He Summarises The Situation In The Land And Declares What will Come Upon Them As A Result (Micah 3:9-12).
Micah now advises the corrupt leaders of their sins and of what is coming on them because of them. And yet he also comments on the fact that in spite of their behaviour, they actually claim to lean on YHWH and genuinely consider that nothing can happen to them because YHWH is among them. Well, he says, let them consider this fact, that because of what they are YHWH is intending to plough up Zion like a ploughed field, to turn Jerusalem into heaps, as He had done Samaria, and to make the mountain of YHWH's house like the high places in the forests. This latter may mean that it will be ravaged like the high places had been ravaged by Hezekiah's reforms, or that it will simply be seen as another false place of idolatry.
‘Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity.
‘Those who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.'
Instead of building up a pure and righteous Zion which would bring honour to YHWH, they are establishing Zion by violence and murder, and building up Jerusalem on total sinfulness. Thus somehow its filth needs to be washed away and its blood purged (Isaiah 4:4)
‘The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon YHWH, and say, “Is not YHWH in the midst of us? No evil will come upon us.'
The leading judges make their judgments on the basis of bribes, the priest teach for wages rather than out of a desire to spread God's word, and the prophets tell people whatever they want to hear, as long as they pay them well enough. And yet these same men profess to lean on YHWH, and then naively declare, ‘Is not YHWH in the midst of us?' They are so sure that YHWH is among them that they cannot conceive that anything harmful could befall them. Such is people's naive belief in God. They yet had to learn that God is not to be bought. He is there on behalf of the humble and contrite in spirit.
‘Therefore will Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.'
And because of their sinfulness, and because of their false view, they will sadly at some time learn how wrong they are. YHWH might come among them, but it will be in order to turn Zion (the outer Jerusalem) into a ploughed field, and to turn the fortress of Jerusalem into ruined heaps. Jerusalem will be destroyed.
That God delayed doing this was probably due to Hezekiah's loyalty, Isaiah's prayers, and Micah's intercession. It would be another hundred years before it came to fruition. But as Micah heard the news of the advancing armies of Assyria, it was not necessarily so unexpected, for he knew that YHWH's protecting hand could no longer be guaranteed. He was not yet to know that God would yet have mercy and spare Jerusalem for another hundred years. Although we should note that it did come in the end.
Interestingly it was this prophecy of Micah that saved Jeremiah from worse treatment when he too prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem, although a contemporary was martyred (Jeremiah 26:17-24).
‘And the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.' This was the mount on which the Temple was built. But his warning here was that the Temple would be no safer than the ‘high places' of a forest, those sacred shrines scattered throughout the hills of Judah, which would be desecrated by every invading army, as they mocked the gods of the land, and which were destroyed by Hezekiah. So even with its security on a mountain in the very centre of the city of Jerusalem, they must not think that the Temple was safe from the judgment of God. He could destroy it as easily as the high places had been destroyed by foreign soldiery and by Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4). Its inviolability was a myth.