Micah laments over his decadent society

All the old tapes say, turn in your Bible to Micah chapter 7. But a lot of people now just are on their phones and their tablets and things. So I don't know if you can say that. But if you have a Bible, a physical Bible, turn it in to Micah chapter 7. We're continuing on in the study of Micah the prophet.

Here's this chiasm chart that I developed now many, many moons ago. And it shows the Hebrew poetry pattern, the chiasm. And what you'll notice is that at the fold line, today we're at a punishment section down at item number 10. And the person who made Harami, maybe is his name, who made this chiasm.

At point 10 is we have the subject of the total corruption of the people of Israel in 7, chapter 7, verses 1 through 8. And that doesn't rhyme in rhyme with number 3 up at the top of the chiasm, but you'll see it rhymes, it's a rhyme in meaning And I don't think I've ever made that clear. So, Achaism is a rhyme of meaning and not necessarily rhymes.

Yeah. So, today we're looking at the punishment coming to Israel and their total, and we'll see that it's just total corruption. here in Israel that Micah brings out. So I just wanted to bring that to your attention to where we are in that outline, and there's several outlines for Micah, but I think that's helpful. And let's review what Bob did last few weeks in Chapter 6 very quickly.

And I'm summarizing and I'm paraphrasing, so my paraphrasing might be I'm paraphrasing scripture, so it's not so literate. Not literate, but literal. But it's a kind of 20th, 21st century paraphrase. So forgive me for that. But you'll get the idea of Chapter 6 here. So Chapter 6 was God's third here now, what the Lord is saying. You remember, there's three here nows in the book of Micah. So chapter six begins the third one. So we're still in the third here now section.

And he says, he gets up like a prosecuting attorney and he says, Arise, plead your case before the mountains. And that's God pleading his case before the mountains and the hills. All of creation is there to hear what case he has against the Israel and the the fall away from God's law that Israel and Judah specifically have gotten themselves into. He says in 6.2, the Lord has a case against his people.

That's a very courtroom scene type of language. He pleads with him a little later on, what have I done to you? Have I wearied you? I mean, you know, so he's pleading with him in the beginning of chapter 6. So he lays out his evidence then of his faithfulness and he reminds him how he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

He gave them Moses, Aaron, and Miriam as shepherds, and there's a little bit about Balaam in there, and that he protected them against Balaam. Then he goes on to say, Israel then answers through Micah, and they say, well, how can we make it up to you? Can we give you more offerings? Can we double or triple our offerings? We can offer you our firstborn. But we can't do that because you're against offering our firstborn to you. So they're responding in that way.

And you remember that God says, no, all I desire is that you practice justice, love, kindness, and to walk humbly before me. And that's a very, that's someone said that that's the most famous verse of the whole Old Testament in chapter six of Micah. And he basically says, you cannot do it, and you will not to do it. You're just too far gone.

And then he continues to pour on more evidence of their apostasy. He highlights their sins of deceptive weights. Bob, we had a good discussion about that in the last two weeks with Bob Echol, deceptive weights and measures and things and how they would cheat each other on those transactions.

Then he kind of ends up saying that there'll be a spiritual famine and you could take it as a literal hunger or a spiritual hunger. And he uses that word, you're going to have this vileness and that's hunger. And you're just going to have a total lack of physical and material well-being as a punishment.

So that's chapter six. So, and it ends on a very down, dire note, right? So chapter seven begins in verse one, woe is me. And that's, this is Micah now speaking personally for himself and for the nation of Israel too, or Judah specifically, but he's After all that, he's, woe is me, for I'm like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers. There's not a cluster of grapes to eat, or a first ripe fig, which I crave. And then in verse two, he says, the godly person has perished from the land, and there's no upright person among them.

All of them lie in wait for bloodshed. Each of them hunts the other with a net. Concerning evil, he says in verse 3, both hands do it well. The prince asks also the judge for a bride. And a great man speaks the desire of his soul, so they weave it together. The best of them is like a briar, the most upright like a thorn hedge. The day when you post your watchmen, your punishment will come. Then their confusion will occur.

And I remind you that this is all poetic form. This is all poetry, like Bob Wolfert said in the beginning of the study of Micah. So it's in poetry form. So it's a beautiful language, too. And it's probably even more beautiful and more poetic sounding in Hebrew, but we have it in English. So it probably loses its flavor, a little bit of its flavor.

