Micah Chapter Three

Read Micah 3:1-4 – The Cruelty of Israel’s Rulers

v.1 “And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?”

It seems that mankind just cannot tolerate prosperity and power without becoming corrupted. We see it today in the chaos of the state government of Illinois, the greed and subsequent fraud perpetrated in our banking system, the abuses and excesses of some of our elected officials. If continued unchecked it just gets worse and worse. Israel had been given several generations to sink into complete degradation and sin. Here the prophet asks, aren’t you the very people that would know without any doubt at all that you will be brought to judgment? Perhaps they were like the Pharisee’s of Jesus day; they denied their bondage to sin because they were God’s chosen people:

John 8:33 “They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?”

But God will bring a special judgment upon the princes of Israel, physical judgment long before their ultimate judgment at the seat of heaven. The Psalmist asks:

Psalms 82:1-5 “GOD STANDETH IN THE CONGREGATION OF THE MIGHTY; HE JUDGETH AMONG THE GODS. HOW LONG WILL HE JUDGE UNJUSTLY, AND ACCEPT THE PERSONS OF THE WICKED?”

We know the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah; therefore the prophet Isaiah these two cities as he charges this same Judah:

“Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.” Isaiah 1:10

v.2 “Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;”

The mindset of these rulers was that they hated good and loved evil. There are many in our world today that suffer from the same malady. In the name of individual freedom they espouse, promote and practice every excess of sin and debauchery known to man. At the same time in contradiction to the freedom they wish to enjoy they ridicule, mock and venomously attack anything and everybody that are trying to be righteous, godly and live according to the commandments and laws of God. We not only see this in the world around us but we also can find shades of it among our liberal, denominationally minded brethren as well. Among these brethren there is nothing more vicious than a wolf in sheep’s clothing when he is exposed.

The rulers and prominent people of Israel were at a point where basically anything goes. They were very cruel and severe towards those under their rule or control. Instead of feeding the flock of God’s people over whom they ruled they fed upon it instead. Micah records in a later chapter that:

“The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. ³That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.” Micah 7:2-3

They became such as those described by the Psalmist in:

Psalms 53:3-4 “EVERY ONE OF THEM IS GONE BACK: THEY ARE ALTOGETHER BECOME FILTHY; there is NONE THAT DOETH GOOD, NO, NOT ONE. HAVE THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY NO KNOWLEDGE? WHO EAT UP MY PEOPLE as THEY EAT BREAD: THEY HAVE NOT CALLED UPON GOD.”

v.3 “Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.”

Is the prophet talking about cannibalism here? No, though during the siege of Jerusalem that did occur. The language is figurative, the same as the language of David used describing his situation:

Psalms 27:2 “WHEN THE WICKED, even MINE ENEMIES AND MY FOES, CAME UPON ME TO EAT UP MY FLESH, THEY STUMBLED AND FELL.”

In Israel we’re told by scholars that they imposed heavier taxes than the people could bear to support their excesses and enforced them rigorously with fines and corporal punishment. They contrived pretended crimes to take away estates and livelihood from certain families of their subjects, just like Jezebel did in I Kings 21. The prophet Zephaniah describes Judah only a short time later:

Zephaniah 3:3 “Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.”

v.4 “Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

The day will come when God will no longer tolerate these people. The day will come when they will face punishment as terrible as their excesses were cruel. The prophet Isaiah echoes God’s warning:

Isaiah 3:11 “Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.”

God will bring them to judgment and exact justice upon them:

Jeremiah 11:11 “Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.”

Then when they cry out to him, much like the rich man to Abraham in Luke 16; God will not hear them. People say, “But that’s awful, God is a God of love he surely wouldn’t do this to anyone. But this was part of his promise to them as his people, part of his covenant with them, part of the law given to them through Moses:

Deuteronomy 31:17 “Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?”

Just as these of the “CHOSEN PEOPLE” of Israel claimed; there will be many today that will claim a relationship with God at the final judgment that will hear:

Matthew 7:23 “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Read Micah 3:5-7 – Judgment Against False Prophets

v.5 “Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.”

False prophets made God’s people err. False teachers and preachers spread error and deceit among God’s people today in addition to the uncounted millions who follow or have followed the teaching of the denominations. The rulers paid prophets to advise them rather than to hear the prophets that God sent. When the king of Israel determined to go up against Ramoth-gilead he didn’t want to hear what God’s prophet would say:

I Kings 22:7-8 “And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might inquire of him? ⁸And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil….”

They wanted to hear deceit, they wanted prophets that would give them the advice that they wanted to hear:

Jeremiah 14:14 “Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.”

The same exist today, not only within false religions but within what was once the Lords’ church. Preachers hired to preach what the people want to hear, to tickle their “ITCHING EARS” (II Timothy 4:3) to address their perceived “felt needs”, who dare not, even if they would preach as Paul did “ALL THE COUNSEL OF GOD” (Acts 20:27).

v.6 “. ⁶Therefore 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.”

They would walk in darkness, the darkness of separation from God. The Apostle John warns us today about fellowship with others and it’s effect on our fellowship with God:

I John 1:5-6 “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:”

If we walk in darkness with those who are in darkness we have no relationship or fellowship with God. The same applied to Israel in the days of Micah.

Isaiah 29:10-12 “For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. ¹¹And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: ¹²And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.”

How many people do you know that depend upon some denominational teacher or preacher to tell them what they should know about the word of God? How many people in the Lord’s church do you know that literally follow the same pathway into darkness. When men discard the Word of God, when men ignore God’s revelation it becomes to them a book that might as well be sealed in a bank vault somewhere. It becomes a book to them that they can no longer read and comprehend because its concepts are foreign to them. They and Israel become as Isaiah describes in another place:

“We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.” Isaiah 59:10

If we chose not to read and study the Word of God we can fall into the same trap.

v.7 “Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.”

God will abandon them. They will be like King Saul of Israel when the armies of Philistia came against him at Gilboa. He had disobeyed God and God had left him:

I Samuel 28:5-6 “And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. ⁶And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.”

They will be like those during the time of the history of our country who have deceived people and predicted the end of the world or the coming of Christ. When their prophecies fail and they are exposed for the charlatans they are they just sort of vanish into oblivion never to be heard from again. They become like those described by Zechariah:

Zechariah 13:4 “And it shall come to pass in that day that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive:”

v.8 “But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.”

Micah is truly one of those of whom the Apostle Peter wrote:

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” II Peter 1:21

He has the power and authority to preach against the sins and transgressions of Israel. He is the spokesman, the voice of God. He was sent to warn God’s people of the danger they are facing. There is no comparison or relationship between Micah nor any other prophet of God and those who are not. Neither is there any relationship between faithful teachers and preachers and those who are not today. Sadly, the man who will stand firm and proclaim the Word of God today without fear or favor is becoming a rarity.

Read Micah 3:9-12 – The Destruction of Jerusalem

v.9 “⁹Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.”

Again, as he did in verse one of this chapter Micah calls all Israel to hear the words of God that he has been given to proclaim. Micah addresses them as those “THAT ABHOR JUDGMENT”, those that “PERVERT EQUITY”. That is their nature; that is their life and living; they fit the pattern of the wicked described by David:

Psalms 58:2-4 “YEA, IN HEART YE WORK WICKEDNESS; YE WEIGH THE VIOLENCE OF YOUR HANDS IN THE EARTH. THE WICKED ARE ESTRANGED FROM THE WOMB: THEY GO ASTRAY AS SOON AS THEY BE BORN, SPEAKING LIES. THEIR POISON is LIKE THE POISON OF A SERPENT: they are LIKE THE DEAF ADDER that STOPPETH HER EAR;”

They are as Isaiah described:

Isaiah 1:23 “Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.”

This sounds like some of the people we see in our news broadcasts every day, doesn’t it?

v.10 “They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.”

The princes of Israel, even Judah, most often relied upon their own might and their ability to wage war rather than upon God. We read about Uzziah in our introduction to this book that he built up Judah by virtue of a powerful army.

II Chronicles 26:13 “And under their hand was an army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy.”

They fall under the same condemnation that the prophet Habakkuk spoke against the nation of Assyria:

“Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!” Habakkuk 2:12

and again by Jeremiah against Judah:

Jeremiah 22:13 “Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;”

v.11 “The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.”

The heads of Israel in Micah’s day were like the Pharisees of Jesus day. They “DEVOURED WIDOWS’ HOUSES”, “FOR A PRETENSE” made “LONG PRAYER” were just two of the many sins and transgressions that Jesus pointed out in Matthew 23, but what did they tell him at another time and place?

John 8:33 “They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?”

They were God’s chosen people, they were the seed of Abraham, they couldn’t be lost in sin; they couldn’t possibly be in bondage to Satan. They were guilty as charged. We see in:

Micah 7:2-3 “The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. ³That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.”

v.12 “Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.”

The prophet Jeremiah repeats and confirms the prophecy made here by Micah:

Jeremiah 26:18 “Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.”

The prophet says that Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become heaps. Secular history records that three towers were spared and a wall used to afford a place for the Roman garrison to camp was preserved. “But for all the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited.” Josephus, “Wars of the Jews”, Book VII, Chapter 1. Josephus was a Jewish historian, reported to be an eye witness of the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in AD 70.

William L. Schwegler, Sunset church of Christ, Shreveport, LA; January 4, 2009