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Micah 3:5-8. A warning from Micah to the prophets who lead God's people astray. God has said to those who cry "Peace" when they are well fed, but declare war against those who do not support them, that it will be darkness for them - they will have no vision. The sun and the moon will go down on them and they will be in blackness - disgraced and put to shame. They will cover their lips because they receive no answer from God. But as for Micah, he is filled with power and the Holy Spirit. He has justice and might on his side because he speaks the Truth - he declares the people's transgressions and sin to them.

 

We are all prophets - we all speak to the world our understanding of the world, even if it is just by our actions and attitudes (unless, of course, we are lying to ourselves or others and putting on a false face to the world). Many of us are either allowing ourselves to be deceived, and then preaching those deceptions, or flat-out lying to ourselves. We are doing this whether we know it or not, and it makes us the false prophets Micah is warning here. A false prophet is one who tells the people what they want to hear and often "declares war against" those who do not agree. Have you found yourself over the last few years angrily defending a position that may not be the Truth? (And who among us hasn't?) If so, welcome to false prophet-hood!

 

The false prophets contribute to a general sense of "Everything is okay - see, even those Christians are agreeing with us," and thus lead people astray. Sometimes the person that the false prophet is harming the most is himself - allowing himself to believe the lies the world is telling him because they are more comfortable and it is so much easier to preach to the world the things that it wants to hear.

 

In our current world, the world is telling us to hate certain people (it doesn't call it hate, it cloaks it in lies of love, choice, and tolerance, but it is hate - a denial of the Truth about our ultimate good). The world tells us that certain people are expendable, or or to be looked down upon, ostracized, even to have their life, their freedoms, or their ability to participate in society taken away from them. It is a very, very dangerous place we are in.

 

If God's people do not allow ourselves to see what is going on and to fully embrace the fact that each individual is a fellow beloved child of God, and thus we must love them, desire their salvation, and stand up for them, but instead spout the same sugar-coated hatred that the world is preaching (whether towards the unborn, or the unvaccinated, or the powerless, or the "other," etc.), then WE are the false prophets being warned here.

 

The thing about the Truth is that it is reality - no matter what lies the world tells us and how firmly we let ourselves believe them - the Truth will eventually win out. It may take a very long time (it will take until the end of time for the full return of the Truth in the person of Jesus), but it will eventually happen. When it does, those who believed and loudly proclaimed the lies will be left in the dark "the day shall be black over them." Everything they convinced themselves and tried to convince the world was true will be shown to be false. They will have no choice but to "cover their lips," to keep quiet in disgrace, because they will have no answer from God - no Truth to speak.

 

Many Christians today are slowly awakening to the lies that they have been told. Many more will in the coming years. I pray daily that we all do. And remember, even if we have been one of the "false prophets," clinging to the lies because they are comfortable (and I think we all have, to some extent, that is the effect of original sin), there is always time and opportunity to turn ourselves around. That is why Jesus came to us, and He IS the Truth. We cannot let fear keep us apart from the Truth, and thus from God. We must let Truth in, let God in, and thus let in the light, the joy, and the true freedom.