Deeper Commentary

Micah Chapter 2

Micah 2:1 Woe to those who devise iniquity- The same phrase used in Ps. 36:4 of Saul who has been set up as the prototype of a condemned Israel at Micah's time (see on Mic. 1:3). It is the same phrase used of the Jerusalem leadership who brought idols into the temple (Ez. 11:2). This was ongoing in Micah's time (Mic. 1:5), but judgment didn't come for it because Micah's appeal succeeded, thanks to his passionate identity with the people he was appealing to, and to the effects of the school of the prophets to which he belonged.

 

And work evil on their beds!- "Evil" was to come upon Jerusalem (Mic. 1:12), but the people had themselves worked or created that evil.

When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand- We have here one of many Biblical examples of where thought gives direct rise to action. The state of our mind, our spirit, is therefore critically important. They 'did' ["practiced"] evil; and that phrase is the consistent refrain of the record of the kings, that they "did evil in the sight of Yahweh". But that doing of evil was conscious, and the result of their thoughts as they lay at night upon their beds.

Micah 2:2 They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage- As noted on :1, the thought gives rise to the action. They coveted fields in their hearts, and then in the morning, they actually seized them. We think of Ahab's coveting Naboth's vineyard. The perpetrators of these things were the ruling classes. Land inheritances were from God, and the Mosaic law defended inheritances, seeing the land was God's and He had divided it as He wished. To simply grab property from another was therefore to as it were steal from God. To "oppress" others by legalistic games to their own advantage would lead to the Assyrians 'oppressing' them; the same word is used about this in Is. 52:4. If Judah stopped oppressing their brethren, they would not be oppressed by their enemies (Jer. 7:6; 21:12; 50:33). Not oppressing our brethren is a major theme of the law and the prophets. And it has wide application to our lives today. The collateral damage caused is brought out here- by seizing the house of a man, the oppressor was hurting the man's house in the sense of his family. The collateral damage of unpleasant behaviour against individuals is often ignored or discounted. But God notices.

Micah 2:3 Therefore thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster- This is the same word for "evil"; the evil of the oppressors (:1) would lead to the evil of the invasions (Mic. 1:12). God plans judgment, and states it as if it will surely happen, as He did with Nineveh in Jonah's time. But in the gap between statement and fulfilment, there is the opportunity for repentance, and God is so sensitive to that, that He will change His stated word of judgment. The evil planned need not happen if there is repentance (the same words are used in Jer. 18:11).

 

From which you will not remove your necks, neither will you walk proudly; for it is an evil time- The idea is that the invaders would impose a yoke upon God's people, implying captivity and bondage. And yet they could remove their necks from it eventually, for it was God's purpose that the captives would return. But the generation that first experienced it would not. The intention was to bring down their proud necks; pride as always was the essential problem.

Micah 2:4 In that day they will take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, ‘We are utterly ruined! My people’s possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!’- Again we see that the judgments to come were really of their own device. They had taken others' possessions, and so now the fields they had stolen (:2) would be taken by the invaders. Who would take up the parable "against you"? They themselves. They were to lament themselves, and recognize that their fields had been taken away and given to the immoral. Micah ahead of time had lamented (Mic. 1:8). He felt himself into the condemnation of his people, although he himself was innocent. Just as the Lord did to supremacy on the cross. It was this identity and empathy with the objects of the wrath he was pronouncing which made Micah so effective, and it is the reason why the cross of the human Christ must be central to our appeal to men; for He there is what elicits response.

Micah 2:5 Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in the assembly of Yahweh- It was at these land courts that the poor were deceived out of their property and inheritances, as criticized in :2. And yet it was done in the name of Yahweh; those illegal courts were presented as being an "assembly of Yahweh" just as idol worship was claimed as Yahweh worship. Or it could be that we are to associate :5 with :6; and this verse is the threat of the Jewish leaders to Micah, that they would arrange that he would lose his inheritance.

Micah 2:6 Don’t preach!, they preach, Don’t preach about these things. Disgrace won’t overtake us- As noted on Mic. 1:5, Judah worshipped other gods in the name of Yahweh worship, and the false prophets of both Israel and Judah assured them that therefore Yahweh would protect them from the Assyrians; they expected good to come from Him in the time of their need (see on Mic. 1:12). The word for "preach" is literally 'to drip', which was the metaphor for prophecy in Dt. 32:2. They 'preached' or 'dripped' that Micah was not to 'drip' or preach. They were claiming Divine inspiration in forbidding Micah to preach. Amos had the same. Anyone who feels the need to stop another preaching is really revealing their own agenda. These false prophets claimed to have had Divine revelation that Micah should stop teaching, and that they had a message that the people would not be overtaken by disgrace as Micah claimed. Truly false teachers say what people want to hear. Isaiah, contemporary with Micah, had prophesied that they would indeed suffer "disgrace" (s.w. Is. 30:3; 45:16). Micah taught the same. In Semitic worldviews, shame was worse than death. It was again their pride which led them to reject intuitively any message that they would be humbled, and it is the same root cause for human rejection of the Christian message.

