Miquéias 3

Miquéias 3

MICAH - WHO IS LIKE JEHOVAH? Chart from recommended resource Jensen's Survey of the OT - used by permission Chart by Charles Swindoll MICAH: WHO IS LIKE JEHOVAH? RETRIBUTION Micah 1:1-2:13 KINGDOM Micah 3:1-5:15 WORSHIP Micah 6:1-7:20 First Message: Judgment Will Come Second Message: Blessing will follow Judgment Third Message: An Indictment of Sin & A Promise of Blessing Judgment Micah 1:1-2:11 Promise Micah 2:12-13 Judgment Micah 3:1-12 Promise Micah 4:1-5:15 Judgment Micah 6:1-7:10 Promise Sin and Judgment Hope and Comfort Controversy and Pardon Sin & It's Outcome Incurable The King & His Kingdom Inevitable First Coming - Mic 5:2-3 Second Coming - Mic 5:4-15 The Lord & His Justice Inescapable Message of Destruction for Samaria & Judah Message of Doom & Deliverance Message of Denunciation God Gathers to Judge and Deliver God Judges Rulers and Comes to Deliver God Brings Indictments and Ultimate Deliverance Question 1: Is God Responsible for the Destruction we face? Question 2: How Do We Know God is with Us? Question 3: What Does God Want from Us? About 25 Years 735-710 BC Approximated Micah 3:1 And I said, "Hear now, heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know justice? Hear. Mic 3:9,10; Isaiah 1:10; Jeremiah 13:15-18; 22:2,3; Hosea 5:1; Amos 4:1 Is it Deuteronomy 1:13-17; 16:18; 2 Chronicles 19:5-10; Psalms 14:4; 82:1-5; Jeremiah 5:4,5; 1 Corinthians 6:5 Micah 3-5 = The Second Oracle Deliverance to Doom (Micah 3:1-12) Micah 3:1-4 - To the Leaders Micah 3:5-8 - To the Prophets Micah 3:9-12 - To the Leaders Deliverance from Doom (Micah 4:1-5:15) Hear - "Listen!" calls for the reader's full attention. (He repeats this summons in Mic 3:9) - This introduces an important message to follow. Micah's issues 6 commands to Hear - Mic 1:2, 3:1, 9, 6:1, 2, 9. Powerful prophetic (fore- and in our day forth- telling) proclamation without fear of potential persecution has always been a mark of the Spirit filled (Micah 3:8) minister - cf 1Ki 17:1; Mt. 14:4; Acts 4:13, 18–20, 31; Gal. 2:6, 11 Hear (08085) (Shama) is an imperative (command). This recalls Judaism's basic confession of faith, the "Shema" in Dt 6:4-6 (cf Dt 4:1, Hos 4:1, Amos 3:1). It is a call to listen, to heed and respond by putting into practice what is heard. Shama Introduces the three main sections - Mic 1:1 (Mic 1-2), Mic 3:1 (Mic 3-5), Mic 6:1 (Mic 6-7). This command reminds us of Jesus' repeated phrase "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" (Mt 11:15, 13:9, 43, Mk 4:9, Lk 8:8, 14:35). It is most unwise (even dangerous!) to turn away our ear when the Lord is speaking! Do you (I) ever do this? Do we (I) read a portion of God's precious Word in the morning and totally forget what I have read even before noon? This also reminds me of the warning in Hebrews "Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS." (Heb 3:7-8-note quoting Ps 95:7-8-note cp Heb 3:15-note, Heb 4:7-note) "See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned [them] on earth, much less [shall] we [escape] who turn away from Him who [warns] from heaven." (Heb 12:25-note) The point is... Listen! God is speaking! This is important! Heads...rulers- Mic 3:1-4, 9-12 address the leaders (many think primarily judges, magistrates). These "civil servants" were hardly "civil" and certainly not there to serve but to take (and to be "on the take!). Is it not for you to know justice?