Here in these texts, we see something perhaps we’ve forgotten. If you’ve read through the Bible, you’ve read a lot of things, and you’ve probably forgotten a lot of things like I had. Our impression generally, of course, of the prophets is they are like John the Baptizer, John the Baptist, pounding down upon his audience.
This merciless man, bushy eyebrows, eyes of thunder, lightning, blasting from the pulpit down upon the people with no heart of compassion. And yet, it’s not that at all. Not in the least bit.
The prophets here, Micah in particular we see, did indeed mourn because they took the judgment that seriously. They believed it was going to happen if they did not repent. And they mourned because they loved the people they were warning.
The righteous indignation, of course, is what we typically think of the prophets. That’s what you mostly hear. A lot of thundering.
You’re wrong, and you deserve judgment. And that’s certainly the case here. There is a time to say that.
It’s not wrong for the pastors, nor the churches, nor you, in the proper time and context, to tell someone they are wrong. I know you’re wrong. You just can’t get away from this.
You’re murdering people. You’re lying. You’re cheating.
You’re stealing. And you better repent. Micah shows the wrath of God against gross sins and iniquities, as we’ll see going through the book here.
Even social injustice. But it’s not just God’s righteous indignation. It’s Micah’s as well.
It is. It’s the prophets. It’s like John the Baptizer.
He was righteously indignant. Or we would say angry, perhaps. I like to use righteous indignation to make it clear that the anger is towards a good aim.
It’s this anger of justice. It’s the anger of, this is the wrong thing. You better change.
You’re going to die. I don’t want this to happen to you. If God, in fact, had spoken from the skies to you with a list of sins about the Church of Providence, if you can imagine that.
You’re going home this afternoon, and boom, God starts talking to you from the clouds. Would you bring this list of sins to the church with fear or with confidence? If you’re a prophet and you’re infused by the Spirit of God, you will do it with confidence. You’ll not fear man.
You will fear God. That’s what I mean. Right? That’s what I mean.
You’re going to do it. You know you have to do it. You have to speak the pronouncements of judgment upon us and with the utmost confidence, as the prophets do.
Yet, joining in with God’s righteous indignation against our sin as well. Not just, you’re merely a messenger. You’re supposed to represent God.
That’s what a prophet does. He represents God. And when he gives the message, he’s supposed to say, I agree with the message.
I agree with God. He is correct. He was right in his judgment and wrath upon you.
God does not want to send a messenger who is sheepish and doesn’t really care. I don’t want to be… I just want to back off and be kind of very nice about this, and maybe beat around the bush and don’t want to scare you away. That’s not the kind of messenger he sends with the prophets, nor with the pastors when the time is right.
And of course, when God wants this kind of investment of the messenger into his message, right? He does the same thing with sending the messenger to his people. They ought to be invested in the people that are given the message as well. And that’s where the mourning comes in.
And the tears. It’s love. It’s love.
The love of the prophet is to give the judgment of God. That is so contrary to the world today, and contrary to much of the church as we know. It’s a grievous mourning.
He has righteous indignation, and he is grievously mourning. You can do both. You can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time.
These are not contradictory emotions. That is, if you have one, you can’t have the other. You can have both, and you should have both.
Because the objects, of course, are different. Your object is of righteous indignation. It’s because they have sinned.
It’s against the sin. It’s against the unrepentant part of who they are. But the grieving, of course, is because they are one of you.
They are your children. They are your family. They are the family of God.
And, of course, in Israel, it’s both. It’s both biological and religious, as it is with our families. We go through the book.
We should not forget these verses. Verses 8 and 16 are the bookends of the life of the ministry of Micah and all the prophets. Begins with mourning and ends with mourning.
And we’ll continue, of course, with judgments. And they must speak the judgment. They cannot hold it in as a prophet, nor should the church hold it in today.
The Prophet Mourns
Therefore, I will wail and howl, he says in verse 8. I will go stripped and naked. I will make a wailing like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches, for her wounds are incurable. We know the prophets do crazy things in the Bible.
