nevertheless, even though it will be severe, it does not constitute the final backdrop to this story. God’s purpose throughout Scripture is always restoration, always deliverance, always salvation. Our God is the God who saves.

ONE FLOCK

The restoration of Israel that is frequently promised in the Old Testament is a restoration that is accomplished in the foundation of the New Israel, the Christian church. Put another way, the Church is Israel now.

“And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16). “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3). “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). There are many ways to make this point, but that should be sufficient. The true Jew is the one who is circumcised in heart, the one who is born again by the Spirit of God (Rom. 2:29).

WHO IS THE BREAKER?

There are different ways to take this, but my interpretation would be that this breaker is John the Baptist. There appears to be a distinction made between the breaker and the king who follows, and the preparation of the way of the Lord by the Elijah who was to come is a significant theme in both testaments.

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Is. 40:3).

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Mal. 4:5).

“But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them” (Matt. 17:12).

Before the king arrives, preparations need to be made, and there was a divinely appointed messenger who came in order to make them. Those preparations consisted largely of repentance, and receiving a baptism of repentance.

JEHOVAH AS HEAD

Christ is the Head in the same way that a husband is the head of his wife (Eph. 5:23). He is also the Head in the same way that the head is the head of the body (Eph. 1:22). But He is also the Head in the same way that a general is at the head of his army.

“For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:10–11).

The captain of our salvation leads us out, like a great host. We follow after Him to a great victory. If you look at the Micah passage again, you can see that we are gathered like sheep, but then are mustered like men. It is a multitude of men, like a great army.

“And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power . . .” (Col. 2:10).

When we consider the nature of the final and complete judgment of God’s people in the Old Testament, the fact of the restoration of God’s people in the New is a marvel, only to be compared with the resurrection of Christ from the dead. In fact, considered with the eye of faith, the resurrection of Christ and the restoration of Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones is all the same miracle.

“Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:12).

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INTRODUCTION

Recall that there are three cycles of Micah’s word to the people, and each one of the three contains the elements of warning, judgment, and consolation. We are still considering the first cycle, and we have come to the portion of that cycle that states the judgment that Israel and Judah are under, along with pointed references to the reasons for it.

THE TEXT

“Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they practise it, Because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; And houses, and take them away: So they oppress a man and his house, Even a man and his heritage . . .  (Micah 2:1–11).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The woe is pronounced. Woe to those who cook up their evil schemes on their beds, while they should be sleeping (v. 1). They are eager to get to their wicked business because as soon as the sun rises, they get after it (v. 1). Whatever sin they can perform, they do. The first thing that lies under God’s judgment is their avarice. They seize fields and houses, and they rob a man of his landed inheritance (v. 2). And so God says this. “While you were devising your mischief, neither was I sleeping. I was devising disaster for you” (v. 3). The disaster will be significant enough to become a matter of songs and proverbs. The ruination is total and complete—“utterly ruined” (v. 4). There will be no one in the assembly of the Lord who will be able to distribute the inheritance, or assign the lots (v. 5; cf. Deut. 32:8-9; Josh. 14:1-2). What does Israel preach? They preach at the preachers of truth, and the message is stop preaching. Sound familiar? They cannot abide hearing the Word of God unvarnished (v. 6). They count the words of God to be harsh and sharp-edged, and God slaps away their complaint. Are not His words good to those who are good (v. 7)? But God’s people don’t want any. They rise up to rob a peaceful man of his rich robe (v. 8). Their cruelty is apparent in that they drive women from their pleasant homes (v. 9). Little children are the ornament of God, and they abuse them as well (v. 9). Canaan was supposed to be a land of rest, but because of uncleanness it had ceased to be that (v. 10). Grievous destruction was pending. And yet if a windbag liar rises up with message that will butter you on all sides with flattering grease—“your best life now!”—and prophesies to you of wine and whiskey, you would think you had found your man (v. 11).

CRUELTY MANIFEST

These evildoers are bent on sin that harms. They lie awake in their beds coming up with schemes of plunder. As soon as the sun comes over the horizon, they are up and about. When their traps are being set, they hide them, but once the trap is sprung there is no need to keep the cruelty hidden. The whole point is to take what you want with impunity, and the only reason for denying that you have a thieving heart is because it is not yet profitable to do so. Why do they do what they do? Because they can. It is in the power of their hand (v. 1).

PLEASANT THINGS

Their avarice is merciless. They have no compunction about ripping off women and children. They turn women out of the pleasant houses (v. 9). And what is taken away from the defenseless children is what God calls “his ornament.” Calvin says this at this place: “Now, what was taken away from the children, God calls it his ornament; for his blessing, poured forth on children, is the mirror of his glory; he therefore condemns this plunder as a sacrilege.”

PROPHESYING BEER

Micah and Isaiah had to deal with the same kind of people, and perhaps even the same people. “Which say to the seers, See not; And to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, Speak unto us smooth things, Prophesy deceits” (Isaiah 30:10). And Ahab did not like Micaiah, and why? “And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so” (1 Kings 22:8). This is a phenomenon that is not limited to the Old Testament. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3)

Notice how the carnal heart defines a good prophecy. A good prophecy is one that contains a good outcome for him, the “god of the system.” But this is like pretending that the one who listens to the prophecy is the client, and the prophet is some kind of marketing agency. You hired him to make you look good on Instagram.

A humble servant of Jehovah would define a good prophecy as one which spoke the truth. But a wicked generation only wants the truth when the truth is convenient. If the truth is useful, they will use it, and if it is not useful, then they will accuse the prophet or preacher of “being negative all the time.”

FLATTERY AND CONSOLATION

When the worthless servant came back to his master in the parable, he said, “I knew you were a hard man,” and the master responded with sufficient hardness (Matt. 25: 14-30). In that parable, the master showed himself generous to the servants who were worthy, and hard to the one who slandered him as being hard. To the pure, all things are pure (Tit. 1:15). The impure project their impurity onto everything else. This is why, in this passage, God says that while they were not sleeping in their imaginative pursuit of crooked profits, He was also not asleep. As they were preparing a manmade disaster for the helpless, He was preparing a God-shaped disaster for them (v. 3).

The issue is not the fact of consolation, but rather the ground of it. In the very next section, we are going to see that Micah gives words of consolation and hope, but they are words that are grounded in the truth. God is not hostile to consolation, but rather is the author of all true consolation. But He hates lying consolation, and this is because at the end of the day all lying hopes are lies about Christ.

Only in Christ can we bear to hear the truth about our sin—because only in Christ is that truth followed by a resurrection from the grave of that sin.

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