Historical Background:
Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. He dates his ministry with the reigns of Jotham (750-731 BC), Ahaz (731-715 BC) and Hezekiah (715-686 BC), kings of Judah (Micah 1:1). He does not mention any kings of Israel because the northern kingdom would soon be destroyed. Jeremiah also places Micah during the reign of Hezekiah (Jere. 26:18,19).
Because Micah does not mention King Uzziah, who reigned in Judah from 790-739 BC, he may have begun his minstry a bit later than Isaiah. Since he does not mention the invasion of Sennacherib (in 701 BC), he may have ended his ministry earlier than Isaiah.
We know Micah began his ministry prior to the fall of Samaria in 722 BC because he prophesied that fall (1:2-6). Possibly he ministered from 735 to 710 BC.
Regarding the kings who ruled Judah during Micah’s ministry, Jotham was a righteous man who continued the reforms of his father, Uzziah. Jotham was followed by Ahaz, a wicked man who allowed the worship of fertility gods to multiply across the nation. Even during times of reform, idolatry had still been practiced but under Ahaz, it spread rapidly, intertwining with the worship of Yahweh. This process was intensified by the massive influx of refugees from Israel after the northern kingdom was conquered. These refugees brought with them their fertility idols.
Ahaz was followed by the good king Hezekiah, a reformer used by God to call Israel back to righteousness. But in spite of the reforms of Hezekiah and the powerful prophetic ministries of Isaiah and Micah, there was still much corruption in Judah, spiritual and social.
Micah the Man:
1. Micah tell us that he was from the town of Moresheth (1:1), a small rural city located twenty miles southwest of Jerusalem. He was familiar with rural people and the poverty and injustice they would have experienced. His name, Micah, means He who is like Yahweh.
2. He may have been influenced by Amos, who ministered only 25 years earlier and whose home town, Tekoa, was only 20 miles east of Moresheth. There are similarities between Micah 2:6 and Amos 2:12, 7:10-16.
3. Micah knew he has heard from God, The word of the Lord which came to Micah (1:1).
He is not sharing his opinions. He is proclaiming the word of the Lord.
4. Micah was a man of spiritual depth and purity, able to hear the word of God above the noise of spiritual compromise, idolatry and apostasy.
5. Micah’s spiritual discernment enabled him to understand political and spiritual reality. He saw clearly the truth of his times and the true spiritual condition of his nation.
6. Micah was a man of courage and integrity, speaking against the religious and moral sins which characterized the majority of the people.
7. Micah was so consumed by his calling that he was willing to humble himself by stripping off his outer garments and his sandals and walk about as a slave.
The Message of Micah:
1. Micah establishes his message at particular time and place in history. He declares it to be, The word of the Lord which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2. While he addresses the leaders of the nation, Micah was also concerned with the poor and downtrodden. He prophesied against the worship of false gods but emphasized the result of idolatry —moral and social disintegration resulting in oppression of the poor.
3. Micah called for repentance and warned of judgement to come. Just to the north, in Israel, that judgement was already taking place at the hands of the Assyrians.
4. Micah reminds Judah of the covenant mercy and grace of the God who redeemed the people from Egypt (6:4) and would someday redeem the people from Babylon (4:10), who would someday be born among them and would shepherd them like a flock (5:2-4), who will plead their case (7:9, delighting in mercy and pouring out compassion and forgiving grace (7:18,19).
Major themes of Micah include:
1. He prophesies the fall of Samaria, (1:5-7)
2. He warns against the oppression of the poor, (2:1)
3. He prophesies the Messiah's birth, eternity and second coming, (4:1-8, 5:2-8, 7:7-20).
4. He speaks of God’s involvement in Israel (1:2-7) expressed in wrath poured out against sin (2:1-3) and in mercy promised (7:18,19).
Micah’s prophetic message is timeless, speaking not only to his own generation:
1. Quoted by Jeremiah a hundred years later (Jere. 26:18,19).
2. Prophesies exile to Babylon over a hundred years future (4:10).
3. Prophesies return from Babylon (4:10).
4 . Accurately prophecies the birth and pre-existent, eternal nature of Jesus (5:2-4, confirmed in Matt. 2:1-6, John 7:41-43).
