According to the prophet
Micah, judgment was to fall upon Samaria and Jerusalem for their
apostasy against the Lord God Almighty. He prophesied of the
devastation that was going to occur when the Lord came down and
visited them in judgment such as making them as “a heap in the
field” or “the plantings of a vineyard”. Micah also
told them the Lord would “pour down the stones thereof into the
valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof” and their
“graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the
hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols
thereof will I lay desolate:” Every blessing and benefit which
was afforded to Samaria was to be returned to the source from where
they received it, and in chapter one and verse eight of his prophecy
we begin to see Micah's reaction to this judgment as he is “weeping,
howling and mourning” over it. We read:
Therefore I will wail
and howl, I will go stripped and naked:
I will make a wailing
like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.
The
verse begins, “Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go
stripped and naked:” Micah begins this verse with the word,
“Therefore” which is a word introducing a conclusion and
should have us look at the words written before it. In this case,
Micah referred to the judgment upon Samaria, and his reaction was “I
will wail” which means “lament or mourn” “and howl”
or “cry out with lamentation”, “I will go stripped”
which means “barefoot” “and naked” or “divested of
clothes”. The Hebrew phrase employed by Micah is “showlal showlal
arwom”, and by the repetition of the word “showlal” we can
almost sense his grief over the prophesy he had just written.
The
verse goes on to say, “I will make a wailing like the dragons,
and mourning as the owls.” Micah continued his response to the
horrific prophesy against Samaria by writing, “I will make a
wailing” or “woeful and crying lamentation” “like the
dragons” or “great sea monster or crocodile” “and
mourning” which means “like as unto the dead” “as the
owls” which literally means “as the daughters of the owls”.
Whatever these “dragons” and “owls” were, they
were mournful and wailing examples of tMicah's behavior concerning
the judgment to come.
As we
think about Micah's reaction to the prophesy he gave, we may use our
imaginations to see him in this mournful state. He is not rejoicing
over the judgment to come. He was “wailing” over it, and his soul
was vexed by the horror that is soon to overtake the people. He
stripped himself of the normal comforts of shoes and clothing, and
wailed and cried in a woeful lament over their doom. How long has it
been since we have grieved with such intensity over our day? Have we
ever been so vexed in our spirit over our own country and the
spiritual apostasy which has taken place? As we ponder these things,
let us allow the Lord to put within us a compassion and care for our
situations as Micah had for his, and may we ever cry out to the Lord
for those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord in
this world.
Next
time Micah will tell more of why he reacted so dramatically, 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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