A LAND DEFILED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Don’t say such things,” the people respond. “Don’t prophesy like that. Such disasters will never come our way!”

“Should you talk that way, O family of Israel? Will the Lord’s Spirit have patience with such behavior?”

“If you would do what is right, you would find My words comforting. Yet to this very hour My people rise against Me like an enemy! You steal the shirts right off the backs of those who trusted you, making them as ragged as men returning from battle. You have evicted women from their pleasant homes and forever stripped their children of all that God would give them.”

“Up! Begone! This is no longer your land and home, for you have filled it with sin and ruined it completely. Suppose a prophet full of lies would say to you, ‘I’ll preach to you the joys of wine and alcohol!’ That’s just the kind of prophet you would like!”

Micah 2:6-11 (NLT)

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How would the Lord see the land you live in? Would He label it as sacred or defiled in His sight?

Perhaps it’s a question every neighborhood, community, town or city, and nation should consider but unfortunately I think it’s more of an afterthought than anything else.

This was certainly true of God’s people in Israel during Micah’s time as a prophet, a people who were more interested in wronging God and one another than they were about living in righteousness as God commanded and expected. Look at today’s passage as we continue to look at Micah 2:

“Don’t say such things,” the people respond. “Don’t prophesy like that. Such disasters will never come our way!”

“Should you talk that way, O family of Israel? Will the Lord’s Spirit have patience with such behavior?”

“If you would do what is right, you would find My words comforting. Yet to this very hour My people rise against Me like an enemy! You steal the shirts right off the backs of those who trusted you, making them as ragged as men returning from battle. You have evicted women from their pleasant homes and forever stripped their children of all that God would give them.”

“Up! Begone! This is no longer your land and home, for you have filled it with sin and ruined it completely. Suppose a prophet full of lies would say to you, ‘I’ll preach to you the joys of wine and alcohol!’ That’s just the kind of prophet you would like!”  Micah 2:6-11 (NLT)

The initial thing we need to do is make sure we know who is talking in this passage.

The first voices are the people of Israel and Judah speaking out against Micah’s prophecy. Given that the preceding verses attacked the sins of the rich who were oppressing and stealing from the poor, we can assume they are the ones complaining. Note that there is an attitude of denial in the words of the rich, an attitude that believes they are above reproach and discipline, even from the Lord.

The next voice we see is from Micah himself in response to his critics. He simply poses a simple question back toward those who thought they could sin without consequences:

“Will the Lord’s Spirit have patience with such behavior?”

Maybe we all should ponder this question as well as we do a self examination of the way we are living. Micah is simply stating the obvious in that God hates sin and no one in their right mind would think He would somehow allow people to willingly and willfully live wickedly in His sight without Him taking action.

God affirms this because He is the last voice in our scriptures, fitting because God will always have the final word on all things. As He speaks, we find Him clearly disseminating the difference between right and wrong as well as how He responds to both:

“If you would do what is right, you would find My words comforting. Yet to this very hour My people rise against Me like an enemy! You steal the shirts right off the backs of those who trusted you, making them as ragged as men returning from battle. You have evicted women from their pleasant homes and forever stripped their children of all that God would give them.”

As we saw at the opening of this passage, the people were all worked up over the words spoken by Micah, words given to the prophet by God Himself. Immediately we find God telling the angry Israelites that they would have no reason to be angry if they had only done right. Had they been living that way, the message to them would have been strikingly different, a message that would have brought them comfort vice consternation.

But that wasn’t the case here for we read the rich receiving a sharp, stern indictment from the Lord. They had become an enemy of God through their transgressions which included stealing the clothes right off the backs of the less fortunate (where we get the expression “taking the shirt off someone’s back”). Further, the rich were taking homes from the poor, leaving women evicted while stealing the inheritance away from their children. They were evil actions predicated by greed and a sinful disregard for others.

Obviously, the Lord was not going to stand for it.

So what was the penalty for the evil actions of the rich?

As we see, the punishment fit the crime. For if the rich thought it was permissible to leave the poor homeless after taking everything from them, then the Lord would take away everything of value from the poor, stripping away all that they had before sending them away into exile in a foreign land. We know because He promised the following:

“Up! Begone! This is no longer your land and home, for you have filled it with sin and ruined it completely.”

What’s the take away?

If any of God’s people decide to defile His land, ruining it by living in sin without fear of judgment, then He can and will take their land away from them, removing them from their home.

In other words, God blesses us with places to live and we are expected to show our appreciation to Him through the way we live, serving Him and others in righteousness.

Live in obedience to Him and you’ll be basking in His favor while enjoying words of comfort from Him and other who speak on His behalf.

Live in sin however and the story will be much different. For the Lord WILL hold His people accountable when they choose to defile the land He has given them, sending words and actions of judgment which could include evicting His people from the land He blessed them with.

It’s up to us which way things go. We would be wise to choose carefully.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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