Micah Micah
Micah
Introduction
At a Glance
Author: Micah the prophet
Audience: Residents of Jerusalem and Judah and, by extension, all of Israel and Israel’s enemies
Date: The book focuses on the late 700s BC
Type of Literature: Prophecy
Major Themes: Corruption and failures of leadership; Yahweh’s legal indictment against Israel; the coming royal Messiah; chesed; visions of hope and renewal; the day of Yahweh; Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness; seeing Jesus in the book
Outline:
I. Superscription: author and setting — 1:1
II. Oracles of divine judgment against Israel and Judah — 1:2–2:11
a. Announcement of Yahweh’s judicial witness against the nations — 1:2
b. Vision of the destruction of Samaria and Jerusalem — 1:3–7
c. Lamentation over the destruction — 1:8–16
d. Indictment of corruption in Israelite society — 2:1–11
i. Economic exploitation — 2:1–2
ii. Yahweh’s planned disaster for his people: Assyrian invasion and despoiling of Israel — 2:3–5
iii. Denunciation of false prophets — 2:6–11
III. Promise of divine deliverance — 2:12–13
IV. Indictment of corrupt leaders and prophets — 3:1–12
a. Condemnation of national leaders for the corruption and exploitation of the people — 3:1–4
b. Condemnation of false prophets for leading the people astray — 3:5–7
c. Destruction decreed for the leaders of the nation, both spiritual and civil — 3:8–12
V. Vision of hope and renewal for the nation of God’s people — 4:1–5:15
a. Vision of universal peace on the mountain of Yahweh — 4:1–5
b. Promised restoration of God’s people to their land after the Babylonian exile — 4:6–13
c. Promise of the coming royal Messiah — 5:1–5a
d. Promise of deliverance from the Assyrians — 5:5b–15
VI. Yahweh’s legal case against Israel and Judah: the rib — 6:1–16
a. Yahweh’s indictment of his people — 6:1–8
i. Yahweh summons his people to hear his accusation (rib) and prepare their defense — 6:1–2
ii. Yahweh’s reminder of what he has done for his people — 6:3–5
iii. True worship vs. false worship — 6:6–8
b. Israel’s guilt and imminent punishment — 6:9–16
VII. Despair turns to triumph — 7:1–20
a. Lamentation for the corruption of Israelite society — 7:1–6
b. Promise of hope, restoration, and victory — 7:7–17
c. Celebrating Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness — 7:18–20
About the Book of Micah
The books of the twelve Minor Prophets are some of the least studied by Christians today, but they contain some of the great themes of Scripture, such as God’s mercy and judgment, his covenant with Israel, the day of Yahweh, and the coming of the Messiah.
As with the book of Hosea, the original Hebrew text of Micah is in rough shape. Some parts are very challenging to translate. You will notice many divergent renderings when comparing different English translations of Micah. We are all searching for a faithful transmission of Micah’s unique voice.
While Micah was living in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the Northern Kingdom (Israel) was destroyed by the Assyrians (722 BC), and the “ten lost tribes” have never been restored in a reorganized manner. Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem, carried the covenant forward alone from this point on. We get the English word Jew from the Hebrew word for the people of Judah.
Micah was active between the mid-700s BC and the early 600s BC. Judah was coming off the prosperous reign of Uzziah (Azariah), who suffered from leprosy. Thus, Micah was prophesying during a period of relative decline from a national high point.
Micah’s lifetime included the reigns of the following kings of Judah (the Southern Kingdom):
• Jotham (742–735 BC). He was coregent during the rule of Uzziah, who had leprosy, then king in his own right. Jotham maintained some degree of prosperity. There were some military victories. His reign was a season of much building and construction.
• Ahaz (735–715 BC). The great enemy Assyria emerged on the northeast horizon. Syria (732 BC) and then Samaria of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (722 BC) fell to the Assyrians. Ahaz was a weak king; in some ways Judah became a vassal state of Assyria during his reign.
• Hezekiah (715–687 BC). Around the year 701 BC, the Assyrians invaded Judah and surrounded Jerusalem, but they were ultimately unsuccessful. Hezekiah attained more freedom from Assyria. He purified the worship culture in Jerusalem (see Jer. 26:17–19, which mentions how Hezekiah listened to Micah).
For more about historical events occurring as the backdrop to Micah’s life and work, see 2 Kings 15:32–20:21, 2 Chronicles 27–32, and Isaiah 7, 20, and 36–39.
