Micah 3
McGeeCHAPTER 3THEME: The prophet’s third message denouces leaders for their sins
Micah 3:1
THE PROPHET’S THIRD MESSAGEMicah denounces the leaders of Israel for their sinsfirst, the princes; second, the prophets, who were the spiritual leaders; and last, all the leaders of Jerusalem, including the princes, the prophets, and the priests. SINS OF THE PRINCESThis section begins with the call to hear, as does every major division of the Book of Micah. “Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob.” He is speaking to the leadership of the nation. “Is it not for you to know judgment?” What does he mean by this? Well, he is addressing the rulers of Israel who were the judges and magistrates. When the people were found guilty of a crime, they were brought before these men for judgment. Now they certainly should know what judgment and justice are. The same thought is expressed in the New Testament: “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things” (Rom_2:1). “The same things” does not mean identical but similar things. An example of this is found in 2 Samuel 12.
The prophet Nathan came before King David and told him about a rich man in his kingdom who had great flocks of sheep. However, when he needed meat to serve his guest, instead of taking a lamb from his own flock, he took a poor man’s little ewe lambthe only lamb he ownedand roasted it for his guest. When David heard this, he stood up, hot with anger, and pronounced judgment upon the man who would do such a thing. He could see the injustice of it; yet he himself had done a similar thing. And Nathan said to David, “…Thou art the man …” (2Sa_12:7). David accepted the judgment and confessed his guilt before God.
It is amazing, friend, how we can see another man’s sin but overlook our own. This is the reason God says to these leaders in Israel, “You have judged others for their misdeeds, but you are doing the same things.” This charge is certainly applicable to our day also. My feeling is that the reason many judges in our land have been so lenient with criminals and have not wanted the death penalty is that they are bothered by a guilt complex themselves. I have a notion that many times when a judge on the bench hears a case of an offender who is brought before him and hands down a light sentence, it is because it salves his own conscience to do so. It is almost a joke when a group of congressmen investigate the wrongdoing of someone in politics. Probably every one of them sitting there judging the other fellow has a skeleton in his own closet. It takes men of character to judge fairly, you see. This is exactly what Micah is saying to the leadership in his day, “Is it not for you to know judgment?” You are not acting in ignorance; you have had experience in this. You have judged men who were guilty; now you are guilty.
Micah 3:2
“Who hate the good, and love the evil.” It is difficult for a judge who had been at a cocktail party the night before and had become a little tipsy himself to sentence a man the next day who has killed somebody because he was driving while drunk. No wonder the judge lets him off easy. I know what I am talking about, my friend, because my mother was killed by a drunken driver right here in Pasadena. I didn’t feel that I should press charges, but when I was called in as a witness, I told the court, “All I ask is that justice be done.” And, believe me, he got off with a light sentence. As I looked at that judge, I had the feeling that he had a pretty bad conscience. In Micah’s day the leadership actually hated the good and loved the evil. Folk like that are not fit to be in positions of leadership then or now. If it is discovered that a man in a high position in governmenta congressman, a senator, or a judgeis unfaithful to his wife, is he fit to make laws relative to marriage? I don’t think so. The present breakdown in morality goes back to the lawmakers. And God puts the blame on the leadership of the nation Israel in Micah’s day. As we have seen before, God is presenting in this little Book of Micah a philosophy of human government, the basis of which is men of good character in positions of leadership. “Who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones.” He uses a vivid illustration of their barbarous conduct against the poor.
Micah 3:3
In other words, they are like unfeeling human cannibals in their treatment of the poor. They are unprincipled and merciless. May I say that a godless man is the last man I want to sit in judgment upon me in any matter. And, very frankly, I am thankful that I don’t have to stand before you in judgment, even if you are a Christian. And you ought to be delighted that you will not have to stand before me in judgment. I believe we will fare better in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ than we would if we were judged by mankind. My case has already been appealed to Him, and I will not have to stand before any man to be judged. It is comforting to know this.
Micah 3:4
Who is the prophet talking about? He is talking about the leaders in Israel. As long as they had been in their high positions, they had had no regard for the human side, and they had had no real sympathy or love. Now they are in trouble because a power greater than they has come down upon them. “Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them.” These leaders are going to cry out to God. Isn’t that interesting? We all cry out to God in times of real trouble. I have been rather amused at timesI shouldn’t be, but I can’t help itwhen I hear of the trouble that is coming upon us today and somebody says, “May God help us!” That is interesting because they bowed Him out of His universe many years ago. God isn’t mentioned much today, except in profanity, but every now and then I find people saying, “May God help us.” Well, my friend, I don’t know whether He will hear you or not, because in Micah’s day He said to the people who had ignored Him and lived godless lives that He would not hear their cry for help. In fact, He said that He would hide His face from them.
