Mic 2:6-11 | KingComments | STEP | The part of is about the false prophets. In and they are speaking. In the intermediate verses, Micah shows the consequences of their false imaginations. He also shows how the LORD judges their actions and what His answer to that is. Micah is forbidden by the false prophets with the command “do not speak out” to raise his voice any longer. These false prophets are the friends of the scrawny great landowners whom Micah addressed earlier in . They do not want their social vices to be denounced by Micah. They do not want to hear of a condemnation of their evil practices. His sharp accusations and serious threats do not enter the minds of corrupt magnates. It is the general feeling of people today in Christianity. They only want to hear pleasant things, happy things ( ; ; ). People are looking for a church where everyone is allowed to do what they want, where it is easy, where there are no Micah’s. As long as you have fun. A meeting should most of all be funny and amusing. But Micah knows that the judgment comes when things in Israel and Judah don’t change. It is not proof of love if you are silent about it. Pointing out evil, denouncing it, has to be done. Its purpose is to confess sin, because then the way is free for God to start blessing again. To the seekers of pleasure his message is completely irrelevant. They think: ‘As long as he does not speak out, as long as he keeps his mouth shut, the judgment will not come either.’ It is the kind of thinking that if you shoot the doctor who tells you that you have a deadly disease, you no longer have the deadly disease. This is the way the false prophets react to Micah’s preaching. They think he keeps whining endlessly about the things that they like and that he taunts and calls sin. They are tired of that.

‏ Micah 2:6-11

Do Not Speak Out

The part of Mic 2:6-11 is about the false prophets. In Mic 2:6 and Mic 2:11 they are speaking. In the intermediate verses, Micah shows the consequences of their false imaginations. He also shows how the LORD judges their actions and what His answer to that is.

Micah is forbidden by the false prophets with the command “do not speak out” to raise his voice any longer. These false prophets are the friends of the scrawny great landowners whom Micah addressed earlier in Mic 2:1-2. They do not want their social vices to be denounced by Micah. They do not want to hear of a condemnation of their evil practices. His sharp accusations and serious threats do not enter the minds of corrupt magnates.

It is the general feeling of people today in Christianity. They only want to hear pleasant things, happy things (Isa 30:10; Amos 2:12 ; Amos 7:16; 2Tim 4:3). People are looking for a church where everyone is allowed to do what they want, where it is easy, where there are no Micah’s. As long as you have fun. A meeting should most of all be funny and amusing.

But Micah knows that the judgment comes when things in Israel and Judah don’t change. It is not proof of love if you are silent about it. Pointing out evil, denouncing it, has to be done. Its purpose is to confess sin, because then the way is free for God to start blessing again.

To the seekers of pleasure his message is completely irrelevant. They think: ‘As long as he does not speak out, as long as he keeps his mouth shut, the judgment will not come either.’ It is the kind of thinking that if you shoot the doctor who tells you that you have a deadly disease, you no longer have the deadly disease. This is the way the false prophets react to Micah’s preaching. They think he keeps whining endlessly about the things that they like and that he taunts and calls sin. They are tired of that.

Deceiving and Walking Uprightly

It seems that in the first part of this verse we still hear the false prophets speaking to the people. By addressing the people as the “house of Jacob,” they confirm the impression that they really are the covenant people of the LORD. That is also what the people are boasting of. They claim to be the people of God, denying it with their deeds (Isa 48:1; Jn 8:33 ; 39).

From that hypocritical attitude they say that Micah gives a very wrong idea of God. Do the people really believe that the Spirit of the LORD speaks through Micah, a man who only imposes limitations on them? Surely God is not God with shortcomings, is He? They don’t know Him that way. He is always so good to them. They only know Him as that ‘dear God’ who will never deal harshly with His people and gives them everything they need. Does Micah really think that God acts in such a way, that these are “His deeds”, that He is only out to punish? Is He so short-tempered, as Micah pretends? They know better.

The answer, or rather the rebuttal, to the claims of the false prophets comes in the second part of this verse. Here Micah introduces the LORD speaking. The LORD takes the floor. When the punishment comes, it is not because of His lack of patience or His failure to bless them, but because of their sins. His good words are for “the one walking uprightly” and not for the unrighteous of walking as they are. The upright has nothing to fear, but is encouraged by Him. The good words of the LORD contain strength for the upright to continue to please the LORD in his walk.

The People Have Arisen as an Enemy

In Israel, the upright of walk mentioned in the previous verse is not to be seen. The word “recently”, or yesterday, is connected with an action that occurs again and again, even just recently. The people behave hostile toward the LORD by acting hostile toward their own people. Their victims are unsuspecting passers-by, people who are not out to fight, who are peaceful themselves (Psa 120:7). While they feel safe, they are robbed of their garments by their greedy companions.

A garment can serve as pledge when an Israelite is so impoverished that he has to borrow (Exo 22:26). The LORD has determined in His grace that the garment must be returned to him before night (Exo 22:27). These robbers have no sense of grace. The LORD observes their deeds and records them. They will not escape their righteous punishment.

This performance as an enemy of the LORD is the result of listening to the false prophets. False prophets are people who have left the righteous way and have strayed and come to “the way of Balaam” and follow that way (2Pet 2:15). The “way of Balaam” is the way of people who are guided by money in religious matters. They do not care if they speak truth. They are empty word producers who present the lie as truth as long as it brings in money.

Exploitation of the Vulnerable

The women we are talking about here will be widows. Deprived of their husbands, they are unprotected, outlawed. This makes them easy prey for the impudent and merciless scrapers who consider nothing sacred. While God’s special care goes out to these vulnerable, they see only an increase in their wealth.

Heartlessly they evict the widows from their homes. In this way they tear up the precious memories of the happiness these widows once knew. Nor do they feel sorry for their children. They deprive the women of their most precious possessions.

By depriving these women of their small children, they are depriving the LORD of His jewels. Precisely children and infants are a precious jewel to Him. From their mouths He receives honor (Mt 21:16). This they take away from the LORD. It may be that they not only claim these children as slaves for themselves (cf. 2Kgs 4:1), but even sell them abroad as slaves. Everything is taken away from them. There is no end to this heartless act.

It is done by those who profess to be the people of God and occupy a place of prestige in them. On the one hand, they boast of their meticulous walk. On the other hand, they trample the rights of the defenseless. It is the spirit of Phariseeism (Mk 12:38-40). That spirit was not only active at that time, we also see it now. Men who precede and preach about God’s Word and grace and at the same time violate that Word by leaving their wife and children for someone else.

Satan is out to destroy families. He does this in many ways. One of them is that he separates the children from the parents. Father and mother must both be able to work. The children can go to all kinds of shelters. The government subsidizes this and stimulates this separation. In those shelters they come into the hands of professionals, while they still need the love, warmth and security of the mother so much.

This Is No Place of Rest

“Arise and go” are the words with which those who have the power to evict others from their inheritance in order to take possession of it. God now uses these words against them. Those who let others arise and plunder their possessions will have to arise and leave from what has been given to them. Here we see again the law of reaping what one sows. Arising and departing is also God’s judgment that fits in with their actions of rising up against and departing from God.

The trespassers of iniquity have made the land unclean through their sins (Lev 18:25 ; 28). For the evildoers there is no longer a resting place in the land of the LORD, which it has been in times of obedience (Deu 12:9-10; 1Kgs 8:56). They will no longer be at rest in the land and will be carried away into exile.

With this call there is also a calling voice of the LORD to all who have ears to hear, to separate themselves from all this iniquity. How can the saints of the LORD rest in such a state of affairs? How can a land where such abject iniquity takes place be a place of rest?

The land is unclean through violence and idolatry (Eze 36:17-18; Jer 2:7). The evil actions of people lay over the land a haze of uncleanness, as it were. That atmosphere causes everyone who enters it to be corrupted by it. As a result, corruption increases and proliferates. With the departure of the evildoers there will also come an end to the rampant corruption.

A Spokesman the People Love

With this ironic depiction of how a false prophet works, Micah rounds off his speech about the false prophets. The false prophet is popular because he speaks what the people like to hear (2Tim 4:3-4). False prophets proclaim that the people are allowed to indulge in earthly pleasures. Their religion is one of drinking and making fun.

They can even abuse statements from the Bible which they simply take out of context for that purpose (Lev 26:4; Deu 28:4; Joel 2:24). In this way they ignore the sins of the people that make the coming of these blessings as blessings from God impossible. That is why they are loved by the greedy rich, because they never speak of judgment, but always of prosperity, even though their lives are still so contrary to God’s law.

The people are so far removed from God and their spiritual discernment is so blunted that they joyfully embrace the message of these deceivers. It escapes them that by following false prophets they are in fact following wind. To follow the wind is to let what is only wind determine the direction of one’s path, that is, vain, empty, through deceitful dreams (Eze 13:3).

The rise of false prophets is the result of the unpopular message of the true prophets. Who is following a real prophet? After all, he preaches only depressing sadness, doesn’t he? Then it is better to follow a false prophet. He at least lets pleasant words ‘flow’, which is the literal meaning of the words ‘speak out’ here, as well as in Mic 2:6 (cf. Deu 32:2; Eze 20:46 ; Eze 21:2; Amos 7:16; Job 29:22). It really makes you feel cheerful. How great the sobering will be when they discover how great the deception is that they have embraced!