Micah is used in several Jewish liturgies, especially 7:18–20 with its emphasis on the hurling of our sins into the depths of the sea.
Some key verses in Micah are 5:2, which foretells the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem, and 6:8, which proclaims what God wants from us and is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible.
Purpose
Micah’s period in history was a very uncertain time. The new superpower to the northeast, Assyria, was picking off smaller nations one by one and inching closer and closer to Jerusalem. Looking ahead, the book also mentions Babylon, which would, a century later, follow Assyria with a second wave of invasions into the Holy Land. Micah brought small-town bluntness and commonsense wisdom to address the perils, both internal and external, of his time.
The internal challenge manifested itself primarily in corruption and bad leadership. Also, worship had become a sham, and people had neglected the heart of their faith (Mic. 6:6–8).
Externally, the threat was from Assyria, a massive and expanding empire centered in Nineveh (see the book of Jonah). This threat increased markedly from the mid-700s onward. Like dominoes, Syria, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and then even Jerusalem came under siege as the Assyrians marched southward.
Thus, Micah saw himself as promoting hope and God’s unchanging and faithful love in a politically and militarily hopeless situation in which both internal and external threats demanded an urgent response. Unwilling to simplistically put all the blame on the people of Judah or on the Assyrians, Micah threaded the needle in a sophisticated and balanced way, showing that there was enough blame to go around and that something needed to be done—immediately. He called the people back to the foundation of what made them Israel in the first place: their divine call “to promote justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (6:8).
In the face of impossible odds confronting Judah, Micah crafted a great hope that would “stick” even if the Assyrians and/or Babylonians won the day and Jerusalem was eventually destroyed (something he never lived to see). A new royal leader, a Messiah (Hebrew for “Anointed One”), would be called forth from Bethlehem to gather, shepherd, and protect the people. The dynasty of David would be restored. And people of all the nations would flow toward Jerusalem’s abundance.
Author and Audience
Micah’s name means “Who is like Yahweh [in question or statement form]” (see Ex. 15:11; Ps. 89:5–6; Mic. 7:18). Micah was a rough-edged country genius, not a sophisticated urbanite from Jerusalem. This folksy powerhouse emerged out of Moresheth, a small town in the southwest lowlands (Shephelah) on the edge of Judah’s territory. Since he was not classically educated, his potent, pithy, and colloquial language must have sounded almost vulgar to the elites in Jerusalem. He undoubtedly had a country accent. Yet the decadent rulers, prophets, and priests of the big city did not intimidate him in the least. Micah would stand his ground and speak his mind. However, his unvarnished style makes some passages in the book among the hardest in the Old Testament to translate.
Much like Amos, Micah is considered one of the rustic prophets who did not come out of the educated insider intelligentsia. He was a contemporary of Isaiah, whose soaring rhetoric (e.g., “The Wonderful One, the Extraordinary Strategist, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace!” from Isa. 9:6) was the polar opposite of the rough-barbed warnings of our rustic from Moresheth. A historical parallel would be the AD 1511 trip of (an equally earthy and forthright) Martin Luther to Rome, which produced parallel outbursts of indignation on his part. Amos trained his megaphone on the Northern Kingdom while Micah did the same against Jerusalem, Judah, and their enemies.
Micah was a master of paronomasia, or sophisticated and potent wordplay (Mic. 1:10–16 and elsewhere). This is a skill common among contemporary rappers today. Most English translations do not bring this across well, and The Passion Translation makes a humble attempt to correct that.
Micah’s communication style can be described in the following way:
Vividness and emphasis, lightning flashes of indignation at social wrongs, rapid transitions from threatening to mercy, vehement emotion and sympathetic tenderness, rhetorical force, cadence and rhythm at times elevated and sublime,—these are among the prophet’s outstanding literary characteristics. # George Livingston Robinson, The Twelve Minor Prophets (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1926), 104.
Micah focused his wrath like a laser beam on Jerusalem, but his prophecies break outward like ripples in a pond to all Israel and her enemies, skipping out into the New Testament era and even into our present day, with restorative Messianic and kingdom passages, hopes which continue to anchor our souls.
The direct targets of his prophecy, however, were the leaders of the tribe of Judah, including kings, prophets, priests, and all insiders (especially in chapters 3, 6, and 7). As only an outsider can, Micah called these leaders to account for their corruption. It’s a good thing when capable people rise to the top in any system, but it’s all too common that they bend the rules to benefit themselves when they get there. Those of us who are financially and socially secure must ask ourselves, Now that I have some political and/or economic power, am I misusing this strength to keep others from upward mobility? Corruption has always and will always tempt those with access to the levers of influence.
