1.
And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?
2.
Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
3.
Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
4.
Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.
5.
Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
6.
Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
BLIND LEADERS
‘Therefore … ye shall have no vision.’
Micah 3:6 (R.V.)
It is not difficult to understand why these prophets could not have a vision. Their eyes were darkened by self-interest so that they could not see. If their disciples failed to put bread into their mouths, or money into their hands, they had no scruple against preparing war against them ( Micah 3:5).
I. The vision of God.—If a Christian man be asked what is the most ravishing sight that can be represented to him, he will reply: ‘Let me see God; for in that vision is the key to the knowledge and love of all good and fair things beside.’ And this is possible to us all, for our Lord said, not only that He had manifested His Father’s Name, but that He would do so to those who were given Him out of the world.
II. The conditions of the vision of God.—(1) Purity of heart: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.’ (2) Humility and meekness: ‘Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.’ (3) Love and Forgiveness. (4) Obedience: ‘If a man love Me, he will keep My words.’
III. The loss of the vision of God.—Even prophets may fail of it. They may go on teaching the people from the memory of earlier years, gone for ever. The light has long since passed from their faces, and they know it: ‘Then shall the seers be ashamed,’ etc.
Illustration
‘The princes are denounced in scathing terms. They should have known judgment, but they devoured their people. Their time would, however, come, when God would as certainly reject their cry, as they had turned a deaf ear to the cry of the poor for pity. Then the prophet turns to the false prophets, who are willing to prophesy anything, if only they might receive their hire, but if that was threatened, had no hesitation in threatening war to the knife. Their punishment would come in the darkness which should supervene, blotting out their power of vision. When men use God-given power for their own emoluments, they will find it fail them. “The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be dark unto them.” ’
7.
Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
8.
But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
9.
Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
10.
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
12.
Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.