Micah 1:1-2
Today my goal is simply to put Micah in the
context of the history of Israel. As a people, the history of Israel really
begins with Abraham, whom God led to a new land. God covenantally promised to
bless Abraham’s descendants. The promise continued through Abraham’s son,
Isaac, and then through Isaac’s son, Jacob who also was given the name Israel,
and the descendants of Jacob’s twelve sons became known as the twelve tribes of
Israel. One of these sons, Joseph, was hated by the others and was sold by them
as a slave to Egypt. However, God raised Joseph up and Joseph saved his family
in a terrible famine.
The descendants of Jacob’s sons remained in
Egypt and multiplied over succeeding generations to become extremely numerous.
The pharaoh of Egypt began to feel threatened by them, and they were enslaved.
Eventually God called Moses to be a person God would use to deliver His people
from bondage and bring them to a land of promise. God did free and save His
people, and He gave them the Law, a set of moral rules including the Ten
Commandments and additional commands on many topics touching almost all aspects
of daily life. The people rebelled, wanting to go back to Egypt. They created an
idol and worshiped it. God punished them by making them remain in the
desert for 40 years until the older generation died off. Only the younger
generation was able to enter the Promised Land.
God then used Joshua and other members of
this younger generation to conquer Canaan, and God assigned lands to the
various tribes of Israel. This was followed by a period of about 300 years
sometimes called the period of the Judges. During this era the Israelites
repeatedly forgot their God, were either conquered or were facing becoming
conquered by an enemy people, and in each case called out to God to save them.
Each time, God would provide a leader, called a Judge, who would follow God and
the result would be that, again and again, God delivered them from their
current threat. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time until the people
again forgot God and returned to their own sinful and selfish ways. The stories
of the particular judges that get the most detail in the Bible are Deborah, who
with the army leader Barak contended against the Canaanites Jabin and Sisera,
Gideon, who dealt with Midian, Amalek, and others, Jephthah, who contended
against Ammonites, and Samson, who contended against the Philistines.
This era was followed by what some call the
United Kingdom (not to be confused with England), a period of about 120 years
during which all of Israel was led by kings, first Saul, then David, and
finally Solomon. God warned the people about the negative consequences of
having a king, but the people wanted a king anyway, and God gave them what they
wanted. The first king, Saul, consistently did things his own way rather than
obeying God’s commands, and eventually God told him he had lost his authority
to rule. David was the next king, chosen by God, and in the early days David
had to contend with Saul wanting to kill him. Eventually, however, Saul died,
and David was a man truly after God’s own heart, at least he was some of the
time – he committed many terrible sins as a result of his affair with Bathsheba.
But God used David to take back the parts of Israel that had been overtaken by
Israel’s enemies, and the result was a kind of golden age for Israel.
David’s son Solomon succeeded David as
king. Solomon asked God for wisdom and was granted a double portion of wisdom
so that there was none wiser. But Solomon did not always heed his own wisdom,
and he married many wives, including foreign wives, and their worship of false
gods even led to Solomon worshiping these gods to some degree as well.
Nevertheless, it was during Solomon’s reign that God had Solomon build a great
Temple in Jerusalem, and God’s own presence entered that Temple.
After Solomon died, tensions from the
excesses of Solomon’s reign along with the fact that Solomon’s son was very
unwise led to the kingdom of Israel being torn into two. Led by Jeroboam, the
rebelling ten northern tribes went by the name of Israel, and led by Solomon’s
son Rehoboam, the two remaining tribes in the south were known as Judah. Jerusalem was in Judah, so Jeroboam, unable
to access the Temple and perform the required sacrifices there, set up his own
group of “priests” who were not Levites. He also set up altars, and basically
created his own “religion” based on a mix of the worship of the true God and
the worship of the false gods of the peoples around them (mostly the latter
rather than the former). Rehoboam in the south didn’t do much better despite
having Jerusalem and the Temple and the Levites in his land; he too allowed the
worship of false gods to take place.
From the time of the split, the northern
kingdom (Israel) lasted roughly 200 years before being defeated by Assyria and
its people being led into exile. The kings of Israel were Jeroboam, Nadab,
Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, a
second person named Jeroboam, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, Pekahiah, and
Hoshea. The Bible describes all of
these kings as bad. All allowed the people to worship the false gods and
neglect the practices and commands of God, and all worshiped false gods
themselves. During the existence of the northern kingdom there were five civil
wars with the south, two under the reign of Jeroboam, one under Baasha, one
under Jehoash, and one under Pekah.
Again referring to the time of the split,
the southern kingdom (Judah) lasted roughly 350 years before being defeated by
the Babylonian Empire (which had at this point already defeated and taken over
the Assyrian Empire). Ultimately, the Temple and much of Jerusalem was
destroyed, and the people were brought into captivity. The kings of Judah were
Rehoboam, Abijam, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Joash, Amaziah,
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim,
Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. The Bible describes some of the kings as mix of good
and bad, some as mostly bad, quite a few as downright wicked (including the
last four), and just a few as good. The only ones described pretty consistently
as good were Jehoshaphat, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah. During those five civil
wars, the southern kings were Rehoboam, Abijam, Asa, Amaziah, and Ahaz.