But Micah was not all about condemnation. As is common in other prophetic books, these pages express a mixed message of both threat and promise. “Micah, like other contemporary prophets, alternates oracles of doom and denunciation with oracles of hope and salvation.” # Juan I. Alfaro, Justice and Loyalty: A Commentary on the Book of Micah, ITC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989), 8.
Major Themes
Corruption and Failures of Leadership. The spiritual, economic, and moral corruption of Israel’s and Judah’s leaders is one of the dominant features of the book of Micah, highlighted particularly in 1:3–2:11; 3:1–12; 6:1–16; 7:1–6. Although the general population of Israel and Judah were included in this indictment, the prophet laid key responsibility for the corruption squarely at the feet of the nation’s civil and spiritual leaders. Micah denounced the nation’s prophets and condemned them for their false teaching, lying, and deception (2:6–11; 3:5–7). Then he condemned the civil leaders for their cruel exploitation of the people, reducing them to poverty, denying them justice in the courts, and generally making their lives miserable (3:1–4, 8–12).
Micah also explicitly indicted the priests, alongside civil leaders and prophets, for demanding money from the general population in return for their services. Not only did they disdain and shirk their obligations under the law, but on top of that they brazenly claimed that they were immune from Yahweh’s displeasure and judgment (3:11–12).
Those in authority have the responsibility to act justly (6:8) and to do the right thing even when it is to their disadvantage. And there is much at stake here. Why should God protect a corrupt society against a foreign invader? Many of you reading this may be in positions of leadership, everything from leading a family or a Bible study group to running a large corporation or sitting in a national legislature. Those of us who are leaders should read Micah with extra care, seeking to walk humbly under God’s authority as we exercise authority ourselves. The indisputable guilt of the population in general for their spiritual, economic, and moral corruption is also emphasized in 6:9–16.
Yahweh’s Legal Indictment against Israel. Micah calls for intelligent, differentiated justice. This is a constant biblical theme. Human beings often tend toward selfishness. The principal Hebrew word for “justice” (mishpat) also carries a sense of discernment and wisdom, not just equality for equality’s sake.
In the book of Micah, however, a certain component of the divine administration of justice is particularly significant. It is bound up in the concept of the rib. This Hebrew term can have several meanings, the most common of which are “dispute,” “quarrel,” and “charge” or “case [at law].” It is the last of these denotations that is especially relevant for Micah: where a rib (case at law) of God’s is concerned, it usually includes a legal, divine indictment that takes place in the heavenly courtroom. This concept is especially significant in the Hebrew canonical prophets, such as, for example, Jeremiah 25:31, Hosea 4:1 and 12:2. And likewise, here in Micah 6:2, Yahweh declared—twice—that he was taking his people to court. Yahweh affirmed through the prophet, “. . . for I, Yahweh, have an indictment [rib] against my people, and I will prosecute my case [rib] against Israel.” Conversely, there is also a “positive” use of this term in Micah 7:9, where the prophet declared, “I must endure Yahweh’s anger for a while because I have sinned against him. Yet he will still defend my cause [rib].” The basis of this positive, divine defense of Micah and his people is Yahweh’s steadfast faithfulness to his covenant promise to never ultimately abandon his people.
It may be observed at this stage that these first two themes emerging in the book of Micah are closely related. The very reason for the injustice and corruption in Judah that constituted Yahweh’s rib was the leadership’s failures (see notes on this theme in previous section).
The Coming Royal Messiah. Micah was not just a prophet of doom, calling everyone to account for their sins. He was also a prophet of hope. The Assyrian army was bearing down on Judah. The Babylonians were right behind them. Nevertheless, even if Judah failed to turn around in renewal and restoration, even if the royal line were cut off, even if Jerusalem were destroyed, God would find a way to forgive their sins (7:18–20) and restore “anointed” (literally, “Messianic”) rule to the faithful remnant.
We get the word Christ from the verb meaning “christen” or “anoint with oil.” Micah found himself living through a difficult chapter of God’s story with his people, but this rustic prophet never lost hope that God would end the story on his victorious terms through his Anointed One (see Ps. 110:1, the Old Testament verse that is most quoted in the New Testament). And this Messiah was not some vague concept; he would emerge as a flesh-and-blood baby in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:1–5a), born to be the heavenly King of kings over the people of God—past, present, and for all eternity. This would take place some seven hundred years from the time of Micah’s prophecy (2:13; 4:1–9; 5:2–8; 7:1–7).
