Repulsive Rulers

One would expect that the rulers or the government authorities to do all that they can to model justice and to make sure that justice prevails. That was not the case for the Israelites. In fact, as we break down these verses today, we’ll see that the first and third sections have to deal with the civil or government leaders. The middle section speaks to the false prophets who were supposed to provide godly counsel to the lay people and the government authorities. Interestingly, there are many parallels to our nation even today.

The northern kingdom had already been captured some seven years prior to chapter 3, so we can assume that what is being spoken is aimed at the Southern kingdom of Judah.

The overriding thought I would like us to remember is this:

We must be careful that we follow not after the world’s leadership, but after the Lord, Who is the only true Leader.

Micah 3:1–12 (NASB95)

And I said, “Hear now, heads of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know justice? “You who hate good and love evil, Who tear off their skin from them And their flesh from their bones, 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.” Then they will cry out to the Lord, But He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time Because they have practiced evil deeds. Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; When they have something to bite with their teeth, They cry, “Peace,” But against him who puts nothing in their mouths They declare holy war. Therefore it will be night for you—without vision, And darkness for you—without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets, And the day will become dark over them. The seers will be ashamed And the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed, they will all cover their mouths Because there is no answer from God. On the other hand I am filled with power— With the Spirit of the Lord— And with justice and courage To make known to Jacob his rebellious act, Even to Israel his sin. Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice And twist everything that is straight, Who build Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with violent injustice. Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, Her priests instruct for a price And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord saying, “Is not the Lord in our midst? Calamity will not come upon us.” Therefore, on account of you Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, And the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest.

Cannibal Caretakers - 3.1-4

The Lord continues to speak through the prophet Micah, specifically to those who were in charge of the nation. They were supposed to watch out for the welfare and protection of Judah. They were the heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel.

Our own nation was founded upon biblical principles and has at its foundation the idea that the government leaders were not to rule nor take advantage of the people for their own benefit, but rather serve the citizens, watching out for their welfare and the overall protection of its people from others who would do us harm.

In these verses, we see that the Lord has some charges to level against Judah’s leaders. The first issue is found in the last part of verse 1. Of all people, the leadership should have known about justice. God is the giver of the law which provides guidelines about justice. But it was more than knowing the information and nuances of the law. The idea behind know was to not only know and understand the law, but then to apply the law to whatever the situation might be, in a fair, just manner, with no partiality. Obviously, this was not happening.

The second problem which is noted is that these same officials hate good and love evil, as seen in verse 2. If God’s law promoted something, these leaders opposed it. If God’s law condemned something, these leaders loved it and encouraged it. To show just how awful the government officials were, a metaphor is given to illustrate how things were. The citizenry are likened to a flock as seen earlier. Here, they are vulnerable to the wild animals that would try to destroy them for their own enjoyment. The words tear off are used in the Old Testament to describe intense oppression. This was seen by the fact that if the citizens had money or property, it was being taken by those in the government. This was actually the opposite of what should have been happening. The laws were being manipulated and the process was being perverted in such a way that true justice was nowhere to be found.

The third area was the leadership’s incredible lack of compassion as seen in verse 3. In fact, it’s so bad, that it is compared to cannibalism. Again, this phrase is also a common phrase used for extreme oppression. Basically, this verse is a stronger repetition of the previous verse. The people were being treated no better than cattle, rather than part of God’s chosen people. The comparison is meant to be quite gruesome to show how evil the leaders were.

Then we come to verse 4, which shows that the Lord is going to bring punishment as a result of the godless, self-centered lives of those in leadership in the government. In the first part of this verse is the picture that when judgment is about to fall, the corrupt leaders will cry out to the Lord, but He will not answer them. Any connection with God has been cut off. The Lord will not be able to be found by those evil leaders who took advantage of the citizens which God had entrusted to them. Why? Because they have practiced evil deeds.

Purchased Prophets - 3.5-8

In this section, the false prophets are singled out for condemnation. If they were truly prophets for God, then this accusation would not be necessary. However, they were individuals who claimed to be prophets. Many scholars refer to these people as a lying prophet, someone who claims to speak God’s word, but does not.

How can we tell that they are false prophets. Again, we find three charges against them that prove this. First is that they lead my people astray. This is seen in the Hebrew as being quite intentional by those who call themselves prophets. The word for this idea carries the thought of intentionally leading astray, misleading, lying to.

