Den of Thieves

Micah 2:1-13

Good morning.  I hope you all are rested and ready this morning for a full strength dose of truth from God’s Word.  We’re going to continue our series through the book of Micah.  We’re in chapter 2.  God is going to deal with some specific sin areas today, especially coveting and stealing, hence today’s title, “Den of Thieves.”

A lot of the time when someone tells us they are going to tell us what they really think or they’re going to tell us the whole truth, we get a sense that bad news is on the way.  It is interesting that this week, in the How People Grow class that meets at 9:45, the chapter we discussed was on the topic of truth.  And honestly, sometimes, the truth is hard for us to hear.  Sometimes the truth can be painful to us.

However, God is the true God.  In Him, there is no darkness at all.  He is holy and righteous.  His Word is truth.  His Son, Jesus is the truth.  His Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.  But then, contrast that with the fact that God is love.  God’s love sent His Son, Jesus to the cross to suffer and die for our sins.  He has cast our iniquities into the sea.  He has separated us from our sins as far as the east is from the west.

So, how can a compassionate, loving God also bring to us painful truth?

Let’s keep a few things in mind:

• 1      God is the one who is perfect or holy, not us.  Ezekiel 33:17 records God’s words.  He says, “… people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just,’ when it is their own way that is not just.”
• 2.       Truth begins to be painful when one of the parties involved is not living according to the truth.  It gets even worse when the one who lives contrary to the truth, the one in the wrong, says, “I’m right.  You’re wrong.  I am living by the truth.”  The Bible calls this attitude hardness of heart.  Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 tells us, “Do not harden your hearts.”
• 3.       Truth is ultimately painful when the consequences are greater than what we can afford or bear.  The reality is that each of us are 100% responsible and accountable for our sin (Hebrews 4:13).  In the same passage from Ezekiel, God goes on to say, “I will judge each of you according to his ways.”  The standard is high … “if the righteous trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he does he shall die.”  Who doesn’t do something wrong?
• 4.       God applies truth in our lives as a surgeon works on an injured or sick person.  There can and often is pain involved, but that pain is for our good.  (I Corinthians 11:32)  The pain that is caused is the minimum that can occur and achieve the necessary cure.  God cannot allow our sins to continue forever.  (Hebrews 12:25)  Something must be done.  We have the time period of our lives on earth to respond to God.  If at the end of that time we do not accept Him and His remedy for our sin problem, then we will die forever.  (Hebrews 2:3, Hebrews 9:28)
• 5.       The remedy that God has provided is a substitute.  There is a sacrifice already made which resolves our problem.  (II Corinthians 5:21)  We need to humble ourselves and accept this substitute.  (Romans 10:9-11)  When we accept Jesus, when we trust in Jesus (rather than our own righteousness), then we are healed and accepted by God.  (II Corinthians 4:16-18)

With that as our foundation, let’s pray and then we will jump into Micah chapter 2.

Father God, you are the God of all truth.  You sent Your Son to testify to the truth.  Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  And, no one can come to You except through Your Son, Jesus.  Thank You for telling us where we are wrong.  Thank You for warning us to turn away from our sins and live.  Thank You for paying the penalty for our sin and making the way for us to experience love and joy and peace with You forever and ever.  Amen.

Last week, Tim shared on chapter 1.  There we found that the people of Judah and Israel would face terrible judgment from God including the destruction of Israel’s main city, Samaria. God Himself would mourn over them because the wound of their sin was incurable.  What was that sin?  It was the worship of false gods and all the horrible practices that went with them including prostitution in their temples.  This sin was widespread throughout all the smaller cities and regions, and God’s judgment would come to those places, too.  These sins were like a contagious disease that had worked its way through both nations.

