Micah 1:2-7 - Homiletics

The Divine judgments against Israel.

Micah was a prophet of Judah, and had special reference in his prophecy to that kingdom. Still, he referred also to the kingdom of Israel. In these verses he directed attention to the tribulations speedily to come upon the kingdom of Israel; and, whilst his words have reference to "the dead past," they suggest lessons for all times. Consider—

I. THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL AS HERB PREDICTED . Note:

1 . Their occasion. (Verse 5.) The secular historian has his account of the causes of the calamities which overtook the Jewish people. He traces these to lust of power and dominion on the part of the ancient monarchies, Assyrian, Chaldean, Babylonian, by which they were attacked and conquered. But the true spiritual teacher probes deeper, and seeks to get at the root of it all, and finds this to be sin— national transgression (verse 5). There were three stages in the downward progress of the nation.

2 . Their necessity. (Verse 3.) "For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place"—a striking sentence employed to express the necessity that existed for retribution to be exercised. "God's place" is his mercy. He is love. He is good and gracious. It is his nature to show compassion. Let all prominence be given to this characteristic of our God. We cannot dwell too much upon it, and can never exhaust the rich theme. "God is love," and mercy is "his place. " But there are times when there is a stem necessity for him to "come forth out of his place." He is not only loving, he is also righteous, and he is righteous because he is loving. True love excludes partiality, and true justice requires that men be dealt with according to their actions; so that, if God would be true to his character as a God of love, both the recompense of the good and the punishment of the evil is demanded. We are to warn men of the terrible and far reaching consequences of sin, and whilst joyfully proclaiming "the acceptable year of the Lord," we are also to declare with true solemnity the fact of "the day of vengeance of our God." Whilst delighting to speak of mercy as his dwelling place, we must also declare that there is the necessity for him "to come forth out of his place" to vindicate the right and to punish the wrong.

3 . Their severity . (Verses 3, 4.) This is set forth here in striking metaphor. God is represented as treading upon the high places, the pride of the haughty being as the dust beneath his feet. His judgments are described as fire, under the influence of which the mountains should be molten and the valleys be cleft; whilst as wax melts before the fire, and as the rushing waters, poured over a steep place, no more return, but are scattered in spray and dissipated in vapours, so should the evil doers at length be brought to nought. Samaria, the centre of the nation, and the source whence proceeded noxious and pestilential influences, should be brought to utter desolation (verses 6, 7). This stern sentence was literally fulfilled.

4 . Their equity. The prophet, like other seers, summons the nations and the earth to bear testimony to the rightness which marks all God's judgments (verse 2). The acknowledgment of the universe shall be that the Divine judgments are "true and righteous altogether."

II. THE BEARING OF THE STORY OF ISRAEL 'S GUILT AND FALL UPON NATIONAL LIFE IN THE PRESENT DAY .

1 . It warns us that if we use the preeminence God has assigned to us as a nation, simply with a view to our own aggrandizement and the furtherance of our own selfish ends, if, instead of worshipping him, and living with a single eye to his glory, we prostrate ourselves before wealth and luxury, ease and sloth, human reason and human applause, God will be against us, and will come forth "out of his place" to judgment, and national decay and death will assuredly follow. A haughty Frenchman once taunted an English captain, saying, "When will you English fetch Calais again?" The captain replied, "When your sins shall weigh down ours!"

2 . It reminds us how essential it is, in order to national prosperity, that the sovereign should be a pattern of every virtue; that rulers should not only be men of wisdom and foresight, but also God-fearing; and that religion, spiritual and practical, should characterize all classes of the community.

3 . It indicates to us the forbearance of God in sparing our nation, despite all the defections which have marked us as a people, and should lead us to repentance and a new life. And this must be personal and individual. "He who would reform the world must first improve himself." Then let us each "fear God, and keep his commandments," and so prove good citizens of the land we love. And conscious of our weakness, as Nature in all her helplessness offers herself to the kindly influence of the sun and the refreshing effects of the shower, so let us offer our hearts to the quickening and fertilizing influences of God's Spirit, that as Nature becomes clothed with verdure, so we may abound in all holy graces, and in us the Lord and God of all the nations of the earth be abundantly glorified!