- Clearly the answer to this rhetorical question is "Yes!" - The leaders and rulers were supposed to know, love and practice justice, "right from wrong." (NLT) These leaders were a far cry from the qualifications Moses enumerated in Ex 18:21! It is not that they did not intellectually know the law codes but that they lacked the compassionate, just hearts to practice the law. Waltke - Know designates not merely intellectual appreciation of the law or of legal exigencies, but also personal knowledge of it, so that out of sympathy for the afflicted one punishes the wrongdoer and re-establishes the outcast of fortune in his right. Justice is a key word in Micah 3 = Mic 3:1, 8, 9, 6:8, 7:9 with "injustice" in Mic 3:10. Justice (04941)(mishpat) has the primary sense of exercising the processes of government. The word includes a judgment, a legal decision rendered, justice as a state or condition of fairness in disputes. Justice "refers to the entire process of the administration of justice, including hearing the case, rendering a decision, pronouncing a verdict, and implementing the sentence." (Patterson) Vine on mishpat - This word has two main senses; the first deals with the act of sitting as a judge, hearing a case, and rendering a proper verdict. Eccl. 12:14 is one such occurrence: “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Mishpat can also refer to the “rights” belonging to someone (Ex. 23:6). This second sense carries several nuances: the sphere in which things are in proper relationship to one’s claims (Gen. 18:19—the first occurrence); a judicial verdict (Deut. 17:9); the statement of the case for the accused (Num. 27:5); and an established ordinance (Ex. 21:1). Davis parodies the corrupt justice system - Downtown Jerusalem, 3.00 a.m. Imagine a lone figure struggling along; he lugs a small sledgehammer and a newly-painted placard on a chunk of half-inch plywood to which he has nailed two stakes. He drags his cargo across the small lawn until he is right in front of the squat stone sign that identifies the building as the ‘Hall of Justice’. He positions his sign, hammers in the stakes with his sledge and walks away. Five hours later Judah’s civil servants arrive for work and read: Jerusalem stockyards—best butchers in town; we slaughter, skin, slice and serve! Micah 3:2 "You who hate good and love evil, who tear off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones, hate 1 Kings 21:20; 22:6-8; Amos 5:10-14; Luke 19:14; John 7:7; 15:18,19,23,24; Acts 7:51,52; Romans 12:9; 2 Timothy 3:3 love 2 Chronicles 19:2; Psalms 15:4; 139:21,22; Proverbs 28:4; John 18:40; Romans 1:32 tear off Psalms 53:4; Isaiah 3:15; Ezekiel 22:27; 34:3; Amos 8:4-6; Zephaniah 3:3; Zechariah 11:4,5 LEADERS ACTING LIKE WILD SAVAGES RAVENOUS BEASTS You who hate good and love evil (ra' = 07451) - It is a dire situation for any nation when the leaders invert and pervert the truth for personal gain and choose to believe the lie! Pr 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil" (cf Pr 3:7, 14:27, Pr 16:6, Neh 5:15, Eccl 12:13, 14) It follows that these corrupt leaders in Micah 3:2 had no holy, reverential fear of the Holy God! Job 1:1 (cf Job 28:28) There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. Notice the effect of Job's fear on his choices. It follows these leaders had no fear of God! Ps 97:10-note Hate evil, you who love the LORD, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Isa 1:17-note Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. Amos 5:14 Seek good and not evil, that you may live; And thus may the LORD God of hosts be with you, Just as you have said! 15) Hate evil, love good, And establish justice in the gate! Perhaps the LORD God of hosts May be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Who tear off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones - A striking metaphor (ripping right down to the bone!) depicting the depth of depravity of these despicable leaders, who were veritable "butchers" of their own flesh and blood! Unconscionable! Flesh (07607)(sheer) is masculine noun meaning flesh, food, meat, body, self, blood relative, blood kindred. Gilbrant - "Sheer seems to mean "food" in Ex. 21:10 and "food" or "meat" in Ps. 78:20, where it is paralleled by lechem (bread) refers to tearing off of the flesh of God's people (Mic. 3:2), when the rich are oppressing the poor. It