BaptistWay Bible Series for May 20: Mixed-up living

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Micah is known for his strong, sometimes blistering, words of judgment. Like the other prophets, Micah proclaimed a message of judgment against Israel’s sins and wickedness. The evidence of Israel’s sin was her lack of justice and destructiveness in her people’s lives.

This lesson focuses on the type of “mixed-up” living that occurs among those who call themselves God’s people yet ignore God’s leadership, commands and teaching. Knowing God’s righteous decrees, they choose instead to practice ungodly living, as if the Lord was not in their lives. Knowing God’s will, and then subverting it, transforms Israel’s sin into wickedness.

Chapter 1 opens with a reference to Micah’s home town, Moresheth, and a list of the Davidic kings during his prophetic career. Micah was contemporary to Isaiah, Hosea and Amos.

In verse 2, Micah summons the nations to trial before the sovereign Lord who rules from his holy temple. A universal rule has been broken in Israel. Ungodly living will be universally judged. Therefore, the pagan world is summoned to hear God’s pronouncement against Israel and his sentence of justice against Samaria. This stands as God’s warning to the nations, because they are guilty of the same godless living.

Micah’s focus is on all Israel. Both kingdoms are guilty of sin. But Samaria will receive justice first. Discussion of Samaria’s demise will occupy chapter 1 from verse 6 onward.

Verse 3 portrays God’s dwelling place in a way that emphasizes his sovereignty. The Lord, who dwells above the reach of all human authority, descends to bring his case before humanity. Verse 4 describes God’s coming with fantastic apocalyptic imagery. Mountains, which represent strength, melt in fear before the Lord. Valleys, which represent a strength that separates mountains, are themselves split open in God’s show of power. Thus terrified mountains melt like wax and run like water before God’s great strength. Yet in contrast, God’s people don’t fear his power to uphold his decrees.

Verse 5 says God has come to address Jacob’s sins. “Jacob” is the pagan name of Israel’s forefather. The name refers to deception. The nation of Israel acted more like Jacob the deceiver than Israel, God’s relational name for Jacob, the man of faith. The word “sin” is generic word referring to shortcomings. The word “transgression” refers to breaches of known commands. Jacob’s (Israel’s) transgression was Samaria—the city which led Israel away from the Lord. Judah is not innocent either. Jerusalem has become a high place, that is, a place of idolatry, even though the Lord’s holy temple was located there.

Verse 6 describes the destruction of Samaria. It will become a place of planting vineyards and its buildings will be destroyed completely. In Micah’s day, Samaria was far larger than Jerusalem. Micah’s pronouncement probably drew considerable attention. Israel’s powerful God will destroy Samaria to make a point to Judah and the nations about godless lifestyles.

Chapter 2 opens with a “woe.” A woe statement declares the Lord’s opposition to a certain line of conduct. This conduct is here described as iniquity, that is, premeditated evil. Verse 1 states the evil is carried out early, an indication of the eager willingness to do so.

Verse 2 describes the iniquity as covetousness and fraud. These two evil traits break the 10th and ninth of the Ten Commandments. God’s people know better, yet this conduct proves the ungodliness of those God will judge. Verse 3 pronounces a coming judgment against those who practice iniquity. They will be met with disaster and calamity.

Chapter 3 opens with a warning that the Lord will not automatically protect his people. They must live by justice (v. 1). Reference to Jacob occurs in verses 1 and 8, reminding the people again that their forefather’s pagan character is poking through in their own lives. Their national name is Israel, but they are acting more like the godless, selfish and deceptive Jacob.

Verse 1 encourages the leaders of Israel to seek justice. Verse 2 opens by describing the nation as loving evil and hating good—the epitome of mixed up living. For Israel to right its course, it will have to replace its preference for evil with a desire for good. Together verses 2 and 3 describe Israel as people who systematically destroy and devour people like a butcher prepares meat for the stew pot.

Verse 4 tells how Israel’s leaders will cry out to the Lord, presumably for deliverance, but because they participated in Israel’s butchery of justice, the Lord will hide his face and not answer them.

Verses 5-7 describe the demise of Israel’s false prophets. They proclaim a false peace when they are fed but war when they are not. Thus their source of divination is their payment for services rendered. God will remove himself from the false prophets in such a way that they will be confounded and discredited because their advice will be shown to be wrong.

Verse 8 re-emphasizes the Lord’s power to address Israel’s sin. The people will know the Lord has such power when they realize their prophets are ineffective. Crazy, mixed-up lives are denied direct communication from God, but they will receive God’s message in a universally recognizable way: God’s delivery of judgment.

In a similar situation, the Pharisees were denied a special sign from Jesus (Matthew 12:38-39), equivalent to a direct communication from God. Instead, Jesus pointed the Pharisees to the greatest of all signs, and a sign for all people, his resurrection.