The Verdict Is In

9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city—
    and it is sound wisdom to fear your name:
“Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!
10 Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
    and the scant measure that is accursed?
11 Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales
    and with a bag of deceitful weights?
12 Your rich men are full of violence;
    your inhabitants speak lies,
    and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
    making you desolate because of your sins.
14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
    and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
    and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
15 You shall sow, but not reap;
    you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
    you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
16 For you have kept the statutes of Omri,
    and all the works of the house of Ahab;
    and you have walked in their counsels,
that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing;
    so you shall bear the scorn of my people.” – Micah 6:9-16 ESV

The trial is over and the verdict is in, so God prepares to announce His sentence against the guilty people of Judah. They have failed to emulate God. Instead of producing acts of righteousness, they are guilty of injustice, hatred, and pride. And God warns them that the rod of His wrath is about to fall upon them. But before He passes sentence, God outlines the crimes they committed that led to their conviction and His condemnation of them.

First, they had practiced wickedness and profited from it. He describes “the homes of the wicked” as being “filled with treasures gained by cheating” (Micah 6:10 NLT). The wicked and the wealthy are one and the same. They had grown rich through deceit and by taking advantage of the less fortunate. Back in chapter two, Micah described how these people used their power and influence to fulfill their insatiable greed for more.

When you want a piece of land,
    you find a way to seize it.
When you want someone’s house,
    you take it by fraud and violence.
You cheat a man of his property,
    stealing his family’s inheritance. – Micah 2:2 NLT

Totally self-consumed, they displayed no regard for the welfare of others. And they devised all kinds of tricks and deceptive practices to take what did not rightfully belong to them. The inference is that these practices were widespread and pervasive. The entire nation of Judah stood before God guilty as charged. Some were guilty of land-grabbing, others of extortion. Even the everyday practice of selling grain had been turned into an opportunity to take advantage of others.

“Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales
    and with a bag of deceitful weights?” – Micah 6:11 ESV

And everything they did was in direct violation of God’s law.

“Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight, or volume. Your scales and weights must be accurate. Your containers for measuring dry materials or liquids must be accurate. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

“You must be careful to keep all of my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice. I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 19:35-37 NLT

They had not been practicing what God had prescribed. Instead, God accuses them of violence, lying, and deceit. The Hebrew word translated as “violence” is chamac, and it can also mean “wrong, injustice, or unrighteousness.” These people were guilty of operating in a manner that was contrary or contradictory to God’s commands. They had replaced justice with injustice. They substituted wrong for right. Instead of doing what God had deemed to be good, they did just the opposite. Rather than performing acts of righteousness, in keeping with God’s character and in obedience to His law, the people of Judah were guilty of unrighteousness. And their guilt deserved punishment.

“Therefore, I will wound you!
    I will bring you to ruin for all your sins.” – Micah 6:13 NLT

This was personal. God was offended by their actions because their behavior had brought dishonor upon His name. Their acts of wickedness had defamed and discredited the character of God because they were His chosen people, His prized possession. All their unrighteous, unjust, and immoral activities reflected poorly on Him as their God. So, He was obligated to punish them for their sins. And God warns them that their punishment will match their crimes.

“You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
    and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
    and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
You shall sow, but not reap;
    you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
    you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.” – Micah 6:14-15 ESV

God describes their future as one filled with dissatisfaction and unfulfilled desires. Because their lives had been marked by an insatiable desire for more that caused them to violate God’s laws, they would suffer from never-ending discontentment and unmet expectations. And God had already warned them what to expect for their crimes.

“I will reward your evil with evil;
    you won’t be able to pull your neck out of the noose.
You will no longer walk around proudly,
    for it will be a terrible time.” – Micah 2:3 NLT

All of this would be in keeping with God’s promise to bring curses upon His people if they failed to live in obedience to His commands. Long before the people of Israel had entered the land of promise, God had warned them that He would punish them for violating His commands. And He had been very specific.

“You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit.” – Deuteronomy 28:30 NLT

Now, centuries later, God was preparing to fulfill His promise. All the curses He had warned them about were going to come to fruition.

“A foreign nation you have never heard about will eat the crops you worked so hard to grow. You will suffer under constant oppression and harsh treatment. You will go mad because of all the tragedy you see around you.” – Deuteronomy 28:33-34 NLT

And why? Because they had a track record of wickedness.

“You keep only the laws of evil King Omri;
    you follow only the example of wicked King Ahab!” – Micah 6:16 NLT

God compares their behavior to that of Omri and Ahab, two of the most wicked and unrighteous kings to rule over the northern kingdom of Israel. These kings were not just idolatrous, they were evil incarnate.

But Omri did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, even more than any of the kings before him. – 1 Kings 16:25 NLT

But Ahab son of Omri did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, even more than any of the kings before him.…He did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than any of the other kings of Israel before him. – 1 Kings 16:30, 33 NLT

It was as if the people of Judah had taken a page from the playbooks of Omri or Ahab. They learned nothing from the fates of these two men. Instead, the residents of Judah seemed to model their behavior after two of the most wicked kings who ever reigned over God’s people. And, as a result, God was going to bring His judgment against them.

