Today's Meditation
Read Micah 1:1-9
The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2Hear, you peoples, all of you; listen, O earth, and all that is in it; and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 3For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4Then the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will burst open, like wax near the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. 5All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 6Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour down her stones into the valley, and uncover her foundations. 7All her images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste; for as the wages of a prostitute she gathered them, and as the wages of a prostitute they shall again be used.
8For this I will lament and wail; I will go barefoot and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches. 9For her wound is incurable. It has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
Here's a quick summary for the background of the book of Micah. Micah was a minor prophet from Moresheth at around 742 BC - 698 BC long after the reign of King David and King Solomon. After Solomon's son, Rehoboam, became king, Israel split into two kingdoms, the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. Over the years the two kingdoms had diverged in their beliefs and practices, following the examples of their various kings - some who followed the "old ways", and others who did not. Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom which was characterized by the Southern Kingdom as full of idolatry worship and harlotry. Micah prophesied in the Southern Kingdom in the land of Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem. The full extent of Micah's prophecies were not only against the Northern Kingdom, but extending to the failures of the Southern Kingdom, as well. It was at this time that Assyria was beginning to gain power in the east and conquered much of the area, including Israel. Micah prophesied about this expansion, destruction, and exile for all of Israel.
In the Old Testament, particularly with the prophets, we often read about the sins of the people, that they have turned away from the Lord, that the consequences of their sins will lead to their own destruction. And time after time, this is indeed what happened. They were supposed to be a nation, blessed by God. They were God's chosen people, a holy nation, a "city set on a hill" as a beacon of light to the world. But often they failed to live up to God's expectations.
As history later reveals, God sent a son, Jesus Christ, to expand God's own message of love, hope, joy, peace, patience, loving-kindness, etc... through the fruits of the Holy Spirit to the entire world.
How are we doing with that? Maybe we should remember the words of the old prophets and take heed.
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