Verse 5 then, do not trust in a neighbor. Do not have confidence in a friend. For from her who lies in your bosom, guard your lips. And verse 6, for the son treats a father contemptuously. Daughter rises up against her mother. Daughter-in-law rises up against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own household. And then seven, there's a little dipty-do here, a little switch. He turns the corner.

Yes, he turns the corner and he says, but as for me, I will wait or watch expectantly for the Lord. I will wait for God of my salvation. My God will hear me. But what I'm going to do, and I kind of changed it up. I'm going to stop at verse six this morning. if that's okay?

Sure. Because it, I see it is a big break, but a lot of the commentators and like Constable has the break at verse 7 for some reason. So yeah, and some others have it at 8. So there's a little, there's a little, yeah, there's a little switch here at 7. or eight, because he goes back into the negative stuff later in verse seven.

So let's begin with verse one here, this woe is me. I'm like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers. There's not a cluster of grapes to eat or a first fig, which I crave. So this woe is me in scripture, and you're all familiar with a lot of them, what they are, right? There's Jude 1, Jude 1-1, woe to them. I think it's, is it 1-1 in Jude? Do I have that reference right? Have a look. That could be. And Jude is just, it might be Jude 1-3. We haven't found it yet. Sorry. Okay. I'll read it while you get there. Jude says, Woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the air of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. You tell him. Go ahead and tell him.

And it's... Is it Jude 1? Jude 11, verse 11. Oh, Jude 1, that makes more sense. Okay, so I'll have to change that reference. So it's Jude 1, 11. Because I was thinking that's an odd way to begin the whole book of Jude. Well, so it's 11. So I'll change that.

And then you're all familiar with the three woes of Revelation. There's three woes that the the Apostle John brings in the Book of Revelation. And then Jesus uses woe to them many times in Scripture. Woe to the scribes and Pharisees. Woe to you, you Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there's a lot of woes. So we're in a woe now. And I like this definition here of what a woe is. It's a pronouncement of a fearful and unqualified sentence. So it's a sentence that's fearful and unqualified. Mercy for them there is not. Their offense has been so flagrant.

And you think of Israel in this time that Micah's writing. When I read this definition or this summary of what a woe is, their offense has been so flament and their self-will so stubborn that only woe is their portion, unless their eyes should be open and humble on account of their guilt and state.

They turn from their evil ways with repentance toward God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is in a New Testament kind of form, but it works too for where we are today. They didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ yet, but they knew Yahweh, God the Father. Four, says the Spirit of God, they have gone in the way of Cain.

That is the first charge against them. They, like Cain, were not irreligious, it wasn't that they were irreligious, they weren't, but they approached God after a fashion of their own. They did not bring blood, they did not bring blood, so then they were denied atonement by blood. They ignored the true nature of sin and the fact of their own guilt.

Their religion was one of personal merit and based on a ground of good works. And he says beautiful fruits for a cursed soil when talking about Cain. And you think about how Cain, you know, brought gifts to God from the earth that he made himself, that he grew himself and not what God required. And you think about how Israel in this time that we're studying in Micah, they they, yes, they, they do sacrifices, but they, they're also sacrificing to Baal, and they're going up to the high places and worshipping other gods.

And they're doing, they might be religious, but they have no heart in it. And that's what God says in chapter six of Micah, you know, you have I don't have your heart. So I don't want all these sacrifices because they mean nothing to you. And you're just sort of checking a box there.

So Captain J. Wilson Smith is who gave us this definition or this summary of what a woe is. And he ends with saying, such was the way of Cain, and such was their way. the way of multitudes of teachers of modern and apostatizing Christianity. Woe to them, he says. So he brings it up into the here and now then at the end. But I thought that was a good definition, a pronouncement of fearful, of a fearful and unqualified sentence is what a woe is.

So in verse one, when they talk about, for I am like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers, what does that mean? And he says, there is not a cluster of grapes to eat or ripe fig, which I crave. It could mean that When you go through the vineyard, there's been a harvest where there's lack of fruit, lack of good grapes because of no rain. So it was a very bad crop year. So it could mean that. That's one way to look at this. But another one is what Charles Feinberg gives, and he thinks that it's They had just gone through and harvested all the grapes and all the figs.

