A Great Little Book
We are about to begin a great little book. The author is Micah, and we believe that he
was a prophet in Judah (Southern Kingdom) approximately the same time as
Isaiah: 750 – 700 BC. He saw the
northern kingdom fall. He saw the
Assyrians march right up to the front door of Jerusalem and then turn around
and go home after God send a plague among them.
His book is filled with many popular verses – although most of them are
verses we wouldn’t have thought to put in Micah.
Worship
Micah brings us right back into the false worship practices of the
Northern Kingdom of Israel. Remember
that they had set up their own altars so that they wouldn’t have to go and
worship God in Jerusalem, which was in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Those false altars led to even more altars
being established in Israel. These
altars led to religious corruption and the introduction of foreign gods. Soon all of Israel had this mish-mash of
worship where it was possible to say that there were some kind of roots in the
worship of God but it had twisted and corrupted so as to no longer be about the
worship of God. Canaanite, Philistine,
Assyrian, Phoenician, and other gods were all being worship by the people that
not too long before had been called out of Egypt and given the Promised Land.
Micah says that he sees the Lord coming in judgment. All the hills – the high places of this
corrupt worship – melt before His coming.
The valleys – typically the places where communities settled and dwelled
– split before Him. God comes in
judgment because they are breaking the covenant they had with God. God comes because they are not in any way
faithful and obedient to His will.
I find this to be an interesting comparison to the New Testament –
especially after the apostles went out and the early church began to be
established. So often we hear people
speak about the New Testament out of the perspective of the Old Testament. But I think here we can actually speak about
the Old Testament out of the perspective of the New Testament. As Christianity began to become established –
one of the biggest threats to the faith were apostate teachers. These were teachers who had originally walked
in the faith but who had become corrupted along the way and they began to teach
things that just weren’t right. As the
church became established, corruption set it.
Things began to be twisted away from Christ and the salvation that comes
only through His blood.
This same human element of corruption is exactly what we see Micah
lamenting in the opening verses of this first chapter. God brought His people into the Promised Land
under Joshua and the judges that followed him.
There was relative peace and faithfulness under David. The Hebrew people became established. No sooner are the Hebrew people established and
it all begins to slip away under Solomon.
After Solomon the kingdom splits.
Israel (Northern Kingdom) sets up their own places of worship. I’ve already recounted what happened after
that.
When it comes to religion, we need to be careful. It is difficult moving a mass of people to
the point of being “established.” But
many of us assume that with “establishment” comes peace and productivity. No. I
believe that with establishment comes even more trial. Instead of the trial being persecution from outside,
with establishment the trials come inside.
We fight recidivism. We fight complacency. We fight “holier-than-thou-ness.” We fight internal corruption. We fight slipping, backsliding, and loss of
focus. This is the lesson we can learn
from the early church. It is the same
lesson we can learn here from Micah.
And what is the Lord’s response when in our establishment we find
ourselves in corruption? Judgment. Well, first there is the call to repent. When we don’t heed that call there is
judgment. The Lord comes, treads upon
the mountains and they melt before Him.
The valleys split before Him. He
exposes us for who we are. Who among us
can stand when God comes and exposes our failing?
Lament
In the last half of this opening chapter, Micah turns from looking
to Israel to looking to Judah. He
laments because he sees the same faults in Judah (Jerusalem) as he saw in
Israel. They are likewise battling
corruption. They are battling
establishment. They are battling people
turning away from what is true. Micah
laments.
In fact, Micah laments and invites others to lament. The people of Beth-le-aphrah (House of Dust) are
to roll in dust. The people of Shaphir (Beautiful
or Pleasant) are to pass by in nakedness and shame. The people of Zanan (Come out) won’t be able
to come out. The people of Beth Ezel
(House of Nearness) will bring their lament to those near. The people of Maroth (Bitterness) will wait
anxiously because disaster has come.
Lacish (known for its horses) is encouraged to harness their horses to
flee. I could go on, but I think you get
my point. When corruption sets in, there
is cause to mourn.
What is especially sad is how Micah ends this chapter. Even the children shall be led away into
captivity. How true is this! When one generation is weak, they teach the
next generation to be weak. Eventually,
weakness is passed on as is corruption.
Often the coming generations have no chance. The ground that one generation gives to
corruption is ground that the next generation doesn’t even see as corrupt. So they give more ground and the generation
that follows no longer sees that ground given as corrupt. Generation after generation slips slowly into
the captivity of sin without even realizing the error and darkness of their
ways.
There’s a bleak thought, isn’t it?
What hope is there? Micah
doesn’t say it here, but I will answer that.
The hope comes when enough ground has been given that a faithful
generation can rise up and motivate people to action. Eventually enough ground is lost to sin and
corruption that revival can happen. We’ve
seen it in religion (Great Awakening in the Americas, Reformation in Europe,
etc). We’ve seen it politically
(Democracy in America, French Revolution, etc).
The hope is in revival; but revival typically only comes when enough
ground has been sufficiently surrendered by prior generations to
decadence.
In fact, this is what happened in the Bible. The Hebrew people went to Egypt, lost ground,
and after many generations came out and a faithful generation claimed the
Promised Land after the unfaithful generation had all died. Then over the next few centuries the Hebrew
people lost ground again and fell to the Assyrians and Babylonians before a
faithful generation could return and rebuild the Promised Land. Then the people fell, lost ground, and a new faithful
generation fought for ground under the teachings of Jesus the Messiah. It is our history. Establishment, corruption, falling, giving
ground, revival, resurgence, establishment.
It’s a vicious cycle – a cycle that one day will end when Christ
returns. But I am getting ahead of
myself here.
For now, we must understand what Micah sees. Corruption, establishment, and lost ground
will lead to judgment. It always does
without the intervention of repentance.
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