It is interesting to note that Jerusalem was not conquered at the same time as Samaria.  That would come more than 130 years later.  During that time though, foreign armies would rage over the countryside of Judah with devastating effects on the people.  Think about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria who laid siege to Jerusalem in 701 BC, twenty years after the destruction of Samaria.  In his annals, it is written that 46 fortified cities of Judah were captured as well as numerous open villages, and 200,146 people were taken away as captives.  This was more than 100 years before Nebuchadnezzar came from Babylon.  While Sennacherib himself did not claim to conquer Jerusalem, it has been found written in ancient Assyrian texts that he made Hezekiah “a prisoner in Jerusalem his royal residence, like a bird in a cage.”

Let’s pick up now with chapter 2.

Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds!  At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.  Micah 2:1

There was some pretty wicked stuff going on.  People literally went to bed and thought about what evil they could do when they got up.  Usually, you think about crimes happening at night under the cover of darkness.  These people had the power to do their evil in the light of day.  One commentator that I read gave the idea that these people were even using the courts to carry out their injustices.  The courts would open at dawn.  They would use their power and wealth to influence the courts to rule in their favor.  We’ll catch more of the flavor of that in a couple verses.

From an application stand point, we can conclude that all sin is bad but premeditated sin is worse.  When God says, “Woe!”  Bad stuff is going to happen to those individuals.  So the question for us is, “Do we avoid sin when it’s in our power to do it?” 

Jeremiah 17:9 says that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  I have this recurring thought that I have not acted on, but it still keeps popping up.  Often, when I get to work, there is a lady who is working on restocking the vending machines in our canteen.  I go in there because we have a great big refrigerator and I carry my lunch, so I like to put it in the fridge and keep it cool until lunchtime.  Well, I walk by these carts with just tons of candy bars and chips and all kinds of junk food.  Nearly every time, I have this thought that pops into my mind.  “I bet I could grab one of those [insert name of favorite candy bar here] and the vending machine lady would be none the wiser.  It’s kind of pathetic that I think about it, but in a way it’s good that I know that it’s pathetic.  It’s also good that I haven’t swiped a candy bar, yet.  So, what about you, do you refrain from anger when it’s in your power to act out your anger and no one can do a thing about it?  Do you refrain from self-indulgent sins when it is in your power to act on them?

What about these people in Israel and Judah?  What did they scheme and carry out?

They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them.  They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance.  Micah 2:2

The first chapter of Micah took issue with Israel and Judah’s sin against God.  Chapter two, we find the people sinning against one another.  This is kind of a one-two punch.  If you’re not right with God, how can you be right with other sinful people?  I know we’re only a couple of verses into the chapter, but this might be the pivotal thought, at least I think it was for me.  If you’re not right with God, how can you be right with other people?  The answer is, “You can’t.”  Let that sink in for a minute.

This can be a key motivator for sharing the love of Christ with someone.  If you want to help someone get along with others (including themselves and you), then help them come to a right relationship with God.  The other side of this is when you get really, really frustrated with people because they treat you unfairly or hurt your feelings or injure you in some way, step back and think about where they are with the Lord.  If the person is an unbeliever, what else should you expect?  They don’t have the Holy Spirit inside of them guiding them into all truth.  They don’t have God’s Word written on their hearts and in their minds.  I’m not trying to excuse their actions, nor am I trying to minimize your pain.  However, you probably shouldn’t be mad.  You should probably be thankful that they treat you as well as they do.

Let’s continue. You’ll see that God is not letting anyone “off the hook.”

Therefore, the LORD says:  “I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves.  You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.  Micah 2:3

So in verse 1, we read about how the people devised iniquity.  In response to their evil scheming, God has planned disaster.  Justice will be served.  None of their power or wealth will be able to save them.  It is true that disaster removes our pride.  And that, can be a good thing.

I don’t know if you remember last week, I mentioned that I had to fix my car.  I told you then, that I would tell the rest of the story another time.  Well, I experienced a bit of calamity.

We had an offsite meeting at work.  But, after lunch, I had to go over to the plant for a few minutes, literally less than five minutes.  Of that, I was standing still for less than one minute.  Round trip was probably 20 minutes from the offsite to the plant and back to the offsite.  Even still, I felt like I was trespassing on the time of the guys I was meeting with.  In fact, I was the last one to arrive in the morning, too.  I tell you all that because I want you to feel very sure that I was justified for driving “urgently.”  For those who may not know what urgent driving is, it means driving too fast.

