Willful Ignorance: Believers Don't Fact-Check Their Leaders | Micah 6:4-8

Well, I'm going to begin today with discussing some things to help make our Bible study and our application of what we learn more effective. And one of the greater challenges we face as God worshippers seeking to study his word is putting aside the way the Bible has typically been taught in the gentile world of institutional Christendom for centuries. And this way of teaching begins with tending to set aside the gritty realities of the humans we encounter in the scriptures and thus bypasses the kinds of lives they were living. We tend to raise them up to mythological or nonrealistic levels such as what happens in the great works of the ancient Greeks like Homer or even Esau did with their characters. I even dislike the term terms like Bible heroes because it once again raises ordinary people to levels that seem impossible for us to identify with or let alone personally attain. Thus, when reading all of these different about all these Bible personalities, we need to take them down from their pedestals and instead put ourselves into their sandals. We need to realize that there are everyday issues of family disharmony, difficulties in supplying an adequate living, getting sick and injured at times is a norm, having emotional ups and downs, arguments with their spouses, having conflicting thoughts about what would be the right thing to do, but then bumping up against how that choice might material affect them in negative ways. This is what they dealt with just as we do. This means that when someone in the Bible says something or does something good or bad, we have every right to ask what motivated them to do or think as they did. What was not said in the story is important because when people thought about carefully those unsaid but obvious realities of life, it reveals the truth. These were real people, not pure people. Their every decision was not altruistic or even necessarily righteous. They had their needs, had their personal preferences, as we all do. They faced unexpected circumstances, struggled every day in trying to obey God. And these inescapable realities were what drove them more than anything else. So even though Micah was a great and true prophet of God, he views things and thinks things and says things through the filter of his own life and life experiences. It all has a basis on how the world is from his viewpoint at the time he speaks them. But even more, none of these Bible prophets were professionals. They were not academically trained in the occupation of prophet. Nor were the adept writers taught their craft by a literary expert. Oh, certainly they were literate to a higher degree than for the typical Hebrew. Nonetheless, they spoke and wrote in the mode of their day in ways that were known to the general public and pleasing to the prophet personally. Micah stands out as having a most unorthodox way of speaking and writing because that's how we thought. Most of the other prophets were much more consistent in whatever style they chose to speak to us. But Micah was anything but consistent. He writes in a kind of Hebrew poetry but constantly violates the usual and customary structure of it. He mixes the literary genre in his writings from poem to metaphor to allegory to simple pros. That makes his writings not only interesting but a bit more difficult to decipher especially for those neither living in his era or in his geographical location and it is a doubly difficult for us so far removed from him in culture and in time. So let's continue today with that understanding and I will continue to do my best to supply some of the hidden background and sense of his words that are not at all plainly apparent. Open your Bibles to Micah chapter 6 verse 4 and we'll begin reading from there. Micah chapter 6 verse 4. I brought you up from the land of Egypt. I redeemed you from a life of slavery. I sent Moshe a Haron and Miriam to lead you. My people, just remember what Balok and the king of Moab had planned, what Bilam the son of Bor answered him, and what happened between Shitim and Gilgal, so that you will understand the saving deeds of Adonai. With what can I come before Adonai to bow down before God on high? Should I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves in their first year? Would Adon and I take delight in thousands of rams, 10,000 rivers of olive oil? Could I give my firstborn to pay for my crimes, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Human being, you have already been told what's good. What Adom Adonai demands of you. no more than to act justly, love grace, and walk in purity with God. The voice of Adonai he calls to the city. It is wisdom to fear your name. Listen to the rod and to him who commissioned it. Are there still illgotten gains in the house of the wicked? Still the detestable short epha measure? Should I declare innocent wicked scales and a bag of fraudulent weights? The rich men there are full of violence. The inhabitants tell lies with tongues of deceit in their mouths. Therefore, I'm starting to strike you down, to destroy you because of your sins. You will eat but not be satisfied with hunger gnawing inside of you. You will conceive but not give birth. And if you do give birth, I will give him to the sword. You will sew but not reap. You will press olives but not rub yourself with oil. Likewise, you will press grapes but