Weeping, Micah 1:8-16

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H. Kevin Derr

September 21, 2008

Micah 1:8-16

“Weeping”

⁸ Because of this I will weep and wail;
I will go about barefoot and naked.
I will howl like a jackal
and moan like an owl.

⁹ For Samaria’s wound is incurable;
it has come to Judah.
It has reached the very gate of my people,
even to Jerusalem itself.

¹⁰ Tell it not in Gath;
weep not at all.
In Beth Ophrah
roll in the dust.

¹¹ Pass on in nakedness and shame,
you who live in Shaphir.
Those who live in Zaanan
will not come out.
Beth Ezel is in mourning;
its protection is taken from you.

¹² Those who live in Maroth writhe in pain,
waiting for relief,
because disaster has come from the LORD,
even to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³ You who live in Lachish,
harness the team to the chariot.
You were the beginning of sin
to Daughter Zion,
for the transgressions of Israel
were found in you.

¹⁴ Therefore you will give parting gifts
to Moresheth Gath.
The town of Akzib will prove deceptive
to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵ I will bring a conqueror against you
who live in Mareshah.
The nobles of Israel
will flee to Adullam.

¹⁶ Shave your head in mourning
for the children in whom you delight;
make yourself as bald as the vulture,
for they will go from you into exile.

Micah weeps, laments the coming judgment on the people of Israel and Judah. Micah does not plead and beg the people to repent, he announces the coming judgment, the wrath of God on their disobedience. He does not ask God, “Why?” rather we weeps for the people, for their sin, for the results of their sin. It serves as a warning to the people of God today. We too are called to obedience and keeping the covenant. Micah’s words are a warning and a caution for us, in this place.

Prayer

I. Much of the word play, the sounds and alliteration are lost to us in English translations, but the images remain very vivid, very powerful and very much call our attention to the reality of expected loss, tears of grief.

a. Micah writes,

⁸ Because of this I will weep and wail;
I will go about barefoot and naked.
I will howl like a jackal
and moan like an owl.

b. Because of the destruction of the nation of Israel, Samaria becoming a heap of rubble, people being taken captive and dispersed all over the Assyrian empire, Micah will mourn.

i. He is not playing the, “I told you so game” nor is he saying, “It was them and not us, nor does he delight in the destruction of one who had been the enemy of his nation. Rather, he mourns.

ii. Look at the images and sounds of his mourning, weeping and wailing, going barefoot and naked around the city of Jerusalem.

1. Likely his nakedness was walking the streets in his loincloth

2. being dressed like this, going barefoot were symbols of mourning

iii. he howls like a jackal, moans like an owl

1. This is not stylized mourning

2. This is primal expressions of grief.

c. It does not end with this, his grief is flowing because the wound to Israel is fatal. He writes,

⁹ For Samaria’s wound is incurable;
it has come to Judah.
It has reached the very gate of my people,
even to Jerusalem itself.

i. Samaria never recovers from this attack, Israel never again flourishes like it had

ii. But there is more, the Assyrians not only bring destruction to the nation of Israel, they also visit pain and destruction but they also bring it upon Judah and Benjamin.

1. The wound, Sennacherib brings his armies to the gates of Jerusalem, he does not conquer the city, but he does devastate much of the outlying cities and towns.

2. So, Israel’s wound comes also to Judah.

II. Now we move to what to do about this: Micah writes,

a. ¹⁰ Tell it not in Gath;
weep not at all.
In Beth Ophrah
roll in the dust.

i. Don’t weep in Gath, in Philistia, don’t weep in the presence of those who would seek our demise.

1. Why? Because this is not about their opportunity to cause additional pain, but rather it is about the call of repentance that has been sounded among the people of God, a warning has come to us, and it is now time to take an account of what we do and why.

2. It is time to address our sin and repent, not moan to the neighbors about what God has done to us because of our iniquity.

ii. In Beth Ophrah, roll in the dust. In the city of dust, roll in the dust.

1. A sign of repentance to sit in the dust and be in sack cloth and ashes.

2. Roll in the dust, express your desire to repent.

b. Our next verse speaks about what happens in the wounding of Judah.

¹¹ Pass on in nakedness and shame,
you who live in Shaphir.
Those who live in Zaanan
will not come out.
Beth Ezel is in mourning;
its protection is taken from you.

i. Shaphir means “Pleasant” and so those who lived in the pleasant place of Shaphir will now endure the unpleasant life of a captive taken away, naked and in shame marched away from home and family, freedom and safety to a foreign land, an unpleasant experience to say the least.

ii. Thos who live in Zaanan, it sounds like Hebrew for “come out.” So those who live in the town of “Come out” will not come out, because they cannot, either they have been taken captive and are being lead away as captives, or they are so fearful of being taken captives that they will not come out.

iii. Those who live in Beth Ezel, the “House of Protection” are mourning because their protection has been taken away from them, the Lord has brought judgment.

iv. The wages of sin is death, and in this case, death may have been a better state, a forced march with little clothing or care, wounded struggling to keep up, women raped, and there is no recourse for injustice… these are the wages of sin

1. iniquity, sin, disobedience leads us into death, at points this is a spiritual issue, at points it is a physical issue.

2. Sin does not lead to peace, joy, grace, love, or happiness, it leads to death.

c. Now Micah turns his attention to the town of Lachish, a fortified city where chariots were kept, place that assumed it was secure because of the strength of the military forces stationed there. Lachish had a formidable city wall, twenty feet thick, defensive gates like those of Solomon’s other fortified cities, but all of the strength there did not spare it from God’s judgment.

¹³ You who live in Lachish,
harness the team to the chariot.
You were the beginning of sin
to Daughter Zion,
for the transgressions of Israel
were found in you.

i. Micah warns them to flee the city with the very means they sought to keep themselves safe, the horses and chariots.

1. You were the beginning of sin to Daughter Zion, to Jerusalem, and the sin of Israel was found in you.

2. This was a fortified city, a defensive point to protect the land, it is also the beginning of the sin of Daughter Zion.

a. What is the sin, trusting in their own military strength to keep them safe and secure, rather than God’s strength and righteousness.

b. Where do we place our trust? Our economy? Our military? Our education? Our technology?

ii. There is only one thing which will make a people secure, trusting in God’s strength and living in obedience to his word.

d. Parting gifts, gifts to people leaving on a journey. Gifts to the leaving captives or gifts to the ones who took them captive.

i. Again Micah plays with words here. He writes,

ii. ¹⁴ Therefore you will give parting gifts
to Moresheth Gath.
The town of Akzib will prove deceptive
to the kings of Israel.

iii. Moresheth sounds very similar to “betrothed” in Hebrew and the Father of the bride gives a dowry, a parting gift to husband to be.

1. The you is likely a reference to Hezekiah, who gave Sennacherib a tribute of gold and silver secure a peace.

2. Then there is the town of Akzib, “the deceptive” town, the word is used of a dry stream or brook that gives no aid or water to those in need. In the same way the people of Akzib will not be able to help the kings of Israel, they will prove to be deceptive like a dry brook

III. In truth this lament does not prove to contain much hope. It is as it should be, it is a lament.

a. ¹⁵ I will bring a conqueror against you
who live in Mareshah.
The nobles of Israel
will flee to Adullam.

b. Mareshah sounds like the Hebrew word for “conqueror” and here God says, “I will bring a conqueror against you who live in “conqueror”

i. The conqueror will be conquered.

ii. At this time either the glory of Israel will go to Adullam or the nobles of Israel will fell to Adullam

1. Either God will come as the Conqueror to Adullam or the nobles of Israel will flee to the caves in the region

2. Either is appropriate, when the nobles flee the people are left with no protection, no leadership, and little hope.

3. If God comes to conquer, the mountains will melt like wax before a fire.

c. All that is left for the people of Judah and Israel to do is to mourn, because the children in which they have delighted are lead away to be slaves in a strange land.

i. ¹⁶ Shave your head in mourning
for the children in whom you delight;
make yourself as bald as the vulture,
for they will go from you into exile.

ii. Shave your head in mourning, cut off your beard

iii. Your children, the ones you have delighted in, are being taken away in exile, and you will never see them again.

IV. The point is to bring people to tears, to mourning, to know the pain of the judgment of the Lord, because in God’s holy people there is no place for sin.

a. The warning is very simple, repent, turn from sin and turn to God, before God calls you to account.

b. Micah was speaking to a nation, to a people group

i. We as a people group need to hear that, as God’s people in this land, we ought to repent the sins of our people, our culture, our denomination, our congregation, our family, and our personal sin.

ii. We are called to repent!