Faith Formation: Micah - Justice, Kindness, humility

And I said: Listen, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Should you not know justice? - you who hate the good and love evil, who tear the skin off my people and the flesh off their bones, who eat the flesh off my people, flay their skin off them, break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron.

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 acted wickedly. Micah 3:1-4

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Micah's fury expressed the fire and pain his people endured. The language is as graphic as anything in the Bible. It is offensive, distasteful and shocking. It is metaphorical, but that makes it no less difficult to swallow. Cannibalism is about as low as human life can go. In times of utter and absolute necessity people have resorted to it. But, when it is made known it is shocking. "Was there no other option?" Ancient people in besieged cities were forced into this vile situation, and worse. Moses warned the people that unfaithfulness would bring God's wrath through Israel's enemies. "In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the LORD has given you." Deuteronomy 28:53 When Assyria besieged Jerusalem the leader of the enemy army threatened the city, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you and not to the people sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?" We know little of this desperation. We talk about food insecurity but in places like Gaza or where refugees have fled from civil wars the reality of famine becomes desperation or death.

Micah directed this speech to the "heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel." Micah indicted the government, judges, wealthy elite, military commanders and the priesthood or prophets who who both supported them and benefited from them. Micah asked, "Should you not know justice?" Or, "You of all people should know justice, the knowledge of good and evil and the way of the LORD." The prophets were crystal clear about justice and the powerful who governed, who decided justice for the people, or as was to often the case, in their favor. "...cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow." Goodness and justice were defined by whether the helpless received help, the poor basic necessities, the oppressed hope and freedom, and that the voices of women and children were not ignored. The first concern of justice was not to protect those who could take care of themselves, but to make sure those who were unable to care for themselves were cared for. The judges of Israel, it seems, made favorable judgements for the rulers and the elite, but ignored the plight of the people. If you can hire enough lawyers and make friends with judges you can have justice served any way you want.

Instead, Micah accused the judges and rulers of the reversal of justice and values, "you who hate the good and love evil." Micah would repeat this accusation, "Hear you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong!" Micah 3:9 The graphic imagery of Micah's argument exposed the sin of the knowledge of good and evil. Good became what was good for the elite and evil that ultimately benefited them was also good. The neighbor, the oppressed the orphan and the widow, the poor and the vulnerable were irrelevant. They became nameless, faceless objects of no more moral significance that meat on the hoof. In the eyes of the elite they had lost their humanity or their status as "being made in the image of God." They were just objects to be used for the benefit of those who controlled the world. They "covet fields and seize them." They "strip the robe from the peaceful."

Micah envisioned the day when "heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel" would lament and cry out to God, but not be heard. That day of God's judgment came when the empires of Assyria and Babylon carried away the rulers and leaders, destroyed their homes, took their wealth, cut off their hands and dug out their eyes would come. Micah said that is what they did to the people, and now that was what would happen to them. As they did not listen to the cries of the people, no one, not even God would listen to their cries. They would cry about their sufferings and the injustice of it all. They would want help from God. God would hide God's face from them and not answer. No one had sympathy when the mighty had fallen from their thrones. No one really believed that God "has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty." They lamented, even sang the Psalms, when too late they repented, "Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious and answer me! 'Come,' my heart says, 'seek his face!' Your face, LORD, do I seek. Do not hide your face from me.'" Psalm 27:7-9 Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God and with those who need justice and kindness in this world. That is good and not wickedness. From justice, kindness, and humility God will not turn God's face away.

Do Justice. Love Kindness. Walk humbly with God.

Pastor Tim Bauer