Revealing the Heart of the People

Good morning. Welcome to this gathering of Hope Bible Fellowship. I’ve glad to have you with us as we continue to walk through the book of the prophet Micah. Go ahead and open your Bible to Micah chapter 3 as that’s where we will be camped out this morning.

This section begins the second movement or oracle of Micah and focuses in on the corruption of the political leaders and the religious leaders. Micah is also going to pronounce a coming judgement on Jerusalem. The main idea I want to circle around is what the corruption of these political and religious leaders tells us about where there hearts were and hopefully see where our hearts are as well.

Let’s begin by reading Micah 3: 1-12.

Micah 3:1–12 ESV

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.

PRAY

I. Judgement of the political leaders.

Micah begins with a call for the people to pay attention. Listen to the Lord speaking! This is important! It is extremely dangerous to ignore the Lord as He speaks. It’s dangerous to harden your hearts to His voice.

Proverbs 7:24

Proverbs 7:24 ESV

24 And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

Just as they were refusing to pay attention and heed the Word of the Lord, let us not do the same. Let us not hold the very Word of God in our hands and read it and then walk away from it and neglect or directly disobey what it says. This Word is the same as if God was standing right in front of us talking to us.

The people were ignorant. Ignorance is a lack of knowing. There are two different kinds of ignorance.

There is an ignorance that comes due to life situation or circumstances. You might be ignorant to something because of lack of an education in that thing or due to where you grew up and the importance or non-importance counted to that particular thing. That’s not your fault but is a product of where you are from or how your life developed around you.

But there is a second type of ignorance. It’s a willfull ignorance. It is self-inflicted. This is the type of person who has been exposed to the truth and yet wilfully chooses to ignore what they know and really just embrace ignorance. They have rejected knowledge.

Hosea 4:6 ESV

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

They had been handed knowledge and they outright rejected it. Instead they had embraced idols and rejected God’s commands. They were facing the potential of destroyed by their sinful choices. We see the same pattern when we embrace idols and reject God’s counsel. We also face the potential to be destroyed by our sinful choices.

In what ways had they rejected the council of God?

1. First, as the leaders, they should have been protecting the people and making just decisions.

They should have truly understood justice.

In Exodus we find what God’s counsel was to the political leaders in Israel.

Exodus 23:6–8 ESV

6 “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit. 7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. 8 And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

The poor had no chance in court because of justice being perverted. They could not afford a proper defense and couldn’t afford to bribe the judge. The leadership was to make sure they were acting justly and these wicked leaders were not. They ignored this council.

This is important to God. You can tell because in that Exodus passage He said that, “I will not justify the guilty.” God doesn’t let wickedness go. Sin doesn’t get a pass. He does not and will not simply ignore transgression. God will always punish sin. Sin requires wrath. Our sin requires wrath. We can’t do anything to alter that on our own. But Jesus came and stood condemned in our place. He absorbed the wrath of God due to us on the cross and died in our place. And he rose from the dead three days later, proving that God accepted that payment for our sin as a perfect, once and for all sacrifice. Jesus had to die in order that we be declared righteous because God will not acquit the guilty.

2. Another way they rejected God’s counsel was their abandoning of mercy when they should have been embodying it.

They were stripping everything of value from people. They treated as foreign enemies even those who they were supposed to care for as neighbors. They did not care about others. They only cared about themselves. Verses two and three are particularly graphic in their description.

3. They were filled with pride instead of humility before God and man.

They were so prideful of their having been the chosen people of God that they actually believed that they would get away with their wickedness. They thought they would not face disaster as a result of their idolatry simply because of who they were and that fact that they had long been part of the covenant of Abraham. However, they had broken that covenant. But they still strutted as if nothing could or would touch them. How dangerous is this position!!!!! They were wearing thin the patience of God. He was going to bring judgement. Micah was telling them what was going to happen and yet they still were prideful.

When you have someone warning you with the Word of God, you should pay attention.

They were content to remain in their sin.

I once heard Mark Clifton say that,

“people won’t change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.”

There’s something to that.

II. Judgement on the religious leaders.

Micah turns his rebuke to the religious leaders of the day in verses five through seven and then again in verse 11. These are the people who were responsible for leading the people in their religious practices. They were supposed to be leading them in the worship of Yahweh. They were supposed to be teaching loyalty to the covenant with God, obeying of God’s commands, and how to put God’s counsel into practice in their daily lives. But as we read, they were not doing this. In fact, they were acting in and leading the people in the exact opposite direction.

