Reflections on Micah 3

 Micah 03  (Contemporary English Version)

1. Listen to me, you rulers of Israel! You know right from wrong,
   
2. but you prefer to do evil instead of what is right. You skin my people alive. You strip off their flesh,
   
3. break their bones, cook it all in a pot, and gulp it down.
   
4. Someday you will beg the LORD to help you, but he will turn away because of your sins.
   
5. You lying prophets promise security for anyone who gives you food, but disaster for anyone who refuses to feed you. Here is what the LORD says to you prophets:
   
6. "You will live in the dark, far from the sight of the sun, with no message from me.
   
7. You prophets and fortunetellers will all be disgraced, with no message from me."
   
8. But the LORD has filled me with power and his Spirit. I have been given the courage to speak about justice and to tell you people of Israel that you have sinned.
   
9. So listen to my message, you rulers of Israel! You hate justice and twist the truth.
   
10. You make cruelty and murder a way of life in Jerusalem.
    
11. You leaders accept bribes for dishonest decisions. You priests and prophets teach and preach, but only for money. Then you say, "The LORD is on our side. No harm will come to us."
    
12. And so, because of you, Jerusalem will be plowed under and left in ruins. Thorns will cover the mountain where the temple now stands.

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Judah's leaders, both secular and religious, came into Micah's cross-hairs as he took aim at their predatory nature with the people. They did not have the people's best interest in mind as they encouraged them to ignore God's warnings of coming judgment if they did not change their ways. "God surely will not do those things," they counseled, "for you are His special people." Prophesying what the people wanted to hear profited the prophets both monetarily and for prestige. It was themselves they were thinking of with their false prophesy.

Micah likened these leaders to hunters who bagged their game then skinned them and stripped off the flesh. These leaders, however, went even further to break up their bones and cook them in a pot. This pictured their treatment of the people. A day would come when these false prophets would need God's help, but when they reached out to Him, He would turn away from them because of their sins. This blackout from God's word was likened to living in the dark far from the light of the sun. Jesus also depicted those who were far from God as living in darkness.

As Micah continues into verses 9-12 we get an expanding picture of these godless leaders of Judah. They were not servants of God but rather prophets for hire, preaching and teaching for profit. Furthermore, the message they preached perverted rather than promoted the teachings of God. But it wasn't just that they encouraged the sins of the people - they led in it. They made "cruelty and murder a way of life in Jerusalem." Though the people were not innocent, it would be especially because of the actions of these leaders that "Jerusalem will be plowed under and left in ruins. Thorns will cover the mountain where the temple now stands."