To get people’s attention, partly. And this part of visible, that is public mourning, that Israel mocked them, as you recall, Isaiah and others were mocked for their mourning, their public display of grieving. Because what they did was so serious, the prophets stood up and said, this is terrible.
I’m going to throw ashes on me. I’m going to rip my clothes. I’m going to cry out.
Woe is you. Judgment is coming upon the house of the Lord. You’re going to die.
Your children will be dashed against the rocks. I’ve seen the vision. It will come to pass.
I think you’d be sad, too, if you had to do that to this church, to your family. But you do it anyways, because you have to do it, because you’re trying to warn them. The love of God was not enough for Israel often, it seems, in their life, was it? He brought them out of Egypt.
And all of a sudden, oh, who’s God? Oh, that’s right, my God’s a golden calf. Where did that come from? Love wasn’t enough. They still needed fear.
The fear of the Lord and the prophets bring the fear of God upon them, and those who are really called by his name. Today, people don’t take mourning, public mourning, seriously. Public displays of mourning.
Going about and howling. They howl. That was part of the ancient Near East expression of grief.
I’m not saying we have to do exactly the same expression today. We have equivalents, but unfortunately, the mourning of the church in America is a voice that is drowned out in the pluralism of our society, where every church is on its own to try to attract people the best they can, and there’s no homogenous society of religion anymore, where it used to be a Christian nation, at least, even if you had a multiplicity of churches, everyone was nominally a Christian, so they all understood the same language of mourning, the same language of public displays of days of fasting and prayers. We now happen all the way up to Abraham Lincoln time.
So that makes it harder. I mean, how do we do days of, it just doesn’t mean anything to our neighbors anymore. What are you doing? I’m fasting.
So you have an opportunity, perhaps, to talk about fasting at the most. People today tend to hear the warnings of judgment and repentance include that the pastor and the church doesn’t love me. Right.
You know, in many ways, it’s the, I don’t know what other word to use, it’s the childish way of avoiding repentance. You don’t love me. Come on.
You know parents love their kids when they spank them. Everyone knows. Even liberals.
Well, I guess I can’t say that as much anymore. That’s how bad it is. Think about it.
That’s how bad it is. It used to be taken for granted. It was common sense.
It was natural law. And here we are today. Love has been turned into sentimentalism.
And so if we had a Micah today who says, I am mourning. I am wailing. I am tearing my clothes.
And yet I’m still bringing judgment on you. They would look at him and say, you hate us. Just like Israel.
Some of them did. And other parts of Israel, of course, just mocked him and laughed at him. Didn’t take him seriously.
Love is divorced from truth. Seems to be the case. Assuming that denunciation cannot exist with love.
Of course it can. They don’t take their own sin seriously. They don’t take the denouncement of the church or the pastor seriously.
Or some combination of everything above. But in everyday life, we see people zealous for the truth and mourning. Telling people they are in danger.
They are wrong. And they mourn. And they cry.
And they grieve. Parents do it to their children. We do it during times of war, perhaps.
And the like. And so we see God do this with Israel and with us. If we would but open our eyes.
Because judgment is upon, I believe, the church in America. And it has been a lot longer than we realize, I suspect. With the false worship.
The gross ignorance. I’m not going to give you the quotes of the Pew studies again. This is all over the place.
All the studies have shown in the last 20 to 30 years. Is ignorance a blessing or a curse? I mean, ignorance, that is, those growing up in the church, staying and remaining ignorant. Not like a bunch of ignorant people who just became Christians, for instance.
That’s obviously different. No. It’s not a blessing.
If it’s not a blessing, it’s a curse. And if it’s a curse, it must be a judgment. It’s not just willy-nilly.
The reasons for mourning. Of his tears for his people. Verses 10 through 15.
Reasons for Mourning
This is quite interesting. Maybe because, you know, I know enough Hebrew to find it interesting. Weird that way.
And Leonard’s weird too. But hopefully, as I go through some of these verses, you’ll see some of the interesting aspects of it. What you have in these verses 10 through 15 are a number of cities.
