Micah

1. God would visit His people with judgment, preserving only a remnant (chs 1-2). Micah saw the LORD coming “to trample the heights of the earth” (1.3). This phrase clues the reader to Micah’s perspective; those on ‘high’ were the ones who embraced a ‘might-makes-right’ attitude—even against their own countrymen. The prophet proposed that the attitude of the land was not divorced from the religious practices of the people; in Samaria the high places established by Jeroboam (cf. 1 Kgs 12.25ff.) had so defiled Israel that the prophet announced concerning the northern kingdom, “All her carved images will be smashed to pieces, all her wages will be burned in the fire, and I will destroy all her idols. Since she collected the wages of a prostitute, they will be used again for a prostitute” (1.7). Israel’s wound was incurable, even affecting Judah (1.9)! For all of this Micah implored God’s people to lament and display the outward manifestations of inner sorrow, including rolling in the dust (1.10), and shaved heads (1.16). When the LORD visited His people, those who oppressed the weak—dreaming up wickedness in the night and carrying it out first thing in the morning (2.1)—would be judged; “Then you will not walk so proudly because it will be an evil time. In the day one will take up a taunt against you, and lament mournfully, saying: ‘We are totally ruined!’” (2.3b-4). Micah’s message was not received warmly: “‘Stop your preaching,’ they preach. ‘They should not preach these things; shame will not overtake us’” (2.6). The people of the land had come to so resemble the foreign nations around them that they not only rejected the word of the LORD, they longed for prophets who would reinforce their fascination with selfishness; Micah lamented, “If a man of spirit comes and invents lies: ‘I will preach to you about wine and beer,’ he would be just the preacher for this people!” (2.11). Despite the pejorative tone of the prophet’s sermons, Micah yet announced that when the LORD visited His own, He would gather those who were indeed His own into a remnant whom He would lead for Himself (vv. 12-13)
2. The LORD would bring about a new day, when His people, and just leaders, would be restored (chs 3-5). In Micah’s analysis of the social situation, Israel’s leaders resembled cannibals and her prophets gluttons (3.1-7). The prophet’s descriptions have a common theme: Israel’s spiritual leaders (Jotham and Ahaz in Judah, cf. 2 Kgs15.32-16.20; and Hosea in Israel, cf. 2 Kgs 17.1-5)—those who were to provide and protect—had instead plundered the people for their own gain. By God’s calling, Micah avoided their path; “But as for me, I am filled with power by the Spirit of the LORD, with justice and courage, to proclaim to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin” (3.8). His message was not easy to deliver. He confronted Israel’s leaders as those who “abhor justice and pervert everything that is right, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with injustice. Her leaders issue rulings for a bribe, her priests teach for payment and her prophets practice divination for money” (3.10-11a). While the land, even the temple mount, would be ruined (3.12), Micah saw a day when the LORD would rule His people with justice. These would be “the last days” (4.1), when many nations would come to the city of David, “For instruction will go out of Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (4.2). Then disputes would be settled by the LORD’s instruction, even to the degree that weapons of war would be useless, “They will beat their swords into plows, and their spears into pruning knives” (4.3), Micah predicted. Each would have his own property, “with no one to frighten him” (4.4). Although exile would come upon Israel even during Micah’s ministry—and Judah would be threatened with the same—the prophet announced the day when the LORD’s justice would be seen in returning His people to their former greatness (4.9-13). Even from Bethlehem, “small among the clans of Judah” (5.2), One would come to rule over Israel for God. God’s rule would strengthen His people to stand against the mounting Assyrian threat (cf. 5.5-6; 2 Kgs 16.7-9). Though the remnant would be scattered among the nations, God’s rule would not be diminished, for in those places He vowed to remove the wickedness from those lands; “I will take vengeance in anger and wrath against the nations that have not obeyed Me” (5.15)
3. After enduring the LORD’s discipline, Judah must come to God on His terms (chs 6-7). It may be that the prophet here reflected on the social situation of contemporary Judah—which was sadly reminiscent of life in Israel before they were carried into exile. Toward the end of Micah’s ministry, King Manasseh had reverted the noble policies his father, King Hezekiah, to resemble those of Ahaz, before him (cf. 2 Kgs 16). All of this compelled the prophet to announce the LORD’s lawsuit against His people—and urge the nation to rise up and state their case against God. The gallery was silent, for Israel could speak nothing against the LORD, who had acted so benevolently toward His people. In justice He sent nations like the Moabites and their king Balak to come against Israel time-and-again (6.5; cf. Num 22-24), but they would not heed the LORD’s discipline. God wanted simply that His people, “act justly…love faithfulness…walk humbly with your God” (6.8). Such was not presently the case in the land, “the wealthy of the city are full of violence, and its residents speak lies; the tongues in their mouths are deceitful” (6.12), the prophet observed.  Micah further recognized that, “a son considers his father a fool, a daughter opposes her mother; and a daughter-in-law is against her mother-in-law; a person’s enemies are the people in his own home” (7.6). Yet, the prophet looked to the LORD’s covenant mercy, and spoke in the first-person of the day when the LORD would be vindicated as the leader of His people (7.8-20)

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