Chesed. Chesed (often transliterated hesed) is one of the richest—if not the richest—theological terms in the entire Old Testament. This word has a number of simultaneous meanings when describing the chesed of God, such as “mercy,” “kindness,” “loving-kindness,” “goodness,” “grace,” “favor,” and “love.” Therefore, it is easy to see why this complex, multifaceted Hebrew word, with no one English equivalent, is arguably the most potent word in the Bible. We can describe David’s psalms, for example, as a pursuit of God’s chesed—his unearned, unconditional, unceasing love and protection emanating from the heavenly realm.
Although chesed is found only three times in the book of Micah (6:8; 7:18, 20), its meaning pervades the entire spectrum of God’s promises of mercy and grace found in the prophecy. In particular, it leads off the central “memory verse” of the prophecy: Micah 6:8, where Micah called the leaders to mirror, to those over whom they had authority, the love that Yahweh had shown them. It then concludes the book in a heartwarming description of the mercy (chesed, 7:18, 20) and grace of God, who promised to pardon his people for their sin, renew them in his love, and remain faithful to his covenant promises given to the patriarchs of the nation, Abraham, Isaac (implied), and Jacob, along with their descendants. That, of course, is an immutable guarantee of the fulfillment of the redemptive promises of God that came to ultimate fruition in the gospel, the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Visions of Hope and Renewal. Visions of hope and renewal constitute the powerful contrasts to the oracles of judgment and catastrophe in the book of Micah. They are set in juxtaposition with those oracles of doom. These hopeful visions are found in 2:12–13; 4:1–13; 5:5–15; 7:7–17. They carry not only the divine promises of physical restoration of the land of Israel and Judah and socio-economic renewal but also guarantees of pardon for the people of God and the spiritual renewal of the nation’s relationship with her covenant Lord.
The Day of Yahweh. References to the “day of Yahweh” are not numerous in Micah, but as has been noted in the discussion of chesed, the infrequent usage of a term does not necessarily demonstrate a lack of significance. As with chesed, the significance of the day of Yahweh permeates the entire book. References to this phenomenon deal with both the timing of Yahweh’s wrathful judgment against his people for their sins (2:4; 7:4) and the extending of his rich blessings toward them: deliverance from their enemies—Assyria and Babylon—as well as their promised spiritual renewal (4:1, 6; 5:10; 7:11–12).
Yahweh’s Covenant Faithfulness. The concluding three verses of the book of Micah (7:18–20) serve as a fitting climax to the powerful contrasting themes of the prophecy. The sole foundation of Israel and Judah’s hope of deliverance from the wrath of Yahweh, along with the prospect of their forgiveness and spiritual renewal, lies in the faithful promises of their covenant Lord and God. And it is not a vain hope but an absolute certainty, a hope that is grounded in the promised anticipation of the coming Messianic King (5:1–5a), which constitutes the final major theme of the book of Micah.
Seeing Jesus in the Book. There is no doubt that the climactic prophetic oracle of the book of Micah is in the opening five verses of chapter 5. The whole focus of this Messianic prophecy is to guarantee the people of Israel and Judah that Yahweh, their covenant God, will provide them with a royal leader who will guarantee their everlasting peace, joy, and—in the context of the prophecy as a whole—their forgiveness. The pinpoint accuracy of this prophetic oracle can be fully appreciated when one considers that there are, in fact, two towns of Bethlehem within Israel and Judah. One is located in the northern region of Galilee near the town of Nazareth, where Jesus spent his boyhood; the other is Bethlehem in Judea (i.e., Ephrathah), not far from Jerusalem, the place to which Mary and Joseph were directed to go for the census of Caesar Augustus and, of course, where Jesus was born. The Micah prophecy is quite explicit in naming the latter location as the birthplace of the future Messianic King of the Jews, and the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth (Matt. 2:6; Luke 2:4–5) make Micah’s prophetic reference to Bethlehem in Judea undeniably accurate. In addition to the prophecy of Micah 5, there is another likely Messianic prophecy to be found in Micah 4:8, where Yahweh declares that “His kingship will come to you, Daughter Jerusalem,” and the Messianic age is hinted at in 2:13; 4:1–9; 5:2–8; 7:1–7.
