“You who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones.”
The video version is what I see as home jam, worship with friends, maybe deep cry to God. The mp3 (no video) is what I see as church ready for a brave church. What do you like better? Vote today. Just give stars below the song to vote. The style with the most stars will get the most style time heres.
Cultural & Historical Context
(What Modern Readers Miss)
Micah uses butcher imagery on purpose.
This is not poetic exaggeration... it is legal and sacrificial language turned upside down.
In Torah
Priests handled flesh reverently
Judges protected the vulnerable
Leaders were shepherds
But here:
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Leaders consume the people
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The flock becomes food
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Authority becomes violence
This is anti-Temple behavior masquerading as religion.
Micah is accusing them of ritual cannibalism in spirit... feeding on the weak while claiming divine sanction.
This is why Micah later says: “Zion shall be plowed as a field” (Micah 3:12)
Because God does not protect corrupted altars.
John Chrysostom
Chrysostom repeatedly applies Micah-like warnings to bishops and priests, saying:
“The priesthood is not destroyed by persecution, but by corruption.”
He saw internal compromise as more dangerous than pagan opposition.
Jerome
Jerome writes that Micah condemns leaders who “devour those entrusted to them while pretending to serve God.”
He explicitly warns the Church against clerical abuse hidden under sacred language.
Irenaeus
Irenaeus ties false teaching to false living, stating that when doctrine is corrupted, people become merchandise rather than souls.
This mirrors Micah’s charge exactly.
Early Church vs Modern Church
Early Church
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Willing to lose status
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Refused syncretism
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Obedience over safety
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Martyrdom over mixture
Modern Church (Systemic)
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Blends culture and worship
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Protects institutions over people
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Redefines obedience as extremism
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Calls correction “division”
| Scripture | Verse Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ezekiel 34:2–4 | Shepherds feeding themselves, not the flock |
| Isaiah 1:15–17 | God rejecting worship stained with injustice |
| Matthew 23:27 | Whitewashed tombs |
| James 5:1–6 | Wealthy oppressors condemned |
| Revelation 18 | Religious-economic systems judged |
Micah 3:2 exposes blended altars... places where God’s name is spoken but His character is denied.
But How Does This Apply to Me?
It starts with honesty.
We begin by asking ourselves why we are defending what we are defending. Why do certain traditions feel untouchable? Why does questioning why we do things in church feel rebellious instead of faithful?
We ask harder questions:
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What is worship actually costing me today?
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What has God commanded versus what culture has added?
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Am I protecting truth or protecting comfort?
When we separate what God spoke from what culture layered on top of it, what remains is truth. Not emotional truth. Not inherited belief. Unshakable truth.
From there, responsibility follows.
We hold our leaders accountable for the truth they present. We stop outsourcing our discernment. We refuse to participate in systems that contradict Scripture, even when those systems are familiar, popular, or well funded.
And if necessary, we build differently.
We create local, organic expressions of the church rooted in the principles found in the Book of Acts. Simple. Accountable. Scripture centered. Spirit led. These communities already exist in small pockets, but something is shifting. This feels like the beginning of a larger change.
I know because I am not alone.
What started as a quiet question—What am I doing wrong?—grew into a lifelong journey. I was not seeing the promised joy, peace, or transformation that was constantly displayed from church stages. Instead of ignoring that tension, I followed it back to Scripture.
And Scripture did not disappoint.
The further I went, the clearer it became: the problem was not obedience. The problem was the frame everything had been built on.
This is not about tearing down faith.
It is about rebuilding it on truth that can actually carry the weight of following Jesus.
God tears down blended altars because He desires whole hearts.
Over the past few weeks, we have talked a lot about traditions, about the parts of holidays and religious practices that were adopted and then given a Jesus label. But our walk was never meant to be that casual. It was never meant to be decorative.
Humor me for a moment.
Imagine you go to a car lot. You spend hours there. You negotiate. You test drive. You answer questions. You sign paperwork. You write the check. You call your insurance company. Everything looks right. Everything feels legitimate.
You take the car home.
Later that evening, you roll it into the garage. You put it on a jack. You slide underneath on a creeper and that is when you see it.
Rust.
Not surface rust. Not manufacturing residue. The frame is eaten through.
Eventually, you learn the truth. The dealer sold you a car with a brand new engine, new body panels, new interior, new electronics. But underneath it all, they used a frame from a car that was twenty years old. The structure was never designed to support what had been added to it.
It looks new. It drives for now. But it will fail.
In many ways, this is exactly where the church is today.
We have taken Scripture and bolted it onto old frames. Frames built from cultural traditions, borrowed rituals, pagan calendars, political systems, and human comfort. We polished the outside. We upgraded the language. We added Jesus themed decals and called it faith.
The problem is the frame cannot support the weight of truth.
It was never built to carry obedience.
It was never built to carry holiness.
It was never built to carry the cost of discipleship.
The original structure was designed for something else entirely.
Jesus did not come to retrofit truth onto broken systems. He came to establish a kingdom built on repentance, surrender, and obedience. When truth is placed on a corrupted foundation, it does not matter how sincere the intention is. Collapse is inevitable.
This is why returning to Scripture matters. Not selectively. Not devotionally only. But structurally.
As close to the truth Jesus spoke as possible.
Because much like the game of telephone, the message has been passed along, altered, softened, justified, and repackaged so many times that what remains often resembles the original in name only.
This blog exists for one reason.
To strip the car down to the frame.
To examine what we are actually standing on.
And to rebuild on truth that can carry the weight.
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