Micah 2:8-13
Micah 2:8
Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull
off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from
war.
The northern kingdom has acted as if they were the enemy
of God and also an enemy to Judah.
By taking up idolatry and false religion, they even became the enemy of
themselves because false religion betrays you and only leads it an eternal
sentence in hell. The second part
of this verse speaks about those who went to war and came back home from the
battlefields surviving it just to be uncovered and demeaned by those who were
the materialistic oppressors in Israel.
They had treated these people like enemies because when someone conquers
a nation, one of the first things they do is to strip them and humiliate them
thus putting them into despair.
Micah 2:9
The women of my people have ye cast out from their
pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.
The women, who were no doubt widows, were evicted from
their homes by those who were ruthless mortgage holders who believed they could
sell their houses for more profit than what the widows were paying them.
Jesus had excoriated the Pharisees for doing the same things their
ancestors did.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer:
therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Matthew 23:14) Many
times the children of the widows were sold into slavery and the glory speaks
about the great land which God gave them because many times slaves were taken
from Israel to different lands where they were made to worship false gods and
that would be sharing the glory of God with idols.
Micah 2:10
Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because
it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.
Here God is telling the oppressors that they must prepare
to depart, that is, they too will be taken into captivity in Assyria as their
prestigious positions will not prevent them from being taken from the land.
The rest which God had given them was in the land where they were living
but because they have polluted the land by their sins, it will lead to their
destruction and then God compounds the destruction by using the word “sore.”
“Sore” means “grievous, serious or mortal.”
Their violation of the covenant which they agreed upon was now breached.
Micah 2:11
If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie,
saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be
the prophet of this people.
If one of the false prophets who claim to be walking in
the spirit of God, that is, who was pretending to be speaking for God but was
walking in falsehood and prophesied unto them of wine and strong drink, that is,
times of coming prosperity then his message would be the one that the people
would listen to.
{10} Which say to the seers, See not; and
to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things,
prophesy deceits: {11} Get you out
of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease
from before us. (Isaiah 30:10-11)
The people of Judah wanted the same thing.
They did not want the true teachings of God, instead they wanted the
false teachers to prophesy things they wanted to hear.
We have that same situation in Christianity today.
Mega-churches like Joel Osteen draw 30,000 people every week because as a
false teacher he tells them what they want to hear and real churches who bring
the truth have 20-30 people in them.
So like in Israel, today’s Christians gravitate toward the gospel of
health and wealth.
Micah 2:12
I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will
surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of
Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of
their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the
multitude of men.
Here God makes a promise to the Elect within Israel that
he will assemble all of Jacob and then in the next phrase qualifies the
statement that it will be the remnant of Israel, that is, the true believers
will be gathered together as one flock in Bozrah which was famous for many
fields for grazing.
And I will make them one nation in the
land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and
they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two
kingdoms any more at all: (Ezekiel
37:22) All the true believers
will be united together in the New Heavens and the New Earth.
God further speaks about this time in Ezekiel 37:24-26:
{24} And David my servant shall be king over them; and
they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and
observe my statutes, and do them.
{25} And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant,
wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and
their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David
shall be their prince for ever.
{26} Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an
everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and
will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
(Ezekiel 37:24-26)
The great noise they will be making will be noise of joy
and praise because they will be many from all nations and tongues.
Micah 2:13
The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up,
and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall
pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.