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"One shall take up a proverb against you"

Text: Micah 2:4

A BITTER PROVERBIAL SAYING

The punishment that God had devised or planned would be so disastrous a proverb would arise.

“In that day one shall take up a proverb against you,
And lament with a bitter lamentation, saying:
‘We are utterly destroyed!
He has changed the heritage of my people;
How He has removed it from me!
To a turncoat He has divided our fields.'”
Micah 2:4

1. “In that day one shall take up a proverb against you”

a) Proverbs are pithy sayings of truth.

b) They are sometimes bitterly true.

c) This was going to be a new proverb in Israel.

2. “And lament with a bitter lamentation, saying”

a) This proverb would be cited with lamentation.

b) It would be repeated by many as a proverbial saying that would be tinged with great sorrow.

3. The proverbial saying had four parts to it:

a) “We are utterly destroyed”

i) Disaster had been designed by God.

ii) It would hit Israel hard because of the violent lawlessness of many in the land.

b) “He has changed the heritage of my people”

i) The law of inheritance must be borne in mind.

ii) Material inheritance: Fathers pass their inheritance to their children (Numbers 27).

iii) Spiritual inheritance: God took Jacob (Israel) as His inheritance (Deuteronomy 32:8-9).

c) “How He has removed it from me”

i) Israel severely felt the loss of the law of inheritance for physical property.

ii) The ancient law of inheritance (material) would no longer apply.

iii) Fathers would not have been able to pass their inheritance to their children.

iv) God Himself had removed their inheritance from the people.

d) “To a turncoat He has divided our fields”

i) A turncoat is essentially “a traitor”.

ii) The traitor may have betrayed the country to its enemies.

iii) But instead of being punished for betraying his country, he obtains the fields (as a reward).