So there was just a harvest, it was picked bare, and it left the orchard bare. So when you come in after the harvesters who'd been there, There's no grapes, there's no fruit to eat. And so you can't glean, you know how they used to glean the vineyards back then. So there's nothing to glean because it's just been picked over. So he says, like that, Like those fruit pickers who find no grapes, the godly person has perished from the land, in verse two, and there's no upright person among them. All of them lie in wait for bloodshed. Each of them hunts the other with a net. It's pretty a dour situation there.

So you see how, and this jumped out at me, but you see it's Like, like the fruit pickers and grape gatherers, they find no grapes to eat, or a first ripe fig, which I crave, is as, and this is a figurative language, this is a poetic language, a simile pattern. So like the fruit pickers and grape gatherers, as there's no upright or godly person can be found in Israel. So he's comparing the lack of fruit in a vineyard to the lack of good upstanding men or judges and things like that. In fact, we'll see in the later verses that it's much worse than that, than just not finding any godly or upright men in Judah.

It's their rank treachery with them. I mean, it's a really bad situation. And you can see that how they're hunting each other with nets and hunting each other. So the characteristics of Israel or Judah and its leaders is they lie in wait to shed blood in verse 2. They hunt each other with nets in verse 2.

And then, on to verse 3, he says, concerning evil, both hands do it well. The prince asks, and also the judge, for a bride. And a great man speaks the desire of a soul, so they weave it together. Some more characteristics, they do evil, very well. In fact, both hands are at debt, not evil. One, someone said, and I agree with them, they're ambidextrous about being evil.

Yeah. Yeah. Like in the book of Judges, everybody did what was right in their own eyes. And if you're not so, I'm not so ambidextrous, I My right hand, my right arm is the only one that really works really well, right? So, and my left arm is sort of not, it is up to speed. But these guys are like NFL wide receivers at doing evil. They can catch with both hands here.

And he says, not only the prince, but even a judge will ask for a bribe in verse 3. And this bit about the great man speaks the desire of the soul. So they weave it together. It's this great man is a man of a rich man of influence. And he desires something, or to bring about something or to bring someone to ruin. So he enlists the prince and the judge to bring it about. And they get together, they plan it and they weave together a scheme. as one would a basket. It is the thought of why there's that. So they weave it together. They would understand that to be a basket. So they weave evil together. Much like Sir Walter Scott in 1808.

Does anyone know what reference that is? Anyone remember back to... Oh, and you'll have to help me out with this now because I've, Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we first practiced to deceive, right? You know that saying? Yeah. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Right. Yeah, so that's Sir Walter Scott in 1808. So that fits right in there, because they're weaving together, not a web, but they're weaving together a basket. And they're, they're deceptive. So, so kind of cool there, how that kind of fits in there.

And verse three here, kind of recapitulates what we saw in Micah 3, 1 through 3. And you remember that it's that very dark situation where he says, here now the heads of Jacob and the rulers of the house of Israel. So he's addressing the rulers of Israel there. Is it not for you to know justice? You who hate good and love evil, who tear off the skin from them, and their flesh from their bones. If you remember us going through that with Bob, and who eat the flesh of my people, strip off their skin from them, break their bones and chop them up as for the pot, and as meat in a kettle.

So very descriptive, very descriptive. In fact, Bob Eccles mentioning was this talking about cannibalism? You know, It's probably not, but it's figurative language. So it's an analogy. But what do you think this metaphor of hunting and hunted here is used for?

It's also used in Psalm 14.4 in Ezekiel 24.3 is this concept of being hunted and even being eaten too. Anyone have any thoughts of what that could reference to or what it means? And here's my thought, because I thought about it a bit. And so I think it could be referencing that this tearing off the flesh and eating someone is financial in nature, or it's these rulers and judges, they're stripping a person from their material wealth, right?

Either crops or or what do you call them? Livestock, right? You think of the... Oh yeah, go ahead. Anyone? You think of the example of King Ahab and how he stole the guy's vineyard. whose name was... Boy, and I can't... Yes, thank you. Yeah, he stole his property. And I think that's what it's kind of getting at with this metaphor of this stripping off the flesh and eating.