I came up to the hill leading to the hotel where our offsite meeting was being held.  There was a bit of an undulation where I extended the shocks out, and then, the car sank back down as low to the road as it would go.  Now mind you, we’re not talking Dukes of Hazzard here.  However, there was some vertical displacement of the car.  At the exact moment I reached the lowest point of my road clearance, I was passing over a manhole cover.  Not only that, the road bed was curved, so one side of the manhole cover was jutting up above the asphalt.  At that moment, my lower oil pan and all the weight of the car above it and the top of the manhole cover were trying to occupy the same space.  Oh, and the engine in my car is aluminum, including the lower oil pan cover.

I heard what sounded like glass shattering.  I looked out the rear view mirror and saw a giant cloud of smoke.  Even though I was completely incredulous, I knew instantly what had happened.  There was no more oil in my engine, at least there was no pressure and what was left in the engine was quickly leaking out on the pavement.  I pulled the car into a parking space as quick as I could and shut it off.  I hopped out to look under, and I could see the inside of the bottom of the engine.  Something that had not seen the light of day in 22 years.  I walked to the manhole cover to see if there are pieces of car everywhere.  Surprisingly, when aluminum shatters under pressure, it really does break like glass.  There were two pieces big enough to pick up.  The rest were just pebble sized.  Here’s what was left of the lower oil pan:

At this moment, I have created what is affectionately known as a “walk home.”  I can’t drive the car without fixing it.  I mean, I could drive it, but it would only be a few short minutes before there would be major engine damage.  For me, it was a calamity, and I was instantly humbled.  I was being careless and perhaps even reckless.

There were a lot of things to learn from my experience, but I’ll share just one with you now.  We had gone out to lunch just before I blew up my car.  When we were ordering, the waitress asked me a dumb question.  Yes, I know, there’s no such thing as a dumb question, but there is such a thing as an unnecessary one.  It’s a question I’ve had before, so I already had a wisecrack thought up.  It was right there on the tip of my tongue, so I just let it roll out.  She was a bit embarrassed and said something equally third grade in return.  I didn’t apologize and regretted it and ate my lunch and went on my way.  Now, I’m not so bold as to say that I broke the car because I was unkind to the waitress.  I broke the car because I was driving too fast and not avoiding hazards in the road.  However, that humility lesson brought to mind what I had done.  Although I did not handle the situation with the waitress well that day, I think I am in a much better place for the future.  I Corinthians 11:32 says, “But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”

I think in part, I experienced a tiny taste of judgment/discipline.  I hope that it will help to keep me from condemnation.  It is part of God working out my sanctification that I would be more like Him, like Jesus, and less like the jerky guy who makes fun of waitresses and drives too fast.

In that day men will ridicule you; they will taunt you with this mournful song:  ‘We are utterly ruined; my people’s possession is divided up.  He takes it from me!  He assigns our fields to traitors.’”  Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD to divide the land by lot.  Micah 2:4-5

There are other places in the prophets where judgment is foretold for the nations who would make fun of Israel and Judah in their distress.  The traitors mentioned at the end of the verse are likely the Assyrians.  God would assign the precious Promised Land to others, ones who were not the chosen people of God.  From the point of view of the Israelites, these people would be traitors.

This coarse jesting would be based in the reality of the Israelites distress, however.  There would be no one left who would parcel out the land according to the Law.  The land would belong to someone else entirely, not the Jews.

 “Do not prophesy,” their prophets say.  “Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”  Micah 2:6

At the same time as Isaiah and Micah and others would prophesy in the Name of God Most High, there were false prophets who would say the things the people’s “itching ears wanted to hear.”  (II Timothy 4:3)  There is one story in Jeremiah where a false prophet named Hananiah said God would destroy Nebuchadnezzar and that Israel and all the nations would be free.  Jeremiah did not confront Hananiah directly, but at a later time, the Lord tells Jeremiah that Hanaiah has not prophesied truth but lies.  Jeremiah repeats God’s curse against Hananiah, and within two months he died.

