Devotions

20250313

wine and beer

Micah 1:1-2:13 (JDV)

Micah 1:1 The word of Yahveh that came to Micah the Moreshite — what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Micah 1:2 Listen, all you people; pay attention, land, and everyone in it! Lord Yahveh will be a witness against you, The Lord, from his holy temple.
Micah 1:3 Notice that Yahveh is leaving his place and coming down to trample the heights of the land.
Micah 1:4 The mountains will melt beneath him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax near a fire, like water cascading down a mountainside.
Micah 1:5 All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellion and the sins of the house of Israel. What is the rebellion of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Isn’t it Jerusalem?
Micah 1:6 Therefore, I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the countryside, a planting area for a vineyard. I will roll her stones into the valley and expose her foundations.
Micah 1:7 All her carved images will be smashed to pieces; all her wages will be burned in the fire, and I will make all her idols a sinister desolation. Since she collected the wages of a prostitute, they will be used again for a prostitute.
Micah 1:8 Because of this, I will passionately demonstrate sorrow and yell; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like the jackals and mourn like ostriches.
Micah 1:9 For her injury is incurable and has reached even Judah; it has approached my people’s city gate, as far as Jerusalem.
Micah 1:10 Don’t announce it in Gath; don’t weep at all. Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphrah.
Micah 1:11 Depart in shameful nakedness, you who live in Shaphir; the ones living in Zaanan will not come out. Beth-ezel is lamenting; its support is taken from you.
Micah 1:12 Though the ones living in Maroth squirm for something good, disaster has come from Yahveh to the gate of Jerusalem.
Micah 1:13 Harness the horses to the chariot, you who live in Lachish. This was the first sin for Daughter Zion because Israel’s acts of rebellion can be traced to you.
Micah 1:14 Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib are a deception to the kings of Israel.
Micah 1:15 I will again bring a conqueror against you who live in Mareshah. The nobility of Israel will come to Adullam.
Micah 1:16 Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in sorrow for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they have been taken from you into exile.
Micah 2:1 Woe to those who dream up wickedness and prepare evil plans on their beds! At morning light, they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
Micah 2:2 They covet fields and seize them; they also take houses. They deprive a man of his home and a person of his inheritance.
Micah 2:3 Therefore, Yahveh says: Notice, I am now planning a disaster against this nation; you cannot free your necks from it. Then, you will not walk so proudly because it will be an evil time.
Micah 2:4 In that day, one will take up a taunt against you and lament mournfully, saying, “We are ruined! He measures out the allotted land of my people. How he removes it from me! He allots our fields to traitors.”
Micah 2:5 Therefore, there will be no one in the assembly of Yahveh to divide the land by casting lots.
Micah 2:6: “Quit your preaching,” they preach. “They should not preach these things; shame will not overtake us.”
Micah 2:7 House of Jacob, should it be asked, “Is the Breath of Yahveh shortened? Are these the things he does?” Don’t my words bring good to the one who walks uprightly?
Micah 2:8 But recently my people have risen like an enemy: You strip off the splendid robe from those passing through confidently, like those returning from war.
Micah 2:9 You force the women of my people out of their comfortable homes, and you take my blessing from their children forever.
Micah 2:10 Get up and leave, for this is not your place of rest because defilement brings destruction– a grievous destruction!
Micah 2:11 If a man comes and utters empty lies– “I will preach to you about wine and beer”– he would be just the preacher for this people!
Micah 2:12 I will gather all of you, Jacob; I will collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture. It won’t be quiet with people.
Micah 2:13 One who breaks open the way will advance before them; they will break out, pass through the city gate, and leave by it. Their King will pass through before them, Yahveh as their leader.

wine and beer

Micah prophesied to a people who were busy taking advantage of each other. They would devise ways of ruining their neighbors for their own profit – while still lying in bed in the morning. Then they would get up and do their evil deeds. Micah told them that God was doing the same thing to them. They would face disaster, and their children who survived would go into exile. They told him not to preach such things. They wanted a preacher who would tell them that wine and beer were their destinies.

LORD, give us ears to hear your whole word before it is too late for our generation.