Micah 3:9-10

Micah calls together the wicked leaders and rulers. ‘Leaders’ means all types of leaders in *Israel. Isaiah gives examples of what kinds of people these might be (Isaiah 3:2-3). They include strong men and soldiers, judges, *prophets and skilled workmen. Micah accuses these leaders. The law is right, but they hate it. They hate *fairness. From their wicked hearts come wicked actions. They consider all good things as if those things were bad. Isaiah refers to this matter too (Isaiah 5:20). *Israel should be a nation that obeys God’s law. Instead just a few wicked men rule the people. They even say that good behaviour is wicked.

But God is good. He is kind. He shows his love. He appeals to these wicked people and he asks them to listen.

The 10 commandments were 10 laws that God gave to Moses. He gave them on the mountain called *Sinai. The commandments gave 4 rights to everyone:

• the right to live. (You must not murder.)

• the right to a protected (safe) home. (You must not have sex with a person that is not your husband or wife.)

• the right to property. (You must not steal.)

• the right to a reputation (the fact that people will consider you as a good and honest person). (You must not say false things about people.)

*Israel’s leaders should have given those rights to the people. But they did not care about the people. They only cared about their own wealth and importance. They built great buildings in Jerusalem. They said that they were making Jerusalem stronger. But in fact they were making God’s people weaker.

The leaders did not care about the rights that God had given to the people. So the leaders stole land to build their great buildings. They killed people who opposed them. They cheated and they lied.

v11 The leaders act as judges in order to get a reward. The *priests teach for a price. The *prophets tell the future for money. And then those leaders expect the *LORD to help them. They say, ‘The *LORD lives here with us. So nothing bad will happen to us.’