Or even think of David, King David, and how he desired Bathsheba. And so he, he had his, her husband killed, right? So he, that's what's kind of going on here. If you think of David and what he did to the warrior, I mean, what was his name? Uzziah, right? Uzziah? He had him killed.

So that's, I think, what it's getting at with that metaphor, that very cannibalistic metaphor is taking money away from a person. Injustly. It also had to do with tearing apart another person's personality, tearing apart everything he stands for, belittling him in front of everybody else? Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, ruining his reputation, I can see where you're going with that.

Yeah, that's good. So, and we never quite know, because we're not back in those ancient times, and it probably made a lot of sense to them, these metaphors. I think about it. Oh, go ahead. Isn't a lot of what we've read so far happening today in the United States? It is, yeah. Politically and socially. I mean, people are getting canceled. People are being denied. History has been torn apart. We've got a new president now. I don't know if that's going to help any. But our country is falling to pieces. Right. Yeah. And that's I was going there in my thinking this week with you, Bob, too, is you think of it.

We we pay taxes. They collect taxes. There's always I mean, we're kind of overtaxed. We have thirty six trillion in debt and then we have a budget deficit. And then what did we find out in the last week that this money is being siphoned off to these non-governmental organizations, just billions of dollars. And a lot of it's going overseas, and it's just kind of disappearing, right? And it's getting funneled into people's personal bank accounts. who are, who are connected to these, these organs.

Yes. So that's, I think that's stripping away of a person's, you know, flesh and skin is how I think of it too. So yeah. So it definitely has a modern day application. Definitely. So more of this simile or figurative pattern in chapter seven here in verse four. He begins with, the best of them is like a briar, the most upright like a thorn hedge. So I have this, that's what I think of a briar, a briar bush there.

And so I have here that the judge, the prince and the great man of influence are so dangerous for anyone who comes into contact with these people. They will ensnare the innocent and when you pass by them, you know, you'll get stuck and they'll tear you, that'll tear your flesh, won't it? That bush on the left there that you see, if you've ever run into one of those out hiking or somewhere, it's just they're nasty. and they'll get you. So that's the figurative language I think he's using there with these men.

Andrew, you know what's interesting is that the two both seem pretty, they can both tear you up, either one, the thorn hedge or the briar, both are, so it's like you, the one is much better than the other, I know, not an improvement, it's just more of the same, but And it may sharpen in a different way. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. There's some really nasty ones out there. And they're hard to cut down. They're hard to kill. Right. Yeah.

So verse 4, the B section here, ends with, the day when you post your watchman, your punishment will come. Then their confusion will occur. And that's a little bit of a brain teaser there. But let's look at this watchman, the person of a watchman in ancient Israel.

So either literally, it's a man posted on a city wall to scan out the horizon, and he searches out coming danger, and then he warns the city inhabitants of approaching hostiles, right? But spiritually, a watchman is a prophet who scans out to the future horizon, in time, and he has God's vision that's giving this to him, and he warns of future calamity and judgment. So that's a spiritual watchman. The root for, in Hebrew, for watchman is to lean forward or to peek, is what a watchman is. And Constable has about this this verse 4b, he has, God's watchman has announced coming punishment from Yahweh.

And that's true. Yet the people have not heeded their cries of danger. When captivity comes, the results will be the confusion among the people when they're taken captive. They'll be confused about that. And that's good. It could be something deeper too, but we'll look at Ezekiel 33. And Ezekiel 33 verses 1 through 9 has a good definition of what this watchman is supposed to do.

And in Ezekiel 33, it begins in verse 1, And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, that's his eagle, saying, son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, if I bring a sword upon a land and the people of the land take one man from among them and make them their watchmen and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people Then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.

He heard the sound of the trumpet, but he did not take warning. His blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have saved his life, is what he's saying. So think of this Ezekiel passage and think of Micah, too, because it also relates to what Micah does, you know, his job as well. Verse six is, but if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, And a sword comes and takes a person from them, and he is taken away in his iniquity, or he's killed. But his blood, I will require from the watchman's hand.

So it's the watchman's fault there. So that's if a watchman is on watch and the five o'clock horn blows. And it's five o'clock time to go home and packs up. And then he looks up as he's walking out of his post and sees this army coming. But he says, it's past five o'clock. I'll let the next guy do it. Right. So so if if the city is ransacked there, that's on him. That's his fault.

