Message
Micah 1:3-9
Why Are You Naked?
Misplaced Trust
The Old Testament prophets preached in some strange ways.
Jeremiah had to buy a loin cloth, then wear it for ages, then hide it in a rock crevice for ages. That is what he preached about in Jeremiah 13.
Ezekiel had to lay on his side for 390 days in from of a block of clay. That was a long sermon. You can read about it in Ezekiel 4.
Strange ways to bring prophet messages. But my sense is that the prophet Micah – the way he preached – it would have caused people to stop and look. We find the situation in Micah 1:3-9 (read)
Because of this I will weep and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked.
I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl.
Micah 1:8
Naked. What a strange way to preach!
I think we are on solid ground when we assume that, anyone who saw Micah preaching like this, would definitely stop … and look … and listen.
That’s what they really need to do. They need to listen.
To see why they need to listen let’s start with a bit of history. The historical context is clearly defined in Micah 1:1
The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah
The reign of these three kings spanned 60 years – so we need a few more clues to narrow down the situation described in chapter 1.
Micah 1:5 talks about “high places in in Judah and Jerusalem.”
So it can’t be during the reign of Hezekiah because “(Hezekiah) removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles” (2 Kings 18:4).
Micah 1:5 and Micah 1:9 paint a picture of both the nations of
… Judah – whose capital is Jerusalem
… and Israel – whose capital is Samaria
equally participating in sin and transgression. This could be a description of events during the reign of Jotham.
(Jotham) did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done, but unlike him he did not enter the temple of the Lord. The people, however, continued their corrupt practices.
2 Chronicles 27:2
However you do get a sense that Jotham is trying hard not to follow the unfaithful practises of the King in Samaria. Indeed Jotham really wants to encourage the people in Jerusalem to worship faithfully by making sure the temple is being maintained. “Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 27:3).
So the words in Micah 1 are directed to a situation that is taking place during the reign of Ahaz the King of Judah who came to the throne in 744BC and died in 728BC. This is a summary of Ahaz’s reign.
2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. 3 He followed the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 4 He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.
2 Kings 16:2-4
King Ahaz was not a faithful king – and his lack of faithfulness was leading the people astray. One area Ahaz was causing the people to be led astray was with regards to the trust they needed to have in God.
7 Ahaz sent messengers to say to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, “I am your servant and vassal. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” 8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria. 9 The king of Assyria complied by attacking Damascus and capturing it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death.
2 Kings 16:7-9
Faithful Kings of Judah never need to trust in other kingdoms to fight for them. All the faithful King needed to do was call upon the Lord and the Lord would protect his people.
But Ahaz wasn’t faithful and he didn’t trust the might of God, so he used money from the temple to pay for the might of the king of Assyria.
If that wasn’t enough Ahaz also lead the people into practises of false and misleading worship.
10 King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction. 11 So Uriah the priest built an altar in accordance with all the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and finished it before King Ahaz returned.
14 As for the bronze altar that stood before the Lord, he brought it from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the temple of the Lord—and put it on the north side of the new altar.
2 King 16:10,11,14
God is literally being pushed aside to make way for sacrifices on an alter which is patterned after one in a temple of a foreign God. This is a time of great unfaithfulness – as Micah 1:9 explains.
For Samaria’s plague is incurable; it has spread to Judah.
It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself.
Samaria’s plague is the reality that, for centuries Samaria has been engaged in false worship, trust in false Gods, and pushing Yahweh aside. This “plague” has spilled over into Jerusalem and Judah.
It is a “plague” which is causing a false sense of security.
Calling for help from the Assyrian Tiglath-Pileser has led to victory. What is the underlying message?
You don’t need to trust in Yahweh when you have might on your side.
Because of the might of Assyria the people in Judah are now experiencing prosperity and peace.
And we are still going to the temple and worshipping – even though God has been moved aside.
Everyone thought they were doing the right thing because there was still a religious varnish over it all. Those who were used to having the blessings of life still had them and were not about to give them up easily. Everything in life was comfortable and there was no real need to worry about God and what He really wanted.
There is a lot of security and trust.