can stand for the frail physical aspects of being human as opposed to God's enduring support for us (Ps. 73:26; Pr 5:11). The noun refers to the actual mistreatment of the body or flesh of the Israelites by the Babylonians (Jer. 51:35)." It can mean "kinship, a relative, even close relations (Lev 18:6). Sexual relations were forbidden with a person's paternal aunt because she was literally considered a parent's "flesh" (Lev. 18:12f; 21:2)." (Complete Biblical Library Hebrew-English Dictionary) NIDOTTE - OT 1. Ps 78:20, 27 uses the word of the quail meat God provided for the Israelites as they wandered through the wilderness (cf. Ex 16:13; Nu 11:31). In a scathing denunciation of socioeconomic injustice, Micah (Mic 3:1–3) accused Israel’s rulers of tearing his oppressed people’s flesh from their bones and eating it. This imagery of cannibalism highlights in a vivid, albeit hyperbolic manner, the cruel unjust measures enacted by the rich against the poor. See J. Mays, Micah, 1976, 79. 2. Ps 73:26 and Prov 5:11 view human שְׁאֵר as the seat of physical strength and vitality. The psalmist of Ps 73 declares his confidence that even if his strength (flesh) grows weak, God is capable of sustaining him. Though some understand the statement, in conjunction with v. 24, as the psalmist’s hope for the afterlife (cf. M. Dahood, Psalms, 1968, 2:195–96), this seems unlikely in the context of the Psalter. Verse 24 probably anticipates the psalmist’s vindication in this life, and “fail” (v. 26) need not refer to death per se, but can describe the physical weakness characteristic of those approaching death (cf. Job 33:21; Ps 71:9; 143:7; Prov 5:11). Sheer - 17x - blood relative(4), blood relatives(2), body(1), flesh(4), food(1), himself(1), meat(2), relative(1), relatives(1). Exod. 21:10; Lev. 18:6; Lev. 18:12; Lev. 18:13; Lev. 18:17; Lev. 20:19; Lev. 21:2; Lev. 25:49; Num. 27:11; Ps. 73:26; Ps. 78:20; Ps. 78:27; Prov. 5:11; Prov. 11:17; Jer. 51:35; Mic. 3:2; Mic. 3:3 Tear off (gazal) is used in Micah 2:2 where it is translated "seize" (referring to what the corrupt leaders did to land that belonged to their brethren). Kaiser - In effect, Micah says, these rulers became nothing more than brutal butchers who cannibalized God’s people and skinned them alive (Mic 3:2–3). They were concerned only for themselves; everyone else could fend for themselves! Tear...eat...strip off...break...chop - Emphasizes the cruelty, the brutality and inhumanity of the leaders toward the people. They remind us of the so-called shepherd-leaders described by Ezekiel 34:2-11. The leaders should have been faithful shepherds like those described in Mic 2:12, 7:14. Micah 3:3 Who eat the flesh of my people, strip off their skin from them, break their bones And chop them up as for the pot And as meat in a kettle." chop Ezekiel 11:3,6,7 LEADERS ACTING LIKE BUTCHERS Who eat the flesh (see sheer above) of my people (etc) - Obviously not literal in this context (It is literal in the time when they come under the curse of Deuteronomy and are under siege - Dt 28:53, 54, 55!) Eating flesh was a common metaphor for social oppression (cf "Eat up My people" in Ps 14:4-note, Ps 27:2, Pr 30:14 = "devour the afflicted", cp the actions of their "father" [Jn 8:44] in 1Pet 5:8-note). Just imagine the corrupt leaders hearing Micah's accusations! This graphic metaphor is aimed at awakening the consciences of these reprobates before God's wrath fell on them (cf the Father's heart - 2Pe 3:9-note)! Micah is painting a picture of the extreme degree of oppression and injustice by the leaders - these rulers were "cannibalizing" their own people -- one would think Micah's imagery might stir the consciences of some of these evil men! Davis - Micah didn’t have a camcorder. He had to paint his picture in words only. Hence his savage, graphic, blistering barrage to expose the truth about these judicial officials.