Week 11 - Micah 6:9-16 - Differing Weights

Micah cries out in this passage against the detestable practice of differing weights.  

Micah 6:10-11
Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
    and the scant measure that is accursed?

Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales 

    and with a bag of deceitful weights?

A scale is used in commerce.  The product on one side and a weight on the other.  

If the proprietor has two bags of weights, one lighter than the other, he can reach for one when selling and one when purchasing.  This practice is forbidden by the Law.

Leviticus 19:36

You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

The proprietor can also use one for certain customers and one for others.  This is also forbidden.  The scales of justice should work the same for all.

Deuteronomy 25:13

You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’

How do we use differing weights?  Do we treat the powerful different from the weak?  The rich different from the poor?  The beautiful different from the ugly?  The theologically correct different from those with a different view?  The list goes on to include physical attributes of color and obesity, but also include voluntary activities of tattoos and sexual orientation.

Micah also reminds us of the rod of God.

Micah 6:9b 

Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!

A rod hung on a hook in the kitchen pantry of my childhood home.  It was obviously old and has been my grandmothers.  It was to punish naughty child, or I was told.  To my knowledge it was never used, but it sure sent a message.

In this passage each injustice is met by God's consistent judgement.

Micah 6:13-15 

Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, . . .

You shall eat, but not be satisfied, . . .

you shall put away, but not preserve, . . . 

You shall sow, but not reap;

    you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;

    you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine

This is to our comfort.  As it says:

Psalm 23:4

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 

    I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

    your rod and your staff,

    they comfort me.

In response to evil, we know the God will apply his punishment with absolute justice.  He does not show favoritism.  

In contrast, imagine a family, a team, a department, a company, or a country, where rules are applied differently.  There would indeed be no comfort.

So, in the age of critical race theory and the Woke culture, we must respond by treating people the same.  Showing love and ensuring justice for all. 

Week 10 - Micah 6:1-8 - God's Requirement

God brings an indictment against Israel with the questions:

 

“O my people, what have I done to you?

    How have I wearied you? Answer me!

Has the Lord asked too much of Judah?  

 

Following the Septuagint translation of “wearied” from Hebrew (lā'â) into the Greek (parenochleō), we see the example in Acts 15:19-21, where at the Jerusalem Counsel they decided that Gentile believers need not to follow Jewish law.  They were not to be “troubled” with that burden.

 

So, God’s indictment starts by questioning if the Covenant conditions had been too burdensome.  But then proceeds to recall some of what he has done to hold up His end of the bargain:

• Protection from famine and the escape from Egypt (1 Chronicles 6:2-4).
• Protection from Balak, when God used a donkey to command Balaam to bless them (Numbers 22-24) instead.
• Miracle at Shittim and Gilgal, when they crossed the Jordan River on dry ground during the harvest floods  (Joshua 3-4).

He then asks the questions that they should be asking themselves.  With what would God be pleased (rāṣâ)?

 

“With what shall I come before the Lord?

    and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

    with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,    with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

 

This word indicates the payment of a satisfactory transaction.  It pokes fun at the religion-for-hire that was being practiced and was being condemned by Micah (Micah 1:7).

 

The passage concludes with another convicting question:

 

He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness, 
    and to walk humbly with your God?

So, what payment is actually required of us? None.  What purification by us is actually required?  None.  What piety by us is actually required?  None.  

Instead, we are to:

• do (ʿāśâ) justice (mišpāṭ), 
• love ('ahăḇâ) mercy (ḥāsaḏ) and 
• walk (yālaḵ) humbly (ṣānaʿ).

Hebrew normally does not have the precision of Greek.  Here however, the words are very, very, specific.  Our personal acts should be just; our desire for ourselves and others should be for mercy (rather than judgement), and we should walk knowing we are indebted to God (with no ability to repay Him).

God does not desire any action on our part that would attempt to remove that need for humbleness, that would remove that need for mercy, or remove the need for the just punishment for our sin.  He has already paid the penalty for our sin, he has already been merciful to us, and we Ought to walk very humbly as a result.

 

Week 9 - In that Day - Micah 5:7-15

As a youth my hobby was old cars.  I was a member in good standing of the “High Hopes Historic Auto Club”.  Car meets.  Barn finds.  Petromobilia.  Junk yards.  Some very fond memories.

If I collect cars, and spend an inordinate amount of time waxing/repairing/going to car meets, has it become an idol?

One can argue that anything that competes with God is an idol.  If something else consumes what would be your tithe is that an idol?  Not managing your finances properly is a sin, but simply having too much debt to service does not make it an idol.

In this passage, we are told of several idols that would be removed from Israel.  The first to be removed was horses and chariots, which were the ancient world's ’64 Corvair Convertible, but I digress.

How can a horse/chariot be an idol?

Psalm 20:7

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

    but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

It is not that you spend money and time on horses, it is that you put your trust in them.  Actually, the first word “trust” is not in the Hebrew, and the second is actually “remember” (zāḵar).  The Israelites did not need to trust in some future event, but simply remember all the past ones 

Trust-idols identify themselves.  Or better said they animate themselves into idols:

·       “My 401K will give us a comfortable retirement”

·       “My gun will protect us.”

·       “My exercise program will give me a long life.”

They become the subject (the actor), and not the object.  When these thoughts creep in, we are asked to “remember” that God is the source.  He is the dew and the rain, that no man can direct (Micah 5:7).  He alone is the source.

When does a tree become an idol?  Trees become Asherah, when the tree becomes a deity.  

Deity-idols are rarer today, but it only takes one.  And that one is usually us!  We reveal that with the tiny word “I”:

·       I built up a sizable 401K.  

·       I have made a great marriage.

·       I have made a great position for myself at work.

When we change the source from God to us, we have made ourselves a deity.  We are the idols.

