What does it mean to be the people of God? If we were to keep it real simple, we could
say that God’s people are people who are marked by two major
characteristics. First, they love God with all they are and above all
else. Second, God’s people are people
who, because they love and know God, reflect God’s character by loving their neighbor as
themselves. Jesus said these two ideas
basically sum up the Old Testament (Matthew
22:40). When a group of people call
themselves “God’s People” and is failing to do these two things, there is a
serious problem. In Micah’s day, God’s
people had failed to love Yahweh with all and above all by committing idolatry (Micah 1:7) and had failed to love their neighbor as their self by coveting what belonged to each other and
actually oppressing one another to
have it. God’s people were failing to
love their neighbor as their self and in so doing were failing to reflect the
character of God to the world. Israel was
now in a situation where they were calling themselves God’s people but were
acting like God’s enemies (Micah 2:8).
In Micah
2:1-13, Micah rebuked these
wicked workers of evil among God’s people for their covetousness and their
oppression, but he also encouraged Yahweh’s faithful remnant with the sure hope
of His deliverance. The temptation to
covet things instead of hoping in God is as real today as it was in Micah’s
day, and for that reason, Micah’s message is intensely convicting and relevant:
God’s true people must recognize and repent of covetousness & learn to hope
in God’s deliverance and security. My
prayer today is first that we would all see the horrors of covetousness and how
covetous a people we can be, but also that we would repent of that covetousness
and learn to hope in God for deliverance from both covetousness in our own
hearts and covetous people as well.
[2:1] Woe to those who devise wickedness and
work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is
in the power of their hand. [2] They covet fields and seize them, and
houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his
inheritance. [3] Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against this family
I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall
not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster. [4] In that day
they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, “We are
utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me!
To an apostate he allots our fields.” [5] Therefore you will have none to
cast the line by lot in the assembly of the LORD.
[6] “Do
not preach”—thus they preach— “one should not preach of such things; disgrace
will not overtake us.” [7] Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Has the
LORD grown impatient? Are these his deeds? Do not my words do good to him who
walks uprightly? [8] But lately my people have risen up as an enemy; you
strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war. [9] The
women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses; from their young
children you take away my splendor forever. [10] Arise and go, for this is
no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous
destruction. [11] If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying,
“I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for
this people!
[12] I
will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I
will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a
noisy multitude of men. [13] He who opens the breach goes up before them; they
break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before
them, the LORD at their head. (Micah
2:1-13 ESV) This passage gives us
two reasons to repent of covetousness and to hope in God.
I.
God will Judge the Covetous and the Oppressive (2:1-11)
Micah
2:1-11 contains two oracles, a woe oracle (2:1-5) upon the powerful,
but wicked workers of evil among God’s people and a mocking oracle (2:6-11) that mocks prophets of these wicked workers
of evil. What we learn from these two
oracles is that there is a group of people in Israel who not only “covet” their neighbor’s lands and
possessions, but who also have the “power”
in their hand to “seize” them and “take them away” (1-2). They are devising this evil at night on their
beds and then performing it during the day by oppressing their neighbor and
taking away their homes and inheritance.
They were oppressing men, women, and even children (8-9). To make the situation worse, there were a
group of false prophets who were endorsing this behavior by over emphasizing Yahweh’s patience (7). They were denying Micah’s message and
actually telling Micah and other true prophets to stop warning of God’s
judgment. Micah calls the message of
these phony prophets “wind and lies”
(11).
A little background may help highlight just how
serious this situation was. When God
brought His people to the Promised Land in the Old Testament, it was understood
that He was the true Owner of the land and that He distributed it to the tribes
of Israel as He pleased (through the casting of lots: Numbers 26:52-56; Joshua 12-22).
Several stipulations in the Law safeguarded that inheritance from being
lost (Leviticus 25:23-34; Numbers
27:1-11). Israel could enjoy the Promised Land
freely if they honored Yahweh’s covenant, but if they should prove disloyal to
the covenant (i.e. if they failed to love God and their neighbor), God reserved
the right to take away their land and give it to their enemies (Deuteronomy 28:49-68). These powerful people in Micah’s day were
disregarding Yahweh’s command and seizing people’s land at their own
discretion.
So the big idea here is that those people who
should have been shepherding God’s people were acting as their “enemy” (8). They had made the Promised Land (a place intended
to be a “rest” for God’s people) an
unclean place where there would be no rest (10). Because they had done so, they were going to reap what they have sown from Yahweh Himself! Just as they had devised “wickedness” in verse 1, Yahweh was now “devising disaster” against them (the
Hebrew words here are nearly identical: ra’
and ra’a). Those who had “power” were to be humiliated
and would be powerless to avoid
the yoke that Yahweh would place upon their necks (3). They had seized “fields” (2) from others and now their “fields” were going to be allotted to another (4). Their most scathing condemnation comes in
verse 5: they will not participate in the future redistribution of the land and
will lose any hope of future inheritance among God’s people. This basically means that they were going to
be blotted out of the covenant community.
As an aside, notice that there is a flicker
of hope here: there will be a redistribution of the land, implying a new exodus for those who are truly God’s
people.
So what do we take from this section? These two oracles are addressing the sin of covetousness among God’s so-called
people. Covetousness is when you want
something that is not yours. It is the
basic idea behind all advertising! It also
is a serious sin in Scripture. Listen to
the tenth commandment: “You shall not
covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his
male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that
is your neighbor's.” (Exodus 20:17
ESV) Why is this sin such a big deal?
First, because covetousness is a
failure to trust God and be content with what He provides. It says to God that He is not wise and good
and that He has not given you what you need.
Second, covetousness is a failure
to love one’s neighbor. As Yahweh’s
covenant partner, God’s people were supposed to love their neighbor as their
self rather than covet what belonged to them: [9] “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap
your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after
your harvest. [10] And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither
shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for
the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God. [11] “You shall
not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another.
[12] You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of
your God: I am the LORD. [13] “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob
him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the
morning. [14] You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before
the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. [15] “You shall do
no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the
great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. [16] You shall
not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up
against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. [17] “You shall not hate
your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor,
lest you incur sin because of him. [18] You shall not take vengeance or
bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your
neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus
19:9-18 ESV)
Thirdly, covetousness
leads to oppression of others. We
see this here in Micah 2:2 and in
the passage we just read. Coveting can
lead to stealing and robbing. Coveting
can lead us to take another person’s property from them. Coveting can lead us to short people on what
we owe them. Coveting can lead us incur
unreasonable amounts of debt. Coveting
can lead us to be crooked in our dealings with others and to cheat on our
taxes. Coveting can lead us to commit
adultery with our neighbor’s spouse.
Coveting can even lead us to murder someone as it did King Ahab (1 Kings 21). Coveting can lead you to do all manner of
things that you never thought you were capable of, and it will take you further
than you want to go and will keep you longer than you want to stay.
A fourth reason covetousness is such a big deal is
because covetousness is a failure to reflect
God’s character to the world.
Contentment and generosity, the exact opposite of covetousness and
oppression, are reflections of God’s grace to us in Christ (1 Timothy 6:17-19; 2 Corinthians 8:9), and Jesus said that our love
for one another would let the world know that we are His disciples (John 13:35). Finally, covetousness is such a big deal
because in the end, covetousness will
incur the wrath of God. The apostle
Paul called covetousness “idolatry” in
Colossians 3:5-6, and said that on
account of sins like it the wrath of God was coming upon the world.
Have you ever considered that coveting is what
took place before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 3:1-5? Adam and Eve wanted something that was off
limits to them, something that belonged to God.
Their desire was a statement that all God has given them was not enough,
and their highest regards were upon what they wanted. This led them to play God in seeking to have
it.
As God’s people, we must love our neighbor, not covet
their things and seeking ways to have them. We must heed this warning. Not making war with covetousness in your life
will lead to your eternal destruction. Micah’s
words are meant to do you good if you truly mean to walk uprightly (7): heed
His words and repent.
II.
God will Deliver the Remnant Who Hopes in Him (2:12-13)
There has always been a remnant among “God’s
People” who were truly God’s people,
and that remnant has always become part of the true people of God by faith in His deliverance. In Micah
2:12-13, we read the promise that true
Israel’s Shepherd-King will gather the remnant of His people (12) and
deliver them (13). The new exodus theme is
being picked up again here. In Psalm 78:52-55, Yahweh is praised as the Shepherd of His people in the exodus
story. And just like the Exodus story,
God has heard every cry of His oppressed sheep and promises here to gather them
and deliver them, not only as their Shepherd, but also as their King.
Now maybe you’re here today and you have been the
victim of someone’s covetousness and oppression. Or perhaps you are here and you feel the
oppression of your own covetousness.
Either way, as we trace this theme of deliverance through a
Shepherd-King, this promise becomes the greatest news in the world for
you! Historically, this is probably a
reference to Yahweh’s deliverance of His people during Sennacherib’s blockade
during king Hezekiah’s reign (2 Kings
19:31), but it obviously hints at a greater
deliverance by Yahweh as His people’s Shepherd-King in a new exodus. According to the New Testament, this promise
ultimately finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd-King of
God’s people, who, as God Himself, would lay down His life for His sheep in
order to gather them and save them. [11] I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [12] He who is a hired hand and
not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the
sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. [13] He
flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. [14] I
am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the
Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
[16] And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them
also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one
shepherd. (John 10:11-16 ESV)
Jesus Christ is the Shepherd-King who has laid
down His life for His flock in order to gather them and accomplish their
ultimate, eternal deliverance. However,
in the gospel story, “he delivers his
harassed people not from a position of might and power but by being harassed himself
by those who should have welcomed him (Mark 14:1; John
5:17; 7:1). He was the Shepherd who gave his life for his sheep (John 10:11). Ultimately
this led to death on a cross to suffer the judgment we deserve (for our covetousness), and
resurrection from the powers of sin and death to provide the victory we need.
Through this Shepherd’s death, there is hope for the oppressed who trust in him
to save—as well as for oppressors who turn away from injustice, looking to
Christ for forgiveness and deliverance (1
Thess. 1:10).”[1] That last line is crucial: Jesus’s work on the cross offers hope to the
covetous and the oppressor. Through
faith in Him you can receive forgiveness of your sins and a new heart that will
love your neighbor as God loves you.
Will you turn to Him in faith in order to experience this deliverance
today?
Where will you place your hope, in God or in
things, possessions, lands, etc.? That
is the great question this text leaves us with. When we have settled our hopes in God, the
things of earth do grow strangely dim, freeing us to reflect His character in
how we use those things for the advance of His kingdom. Covetousness is an attempt
to attain happiness and security for our future apart from God. This passage calls us to look to God for our
future.