The next two areas are two sides of the same coin, if you will. It is seen in how the prophets respond to the different groups. If one group pays them for a good word, the false prophets give a promise of peace. If the other group does not pay them what is wanted, then the prophets declare holy war.

Their purpose in life was to make money off of people for telling them happy lies. If you were unwilling to pay for this, they would try to instill terrible fear and cause trouble by declaring a holy war. Basically, if paid enough money, these charlatans would say that God would allow the people to live peaceful, prosperous, happy lives. The other side of this coin was that if one didn’t pay them and give them what they wanted, that God was going to make life absolutely miserable for the lay people. If they could get the laity to truly fear God as a master of judgment, then they could become wealthy. Never mind the actual moral condition of the people; it was all about money.

It has been known throughout Scripture that those who taught spiritually were entitled to receive compensation in some form, either money or food or some other means. However, those who were not truly godly men, chose to use this provision and abuse it for their own personal gain. One commentator stated: the false prophets said only what their rich masters wanted to hear, the true prophet was always ready to speak against those in authority when they misused their positions and thus disobeyed God.

In verse 6, we see that the Lord will not let this continue; there will be judgment. These corrupt prophets will no longer have any genuine influence. This is seen in the words, night & darkness. I appreciate the fact that their supposed importance and influence were going to be shut down and they would no longer be able to rip the people off financially.

Verse 7 goes on to show the results in that there will be no ability to predict the future. They will be total failures. They will end up being humiliated. It’s almost like a weather forecaster stating that they predict highs in the 80s with sunny skies, while at the very moment that is predicted, a blizzard is taking place with temperatures in the teens. What an embarrassment. And what makes this even more relevant is that though these false prophets were making money in God’s name, they will discover that they are going to experience the same judgment as the governmental leaders and God will not provide for them a way out or any form of consolation.

Verse 8 serves as a transition, especially in how it points out the distinctive difference between a false prophet and a true prophet. A true prophet is what Micah was. One of the responsibilities of a true prophet is to point out sin and call for repentance. If repentance is not to be found, then a true prophet will point out not only the sin, but that judgment will come if it’s not dealt with. We see that God fills Micah with His Spirit and His power. The picture is presented as Micah as having a godly character who can be trusted when he tells the people of Judah what needs to be done. When Micah speaks of justice, it is in sharp contrast to the leaders and false prophets. He will rightly present what is wrong with the country and what should be done in order to live as God wants His people to live. Even though this would be very unpopular with many, since nobody likes to be told they are evil, Micah is filled with courage from the Lord.

Destructive Dishonesty - 3.9-12

This section is further elaboration on the first section, but is a bit more intense. The language is similar, yet we see that it is stronger and more pointed. Earlier, we saw that the rulers hate good and love evil. In verse 9, it is more forceful; they abhor justice and twist everything that is straight. In other words, they so despise God’s justice, that they intentionally turn right into wrong and wrong into right. Even though it may be obvious what should be done, they turn a blind eye to God’s truths and distort and twist it, blatantly making evil good, and good evil.

Verse 10 shows how they had used their wrongly received riches and built luxury homes on the backs of the citizens. The cruelty upon the citizens is described as bloodshed and violent injustice. And this is in Jerusalem, which is supposed to be God’s city for His chosen people, making it that much more abominable.

We read a sort of summary in verse 11. The civil authorities, the priests, the false prophets, all are corrupt. Their concern is not justice or righteousness, but rather riches. What makes it worse is how smug and seemingly righteous they present themselves.

The rulers basically do what they want, dependent on who is able to pay them the most. They were easily bought by others who wanted evil to take place. Their judgments were based upon bribes they received.

The priests are even spoken of here. They were actually supposed to interpret and teach the law. In addition, if there was a situation that required more insight, they were often used to give a judgment in very challenging legal cases. Sadly, they were using bribes to make their decisions, causing the poor to be taken advantage of completely. Justice was nowhere to be found with many of the priests.

Then we see the false prophets again. They were not speaking for the Lord, but would say what someone who could pay them wanted to be said. Even in the Hebrew word divine, this is used primarily by the pagan prophets in their predictions. They claimed that their revelations came from God, but would not reveal to others what was supposedly given unless they were paid.

