Paul exhorts his young protégé, Timothy, to “preach the word . . . reprove, rebuke, and exhort . . . For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions . . .” (2 Timothy 4:2-4). Perhaps Paul had the prophet Micah in mind when he wrote Timothy, for his exhortation describes the context and content of the prophet’s ministry “to a T”. The days were evil in the last half of 8th century BC Israel and biblical preaching was not welcome, however much it was needed.
Micah’s was a stern word. After shooting down the wealthy (Chapter 2), he turned both barrels on the failed leadership of God’s people (Chapter 3). In vivid, even grotesque, language he delivers God’s verdict. In so many words Yahweh warns, “You’re all on the take and your appetite for gain is eating my people alive. The law courts are a despicable den of thieves, and your prophecies, conditioned by graft, are so much BS. Because you will not listen to the cries of the oppressed, I will be deaf to your pleadings when the Assyrians come calling. And because you offer words that I have never spoken, I will speak to you no more. You are a stench in my nostrils and I will blow you out like so much snot.”
Have I taken liberties in my characterization of the word that “came to Micah”? I’ll stand by it. God did not -- does not -- take kindly to people abusing his generosity. The authority that magistrates are supposed to wield is his authority; the wisdom that prophets are supposed to offer is his wisdom. To rule without justice and to prophesy without truth is an offense to the one who is the source of all justice and truth.
Yet, who is responsible for maintaining God’s justice and truth in our midst? Those who, in God’s generous dealings, are placed in positions of power and influence. It is they who, in the words of the prophet, have the power to lead “people astray”. It is their abandoning of their God-given responsibilities that will cause any nation, as was Israel, to be “plowed as a field.”
Truthfully, we shouldn’t think that our nation will fare any better than did Israel if our nation resolutely displaces Yahweh’s will with it’s own. Let’s purpose to daily pray for those who seek to lead our nation, whether in government, religion, academia, or media. And let’s pray that the church offers God’s word to them for they take on a weighty responsibility to which God will hold them accountable.
