A Swell of Discontent
Avoid trying to work out exactly what it was that had gone wrong. We have no means of knowing what his hearers understood by ‘the transgression of Jacob’ or ‘the sins of the house of Israel’ and it wouldn’t help if we did. Even if we could find parallels our emotions would be so different from theirs. Focus instead on the strength of feeling underlying his words because whatever he meant it is clear that he is suffering from a massive sense of frustration as a result of a swell of discontent of which he is well aware among the people he lives with. Better to empathise with Micah and see what we might have in common.
In his struggle to achieve justice and fair play Micah is acutely aware that things are not what they used to be. Under Uzziah these people had enjoyed forty years of stability (783–742). From his death until the rise of Hezekiah (715-687) they had thirty years of national insecurity. The settled life had gone. Change was in the air. It was inevitable. Everybody knew that. Change was not the problem. The discontent was that the change which brought undreamt of opportunity for a few spelt danger, fear and anxiety (if not disaster) for the many, creating a nation divided between hope and apprehension. Those with hope have no intention of being held back by the fearful. The fearful find it hard to live with the insensitivity of those who believe they have everything to look forward to. And if that were not enough, the wounds go deeper when they see those in high places taking advantage of their position to line their own pockets.
It is not unlike Europe over the last 10-15 years, first as Eastern Europe came to terms with a new freedom (hope), then as Western Europe came to terms with an extended European Community (apprehension), fired further by the expansion and aggression of ‘an Assyria’ greater than them all, ever ready to seize its opportunities and at the same time intensifying all the fears, problems and uncertainties. Now find ‘Micah’.