But it is all misplaced.
And nobody really cares.
How do you cut through and bring the message of God in that environment?
How does God get a hearing when people are spiritually lethargic?
How do you bring people to have a sense of what is really going on when they don’t even stop and think that their spiritual situation is that bad?
A naked prophet walking down the street weeping and wailing, and howling like a jackal and moaning like an owl … that has got to get some attention … doesn’t it?
That is why Micah does what he does.
It’s not because he is an exhibitionist.
Micah preaches naked because the spiritual situation is so dire that something really dramatic needs to happen to wake the people up from their spiritual lethargy.
So that is what was happening in Micah chapter 1.
How do we take what we have learnt and apply the message today?
Well let’s start with our social context. Isn’t true that the situation which Micah was addressing 2700 years ago in Judah could just as easily be a situation being faced by the Australian church today.
How true it is that we live in an age when there are fewer and fewer people who see the need to keep trusting in God. Even among those who have grown up in the church there is an increased attraction to materialism, and self-centred living and putting God onto the back burner. So many within the church find it so easy to just to go with the flow without really seeing the need to stand out and be counted.
Could it not also be said that the plague of Samaria has reached Jerusalem? That the secular world has so infiltrated the Christian world that – on a wide-spread basis – the actions of those in the church and in the world look so similar.
Where immorality is justified.
Where reliance on power and might is put above reliance on God.
Where there is a false sense of security and misplaced trust.
What we see out of Micah 1 is, that when God’s people are like this,
- when our eyes are fixed not on Jesus but on a false path
- when that happens God will send a dramatic messenger with a message that is so powerful in it’s presentation that it cannot be ignored.
People may still choose not to listen.
But the message can’t just be ignored.
We can’t ignore this message in Micah 1 because it is a prophetic message that is being fulfilled.
It was fulfilled in the days of Micah when – ironically – the Assyrians turn against Jerusalem. It is only because of the faithfulness of King Hezekiah that Assyria doesn’t destroy Jerusalem and Judah
… a faithfulness that flowed out of trusting in Yahweh and not trusting in a foreign nation.
But Samaria – and the people of Israel – they are destroyed and taken into exile and scattered among the nations. Never again to be regathered.
The prophecy was also fulfilled with the coming of Jesus.
Micah 1:3 talks about “The Lord is coming from his dwelling place”
This is Jesus
6 Who, being in very nature God … 7 made himself nothing …
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:6-8
He came with a radical message that couldn’t be ignored even as many chose not to listen. Like Micah, Jesus also was stripped and naked, humiliated to wake people up from their spiritual lethargy.
And today.
Today God continues to bring attention to those times in our lives when spiritual lethargy and misplaced trust have been the norm.
All sorts of events happen in our lives where God is doing this. The most recent being the times we are in. It’s almost a year on from the first weekend of lock-down in Australia.
Hasn’t that year caused us to think.
It has caused us to be challenged.
We have watched as Samaria … the secular world … responded.
There is so much to process and think through biblically.
All this time my commitment to you was to preach.
Thankfully not naked … because that would be too dramatic.
But to keep preaching … to keep bringing the message that pulls us away from spiritual lethargy and misplaced trust.
This is not the time for misplaced trust in false gods.
This is not the time for might and power outside of holding onto Jesus.
This is not a time to doubt God and his promises.
This is not a time for spiritual lethargy or spiritual distraction.
This is not a time to be confronted by such dramatic circumstances only to turn away to false hope and false security.
This is the time
… it is not the first time and it won’t be the last time.
… this is a time to see that God is dramatically seeking to get our attention. This is the time where … God’s prophets … God’s preachers of the Word.
The faithful preachers.
They need to keep asking the same – very important – question.
Now that God has got your attention … are your eyes fixed on Jesus?
Are your eyes fixed on the promises of Jesus.
Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me.
John 14:1
We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7
The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
2 Timothy 4:18
Why is Micah naked? Because that is what was needed to get us to fix our eyes on Jesus instead of having misplaced trust.
It is dramatic but absolutely necessary.
Now is the moment to listen
Prayer