The Book:
After 1:1, the entire book is written in poetic form. The prophecy of Micah is divided into three sections, each beginning with the word, Hear:
1. The coming punishment on Israel and Judah (1:2 - 3:12)
2. The future Messianic kingdom (4:1 - 5:15)
3. Punishment of the people and final mercy (6:1 - 7:20)
Exposition:
1:1 “The word of the Lord which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.”
The Word of the Lord came to a specific man — Micah. This is not a man’s opinion nor an expression of his imagination.
God gives this word at a specific time in history — during the reigns of three kings of Judah — Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. The message is for a specific audience —Samaria and Jerusalem, and yet that same word applies to the earth and all it contains (1:2). God confronted the prophet with truth so that he could confront his nation and the world with truth.
1:2 “Hear, O peoples, all of you; listen, O earth and all it contains, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.”
The command to all the earth is to hear: stop what you are doing and listen to the word of God. God is not hiding. God is not silent, in every generation God is speaking. Who will stop and listen? In every generation there must be men and women who will make this a priority — to hear with clarity what God is saying and speak that word boldly and without compromise.
This is especially relevant to the church. In each of His messages to the seven churches, Jesus says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:29, 3:6, 3:13, 3:22). Who will stop and hear what the Spirit says to the churches?
1:3 “For behold, the Lord is coming forth from His place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.”
The Lord is coming forth from His place. The picture is of a God who is actively involved in human history, dealing with sin and establishing His purpose in the affairs of people and nations. The Lord has always been present but there are times and places where He manifests His presence with particular authority and clarity and in those times and places, history, human society and people are transformed if people will listen and respond.
He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. High places could refer to military fortresses or places of idol worship, which were often located on hill tops. But whether nations are trusting in the idol of their wealth or their weapons or their false religions and false philosophies, God will graciously warn and call and will offer time to repent. But when His call is ignored, when His word of warning is trampled underfoot, then He will release His judgment, trampling underfoot the high places of the earth.
The psalmist speaks of the God, Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples (Ps. 65:7). He rules by His might forever; His eyes keep watch on the nations; let not the rebellious exalt themselves (Ps. 66:7). This is the God who will cut off the spirit of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth (Ps. 76:12). This is the God of whom Daniel spoke, who removes kings and establishes kings (Dan. 2:21).
When we pray over world leaders and the events of the world around us, we can pray with great confidence. God not only hears us — He is calling us to partner with Him in pulling down strongholds of darkness and establishing His kingdom purpose on earth.
Paul reminds us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12). And he reminds us that the place where we begin to pull down strongholds is in our own minds, For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:4,5).
1:4 “The mountains will melt under Him and the valleys will be split, like wax before the fire, like water poured down a steep place.”
If a mountain, in the presence of the Lord, melts like wax before a fire, how much more will spiritual strongholds of darkness and transient human institutions and empires melt away? Our God is Lord over creation, Lord over history and within history, moving all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11). He tramples the arrogance of the proud and exalts the humble.
1:5 “All this is for the rebellion of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the rebellion of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? What is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?”
The Lord indicts the leadership of Israel, the northern kingdom, for leading the people into rebellion. Samaria was the capital city of Israel and the corruption and idolatry of the nation was generated by the sin of the political, religious and economic leadership, located in Samaria. God will hold the leaders responsible for their sin and for leading the nation into sin.
The Lord also indicts the leadership of Judah, represented by the capital city of Jerusalem, for leading the nation into spiritual rebellion — the worship of idols.
1:6,7 “For I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country, planting places for a vineyard. I will pour her stones down into the valley and will lay bare her foundations. All of her idols will be smashed, all of her earnings will be burned with fire and all of her images I will make desolate, for she collected them from a harlot’s earnings, and to the earnings of a harlot they will return.”
