The Kind of Preaching You Deserve Text: Micah 2:6-11
Introduction: The War Against the Word
We live in a time of remarkable spiritual deafness. It is not that God has stopped speaking. The heavens still declare His glory, the Scriptures are more accessible than ever before, and the Spirit still convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The problem is not with the transmission, but with the reception. Men have decided they do not want to hear a certain kind of speech. They have declared war on the Word of God, not by burning Bibles in the public square, at least not yet, but by demanding that the pulpits deliver a message that will not disturb their conscience while they are on their way to Hell.
The prophet Micah faced the same kind of spiritual insurrection. The people were not irreligious. They had prophets, they had a temple, they had a system. But their religion was a carefully constructed buffer to protect them from the living God. They wanted prophets who would prophesy of peace when there was no peace. They wanted a God who was manageable, predictable, and, above all, tolerant of their sin. They wanted a gospel of affirmation, not a gospel of repentance. And when a true prophet like Micah showed up, a man with the Spirit of Yahweh in him, filled with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, they had a simple, unified response: "Shut up."
This passage in Micah 2 is a blistering confrontation between the true Word of God and the counterfeit words that men prefer. It is a diagnosis of a sick nation, a nation that has come to love lies. And the diagnosis is as relevant in our day as it was in Micah's. We see a people who demand that God's messengers be silenced, who have twisted definitions of God's character to suit their rebellion, who engage in blatant, cruel injustice, and who, at the end of the day, will get exactly the kind of preacher they have been asking for. This is a terrifying prospect. One of the most severe judgments God can visit upon a people is to give them precisely what they want.
The Text
‘Do not speak, dripping out words,’ they say while dripping out words. But if they do not drip out words concerning these things, Dishonor will not be turned back. Is it being said, O house of Jacob: ‘Is the Spirit of Yahweh impatient? Are these His deeds?’ Do not My words do good To the one walking uprightly? And recently My people have arisen as an enemy, You strip the robe off the garment From unsuspecting passers-by, From those returned from war. The women of My people you drive out, Each one from her pleasant house. From her infants you take My splendor forever. Arise and go, For this is no place of rest Because of the uncleanness that wreaks destruction, A painful destruction. If a man walking after wind and lying Had acted falsely and said, ‘I will speak, dripping out words to you concerning wine and liquor,’ He would be one who drips out words as a spokesman to this people.
(Micah 2:6-11 LSB)
"Stop Preaching!" (v. 6)
We begin with the people's demand, a command issued to the true prophet of God.
"‘Do not speak, dripping out words,’ they say while dripping out words. But if they do not drip out words concerning these things, Dishonor will not be turned back." (Micah 2:6)
The verb for "speak" or "prophesy" here is literally "to drip," like honey from a comb or rain from the clouds. It carries the sense of a steady, flowing, life-giving discourse. This is what faithful preaching is. It is the steady dripping of the Word of God onto the soil of the human heart. But the people of Israel want the tap turned off. "Do not drip!" they command. They are telling God's prophet to stop doing the one thing God sent him to do.
Notice the hypocrisy. They tell Micah not to drip, "while they say dripping out words." Their own false prophets are dripping out a message, but it is a message of their own devising. This is the perennial conflict. It is never a battle between speech and silence. It is always a battle between God's Word and man's word. Every culture, every man, is being catechized. The only question is, by whom? The false prophets were dripping out a message of smooth things, of peace and prosperity, and the people loved it. Micah was dripping out a message of judgment and repentance, and they wanted him silenced.
But God gives the reason for the dripping. If the true prophets are silenced, "Dishonor will not be turned back." The shame, the disgrace, the covenant lawsuit that God has brought against His people will proceed to its inevitable, destructive conclusion. The preaching of judgment is an act of mercy. It is the fire alarm in the hallway. It is the doctor telling you that the tumor is malignant and must be cut out. To silence the warning is not to avert the disaster; it is to guarantee it.
Twisted Theology (v. 7)
When people reject God's Word, they must then justify their rebellion by distorting God's character. That is what we see in verse 7.
"Is it being said, O house of Jacob: ‘Is the Spirit of Yahweh impatient? Are these His deeds?’ Do not My words do good To the one walking uprightly?" (Micah 2:7)
The people are maligning God. They hear Micah's hard preaching and conclude two things. First, they ask, "Is the Spirit of Yahweh impatient?" They are accusing God of being short-tempered, irritable, and rash. They are essentially saying, "A loving God wouldn't talk to us like this. This message is too harsh, too negative. The Spirit of God is a spirit of affirmation and niceness." This is the language of every theological liberal and every compromised evangelical today. They have created a god in their own image, a god who is never angry, a god who would never bring judgment, a god whose defining characteristic is a sort of flabby, sentimental indulgence.
Second, they ask, "Are these His deeds?" They look at the coming judgment, the destruction and exile Micah is announcing, and they say, "God doesn't do that sort of thing." They have edited the Scriptures in their own minds, cutting out all the parts about covenant curses, divine wrath, and holy war. Their god is a celestial butler, not a consuming fire.
But Yahweh answers their slander directly. "Do not My words do good to the one walking uprightly?" The problem is not with the Word. The Word of God is always good. It is a lamp to the feet and a light to the path. It brings life, wisdom, and joy. But its effect depends entirely on the disposition of the hearer. To the one "walking uprightly," the Word is a profound comfort and blessing. To the one walking in rebellion, that same Word is a hammer that shatters the rock. It is a sword that pierces to the division of soul and of spirit. If the Word of God offends you, the problem is not with the Word. The problem is with you.