Micah 1:5 , Micah 1:9 , and Micah 1:13 (last clauses)

The contagiousness of sin.

Great prominence should be given in Christian teaching to the sad and solemn fact of sin. Would we lead men to prize the redemption wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ, and to appreciate his unutterable love expressed in his "obedience unto death," we must seek to bring home to them a sense of that sinfulness, from the thraldom and evil consequences of which he came to deliver all who trust in him. The Hebrew prophets present to us in this respect an example well worthy of imitation. We find in their writings bright allusions to the deliverance to be wrought "in the fulness of time" by the Messiah, whose heralds they delighted to be, and whose "day" they "saw afar off;" but accompanying these words of hope were heart searching utterances, now indignant and scathing, and anon tender, pathetic, wailing, all designed to bring home to the conscience and heart a keen sense of evil doing, and to lead men to bow themselves low in penitence for the wrong they had done. We have brought very conspicuously before us in these verses the contagious influence of sin. Observe—

I. THE MISCHIEF IS HERE TRACED , IN THE FIRST INSTANCE , TO LACHISH . (Connect Micah 1:9 and Micah 1:13 .) Lachish was one of the most powerful of the cities of Judah. It was strongly fortified, and formed the cavalry depot for the nation. Sennacherib spared no effort to reduce it, and, when he had succeeded, he sent from it his boastful and contemptuous message to Hezekiah. The Assyrian monuments represent the taking of this city by the Assyrians, and indicate how that the victors regarded this as a great triumph. Geographically, no city of Judah was more remote from the kingdom of Israel than this; yet it was through this city that the idolatry of Israel found its way into Judah. Lachish was "the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in her." How this came to pass we can only conjecture. Rehoboam fortified Lachish. Maaehah, his favourite wife, cherished a warm attachment to the worship of foreign divinities, and may, through this channel, have introduced this foreign worship into her country; and in this way probably l,achish became "the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion." And, the gates once opened, the pernicious influence spread, until, despite certain attempts at reformation, the land became thoroughly infected, and the poison so prevailed that we read, "Her wound is incurable," etc. ( Micah 1:9 ).

II. Another influence that operated in bringing about this morally diseased condition of Judah was THE ALLIANCE FORMED BY JEHOSHAPHAT WITH THE HOUSE OF OMRI , AND WHICH RESULTED IN THE MARRIAGE OF JEHORAM , SON OF JEHOSHAPHAT , WITH ATHALIAH , DAUGHTER OF AHAB . Athaliah was a wicked, powerful woman, possessed of fierce determination, cool and calculating, yet of dauntless, resolute spirit. She heard of the overthrow of her father's house, and of the sad end of Jezebel, and the intelligence but strengthened her resolve that the worship of Banff, uprooted in Samaria, should have a home in Jerusalem. And this she secured for it, with all its pernicious influence.

III. THE REMAINING POWERFUL PERNICIOUS INFLUENCE IS TO BE FOUND IN THE ACCESSION OF AHAZ TO THE THRONE . It was during his reign that Micah prophesied; and when we think of the superstitious character of Ahaz, how that he caused new idolatrous sanctuaries to rise on every hand, established the worship of Moloch under the very walls of Jerusalem, and devoted his son to sacrifice, casting him into the fire, need we wonder at the prophet crying with deep distress, "What are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?" Beginning at Lachish, in the very extreme border of the land, the contagious influences spread until the whole nation, even to its very centre, had become infected (verse 9). So is it ever. There is the commencement of the downward course, "the beginning of the sin," leading on to general depravity and defilement.

Learn:

1 . To be watchful against "the beginnings" of evil.

2 . Christ suffered "without the gate," that he might deliver us from sin and bless us by turning us from our iniquities ( Acts 3:26 ).

3 . Into "the new Jerusalem" there entereth not anything that defileth or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but there all God's perfected ones, freed from the curse and blight of sin, shall serve him in holiness and love forever.