My friend, we are living in a period of the silence of God. It does not look as if God is doing much to alleviate the present world situation. Yet His grace is still abundant, and He is rich in mercy to those who will bow before Him and accept His Son as Savior.
Micah 3:5
SINS OF THE PROPHETSThe false prophets were like vicious animals or like serpents with forked tongues and fangs that would poisonactually, they were worse than that because they used smooth words to comfort the people, assuring them that peace was coming. The futile effort of man to achieve peace ought to alert us to the fact that man by his own resources cannot bring peace to the world. Just wanting it and saying often enough that it is coming and voting for it will not bring peace. Again Micah makes it very clear that it is not a surface problem. It is not that folk don’t want peace. The problem is that the human heart is wicked, and Isaiah, a contemporary of Micah, wrote, “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isa_57:21). In fact, Isaiah repeats this fact three times in the last part of his prophecy. The great climax to which he came in each of those three times was that the real problem was the wickedness of the human heart. When I make the statement that we cannot have peace in our day, I generally get two or three letters from well-meaning folk. They write lovely letters that chide me for being pessimistic. They insist that we should continue to try to bring peace in the world. They are sincere and their argument sounds good, but it is one of the most false teachings abroad that man can make peace in his way. I want peace as much as anyone, but I want to go at it God’s way. First of all, the individual must know what the peace of God is.
How are they going to know it? “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom_5:1). It is not possible to have peace with your fellow man until you have peace with God. The human heart cannot be trusted; it is desperately wicked (see Jer_17:9). You and I do not know how bad we really are. We can sink lower than any other creature on earth. One of the proofs that mankind has not descended from animals is that man can sink lower than animalsanimals don’t go out and get drunk or beat their mates or abuse their offspring.
The human race must have the peace of God in their hearts before they can bring peace to their world. In Micah’s day the false prophets were prophesying peace, while in the north Assyria was getting ready to come down upon them. In our day efforts are being made in certain sections of the world to get people to sit down at a peace table and settle their differences without going to war. Yet for about six thousand years of recorded history, mankind has gone to war and still fightsone nation against another nation, one tribe against another tribe, one family against another family, and one individual against another individual. Why do we do this? We know that it is not to the advantage of either side. But we do it because we are alienated from God and in rebellion against Him.
We won’t face up to the real problem, but we listen to the smooth words of false prophets who predict peace. Because they do this sort of thing, God pronounces upon them the calamities which are coming
Micah 3:6
“Therefore night shall be unto you.” As we see in the other books of the prophets, darkness always speaks of judgment. It speaks of judgment in two different ways: the direct intervention of God in the punishment of the offender and also in the silence of God in not giving any new revelation to man. “Ye shall not have a vision"that is, God will not reveal any new truth to you. “It shall be dark unto you.” The judgment which is coming to them is called darkness; there will not be any light from the Word of God. There will be a cessation of prophesying. In the New Testament the apostle Paul made reference to this in 1Co_13:8: “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail….” The English word fail is the Greek ekpiptoµ, meaning “to fall off or away.” Prophecies will fail in two different ways: (1) they will not be fulfilled; and (2) God will no longer reveal anything new. There was a hiatus of approximately four hundred years between the Old Testament and the New Testament in which God was silent. The sun had gone down. Malachi, the last prophet, prophesied that the sun would come up again"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings …” (Mal_4:2). Malachi would not have prophesied of the sun arising if the night had not been coming, and it did come. The people of Israel entered the long night of four hundred years until the coming of Christ. This is the same picture that Micah presents. At the present time the United States has moved into the same position as that into which Israel had moved in Micah’s day. It is easy for the very sophisticated historians to characterize as narrow-minded and bigoted the men and women who first came to settle in this country. Well, they were imperfect human beings, but even those who were not Christians had a knowledge of and a reverence for the Word of God. Both Harvard and Yale universities were founded to train ministers so that the people in this country would not be in that darkness of ignorance concerning the Word of God. Well, I tell you, their light has gone out, hasn’t it? The very places that were supposed to be great educational centers and great lights for this country turned away from God a long time ago.
The night is upon us today. At the universities we have had some of the worst riots this nation has ever seen. They have been the very hotbeds of darkness. It is at the university where the worship of Satan originated, and that is where it is being propagated. I have a newspaper clipping telling about a professor who is now involved in the worship of Satan and who indulges in the occult. We are in a period of time, it seems to me, when the sun of revelation has gone down.
