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October 5, 2008
First Church of the Brethren
H. Kevin Derr
Micah 3:1-12
“Rebuke”
1 Then I said,
“Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel.
Should you not know justice, 2 you who hate good and love evil;
who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones;
3 who eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin
and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan,
like flesh for the pot?”
4 Then they will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer them.
At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.
5 This is what the LORD says:
“As for the prophets who lead my people astray,
if you feed them, they proclaim ‘peace’;
if you do not, they prepare to wage war against you.
6 Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them.
7 The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced.
They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God.”
8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD,
and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression,
to Israel his sin.
9 Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel,
who despise justice and distort all that is right;
10 who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness.
11 Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price,
and her prophets tell fortunes for money.
Yet they lean upon the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD among us?
No disaster will come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
This passage begins the second cycle of the book of Micah. It begins with judgment and then moves on to redemption or salvation in the next section. Our text for this morning is centered in judgment. While this may not be the most comforting of texts, it is perhaps particularly appropriate for our preparation for Love Feast. This text addresses corruption in government, religion, economics and morality.
It should not be surprising that Micah speaks to corruption in the established forms of order that are to bring protection, peace and security for the people of the land, and in the case of Judah, they brought oppression. What does our establishment bring to us? Corruption seems to go hand and had with systems of power that have the potential for exploitation and oppression.
Prayer
I. Listen begins each of the three cycles that runs through Micah, and here we see the beginning of this cycle of prophecy. Micah does not soften his message, he may employ poetic forms, but the edge is hard, the images graphic, the meaning clear. He writes,
a. Then I said,
“Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel.
Should you not know justice, 2 you who hate good and love evil;
who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones;
3 who eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?”
b. Listen, hear, pay attention, it is a command, an order. The prophet demands that the leadership of the people, the government pay attention to his words.
i. Should you not know justice, and implication that they do not, that they do not practice justice, that it is far from them, from their behavior.
ii. They should indeed know justice, but they practice something else, they hate good and love evil.
1. What does this look like, hating good and living evil?
a. They tear the skin from my people
b. They tear the flesh from the bones of my people
c. They eat my people’s flesh
d. They strip off my people’s skin and break their bones into pieces
e. They chop up my people like meat for the pan, flesh for the pot
2. Was Micah accusing the political leaders of Judah of cannibalism? No!
3. But he is accusing them of exploiting the people of Judah for their own benefit.
4. This is a regime that cruelly oppresses the people within its sphere of power and control.
c. There is a consequence for their behavior. Their deeds will return to them, and they will pay for the in due course. At present it is exacted like this, 4 Then they will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.
i. These leaders at some point will cry out to God for help, but they will not be heard by God, he will not answer them.
1. Rather God will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.
2. Does it seem harsh on God’s part? No, not at all, rather what we see operating here is something we know well, “do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”
ii. These leaders have ignored the cries of the people they were to care for, to shepherd, but rather than care for them the exploited them for their own gain and did not hear their cries for mercy.
iii. Now, when these leaders call out to God, they will receive the same treatment they have given, their cries for mercy will go unheeded.
iv. They chose evil over good, they chose exploitation over mercy, sin over the justice of God. They have chosen their lot, their direction in life.
II. Micah now turns his attention to the clergy, the religious establishment of the day and he does so with a clear edge cutting to the quick, and exposing the injustice of the religious establishment.
a. He writes, 5 This is what the LORD says:
“As for the prophets who lead my people astray,
if you feed them, they proclaim ‘peace’;
if you do not, they prepare to wage war against you.
6 Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them.
7 The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced.
They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God.”
8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD,
and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression,
to Israel his sin.
b. Now the Lord, through Micah deals with prophets who lead the people astray.
i. Here is the practice of these religious leaders:
1. If you give them food, if you pay them, they will prophecy peace and security.
2. If you do not give them what they want, they prepare to wage a holy war against you.
ii. Because of their sin, their behavior, their practice of exploiting people for prophet, they will no longer hear from God.
1. No more visions
2. No more answers to divination
3. They will be left in darkness, with no light from God
4. God says plainly, you will not use me to oppress my people.
iii. The seers, the diviners, those who got answers for people from God, will be ashamed, because they will no longer hear from God.
1. Because they abused the gift of God, they will no longer be able to comprehend God’s will.
2. They will cut off, from God and because of this from God’s people.
c. Micah is notably different,
i. He is empowered not by food or pay, but by the Holy Spirit of God
1. He is also empowered by justice. The practice of doing what is right
2. He is also empowered with might, not to be the avenging tool of God, but rather to declare God’s message to his people, specifically to the political and religious leaders of the people.
3. Preaching a message of condemnation to those in power is not a practice that ensures old age.
ii. He is empowered to declare justice and righteousness that have been lacking in the halls of power.
III. Micah prepares for another round of judgment. He spares no one who practices power and walks in injustice. He writes,
9 Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right;
10 who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness.
11 Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
a. Micah calls to account those who lead the people, of Judah and Israel, and charges them with despising justice and distorting all that is right.
i. I cannot help but hear shades of the sub-prime mortgage debacle
ii. I cannot help but hear shades of people manipulating stock prices and destroying companies to gain a bigger personal share, regardless of the people who get hurt
iii. I cannot help but hear shades of religious violence
b. Micah calls to account those who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with wickedness
i. The way to grow the kingdom of God is not with bloodshed, but with righteous living
ii. The way to ensure a city’s prosperity is not with wickedness, but with righteousness.
1. But these leaders have looked for the easy solution, the quick fix, rather that in the long run does more harm than good.
2. Righteousness not wickedness the Lord will bless
c. Here is a quick summary of the problem, 11 Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us.“
i. The judges bring rulings based upon their bribes, the biggest bribe results in a positive ruling for the wealthy.
ii. The priests teach for a price, for a wage they will tell you about God, though they are already supported by the temple.
iii. The prophets will deliver a good fortune for the right price, but the words are not of God, but of gold.
iv. Then, they say, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.”
1. They wrongly believed that because the temple was there, that God would not allow anything to happen to the city of Jerusalem.
2. Where do we place our trust, what do we believe wrongly?
a. Because we are a “Christian nation” God will protect us from. . .
b. Because we were founded with religious freedom…
IV. We cannot live sinfully and expect God to keep us from harm, in other words we cannot embrace evil and expect God to keep us from the effects of evil.
a. So, Micah tells the leaders what to expect.
b. 12 Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
i. This city will be like a field
ii. It will be a heap of rubble
iii. The temple hill a mound overgrown in thickets.
