Day 268. Micah 1-4

The Book of Micah is a mixture of hope and despair--tempered despair over the future of the northern kingdom of Israel and moderate hope for the southern kingdom of Judah. It was a dangerous time; during the mid-eighth century B.C. both nations were living under the ominous shadow of the rapidly expanding Assyrian empire. Micah was a small town boy, probably a farmer, from the village of Moresheth, twenty-five miles southwest of Jerusalem, and in his oracles he displays a love of the peaceful, agricultural life and presents it as an ideal. Nevertheless, Micah prophesied "the word of the LORD" fearlessly before the royal courts of both Israel and Judah.
The oracles in the Book of Micah set up a rhythm of judgment and encouragement. The first of the judgment oracles is directed against Israel—in the text sometimes called "Jacob," and at other times by the name of Israel's capital city, Samaria. The prophet establishes a courtroom situation in which the LORD is called to be "a witness against" all the peoples of the earth (1:2). He comes out of "his holy temple" to "tread upon the high places of the earth"—God moves out of sacred spaces and breaks into history (1:3). In this case he breaks into history to judge "the sin of the house of Israel" and pronounce its doom. Samaria, its capital, is a hopeless cause. It will be abandoned, "a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards" (1:6). "Her wages"--the offerings made to her idols-- "shall be burned with fire"; her images are sacrilegious and abhorrent to the LORD-- "as the wages of a prostitute she
gathered them, and as the wages of a prostitute they shall again be used" (1:7).
As for the cities of Judah, the prophet also laments them "barefoot and naked"—deshabile in Judaism was a traditional sign of grief--making sounds of mourning like the desert animals, "the jackals and the ostriches," because of the destruction that is to come (1:8). Ten towns near Jerusalem are singled out as destined to be destroyed by the invading armies of Assyria as punishment because in them "were found the transgressions of Israel" (1:13). The prophet mentions them by name one by one, and the name of each resembles a Hebrew word of desolation. At one of them—Lachish (1:13)--archeologists have discovered evidence of siege and massive destruction during this period. The inhabitants of Judah are called to lament with the prophet, to "make [themselves] bald and cut off [their] hair for [their] pampered children" (1:16), because the mass deportation that will surely follow an Assyrian invasion.
Why is this calamity coming? It is because the wealthy have plotted to seize the homes of the poor and devised schemes to get control of family property to which they have no claim. When the Assyrians come, however, these land-grubbers will lament, because "the LORD [has altered] the inheritance of [his] people, and takes it away [from them]" (2:4). Now their land will be confiscated from them and parceled out "among [their] captors," and they will even lose their place "in the assembly of the LORD" (2:5).
Such words are unwelcome among the upper classes, and they have tried to silence the prophet. They do not want to hear the preaching of condemnation, proclamation that strips "the robe from the peaceful" (2:8). They would rather hear some tame prophet "uttering empty falsehoods" and going on and on about the dangers of "wine and strong drink," rather than speak the bitter truth to them (2:11).
But Micah's message is never unadulterated bitterness and doom. There is always hope for the remnant of God's people. The LORD, the good shepherd, will "gather the survivors of Israel," from the northern kingdom (2:12). Someday a restored Israel will be led out of captivity by their king, with God "at the head" to guide them (2:13). But that remains somewhere in the future, beyond the suffering that is to come. The nation must be destroyed before any of its people can be saved.
That is because the "heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel" are exploiting those whom they should protect, and "eat the flesh of [God's] people" stewed "like meat in a kettle" (3:3). When trouble comes, and the heads and rulers of the nation call out to the LORD "he will not answer them" (3:4). God will be silent in that day. As for the so-called prophets who "cry 'Peace' when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing in their mouths," they will be left in silence and darkness "without vision . . . , without revelation" (3:6). They will "be disgraced," and they too will receive "no answer from God" (3:7) when they call to him.
But in the face of opposition, the prophet Micah feels his own spiritual strength and exalts in it. He says--"I am filled with power, with the spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin" (3:8). But as for rulers and chiefs "who abhor justice" (3:9) and the priests who "teach for a price," and the prophets who "give oracles for money" they will perish. They proclaim that "surely the LORD is with us" and put their confidence in his promise to Jerusalem and the House of David, but their false sense of security will be shattered, and Jerusalem will be left "a heap of ruins" and its temple mount "a wooded height" (3:11-12).
But after this scathing outburst, comes another peaceful oracle which reminds us in its phrases and sentiments of the hopeful songs of First Isaiah (see Isaiah 4:1-5). In the time to come, Micah says, "the mountain of the LORD's house" shall be established as the center of the world. The nations will stream to Jerusalem in order to learn the ways of the LORD, for "out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word the LORD from Jerusalem" (4:2). In that time the peoples of the world shall beat their weapons into agricultural instruments, and the arts of war shall perish and be forgotten (4:3). For Micah the agricultural life is the ideal of peace and prosperity, and so he says that when the kingdom is restored the people of Israel "shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid" (4:4).
In Bible times the lame were excluded from the worship of the temple. But "in the days to come" the LORD will gather "those who have been driven away," and he will make of the lame and outcast "the remnant," forming out of the weak and despised, "a strong nation" (4:7). And over this new, inclusive Israel the LORD shall reign "now and forevermore."
In the future the people will have to go into exile in Babylon (4:10). But the LORD intends to "redeem" them—to buy them back—"from the hands of [their] enemies." The nations despise Jerusalem, but they "do not understand [the LORD's] plan" for his people (4:12). He intends to gather them up and take them to his "threshing floor" where he will separate the grain from the chaff. Then he will make Jerusalem--"daughter Zion"—strong—stronger than ever before. He will make her "horn iron" and her "hoofs bronze," and she shall "beat in pieces many peoples" and devote their wealth to the glory of "the LORD of the whole earth" (4:13).