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Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
  Orange Standard

Micah: A Friend Of the Poor

Article 3 ~ November 2003

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Micah 6:8.

While Micah was declaiming against the corrupt politicians, and mean and cruel employers in Jerusalem, the small farmers living in Judaea and the Philistine plain, had Micah as their champion against rapacious, unscrupulous landlords. Thirty years before Micah, Amos had been deeply concerned about social justice, and the imbalances in the living conditions of the people for whom he acted, as the unelected spokesman, with his plea for fair treatment for everybody. Micah felt the same pressures on him as a man of God with a conscience, and had a like determination to change what needed to be changed in the making of a much better society.

Micah is the voice of all those who in every age, cry aloud for justice for all. He was only too well aware of the abject poverty of so many and found it a most distressing task to describe their suffering from hunger and disease. The effects of having to live under intolerable handicaps.

He was very angry at the way so many were ill-treated in a society in which their rulers, employers and landlords wallowed in luxury.

He said: "Shame on those who lie in bed planning evil and wicked deeds and rise at daybreak to do them, knowing that they have the power. They covet land and take it by force, if they want a house they seize it; they rob a man of his home and steal every man's inheritance." (2:1,2)

The prophet hopes that judgment will come upon a social system, imbalanced to the extreme, and that those responsible for it will be made to pay for their crimes.

Like other social reformers Micah was a lone voice much of the time. Devout churchman that he was, he found his co-religionists unresponsive to his appeal to them to join him in the fight for a better country.

The oppressors of the poor were often those who provided the money needed to pay for the church's necessities. Their misdeeds were known, but no action was taken against them to call them to account; for conscience can be deadened under such circumstances. Vested interest and financial gain has been known to prevent the Christian Church from heinotrite to God; honest with people and at ease with itself.

It is the task of the church to be like the prophets, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah, and to lead the people in their struggle to make a good society, fair and just in its dealings with all its citizens. The church should be the voice of the common people in their fight for justice and proper treatment, speaking out against whatever prevents them from making the most of themselves. The church has displayed the weaknesses of humanity when at times its attitudes have been a betrayal of the faith, and the Christ who valued people equally and saw them as equally precious in the sight of God.

Micah was not a prophet of doom. He was a realist who hoped that people could be persuaded to turn to God and to enjoy Him forever. He gave us the great Old Testament statement on what is the nature of true religion.

"He has told you, O man, what he wants, and this is all it is: to be fair and just and merciful, and to walk humbly with your God."

The incredible growth of the church in Africa, Asia, Central and South America is the evidence of a life-changing faith in God allied to a developing social consciouness. It comes from a wholehearted commitment to Christ: in the fellowship of the church which is effective in its ministry of word and deed; and in the happiness of shared fellowship and concern for the well being of one another. The spiritual emphasis is effective in practical outworking when faith and works go together and we have the evidence of the church in action as it should be.

Among the reasons for the weaknesses of the churlch in the West is the lack of enthusiasm for the communication of the faith; a loyalty which is weakened by conflicting interests; an insensitiveness to the problems of fellow members and others.

Where the church is strong in its advocacy of the Gospel, anxious to win people for Christ, there is life and growth here as elsewhere.

The weaknesses of Christianity are the weaknesses of Christians who refuse to take seriously what commitment to Christ and the church entails in how we live and act as the people of God in this place.

Rev. Canon Dr. S.E. Long

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