As Micah continued his
prophecy concerning Samaria and Jerusalem, he began chapter two by
sharing the reasons they were going to be judged, and he gave warning
to “them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds!”.
He wrote, “when the morning is light, they practice it, because
it is in the power of their hand.”, and
in chapter two and verse two he revealed specifically their evil
thoughts and deeds where we read:
so they oppress a man
and his house, even a man and his heritage.
The
verse begins, “And they covet fields, and take them
by violence;” Micah charged
these evil workers within Samaria and Jerusalem with, “And
they covet” which means
“desire, take pleasure and delight in” “fields” or
“lands and cultivated lands” which are not their own, and they
“take them by violence”
which means “to tear away, seize, plunder, tear off, pull
off, rob, or take away by force”. If we use our imaginations we can
picture these apostate men thinking about certain fields and lands
that are not their own, making a plan to steal and overtake them from
their rightful owners, and then implementing their plan.
The
verse goes on to say, “and houses, and take them
away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his
heritage.” Not only did the
wicked in Samaria and Jerusalem devise a plan to take away
“fields” but they also
desired “houses”
which were the “dwelling places, shelters and habitations” of
their own people. Micah wrote, “and take them away”
which means “lift, bare and
carry” these houses away from them. By doing so, “they
oppress” or “violate,
defraud, do violence, get deceitfully, wrong, extort, and exploit”
“a man and his house” which refers to “a strong man, a
warrior and one willing to fight from his dwelling place”. Then, as
though the reference to the man being “oppressed” wasn't enough,
Micah added, “even a man and his heritage” where he
employed a different word for “man” which means “male,
husband or servant” and wrote of his “possession, property and
inheritance”. These thieves which lived among them not only would
take houses and lands from the “warriors” among them, but they
would also steal the houses and inheritances of regular men as well.
It is interesting to put
ourselves in the position of Micah as he wrote these words. What if
we were seeing in our minds the evil thoughts and intents of wicked
people who lived among us who were going to take away our houses and
fields? What if they were going to overtake our family and friends'
homes? How would we feel about them? Sometimes people have the idea
that a prophet in the Old testament had an enjoyable job where he
only spoke or wrote of a few bad things that were going to happen,
but we see in the case of Micah, as we would if we were studying the
other prophecies, this was not an easy task. The people of Samaria
and Jerusalem forsook the ways of the Lord, and they rejected God's
plan for their salvation and safe keeping, therefore the wicked and
evil plans to steal and oppress one another were among them. How many
today who reject the Lord's plan of salvation through Jesus Christ
think like these oppressors of old? May our pondering of Micah's
words motivate us to keep our relationship close to the Lord Jesus,
and may we demonstrate His love to those who surround us even when
others “oppress” them every day.
Next
time Micah shares the Lord's response to those who devise and spread
evil, so read ahead, and
we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow…there is more…
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be
Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the
Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com
; http://www.barnesandnobles.com
; download to e-books, and find it locally at
http://www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.
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