Micah
Justice and Mercy
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Learn More About The Passion TranslationMicah Micah
Micah
Introduction
At a Glance
Author: Micah the prophet
Audience: Residents of Jerusalem and Judah and, by extension, all of Israel and Israel’s enemies
Date: The book focuses on the late 700s BC
Type of Literature: Prophecy
Major Themes: Corruption and failures of leadership; Yahweh’s legal indictment against Israel; the coming royal Messiah; chesed; visions of hope and renewal; the day of Yahweh; Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness; seeing Jesus in the book
Outline:
I. Superscription: author and setting — 1:1
II. Oracles of divine judgment against Israel and Judah — 1:2–2:11
a. Announcement of Yahweh’s judicial witness against the nations — 1:2
b. Vision of the destruction of Samaria and Jerusalem — 1:3–7
c. Lamentation over the destruction — 1:8–16
d. Indictment of corruption in Israelite society — 2:1–11
i. Economic exploitation — 2:1–2
ii. Yahweh’s planned disaster for his people: Assyrian invasion and despoiling of Israel — 2:3–5
iii. Denunciation of false prophets — 2:6–11
III. Promise of divine deliverance — 2:12–13
IV. Indictment of corrupt leaders and prophets — 3:1–12
a. Condemnation of national leaders for the corruption and exploitation of the people — 3:1–4
b. Condemnation of false prophets for leading the people astray — 3:5–7
c. Destruction decreed for the leaders of the nation, both spiritual and civil — 3:8–12
V. Vision of hope and renewal for the nation of God’s people — 4:1–5:15
a. Vision of universal peace on the mountain of Yahweh — 4:1–5
b. Promised restoration of God’s people to their land after the Babylonian exile — 4:6–13
c. Promise of the coming royal Messiah — 5:1–5a
d. Promise of deliverance from the Assyrians — 5:5b–15
VI. Yahweh’s legal case against Israel and Judah: the rib — 6:1–16
a. Yahweh’s indictment of his people — 6:1–8
i. Yahweh summons his people to hear his accusation (rib) and prepare their defense — 6:1–2
ii. Yahweh’s reminder of what he has done for his people — 6:3–5
iii. True worship vs. false worship — 6:6–8
b. Israel’s guilt and imminent punishment — 6:9–16
VII. Despair turns to triumph — 7:1–20
a. Lamentation for the corruption of Israelite society — 7:1–6
b. Promise of hope, restoration, and victory — 7:7–17
c. Celebrating Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness — 7:18–20
About the Book of Micah
The books of the twelve Minor Prophets are some of the least studied by Christians today, but they contain some of the great themes of Scripture, such as God’s mercy and judgment, his covenant with Israel, the day of Yahweh, and the coming of the Messiah.
As with the book of Hosea, the original Hebrew text of Micah is in rough shape. Some parts are very challenging to translate. You will notice many divergent renderings when comparing different English translations of Micah. We are all searching for a faithful transmission of Micah’s unique voice.
While Micah was living in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the Northern Kingdom (Israel) was destroyed by the Assyrians (722 BC), and the “ten lost tribes” have never been restored in a reorganized manner. Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem, carried the covenant forward alone from this point on. We get the English word Jew from the Hebrew word for the people of Judah.
Micah was active between the mid-700s BC and the early 600s BC. Judah was coming off the prosperous reign of Uzziah (Azariah), who suffered from leprosy. Thus, Micah was prophesying during a period of relative decline from a national high point.
Micah’s lifetime included the reigns of the following kings of Judah (the Southern Kingdom):
• Jotham (742–735 BC). He was coregent during the rule of Uzziah, who had leprosy, then king in his own right. Jotham maintained some degree of prosperity. There were some military victories. His reign was a season of much building and construction.
• Ahaz (735–715 BC). The great enemy Assyria emerged on the northeast horizon. Syria (732 BC) and then Samaria of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (722 BC) fell to the Assyrians. Ahaz was a weak king; in some ways Judah became a vassal state of Assyria during his reign.
• Hezekiah (715–687 BC). Around the year 701 BC, the Assyrians invaded Judah and surrounded Jerusalem, but they were ultimately unsuccessful. Hezekiah attained more freedom from Assyria. He purified the worship culture in Jerusalem (see Jer. 26:17–19, which mentions how Hezekiah listened to Micah).
For more about historical events occurring as the backdrop to Micah’s life and work, see 2 Kings 15:32–20:21, 2 Chronicles 27–32, and Isaiah 7, 20, and 36–39.
