Welcome to Bible Fiber where we are encountering the textures and shades of the prophetic tapestry in a year-long study of the twelve minor prophets, one prophet each month. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.
This week we are reading Micah chapters 2 and 3. Micah warned of coming punishment for Judah in chapter 1, but in this section he goes into more detail about who exactly is to blame for the disaster. Micah 2 consists of two speeches of doom, primarily focused on greedy landholders. The elite of Judah have ignored God’s sacred system of land distribution and instead are abusing their power to gobble up the property of the less fortunate. In Micah 3, our prophet widens his gaze, calling out the entire cast of Judah’s leadership: priests, judges, and prophets. These positions of authority were meant to serve the people. Instead, the civil and religious systems are corrupt money grabbing schemes where judges, prophets, and priests deny justice to the people and fatten their own wallets. The punishment for those who hate good and love evil will be overthrow and exile. We need to go deep into the text to unpack the substance of Micah’s accusations and discover the response of Micah’s peers to his message.
Property Rights
Micah first paints an image of Judah’s elite landowners, lying in their beds plotting their next evil deed, eager for the morning so they can renew their wicked acts. Micah says, “they covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away” (2:2). The idea of wrongdoers scheming at night, keen on starting each day, is striking for its industriousness. Micah is making clear that the robbing of the disadvantaged in Judah is intentional, not the accidental result of tough economic times or poor agricultural yields. The hardship of the lower classes in Judah is the product of design, not circumstance. The landowners are refusing to obey God’s laws of land inheritance and debt forgiveness. Micah’s contemporary, the prophet Isaiah, spoke of a pervasive spirit of greed: “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left” (Isa. 5:8).
Before the Israelites had conquered the land of Canaan, God mapped out how the people should distribute the land among the tribes (Num. 26). The intent was to fairly provide for each of the twelve tribes and their descendants. On the plains of Moab, Moses took a census of the whole Israelite community. Lots were cast and land was assigned to each clan, larger clans receiving larger lots and smaller clans getting smaller lots. After Joshua and his armies conquered the “hill country, the western foothills, the Arabah, the mountain slopes, the wilderness and the Negev” (Josh. 12:8), the elders distributed the territory according to what had already been decided before the conquest. Because the land of Israel was sacred, a gift from God to His people, only God could divide and distribute the land. It was not the prerogative of earthly systems to redistribute it.
The laws of Moses also laid out a legal system to manage disputes over ancestral lands. Care was taken so that fathers with no sons would pass the family land down to their daughters. If a man had no children, his land went to his brothers (Num. 27). God foresaw a day when the people would try and game his system of debt forgiveness and land returns, but He appealed to what should be a common sense of justice: “Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God” (Lev. 25:17).
The story of Naboth’s vineyards shows just how seriously the righteous people took the laws of land inheritance, while th
Welcome to Bible Fiber where we are encountering the textures and shades of the prophetic tapestry in a year-long study of the twelve minor prophets, one prophet each month. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.
This week we are reading Micah chapters 2 and 3. Micah warned of coming punishment for Judah in chapter 1, but in this section he goes into more detail about who exactly is to blame for the disaster. Micah 2 consists of two speeches of doom, primarily focused on greedy landholders. The elite of Judah have ignored God’s sacred system of land distribution and instead are abusing their power to gobble up the property of the less fortunate. In Micah 3, our prophet widens his gaze, calling out the entire cast of Judah’s leadership: priests, judges, and prophets. These positions of authority were meant to serve the people. Instead, the civil and religious systems are corrupt money grabbing schemes where judges, prophets, and priests deny justice to the people and fatten their own wallets. The punishment for those who hate good and love evil will be overthrow and exile. We need to go deep into the text to unpack the substance of Micah’s accusations and discover the response of Micah’s peers to his message.
Property Rights
Micah first paints an image of Judah’s elite landowners, lying in their beds plotting their next evil deed, eager for the morning so they can renew their wicked acts. Micah says, “they covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away” (2:2). The idea of wrongdoers scheming at night, keen on starting each day, is striking for its industriousness. Micah is making clear that the robbing of the disadvantaged in Judah is intentional, not the accidental result of tough economic times or poor agricultural yields. The hardship of the lower classes in Judah is the product of design, not circumstance. The landowners are refusing to obey God’s laws of land inheritance and debt forgiveness. Micah’s contemporary, the prophet Isaiah, spoke of a pervasive spirit of greed: “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left” (Isa. 5:8).
Before the Israelites had conquered the land of Canaan, God mapped out how the people should distribute the land among the tribes (Num. 26). The intent was to fairly provide for each of the twelve tribes and their descendants. On the plains of Moab, Moses took a census of the whole Israelite community. Lots were cast and land was assigned to each clan, larger clans receiving larger lots and smaller clans getting smaller lots. After Joshua and his armies conquered the “hill country, the western foothills, the Arabah, the mountain slopes, the wilderness and the Negev” (Josh. 12:8), the elders distributed the territory according to what had already been decided before the conquest. Because the land of Israel was sacred, a gift from God to His people, only God could divide and distribute the land. It was not the prerogative of earthly systems to redistribute it.
The laws of Moses also laid out a legal system to manage disputes over ancestral lands. Care was taken so that fathers with no sons would pass the family land down to their daughters. If a man had no children, his land went to his brothers (Num. 27). God foresaw a day when the people would try and game his system of debt forgiveness and land returns, but He appealed to what should be a common sense of justice: “Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God” (Lev. 25:17).
The story of Naboth’s vineyards shows just how seriously the righteous people took the laws of land inheritance, while th