PROPHET MICAH

The headlines screamed these words in ancient Jerusalem Post, “Barefooted, Naked and Howling Madman on the Prowl!”

Yes, he was barefooted, naked, howling like a jackal and moaning like an owl but he was not mad. In fact he was Micah the prophet, completely heart broken by the nation’s complete disregard for their Master and God, Yahweh! Israel had committed incurable transgressions and Micah was called to be the very voice of judgment. He had been inconsolable, knowing that a great nation, a promised nation would be utterly destroyed. To add salt to his wounds, the enemy chosen by God would be Assyria, a foreign nation. Surely they would laugh and despise Yahweh, the name Israel supposed to revere. The unthinkable would soon become a reality. The humiliating act of Micah was to show the Israelites that their enemy would likewise humiliate and degrade them.

God had warned them enough. Yet, the voices of prophets Joel, Amos and Hosea were ignored to their own destruction. Micah was sent not for repentance but for submission to sins’ consequences. “Heed the rod and the One who appointed it. Am I still to forget, O wicked house, your ill-gotten treasures and the short ephah, which is accursed? Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weight,” Micah shouted out the words of God. The court of God had decided. The charges were filed and a guilty verdict announced. A just God must let justice take its place. A sinful and stubborn nation must be brought to its knees to know godly sorrows. The rod would be Assyria and there was no escape. No more pleas to return but to face the music. Micah remembered Judah, the southern kingdom, “I pray that they heed this as an example.”

That day when King Assyria dethroned and conquered the last king of Israel, Hoshea, prophet Micah was overwhelmed at the downfall of a promised nation. So were Amos, Hosea and Isaiah, his contemporaries. Judgment of God was not unusual but this one was different and would badly shake the faith of the Israelites. “Yahweh, the Almighty God of Israel had been defeated,” they would reason. But to the prophets, God would never abandon his people forever. To them, Yahweh would never be defeated! They were believers of God’s promise to King David that his kingdom would rule forever. Thus the remnant theology was birthed at this troubled time. Micah remembered the day when the great prophet Elijah was so overtaken by pressure of carrying the weight alone for the nation. He felt defeated and wanted to die. That was when God revealed to him that there were still 7,000 Israelites that worshipped Yahweh and did not bow to Baal.

Although prophets were voices of judgment and repentance, the message of hope was equally as important. The remnant theology would eventually culminate with the Day of the Lord! That day would come that all Israel would be fully saved and restored. Micah declared, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labour gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth”.

Micah sadly watched the destruction of Israel but his eyes looked to the heavens for redemption. “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea,” Micah cried to the Lord.

And the prophet whispered softly the ancient promise, “You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago.”

What would prophet Micah say to us if he were still alive today?

1. Don’t be surprised when God does something we don’t understand.
2. Spare the rod, spoil the child.
3. God is just and therefore He must judge sin.
4. Our God is a God of hope, even though we think our situation is hopeless.
5. The Day of the Lord is coming soon! The second Coming of Jesus Christ, the predicted ruler from Bethlehem!

Next: Prophet Isaiah
http://psbible.blogspot.com/2009/10/prophet-isaiah.html