A prophetic voice for our times
“[The devil] will set up a Counter-church, which will be the ape of the Church. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content…. The False Prophet will have a religion without a cross. A religion without a world to come. A religion to destroy religions. There will be a counterfeit Church. Christ’s Church will be one, and the False Prophet will create the other. The false Church will be worldly, ecumenical, and global. It will be a loose federation of churches and religions, forming some type of global association, a world parliament of Churches. It will be emptied of all divine content; it will be the mystical body of the Antichrist. The Mystical Body on earth today will have its Judas Iscariot, and he will be the False Prophet. Satan will recruit him from our bishops.” Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Communism and the Conscience of the West. Published in 1948.
The ancient prophecy, a parable for our time
Micah 6 could very well used to describe the unfaithful church of the latter days. Ahab (the husband of Jezebel) was the king that occupied the throne after Omri. Ahab was the seventh king of the Northern Kingdom. Omri was the king that made Samaria the capital of that kingdom. False worship took place there until the Kingdom was desolated by the Assyrians.
You shall sow, but not reap;
you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
For you have kept the statutes of Omri
and all the works of the house of Ahab,
and you have followed their counsels.
In other words: you shall never enjoy the goods you have stolen, a curse is upon you because of your wicked ways.
See 1 Kings 16 for the rap sheet of Omri and his predecessors and partners in crime. They dared to defy the curse of Joshua over Jericho by rebuilding its walls. Joshua cursed the would be rebuilders of the city because no one should rebuild what God has condemned and destroyed.
Joshua then pronounced this oath, saying,
‘Cursed before the Lord be anyone who tries
to build this city—this Jericho!
At the cost of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation,
and at the cost of his youngest he shall set up its gates!’
The curse was fulfilled to a tee. His first born and also his youngest son died accordingly. See 1Kings 16:34:
In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho; he laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua son of Nun.
Notice that Joshua’s name is a transliteration of the name יֵשׁוּעַ, Yeshua. That is also Our Lord’s name. The northerners rebuilt Jericho, the city where Jesus began his last journey to Jerusalem that ended with His crucifixion on Mount Calvary. In the mystical and/or symbolic association Jesus is Israel which later will be the New Israel (the Church after Pentecost 33 A.D.) the Church also being the Mystical Body of Christ.
As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth[d] is passing by.’ Then he shouted, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Those who were in front sternly ordered him to be quiet; but he shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and ordered the man to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He said, ‘Lord, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, praised God. (Luke 18:35-43)
The blind “seer” and his wise donkey
The city where Jesus healed the blind man was the same city where Balaam “the seer” perished when the walls fell and the city was conquered by Joshua.
Balaam is called “a seer” in the Deir ‘Alla Inscription
אש חזה אלהן הא The misfortunes of the book of Balaam s[on of Beo]r.
A divine seer was he.
Balaam, the “seer” that could not see the angel and had to be educated by a donkey. (cf. Numbers 22:22-35) Sometimes, I see myself in that donkey. How many that should be educating the flock from the pulpit waste their time preaching wicked things! Meanwhile, God seems to have raised mere laymen to teach the good of the Gospel to others! See Luke 19:39-40
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’
Someone observed quite insightfully (I think it was Calvin) that one who wants to attend the school of the angel must first graduate from the school of the donkey!
Jericho and its curse are mysteriously mentioned in Micah 6 although it is not apparently connected to what Micah is exposing. The prophet Micah (in my opinion) is placing all these signs together as sort of a smorgasbord of wickedness. It is like saying: “look how wicked these chaps were, what a wicked age that was!”
Go ahead, unfaithful kings of Israel! Marry a Sidonian; build a sacred pole (a phallus, basically); assassinate your neighbor to steal his property; rebuild a city that God told you not to rebuild; erect a temple to Baal and become a idolater … What could possibly go wrong? Meanwhile, God is preparing the inevitable chastisement.
“And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took as his wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made a sacred pole. Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho; he laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua son of Nun. (1Kings 16: 31-34)
I see a parallelism in our day with a disobedient hierarchy playing the part of Omri and his successors as Ahab and Jezebel. The modern Omri & Ahab Co. are tripping over themselves to offend God. A serious chastisement is surely in order. God spare us of what we certainly deserve! “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”. (1John 1:8)
The promised punishment of God
The voice of the Lord cries to the city
(it is sound wisdom to fear Your Name):Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!
Can I forget the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
and the scant measure that is accursed?[…]
You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
and there shall be a gnawing hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not save,
and what you save, I will hand over to the sword.You shall sow, but not reap;
you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.For you have kept the statutes of Omri
and all the works of the house of Ahab,
and you have followed their counsels.Therefore I will make you a desolation,
and your inhabitants an object of hissing;
so you shall bear the scorn of my people.
Quod scripsi, scripsi 