Micah 1:8-16

This word picture is impressionistic. I say that, because the words create a picture out of splashes of color, and not by sharp details or realistic depictions. Perhaps when Micah preached it the first time it was photographic in nature, but 2700 years has changed that completely. Today scholars cannot agree on much of anything. Scholars cannot identify many of the cities. Some scholars believe Micah made up the names so that the verses form puns in the original Hebrew. Others believe invaders destroyed many of the cities and history has lost their names. Because of the confusion involving the names and other details, it is impossible for the modern reader to find meaning in this text the same way we would in a newspaper report.

However, we can find the big picture by viewing the small phrases that are clear in their meaning. Samaria’s plague was incurable, and it spread all over Judah. It resulted in mourning, and people howled so loudly they sounded like jackals. Rolling in the dust was an act of sorrow and mourning. Prisoners taken when a city fell were marched into captivity barefoot and naked. Hoping to avoid captivity, people would not come out of their homes but would remain hidden. People in a city under siege would suffer in pain and would wait for relief that never came. Small towns hoping to save themselves would attempt to cut their own deals with the invaders and would prove deceptive to their own king. Hundreds of chariots fight; a single chariot flees. Nobles would flee leaving the poor to suffer. Mothers and fathers would shave their head in mourning as the victors took the young into captivity and left the old behind to starve and die.

When a nation’s capital city becomes corrupt, its leadership sells its soul, and God is forsaken, then death and destruction will follow. Wicked leaders never fall alone; they take their whole nation with them. In a wicked world, God’s kingdom is the only kingdom that is secure.