not drink the wine. For you keep the regulations of Omri, the practices of the house of modeling yourselves on their advice. Therefore, I will make you an object of horror, the inhabitants of this city a cause for contempt. You will suffer the insults aimed at my people. after God asking Israel rather rhetorically through Micah exactly how he has wearied them to make them grow tired from obeying him. He begins to remind Israel of their history. That has everything to do with their identity and why they even exist. Micah 6:4, I brought you up from the land of Egypt. I redeemed you from a life of slavery. I sent Moshe Aaron and Miriam to lead you. There are two elements to this verse that are vital. First, what it was that was done for Israel. And second, who brought it about? Three times we hear God say, "I did it. God brought. God redeemed. God established a leadership for Israel. Once again, a more literal translation can be helpful than the somewhat dynamic translation methods routine in the complete Jewish Bible. In the YT, we hear, "For I brought thee up from the land of Egypt, and from the house of servants, I have ransomed thee, and I send thee before thee, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam." Micah uses a technique that only adds to his repertoire of mixing various kinds of literary styles but can only be seen in the Hebrew language. Here a word play as a means to rebut Israel's accusation against God. No doubt this is Micah's doing in giving this message worded precisely as it is and acting as God's authorized middleman messenger. In verse three, he explains that indeed instead of God wearing Israel in Hebrew, it is heta he has actually brought them in Hebrew all right up to Canaan. Here's the difference of the YT from how the complete Jewish Bible incorrectly translates another and different part of the same verse. First, where the complete Jewish Bible speaks of a life of slavery, life of slavery involves a condition or a manner of life for the people. But in the YT it says house of servants. We're going to find this phrase regularly substituted in the Bible as meaning Egypt. That is Egypt's identity as concerns Israel is as a house of servitude not freedom. So Egypt and house of servants are simply two terms for the same thing. Further, the term redeemed used generally can be reckoned as meaning to rescue something, exchange one thing for the other, like in redeeming a coupon at a grocery store. But instead, by using the word ransom, it explains that what God did for Israel in Egypt required a payment. What was that payment? The lives of scores of thousands of Egyptian firstborns, many of which, especially if they were children, were otherwise innocent of any wrongdoing against Israel. This is the kind of redemption that is the foreshadow of what is needed for the eternal salvation of people that comes through the death of the otherwise innocent firstborn of God, Yeshua. Now, can you imagine a believer thanking anyone else but God for our redemption? Even though there are admittedly some large church Christian branches that would have you thank the church. The Lord sees Israel as having forgotten from where the redemption from Egypt came and who to thank. Rather than being a wearium a wearying burdensome God, Yov has repeatedly blessed Israel with unmmerited favor. He redeemed a people who in no way deserved it. They did nothing to bring it about. It was all him. It was his grace towards his chosen people. In saying this, Yov in as much explained that he is Israel's leader. Yet the first thing that is done here is to say he sent forth Moses, Aaron and Miriam. That is to send these fourth means to anoint a leadership. Now isn't this in conflict with itself? I mean surely no one would argue against the self-evident reality that Moses, Aaron, and Miriam were leaders. So the key is that Yov says I sent that is the supreme leader sent others who were to bear the tasks of operational leadership for Israel based upon the supreme leaders instructions and principles. The supreme leader remained visible to them and it is he whom Israel physically and tangibly followed in the form of the mysterious fire cloud. When this supreme leader had something to say to the operational leadership he had sent and appointed for Israel, he would visibly hover over the tabernacle. And Moses, sometimes Aaron as well, understood the signal that they were summoned to come and hear what God had to say. Therefore, in quite tangible ways, all three of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam were prophets. They delivered God's oracles and instructions and warnings to the people. From here forward in the Bible, a ministry of prophets began in Israel as a more regular or a typical way of God delivering new oracles to the leadership andor to the people. Prophetic ministry of this particular kind unique to the Old Testament only finally ended hundreds of years later with Malachi. Now, Moses was the one that spoke mouth-to- mouth with Yov in audible or at least direct communication dialogue. Aaron achieved communication with God in another way, especially using the urim and tumim. He was given away to get counsel from God and leading people in the ways of Torah and in worshiping God, but also as the chief administrator of the ritual parts of the law of Moses. And although not perfectly stated, Moses acted as Israel's civil leader, Aaron as their