Micah prophesies the destruction of the northern kingdom, represented by its capital city Samaria. This occurred in 722 BC, when the Assyrian army leveled Samaria and carried the survivors into captivity. Samaria was reduced to a heap of ruins.
All of her idols (were) smashed. The idols, representing gods that did not exist, were powerless to defend the people who worshipped them. The money laid at the feet of the false idols and false priests was nothing more than a harlot’s earnings.
The worship of fertility gods involved temple prostitution and the money collected from this was truly a harlot’s earnings. But idol worship itself is a form of spiritual prostitution and was financed by the worshipers who brought money and food to the place of worship.
In a further irony, to the earnings of a harlot they will return. The Assyrians, who prostituted themselves before false gods, will take away the wealth which had been offered to the false gods of Israel and will use this plunder to worship their own idols.
The destruction of the nation of Israel, and the ten tribes which had once been in covenant with God, is a terrible event. But God had mercifully, patiently warned and called for years through the prophets Hosea and Amos and now through Micah. However, the word of God had been trampled underfoot and the result was the complete annihilation of Israel.
1:8 “Because of this I must lament and wail, I must go barefoot and naked; I must make a lament like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches.”
Micah is deeply troubled by this prophecy of destruction. It will surely take place, it is certain, it is established. But why does God reveal sin and warn of judgment? Because He is merciful, not willing that any should perish but that all experience His forgiving, restoring grace. However, when warning is ignored, when the word of God is mocked and His messengers ridiculed, when people refuse to turn from their sin and embrace God’s mercy, then nothing remains but judgment. A holy God will not ignore unrepented sin. So it was that Israel was destroyed in 722 BC by the Assyrian army.
But judgment has not yet been poured out in Judah. And though God sees the future with perfect clarity and knows that someday Judah also will be destroyed, the Lord still calls. He will give Judah another hundred years. What a magnificent revelation of the merciful heart of God, of the longing of God for the blessings of His covenant people.
And what powerful revelation of Micah’s passion to confront his people with truth. He was so consumed by the message that he humbled himself by stripping off his outer robe and his sandals and walking about like a prisoner or a slave. This was a prophetic picture of the future of a nation which would not humble itself before God.
His lament (is) like the jackals — a threatening sound. His lament is a mourning like the ostriches — sorrowful. This is a picture of a true intercessor — he prays with deep passion, identifying with God’s sorrow, grieving the future destruction of a sinful people. So it was that Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
1:9 “For her wound is incurable, for it has come to Judah; it has reached the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.”
Her wound is incurable. The spiritual and moral disease of the covenant people of God had reached the terminal point in the northern kingdom. Israel could not be saved, only judged. This is not a call for repentance but the pronouncement of certain destruction.
It is not that God is no longer merciful. But the people have refused mercy and hardened their hearts for so long, they are no longer capable of responding to mercy. They are unalterably confirmed in their idolatry, established in their sin, hardened in their apostasy and rebellion. Evidently, there is a point at which an individual soul or an entire society is no longer redeemable, no longer capable of responding to redeeming grace.
In Romans 1:18-32 the Apostle Paul tracks the downward spiral of human society which has rejected the knowledge of God. False gods are invented which then lead to moral and social disintegration, chaos and darkness. Three times Paul says, God gave them over (1:24,26,28). What terrible words! God gave them over to their sin.
How shocking Micah’s words must have been to those who were raised to believe that though God will judge the sins of His people, He will always defend them and never permit their destruction. Though God did preserve a remnant, He did in fact permit the destruction of Israel.
The apostasy, corruption and spiritual infection of the northern kingdom had also spread down into Judah — it has reached the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. But notice, the prophet still refers to the people of Judah as my people. He still identifies with them, is still a citizen. He is not speaking from a distance but in their midst. The Word of God is incarnated, in a sense, in the life of the prophet. So is the passion of God expressed through the prophet.
1:10 “Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all. At Beth-le-aphrah roll yourself in the dust.”