Micah is used in several Jewish liturgies, especially 7:18–20 with its emphasis on the hurling of our sins into the depths of the sea.
Some key verses in Micah are 5:2, which foretells the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem, and 6:8, which proclaims what God wants from us and is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible.
Purpose
Micah’s period in history was a very uncertain time. The new superpower to the northeast, Assyria, was picking off smaller nations one by one and inching closer and closer to Jerusalem. Looking ahead, the book also mentions Babylon, which would, a century later, follow Assyria with a second wave of invasions into the Holy Land. Micah brought small-town bluntness and commonsense wisdom to address the perils, both internal and external, of his time.
The internal challenge manifested itself primarily in corruption and bad leadership. Also, worship had become a sham, and people had neglected the heart of their faith (Mic. 6:6–8).
Externally, the threat was from Assyria, a massive and expanding empire centered in Nineveh (see the book of Jonah). This threat increased markedly from the mid-700s onward. Like dominoes, Syria, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and then even Jerusalem came under siege as the Assyrians marched southward.
Thus, Micah saw himself as promoting hope and God’s unchanging and faithful love in a politically and militarily hopeless situation in which both internal and external threats demanded an urgent response. Unwilling to simplistically put all the blame on the people of Judah or on the Assyrians, Micah threaded the needle in a sophisticated and balanced way, showing that there was enough blame to go around and that something needed to be done—immediately. He called the people back to the foundation of what made them Israel in the first place: their divine call “to promote justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (6:8).
In the face of impossible odds confronting Judah, Micah crafted a great hope that would “stick” even if the Assyrians and/or Babylonians won the day and Jerusalem was eventually destroyed (something he never lived to see). A new royal leader, a Messiah (Hebrew for “Anointed One”), would be called forth from Bethlehem to gather, shepherd, and protect the people. The dynasty of David would be restored. And people of all the nations would flow toward Jerusalem’s abundance.
Author and Audience
Micah’s name means “Who is like Yahweh [in question or statement form]” (see Ex. 15:11; Ps. 89:5–6; Mic. 7:18). Micah was a rough-edged country genius, not a sophisticated urbanite from Jerusalem. This folksy powerhouse emerged out of Moresheth, a small town in the southwest lowlands (Shephelah) on the edge of Judah’s territory. Since he was not classically educated, his potent, pithy, and colloquial language must have sounded almost vulgar to the elites in Jerusalem. He undoubtedly had a country accent. Yet the decadent rulers, prophets, and priests of the big city did not intimidate him in the least. Micah would stand his ground and speak his mind. However, his unvarnished style makes some passages in the book among the hardest in the Old Testament to translate.
Much like Amos, Micah is considered one of the rustic prophets who did not come out of the educated insider intelligentsia. He was a contemporary of Isaiah, whose soaring rhetoric (e.g., “The Wonderful One, the Extraordinary Strategist, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace!” from Isa. 9:6) was the polar opposite of the rough-barbed warnings of our rustic from Moresheth. A historical parallel would be the AD 1511 trip of (an equally earthy and forthright) Martin Luther to Rome, which produced parallel outbursts of indignation on his part. Amos trained his megaphone on the Northern Kingdom while Micah did the same against Jerusalem, Judah, and their enemies.
Micah was a master of paronomasia, or sophisticated and potent wordplay (Mic. 1:10–16 and elsewhere). This is a skill common among contemporary rappers today. Most English translations do not bring this across well, and The Passion Translation makes a humble attempt to correct that.
Micah’s communication style can be described in the following way:
Vividness and emphasis, lightning flashes of indignation at social wrongs, rapid transitions from threatening to mercy, vehement emotion and sympathetic tenderness, rhetorical force, cadence and rhythm at times elevated and sublime,—these are among the prophet’s outstanding literary characteristics. # George Livingston Robinson, The Twelve Minor Prophets (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1926), 104.
Micah focused his wrath like a laser beam on Jerusalem, but his prophecies break outward like ripples in a pond to all Israel and her enemies, skipping out into the New Testament era and even into our present day, with restorative Messianic and kingdom passages, hopes which continue to anchor our souls.
The direct targets of his prophecy, however, were the leaders of the tribe of Judah, including kings, prophets, priests, and all insiders (especially in chapters 3, 6, and 7). As only an outsider can, Micah called these leaders to account for their corruption. It’s a good thing when capable people rise to the top in any system, but it’s all too common that they bend the rules to benefit themselves when they get there. Those of us who are financially and socially secure must ask ourselves, Now that I have some political and/or economic power, am I misusing this strength to keep others from upward mobility? Corruption has always and will always tempt those with access to the levers of influence.
