For this I will lament and wail; I will go barefoot and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals and mourning like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable. It has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people Jerusalem. Micah 1:8-9
The image of the angry, righteous prophet has limits. Pictures of Moses tossing down the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai or Jonah pouting angrily under a bush do not express the depth of the prophets response to what they saw and proclaimed against the sins of the people. They were angry about idolatry. They were disgusted with injustice. But they did not relish the wrath of God or the consequences of Israel's failings which resulted in its destruction and exile. "For this I will lament and wail;..." Like Micah, Jeremiah announced the destruction of Israel by empires from the north. He warned the people, Judah and Jerusalem, "Blow the trumpet through the land; shout aloud and say, 'Gather together into the fortified cities!' Raise a standard toward Zion; flee for safety; do not delay, for I am bringing evil from the north and a great destruction." But this was not a "you are getting what you deserve tirade," but more akin to the lament and sorrow as one who sits at the bedside of a loved one slowly dying. "Because of this put on sackcloth lament and wail: 'The fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.'" Jeremiah 4:5-8 Outweighing angry or righteousness, sorrow and lament expressed the devastation the prophets felt as they expressed Jerusalem's doom.
Even as the prophets called out the leaders of the people over concerns about idolatry and injustice, they lamented the consequences that brought extreme suffering to the people caught on the margins, the ones who would have to flee to "the fortified cities," besieged in them, starving in them, and often dying in them. Micah loved the people, he loved the rural cities where he lived, he even loved Jerusalem and the Temple. The prophets were patriotic and faithful. Even so, they critiqued the powers that governed the people. Those who led cared more for themselves than the people they were entrusted to protect and serve. Graphic language of their selfishness and apathy about the suffering of the vulnerable of the land was coming from the prophet. Meanwhile, Micah's anger was expressed graphically as anguish. Lamentation for the dead was not quiet or private. It was loud and public. "I will go barefoot and naked; ...", crying out like a wild animal.
Idolatry and injustice were incurable wounds. The assault that was coming from Assyria and Babylon was defeat and death, first for the people of the land, and eventually for the capital, the kings, the priests, and their prophets. Hezekiah was a good king in Judah but even he expressed a certain callousness towards the coming suffering. When envoys from Babylon came to Jerusalem he showed off the treasury. Isaiah was not pleased and warned him of the coming destruction. Hezekiah shrugged it off because it would not happen in his lifetime. He said to Isaiah, "'The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.' For he thought, 'Why not, if there will be peace and security for my days." The leaders of Judah felt secure behind the great walls of Jerusalem with the Temple, the dwelling place of God at the center. The idolatry of security resulted in an injustice for those who would suffer first when the calamity came. Eventually it would reach the gate of Jerusalem, but first the people of the rural areas would suffer devastation.
Micah was concerned about those he called, "my people." Micah used the phrase "my people" nine times in his sayings. Micah's people were the people of the Judean countryside and villages who suffered the most from the invasions that plagued Israel. The gate of "my people" was where Justice was to be decided fairly. Their captors would divide up the fields of "my people" 2:4. The Jerusalem leadership rose up against "my people," and the "women of my people" were driven from their homes. 2:8-9 Worse, Micah used imagery suggesting that the leaders cannibalized "my people" 3:3, and led them astray 3:5. Micah was from Moresheth, a small town beset by the troubles of a larger violent world. Micah's people felt forgotten, and Micah lamented the incurable wound that infected them, which they endured with no help from those who were their leaders.
Do Justice, Love Kindness, walk humbly with God.
Pastor Tim Bauer
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