Covenantal Violence (v. 8-9)
God now turns from their theological excuses to their ethical atrocities. Their bad theology has produced rotten fruit. He lays out the charges.
"And recently My people have arisen as an enemy, You strip the robe off the garment From unsuspecting passers-by, From those returned from war. The women of My people you drive out, Each one from her pleasant house. From her infants you take My splendor forever." (Micah 2:8-9)
God says, "My people have arisen as an enemy." This is civil war. This is covenantal breakdown. The wealthy and powerful are preying on their own countrymen. They are not acting like brothers in the covenant; they are acting like foreign invaders. He gives two specific examples of their predatory behavior.
First, they are robbing the vulnerable. They "strip the robe off the garment from unsuspecting passers-by." This is not just theft; it is a profound act of humiliation and cruelty. The outer robe was often a poor man's only blanket at night. To take it was to leave him exposed and destitute. They are doing this to "unsuspecting passers-by" and even to "those returned from war." These are not enemies; they are their own people, men who have risked their lives for the nation. They return from battle only to be plundered by the very people they were defending.
Second, they are destroying families. "The women of My people you drive out, each one from her pleasant house." Through predatory lending, foreclosure, and the seizure of ancestral lands, they are making widows and orphans homeless. This is a direct violation of the covenant law that was designed to protect family inheritance. But it is worse than that. "From her infants you take My splendor forever." God's splendor, His glory, was tied to His people living in the land He had given them, under His law, in covenant fellowship. By dispossessing these children, by driving them from their inheritance, they are cutting them off from the covenant community. They are robbing them of their spiritual birthright. This is not just social injustice; it is spiritual murder.
The Curse of Exile (v. 10)
Because the people have driven their brothers from their homes, God pronounces a fitting, symmetrical judgment. They too will be driven out.
"Arise and go, For this is no place of rest Because of the uncleanness that wreaks destruction, A painful destruction." (Micah 2:10)
The command "Arise and go" is the classic language of exile. Because they would not allow their brothers to rest in their inheritance, God says that this land will no longer be a place of rest for them. The promised land, the place of sabbath rest, has been so polluted by their sin, so defiled by their "uncleanness," that it is going to vomit them out. This is covenantal logic. The blessings of the covenant, including residency in the land, were conditioned on obedience. Disobedience brings the curses, and the ultimate curse is exile.
Their sin, their uncleanness, "wreaks destruction, a painful destruction." Sin is not a benign mistake. It is a corrosive, destructive force. It defiles everything it touches. They have polluted God's holy land with their injustice and idolatry, and now the land itself has turned against them. They thought their sin was profitable, but it has sown the seeds of their own ruin. They sowed the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind.
The Preacher You Asked For (v. 11)
The passage concludes with a verse of searing, divine irony. God tells the people that since they have rejected His messengers, He will give them a messenger perfectly suited to their corrupt desires.
"If a man walking after wind and lying Had acted falsely and said, ‘I will speak, dripping out words to you concerning wine and liquor,’ He would be one who drips out words as a spokesman to this people." (Micah 2:11)
God paints a portrait of the ideal prophet for a rebellious people. He is a man "walking after wind and lying." He is empty, a fraud, full of hot air and deceit. And what is his message? He doesn't drip out words about repentance, justice, or holiness. He drips out words "concerning wine and liquor." His sermon is an ode to indulgence. He preaches a gospel of the good life, of material prosperity, of carnal satisfaction. He tells the people exactly what their itching ears want to hear: that God wants them happy, comfortable, and drunk.
And God says, with breathtaking sarcasm, that this man "would be one who drips out words as a spokesman to this people." This is your man. You have rejected the hard words of life, so now you will get the smooth words of death. This is one of the most terrifying judgments in all of Scripture. When a people persistently demand lies, God will eventually send them strong delusion, so that they will believe what is false. He will raise up prophets and preachers who will affirm them in their sin, who will bless their rebellion, and who will lead the cheers as they march straight into destruction.
Conclusion: Check Your Appetite
This passage forces us to ask a very uncomfortable question. What kind of preaching do we want? What is the nature of our spiritual appetite? Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness, or do we have an itch for affirmation? When the Word of God comes and convicts us, when it exposes our idols, when it calls us to costly obedience, do we respond with repentance, or do we tell the preacher to stop dripping?
The church in the modern West is filled to the rafters with prophets of wine and liquor. They may not use those exact words, but the message is the same. It is a gospel of self-esteem, a gospel of therapeutic benefits, a gospel of political triumphalism without personal holiness, a gospel that makes no demands. It is the message of the man walking after wind and lying. And the pews are full, because this is the spokesman this people has chosen.
But God's Word remains the same. It still does good to the one who walks uprightly. The good news is not that God winks at our sin, but that in Jesus Christ, He has condemned it. The gospel is not a message of wine and liquor. The gospel is a message of blood and water. It is the message that Christ was driven out, exiled from the presence of the Father, so that we, the true plunderers and covenant-breakers, might be brought home. He took the curse of exile upon Himself at the cross, crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" so that we might be welcomed into the true place of rest.
Therefore, let us not be a people who say, "Do not drip." Let us be a people who cry out, "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears." Let us love the hard words of Scripture, for they are the words of life. Let us pray that God would give us faithful shepherds who will preach the whole counsel of God, who will tell us the truth, even when it hurts. Because it is only the truth, dripped out day after day, that can turn back the dishonor and lead us into the pleasant house of our Father, where our splendor, the splendor of Christ in us, will never be taken away.