But Micah was not all about condemnation. As is common in other prophetic books, these pages express a mixed message of both threat and promise. “Micah, like other contemporary prophets, alternates oracles of doom and denunciation with oracles of hope and salvation.” # Juan I. Alfaro, Justice and Loyalty: A Commentary on the Book of Micah, ITC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989), 8.
Major Themes
Corruption and Failures of Leadership. The spiritual, economic, and moral corruption of Israel’s and Judah’s leaders is one of the dominant features of the book of Micah, highlighted particularly in 1:3–2:11; 3:1–12; 6:1–16; 7:1–6. Although the general population of Israel and Judah were included in this indictment, the prophet laid key responsibility for the corruption squarely at the feet of the nation’s civil and spiritual leaders. Micah denounced the nation’s prophets and condemned them for their false teaching, lying, and deception (2:6–11; 3:5–7). Then he condemned the civil leaders for their cruel exploitation of the people, reducing them to poverty, denying them justice in the courts, and generally making their lives miserable (3:1–4, 8–12).
Micah also explicitly indicted the priests, alongside civil leaders and prophets, for demanding money from the general population in return for their services. Not only did they disdain and shirk their obligations under the law, but on top of that they brazenly claimed that they were immune from Yahweh’s displeasure and judgment (3:11–12).
Those in authority have the responsibility to act justly (6:8) and to do the right thing even when it is to their disadvantage. And there is much at stake here. Why should God protect a corrupt society against a foreign invader? Many of you reading this may be in positions of leadership, everything from leading a family or a Bible study group to running a large corporation or sitting in a national legislature. Those of us who are leaders should read Micah with extra care, seeking to walk humbly under God’s authority as we exercise authority ourselves. The indisputable guilt of the population in general for their spiritual, economic, and moral corruption is also emphasized in 6:9–16.
Yahweh’s Legal Indictment against Israel. Micah calls for intelligent, differentiated justice. This is a constant biblical theme. Human beings often tend toward selfishness. The principal Hebrew word for “justice” (mishpat) also carries a sense of discernment and wisdom, not just equality for equality’s sake.
In the book of Micah, however, a certain component of the divine administration of justice is particularly significant. It is bound up in the concept of the rib. This Hebrew term can have several meanings, the most common of which are “dispute,” “quarrel,” and “charge” or “case [at law].” It is the last of these denotations that is especially relevant for Micah: where a rib (case at law) of God’s is concerned, it usually includes a legal, divine indictment that takes place in the heavenly courtroom. This concept is especially significant in the Hebrew canonical prophets, such as, for example, Jeremiah 25:31, Hosea 4:1 and 12:2. And likewise, here in Micah 6:2, Yahweh declared—twice—that he was taking his people to court. Yahweh affirmed through the prophet, “. . . for I, Yahweh, have an indictment [rib] against my people, and I will prosecute my case [rib] against Israel.” Conversely, there is also a “positive” use of this term in Micah 7:9, where the prophet declared, “I must endure Yahweh’s anger for a while because I have sinned against him. Yet he will still defend my cause [rib].” The basis of this positive, divine defense of Micah and his people is Yahweh’s steadfast faithfulness to his covenant promise to never ultimately abandon his people.
It may be observed at this stage that these first two themes emerging in the book of Micah are closely related. The very reason for the injustice and corruption in Judah that constituted Yahweh’s rib was the leadership’s failures (see notes on this theme in previous section).
The Coming Royal Messiah. Micah was not just a prophet of doom, calling everyone to account for their sins. He was also a prophet of hope. The Assyrian army was bearing down on Judah. The Babylonians were right behind them. Nevertheless, even if Judah failed to turn around in renewal and restoration, even if the royal line were cut off, even if Jerusalem were destroyed, God would find a way to forgive their sins (7:18–20) and restore “anointed” (literally, “Messianic”) rule to the faithful remnant.
We get the word Christ from the verb meaning “christen” or “anoint with oil.” Micah found himself living through a difficult chapter of God’s story with his people, but this rustic prophet never lost hope that God would end the story on his victorious terms through his Anointed One (see Ps. 110:1, the Old Testament verse that is most quoted in the New Testament). And this Messiah was not some vague concept; he would emerge as a flesh-and-blood baby in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:1–5a), born to be the heavenly King of kings over the people of God—past, present, and for all eternity. This would take place some seven hundred years from the time of Micah’s prophecy (2:13; 4:1–9; 5:2–8; 7:1–7).
