Reading
Micah 2&3

1Woe to those who devise iniquity

and work evil on their beds!

When the morning is light, they practice it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

2They covet fields and seize them,

and houses, then take them away.

They oppress a man and his house,

even a man and his heritage.

3Therefore Yahweh says:

“Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster,

from which you will not remove your necks,

neither will you walk haughtily,

for it is an evil time.

4In that day they will take up a parable against you,

and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying,

‘We are utterly ruined!

My people’s possession is divided up.

Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!’”

5Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in Yahweh’s assembly.

6“Don’t prophesy!”—they prophesy—

“Don’t prophesy about these things.

Disgrace won’t overtake us.”

7Shall it be said, O house of Jacob,

“Is Yahweh’s Spirit angry?

Are these his doings?

Don’t my words do good to him who walks blamelessly?”

8But lately my people have risen up as an enemy.

You strip the robe and clothing from those who pass by without a care, returning from battle.

9You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses;

from their young children you take away my blessing forever.

10Arise, and depart!

For this is not your resting place,

because of uncleanness that destroys,

even with a grievous destruction.

11If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies, saying,

“I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink,”

he would be the prophet of this people.

12I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob.

I will surely gather the remnant of Israel.

I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah,

as a flock in the middle of their pasture.

They will swarm with people.

13He who breaks open the way goes up before them.

They break through the gate, and go out.

Their king passes on before them,

with Yahweh at their head.


Devotional

Chapters 2 & 3 give us an insight into the reason why God is bringing a complaint against his people.  They steal, cheat and oppress the poor, and what makes it even worse is they are not just doing wrong when the opportunity arises, but they are taking time to plan all these evil things. They work out how to take the inheritance away from widows and orphans and prey on the weak and vulnerable and God sees it and will not tolerate it.

Unfortunately, there were church leaders in that day who would not stand up against the wealthy, not because of fear but for personal gain. When the prophets came to speak into this terrible situation the people bribe them to twist the truth and give them only good news.  ‘Tell us that we are okay and that nothing bad will happen to us.’  So, the prophets except the money and twist God’s word to give excuses for the people to keep on sinning.  Isn’t strange how when we want to carry on in a bad behaviour we can find some way of twisting God’s word to make an excuse for it.

In chapters 2 & 3 God addresses not only the people but the church leadership.  The message goes out both to those who do these terrible things and to those who excuse it.  God will not tolerate sin and oppression, here he reminds the people that their behaviour is not without consequence.  However, perhaps the greatest warning is to the church leaders who refuse to recognise the wrong and even benefit from it.  These standards fall far below God’s calling on our lives and the difficult truth is we see these issues repeated in the world today.  We need to keep our eyes fixed on God, live as he would guide us and lead as he would direct us.