TAWG - April 30, 2024 - Micah 2:1-13
April 30, 2024

Micah 2:1-13

2:1-5 | Greedy people can never get enough to consume. They can think only about how they can become even richer. God wanted His covenant people to exemplify concern for others (Ex. 22:26; 23:4-9) instead of exploiting the courts and economic system to their advantage (Jer. 22:17; Amos 8:4), as the affluent Israelites were.

2:6-11 | The Israelites viewed God’s prophets as one who prattle – troubling the privileged with empty words – and ordered them to stop prophesying (Isa. 30:10). Meanwhile, those with a false spirit would prophesy abundance (characterized by beer and wine) to suit their hearers (Jer. 5:5:30-31; 2 Tim. 4:3-4).

2:8-10 | Wealthy Israelites were so greedy they were robbing the disenfranchised as if they were an enemy. To emphasize this, Micah pictures them taking the clothes right off the backs of unsuspecting victims. By rigging the courts in their favor and charging exorbitant taxes, Israel’s leaders took away the land of the widows and the fatherless – abuses that made these oppressors targets of God’s judgment.

2:12-13 | Restoration will occur one day, when the Lord would break open the gates of Babylon where the exiles would be trapped (4:10) and lead His people home (Isa. 52:12).