The caution here is that God is jealous.  He will not stand by and allow idol worship.  Because in that day He will take away the chariot, as He did with my butter-yellow and black convertible.  

Week 8 - A Little Town - Micah 5:2-6

Read Micah 5:2 and then listen to how the chief priests and scribes of the New Testament twist Micah’s prophecy:

Matthew 2:3-6

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the peo-ple, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler

    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

They move the tiny Bethlehem from being a part of the house (not even a clan) of Ephrathah, to being a part of the kingdom of Judah.  Instead of highlighting how small it was, they make it bigger than an untold number of other towns.  They vault both its size and importance.  

More striking, they leave out the tiny phrase “for me”.  They leave out the divine purpose and delegation of authority and make the ruler self-appointed.

Micah’s prophecy concludes with what would happen in the near term.  In it Micah shows us how we are to act within that delegated authority.  Listen for “we will . . . he shall”:

Micah 5:5-6

When the Assyrian comes into our land

    and treads in our palaces,

then we will raise against him seven shepherds

    and eight princes of men;

they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,

    and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;

and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian

    when he comes into our land

    and treads within our border.

We do not need to vault our own image and importance.  We need to vault God’s size and sovereignty.  We should never act out of our own importance.  Nor should we never not-act out of our own unimportance.  Instead, knowing God’s purpose and sovereignty, we should act.  

Week 7 - A Strong Nation - Micah 4:6-5:1

Micah, declares that it is God's plan to build a strong nation (Micah 4:3) from those who have been scattered far off (hālā'). 

Micah 4:6-7 

In that day, declares the Lord,
    I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away
    and those whom I have afflicted;
and the lame I will make the remnant,
    and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion
    from this time forth and forevermore.

That word (in scripture only used here) describes those who, even at a distance, will obey the Word of God.

He goes on to specifically predict how this nation will start.

Micah 4:8 

And you, O tower of the flock,
    hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you shall it come,
    the former dominion shall come,
    kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

Micah predicts that the former dynasty, that is the line of David, will once again be established.  This verse speaks both of Jerusalem itself as the "daughter Zion", but also of a specific daughter of Jerusalem. 

Luke 1:30-33

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 

The British say “The proof is in the pudding” or the earlier version “The proof of the pudding is in the eating”.  Traditional British pudding is essential a sausage of various meats and cereals.  The infamous haggis, which is the national dish of Scotland, is a pudding.  And it is hard to tell from its looks or its smell, if it is going to be any good.  One must eat it.

The proof of the prophet is in the fulfillment.

Jeremiah 28:9

. . . when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”

What the prophet Micah boldly spoke 3,500 years ago came true in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.  What Micah spoke about our destiny on the Day of our Lord, will also come to pass.  A mighty prophet spoke it.  A mighty Christian believes it.

It is that proof, we carry into the battle that is at hand.  That battle might scatter us, kill us, but we know that we all will once again muster.

Week 6 - The Word of the Lord - Micah 4:1-5

The Word of the Lord has an effect even at a distance.  

We know this from the New Testament story of a civically important Roman Centurion, who once humbly asked the elders of the Jews to approach Jesus and to ask Him on his behalf to heal his servant.  

When Jesus obliged and started walking to his home, the Centurion sent friends to stop him along the way:

Luke 7:6-8 

“Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Micah begins this chapter by quoting his contemporary Isaiah (Isaiah 2:2-4).  But Micah alters the quote slightly to highlight the power of that Word.

Micah 4:3

. . . and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;

For a king to have dominion over a "strong" nation "far away" either he must have a stronger army to impose his will or that distant or that nation must voluntarily subjects itself.

If we subject ourselves to that Word, it will bring us to that place of peace:

Micah 4:4

. . . they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,

    and no one shall make them afraid,

    for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

Week 5 - As for Me - Micah 3

In this chapter Micah describes the actions of the leaders and the prophets.  They are exactly the opposite of what they should be.

• The leaders instead of shepherding the flock are slaughtering them and figuratively extracting as much wealth from them as possible.  Micah uses the analogy (Micah 3:1-4) of a cook preparing soup and extracting even the marrow of the bones.  God's punishment for them is to remove his favor and protection of their wealth.
• The prophets instead of sharing what God has revealed to them, they change (Micah 3:5-7) their message based on how well they are treated by their audience.  God's punishment for them it to remove his message.

But as for Micah, himself, he is empowered to fulfill his duty:

Micah 3:8

But as for me, I am filled with power,

    with the Spirit of the Lord,

    and with justice and might,

First with justice (mišpāṭ), which is applying judgement rightly, but he is also described as doing it with with might (gᵊḇûrâ), which is applying strength with virtue.  This normally describes the valor of a mighty warrior.  Only here is it applied to a prophet.

While he is surrounded by powerful people who corrupt with money.  He must be mighty to speak the truth.  When favoritism and money can change what is taught and what judgement is executed, he must stand his ground.

We are given the same task and equipped not with the physical armor of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:5-6) but with the spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:14-18).  Not wielding the huge sword of Goliath, now the precise but deadly stone of David, but rather the sword of the Spirit.  

I wrote a musing a while back to describe this battle, may it remind us of the battle lines, the true enemy and over what we are fighting.

Our best deeds are as filthy rags.  Instead, we are covered with the righteousness of Christ.  Secure with that truth, it is with peace that we run into battle.  It is in faith that we engage the enemy, and wield the Word of God. 

Though the battle is all around us, not a single person is an enemy.  Rather it is against our common enemy that we fight -- the one who uses lies, doubt, and fear to hold one captive. 

When we stand our hard-fought ground, he will flee at the sound of our Master's name. For it is in the name of Jesus we pray and it is for captive souls we fight.