So in verse seven, now, as for you, son of man, I have appointed you as watchman for the house of Israel. So you will hear a message from my mouth and give them warning from me. When I say, and this is an excellent definition of a prophet, right, too, as well. When I say to the wicked, oh wicked man, you will surely die and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way. That wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand, watchman, But if you, on your part, warn a wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you will be delivered, your life will be delivered, because you did your job, right?

It's not on you. So, I was wondering if verse 4, the day when you close your watchman, your punishment will come, then their confusion will occur. You know, could it be, is this referring to a false watchman who gets punished for not warning the people? It could have that meaning too, but maybe the constable version is the best, you know. It's a good watchman and he's telling you that punishment will come.

In the future and it will come but I just thought of that that Ezekiel passage there It could be something but who knows. Yeah, so if you have any thoughts Speak your speak your piece now So verse six five and six here Do not trust in the neighbor. Do not have confidence in a friend for Her who lies in your bosom, guard your lips. From her who lies in your bosom, guard your lips. For the son treats a father contemptuously. Daughter rises up against her mother. Daughter-in-law rises up against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own household."

Pretty sad picture. Yeah, that picture, that's exactly what I was thinking all week. Oh boy, they're really in the mire here, aren't they? Judah and Israel. But verse 4 left us with them being in confusion. They'll be in confusion. And it makes sense, looking at it from 5 and 6 here, because as you said, Roger, look at the state of affairs. And wouldn't, if the state that was existing in verses five and six, neighbor against neighbor, son against father, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law, won't that be a state of, if your own inner circle is against you, lying in wait to shed your blood and setting a net against you, won't that be a terrible time of confusion and uncertainty. And you won't know what's up, what's down, you'll be in a fog of war. You see how that could could be?

And it's, so these are natural familial relations. And they're natural, they're good relations, familial relations, you know, father, son, daughter in law, mother in law, things like that. But Now these, they're acting unnaturally. So there's an unnaturalness to how they're acting against each other. And that's the state of Israel here in this time is what Mike is bringing out. So I like this, how Alan brings it out here in these constable quotes him, but he says, about the state of affairs in five and six.

He says, man is so made that he finds security in a small group, among whom he is accepted and received support. At the heart of the concentric circles of people known to him, there must ever be a stable core of friends and family, if his psychological equilibrium is to be maintained. The Prophet gradually penetrates to the center of these inner circles of familiarity, friend, best friend, wife. A man is now forced to go against his nature, retiring from himself, retiring within himself, sorry, and keeping his own counsel if he is not to face betrayal. And that's a very good summary of five and six year, don't you think? Yeah, it's good. The treachery between close relations. Yeah.

In the first part of Genesis, God gave all men certain divine institutions two of which is marriage, and the other one is family. And once you destroy those, which is what's happening here, then all society falls apart. And when marriage falls apart, which is happening today, and families fall apart, we're having We're having kids going to school and their teachers telling them, don't tell your parents what I'm teaching you. Things like that is happening. Our society is in big trouble.

Yeah, the schools are teaching their kids how to hide things from their parents. Like, oh, I'm thinking of transitioning or something. It's something that a parent should definitely know, you know. but should definitely have a hand in guidance. And so yes, you're exactly right. And these two verses sum that up really well, doesn't it? Yeah, that's a good point.

Or even more than that, Bob, think of how Satan, yeah, he's attacking family and the marriage bond. But I've also thought that he's one of the first things God did is he created Adam and Eve, he created male and female, right? That first thing. And what's being attacked now by Satan? And that's gender, right? It's going right, like you say Bob, going right to the core, right to the beginning of Genesis. And that's what's being attacked.

And it's 2020, what is it, 2025? Yeah. And that was 6,000 years ago or something? Yeah. So you see how those relationships are so critical and so fundamental because those are the ones that Satan is really going after and he's winning, right? Boy. Yeah. Exactly right. So you can see why I stopped here at verse six and then we'll get to better news next week with verse seven. So it's good, Andrew. It's very good. Yes.

And how are we done, Tom? Okay, we've reached our time. Well, I'll close us out here. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you that even these ancient writings in the Old Testament of a minor prophet of Micah, still resonates in situations today and we thank you for that relevance of the Word of God in our lives today and we thank you for giving it to us and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.