Micah 2:1-3

CHAPTER VII

SECOND CYCLE

WOE TO THE ARROGANT MISLEADERS. Micah 2:1-3

RV. Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. And 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. Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye walk haughtily; for it is an evil time.
LXX. They meditated troubles, and wrought wickedness on their beds, and they put it in execution with the daylight; for they have not lifted up their hands to God. And they desired fields, and plundered orphans, and oppressed families, and spoiled a man and his house, even a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I devise evils against this family out of which ye shall not lift up your necks, neither shall ye walk upright speedily: for the time is evil.

COMMENTS

Micah now turns from the generalities of judgment impending against the northern and southern kingdoms, their capitals and their cities, to the personal denouncement of those who sit in high places in them. The punishment of Jerusalem and Samaria are the result of sin. Sin is an individual thing. If a society or a city is sinful, it is because it is inhabited by sinful people. If the individual is subject to undue pressure and temptation in such surroundings, it is because he must associate with sinful people. In the case of the kingdoms denounced by Micah, the people were pressed toward sin and idolatry by sinful social leaders. It was these leaders who were disbursed from Israel by the Assyrians. It was the leaders of Judah who were led captive to Babylon.

(Micah 2:1) The evil of those in power was well thought out. They lay awake nights scheming, and the next day they eagerly put their plans into action. Micah accuses them of doing these evil things simply because the power to do so was in their hands. Power is the determining factor in both their intentions and their practices. There is not even a pretense at justice. An old adage says, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It was true in Israel and Judah.

Plutarch wrote, It is an observation no less just than common, that there is no stronger test of a man's character than power and authority, exciting as they are to every passion, and discovering every latent vice. Those in authority among God's people at the time of the minor prophets simply failed to pass the test. Rather than using their power and riches to the common good, they used them as an occasion of avarice and greed and debauchery.

(Micah 2:2) Pascal is quoted as saying, power without justice is tyranny. Those in power in Israel and Judah were tyrants in the worse sense of the word. In the words of Wendell Phillips, Power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The iniquity devised upon the beds of the powerful in Jerusalem and Samaria was designed to rob more and more of the possessions of the poor.

The prophet accuses them of coveting fields and seizing houses, of oppressing men and their families or heritage. The verse has a familiar ring to anyone who is aware of the cases common in American civil courts. In Israel and Judah there was no recourse to the courts.

(Micah 2:3) Therefore. because the powerful spend their time devising evil schemes against this people. I devise an evil from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither walk haughtily.

It has been said often that sin carries in its nature the seeds of its own punishment. One of the basic tenets of American jurisprudence is that the punishment shall fit the crime. The Law of Moses taught the principle an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The evil which Jehovah devised against the avarice and greed of the powerful must be counted just by any standard.

Jehovah devised an evil time as the just punishment of these oppressors, Amos used the same terminology to describe the same impending judgement. (Amos 5:13)

Those against whom this particular evil time was devised as punishment would find no escape from it. They would not be able to remove their necks, or to walk proudly. As they had taken lands and houses and possessions from the poor to add to their own pleasures, so, in the day of their captivity, were their houses and lands to be taken from them. Just as their power left no legal recourse for those who were oppressed by them, so their captors would have no mercy upon them.
We have previously noted that, both at the destruction of Israel and the later captivity of Judah, it was the rulers, the social elite and the influential rich who were actually led away, first by Assyria and then by Babylon. The full weight of God's punishment thus fell upon exactly those people who were directly responsible for the evil which brought it about.

Chapter VIIQuestions

Second Cycle

1.

Discuss the relationships between individual and social sins.

2.

Discuss power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely in reference to the situation denounced by Micah.

3.

How do power and authority test a persons character?

4.

Discuss Pascal's statement power without justice is tyranny.

5.

How is this evidenced in the circumstances addressed by Micah?

6.

How can a just God devise evil? (Micah 2:3)

7.

What was the power by which the social leaders of Micah's day enforced their evil designs?

8.

How does God's punishment predicted by Micah fit the crime of those He will punish? (Micah 2:5)

9.

What is the relationship between the wickedness addressed by Micah and the false prophets of the day?

10.

What part did national pride and racial arrogance play in the downfall of the wicked northern and southern kingdoms?

11.

How does God's purpose in Israel rule out such pride and arrogance on the part of the faithful?

12.

How do you answer the tendency to blame God for social calamities?

13.

Discuss mistreatment of people as evidence of enmity with God.

14.

What single fact made God's punishment of social sin in Israel and Judah necessary to the accomplishment of His purpose in the covenant?

15.

What single characteristic of the Israelites during the Babylonian captivity stood out above all else?

16.

Describe the kind of prophet the people desired in Micah's time. (Micah 2:11)

17.

Discuss the problem of textual unity of the scriptures. (cf. Micah 2:12-13)

18.

The idea of a restored remnant, as presented by Micah, presupposes the destruction of ____________ and the rejection of the ____________ per se.

19.

The doctrine of election, divine choice, is, in the Bible, always related to the ____________.

20.

What is the similarity of modern denominationalism and the attitude of racial and national priority with God on the part of the Jewish people of Bible times?

21.

Discuss the figures of the shepherd, the breaker, and the king in connection with the remnant.