From the point of view of the prophets, we
can divide these 350 years into roughly four equal time periods. During the
first period, there is minimal major prophetic activity. Judah’s kings included
Asa (mostly good) and Jehoshaphat (good). It was during the second time period
that Elijah and then Elisha had their prophetic ministries; their activities
and prophecies were primarily directed to the northern kingdom, Elijah primarily
under the reign of Ahab, and Elisha under the reign of the five or so kings who
followed him. Elijah and Elisha were both in their ways a foreshadowing of
Christ, and we talked about this at length when we did a series on Elisha a
year or two ago. Also during this period, the prophet Joel had his ministry; God
used Joel to primarily focus on Judah.
During the third time period we see the
fall of the northern kingdom to the Assyrians; they really began to form an
empire under Tilgath-Pileser; he was followed by Shalmanser, and it was under
the leadership of Shalmanser that Israel fell. Shalmanser was followed by
Sennachrib and Esarhaddon. Also during this third time period the prophets Amos
and Hosea warned the north; Hosea’s ministry continued even after the northern
kingdom fell. As for the southern kingdom, Judah, it was during this period
that Isaiah ministered to and warned them that their future could be like
Israel’s if they didn’t repent. There was one more prophet to the southern
kingdom at this time: the focus of this series, Micah.
I do want to mention one important event
that happened during Micah’s years of ministry: the invasion of Judah (the
southern kingdom) by Sennacherib. This invasion included a siege of Jerusalem
itself. King Hezekiah refused to surrender, instead trusting in the Lord.
Isaiah prophesied against the Assyrians, saying, “Against whom have you raised
your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!”
(Isaiah 19:22) Prior to the siege, Hezekiah had a tunnel carved through solid
rock to connect Jerusalem to sources of water outside Jerusalem. This tunnel is
an amazing accomplishment of engineering. It connects the Gihon Spring to the
Pool of Siloam. Of this tunnel, 2 Kings 20:20 says, “As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all
his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought
water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the
kings of Judah?” and
2 Chron. 32:20 says “It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet
of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City
of David. He succeeded in everything he undertook.”
The tunnel was
built from both ends. At the middle there is an ancient inscription carved into
rock that says this: “... and this is the story of the tunnel while ...
the axes were against each other and while three cubits were left to cut ...the
voice of a man ...called to his fellow, for there was a through-passage in the
rock, from the right ... and on the day of the tunnel [being finished] the tone
hewers struck each man towards his fellow, ax on ax, and the water went from
the source to the pool for two hundred and a thousand cubits. And one
hundred cubits was the height over the head of the stone hewers.”
The Assyrians wrote their version of this siege on the prism
of Sennecherib: “As for Hezekiah the Judahite, who did not submit to my yoke:
forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small towns in their
area, which were without number, by leveling with battering-rams and by
bringing up siege-engines, and by attacking and storming on foot, by mines,
tunnels, and breeches, I besieged and took them. 200,150 people, great and
small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep without
number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil. (Hezekiah) himself, like
a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city.” They are trying to put a
good spin on things here; nowhere does it say that they succeeded in taking
Jerusalem. In 2 Kings 19:35-37 it says that God sent an angel to destroy many
in the Assyrian army. This may mean that the angel caused a plague to spread
among the army; this is what the ancient Greek historian Herodotus hints to
have happened.
During the fourth and final time period as
I have described them, we find the fall of the southern kingdom; prior to the
fall, the Assyrian empire continued with new leaders, increasingly more
difficult to pronounce: Ashurbanipal, Ahuretiliani, and Sinsharishkun.
Meanwhile, a Babylonian empire was growing under Nabopolassar and then
Nebuchadnezzar. Early in Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, the Babylonians and the Medes
teamed up to strike the Assyrian Empire what turned out to be a fatal blow,
causing the great city of Nineveh to fall. (In case you are wondering, Jonah’s
reluctant ministry to Nineveh had occurred about 150 years earlier.) Anyway, at
this point the Babylonian Empire became the real threat to Judah; just a few
years after defeating the Assyrians at Nineveh, Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt
as well, so that Judah was becoming surrounded by trouble. As for the prophets,
during this fourth time period we find the prophets Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and
Jeremiah warning the southern kingdom of what was to come. Like Hosea with the
northern kingdom, the ministry of Jeremiah continued past the fall of Judah.
I would like to continue our history lesson
so you can see how everything all fits together in the Old Testament. We are
now talking about the 70-year period in which the Jews were captives to the
Babylonians. During the period of captivity, Jerusalem and the Temple were
destroyed under Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had a long reign and was finally
followed by the very short reigns of Evil-Merodach and Neriglissar, and then
the Babylonian Empire was led by Belshazzar. The Babylonian captivity had three
phases, the first including the prophet Daniel, the second including Ezekiel,
both to Babylon, and the third actually brought captives to Egypt.
