FRAMEWORKS:
Micah 3: Leaders and prophets rebuked
v.1
The leaders, the rulers, held to account
v.1
Then
I said,
‘Listen,
you leaders of Jacob,
you rulers of Israel.
v.1b-3
They should have brought justice but instead brought pain and
grief
Should
you not embrace justice,
v.2 you
who hate good and love evil;
who tear the skin from my people
and the flesh from their bones;
v.3 who
eat my people's flesh,
strip off their skin
and break their bones in pieces;
who chop them up like meat for the pan,
like flesh for the pot.'
v.4
Although the people cry out, this is their disciplining
v.4
Then
they will cry out to the Lord,
but he will not answer them.
At that time he will hide his face from them
because of the evil they have done.
v.5
The prophets prophesy for gain
v.5
This
is what the Lord says:
‘As
for the prophets
who lead my people astray,
they proclaim “peace”
if they have something to eat,
but prepare to wage war against anyone
who refuses to feed them.
v.6
So spiritual blindness will fall on them
v.6
Therefore
night will come over you, without visions,
and darkness, without divination.
The sun will set for the prophets,
and the day will go dark for them.
v.7
All who claim insight will be shamed
v.7
The
seers will be ashamed
and the diviners disgraced.
They will all cover their faces
because there is no answer from God.'
v.8
Micah, by contrast is filled with the Spirit
v.8
But
as for me, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the Lord,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression,
to Israel his sin.
v.9a
He turns on the leaders again
v.9
Hear
this, you leaders of Jacob,
you rulers of Israel,
v.9b-10
Despising justice they have encouraged violence & wrongdoing
who
despise justice
and distort all that is right;
v.10
who
build Zion with bloodshed,
and Jerusalem with wickedness.
v.11
They are all out for personal gain
v.11
Her
leaders judge for a bribe,
her priests teach for
a price,
and her prophets tell
fortunes for money.
Yet they look for the Lord's support and say,
‘Is not the Lord among us?
No disaster will come upon us.'
v.12
So because of them the Lord will plough the city
v.12
Therefore
because of you,
Zion will be ploughed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,
the temple hill a mound overgrown with
thickets.
[Note:
The
whole chapter is a denunciation of the leadership of Jerusalem
– leaders & rulers [v.1,8,11], the prophets [v.5,7,11] and
the priests [v.11]
CONTINUE
TO CHAPTER 4