Some of which are known. Some of which we think we know, but it’s kind of unclear. And others that we have no idea at all.
Okay. And that a number of the names, perhaps, are even nicknames. That’s why it’s unclear what they are.
And we suspect this because many of the sentences are plays on words between the verb and the name of the city. Okay. And you’re going to see that when I give you a more transparent translation to that regard.
Okay. So the city’s name is similar to the verb at times. And so it seems to be a play on words.
And some it’s very clear and others is not as clear. And others it doesn’t seem to be a play on words at all. Excuse me.
But of course, regardless of all that, every city is under judgment. Right. That’s the point here.
Every city is under judgment. Judgment is coming. They’ve been given warnings.
This is itself a warning. And perhaps the giving of the play on words is to get their attention. To wake them up.
To get it stuck in their heads like a nursery rhyme. Because I’m sure he’s repeating himself. I don’t think he just said it once.
He keeps repeating the message over the length of his ministry of 30 to 40 years. Brothers and sisters. Through three different kings.
Verse 10. He starts out with, Do not weep over the coming destruction of Israel. Gath.
We don’t quite, we don’t know where Gath is. Tell it not to Gath. Weep not at all.
Okay. That is. It’s emphatic of how quick the destruction is perhaps.
They don’t even have time to weep over them. Or don’t weep over them in a sentimental manner. Because obviously he is weeping.
He says, I’m weeping and wailing. Because they deserve the judgment. But we go on through here in verse 10.
So tell it not to Gath. Weep not at all. If you’re with me, I will give you the play on words.
In Beth Ephra. In the dust town. Roll yourself in the dust.
See that? And of course rolling yourself in the dust is a picture of destruction and death. You’re going back to the dust from which you come. Verse 11.
Pass by in naked shame you inhabitants of beautiful or fair town. And so you see nakedness in contrast with beauty. Right? You’ve been exposed now.
Your beauty is now gone. And your cloth is torn asunder because of war and destruction. The other part of verse 11.
It talks about the inhabitants of those who will come out of town does not go out. The inhabitants of Zanan does not go out. The inhabitants of the town of those who will come out do not come out.
They’re all dead. Verse 11. The third part of verse 11.
The place that stands mourns. Its place to stand is taken away from you. So the stability of security and peace is gone.
Your city is no more. Verse 12. For the inhabitants of bitterness pined for good.
But disaster came down from the Lord to the gates of Jerusalem. So there’s a contrast of play on words for bitterness. You don’t want the bitterness anymore.
You pine for good. But God just gives you more bitterness. More destruction.
Upon you. Even to the gates of Jerusalem his holy city. That’s how serious the judgment is.
Even the city itself is in danger. Their desire for goodness over bitterness will not be fulfilled. Even the holy Jerusalem itself is threatened by foreign powers as we know.
Verse 13 to 15. We have all these cities here have been identified or even excavated. They’ve dug it up.
Verses 13 to 15. Lachish there is the southern part of Israel. The place of chariots.
Okay. That’s the shock troops of the ancient Near East using the chariots of the day. So they’re on the southern border there and it’s not going to help them at all.
They have the swift steeds but they’re transgression. They’ve been found out of course and they’re guilty. The other cities verses 14 to 15 besides Lachish there.
Those are in central Israel. The point is whenever you take out a town you take out the surrounding area as well. Not just the city itself.
The troops are marching to the city. And they’re marching through the countryside and taking everyone out. Back then as it was for thousands of years throughout most of the world.
Most populations lived in the countryside not in the cities. But when the cities fell that’s where you would run. The army’s coming after you.
You go to the cities where the walls are to protect yourself. They will have no protection. They will have to eat dust.
Their beauty will be exposed as ugly shame and death. They will no longer come out of their towns because they’ll be shut up and dead. Verse 15 could be understood as the houses of lies shall be a lie to the king of Israel.
Perhaps emphasizing their unreliability. You can’t get protection and help from those people. Everyone will be scattered.
