Jeff Crippen, Pastor | Tillamook, Oregon
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When You Can't Benefit Them Anymore - They are Done With You
Mic 3:5 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry “Peace” when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.
You probably remember the wicked sons of Eli who took the meat of the offerings people brought - and they took it by force. Well, we have something quite similar here. The false prophets, says Micah, lead the people astray. They pronounce "peace" (a blessing) upon all who are able to give the prophet something to eat. That is to say, as long as someone is profitable and of benefit to the false prophet, that lying prophet will give them a blessing in the name of the Lord. (Very similar to the frequent practices of Rome, isn't it?)
But...
If someone doesn't put something in the prophet's mouth, that is to say, if the person is not going to pay the prophet or be in some way a benefit to the prophet, then the prophet declares war! He pronounces a curse upon the person.
Now, I don't think that I even really need to make application of this verse to how churches and pastors and supposed Christians today typically treat victims of abuse. Oh, all is well as long as the victim keeps quiet, serves in various capacities in the church and so on. The church leaders will pronounce peace upon them and bless them. I know of many such cases - some in which the abuse victim was almost the church's "go to" person if the pastor needed something. But then, when the victim makes known her plight and asks for help, well then - now we have a very different story. War is declared upon her. Right? We know this is no exaggeration.
So, what does the Lord say about these wicked false prophets?
Mic 3:1-4 And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?— (2) you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones, (3) who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron. (4) Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.
Mic 3:9-12 Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, (10) who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. (11) Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.” (12) Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.
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