Faith Formation: Micah - Justice, Kindness, humility

Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert equity, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong! Its rulers give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the LORD and say, "Surely the LORD is with us! No harm can come to us!" Therefore because of you Zion shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple a wooded height. Micah 3:9-12

Micah continued to call the leaders of Jerusalem to account for the way they sold their integrity, their faith and promises for their own enrichment. This was the third time Micah tried to get their attention: "Listen, you people , all of you; listen, O earth, and all that is in it..." 1:2, "Listen, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel? Should you not know justice?" 3:1, "Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel who abhor justice and pervert all equity, ...3:9. With every word Micah spoke he indicted the rulers, of government, business, courts, and religion from different angles but always for the same crimes and injustices that showed unfaithfulness to God and neglect of God's people. What Micah said here was perhaps most shocking of all. More shocking than his language about eating the flesh of the people. What he said reverberated down through the next hundred years and was remembered during the time of Jeremiah. It is one of the few if only times that one of these writing prophets was remembered by name in the writings of another. Here Micah attacked one of the most deeply held beliefs of Israel, the inviolability, the unassailability of Jerusalem and the Temple.

"Surely the LORD is with us! No harm can come to us!" These were slogans, things people said to give themselves assurance that no matter what God would protect them. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. ... God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns." Psalm 46 While such sayings may be scripture, good and true, they can be used as facades to hide behind. They can become mere slogans that cover corruption and injustice. Jesus gave a warning about slogan faith, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father." Matthew 7:21 The will of God for Micah was "do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God." Micah precisely accused the rulers, the priests and the prophets of Jerusalem of forgetting and ignoring God's will. Rather the rulers, priests, prophets and elite of Jerusalem enriched themselves while leaning upon words bereft of justice, kindness and humility. Today "God bless America" may have or often has become such a cliche or slogan. It is always easier to repeat a slogan and walk away, than to live and do the will of God in mercy and compassion for the neighbor far and near. James May commented of Jerusalem and it's leadership, "An administration of avarice grips the city." (Jerusalem). Which is to say the city was not gripped by the will of God.

In direct defiance of the shallow and sanctimonious trust expressed by the repeated formula Micah foresaw the destruction of the foundation of their confidence and the very city and temple for which they claimed it. Less that Micah predicted it, Micah proclaimed that because of the failings he saw that Jerusalem was already in a worthless state, no better than a plowed field and "heap of ruins." Literally that never happened, though the temple and city were destroyed by Babylon in 587 BCE, rebuilt and destroyed again in 70 CE, never to be rebuilt again.

A century after Micah the prophet Jeremiah took up these themes. "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD." Jeremiah 7:3-4 Later Jeremiah was put on trial for preaching that Jerusalem's corruption undermined everything that faith in God was meant to be. He also spoke of the utter destruction of the city and temple. Some leaders listened to Jeremiah and remembered Micah. "Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, 'This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God." And some of the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembled, 'Micah of Moresheth, who prophesied during the days of King Hezekiah of Judah, said to all the people of Judah: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the house a wooded height." 'Did Hezekiah of Judah and all Judah actually put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD and did not the LORD change his mind about the disaster he had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great disaster on ourselves." Jeremiah 26:16-19

It seems that Micah's preaching did, for a while, reach the ears of some, even of some of the leaders and the king. There was yet hope that the people would rely less on a shallow slogan than on the deep teaching and remembrance of the will of God. Perhaps even Jerusalem and the Temple could be redeemed and again be a beacon of light and learning for the nations of the world.

Do Justice. Love Kindness. Walk humbly with God.

Pastor Tim Bauer