Micah 1-3: Behold, the Lying Windbag

We read Micah 1–3 and trace how God’s justice and mercy move together: sharp words against exploitation, clear warnings to leaders and prophets, and a stubborn promise to gather a remnant. We reflect on selective hearing, prosperity without obedience, and how to align our hearts with God’s.

• the Twelve as a single arc of judgment and hope
• Micah’s context in Judah with messages for Israel and Judah
• vivid warnings against idolatry and injustice in named cities
• condemnation of land theft, exploitation, and rigged courts
• critique of profit-driven prophets and paid rulings
• promise of a remnant and a Shepherd-King who leads out
• practicing repentance before relief and comfort
• discerning truth from flattering lies and easy optimism

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage: The Twelve
• 1:56 Judgment And Hope In Tension
• 3:51 Micah’s Context And Mission
• 6:11 Reading Micah 1–3 Begins
• 11:11 Cities Named And Judgment Announced
• 15:41 Exposing Greed And Land Theft

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike. We're reading through the books of the minor prophets in the Old Testament. As a reminder, these books used to be in the ancient kind of Hebrew Bible, twelve. It was called the Twelve. It was twelve books all in one, one kind of considered one book. And it's easy to understand why they all took place within a fairly short time frame, kind of in two clusters. One cluster of prophets was speaking to Israel in the years prior to their exile to try to warn them that judgment was coming if they didn't repent and turn back to the Lord. But then they didn't, and then Israel got carried away by the Assyrians. And then the other cluster of prophets started to come up again in the same way for the southern kingdom of Judah. And again, just trying to warn people that judgment was coming just like it did to Israel. It was coming to them just because they had the temple, just because they had Jerusalem, just because they had David as their ancestor, ancestry line of kings, like you know, that none of that matters because you're not being faithful. And if you do not repent, then you'll not escape judgment. And uh, well, sure enough, they did not repent either, and they were carried away to Babylon. So uh these twelve minor prophets are all together uh in in one book called the Twelve for uh a number of of years, but now we we've kind of split them up into 12 individual books, but they all have the seen the same theme of look, judgment is coming. God says, I have accusations, I have warning, I I see your sin, and I am uh my patience is about to run out. And then there's always some glimmer of hope. There's always uh hearing God's heart for restoration and God issuing hope, issuing always a way out. But even if you don't take that way out and you still have to experience the discipline and the judgment and the punishment of your sin, well, then there is still hope. God, especially for his nation of Israel, says, I'm not gonna wipe you out. I've wiped out other nations. And uh just because you're my nation doesn't mean that you're not gonna experience punishment or pain, but you will not be wiped out. That's my promise to you that I don't break. No matter how many promises you break, I'm going to make sure I keep my promise and you're never gonna be wiped out. We're always gonna have a relationship. There's always going to be restoration on the other side of this, which is pretty beautiful and uh really flies in the face of uh what many people think the Old Testament is all about God being a god of wrath and God being uh just you know vengeful and hateful and all this stuff. That's come on. I mean, yes, wrath, yes, uh there is wrath, but that's not the whole picture. That's not the whole picture. That's not even that's not the first step, that's not the last step. It is always couched in restoration, reconciliation, hope, love. And uh it's a tough, it's a tough tension for us to manage sometimes. That God can be so He hates sin so much, but he loves us so much. Like, how do we reconcile those? Well, it's they are both rooted in his nature perfectly. And uh the message for us always when we read these is like, okay, hold on. Is there anything in between me and God that I should repent from? Are am I on the same page with God? Because I these people were going about their life thinking that they were just fine in front of God and and that God considered them to be his special pretty princesses because they're Israel. Uh, but and they and they also would not listen to the prophets who were telling them otherwise. They say, well, I don't like to hear that. Selective hearing often uh precedes God's judgment, I'm afraid. Well, uh, we've got some work to do here in the book of Micah. Micah's next. Uh Micah is the the book of Micah is seven chapters, and it's split pretty much down the middle in the sense of the first half is accusations from God to his people. And uh the second half is heavily about the message of hope and restoration. So this is kind of uh kind of like the minor prophets in a nutshell. You know, you could read this one and get and get a sense of a little bit of everything that the rest of the minor prophets are talking about. Um, Micah lived in the southern kingdom of Judah. Remember the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom, northern kingdom of Israel, also called Samaria by its capital, uh, and and the southern kingdom of Judah with its capital Jerusalem, they those were torn apart a while ago after the reign of Solomon. And uh since then we've seen Israel, the northern kingdom, really go off the rails. They've never had a good king. And uh and it shows the southern kingdom uh has better kings, but uh they're not immune to needing correction from God through the prophets. Uh at this point, we're still kind of in the phase of