Micah 3

0:00Welcome to Bible chapter every day, I'm Matthew, our chapter today is Micah 3. Let's go to God in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we read your Word and we consider what you want, what really matters, we pray that you would help us to use the positions that you have given to us for the right purpose, to the benefit of the people that you have given us authority over. Pray this through Jesus, amen. Micah 3. And I said, listen, O heads of Jacob and leaders of the House of Israel, is it not for you to know justice? Those of you who are haters of good and lovers of evil, who tear their skin from them and their flesh from their bones and who eat the flesh of my people and strip their skin

1:01from them and break their bones and chop them like meat in the pot, and like flesh in the midst of a cooking pot. Then they will cry to Yahweh, but He will not answer them. He will hide His face from them at that time, when they have made their deeds evil. Thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets, who are leading my people astray, who are biting with their teeth and proclaim peace, but whoever puts nothing in their mouths, they declare war against. Therefore, it will be as night to you without vision and darkness to you without divination, and the sun will set on the prophets, and the day will grow dark over them. Then the seers will be disgraced, and those practicing divination will be put to shame, all of them will cover their lips, for there is no reply from God.

2:06But I, I am filled with power, with the spirit of Yahweh, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob His rebellion, and Israel His sin. Hear this, so rulers of the house of Jacob, and leaders of the house of Israel, those detesting justice, and perverting all that is right. He who builds Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with wickedness. It's rulers judge for a bribe. It's priests teach for a price. It's prophets practice divination for money, but they lean on Yahweh saying, is not Yahweh in our midst, disaster will not come upon us. Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will be a heap of rubble, and the temple mount, as a high place in a forest. Well, that's the reading. Let's dig in.

3:12Micah started his prophecy in chapter 1, verse 2, with the word, here. And now, in chapter 3, he starts with this word, translated now, listen. The first section talked about God coming in judgment on the northern kingdom of Israel, and their capital, Samaria, and also on the southern kingdom of Judah, and their capital, Jerusalem. In chapter 2, he got into some of the reasons why God will judge, the injustice that is going on, people who are getting rich by oppressing the poor. They were taking people's land, so God says that the land will be taken from them. But at the end of chapter 2, he had a little bit of good news for the future. Eventually, God would gather his people like sheep and lead them. So now, with the word, listen, we start another section, and this is addressed to the leaders. He asks if they should know justice, which, of course, they should. That's the point of leaders,

4:17to make sure that justice is done. But he says they are basically eating people. That's poetic. They weren't cannibals. But basically, they were looking at the people they were leading as prey to feed themselves. Then Yahweh turns to the prophets who are happy to say things will be fine, as long as they're being paid to have something in their mouth to eat. But if someone won't pay them, then they prophesy bad things. So Yahweh says they will not get visions from him. In contrast, Micah says he's filled with the spirit of Yahweh in order to point out the sins of Israel. He says the leaders, the rulers, the priests, and the prophets have built Jerusalem with blood. They've done it by harming people, and they're all in it for their own gain. So Jerusalem will be destroyed and turned to rubble. We know that happened when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. And now for a deeper dive. Why do we do what we do? What is our motivation? Most politicians

5:28will say that they want the office so that they can serve the people. But then we hear about the ways that they seem to be getting rich from their position. Or some maybe just like the power. Of course, this isn't limited to politicians. There are plenty of men who think that their position as head of the house can be used selfishly. There are parents who abuse their children. Basically, any position of power can be abused to the benefit of the one in power. And so, in the United States, we try to limit power. We got rid of kings. We got rid of slavery. But there are always positions of power and always ways to abuse them. There isn't a lot that you and I can do on a large scale to solve the problem. But we can look at ourselves. Most of us at one time or another will have a small position of power.

6:28Some authority. What do we use it for? Do we use it to feed ourselves? Or do we use it to help those that we have power over? Jesus had great power and authority. And he became a poor man and then died a horrible death to save us. That's how he used his power. Scripture quotations are from the Lexum English Bible. Copyright 2012, Logos Bible Software. Lexum is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.