Verses 8-9
When Micah proclaims the judgment on Samaria, a judgment of complete destruction, he does not proclaim these words as a man with judgmental fingers (look what you have done and you are going to get what you deserve). He doesn’t speak with a vengeful heart. He is not a disconnected prophet simply speaking words. But he takes to heart these words of the Lord and Micah responds in the way we should all respond when we hear of God’s judgment, when we hear of people perishing because of the consequences of sin– we respond as Micah with lamenting.
In verse 8 he writes, “For this I will lament and wail.”
The word lament means a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. Micah is saying my response is not a quiet, inward response but my response is outward because this is not the grief you can keep inside.” Micah is impacted by the words of the Lord because this judgment is coming against his own people. It is very personal to Micah. He deeply feels the anguish and devastation of this judgment.
The phrase “stripped and naked” is an expression. Most likely he wasn’t walking away without clothes. But he is saying this is not a time to be dressing up, adorning yourself with nice things or celebrating. This is a time to be stripping things away and sitting in a place of grieving and sorrow.
And then Micah says you will not just visibly see me as one who is distraught but you will hear me. He makes reference to the sounds of an ostrich and jackal. I will be like an animal at night howling.
Our family used to live in a place where we would occasional hear the sounds of coyotes at night. And they would by crying out like they were in great distress. And it was a very unsettling sound. It made you wonder, what is going on out there?
Micah is saying you will see me and hear me as a man who is distraught.
I think sometimes as humans, we are not always comfortable displaying this type of public grieving nor are we comfortable responding to someone who is outwardly grieving. We are just not sure what to do with it.
A few years ago I was officiating the funeral of an older women who had passed away and her only daughter was sitting on the front row and as I was about to begin the service the daughter began to weep loudly. And there is this moment where you think, “what do I do?” And so I just went and knelt down next to her and prayed with her. Even in a funeral service where we have come for the purposes of grieving when we see someone outwardly and loudly weeping it can be unsetting.
Micah paints a picture in which he is intensely visibly and verbally grieving. You wonder if his presence among the people of Israel was unsettling? Here comes that prophet again who just seems distraught. What do we say? What do we do?
Micah allowed the words of the Lord to deeply impact him. (I think that is important for us to hear).
And his lament isn’t a cry of “why God?” but rather a grieving over the consequences of sin. He is not angry that God would punishment but rather he is grieving that his own people have turned their backs on God and that they have to experience the judgment that comes from disobedience.
And part of the grieving for Micah was knowing that this was a final judgment. This was not a warning. God had warned Israel through prophet after prophet after prophet that there would be consequences for their sin and yet they continued to disobey time and time again rejecting the compassionate urging of the Lord to repent and to turn back to him.
And because this was a final judgment. In verse 9, Micah calls this judgment on Samaria an “incurable wound”. It is like a doctor telling a patient that they have been diagnosed with have a rare disease and there is no cure for it. And the patient says, “is there anything, anything I can do?” And the doctor says, there is nothing that you can do. This disease will lead to your death. When Micah said this was an incurable wound he was saying, “the destruction of Samaria will happen.”
One of the interesting things about this lament is that it is a judgment that has not happened yet. This is a future judgment that happened within 10 years of Micah proclaiming these words. But at this point Samaria is still a strong, wealthy capital city. Micah could still travel to this city and see its buildings still standing and still see its residents still living a life of peace and prosperity.
But what is intriguing is Micah responds to this judgment with weeping and wailing as if it has already happened? Why? Because he believes that what the Lord said will happen will happen. Earlier, I shared a quote from a writer who made this observation about Micah. He wrote, ‘Micah is gripped by the reality of the living God.” When something grips us it means that there is something that is firmly holding our attention. Nothing else is distracting me. This is what I am gripped to.
The reality of God, the character of God, the words of God, the actions of God gripped the very life of Micah. And so what God said will happen in the future impacted how Micah lived in the present. If God said destruction is coming in the future, Micah didn’t wait until the future to weep, he weeped now.
I think about future judgments that you and I are aware of. The famous words of John 3:16 talks about a future judgment. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
The emphasis of the verse points us to the eternal life we can have through belief in Jesus. But the judgment in the verse is that whoever does not believe will perish. There are people living today who will experiencing the judgment of God because of their sin and they will perish. They will spend eternity separated from God in a very real place called hell.
That is God’s judgment on sin. Romans 6:23 says, ‘For the wages of sin is death.”
The question for us is do we lament that judgment? Do we grieve that there are those who are perishing. Do we allow the reality of that to move us, to stir us, to compel us to be proclaimers of the Gospel.
Too many times we can view the judgments of God as an abstract idea that does not impact our everyday life. But when we are gripped by the reality of the living God then His words that tell us that people are perishing should deeply move us. And the reality that people are perishing should create a deep compassion that propels us to proclaim the Gospel.
To keep this judgment from being an abstract concept, Micah does something very intriguing. He begins to speak to the cities of Judah. When a speaker is speaking to a group, the listener can allow themselves to be disconnected. But when a speaker begins to speak personally it often changes the way the listener is hearing the message.