I think we experience something similar today.  At every election, politicians prophesy good, if we elect them.  There are endless streams of infomercials which prophesy good if you buy and use this product or that.  Many people are prophesying get-rich-quick schemes which would be good.  There are many churches these days which prophesy good in terms of positive thinking, name it claim it, ask and you shall receive the things which benefit you.

James was pretty clear in addressing that last group.  “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (4:3)

We need to be discerning when we listen to the voices of our world.  We talked about these things in our last series from the book of I John.  “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world,” (4:1) remembering the test that a spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God.

Should it be said, O house of Jacob:  “Is the Spirit of the LORD angry? Does he do such things?”  

"Do not my words do good to him whose ways are upright?”  Micah 2:7

This phrase, “Is the Spirit of the Lord angry?” gets different treatment in different translations.  The Hebrew word qatsar literally means to cut off.  It is translated as something to do with reaping more than half the time it occurs.  In the more symbolic uses of the word as an adjective, it has been translated restricted, shortened, impatient, angry, limited, annoyed, too short, and smaller to name a few.

The first phrase is credited to Micah as the speaker.  He’s saying something like, “You ought not say, ‘Is the Spirit of the Lord angry or impatient or too short or limited?  Does he do such things? (like bring calamity)”  God can and does do such things.  If the Israelites had read the book of Judges or any of the historical books, the annals of the kings, they would know that turning away from the Lord ends in bad stuff.  Rejecting God’s Word leads to destitution both material and spiritual destitution.  Clinging to God’s Word and His commands is life.  (Psalm 119:93, John 5:24)

Lately my people have risen up like an enemy.  You strip off the rich robe from those who pass by without a care, like men returning from battle.  You drive the women of my people from their pleasant homes.  You take away my blessing from their children forever.  Micah 2:8-9

God Himself is confirming that He sees what the Israelites have done.  He has seen the cruelty of those who steal from the innocent and peaceful.  Likely the women driven from their homes are widows who need protection and provision.  These greedy people are stealing the inheritance of the children.

They no doubt will take these goods that they have stolen including the blessing of the children and will spend it upon themselves.  How is that different from our time, where our government is eager to meet the needs of so many and win their approval?  We literally are mortgaging our future in order to satiate our desires of today.  It gets even worse because more than 56 million American babies have been aborted since 1973.  Our national population is about 300 million people.  We’re missing more than 15% of our population.  These are people who would have bought goods and services and hopefully had jobs and contributed to our economy.  Instead, we are seeing the lowest birth rate in our history.

I’m sure you’ve heard that the abortion rate is the lowest it has been since Roe v. Wade which is a good thing.  But the rate is still above 30% of live births.  Is that shocking to you?  It was shocking to me!  For us taking away the blessing of the children is not enough, we are taking away the children themselves.

When I read of the coming judgments in the Old Testament and the New Testament, I feel sad and yet resigned.  It will come.  It has to come.  God cannot allow this continue.  He said that the blood of Abel cried out from the ground.  If Abel’s blood cries out, what does the blood of 56 million aborted babies sound like.

Micah began his ministry in the reign of Jotham and nobody listened. Then he prophesied during the reign of Ahaz and nobody listened. Finally, he prophesied during the reign of Hezekiah and the leaders and the people repented. Micah didn't give up.  He kept on preaching the message.  There was no sign of results for somewhere between 16 and 25 years.  During the reign of Hezekiah, there was a response. (taken from commentary by David Guzik)

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. …  And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.  He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it …  He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.  For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses.  And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered.  II Kings 18:1-7

Judgment would come because wicked kings followed Hezekiah, but for those 29 years, a generation of Israel had the chance to grow up following the Lord.  We need to live like Micah and not give up warning people to flee from the wrath to come.  We need to live like Hezekiah and hold fast to the Lord and not depart from following Him.  Jesus often preached a simple message.  John the Baptist preached it.  The disciples learned to preach it.  The early church preached it.  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  We too can pick up their refrain and wait to see what the Spirit of the Lord can do.  He is not limited or shortened.  His words do good.

