Micah 6:12-16

Idolatry destroyed the nation -- Micah 6:12-16: God levied some serious charges against the rich. The charges were made not because they were rich but because of how they obtained the wealth. He said, "For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth." (Micah 6:12) These people were guilty of (1) violence, (2) lies, and (3) deceit. The people were also guilty because they failed to rise up and come to the aid of the helpless. Jeremiah wrote, "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?" (Jeremiah 5:31) God promised the common people punishment for their sins. "Because of your sins, I will wound you and leave you ruined and defenseless." Both the leaders and the people would feel the wrath of God.

God promised many sad lines of punishment that would be brought upon His disobedient people. "Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword." (Micah 6:14) God promised, (1) You will eat, but still be hungry, (2) You will store up goods, but lose everything, (3) You will be captured in war, (4) You will not harvest what you plant, (5) You will not use the oil from your olive trees, and (6) You will not drink the wine from grapes you grow. These things literally came true when the people were taken into captivity.

Sadly God promised, "For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people." (Micah 6:16) God said, "But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all that were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities." (1 Kings 16:25-26) Omri's legacy is one of great evil. "He must be remembered as the progenitor of four sovereigns whose capacity for evil was unmatched: King Ahab, King Ahaziah, King Jehoram, and Judah's Queen Athaliah." Omri evil had continued to Micah's day. He spoke of it in the present tense even thou this was at least 150 years after the time of Omri himself.