When we are a part of a group listening to a speaker, we don’t feel a personal pressure or obligation to respond. The speaker is speaking to a group. They are not looking for me to personally respond to the things they are saying. You can listen passively. But what if the speaker came off the stage and came up to you personally and begin to address you personally. That now changes the dynamics of how you hear the message. It is not very personal.
Micah understands that the words of a prophet can seem like they are just addressing a nation or capital cities or unseen leaders and that the hearer never has to make the words personal. Micah has just clearly showed us his personal response and now he is going to challenge his listeners to personally respond to the coming judgment of the Lord. And so Micah begins to address some actual cities in Judah. And he wants them to take these judgments personally.
Verse 10
Gath was a Philistine city. This phrase “tell it not in Gath” was most likely a reference to David when he mourned the deaths of King Saul and his son Jonathan. In 2 Samuel 1:20 David says, “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice..” David is saying don’t let our enemies hear us weep and wailing or they may rejoice because our suffering. And so when Micah begins with this phrase he is telling the cities of Judah there are things that are about to happen to you that you do not want your enemies to know.
Now as Micah addresses these cities he is going to do something very clever that isn’t necessarily apparent to us as we read an English translation of Hebrew words. He takes the name of the city and then makes a word play or a pun based on the sound of the name or the meaning of the name.
The word play or pun is in reference to the Lord’s upcoming judgment.
And so for the first city in verse 10 he says, “in Beth-le-aphrah, roll yourselves in the dust.”
Beth-le-aphrah means ‘House of Dust” and the phrase “roll yourselves in the dust” is the idea of putting yourself in a place of grieving and mourning., And so Micah is saying, (House of Dust) roll yourselves in the dust. Beth-le-aphrah you will grieve.
In verse 11 he says, “Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame; the inhabitants of Zaanan do not come out; the lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place.”
Micah address the residents of “Shaphir” (“beautiful,” “pleasant” You are adorned with lovely clothing–And Micah says when the invasion comes you will be fleeing shamefully naked. You will not be wearing beautiful clothing. You will not be pleasant to look upon. And he addresses the city of Zaanan which means to go out and Micah is saying when the judgment comes against you will not go out from it, you will not escape from it. And the third city in verse 11 is Beth-ezel which sounds like a Hebrew word that means “to stand” and Micah says when judgment comes you will no longer be standing. It would be if there was city called Standville you might say Standville, you will no longer stand.
Micha continues with the style of writing in verses 12-15. He uses a pun or play on words to declare personal judgment on that city. Why does he do this? Why get clever when it comes to judgment. Micah himself is lamenting. This doesn’t seem like a time to have fun with word play. So why does he do this?
I believe because it makes the judgment very personal. It causes the hearer to stop and take in the words.
My last name is Horch. Horch is a German word that means “Listen!” And if I was in place of disobedience before God and he wanted to confront me, he could say Jeff Horch, you are a man who no longer listens to me.
If I truly understood my name and maybe even took pride in my name (I am a man who listens – that is who I am) and then God says Horch, you do not listen. It would be a way of speaking directly to me in a very personal way. It takes it beyond the surface and speaks into my core identity.
This is what Micah is doing. The meaning of words were important in the Hebrew culture. Where you came from was important in the Hebrew culture. How does Micah introduce himself at the beginning of chapter one: Micah of Moresheth. Most likely he lived and served in Jerusalem but his identity was where he was from.
And so in verses 10-15, Micah speaks directly into people’s identity and personally challenged them to think about what the coming judgment meant. And he is calling them to respond personally. Lament. Weep. Grieve. Recognize the truth of the living God. And come before God and respond to him in a very personal way.
Micah ends this section in verse 16 by calling the people of Judah to a place of lamenting and repentance. In verses 10-15, they are just hearing but now here is the call of action. Here is the call to respond to the judgment from the Lord and grieve the consequences of your sin.
Verse 16
The shaving of the head was connected with someone experiencing a time of great mourning. It was connected to a person in a time of great grieving. And this is what Micah is calling the Judah to – to lament, to grieve, to weep, wail. If judgment is coming, why repent? Well, the repentance may not change the coming destruction of Israel but what will it change is their relationship with the Lord. It will allow them to move away from disobedience and again the know the joy and freedom of being in a right relationship with God.
One of my wife’s favorite verses is Romans 4:7 that says, “Oh, what joy for those who disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.” In Romans, Paul is quoting David in Psalm 32 where David is talking about his own experience with unrepentant sin and the joy of being back in a right relationship with the Lord.
Israel might have thought that the most important thing in their life was the preservation of their homes and family and nation but what God was wanting them to understand is that the most important thing is being in a right relationship with their God.
Two questions to consider from this passage: 1) do we grieve the judgment of sin and that people are perishing who do not have a relationship with Jesus. 2) Do we grieve our own sin? Are there things that you need to come before God right now and say, ‘I need to come back into a right yourself with you, God.”