Greed & False Prophets

[Read Micah 2:1-11]

What is the most effective way to tell a lie? Bet you weren’t expecting to hear that out of the mouth of your pastor, did you? Now, I’m not up here planning on teaching you, or your children how to effectively tell a lie. In some ways, I want you to know the most effective way of telling a lie so that you will recognize the strategies and tactics people use when they are lying. However, I actually have a slightly different angle to take on this. I want you to realize how difficult it can be at times to detect a lie. It’s not always as easy as you may think. Not only is it difficult to detect effective lies, it also can be extremely difficult to reveal them as lies. At times you may even find yourself wondering to yourself, “Am I off base here? Do I really understand the truth? Am I the crazy one here?” 

Satan is the Father of Lies, so we can learn some strategies and tactics from him. One of the ways Satan effectively lies to people is not by outright lying, but by twisting the truth. An effective lie has to contain truth. It actually has to be mostly true, with a little twist at the end, and that little twist at the end changes everything. That little twist at the end is like poison, it makes all of the true things untrue. Those are effective and dangerous lies. 

I think many people realize that tactic of Satan, but he has another tactic for an effective lie that is almost never talked about. He says true things in the wrong situation. Think about his temptation of Jesus in the desert. He quotes scripture to Jesus: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” (Matthew 4:6, ESV).  That’s true, isn’t it? Every word that Satan said was true—completely true, because it was the word of God. Yet, it was a lie because it was applied in the wrong way. OR, you could say, it was a lie because it was only half of the truth. 

We see this happening in our passage today in Micah. Not only do we see some hard-core wickedness happening, but we also see some hard-core lying happening in this passage, and God isn’t having any of it. 

This passage starts off pretty in your face with, “Woe…” (Micah 2:1, ESV). This is the opposite of a beatitude. This is basically a curse upon those who are doing these things. It makes sense when you read what they are doing: “Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.” (Micah 2:1, ESV). These people are not just slipping into sin, or stumbling into sin, or being tempted into sin. All of those things would be bad enough. Instead, they are devising wickedness. They are strategically planning and crafting their wickedness. You could call it premeditated wickedness. They are so obsessed with their wickedness that they continue to scheme and plan into the night, while they lay in bed. It’s almost insinuated that they dream about their wickedness. Then, they are so excited to carry out their wickedness that they get to it first thing in the morning. There’s no hesitation, no waiting, they rush out to carry out the wickedness they planned and dreamed about all night. Woe to them!

We also get a hint about something in this passage. It says “…they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.” (Micah 2:1, ESV). This is telling us that these are powerful people. Not only are they excited to carry out their pre-planned wickedness, but they are powerful enough that there is nobody to stop them. They don’t have to wait. They can simply do whatever they want to do, when they want to do it. 

Throughout the passage we’re told what they are doing. Here’s the first thing we’re told: “They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.” (Micah 2:2, ESV). They are taking people’s land. This is what I hinted at a few weeks ago. We’re told that rich, powerful people are swooping and seizing land from the smaller, weaker farmers. 

This sounds a lot like a familiar story from 1 Kings—Naboth’s Vineyard. This happened under King Ahab’s reign in Samaria about a hundred years before Micah’s time, but don’t forget what we talked about last week. The sins of Samaria spread to Judah. So, this story is most likely very similar to what is now happening in Judah. Here’s how the story starts: “Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And after this Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”” (1 Kings 21:1–3, ESV). So, what happens next? Well, Ahab went back to his palace and walked around pouting the rest of the day. Eventually, his wife Jezebel sees him, asks what’s wrong, then decides she’s going to do something about it. She basically sets up a hit job on Naboth so that he’d be falsely accused, then executed, which happened. Then, after Naboth was dead, she told Ahab to take the field, which he did. Something like this was now happening in Judah amongst the rich and powerful. 

Not only are they seizing fields, but we’re also told: “They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance…The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses; from their young children you take away my splendor forever.” (Micah 2:2, 9, ESV). We’re told that they are taking people’s houses, and oppressing their house. Remember, that when this was written a house wasn’t just considered the building, it wasn’t even just considered the family, it included everyone in the house—including servants. I’ve heard numerous people talk about the house being the family business. So, these rich, powerful people were also oppressing the households of people as well and driving them out of their homes. Micah explicitly mentions women and children to point out how bad it was—they were even attacking the women and children. And all of this was happening in the midst of “God’s people”!!