Gath was a Philistine city. Micah doesn’t want the faithlessness of Judah to be known among the idol worshipping Philistines, lest the name of God be shamed. Beth-le-aphrah means house of dust. Whether this was a real city or just a way of referring to the power and wealth and false gods of Judah as nothing more than dust, his point is that the people should humble themselves before God and roll in the dust as a sign of their repentance.
1:11 “Go on your way, inhabitant of Shaphir, in shameful nakedness. The inhabitant of Zaanan does not escape. The lamentation of Beth-ezel: ‘He will take from you its support.’
Shaphir means town of beauty. The inhabitants will go forth in shameful nakedness, that is, as prisoners of war stripped of everything. This is their future if they will not humble themselves and repent of their sin.
Zaanan means town of going out and the inhabitants will not escape. Beth-ezel means retreat house and the Lord will take from you its support. Though Assyria did march on Judah and camped outside the gates of Jerusalem, God provided a miraculous deliverance due to the intercession of Hezekiah. But Micah is speaking prophetically of the day when Babylon would be used as an instrument of the Lord’s judgment. This would be more than one hundred years in the future but God in His mercy is already warning, calling with graphic word pictures.
1:12 “For the inhabitant of Maroth becomes weak waiting for good, because a calamity has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.”
The Lord in His holy justice allowed the Assyrian army to plunder a number of cities of Judea and advance as far as the gate of Jerusalem. But the Lord in His mercy delivered Jerusalem, preventing the complete destruction of Judah at that time.
1:13 “Harness the chariot to the team of horses, O inhabitant of Lachish— she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion— because in you were found the rebellious acts of Israel.”
Lachish was a military fortress city about 30 miles southwest of Jerusalem. Evidently, the corrupting influences of the northern kingdom had gained a foothold in Lachish — in you were found the rebellious acts of Israel — from which the entire southern kingdom of Judah had been infected. The corruption may have been some form of idol worship imported from Israel. This would include not only the false gods of the fertility cults but also the idol of military might, rather than trusting in the covenant God.
1:14 “Therefore you will give parting gifts on behalf of Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib will become a deception to the kings of Israel.”
Parting gifts or farewell gifts were to be given to the people of Moresheth-gath because they would be going into captivity. The word Achzib means town of a lie so we could read it this way, The town of lies has deceived the leadership of Israel. Here, Israel refers to all the covenant people, north and south. False gods and unfaithfulness to the covenant God grew out of spiritual deception and created deception which would soon be fatal to the northern kingdom and eventually to the southern kingdom.
1:15 “Moreover, I will bring on you the one who takes possession, O inhabitant of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will enter Adullam.”
Mareshah means town of inheritance. But God is bringing the one who takes possession. That would be the Assyrians and later, the Babylonians.
Adullam means refuge. Many years previously, David had found refuge in the cave of Adullam when he was fleeing King Saul (I Sam. 22:1). Now, The glory of Israel — the people — will flee to the caves for refuge when God’s judgment falls.
1:16 “Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, because of the children of your delight; extend your baldness like the eagle, for they will go from you into exile.”
Priests were forbidden to shave their heads because this was associated with the cultic religions. But now it will be permitted as a sign of mourning and humiliation in the coming days of defeat and exile, prophesied with these words, The children of your delight … will go from you into exile.” So it was that many of the survivors of Israel’s destruction were taken into exile. And more than a hundred years later, when the Babylonians conquered Judah, many thousand of Jews were taken into exile. Some were quite young at the time, as were Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego.
We see in these incredibly accurate prophecies the mercy of God, calling to Judah while there is still time. We see the resolute justice of God, informing Israel of the unavoidable outpouring of judgment. We see the all-knowing mind of God, revealing history before it happens. We see the authority of God, moving history to the fulfilling of His predetermined purpose.
As the Lord said through Isaiah, so He says to all generations, Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’ (Isa. 46:9,10).
Study Questions
1. God spoke accurate, truthful words of warning to Micah’s generation through the prophet. Does God still speak in our day and if so, how?
2. If you were Micah alive today, what might the Lord say through you to this generation?