Miquéias 6

Miquéias 6

Clarke - Omri, king of Israel, the father of Ahab, was one of the worst kings the Israelites ever had; and Ahab followed in his wicked father’s steps. The statutes of those kings were the very grossest idolatry. Kaiser - Micah’s message closes in Micah 6:16 with an allusion to Omri and Ahab; the once thriving city of Samaria is recalled here through two of its most infamous kings. Samaria had to be visited with judgment because its merchants, government, judges, priests, and prophets failed to do justly and to love mercy, much less to walk humbly with their God. If Samaria was a warning to Jerusalem, then Samaria, Jerusalem and a host of other cities, both ancient and modern, ought to be a lesson to us today. The guilty of Micah’s day had repeated the same evil practices of the Israelite Omride dynasty. That dynasty, in the northern kingdom, began when Omri assassinated Zimri and seized the throne of Israel. His son Ahab took over after he died and Ahab added child sacrifice (1 Kin. 16:34) and widespread Baal worship to his father’s list of sins (1 Kin. 18). Ahab was the epitomy of greed and power as he seized Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kin. 21) and allowed the grossest of socioeconomic injustices to fester in his realm. After Ahab’s death the entire house of Ahab, including his seventy sons, were violently killed by the next usurper, Jehu. Micah declares that Judah has become like the Omride dynasty in her sins. If those sins led to the demise of the northern kingdom, what does the southern kingdom think will happen to her if she does not repent? Omri (885-874BC) lived over 100 years before Micah's prophecy (written about 700BC), but is referenced because he was so notoriously evil - "And Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, and acted more wickedly than all who were before him." (1Ki 16:25) For Judah to be "lumped in" with Omri gives a sense of just how far the Southern Kingdom had veered from righteousness! Ahab (874-853BC) was the seed of evil Omri and his evil reign and legacy is summarized in First Kings 16... And it came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him (Ahab) to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. 32 So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. (1Ki 16:31-33) Observed (08104)(shamar) has the basic sense of exercising great care over something. Shamar means to watch, to keep, to preserve, to guard, to be careful, to watch carefully over and even to be on one’s guard. For example, Adam and Eve were placed in "the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep (shamar) it." (Ge 2:15). In Mic 6:16 shamar is translated in the Lxx with the verb phulasso which pictures Israel carefully watching over her evil deeds! This same word shamar was used by Moses to encourage Israel to obedience rather than disobedience... “O Israel, you should listen (shama) and be careful (shamar; Lxx = phulasso) to do [it], that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, [in] a land flowing with milk and honey. (Dt 6:3) Comment: Israel was to shama (hear) and shamar (heed). This principle permeates the Bible. Hearers must be doers of the Word! (James 1:22-24-note). What Word of God you have heard (sermon, teacher in Bible study, etc) or read (devotional, etc) are you failing to heed? Beware, you are on the slippery slope called delusion and it is not a comfortable fall you will experience! And in their devices you (Judah) walk. - To walk, as discussed above, refers to their behavior or day to day conduct. As noted above Omri and Ahab were two of the most evil rulers in the history of the Northern Kingdom and both replaced worship of God with worship of Baal. When Ahab's daughter Athaliah (cf "house of Ahab") ) became queen of Judah, she encouraged Baal worship (cf 2Chr 24:7) - like father, like daughter! (Read 1Ki 16:21-22:40). Devices ("counsels" = ESV) (04156)(moesah from yaats = to advice, counsel) refers to counsel, advice, plan. Moesah is used most often in negative contexts where wicked people walk according to their own plans. Jeremiah uses moesah to describe Judah's behavior - “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in [their own] counsels (moesah) [and] in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward." (Jer 7:24) Assyria conquered Israel because of "their counsels" (Hos. 11:6). The wicked experience failure because they walk according to their own device or plan (Ps 5:10 = "By their own devices let them fall!" Ps 81:12 = "I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices."). Those not accepting the counsel of the righteous are "satiated with their own devices" (Pr 1:31)and such waywardness will "kill them" (Pr 1:32). The only positive use of moesah is Prs 22:20 indicates that the teachings of the upright bring trust in the Lord and contain excellent things "of counsels and knowledge." The Lxx translates moesah with boule which refers to one's inner thought process which leads to making a decision. Some OT uses (Ps 5:10, Hos 11:6) are translated in Lxx with the verb diaboulia = deliberations, intrigue, resolutions. Moesah is translated (NAS) : counsels (3), devices (4). Moesah - 7v - Ps 5:10; 81:12; Pr 1:31; 22:20; Jer 7:24; Hos 11:6; Mic 6:16, Therefore (term of conclusion). However this Hebrew word (maan - 04616, "that" - Mic 6:16ESV) is most often translated because and expresses purpose or intent, and thus would be better understood as a term of purpose or result. Based on Judah and Jerusalem's great evil which was so much like their northern neighbors (like Omri and Ahab), they must suffer God's just judgment - destruction, derision, reproach. The same sins which destroyed the Northern Kingdom would bring an end to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. I will give you up for destruction - This same Hebrew word is used in the "curses" section of Deuteronomy and is translated as "horror", Moses warning Israel "you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the LORD will drive you." (Deut 28:37)