Every man to his own tent during this time of judgment. These are the cities. This is the destruction.
The pictorial destruction. Ugly picture to be sure. Black and blue and brown with death.
It’s a warning. This is why the prophet warns. These warnings are here to get their attention.
To cry out. Now is the time to repent. And God can avert his judgment upon you if you but repent right now.
And Samaria does not. As we know in 722 they fall. Will Israel heed it? Will the people repent? Will the leaders cry out for mercy? Part of that’s true.
They do. I pointed that out earlier in a prior sermon. We see that in Jeremiah.
He quotes part of Micah. And apparently some of the leaders did repent. But it was not enough.
As I said by 722 we know the answer is most do not. Neither the people nor the leaders took God’s call seriously. They ignored the prophets and the warning.
They ignored the crying. They ignored the judgment. Didn’t matter which one came upon their ears and bounced off them.
But some of course did. They did repent. But nevertheless they too went into captivity.
All of Israel goes into captivity. Didn’t matter if you repented or not. Because the general character of a nation, not just the church, will affect the outcome of everyone inside the nation as well as the church.
That’s how God has designed the moral universe in which we live. Unless you somehow are able to escape and flee physically. If you’re there, the leadership, what they do, will affect you.
And no amount of crying and whining about it will change it. You may not be formally involved. That is your intent isn’t to do the wickedness that the leaders are doing in the church or in a nation.
But materially you’re attached to them. Unless you flee that nation or that church. There’s no way around it.
You can’t tell the armies coming upon them like Israel can’t tell them. Oh look, I’m not following them. I’m following Micah.
And the Assyrians are like, whatever, stab, you know. That can be discriminatory. The warnings given there in the Old Testament here in Micah are not taunts of a self-righteous prophet.
We ought to see that by now. I’m better than you. You guys are going down the drain.
People take it that way. They take it that way because it’s the easiest way to avoid their own repentance. Of course not.
He cried. In verse 8 he says as much. And again in verse 16 he cries out to all of them.
The godly prophets of old were zealous for God’s honor. Even as they mourn the wickedness of God’s people. And this will ever be the case for faithful shepherds and churches of God.
It’s both. And the mourning here I emphasize is the question we have before us. In verse 16.
Will We Mourn?
Will we mourn? Micah’s call of mourning. Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, he tells them. Because of your precious children.
Enlarge your baldness like an eagle, for they shall go from you into captivity. You’re going to lose your kids. Doesn’t that mean anything to you, he says? Cry and mourn and shave your head.
Because you’re going to lose them. It’s going to happen to you. And it does happen.
The public display of mourning for public sins. Until the last hundred years as I pointed out at the beginning. We don’t have it anymore.
There’s no days of fasting and prayer. You have a day of thanksgiving from the president. Maybe a day of prayer.
I think some presidents have done in the last 20 years. If it was really, really bad. But the significance of it, of course, is lost.
And what of today? When the church and the leaders mourn America. They mourn over the impending destruction that we see around us. Because when we tell them your children will be taken to captivity.
Your children will be dashed against the rocks. They do it anyways. They’re dashing their own kids against the rocks.
They’re not listening. They’re rejoicing in the destruction of their own families. That’s what sin has done to them.
Has made them worse than brutes. It’s part of the heinousness of that kind of hardened heart. We mourn over the current destruction that we see.
The false worship and the false gospels in the churches in particular. God is not pleased with that. As we saw in verse 7. That false worship displeases him so much that he will bring judgment upon them.
I have not told you to worship me in such a manner. Broken families and corrupt leaders are the results thereof. And people don’t care.
Even in the churches more and more it seems. It’s very, very sad. We need to guard our hearts from self-righteousness.
And to cry out to God with mourning. This is a sad day we live in brothers and sisters. Sure we can rejoice.
You know the market seems better. There’s more jobs. People get a little more pay.
And the taxes. These are good in and of themselves. That’s true.
But in larger scheme of things when we see their wretched wickedness. That this nation is going down the tubes. And in the churches it’s a drop in the bucket.