“Therefore, I will make an example of you,
    bringing you to complete ruin.
You will be treated with contempt,
    mocked by all who see you.” – Micah 6:16 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Changed by God.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. – Jonah 3:1-5 ESV

God gave Jonah a second chance. And He appeared to Jonah a second time and gave him a second commission. But it's interesting to compare the content of those two commissions. In chapter one, we read that God said, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2 ESV). The second time, God said, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you” (Jonah 3:2 ESV). This time, God evidently gave Jonah the exact message He wanted conveyed. We are not told what that message was, but the words that Jonah used are recorded for us: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4 ESV). Was that the message God had given Jonah or had he taken liberties with the wording? We don’t know for certain. But it’s interesting to note that the word, “overthrown” is the Hebrew word, haphak and it can mean to overthrow, upturn, turn or transform. It is the same word used in the book of Genesis in the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. – Genesis 19:24-25 ESV

God transformed those two wicked cities by complete destroying them. He turned them into rubble. And I have a feeling that when Jonah gave his message to the people of Nineveh, that is exactly what he was hoping the outcome would be for them. He probably enjoyed walking through the streets of Nineveh, telling them their city was going to be transformed into a heap of rubble. Calling down God’s judgment and wrath on a city full of sinful pagans came easy to Jonah. But what Jonah didn’t seem to understand was that the overthrow or upturning of Nineveh was going to be dramatically different than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. There was not going to be any sulfur and fire. There would not be any death and destruction. Jonah was in for a surprise.

The text simply tells us, “And the people of Nineveh believed God” (Jonah 3:5 ESV). We’re told that they immediately “called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them” (Jonah 3:5 ESV). What was it they believed? They heard the word of warning from God regarding their eminent destruction and they believed it to be true. Now, it is important to note that the message Jonah preached contained no specifics. He provided them with no details regarding what it was they had done to deserve their overthrow. He pointed out no specific sins or acts of wickedness. And there was no call to repentance or demand from God that they turn from their wicked ways. All Jonah had said was that their overthrow was coming in 40 days.

Compare the message of Jonah with that of the prophet, Jeremiah:

Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
    be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
    the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
    broken cisterns that can hold no water. – Jeremiah 2:12-13 ESV

God had been very specific regarding the sins of Israel. We find them outlined in great detail throughout chapters two and three of the book of Jeremiah. But God also had Jeremiah call them to repentance.

“Return, faithless Israel,
declares the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
    for I am merciful,
declares the Lord;
I will not be angry forever.
Only acknowledge your guilt,
    that you rebelled against the Lord your God
and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree,
    and that you have not obeyed my voice,
declares the Lord.” – Jeremiah 3:12-13 ESV

God offered them a chance to repent of their sins and to return to Him. He would show them mercy and grant them forgiveness. But we see no such offer in the message of Jonah. He simply warned them of their coming destruction. But they believed that what he said was true and they put on sack cloth and ashes – from the greatest of them to the least of them. They had no guarantee that God would spare them if they did so. They had been offered no mercy. They had been given no hope of a reprieve. But they were a religious people. They had their own gods and knew that their only hope was if they could somehow satisfy the deity who was angry with them. And since Jonah was a Hebrew and spoke for the Hebrew God, they did they only thing they knew to do: They mourned and called out to Him. And we will see that this attitude of repentance will permeate the entire society, all the way to the royal palace. Even the king would hear the words of Jonah and believe. 

But let’s go back to the book of Jeremiah and God’s indictment against the people of Israel. Here were the people of God, who had rebelled against Him and were being called to repent of their sins and return to Him. And this was not the first time God had sent a prophet to warn them of their coming destruction and call them to repentance. In fact, earlier in the book of Jeremiah, God exposes their track record of stubbornness and gives Jonah his assignment:

“From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.’” – Jeremiah 7:25-28 ESV

What an interesting contrast. Here you have Jonah, the Hebrew prophet, who initially refused to obey God’s command and take His message to the people of Nineveh, finally doing what God had called Him to do. And the people of Nineveh hear his words and believe. They take God at His word and realize that their destruction is eminent. No mercy offered. No hope of reprieve. Yet they mourn and call out to God. Unlike the stiff-necked people of God, they bow their knees to Yahweh and beg for His mercy.

Which takes us back to that Hebrew word, haphak. Remember, it can mean to overthrow, but also to turn or transform. In the book of Exodus, it is the word used to describe the rod of Aaron turning into a snake or the water of the Nile turning into blood. In the book of Deuteronomy, it is used to speak of God turning the curse of Balaam into a blessing. It is a word that speaks of transformation or change. And that is exactly what we see happening in Nineveh. Jonah thought the transformation was going to come in the form of destruction, but instead, it came in the form of repentance. The great and powerful city of Nineveh was brought to its knees. The pagan people of Nineveh were calling out to the God of the Hebrews. What a radical change. What a transformation.

In the book of 1 Samuel, we are told the story of how God called Saul to be the first king of Israel. In chapter 10, he is anointed with oil by the prophet, Samuel, and commissioned to be king. And then it says, “When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart” (1 Samuel 10:9 ESV). The word “gave” is the same Hebrew word, haphak. God transformed Saul. He gave him a new heart.

One of the things Jonah seems to have overlooked, was the power of God to transform. God can overthrow a people in any of a number of ways. He can destroy them or He can redeem them. He can turn them to dust or He can turn their hearts to Himself. He is sovereign and all-powerful. Jonah was looking for destruction. But God was planning something completely different. A pagan, sinful and doomed people heard a message of judgment and they were changed. Rather than reject the message and kill the messenger, like the Israelites had done so many times, they bowed their knees to God. And as we will see, their transformation didn’t stop there.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson