Project 119: Micah 3
| Project 119 | Dr. Wayne Splawn
Who was to blame for the false worship and unjust living that characterized God’s people during the time of Micah’s prophetic ministry? According to Micah 3, God’s prophets had an important role to play in the spiritual and ethical demise of God’s people. Rather than being honest and sincere in their proclamation of God’s word, the prophets in Micah’s day catered to the desires of the people. To those who met the prophets’ material needs, the prophets would deliver a message of peace, but to those who opposed the prophets, the prophets would deliver a message of judgement (Micah 3:5). They were nothing more than preachers for hire who were more than ready to tell their benefactors exactly what they wanted to hear.
This passage is a good word of warning for someone like me who regularly teaches Bible studies and preaches sermons. If I am not careful, I will be tempted to craft messages to meet the desires of other people. But, if I am to be a faithful messenger of God’s word, I must be prepared to speak the truth, even when it is an unpopular word of rebuke. You may not preach and teach the Bible on a regular basis, but you will often find yourself in a place where speaking the truth of God’s word will be unpopular and threaten to put you at odds with others. In those moments, pray that the Lord would help you to remain faithful amidst pressure to say what others want to hear. We never want to be unnecessarily offensive, but we also must be faithful and trust that God will meet our every need.
Micah 3 (ESV):
Rulers and Prophets Denounced
1 And I said:
Hear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice?—
2 you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
and their flesh from off their bones,
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.
4 Then they will cry to the LORD,
but he will not answer them;
he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.
5 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets
who lead my people astray,
who cry “Peace”
when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
who puts nothing into their mouths.
6 Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without divination.
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;
7 the seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;
they shall all cover their lips,
for there is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, 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.
9 Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
10 who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets practice divination for money;
yet they lean on the LORD and say,
“Is not the LORD in the midst of us?
No disaster shall come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height.