Micah 2:7 Shall it be said, O house of Jacob: Is the Spirit of Yahweh restrained?- Micah spoke by the Spirit of Yahweh, and to tell him not to speak those words (:6) was therefore an attempt to restrain the Spirit. They could not restrain God's Spirit by simply stating that the inspired word of God was not inspired. People make the same mistake today.

Are these His doings? Don’t My words do good to him who walks blamelessly?- The power of God's word is such that those who are spiritual, who 'walk blamelessly', are strengthened further by them. His words "do good"; perhaps the false prophets were saying that Micah's prophetic word were 'not good' for the people, just as was claimed against Jeremiah.

Micah 2:8 But lately My people have risen up as an enemy- God's people became His enemy in that they were on the side of God's enemies; and He would be an enemy to their enemies (Ex. 23:22 s.w.). Perhaps this was reflected in Micah's personal experience, just as God's painful relationship with Israel was reflected in that of Hosea with his faithless wife Gomer. For Micah will use the same word for "enemy" in speaking of how his own close family members, perhaps even his own wife, had become his "enemy" (Mic. 7:6,8,10). We will note on :11 that the problem was not simply with the minority who were the leaders; but the entire people were polluting the land by eagerly listening to false prophets.

 

You strip the robe and clothing from those who pass by- As noted on Hos. 7:1, the priests were even robbing those who passed along the roads.

Confidently assuming that they aren’t in danger- As noted on :6, the false prophets claimed that Yahweh would protect His people from the Assyrians because they were worshipping Him when they worshipped the idols. The ten tribe kingdom did the same with their calf worship.

Micah 2:9 You drive the women of My people out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away My blessing forever- This continues the complaint in :2, that houses and the Divine blessing of land inheritance were being taken away from people by wealth-hungry leaders.

Micah 2:10 Arise, and depart! For this is not your resting place, because of your uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction- There has been a strong theme in this chapter of inheritances being given by God but then taken away by corrupt men. This seems to continue here; the land would spew out those who corrupted it (Lev. 18:28; 20:22). The people are being asked to recognize this, and themselves depart. It could not be their permanent resting place because they were destroying it by their own uncleanness. They would be dealt with just as the Canaanites had been.

Micah 2:11 If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies: I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink; he would be the prophet of this people- The false prophets spoke under the influence of alcohol / spirit drink, and yet claimed to be inspired by God's Spirit. The same contrast between the two types of spirit is made by Paul in Eph. 5:18; perhaps he got the idea from here. And yet the people loved to listen to them and accepted them as Divine prophets. The judgment therefore shifts from the religious leaders to the people, who gave them power and eagerly accepted the false prophets. God would surely not have destroyed the whole land and people for the sake of a few individuals who were falsely claiming to be prophets; the problem was that people had itching ears, and the nature of how they were and what they wanted inspired the false prophets to teach them what they wanted to hear. See on Mic. 3:5.

Micah 2:12 I will surely assemble, Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the midst of their pasture; they will swarm with people- As so often, the prophecies of condemnation lead immediately onwards to those of God's restorative purpose. His judgments were not threatened nor executed in the kind of anger which men have. Rather did God always use those judgments towards His further purpose of salvation for a repentant remnant. and it sees He envisaged that remnant including both Israel and Judah. Their repentance would lead them to realize that all the personal barriers between them were as nothing; reconcilliation with God empowers reconcilliation between those reconciled with Him. The experience of repentance and forgiveness involves the humility which is required for reconcilliation between persons. This is why the prophets (Ezekiel and Zechariah particularly) often present the restoration to God as the time of unity between the remnants of Judah and Israel.

Micah 2:13 He who opens the breach goes up before them. They break through and pass the gate, and go out. And their king passes on before them, with Yahweh at their head- This sounds like the final desperate exit from Jerusalem by Zedekiah many years later. But this could have happened soon after the prophecy was first given. It didn't, because Micah's appeal met some response. God's plan was therefore changed, but His word still came finally true, just as it did in Jonah's prophecy of Nineveh's destruction. It was averted by repentance, but the prophetic word was reinterpreted and rescheduled in fulfilment. But even in that shameful exile, Yahweh would as it were be leading the exiles, at their head.

But the Hebrew can be translated quite comfortably in a way which would rather speak of the return of the exiles, again with Yahweh at their head; and this would fit the context of :12. The same lesson is taught here as in the cherubim visions of Ezekiel; Yahweh in all His glory went with the exiles out of Jerusalem into captivity, and would return with their children to a restored Zion. It was not that God turned away in disgust from His sinful people. He worked with them to both punish and restore, and this is an abiding feature of His work with His people.