the minor prophets that he's talking to the northern kingdom of Israel. So even though Micah lives in the southern kingdom, he is seeing these uh visions and revelations regarding the northern kingdom, so he's gonna go talk to them on behalf of God. Let's see what he says today here. We're gonna read Micah 1 through 3 in the New English Translation. There's uh there's some good sound bites in the book of Micah. I am excited to walk through this book with you. Let's start it off here. Micah 1 through 3. This is the Lord's message that came to Micah of Morashev during the time of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. That actually reminds me, if you haven't downloaded the Kings and Prophets, uh downloadable free reference guide from the website, outloudbible.com, uh, I would recommend it. It it's a resource I put together to help you visualize what the Northern Kingdom Line of Kings looks like and the Southern Kingdom Line of Kings looks like, and who the prophets are and when they're generally speaking to the kings. Uh we get them in words here in the in the beginnings of these books, but it's nice to if you're a visual person, that's a good resource. Kings and prophets, go check out outloudbible.com. Okay, that's that's all for the ad here in the middle of reading the Bible. We'll keep going. Listen, all you nations, pay attention, all inhabitants of earth. The sovereign Lord will act as a witness against you. The Lord will accuse you from his majestic palace. Look, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling place. He will descend and march on the earth's mountaintops. It's like as a kid if you've been misbehaving and you hear your dad coming down the steps. You say, oh no, something's happening. The mountains will crumble beneath him, and the valleys will split apart like wax before a fire, like water dumped down a deep slope. All this is because of Jacob's rebellion and the sins of the nation of Israel. And just what is Jacob's rebellion? Isn't isn't it Samaria's doings? And what's Judah's sin? Isn't it Jerusalem's doings? I will turn Samaria into a heap of ruins in an open field, into a place for planting vineyards. I'll dump the rubble of her walls down into the valley and lay bare her foundations. All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces, and all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire. I'll make a waste heap of all her images, and since she's gathered the metal as a prostitute collects her wages, the idols will become a prostitute's wages again. For this reason I mourn and wail. I will walk around barefoot without my outer garments. I'll howl like a wild dog and screech like an owl. For Samaria's disease is incurable, and it's infected Judah. It's spread to the leadership of my people and even to Jerusalem. Don't spread the news in Gath, don't shed even a single tear. In Beth Lafra roll about in mourning in the dust. Residents of Shafir pass by in nakedness and humiliation. The residents of Zanan have not escaped. Beth Ezel mourns, he takes from you what he desires. Indeed, the residents of Marath hope for something good to happen, though the Lord has sent disaster against the city of Jerusalem. Residents of Lachish, hitch the horses to the chariots. You influenced daughter Zion to sin, for Israel's rebellious deeds can be traced back to you, and therefore you'll have to say farewell to Morath Sheth Gath. The residents of Akzib will be as disappointing as a dried up well to the kings of Israel. Residents of Maresha a conqueror will attack you. The leaders of Israel shall flee to Adullum. Shave your heads bald as you mourn for the children you love. Shave your foreheads as bald as an eagle, for they're taken from you into exile. Beware wicked schemers, those who devise calamity as they lie in bed. As soon as morning dawns, they carry out their plans because they have the power to do so. They confiscate the fields they desire and seize the houses they want. They defraud people of their homes and deprive people of the land they've inherited. Therefore the Lord says this, Look, I am devising disaster for this nation. It'll be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck. You will no longer walk proudly, for it'll be a time of catastrophe. In that day people will sing this taunt song to you, they'll mock you with this lament. Oh, we're completely destroyed. They sell off the property of my people. How they remove it from me, they assign our fields to the conqueror. Well therefore no one will assign you land in the Lord's community. Don't preach with such impassioned rhetoric, they say excitedly. These prophets shouldn't preach of such things. We won't be overtaken by humiliation. Does the family of Jacob say the Lord's patience can't be exhausted? You would never do such a thing. To be sure, my commands bring a reward for those who obey them. But you rise up as an enemy against my people. You steal a robe from a friend, from those who pass by peacefully as if returning from a war. You wrongly evict widows among my people from their cherished homes, you defraud their children of their prized inheritance. But you are the ones who will be forced to leave. For this land is not secure, sin will thoroughly destroy it. If a lying windbag should come by and say, I'll promise you blessings of wine and beer, he would be just the right preacher for these people. I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob. I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. I'll bring them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in the middle of a pasture, they'll be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. The one who can break through barriers will lead them out. They will break out, pass through the gate and leave. Their king will advance before them. The Lord himself will lead them. I said, Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel, you ought to know what's just. You hate what's good, and love was evil. You flay my people's skin and rip the flesh from their bones. You devour my people's flesh, strip off their skin, and crush their bones. You chop them up like flesh in a pot, like meat in a kettle. And someday these sinful leaders will cry to the Lord for help, but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time because they've done such wicked things. This is what the Lord has said about the prophets who mislead my people. If someone gives them enough to eat, they offer an oracle of peace. But if someone doesn't give them food, they're ready to declare war on him. And therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions. It'll grow dark, and you won't be able to read the omens. