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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