When I speak of revelation, I am talking about the illumination of the Word of God. The very centers which should be giving light from the Word of God are not doing it anymore. In fact, they are rejecting and turning their backs on God and turning to the occult. This is what Micah is talking about when he says, “Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.”
Micah 3:7
Micah is saying that there shall be such gross darkness that those who are false prophets will make fools of themselves because of the fact that their prophecies will not come to pass. You will recall that this was the thing Ahab discovered, only he discovered it too late. All of the false prophets told him to go and fight in the war. Only one prophet, God’s man, told him that if he went to war he would not come back but would be slain. That true prophet was Micaiah. It was too bad Ahab didn’t listen to him, because Ahab went to war and was slain, just as Micaiah said (see 1Ki_22:1-28). God’s men tell it like it is, and they tell the truth. My friend, there is no use trying to cover up the sins in the church. It has become revolting to hear of the many men who are classed as religious leaders, yet are involved in reprehensible conduct, and who, under the guise of being Christians, are prospering. We need to read again Heb_12:6: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Why does the Lord do that? He does it because He doesn’t want us to be illegitimate. He says to us, “I chasten you and I discipline you so that you can know and the world can know that you are My child.” Did you know that William the Conqueror actually signed his name William the Bastard because he was illegitimate? I am of the opinion that many church members could sign their names the same way. You might be able to say, “I am a deacon in the church, I am a Sunday school teacher, I am a leader in the church, or I am a preacher,” but you would have to write under your name what William the Conqueror wrote under his name when he signed it. You would have to admit, “I am really not a legitimate child of God.
I have not really been born again. I do not really know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I do not love Him. I do not seek to serve Him. I am not interested in His Word at all.” In Micah’s day the false prophet was in that same position. He was speaking smooth words to comfort the people. The people had itching ears, and the prophet would scratch them, you see, by saying what they wanted to hear. Then they in turn would scratch the ears of the prophet by telling him how wonderful he was. “My, what a great preacher you are because you say such nice things. Everything must be all right.” They were living in luxury, but the level of immorality was frightening. Now notice that Micah is very careful to separate himself from that group.
Micah 3:8
It took intestinal fortitude to be an unpopular preacher delivering a message the people hated, but Micah could say, “I know that the Spirit of God is leading me to say what I am saying.” It is wonderful to be in that position, my friend.
Micah 3:9
SINS OF THE LEADERS OF JERUSALEMIn this final division, Micah turns specifically to Jerusalem. Heretofore he has been speaking to the northern kingdom of Israel; but now he bundles together the prophets, the princes, and the priests of the southern kingdom, and he pronounces judgment upon all of them. He says, “Listen to me, I have something to say to you.” Then he details their sins.
Micah 3:10
“The heads thereof judge for reward …the priests thereof teach for hire …the prophets thereof divine for money.” What is the thing that they all have in common? Greed, covetousness. My friend, that was the worst kind of idolatry even in the day of idols! Today we don’t have an idol sitting aroundat least I hope you don’t. While it is true that superstition is gaining ground and multitudes of folk are following the horoscope, we still have not reverted to the base idolatry that existed in Micah’s day; yet our covetousness is idolatry. Micah brings into focus Israel’s real sin: idolatry, since covetousness is idolatry.
The judges were judging for reward; the priests were teaching for hire; and the prophets were divining for money. They were all doing it for what they could get out of it for themselves. They did not take God into consideration, nor did they take the people into consideration. They were willing to walk over them. No wonder the charge was made: “You eat them up like cannibals because of your greed and love of money.” When the leadership of a nationboth civil and religiousis evil, no form of government will work. This is Micah’s message to us.
Micah 3:12
This is a prediction that for their sins there will be a complete desolation of the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah quotes Micah as having said this (see Jer_26:18), which is a confirmation of the prophecy. The destruction did take place when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem. In the first chapters of the Book of Nehemiah, we see the significance of it. When Nehemiah went back to Jerusalem, he found it in a mess. It was nothing but debris, ashes, rubble, and ruin.
It seemed like a hopeless task to rebuild the city. The Talmud, which is a Jewish writing, records the fact that at the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in A.D. 70, an officer of the Roman army (Rufus, by name) actually plowed up the foundations of the temple with a plowshare. Many scholars reject that tradition, although the Jewish historian Jerome also noted it, as did the Jewish philosopher Maimonides. Personally, I think the tradition is accurate. Both Nebuchadnezzar and Titus the Roman were certainly capable of doing a thing like that. Whether or not that particular tradition is accurate, Jerusalem even today bears the scars of the accurate fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy.