The Twelve Minor Prophets: Micah
Dr. James Smith
Micah
9 October 2005
Listen to this sermon.
The Book of Micah is attributed to the 8th century Judean prophet and sits in the middle of the 12 minor prophets of the Old Testament.
Like some of the other minor prophets, it is frequently overlooked by Christians in their Bible reading, but there are 3 verses that are commonly known.
Micah 4:3, speaks of a time when the nations will “beat their swords into plowshares.”
Micah 5:2, is a favorite Messianic verse that we frequently hear during Christmas time; “But out of you Bethlehem, will come one who will rule Israel.”
Micah 6:8, “He has shown you what is good and what the Lord requires of you; love justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.
But there is much more to the little known Book of Micah than simply these 3 verses, even though we don’t know very much about the prophet Micah himself.
We do know, however, that his name in Hebrew means, “Who is like God?,” which is answered rhetorically, “No one!” And in many ways this is a question that permeates the entire book.
Micah lived during the final days of the northern kingdom of Israel and witnessed the decline of the southern kingdom of Judah. He was from the small village of Moresheth, which was located just southwest of the holy city of Jerusalem.
This was a time of great transition and Micah was intensely concerned for the poor and oppressed among God’s people as well as the spiritual decline among the leadership.
These were difficult days when the people of Judah had to come up with substantial amounts of money to pay off the Assyrians, so that they wouldn’t completely destroy Judah, as they had the northern kingdom of Israel.
Refugees from the north had flooded Jerusalem, significantly increasing its population as well as the number of the poor.
As so the Book of Micah alternates between oracles of judgment as well as oracles of hope.
As we notice in chapter 1, God is portrayed as a terrifying judge who comes onto a courtroom scene. The capitals of Israel and Judah, which were Samaria and Jerusalem are spoken of as crimes themselves.
Either fortunately or unfortunately, the gravity of the coming of a judge is lost upon most of us as modern people, because of our democratic ideals and because judges rely on juries and rarely sentence people to death anymore.
But in the ancient world, this was not the case. There was virtually no such thing as “life without parole” because no government wanted to pay for such a thing and many would have considered it, “cruel & unusual punishment.”
Instead we have accounts of prisoners pacing up and down their squalid cells, who kept asking the jail keeper questions like . . . “Has the judge arrived yet?” “Does he look like he is in a good mood.” “Is he a merciful man?” and so on.
More often than not, justice was swift and severe for wrongdoers. If confessions were required, torture was routine. If a man was convicted, he frequently was taken outside and immediately executed.
And so, Micah who knew that God was coming as a terrible judge wept and wailed out loud and in a manner that would have been hardly missed by on lookers.
Micah laments the burden that he has received as a prophet of God in 1:8-9. Here Judah’s sin is likened to “an incurable disease.” God’s people had become “incorrigible” and God would judge both Samaria and Jerusalem severely.
Unlike popular or romantic notions that many people have concerning the prophets, with very few exceptions, did a prophet ever want to be a prophet.
Instead, it was a strange and terrible call of God that was a tremendous burden. In fact, the word “oracle” also has the notion of a burden attached to it.
Perhaps it would be less of a burden, if it only concerned certain individuals at that time. There was, however, a kind of corporate “inter-relatedness” of society, and as such, the whole society would be severely judged.
Have you ever had to be the one to break extremely bad news to someone? Have you ever had to deliver the terrible news to a friend or a loved one, that someone they cared deeply about was going to die?
Or perhaps worse yet, have you ever had to tell someone that they were soon going to die? Such was the awful task of Micah.
Chapter 6 begins with a covenant lawsuit that calls on the mountains and hills to act as witnesses to the Lord’s case against His people.
God’s salvation history is recited and the people are reminded that God will not be fooled by people who go through the proper religious observances but whose hearts are far from Him in their deeds.
And what does the Lord absolutely require of His people? Is it sacrifice of animals or other kinds of offerings? No . . . the Lord requires justice, mercy and that His people walk with genuine humility before Him.
And God requires such things of His people to this very day. Just and impartial judgment, mercy as He has shown us mercy, all bathed in humility that befits our position as the servants of the great judge and king.
God’s defense reminds us of the laments of so many parents who have given every good thing possible to their children only to be shocked, scandalized and hurt because of their rebelliousness.
One of the key reasons why such prophetic literature is so hard for us to take today is that we fail to take seriously that God is a just judge.
And that the “fear of God” so often spoken of in the Bible doesn’t simply mean “respect,” it also literally requires us to “fear” God.
They say that “familiarity breeds contempt.” Does our familiarity with God through Jesus Christ cause us to forget that He requires justice, mercy and humility?
Do we think that if we go to church, give of our resources and pray apart from justice, mercy and humility that this will be acceptable to God?
Unlike many parents today, God can be a very stern disciplinarian and He is not at all adverse to giving us a sound spanking if required.
Bad manners become terrible habits in time and God wouldn’t truly love us if He didn’t step in when necessary. And this is painful to all.
The old line, “this is going to hurt me more than it does you” becomes painfully true when one becomes a parent, though the child couldn’t possibly disagree more.
Micah was a prophet with an awful burden. He had to tell his family, God’s people, that the Lord had had enough and they were going to receive the worst punishment that they had ever experienced.
No doubt, many of them scoffed and probably even physically mistreated him in the process.
But we as Christians would do well to re-read and pray through books such as Micah in order to bring balance to our faith experience, remembering that “to fear God” means to fear God and to obey His commandments.
Let’s Pray