There is a contrast between the motivations of the false prophets and the true prophet. The false prophets were motivated by popularity and greed. They wanted people to like them so they preached an appealing message. They had no care for the truth of the message but instead wanted it to be positive. They didn’t like Micah preaching such a bleak message of sure destruction. Again, they believed they were secure as children of Abraham. But they were wrong. This is continually evidenced by the fact act they would step up with a positive message for those who would pay them for it. If your religious leaders are greedy for gain and willing to curse those who will not pay them for a good message, then it’s not surprising what the hearts of the people were like. They were being led astray.

One of the starkest words in Micah’s message was to these religious leaders. They would be abandoned by God. It’s tragic because they had the potential to hear from God but He would be silent. One author wrote that “God was consigning them to an existence of spiritual darkness. They would never again hear a word from God.”

God takes the responsibility of leading His people very seriously.

The false prophets and the true prophet.

Where as the false prophets and wicked religious leaders were leading people away from obedience to God’s commands, Micah stood as a true prophet of God, declaring God’s Word to God’s people. In verse eight we find that Micah was filled with God’s power. This power came from God the Holy Spirit.

It was not until God sending His Spirit at Pentecost that believers had the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Before that, He would empower some people to fulfill His sovereign purposes. Because Micah was filled with that power from the Holy Spirit, He could teach and preach courageously about the judgement of God. He was empowered.

As those who have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation, we have the Holy Spirit living in us and empowering us for ministry. Jesus has all authority and He commissioned us with that for His mission.

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We can have courage to serve and make disciples because we have the Spirit of the Living God dwelling in us, if we are His children.

III. Today’s parallels

Micah’s description of his ministry is similar in some ways to that of his contemporary, Isaiah.

Isaiah 61:1–3 ESV

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

- aware they were appointed to a special, prophetic work

- committed to accomplishing their mission

Jesus quotes it 700 years later:

Luke 4:16–30 ESV

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.

- people were amazed

- Then he told them their hearts were so hard

- the people were enraged and tried to throw Him off a cliff

The people - want to kill the messenger

As Bill Curtis writes, “Only this time, the messenger had come to die. Wicked, selfish men coordinated the death of Jesus the Messiah, but a sovereign God orchestrated it. And through His death and resurrection, Jesus would provide a once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world.”

The people 700 years earlier in the days of Micah and Isaiah had forgotten the promise of Messiah. They started putting their hope in other things. They hoped in the government or other nations to protect and provide for them instead of God. They worshipped idols instead of looking to God and waiting for His promised Messiah. They gave up on living godly lives and being obedient to their covenant while looking forward to Messiah’s promised rule and reign and instead they sought for their pleasure and hope in the here and now. They were arrogant in their own wisdom. They trusted in their birthright instead of the giver of that birthright.

Conclusion:

Sounds like today:

- people who give lip service to God

- show up at church once in a while, maybe Christmas and Easter, maybe other times during the year

- God loves me, God understands me, Like He’s not concerned with my lifestyle choices

- Their hope is in their religious activity.

The people in Micah’s day were all about religious activity. But Jesus showed up and turned it on it’s head. God became flesh and dwelled among us. He made a way so that people could not just worship God but could know God. But we have to come in humility, admitting that we are sinners, believing that Jesus is God, that He died in my place, for my sin, and that He was raised from the dead three days later by the power of God. Forgiveness is available but each of us has a responsibility to repent of our sin and believe the good news. It’s not automatic. Not everyone gets it. That’s why we proclaim it, so that many more may come to know Jesus and be saved from the wrath of God on their sin.

Those of us who know Jesus must be watchful. There is a danger for us, as for the people in Micah’s day, that we may substitute our religious activity for our relationship with God. We should heed the warning that if we are not watchful and paying close attention to growing our relationship with God, we can become like those political and religious leaders. God pursues us with His truth. He challenges us to chase truth and to live for the glory of God. We can live for the glory of God as we accept His Word and apply the counsel of the Word of God to our lives every day.

You have a choice before you today:

1. Know Jesus

2. Repent of trusting in other things

3. Surrender to growing your relationship with Jesus

4. Courageously stand in the Spirit of God and make disciples

Pray

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