BLOG

Micah, the Prophet of Unchanging Love, part 3

Micah 1:13 says,

¹³ Harness the chariot to the team of horses, O inhabitant of Lachish—she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion—because in you were found the rebellious acts of Israel.

Lachish was on Israel’s southern border just eight miles south of Moresheth, Micah’s hometown. Lachish was conquered by Joshua (Joshua 10:31, 32).

The prophet instructs the inhabitant of Lachish to get ready to flee. “Harness the chariot,” he says, because judgment is coming. We are not told how Lachish was “the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion.” We may presume that Lachish, being close to Egypt, was introduced to the gods of Egypt quite early, and that this eventually spread to Jerusalem.

Micah 1:14 continues,

¹⁴ Therefore you will give parting gifts on behalf of Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib will become a deception [achzib] to the kings of Israel.

What are these “parting gifts?” The Hebrew word is shilooack, “sending away; parting gift.” In 1 Kings 9:6 the word refers to a dowry. So the Wycliffe Bible Commentary tells us,

“A parting gift. Or, a dismissal present, i.e., the return of the marriage portion of a bride; hence a bill of divorcement. The ‘daughter of Zion’ and Moreshesh-gath (the prophet’s hometown) have been united in sin. Now they are to be separated.”

This implies that Micah’s hometown was divorcing Jerusalem. It appears that God told Micah to do something that represented the return of the dowry. Then, following the instructions in Deuteronomy 24:1-4, he wrote a prophetic declaration and sent Jerusalem out of the house.

Achzib was a town located eight miles north of Moresheth. Achzib means “deception,” so the prophet again uses this as a word play: “the houses of deception will become a deception.” Some Bible commentators say that the Israelites were counting on Achzib to defend the southern border. But Achzib was to prove deceptive.

Micah 1:14 says,

¹⁴ Moreover, I will bring on you the one who takes possession, O inhabitant of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will enter Adullam.

Mareshah was another town (not to be confused with Moresheth). “The one who takes possession” is Assyria, but secondarily, we should include Babylon, which took possession of the land a century later. “The glory of Israel will enter Adullam” refers to the glory of God leaving the temple (Ezekiel 11:22, 23).

David found refuge in the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1) when he was hiding from King Saul. Micah uses Adullam as a metaphor for escaping and hiding. Just as David hid in Adullam, so also the glory of God was to escape from the corrupt temple and remain hidden from view.

Yet we know that the glory of God did not depart the temple when the Assyrians conquered Israel in the days of Isaiah and Micah. Instead, the glory departed a century later when Babylon took Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Hence, “the one who takes possession” is non-specific, so that it may include both Assyria and Babylon.

Micah 1:16 concludes,

¹⁶ Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, because of the children of your delight; extend your baldness like the eagle, for they will go from you into exile.

Making oneself bald was a sign of mourning for the dead (Job 1:20; Isaiah 15:2). The entire phrase is expressed in the feminine gender, as if to picture a mother mourning her children. In view of the coming captivity, there was to be much reason for mourning, “because of the children of your delight” (who would be killed in the war).

Deuteronomy 14:1, 2 forbids them from making themselves bald as a sign of mourning:

¹ You are the sons of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead for the sake of the dead. ² For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

The Israelites had adopted the culture and religious practices of the nations. This included the practice of making oneself bald when mourning the dead. So Micah tells them, in essence, “Go mourn in the way that you are accustomed to.” God’s people, on the other hand, were not to do this. Why? Because they were “a holy people to the Lord your God.” To be holy is to be separated or distinguished from others. Just as the priests were separated from the other Israelites, so also the Israelites as a whole were to be separate from the nations and not adopt their pagan culture.

This ends the first segment in our outline of Micah: Approaching Judgment of Israel and Judah.