the traditional setting for pagan idol worship (1:5). The same judgment the North had suffered would come to Judah if people continued to disobey God.
Other historical accounts give more details of the South's sins. They describe how King Ahaz set up a foreign altar in God's temple, altering the temple construction "in deference to the king of Assyria" (2 Kings 16:18). He gave his own children in human sacrifice and shut the Lord's temple, substituting altars on every street corner (2 Chronicles 28:3, 24-25). Along with this religious corruption came every other kind of sin: dishonesty (Micah 6:10-11), bribery (3:11), injustice (2:2), and distrust that destroyed families (7:5-6).
Beyond the Darkness
Yet Micah saw light ahead. He perceived a majestic God over all events, who punished his people only to purify and restore them. Along with making some of the Bible's frankest predictions of destruction, Micah gave some of the clearest predictions of the Messiah, the leader who would come to save Israel. Micah's perspective encompassed not only the events of his time but events far in the future, when the nations "will beat their swords into plowshares" (4:3).
Micah looked straight at the darkness of his time and at the darkness yet to come. But his perspective - God's perspective - enabled him to see beyond darkness. "Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light" (7:8). |
