Scripture Daily

Context No. 2312 of 4322 · Micah

Context · Reflection

Micah 1:1-16: in context

1The LORD’s word that came to Micah of Morasheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2Hear, you peoples, all of you! Listen, O earth, and all that is therein. Let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 3For behold, the LORD comes out of his place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. 4The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place. 5“All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren’t they Jerusalem? 6Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations. 7All her idols will be beaten to pieces, all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and I will destroy all her images; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return.” 8For this I will lament and wail. I will go stripped and naked. I will howl like the jackals and mourn like the ostriches. 9For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 10Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust. 11Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won’t come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection. 12For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem. 13Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. 14Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. 15I will yet bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam. 16Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture, for they have gone into captivity from you!

Micah opens his prophecy with a vision of God coming down in judgment, the mountains melting under him, the valleys splitting, because of the sins of Israel and Judah. But when he comes to deliver this word of judgment, Micah does not pronounce it with cold detachment. For this I will lament and wail, he says; I will go stripped and barefoot; I will howl like the jackals and mourn like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable. The prophet grieves and wails over the sin and coming ruin of his people, weeping as he speaks the hard word.

What is striking about Micah is that he grieves over the judgment he must announce. He does not pronounce God's word of judgment coldly, with detachment, or with any satisfaction; he laments and wails, goes stripped and barefoot in mourning, howls in grief over the sin and coming ruin of his people. The hard word he must speak breaks his heart; he weeps over the wound of his people even as he declares it. His is not the voice of one who gloats over judgment but of one who grieves it, whose heart is broken by the sin and its consequences. This shows us the heart that a faithful person has toward sin and its consequences: grief, not gloating. It is possible to speak of sin, judgment, and the failings of others with cold detachment, or even with a kind of satisfaction, gloating over the downfall of the wicked, pronouncing judgment without grief. Micah shows a better heart: to grieve over sin and its consequences, to weep over the ruin it brings, to mourn even as we must speak hard truth. When Jesus looked at Jerusalem, which had rejected him and would be destroyed, he did not gloat; he wept over it. Oh that my head were waters, Jeremiah cried, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep for my people. The faithful heart grieves over sin and its consequences rather than gloating. This searches our own hearts toward the sin and failings of others. Do we speak of others' sins and downfalls with cold detachment, or even satisfaction, gloating over the fall of those we consider wicked? Or do we, like Micah, grieve over sin and its consequences, weeping rather than gloating, mourning the ruin that sin brings even where we must name it? The prophet who wailed over his people's coming ruin, and the Savior who wept over Jerusalem, show the heart God desires: grief over sin, not satisfaction in judgment. This calls us to a heart that grieves over sin and its consequences rather than gloating over them. Micah lamented and wailed over the sin and coming ruin of his people, weeping as he spoke the hard word; and we too are called to grieve over sin, our own and others', and over the ruin it brings, weeping rather than gloating, mourning even the downfall of the wicked rather than taking satisfaction in it. The faithful heart, like Micah's and like Christ's, grieves over sin and its consequences; and we are called to such a heart, speaking hard truth when we must, but with grief and tears rather than cold detachment or satisfaction, weeping over the wound that sin brings to a people God loves.

When I speak of the sins, failings, and downfalls of others, do I speak with cold detachment or even satisfaction, gloating over the fall of those I consider wicked, or can Micah, who lamented and wailed over the sin and coming ruin of his people, and Christ, who wept over Jerusalem, move me to a heart that grieves over sin and its consequences rather than gloating, weeping over the ruin that sin brings even where I must name it, speaking hard truth with grief and tears rather than satisfaction?

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