Chesed. Chesed (often transliterated hesed) is one of the richest—if not the richest—theological terms in the entire Old Testament. This word has a number of simultaneous meanings when describing the chesed of God, such as “mercy,” “kindness,” “loving-kindness,” “goodness,” “grace,” “favor,” and “love.” Therefore, it is easy to see why this complex, multifaceted Hebrew word, with no one English equivalent, is arguably the most potent word in the Bible. We can describe David’s psalms, for example, as a pursuit of God’s chesed—his unearned, unconditional, unceasing love and protection emanating from the heavenly realm.
Although chesed is found only three times in the book of Micah (6:8; 7:18, 20), its meaning pervades the entire spectrum of God’s promises of mercy and grace found in the prophecy. In particular, it leads off the central “memory verse” of the prophecy: Micah 6:8, where Micah called the leaders to mirror, to those over whom they had authority, the love that Yahweh had shown them. It then concludes the book in a heartwarming description of the mercy (chesed, 7:18, 20) and grace of God, who promised to pardon his people for their sin, renew them in his love, and remain faithful to his covenant promises given to the patriarchs of the nation, Abraham, Isaac (implied), and Jacob, along with their descendants. That, of course, is an immutable guarantee of the fulfillment of the redemptive promises of God that came to ultimate fruition in the gospel, the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Visions of Hope and Renewal. Visions of hope and renewal constitute the powerful contrasts to the oracles of judgment and catastrophe in the book of Micah. They are set in juxtaposition with those oracles of doom. These hopeful visions are found in 2:12–13; 4:1–13; 5:5–15; 7:7–17. They carry not only the divine promises of physical restoration of the land of Israel and Judah and socio-economic renewal but also guarantees of pardon for the people of God and the spiritual renewal of the nation’s relationship with her covenant Lord.
The Day of Yahweh. References to the “day of Yahweh” are not numerous in Micah, but as has been noted in the discussion of chesed, the infrequent usage of a term does not necessarily demonstrate a lack of significance. As with chesed, the significance of the day of Yahweh permeates the entire book. References to this phenomenon deal with both the timing of Yahweh’s wrathful judgment against his people for their sins (2:4; 7:4) and the extending of his rich blessings toward them: deliverance from their enemies—Assyria and Babylon—as well as their promised spiritual renewal (4:1, 6; 5:10; 7:11–12).
Yahweh’s Covenant Faithfulness. The concluding three verses of the book of Micah (7:18–20) serve as a fitting climax to the powerful contrasting themes of the prophecy. The sole foundation of Israel and Judah’s hope of deliverance from the wrath of Yahweh, along with the prospect of their forgiveness and spiritual renewal, lies in the faithful promises of their covenant Lord and God. And it is not a vain hope but an absolute certainty, a hope that is grounded in the promised anticipation of the coming Messianic King (5:1–5a), which constitutes the final major theme of the book of Micah.
Seeing Jesus in the Book. There is no doubt that the climactic prophetic oracle of the book of Micah is in the opening five verses of chapter 5. The whole focus of this Messianic prophecy is to guarantee the people of Israel and Judah that Yahweh, their covenant God, will provide them with a royal leader who will guarantee their everlasting peace, joy, and—in the context of the prophecy as a whole—their forgiveness. The pinpoint accuracy of this prophetic oracle can be fully appreciated when one considers that there are, in fact, two towns of Bethlehem within Israel and Judah. One is located in the northern region of Galilee near the town of Nazareth, where Jesus spent his boyhood; the other is Bethlehem in Judea (i.e., Ephrathah), not far from Jerusalem, the place to which Mary and Joseph were directed to go for the census of Caesar Augustus and, of course, where Jesus was born. The Micah prophecy is quite explicit in naming the latter location as the birthplace of the future Messianic King of the Jews, and the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth (Matt. 2:6; Luke 2:4–5) make Micah’s prophetic reference to Bethlehem in Judea undeniably accurate. In addition to the prophecy of Micah 5, there is another likely Messianic prophecy to be found in Micah 4:8, where Yahweh declares that “His kingship will come to you, Daughter Jerusalem,” and the Messianic age is hinted at in 2:13; 4:1–9; 5:2–8; 7:1–7.
Micah
Justice and Mercy
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