They would justify this evil behavior by doing all kinds of religious activity. This is seen in the phrase, they lean on the Lord. The idea is that it should be obvious that people who live like this, do not have a genuine relationship with the Lord. Not only were they deceiving the people, but they were deceiving themselves into believing calamity will not come upon us. They did not think that harm or disaster would happen to them.

Verse 12 shows a bit of the irony. Harm would indeed come to the nation and to these corrupt leaders. Not only that, it will come because of them. God is not blind, nor is He stupid. God will not allow this evil behavior to continue, so He will end up bringing His judgment upon Jerusalem. The description of the judgment reminds us of what happened already to the Northern kingdom.

We might wonder why Zion and Jerusalem are mentioned this way, since they refer to the same place. It could be explained this way. Jerusalem is the geographic location. Zion points out to all who are hearing this, that Jerusalem is also the religious center of the Jewish people. Not only will the earthly Jerusalem fall under God’s judgment, but their religious way of life which was so severely corrupted would also fall.

How bad is the judgment? The city, which was so populated and full of life, will be able to be plowed as a field. It will no longer look like the ornate, rich city, as the judgment will cause it to become a heap of ruins. The temple and the hill where Jerusalem was would become high places of a forest. This should not be perceived as a nice Maine forest, but rather a place of neglect and desolation. It will be overgrown by trees or grasses.

Sadly, even though King Hezekiah, under the prophet Jeremiah, caused much reformation to take place, hearts were still unchanged by this same kind of people. Jeremiah even quoted Micah 100 years later. Ultimately, judgment did come.

Reflections

I mentioned towards the beginning of today’s message how we live in a nation founded upon biblical principles. I am not suggesting that we were a perfect nation or that we are of any biblical significance, except that we have been privileged to be a light and a sender of light and salt into the world, proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That is what Israel was supposed to have been doing from the very beginning; proclaiming that Adonai, Jehovah, was the One true God and all peoples needed to follow Him. Sadly, our nation, has not fared much better than that of the Jewish people.

We have experienced the cannibal caretakers in that those who are tasked with the responsibility of caring for the citizens of this nation and offering them protection and justice have become the very people that we have come to dislike so greatly. Why is that? Because they have chosen to manipulate the legal system in such a way that it takes from the hard-working citizens of this nation and literally steals it away, in a pseudo-legal way to enhance their own pockets and position. They tell us to cut back and learn to live with less, while they do the exact opposite, living in palatial dwellings and traveling in luxury using our resources to do so. They intentionally change their roles to give them more unchecked power at the expense of the citizens of our nation.

Friends, I am not suggesting an overthrow of our corrupt government, regardless of which political party is in power. I am suggesting that we need to be like that of the godly remnant. Our blessings and leadership do not come from the government in any way, shape, or form. Our leadership must come from the Lord alone. Even if that means that we will be called upon to do that which runs counter to the government, even as it tries to manipulate us into believing that their goal is for the overall good of its people. Please understand that the only way for a people to be blessed is to follow after the Lord God.

We’ve also seen those who claim to speak for God, purchased prophets or preachers, who suggest that God wants us to experience only that which is pleasant and that we deserve to have the riches of this world and the health of perfection. They suggest that if we truly know the Lord that we’ll behave in particular ways on the outside that say nothing about the inner man. I tell you that we need to be a people who humble ourselves before the Lord, trusting in Him through what we call good and bad times.

What about destructive dishonesty? Though the Bible does not speak specifically to the United States, I believe there are basic principles that were applied to all the nations in existence when the Scriptures were written and can continue to be applied today. We’ve also seen historically what happens when a nation turns its back on God and pursues a corrupt path, whether it be from civil authorities or spiritual leaders. That nation is doomed. I believe that if our nation does not turn from its evil ways and practices and if those who claim to speak for God, but are speaking only for themselves, don’t repent, we are doomed, as a nation.

We must be careful that we follow not after the world’s leadership, but after the Lord, Who is the only true Leader.

However, for those who follow after the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, there is hope in the midst of disaster. Our hope is not in this world or what it has to offer. We understand that there will be a judgment coming for those who rebel against God’s commands. Our hope is found in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in God alone.