religious leader. Moses and Aaron were brothers and so was Miriam immediate family as their biological sister. This fact actually created quite a bit of trouble. Many of the other tribes and clans, even clans of Moses's own tribe, Levy, were most unhappy that only one family line in the tribe of Levy could hold so much power. One of Miriam's main tasks was to lead the women of Israel in dance and praise, but also whereas there was non-male leadership of women needed over certain matters, it was Miriam at the forefront. Now, I would like to mention that quite interestingly, we will not find mention of Aaron in all the prophets succeeding. Aaron doesn't really have his own separate story. He is bound up in his relationship with Moses and with the people of Israel. He served as Moses's spokesman, but he did not speak his own mind. Rather, it was purely as a messenger of his brother. Other than the fact that Aaron was Moses's brother, there is no reason given for his eventual lofty status as Israel's first high priest. I mean, what qualified him? What acts of merit did he do for God to choose him to be high priest? For Moses, we follow his story from infancy. We see why God selected him to be his earthly hands and messenger to ransom Israel from slavery to liberty and to lead them to the promised land of Canaan. Micah 6:5, "My people, just remember what Balak, the king of Moab, had planned, what Bilam, the son of Bor answered him, and what happened between Shitim and Gilgal, so that you will understand the saving deeds of Yov." So just as verse three asked two questions of Israel. What have I done to you now? How have I wearied you? So verse 5 has God telling Israel to remember two things. First, what the king of Moab had planned to do to Israel. And second, how the gentile seer Balum responded to Moab's king Balak. The ancient Hebrew sages recognized this as a well understood pattern first set down in the Balac and Balam story. How Yovi dealt with Blam and prohibit him from doing what King Balot wanted done to curse Israel instead was seen as one of a series of righteous deeds that reflected God's complete loyalty to the covenants he had made with the Hebrews from Abraham to Moses. He promised to protect them and he did. God obligated himself to those covenants and he fully expects reciprocity from Israel. So here once again, God addresses Israel as my people. Of course, indicating that despite Israel's disloyalty to those covenants, as Israel tended to do, those covenants remained intact. in operation. If the definition of breaking the covenant as Israel did meant disillusion of the covenant, then Israel is no longer God's my people. Israel is God's covenant people as the Bible reiterates time and again. So no covenant know my people. And when the last half of this verse mentions from Chetim to Gilgal, this is speaking about a a section of Israel's journey. Chetim, which means acacia tree, is to the east of the Jordan River. Gilgal's on the western side. So it reminds Israel that even during their journey to Canaan, God was protecting them, blessing them. And from a more general standpoint, this is more speaking about the large section of their journey on the east side of the Jordan when they which they then came over on a crossing over the Jordan into Canaan and another substantial segment of their journey on the West Bank. Yob is saying that he guarded over them, kept harm from them all that time on both sides of the Jordan. Now the final words of verse 5 are not put correctly in the complete Jewish Bible. That is where it speaks of the saving deeds of Yov. What is said is the sedc of Yov. Sedc means righteous, not saving. God says he did these things so that Israel will know God's righteous deeds for them. In other words, his righteous deeds, his blessings. For Israel were completely visible, commonly known, not hidden, not difficult to understand. These deeds should have been remembered, brought to mind should Israel ever start to have doubts about God's intentions and relationship with them. I mean, what a lesson is taught here. How many times after God blessing us, protecting us, answering our prayers, forgiving us, providing for us, showing us mercy, do we encounter something really difficult and we begin to wonder where God is and why isn't this fixed already? Why is he allowing us to go through this? Has something changed? See this is like the proverb proverbial read bending in the wind. Everything is fine till something unpleasant happens. Then we begin to lose faith. We react in whatever direction the wind blows. Sometimes in a good direction, sometimes in a not so good direction. That's the sign of an unsteady mind and faith. The example is shown in Micah is that we are to remember those times when God did wonderful things for us and can continue to praise him even when things aren't going so well. And the very last thing we should ever do is question or even blame God. If anyone in our relationship with God could ever be unfaithful or absent, it won't be him. Micah 66. With what can I come before Yov to bow down before God on high? Should I come before him with bird offerings, with calves in their first year? The undeniable facts of history will not allow Israel to get off the hook or to deflect their own shame and blame for their attitude. Now, God did all these gracious things for Israel. It's recorded. It's known. This verse indicates that Israel responds to this reminder by feeling fully convicted. So they want to know what they can do to remedy this bad position they put themselves in. I want to pause and share something that Namia Gordon once wrote that is enlightening and appropriate for this moment in our study. I'll begin with a question of my own. Why is what Israel is hearing from Micah seen as new information? Did God change? Did the Torah change? Why haven't they remembered their own history? Why have they not been doing the right things? Why are they having to be taken to the woodshed? And all along they thought things between them and God were fine and in good order. Perhaps the story of Josiah according to Namia is a place to find our answer. Josiah is a a a king of Israel who early in his youth developed a tremendous love for God and wanted to worship him in all sincerity. Now that he's king and the temple's in poor repair and he understands that God wants it to be in good condition, he begins to collect money, not for himself, but to give to the temple authorities to make all the need of repairs and restorations. And despite his heart for God, Josiah doesn't know that bringing an asher into the temple is forbidden and so supports doing just that. Rather, he wants it there. He even wants to beautify it. He's a late teen. He's a king. He loves God, but he doesn't know any better than to allow a pagan asher, a fur tree as a fertility symbol into the sanctuary. This custom of putting an asher into the temple had gone on since long before he was born, and he and no one else in his kingdom thought anything of it. But one day, those who were working on the repairs in the temple stumble across a Torah scroll. They give it to the high priest. And the high priest brings it to a member of Josiah's royal court. And Josiah hears it and he begins tearing his clothes in a sign of shame and grief. Josiah says that although he was desirous of worshiping Yave, he didn't have all the information about how to go about it. What was prohibited? What was permitted? He didn't know that having that ashra in God's house was actually wrong and a serious offense to God. See, here's the thing. As much as I constantly criticize the church, it is quite full of well-meaning people. People who do want to worship and obey God, but they don't have all the information. Most of the information they do have has been corrupted by centuries of Christian dogma and man-made doctrines. And the church often tells their members that whatever information they do need is found only in the New Testament and from pastoral homalies. This is what happened to Israel in Micah's day and before Israel grew ignorant of truth was some knowledge withheld. In other cases, truth was replaced with traditions. They only knew what they knew and didn't know what they didn't know. In those days, there was no alternative source of information than what the priests told them. That is why in the Old Testament, we find our religious leaders as bearing the brunt of the blame from God for all the errors and lack of faithfulness of their people. However, for those of us in modern times, the equation is a bit different. No one desiring to know God and his truth is blocked from obtaining it. No one has to believe what the ignorant church leaders say with no way to fact check them. No one, no matter how poor, has to be without a Bible because they are available from cheap to free. Therefore, for modern people to be like the Israelites of our story, it comes from at least a partial willful ignorance. And for you church leaders, you too can go beyond your seminary apologetics and minimal Bible knowledge without any barriers to cost or availability. Knowledge and truth are out there just waiting to be used. Let each of us pray and be active to be sure we do not put ourselves in the positions we are finding Israel in in these Micah passages. They don't even know how to make reparations to God. And how can you avoid sin if you don't even know what is sinful? How can you do right what you don't know what right is? And the only way you're going to find out is to go to God and his word and believe it over the many false or incomplete teachings you have lived your life by. As we have God speaking with Israel during this dialogue, obviously there isn't a single person or a single leader or a single group that's representing Israel. This is like posting on social media for all of a certain category of readers to read. Now whether they do or not, it's another matter. So Israel is present here as a kind of a anonymous figurative person that is representative of the entire community. Thus in verse six when a voice comes forward and asks with what can I come before Yov? This is yet another anonymous figurative person that represents all Israel. It represents the communal mindset of the people of Israel in general. One could certainly call it a straw man. The Bible scholar Francis Berkit of the late 19th and early 20th centuries made this illustration an example from his day to compare to Micah. This concerns the earnest but ignorant settler in Palestine who knows nothing of the religion of Elijah and Amos. That is, there are very earnest God seekers who operate out of their ignorance, having no idea that they are ignorant. And even though the God they seek is better reflected by the prophets Elijah and Amos, these people know nothing of them or of their faith. So the first question asked in verse 6 and what should I bring to come before Yov demonstrates how very little they know about what to do concerning something as basic as sacrificing. Seems to me that the way this question is phrased is that it is people asking the prophet Micah what to bring as a gift. Now this may well be an actual response that occurred when Micah first began to present this prophecy. It also seems to me that while sacrifice would be the proper and expected answer, in fact, the question is also phrased in such a way as to imply not a sacrifice but a gift of appeasement, the way one might approach a king or maybe even an offended friend. Even so, the truly proper answer to what they should bring is what they should do. Israel should have looked to Moses for the right response. Deuteronomy 10 12-13. So now, Israel, all that Yo, your God asks from you is to fear Yave your God. Follow all his ways. Love him and serve Yah your God with all your heart, all your being, to obey for your own good the mitzvot, the commands and regulations of Yahweh. Beginning with the law of Moses, restoring one's relationship with God has a definite sequence. It begins with recognizing one's sins, confessing them, repenting, and then with one's heart in the right place, bringing the prescribed sacrifice as atonement. But Israel wants to jump immediately to sacrificing. They want to skip recognition of their offense. Therefore, they can't possibly convince them uh confess them. They see no reason to repent. And therefore their heart and sincerity are not in the proper mode for God to accept their sacrifice. And as the next part of verse six says, so how about I bring you a sacrifice? Would that work? And for that sacrifice, perhaps I should bring you a yearling calf. How about that? And since the representative Israelites don't seem to know what their sin was, then of course they have no idea of the prescribed type of burnt offering to bring to the altar. This is a people who had much confidence and assuredness among themselves and no doubt assurances from their religious leaders that they knew as much as they needed to know and according to that they were doing everything right. But in fact, they knew next to nothing. And what little they did know was filled with error. This entire line of narrative only exposes them further for their faith kindergarteners that they were. And the charlatans, their trusted leaders have been. And as they continue in verse 7, their questions only make matters worse. Would Yove take delight in thousands of rams with 10,000 rivers of olive oil? How about if I give my firstborn son for my crimes, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? There's only two possible ways to take what's being said here. Either this is tainted with a sneering tongue-in-cheek sarcasm towards Micah and God or this is truly an honest question of which the people would like an answer. I think it's the latter. I think the people are actually asking if the issue might be the number of rams and olive oil needed to get back into good graces of their God. And even if those grossly enormous amounts they propose isn't sufficient, would God finally see the depth of their sincerity, if they offered what is usually the most precious thing in their family, their firstborn child is a human sacrifice. At least Israel sees their big trouble with God. They've characterized it as sin, but no mention of what they think that sin might be or the repentance that's on their minds. What's to be said here? The Israelites had lost any sense of what mattered to God, what was acceptable to God, what was aberrant to God. By Micah's day, the people of the northern kingdom had spent a long time using a golden calf as their main worship symbol and said it symbolized Yov. Probably had been in use for 150 years by Micah's day. No one questioned its legitimacy. Naturally, this pagan and prohibited idol opened the door to accepting other pagan worship practices, just repurposing them for Ephraim Israel to worship God in their own way. So, where child sacrifice was seen among the pagans as the greatest, the most valuable sacrifice one could offer to their gods, then it seems that the people of the northern tribes of Israel adopted that thought as well. The horror, the corruption, and idolatry that we're reading in these words is about as bad as it gets. And still God calls them my people. Still, the covenant with Israel remains intact. Micah 6:8. human being, you've already been told what's good. What Yay demands of you no more than to act justly, love grace, and walk in purity with your God. Let's turn again to a more literal rendering of this verse to add some additional insight in the Young's literal translation. He hath declared to thee, oh man, what's good? Yay, what is Jehovah requiring of thee except to do judgment and love kindness and lowly to walk with thy God? See, when we examine the Hebrew, we see that whereas most translations say man or human being, the word is Adam. And certainly those English translations aren't wrong. But there's a nuance that gets obscur obscured. See, by using the term Adam, it takes this message outside the exclusive sphere of Israel and into the entire world. See, Adam means mankind universally. Everybody, God says, I have already shown everybody what's good. Yhovah has also shown everybody what he requires of them of us and simply it is to act justly love grace and to walk in the pure ways with God. Christianity tends to highly water this down to mean to always act in love but in whatever way you think love amounts to. The thought expressed in Micah is also found in the Gospels. Meaning what we find in the Gospels is but bringing forward what was said and known a long time ago. In Mark 12:32-34, the Torah teacher said to him, "Well said, Rabbi, you speak the truth when you say that he is one, that there is no other beside him, and that loving him with all one's heart, understanding and strength, and loving one's neighbor as oneself means more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Yeshua saw that he responded sensibly, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." God through Micah is referring to two things when he speaks of what already has been told to everyone. First is that a moral sense instilled in everyone ever born and that it is virtually in our DNA. And this moral sense goes by a few different names, but most common is natural law. natural law meaning it's not a written down moral code but rather it's intrinsic to the nature of all human creatures. You know when we speak of morality this is a uniquely human attribute. No other creatures have a sense of morality regardless of their level of intelligence. Morality must be intrinsic in us provided by how God constructed humans to be or it wouldn't exist. See, we are the place morality exists. Think of it. Humans do not need a sense of morality to live and to function as living beings. There's nowhere a surgeon could operate to add to it or to remove it like he could our lungs or our hearts or some other organ or limb. Morality is purely an invisible God thing. Therefore, it's logical that if the concept of morality exists as the common human trait, then the definition of moral living must also exist. And it must come from the same place that created the concept of morality. It must come from outside the human sphere of existence. The law of Moses provides that definition. Without it, then humans are making up good and evil as we go. And of course, that's exactly what we see in the world. Even the church has gone so far as to define sin as whatever the Holy Spirit tells you personally it is. thereby understanding that the same spirit will tell others different things that are and aren't sim for them. See this is irrational of itself when we understand the very nature of morality itself. Second is that the moral code has already been given to us in detail by God through Moses. The law of Moses gives us the finer details of what's good of what Eve demands of us, what account, what acting justly amounts to, what loving grace is predicated upon, what walking in the pure ways of God are. There is a source for us to find these answers. and it had been given six centuries prior to Micah's day. It was never held in secret. And so in all Israel and in the world in general who wanted to know, all who wanted to know could know. In this diet tribe, God is essentially accusing Israel's religious leadership of being haters of good. Does that mean their intentions were evil? No. Means that they sought their own definitions and that of their previous leadership to decide what's good. And the notion that having the authority to do such a thing had long ago been build become built into their society. See, it is interesting that the question what is what is good has been raised before and in other places in the Bible and it is something we need to ask ourselves every day. Isaiah 1 16-1 17 wash yourselves clean. Get your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing evil and learn to do good. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed, defend orphans, plead for the widow. Jeremiah chapter 22:15 and 16. Your cedar may be excellent, but that doesn't make you a better king. Oh, true, your father ate and drank, but he also did what was right and just, so things went well with him. He upheld the cause of the poor and the weak, so everything went well. Isn't that what knowing me is all about? says Yahweh. Where do we find all this information? How to treat orphans, widows, the oppressed to determine what justice is, the right ways to help the weak, the law of Moses. What Micah verse 8 just said and what we just read in Isaiah and Jeremiah are wisdom sayings. It is meant to inform all men and all ages just what it is that pleases God. It informs us of proper behavior and sincere understanding of what God wants and the doing of it. And it is much greater than the offering of sacrifices as it comes to sin and the conditions it causes. These are only ever needed because men do not do what pleases God. Therefore, if we walk in God's ways and obey him, then this is far better to our father than killing one of his innocent creatures to offer up to him to pay for what we did wrongly. And believers, if mankind followed God's ways and obeyed him perfectly, we'd have no need for a savior. Yovi wouldn't have had to allow the sacrifice of his own son for our sakes. The reality is mankind will sin. We will need a way to pay for it. Used to be animals. Now we can rely on the once and for all sacrifice of Yeshua. Okay, we'll continue next time in verse 9. For more teachings of real Bible study and to rediscover God's word with Tom Bradford, visit Torah class today on the web, streaming TV, or download the Torah class mobile app.