“Get up, go away!  For this is not your resting place, because it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy.  If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’ he would be just the prophet for this people!”  Micah 2:10-11

I think I often sell the message of God short.  Do you know what I mean?  God will not often make people rich in this world when they follow him.  Many times, choosing to follow God will make life more challenging for people.  They will face persecution and opposition.

And yet, what kind of life is led by ones who enjoy plenty of wine and beer?  These words of warning remind me of Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress.  He was convinced by God’s Word, the Bible, that he was living in the City of Destruction.  He knew he needed to flee and come to the Celestial City.  Along the way, he has this great burden of sin removed from his back.  He meets other companions along the way including Faithful and Hopeful.  We too are pilgrims, sojourners.  We are passing through this place, but we are headed to “The City of God’s Delight” which is also called “The Bride of God.” (Isaiah 62:4)

Remember that idea from the earliest point in the message.  If we are not right with God, we cannot hope to be right with one another.  Life apart from God just doesn’t work.  We might be able to patch a spot here or there, but we cannot have abundant life apart from Him.

God gave this twofold judgment to Jeremiah, “My people have committed two evils:  they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”  (2:13) Isn’t that exactly what we see today?  When people forsake God, then they have to make a cistern for themselves, like a big old bucket.  Then they try to keep the things of God in there.  Life and health and peace and joy, but it just keeps running out of the bucket full of holes.  You can’t make life work without God.

If you’ve got one of those empty holey buckets today, I invite you to come to the fountain of living waters.  He is the source of life.  He is the source of peace.  He is the source of joy, real joy, not slapped on happiness that people wear like a shirt or a pair of shoes.  “How are you?”  “I’m fine.” [Polite smile which seems to indicate inner tranquility.]  Let’s put those false pretensions aside.  Let us seek the one who truly holds all things together.  He is waiting for us.  He is watching over us.  We only need to listen to His voice and follow Him when He calls.

“I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.  I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people.”  Micah 2:12

He will gather us all together.  If you are worried that this applies only to the Israelites, we too are children of the promise.  Father Abraham has many sons, and you can read about that in Galatians chapter 3.  Ezekiel also wrote that the sojourners who reside among God’s people shall be as native-born children.  Romans talks about us as wild olive branches that were grafted into God because Israel was broken off for a time.

I’ve gotten hung up in the past that the remnant will be small and few in number.  I have been sad thinking about it especially when I’ve seen ones in Christian leadership make decidedly non-Christian decisions.  I have thought to myself, “only a remnant will be saved.”  And yet, here in Micah we see that the place will throng with people.  It will not be few, it will be many.

“One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out.  Their King will pass through before them, the LORD at their head.”  Micah 2:13

And here is a title for Jesus that you may have not heard or noticed before.  I know that I hadn’t.  The King James Version sets it apart with capital letters.  Not just “one who breaks” but “The Breaker.”  Jesus is the Breaker.  Paul wrote in Ephesians 4 how Jesus descended into the lower regions and then ascended on high leading a host of captives.  Jesus has broken through.  He is demolishing the works of the evil one.  I John 3:8 tells us that is why Jesus came, to destroy the works of the devil.

I’ve shared a Spurgeon quote before where he said that he could prove that no one is too wicked or too bad to come to God.  We cannot out-sin God’s ability to forgive.  We sin as limited men and women.  God forgives as the all-loving, all-powerful God.  You can’t be disqualified if you are willing to repent, turn away from your sin and come to Him.  He will pass through before us.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.  Hebrews 1:1-4

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had …  Philippians 1:27-30

[Bonus Material:  Charles Spurgeon’s message on Micah 2:7, “Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?”, http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/2218.htm]