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. The prophets will be ashamed, the omen readers will be humiliated, all of them will cover their mouths, for they receive no divine oracles. But I am full of courage that the Lord's Spirit gives, and have strong commitment to justice. This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion and Israel with its sin. So listen to this, you leaders of the family of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel, you hate justice and pervert all that's right. You build Zion through bloody crimes, Jerusalem through unjust violence. Her leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, her priests proclaim rulings for prophet, and her prophets read omens for pay. Yet they claim to trust the Lord and say, Oh, the Lord is among us, disaster will not overtake us, therefore, because of you, Zion will be ploughed up like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the Temple Mount will become a hill overgrown with brush. Well, just a little bit of light reading here for you. Uh so I was thinking about this thinking out loud thought for the day portion of our episodes here at the end of the episodes, and I was I was thinking I tend to lean more on the challenging you and challenging us to consider how we may be falling short of of where we should be, according to the scripture. I tend to lean more onto well, how do we need to repent? What do we, where do we not line up? Where do our hearts not line up with God's and make those adjustments? And it tends to not necessarily be encouraging. Um, and it's not to say that you're doing anything wrong, I'm not assuming that. Um and it's not that the Bible doesn't have lots of just life-giving, encouraging, frankly, feel-good things. That there's a lot of that. There's a lot of great hope and happiness and and encouragement to be found in the Bible. But I think I tend toward if we're gonna pull something out of it, let's start with hold on, maybe where do I not line up with God? And let him encourage us, let him build us up uh where we need that. Uh, he can he can certainly do that through his word and through uh being in a community of his people. But if we are not honest enough to let the Bible speak some correction into our lives, then we run the risk of falling into the same traps that even his own people have throughout history. It was really uh kind of struck me earlier here in the reading in chapter two, verse uh 11, saying if a lying windbag should come and say, I'll promise you blessings of wine and beer, well, he'd be just the right preacher for these people. It's like, okay, that's pretty funny. Uh but how often do we just want to hear, like, hey, look, if you follow the Lord, he wants to prosper you, he wants to uh give you life and give it abundantly, and you can live in abundance and prosperity, and you you should be able to experience the joy and happiness of the Lord. And that's so attractive for people who just want that without the accountability of living for the Lord. We want the Lord's benefits and blessings and prosperity and abundance, but we don't actually want to live the way He says, That creates a very dangerous disconnect where we feel like we are living for the Lord. And so then when someone comes along or the Bible comes along and says, Hey, you're not lined up this way, like it it's not a it's it's not about works like you have to do this and this and this to earn God's favor. It's just like you are not lined up with God's heart, and and that's what care God cares more about. We tend to just like uh, but uh I don't know, I don't like that. That doesn't make me feel good. That feels prickly. I'm I'm not gonna really dig into that. And then we just form this bubble. And so let's just I I think it's responsible Bible study. It's not depressive or pessimistic. I think it's a responsible Bible study to consider, okay, what is God's heart here? Am I lined up with it? Am I doing what he says to do? Am I am I trusting who he says he is? Am I going forward with humility and repentance and and really trying to pursue him for him, or am I trying to pursue him for what he could give me? And being honest with ourselves. And yes, like God has so much encouragement for you and wants to heal and restore your heart, and and yeah, uh, we as as God's people can experience blessings in a number of different ways, and what they are is is between you and him. But let's let the Bible, let his word, let his people speak what is true and respond to that, and then we can avoid falling into the same traps that his people have been falling into here in the book of Micah and beyond. Any preacher, any social media influencer, any blogger, any YouTuber that equates God following God with the promises of blessings and wine, and no one has to worry about bad things happening if you follow Jesus. Well, that person is a lying windbag. And I'm sure they're the right kind of preacher for some people, but make sure they're not the right kind of preacher for you. That's the thinking out loud thought for the day. I'll see you next time.