Week 3 - A Taunt - Micah 2:1-5

The previous chapter described what was about to happen.  This chapter explains why.  Powerful individuals had shaken off the accountability of the assembly and the laws of God.

 

Micah 2:1-2 

Woe to those who devise wickedness

    and work evil on their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

    because it is in the power of their hand.

They covet fields and seize them,

    and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

    a man and his inheritance.   

 

They are no longer accountable to El Shaddai ('ēl šaday),   They have made a new god, the god of their own hand ('ēl yāḏ).  Free from God's law protecting private property (Remember "Thou shalt not steal" and the Year of Jubilee from Leviticus 25?).  They seize land from the less powerful.

 

But the coming calamity was not limited to those powerful individuals.  It was going to be applied to something much larger, the entire "family" (mišpāḥâ).  This is not the small nuclear of the 1040 tax form.  It was as large as the combined kingdoms (See for example Amos 3:1). Because the Jewish nation allowed this sin to go unpunished it would come under judgment.  Because justice was not applied, because the poor were not defended, because the powerful were not punished, the nation was to come under judgment.

 

During that judgment their lands would be seized by a foreign apostate nation and when they did that nation's forces would break out in song!  Micah describes it with the Hebrew equivalent of our childhood playground taunt "Nanna, Nanna, Boo, Boo".  Micah uses three words with consecutive Strong's numbers (nāhâ nᵊhî nihyhā) to describe those forces lamenting back what would be the lamenting lament said by those powerful individuals who were losing what they themselves had stolen.

 

As one leaves the safety of the nest and branches out into a new family that new-found freedom is at first exciting.  But without accountability, families often crumble.  

 

It is unfortunate that the family structure described in Ephesians (Ephesians 5:18-33) abruptly starts with the submission of the wife to husband and creates a seemingly independent family under a single head.  This was never intended.  This would leave the wife without somewhere to appeal.  But a careful reader must read it in context of the book and finds us very connected instead:

Ephesians 2:18-22

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

 

Within the household of God we both support and hold each other accountable.  This is our “family”.  

 

Week 2 - What's in a Name - Micah 1:10-16

In this passage, the vision of Micah gets personal.  He speaks to a series of towns and relates the calamity that is about to occur to the name of their town.  For example,

the lamentation of Beth-ezel

    shall take away from you its standing place.

Beth-ezel contains the Greek word that means proximity ('ēṣel).  This town was a suburb of Jerusalem.  The Septuagint translation speaks of their coming grief -- the loss of those that have been beside them. In the vision that Micah sees, they will lose their longtime standing and source of importance.

We often build our self-worth up from the circumstances and people that surround us.  The loss of a parent, a friend, or even a promotion, can be crushing.  But it need not be.

Isaiah 7:14 

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

It need not be, because God is with us (ʿimmānû'ēl)!  There is much in a name.

Week 1 - What Lies Ahead - Micah 1:1-7

 We take pride in what we gather.  Be it awards, grandchildren, cars, or even friends on Facebook.

Genesis 11:4

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

And to be dispersed would indeed be a tragedy, but Micah was given a vision of what was approaching both Israel and Judah as a result of their apostasy:

• Samaria, the capital of Israel whose stones were gathered to protect them would be scattered and the wealth accumulated through pagan worship would be transferred to others (Micah 1:6-7).
• The residents of Judah, including Micah, would be led away as captives (Micah 1:8-9).

Jesus told a parable that is strikingly parallel to the events of this passage.  It was said after a person in the crowd expressed concern over the handling of their family's estate.  Jesus cautioned him that ". . . one's life does not consist in the abundance" (Luke 12:15) and described what happens to one who only gathers:

Luke 12:19-21

And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”