… you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones. – Micah 3:2

Today's Scripture Reading (March 15, 2023): Micah 3

I have to admit that I have meditated on this verse over the past year. I understand that my critics would like me to know that this is what is going on in the places where we disagree. I am not convinced that it is that easy. I had a coffee with an acquaintance several years ago who held a Calvinist belief, while my theology emerges from the Wesleyan Arminian tradition. The difference between the belief systems can be explained in some ways as a semantic argument, although the hardcore believers on either side would probably disagree. But as I was having coffee with my friend, the question came up. He asked, "Can Wesleyan-Arminian believers even be Christian?" Maybe he was joking, but he didn't crack a smile.

My life seems to have been filled with people who take our differences in belief and decide that those who disagree with them, even on minor issues, can't be true believers. We take minor differences and make them unsurmountable problems. Maybe it is the version of the Bible that we read or the side that we take on disputable issues. We have been lied to and made to believe that we can't be Christian unless we are (whatever the issue might be). And therefore, we need to be careful because if we are the ones who don't measure up, then we must be the ones who hate good and love evil.

But that doesn't seem to be what Micah is saying. The second phrase of the prophet's message is about those "who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones." Micah's message is directed toward the kings dwelling in Jerusalem and Samaria, who were so evil that they were willing to hurt their own people; they were like cannibals who tore the skin off of the people and ate the flesh from their bones. They took advantage of the poor and powerless. And while we think of love as a New Testament characteristic, these kings refused to love even their own people, let alone those who opposed them.

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, spoke of that kind of love.  

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that (Matthew 5:46-47)

 The Kings in Judah and Israel couldn't even measure up to that first kind of love. They thought the evil they did was good and called the prophets who wanted them to react differently, even just loving their own people and standing up for justice for the poor and powerless, as evil. And God could not allow that from his people.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Micah 4