Micah 2:1-2
Woe to those who plan iniquity,
to those who plot evil on their beds!
At morning’s light they carry it out
because it is in their power to do it.
2 They covet fields and seize them,
and houses, and take them.
They defraud people of their homes,
they rob them of their inheritance.
In chapter 1 we saw how God’s people were facing his judgement because they had failed to worship him as they were called to, and had instead become worshippers of idols just like the nations around them. Here in Chapter 2, we discover that this is not their only sin. They had been called to live in a way that reflected God’s character to the watching world, so that others would be drawn to worship him. Yet instead of being a beacon of God-like love, generosity, goodness and justice, they were evil and covetous. They spent their days getting rich at other people’s expense and their nights plotting how to do it even more effectively. This blatant theft of land and property is bad enough, but what’s happening is actually even more wicked than it first appears. They’re not just stealing homes, but inheritances.
The other day, I found myself watching a surprisingly interesting TV programme about beach huts! Among the people interviewed were some who owned huts on a beautiful beach where they had played as children. All their lives, they had returned to the same place each holiday. The hut was passed down through the generations, so that their children and grandchildren experienced the same beach holidays as they had enjoyed, decades before. Other families had done the same thing, and enduring friendships had been formed. The hut was much more than a wooden shed - it was a tangible link to their past and future, and gave them access to a place in the community.
That’s a bit like what ‘land’ meant to the Israelites. More than just a place to live, it represented God’s covenant promise to his people. Those with a share in the promised land belonged to the God who made that promise. Taking away their land destroyed their inheritance - their connection to the generations of God’s people before and after them. These thieves are actively trying to undo what God himself has done. They don’t seem to care at all that they are working against God’s good plans for his people.
Sin is always like that. It’s never just about wrong actions. It’s also a rejection of the God who tells us what is wrong and what is right. Once you’ve decided to disrespect God Almighty, why on earth would you care about harming his people? It’s their idolatry that has led to their covetousness and theft. Our idolatry might express itself differently, but it will express itself somehow. So let’s pray today that God would enable us to repent not only of our outwardly visible sins, but of attitudes in our hearts that put other things in the place that should be only his.
