©Michael Player
Chapter 1:5-9 (ESV) - All 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?
Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones into the valley
and uncover her foundations.
All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
For this I will lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
and mourning like the ostriches.
For her wound is incurable,
and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.
Question to consider: Why was judgment to begin with the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem?
When God established His covenant with Noah, He promised to never again flood the world in judgment. In return, Noah and his descendants were given the command, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” If someone did the opposite of multiplying by shedding blood, God required the death penalty.
By the third generation since the flood, the descendants of Ham took it upon themselves to entirely rebel against this covenant. Instead of filling the earth, they established a city in Shinar with a monument to their own greatness by the hands of Nimrod who was celebrated for his ability to shed blood.
I would argue that since this time, every city on earth has proved itself to be cut from the same rebellious mold. All build monuments to their greatness. All have celebrated the shedding of blood. All have reveled in their idolatry. Even Jerusalem which was set apart as God’s holy city became corrupted with idols that seeped out from Samaria like an incurable wound. Jerusalem was the city on a hill that was to be a light to the nations. Instead, it prostituted itself to the gods of those nations to gain worldly wealth.
Now Micah would strip himself bare, wail lamentations, and pronounce the coming judgment of YHWH. Why would “Who is like YHWH?” do this? It was a call for repentance. Micah loved the people of Judah enough to humiliate himself and receive their derision in order that they might hear the truth. It is the nature of God to set aside His wrath and extend mercy to those who humble themselves and return to Him.
Obviously, the Gentile nations were the very source of idolatry and also deserved judgment, but their actions were done out of ignorance. Samaria and Jerusalem had the Law and had experienced God’s mercy every Passover and Yom Kippur (day of atonement). Judgment had to begin with them so that the nations would see that the God of Israel and Judah was really the God above all nations. As we get to the coming chapters, we’ll see that this judgment would not be the end of Israel, but God would establish a new covenant. In this covenant, God’s wrath would be paid with the blood of Christ, and so that people from every tribe and nation could receive mercy and reconciliation with the one who created them.
Dear heavenly Father, may all who read this humble themselves, lay their sins bare before You, and turn to the grace and mercy that is only found in Christ. Thank You for providing a way for us to return to You and be remade to walk in newness of life. Amen.