Year 2, Week 3, Day 2 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 3, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Micah 1-4.

Today’s reading begins the prophecy of Micah: “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” (Micah 1:1). The prophet Micah is concurrent with the prophet Isaiah, and overlapping with the prophet Amos. Micah 1 orients us to the pronouncement of judgment: “Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple” (Micah 1:2). Micah is a word to both the Northern Kingdom of Israel as well as the Southern Kingdom of Judah. As Micah 2 continues declaring the fact of coming judgment, the prophet acknowledges the people’s response: “Do not preach” (Micah 2:6a). Micah’s warnings were being rejected and resisted. Micah 3 emphasizes the corruption of the leaders: “Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?—you who hate the good and love the evil” (Micah 3:1-2a). Very similar to the sections of restoration that Isaiah declares, Micah 4 offers a glimpse of hope: “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come” (Micah 4:1-2a). After judgment, the LORD will provide restoration. 

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the people’s rejection of God’s Word: “Do not preach”—thus they preach—“one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us” (Micah 2:6). What Micah experienced is a tragic yet common response to God’s Word. Many of the true prophets experienced this kind of reaction. The people were not happy with Micah’s hard words of coming judgment. Isaiah voices the common reaction to the true prophetic Word: “For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 30:9-11). But a rejection of God’s Word is not an accurate assessment of God’s Word; only an accurate indication of the state of their own soul. What the prophets commonly faced is still around today: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). It is common still that there is no desire to walk in the light of God’s holiness or hear uncomfortable truths. What is wanted are bland platitudes, with no call for repentance or change of life, but rather a world of pleasant drivel that lacks much truth.

What the people believed about themselves and the LORD prevented them from embracing what Micah had to say. They had embraced false things that made the truth seem too far fetched. Like the people in Jeremiah’s time as they too would embrace falsehoods: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). And the falsehoods believed in Jeremiah’s time made the coming judgment on Jerusalem seem incredulous: “Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD” (Jeremiah 7:4). Presumption before the LORD prevented them from hearing truth from the LORD. Thus, they replied to Micah: “one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us” (Micah 2:6b). The people were hoping for a different kind of message from the LORD: “If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people!” (Micah 2:11).  What the people believed about the patient care of the LORD left them with no category to receive Micah’s prophecies. Micah states their objections for them: “Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Has the LORD grown impatient? Are these his deeds?” (Micah 2:7a).

But Micah rebukes their false assumptions by reminding them that the covenant required them to live righteously “Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?” (Micah 2:7). Micah renews his message of confrontation against Israel’s unrighteousness: “But lately my people have risen up as an enemy; you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war. The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses; from their young children you take away my splendor forever” (Micah 2:8-9). Micah charges the people to leave because of their unrighteousness: “Arise and go, for this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction” (Micah 2:10). Israel had distorted God’s truth by picking and choosing what they wanted to believe about Him. They liked: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7a); but they ignored: “but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7b). As a result, their false beliefs led, not only to unrighteous living, but failure to embrace all of God’s truth.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe