Sunday, December 13, 2015

The Ruin of Judah (Micah 1:9-16)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/13/2015 7:37 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  The Ruin of Judah

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Micah 1:9-16

            Message of the verses:  “9 For her wound is incurable, For it has come to Judah; It has reached the gate of my people, Even to Jerusalem. 10 Tell it not in Gath, Weep not at all. At Beth-le-aphrah roll yourself in the dust. 11 Go on your way, inhabitant of Shaphir, in shameful nakedness. The inhabitant of Zaanan does not escape. The lamentation of Beth-ezel: "He will take from you its support." 12 For the inhabitant of Maroth Becomes weak waiting for good, Because a calamity has come down from the LORD To the gate of Jerusalem. 13 Harness the chariot to the team of horses, O inhabitant of Lachish- She was the beginning of sin To the daughter of Zion-Because in you were found The rebellious acts of Israel. 14 Therefore you will give parting gifts On behalf of Moresheth-gath; The houses of Achzib will become a deception To the kings of Israel. 15 Moreover, I will bring on you The one who takes possession, O inhabitant of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will enter Adullam. 16 Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, Because of the children of your delight; Extend your baldness like the eagle, For they will go from you into exile.”

            We can see that the problem with Samaria was that it was toxic and thus spread to Judah and we can see in verse nine that it was incurable and not it reached the gate of Jerusalem.  The prophet wept over this infection that had began in Samaria and is spreading to Jerusalem, wept like one weeps over a person in the hospital who has an incurable disease.  I have mentioned that Micah and Isaiah were contemporaries and so I want to look at a few verses in Isaiah 1 that say some similar things:  “5 Where will you be stricken again, As you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick And the whole heart is faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head There is nothing sound in it, Only bruises, welts and raw wounds, Not pressed out or bandaged, Nor softened with oil (Isaiah 1:5-6).”  When we studied the book of Jeremiah we learned that he was the “weeping prophet,” and he too wept because the spiritual leaders in his day didn’t deal drastically with the sin sickness of the people of Judah.  “"They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ’Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace (Jer. 6:14).”  “"Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail (Jer. 7:8).”  “"They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ’Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace (Jer. 8:11).”

            I have to say that there are some cities in this section of Micah that I have no idea where they were located and so we will rely on Dr. Wiersbe to help us out.  “Micah describes the ruin of the southern part of Judah (the Shephelah) by the invading Assyrians in 701 BC (Micah 1:10-16; see 2 Kings 18:7ff).” He has an endnote to help explain more fully:  “Several of these towns were located within a nine mile radius of Micah’s hometown, Moresheth Gath, and could easily be seen from there on a clear day.  These were Micah’s neighbors, and he had to tell them they were doomed to destruction!”  Now back to the quote from his commentary.  “They swept through the land and took forty-six cities, but they could not take Jerusalem because God protected it.  Micah used a series of puns based on the names of the cities similar in sound to familiar Hebrew words.  For example, ‘Gath’ is similar to the Hebrew word for ‘tell.’ Beth Ophrah means ‘house of dust.’  The people of Shaphir (‘pleasant, beautiful’) would look neither beautiful nor pleasant as they were herded off as naked prisoners or war.

            “The roll call of cities goes on.  The citizens of Zaanan (‘come out’) would not be able to come out because of the danger.  Beth Ezel means ‘house of taking away,’ and the city would be taken away.  Maroth is related to ‘mara/myrrh’ and means ‘bitterness,’ and the city would experience bitter calamity (‘writhe in pain,’ NIV).  Since Lachish sounds like the Hebrew word for ‘team of swift horses,’ he warned them to harness their horses to the chariots and try to escape.”  Another endnote is in order after this section:  “How Lachish was ‘the beginning of sin’ to Judah is not explained, Lachish was the most important and most powerful city-state in the Shephelah, and the Assyrians were very proud that they had conquered it.  It was a highly fortified city, and the confidence of the people of Lachish and of Judah was in their military might, not in the Lord.  This pride and self-assurance was the beginning of the nation’s sin.  The leaders depended on the outlying fortress cities to keep the enemy from invading, but these cities fell to the enemy.”

            Micah’s own city was next to fall, Moresheth was his city and the name was similar to the Hebrew word “Betrothed.”  We spoke of the significance of the Hebrew weddings when we were studying the book of Revelation and when a bride is betrothed they were given farewell gifts.  Moresheth would be taken by the Assyrian invaders and thus taken away from Judah. 

            As we have studied what is going on now in other books of the Old Testament we have learned that none of this needed to happen, and yet it did because the people were depending upon other nations to help them and other gods to help them when they should have been depending upon the Lord to deliver them as He promised He would if they would confess their sin of unfaithfulness to Him. 

            In our next SD on Micah we will begin to look at chapter two.

12/13/2015 8:12 PM  

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