Micah 1:13

Lachish was an important town. It was the strongest place in the region. It was about 4 miles from Micah’s home. There was an army there. The army’s job was to defend the western hills. The men in the army used chariots and they used fast horses. A chariot was a very strong vehicle. They used a team of horses to pull it. Chariots were fast and powerful in a battle. Even brave soldiers were afraid of the chariots. The two words ‘horses’ and ‘Lachish’ sound similar in the *Hebrew language. Lachish might mean a team of horses. The people in Lachish would have trusted in their strong army. They would have trusted in their chariots.

The people thought that they were in no danger from the *Assyrians. But they were wrong. In Micah’s message, God is telling the people to leave this strong town. They must leave as quickly as possible. This command probably made the people very afraid.

The *Assyrians would soon defeat the people in Lachish. Lachish’s people had caused Jerusalem’s people to stop trusting in God. Lachish’s people did not trust God to defend them. They trusted their chariots. That was because of the *sin called pride. Pride causes us to think that God’s rules for our life do not matter. We believe that we can do as we choose. We think that we do not need God. We think that we can live very well without him. The people in Lachish had the same *sin as the people in *Israel had. This *sin was that they trusted their chariots instead of God. And Lachish’s people taught Jerusalem’s people to *sin. So the people in Jerusalem and Judah had that same *sin too. (The ‘Daughter of Zion’ is another name for Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.)

In our modern world, we too can be guilty of pride. Now we might trust machinery, computers and modern science. We might trust all those things when we should be trusting God.

v14 So you must give gifts to Moresheth Gath. In that way you will say goodbye to people there. The house (people) in Achzib will cheat the kings of *Israel.