A True And Honest Message

Micah 3:5-12

We all like to hear good news, something positive.  When we hear the evening news reports, we would love to hear that there has been no crime this past week, no wars, and the economy is doing great.  We would love to see the word “excellent!” written across our test papers at school, and hear the meteorologist say that temperatures will be balmy, with zero chance of snow.  However, is that reality?  Are they telling us the truth?  No one wants the wrong weather report.  Being told that your schoolwork is excellent when you really failed isn’t helping you, and hearing that there is no crime, when in reality it is just the opposite can actually be very dangerous.  No matter how much we like to hear the good and positive, if it is not true it is not helping us.  This was the message that the Lord gave to His prophet Micah, which we read today.

Picture for a moment, that you are a newly hired pastor or priest of a local congregation.  Within a week or two the head of the deacon board comes to talk to you, and he tells you that the congregation only wants to hear good and positive sermons from the pulpit.  They will pay you a very good salary, but they don’t want to hear about their sins, or need to change their lives.  They only want to hear that God loves them, and that no matter what they do, He will bless them.  This was something that Micah was seeing often enough among his fellow religious leaders.

Micah was a prophet to the southern Kingdom of Judah, and his ministry was during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, from approximately 737 - 696 BC.  During his years of ministry, Micah witnessed the fall of the northern Kingdom of Israel.  That was a rather traumatic event for the people of Judah to witness, seeing their “sister kingdom” of Israel fall to their enemies, and the people to be taken away into captivity.  Such an event would be a good object lesson for true and godly preachers to use, in order to steer their people back to true and faithful worship of Yahweh, and Him alone.  Many of the true prophets did, such as Isaiah and Micah, himself.  They told the people to observe what happened to their brothers to the north, which came upon them due to their sins and faithlessness to God.  They told them to mend their ways, or it will happen to them.

However, the people did not want to hear that.  They wanted to hear good and positive messages, messages of peace and love.  They turned away from God’s true and faithful prophets, and instead went to the false prophets, and gave them all of their tithes and offerings.  Because they were given the money, these false preachers would preach what the people wanted to hear (vs. 11).  Just like back then, we see that a lot today, where there are false preachers who only preach a “peace and prosperity” message, one where they do not believe that God will ever punish His people, where there is no hell, and that God will always bless His people with wealth.

What did God have to say about this?  He gave Micah a message to preach to these false prophets and teachers, and to the people who listen to them.  God said that He would cut off the ministry of these false preachers.  They would be put to shame.  They would show their shame by covering their mouth, from which had come forth their false messages (vs. 5-7).  Everything they say is utterly wrong.  It is not from God, even though they say it is.  Listening to and following a false message will only bring you spiritual ruin and judgment, just as it did to the people in Micah’s day.  It did to the northern Kingdom of Israel in Micah’s day, and not too long afterwards it did to the southern Kingdom of Judah.

The preacher and religious leader who preaches the true Gospel from the Bible is the one who really has the power of the Holy Spirit and His might, not the ones who might say they do, but who only preach what the people pay them to say and what they want to hear.  Jesus promised His followers the power of the Holy Spirit to witness and bring His message (Acts 1:8).  Our pastors and teachers should be trusting and relying on Him for His message, not on the size of the paycheck the church gives.

Are you listening to a pastor who accepts bribes, or are you one who takes bribes?  There are plenty of pastors today to accept bribes when they allow those who contribute much to control the church.  When fear of losing money, when the members influence the pastors to remain silent on some topics, and when they know they should speak up for what the Bible really says, that church is in danger of God’s judgment, just as they were in the days of Micah.