We ought to mourn. We ought to mourn. To mourn for the American church.
To mourn for this nation. But especially the church. All the churches that we have in America.
When we warn our families and friends. When we warn our neighbors and our co-workers. Do we mourn? Because they’re not listening.
They don’t see the immediate consequences of their disobedience to God and the church. The false worship. The false shepherds.
Where you have these men in positions of power. Who are abusing it with women. I’ll leave it there.
In the church. And they’re put back in positions of power again. Or on the flip side.
Women encouraged in the church. This is what you don’t hear a lot of. I’m going to say both.
Encouraged to divorce their husbands. Because they’ve been a little verbally abusive. God’s not pleased with that.
And that happens on a large enough scale. You’re breaking up families for no reason at all. No good reason.
It hurts the kids. And they grow up. What happens with the typical child growing up in a broken home? Just statistically.
You know what it is. They create a broken home. It becomes a cycle.
God’s not pleased with that in the church. Yes, go after the pastors and them who are abusing or hiding abusers. But also go after the pastors who enable women to go after easy divorce.
They’re both there. It’s easy, unfortunately, in our society to go after the men. Because that’s the zeitgeist of the age.
Go after the men. Brothers and sisters, women in the church. I can name a number of them.
Well, five on one hand that I know. The churches just said, yeah, divorce the guy. You don’t like him anymore.
Eh, God’s not pleased with that. That’s a social justice issue. Because it affects families, which affects society.
Social. Do we mourn? Maybe not in public to be sure. But certainly at home.
And our kids should see our mourning. Not intentionally. Look at me.
I’m mourning today, kids. You see me? But they’re going to see it, I think, if you mourn enough. Like with fasting.
Daddy’s not eating breakfast this morning. Or lunch or dinner. Whatever works with your work schedule.
Or just the sadness because you talk about it during family devotions. This is sad. Our neighbors don’t want to hear this.
They’re destroying their families. The church is destroying families. They’re lying to their sheep.
They’re giving false worship. It’s all over this nation. And I hate to be a wet blanket.
You think Micah’s like, this is great. Let’s go out there. And I like to have bricks thrown at me.
It’s the text. You can see I’m applying the text. And I’m applying it to reality.
This is the reality we live in. It’s that bad in the churches. And I think it’s getting worse.
To mourn. Even as we speak the truth in love. As we ought to.
Judgment is upon the church. Judgment is upon this nation. And more judgment is to come unless we repent, brothers and sisters.
When I hear comedians joking about eating fetuses because they hate abortion laws that bad. That’s a moral monster. What other word would you use for that? We already have.
I mean, we’re running out of superlatives, aren’t we? And I don’t like to use superlatives. We’re just so overused in our nation. But we’re so used to the murdering of children.
Since almost my time, 73, I was born in 72. And the churches. There is a ruling elder, brothers and sisters.
And our sister, this is public. And our sister denomination, the PCA. Oh, you’re saying the whole PCA is that way? I’m not saying the whole PCA is that way.
But it is a blot upon them. If we had that, I’d be embarrassed to be in the OPC. We’re running for office in Texas.
And he’s like, Roe v. Wade? I’d never strike it down. I think we should actually kind of protect it. Gay marriage? Okay.
Judgment. Do we mourn? We ought to have righteous ignatiation. I think that’s sometimes hard for some of us.
It’s kind of hard to tell. Some people like, what is that in Kansas? That WACO church. They’re a little too much on righteous ignatiation.
We’re running around trying to shut down a Westboro church. Trying to shut down everything. Okay.
But mourning as well, both. But here in particular, mourning. Let us warn people to repent.
And let us warn people with a grieving heart. Let’s pray. Spirit of the living truth, this weighs heavy on our hearts.
We see more and more signs. And we don’t always want to say it. It sounds so harsh.
It sounds so final. But what else can we say, God? Why are these things being put up with? How can people like that get through the church office for crying out loud? But they do, and they are our God above. Bring repentance upon the church.
Protect us from ourselves. We grieve and we mourn. Amen.