The next chunk of history is about a 100 to
150-year period that brings us to about 400 BC. During this time, the
Babylonian empire fell to the Persian Empire led by Cyrus. Cyrus was followed
by Cambyses, Smerdis, Darius, Xerxes (also called Ahasuerus), Artaxerxes, and a
second Darius. Around 540 BC a decree was given by Cyrus that gave the Jews
permission to return to their land. But no longer were there kings of Israel or
Judah; from here on our leaders were simply regular men who generally followed
after God. The Jewish leadership in this period went from Zerubbabel to Ezra to
Nehemiah, and the prophets of this era include Zechariah and Haggai early and
Malachi late. In between, under the reign of Xerxes, are the events that lead
to Esther becoming Queen of Persia. During this whole time temple worship is
resumed, and slowly the walls of Jerusalem become rebuilt and more and more
Jewish people resettle the land. Just as there were three phases of deportation
from Judah, there were three main times of returning, one under Zerubbabel, one
under Ezra, and one under Nehemiah.
The Bible is basically silent from 400 BC
until the time of Christ; there were no new prophets during this time. Many of
the prophets spoke of a coming time in which there would be a great Jewish
king, even greater than David, and many prophecies – hard to understand, of
course, since they hadn’t happened yet – talked about both a victorious savior
and a suffering savior. In the 300s BC, the Greeks under Alexander the Great
overthrew the Persians, and the land of Israel came to be under Greek control.
After Alexander the Great died, the empire split into three parts, and Israel,
kind of being in the middle, became a target between warring Greek rulers.
Around 160 BC, a Jewish tribe known as the Maccabees revolted against the
Greeks in Israel, and from about 140 BC until about 60 BC, the land of Israel
was once again an independent nation. Then around 60 BC, the Romans conquered
the Greeks. Israel was no longer independent but subject to Rome. The Jews in
Jerusalem had some measure of autonomy but were in reality only given the
control Rome chose to let them have. There was an attempt to rebel in the style
of the Maccabees around 40 BC, but it failed and the Romans installed a Jewish
King Herod the Great as administrator; in reality, Herod did as he was told.
After he died, the lands under Herod were split among his sons, one of which
was another Herod, bringing us into the events of the New Testament.
With this grand backdrop, let’s read the
opening lines of Micah.
The word of the Lord
that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah—the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear, you
peoples, all of you, listen, earth and all who live in it, that the Sovereign
Lord may bear witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple. – Micah 1:1-2
As I mentioned earlier, Micah was prophet
during the third of the four time periods of Judah’s existence as a split
kingdom. It was during this period that the northern kingdom fell. As this
passage explains, Micah was prophet during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah. Jotham and Hezekiah were described as “good”; Ahaz as “wicked.” But
Micah does not address the kings, here; he addresses the people – all of them.
And to them he begins by saying “Hear!” In
Hebrew this is “Shma!” This phrase is famous even to Jews today because it
begins the phrase “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elohainu, Adonai Echad” which means
Hear o Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One; that is, He is the one true
God; all the other “gods” are false. This statement is found in Deut. 6:4.
Among Orthodox Jews, it is often traditional to teach one’s children to recite
the Shema before they go to sleep each night.
But this time the “Hear” does not continue with a saying
about who God is; instead, it is a warning. “Listen! The Lord has something
against you!” This is not just Micah’s opinion; it says he saw a vision concerning both the north (Samaria) and the south
(Jerusalem). Micah is a true Old Testament prophet of God; he simply relates
the messages that God gives to him.
The Hebrew wording here is that of a legal testimony. God is
coming out of His temple (literally, palace) to bear witness against the
people. The key word here is “listen” – back then, just like today, it is easy
to appear to be listening when in reality you are not. To really listen when
someone begins to judge you or testify against you is to really think about
whether you are in fact guilty.
We will get into the actual content of Micah’s message in
the coming weeks, but for today, I think it is enough to ask whether we really
listen to God. There are so many verses that speak to this – for example:
“Come
now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “though your sins are as
scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they
will be like wool. – Isaiah 1:18 NASB
This is
really what we are here for now. Part of remembering the Lord with the bread
and cup, as a reminder of his body and the blood, part of this should be asking
the Lord to search our hearts and see if there is any wayward way within us.
God does
speak to us through the Holy Spirit, gently pointing out our failings and sins,
but we need to listen to Him. I also think of Hebrews 4:7:
Again He appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words
already quoted, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” –
Hebr. 4:7 ESV
And so I
encourage you now, today, to listen, to hear. Jesus came to earth to die for
your sins. He rose again to prove He was God. He tells us in His Word to
remember Him with the bread and the cup. And He calls on us throughout history,
from Abraham to today, to confess our sins to Him, to agree with Him about the
truth of what is going on in our lives. We don’t need to make sacrifices for
forgiveness of our sins; He has been our sacrifice for all sins, now and
forever. But we still need to come to Him, to listen, and to repent.
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