PT-2 Rebuke: The Sins of the Leaders (Micah 3:5-8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/23/2015 11:00 PM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus: PT-2 Rebuke: The sins of the Leaders

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Micah 3:5-8

Message of the verses:  “5  Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets Who lead my people astray; When they have something to bite with their teeth, They cry, "Peace," But against him who puts nothing in their mouths They declare holy war. 6 Therefore it will be night for you-without vision, And darkness for you-without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets, And the day will become dark over them. 7 The seers will be ashamed And the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed, they will all cover their mouths Because there is no answer from God.  8 On the other hand I am filled with power- With the Spirit of the LORD-And with justice and courage To make known to Jacob his rebellious act, Even to Israel his sin.”

“5 Here is GOD’s Message to the prophets, the preachers who lie to my people: "For as long as they’re well paid and well fed, the prophets preach, ‘Isn’t life wonderful! Peace to all!’ But if you don’t pay up and jump on their bandwagon, their ‘God bless you’ turns into ‘God damn you.’ 6 Therefore, you’re going blind. You’ll see nothing. You’ll live in deep shadows and know nothing. The sun has set on the prophets. They’ve had their day; from now on it’s night. 7 Visionaries will be confused, experts will be all mixed up. They’ll hide behind their reputations and make lame excuses to cover up their God-ignorance.   8 But me—I’m filled with GOD’s power, filled with GOD’s Spirit of justice and strength, Ready to confront Jacob’s crime and Israel’s sin (Message).”

What we have in this section, and this again is common in many of the OT prophet’s writings, is that Micah is rebuking the false prophets in this section of verses.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “whose lies (speaking of the false prophets) made it easy for the corrupt officials to carry on their evil deeds.  ‘An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so (Jer. 5:30-31 KJV).  When God is left out of the human government, it’s easy for officials to use their authority selfishly to exploit the people.” 

We see from these verses that as long as you gave these false prophets something to eat and to drink that they would say what you wanted to hear from them.  They were similar to the false prophets in Jeremiah’s day, which was ahead of the days of Micah, who told the people peace when war was breaking out.  We also see that these false prophets would one day soon be in total darkness and then they would cry out to the Lord, but the Lord would not hear them.

Micah begins the eight verse with “On the other hand” which means that he is changing directions and beginning to talk about God’s true prophets.  He says that they are filled with God’s Spirit and that they were faithfully proclaiming what God wants them to hear.  We have been studying the life of John the Baptist in the first chapter of the gospel of John and John was like these prophets speaking what God wanted them to say being unafraid of what the people would do to them or say to them.  We can see the Micah would tell the people their sins, just as John the Baptist did, and also would tell them that judgment was coming upon them. 

      Dr. Wiersbe concludes this section by writing “Few men are as pitiable as those who claim to have a call from God yet tailor their sermons to please others.  Their first rule is ‘Don’t rock the boat’; their second is ‘Give people what they want.’  But a true servant of God declares God’s message regardless of whether the people like it or not.  He’d like to be a peace maker, but sometimes he has to be a troublemaker.  No wonder Jeremiah cried out, ‘Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends!’  (Jer. 15:10).”

One brief note on the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament as far as filling believers, and that is that the Holy Spirit in OT times could come and go, unlike in the NT times when every true believer is given the Holy Spirit when they believe and it cannot be taken from them.  David prayed in Psalm 51: 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”  We also saw in the lives of both Saul and David that God took His Spirit away from Saul and on the same day gave His Spirit to David.

12/23/2015 11:24 PM