They hated good. They loved evil. If something could ever be said of our day and time it would be this. But this was the message of Micah, the prophet, prior to the fall of Israel (v. 2). They had no excuse.

“Should you not know justice” (v. 1)?

When things were going to get tough, they would cry out to the LORD, but he was not going to listen. Because they were all doing evil, from the prophets to the peasants.

If someone fed the prophets and provided a meal for them, the prophets proclaimed what the person wanted to hear— “peace.” But if the person did not feed and care for them, the prophets waged war against the person.

God would bring judgment against the prophets. He would cease speaking to them. They would have to make it up and know it because there would be no more answer from God for their questions.

But they weren’t the only ones corrupt and doing it for money.

The leaders of the people despised justice, distorted what is right, build Zion with bloodshed, Jerusalem with wickedness (v. 9-10). And then it says they “judge for a bribe” (v. 11). It was all about money, sex and power which we know is the root of all crime according to cold case detective J Warner Wallace.

It continues.

The priests teach for a price. Her prophets tell fortunes for money. They say no disaster will surely come upon them.

So God says this (v. 12):

Therefore because of you,
    Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,
    the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

It wasn’t that the prophets were paid. In fact payment to the people doing the LORD’s work was a command. The problem was that the people were about greed. Those who prophesied happy things got paid better. So that’s what the prophets prophesied. Those who taught happy things got paid. The leaders who bribed others got paid. This was unholy money.

The prophets who told the truth were stoned and killed. The teachers who taught truth were harrassed and harmed. And leaders who did not take bribes did not stay in position long or could not financially keep up with the others because they didn’t get paid.

But God expects more. He expects his people to stand on truth and hold the line, facing whatever repercussions from that come. Because there would be backlash.

Yet if people compromise truth, then ultimately it is everyone who is harmed.

God bless the men, the women and even the children who are holding firm today, even when it costs them something.