As Micah is laying all of this out on the table, he uses one word specifically. He begins the accusation saying, “They covet…” (Micah 2:2, ESV). He uses that word specifically to point out that they are explicitly breaking one of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:17, ESV). This is exactly what they are doing—breaking covenant with God. Not only breaking it, but strategically devising ways to break it and then eagerly carrying out their plans. 

Yet, it’s also more than simply breaking covenant with God in one area. There have been many theologians throughout history who have said that the Tenth Commandment in some sense contains all of the other commandments because it addresses the heart. Listen to this passage from James: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.” (James 4:1–2, ESV). Why do you fight? Because you covet. Why do you murder? Because you covet. Why do you commit adultery? Because you covet. Why would you worship another god? Because you covet. 

I’m dragging this point out a bit because it’s such a deadly sin and it’s hardly condemned. It’s almost become the norm for us to live most of our day coveting. We covet other people’s houses and cars and jobs and spouse. We covet other people’s vacations and lifestyle and appearance. We covet other people’s churches… It’s all over the place and because it’s all over the place, we begin to forget that it’s deadly! We begin to think it’s alright. It’s fine. It’s no big deal. When, in reality, it’s a sin that will lead to destruction, and a sin that necessarily ends up breeding other sins. Covetousness is one of the most infectious sins of the Christian life. 

Part of the problem then—and now—is that the prophets and teachers had been bought off as well. Micah doesn’t even hesitate when switching from his condemnation of the rich, powerful land-grabbers to the false prophets. He says, ““Do not preach”—thus they preach— “one should not preach of such things…”” (Micah 2:6, ESV). Micah makes the switch so cleanly that it makes it seem like the two were working together. While Micah is preaching a word of judgment, these false prophets are yelling at MICAH, telling him “Stop saying that!” 

Micah really hammers these false prophets at the end of the passage, saying, “If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people!” (Micah 2:11, ESV). This is Micah’s way of saying that they deserve these preachers. They deserve preachers who say nothing but wind and lies (I love that imagery). They deserve preachers who drone on and on but never actually say anything. They deserve preachers who refuse to say anything hard or difficult. They deserve preachers who are only uplifting and encouraging. They deserve preachers that will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 

We’re even given a little glimpse into what these false prophets were preaching. Micah puts words in their mouth: “…disgrace will not overtake us.” Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Has the LORD grown impatient? Are these his deeds? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?” (Micah 2:6–7, ESV). In response to Micah’s words of judgment, they say, “Disgrace will not overtake us. God is patient. That doesn’t sound like the God we know. God has promised to be good to his people.” To bring up my point from the beginning of the sermon, these false prophets were saying true things in a false way. Of course God is patient. Of course God has promised to be good to his people. Those are true statements, but they are not the full truth, and they are being applied in the wrong context, which makes them lies. One key trait of a false teacher is that they do not preach the full counsel of God. 

Someone once said something along the lines of, “The most dangerous idea is the only one you have.” I’ve adapted that to say: The most dangerous doctrine is the only one you know. It’s dangerous because it causes you to fixate on one aspect of God or the way he works, to the detriment of everything else. It prevents you from understanding the fullness of who God is and what he has done. You end up measuring everything according to that one doctrine, and end up throwing a lot of doctrine out as a result. 

This has been Satan’s strategy for destroying a church since the beginning. He doesn’t trick the church into preaching outright heresy. That would be too easy to notice. Instead, he destroys the church by getting them to focus solely on one doctrine, elevating that teaching to the point where they end up applying that truth in the wrong way, in the wrong places. They end up applying that truth in a way that is a lie. 

The problem in Micah’s day is a similar problem today. The prophets in Micah’s day elevated God’s love and patience and kindness and grace and mercy to the point that they refused to talk about God’s justice and judgment and wrath. These prophets didn’t want to talk about the tough stuff, but wanted to be uplifting and encouraging. They wanted to be nice and gentle and soft. But, if anyone tried to talk about God’s judgment and wrath, they would lash out, “Stop saying those things! Stop being so mean! Stop being so judgmental!”

Today, there’s one doctrine that has been elevated above all the rest. Anyone know what it is? I hear it all the time. I can almost quote you verbatim what is said on a regular basis, something like, “Throughout the Bible we’re told a number of things about God, but in one place we’re told who God is. God is love.” Have you heard that before? That is the doctrine that has been elevated above all other doctrines—the doctrine that ends up filtering out all other teaching. It’s the one doctrine that gets elevated to the point that it becomes a lie and is used in ways that make it lie. It sounds nice. It sounds uplifting and encouraging. In the end, it is often used in ways that are completely false and leading people astray. Of course God is love, but don’t forget that scripture also says in multiple places, “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29, ESV). The most dangerous doctrine is the only one you know.

And because of the false prophets leading people astray, and because of the rich, powerful people’s pre-planned wickedness to covet and steal and oppress, God is coming as that consuming fire to them. God says something very shocking about these people: “But lately my people have risen up as an enemy…” (Micah 2:8, ESV). These people have gone so far astray that they are no longer God’s people, but are an enemy against God and his people. 

So, God is coming as a consuming fire to bring justice. Not just any justice, but what we called poetic justice—what goes around comes around. God says, “Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster.” (Micah 2:3, ESV). This is God’s way of saying, “Since you have been destroying and oppressing families, I’m coming to destroy your family. And you’re not going to wiggle out of it. You’re not going to be able to devise any plans to escape it. No matter how hard you plan, or how late into the night you work, this disaster is going to come upon you.” 

God even says that he is going to wipe them out in a drastic way: “Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the LORD.” (Micah 2:5, ESV). This was the practice that God’s people used to allot the Promised Land, but also to redistribute the land in the year of Jubilee. God is saying that he is going to wipe them out to the point that they will not be able to participate in this event anymore. They had devised plans to steal this land from people, now God was going to take that land back from them forever and they would no longer have a place in the Promised Land. 

God says that he’s going to come and knock them off their high horse: “…and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster. In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, “We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.”” (Micah 2:3–4, ESV).  These people walked around pridefully strutting their stuff, thinking that nobody could touch them because of their wealth and power. God tells them that they will be destroyed by a foreign country that will take everything away from them, then mock them for it. 

Now, this may not look like mocking at first glance, but it definitely is. Imagine a middle school bully picking on someone and pushing them into a locker. The kid says “Ow, that hurt!” and what does the bully say? “Ohh, that hurt!?!” That’s what’s going on here. The proud have fallen and are mourning their loss, crying out “We are ruined!” and those who just conquered them are mocking them saying, “Ohhh, you are ruined!?! Have the bad guys taken away your fields? Has God taken away your fields?” Pride goes before the fall. 

Eventually God simply says, “Arise and go…” (Micah 2:10, ESV). Some of the commentators believe this is what these people said as they stole fields and houses from the people—Get up and get out of here. Now God is saying that to them. Get up and get out of my land and stay away from my people! God is a consuming fire. 

You know, we need to love this aspect of God too. We don’t get to love the fact that God is love, and simply accept the fact that God is a consuming fire. He is both of those at the same time. If we are going to truly love God for who He is, we have to love the fact that he is love and love the fact that he is a consuming fire. It is dangerous and unhelpful for us to simply grab hold one aspect of God’s character and ignore the rest. 

As I keep on reminding us throughout this series, we love and serve a God who is both perfectly just and perfectly merciful. There’s no place where that is more clearly revealed to us than the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the place where justice and mercy kiss. That is the place where we see the full reality that God is a consuming fire, pouring out his wrath and fury against sin AND it’s the place where we see the loving fullness of God for his people. We see the consuming fire and justice as Jesus bears the wrath of God for the sins of his people. We see the love and mercy of God as he raises him from the dead and forgives the sins of those who look to Jesus Christ in faith. We don’t get to pick one of those things to love about God. We either love him for who He is, or we don’t love him at all.