Micah Week 3
Review Book of Micah
Micah is broken up into three cycles of Judgment and Salvation. We are on the third cycle chapters 6-7.
We’ve talked about the overall storyline of the Bible, how the problem the whole Bible is solving is the problem that was introduced in Genesis 3 - sin, death, and Satan. The entire Old Testament builds up to the climactic moment at the cross where those 3 villains are defeated by Christ the hero. And the New Testament is all looking back at that moment as transforming all of history. So in Micah as in the OT, we have lots of displaying the problem of man’s sinfulness and looking forward to a future salvation.
Last week we also talked a little about how a prophet’s view of future events is difficult to distinguish. Just like looking at a mountain range that is far away, they all kind of seem to be the same, but as you approach it you realize there are enormous distances between them. So future events are often talked about as if they happen at the same time, though there are thousands of years between them.
So let’s begin our third cycle of the book of Micah, starting with the judgment portion. What is the problem they are facing?
6:1-8
As we’ve seen at the beginning of each of the cycles - The chapter starts with “Hear what the Lord says”. Put a box around that. That’s Micah’s identifier to know that a new cycle has started.
This is probably the most famous passage in Micah and you might be familiar with verse 8 as it’s a clear description of what God expects of his people.
This passage is set up with legal language as a court case. You see that immediately with the words “Plead your case” in verse 1 and then the words “indictment” in verse 2. Circle those.
In verses 1 and 2, he’s setting up the courtroom. The first thing he does is assemble the jury. And who is going to be on the jury to determine if they are guilty or not? It’s going to be the mountain and the hills. This is very much like one of those “if these walls could speak” situations. The hills and mountains of the earth have been around for the nearly thousand years of existence of Israel’s history up to this point. They have seen everything that has happened. God calls them to be the jury. So write Jury next to verses 1-2.
What happens next? Vs 3. God makes his accusation against the people. He calls them to answer him. Why are you failing to live for me? What did I do wrong? Has he wearied them? No. He has not.
He goes on to give a little review of their history. “Let the records show!” And he reviews Israel’s past.
Now to be clear, we’ve been talking about the nation of Israel being divided into two kingdoms - the northern kingdom retains the name of Israel and the southern kingdom is called Judah. So it can be confusing at times when God says “Israel” is he referring just to the northern kingdom or is he referring to the entire nation of his people. It takes a little consideration to determine, but when he starts reviewing “Israel’s” past, we’ll see that this is something that the entirety of Israel has in common. So this is both nations, all of his people, that he’s speaking to.
He’s specifically reviewing how he has treated them in their past and how it has been good. He has given them many good things.
The first good thing God has given them, in vs 4, he redeemed them. Remember that time you were slaves? And I broke into Egypt and saved you? He gave them redemption.
The next thing, He sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. He gave them great leaders who walked with them all along the road to the promised land. So he gave them redemption and he gave them leadership.
Then he mentions the story of Balak and Balaam. If you don’t remember that one, Balak the king of Moab was scared of Israel and so he called a false prophet named Balaam to put a curse on Israel. Balaam is famous for his talking donkey. This story takes place in Numbers 22-24. God prevents Balaam from cursing Israel and he is only able to bless them. So the third thing the Lord gave to Israel was protection.
And then he mentions briefly “what happened from Shittim to Gilgal”. Shittim takes place right after the Balaam incident. They were sexually immoral and intermingled with the pagans at Shittim. This is right before they cross over the Jordan and enter the Promised Land. They break God’s covenant. They break his laws. But then what happens at Gilgal? They cross over the Jordan and immediately at Gilgal God allows them to renew their covenant with him.
So God has taken care of Israel with four things. He gave them redemption, leadership, protection, and even second chances. He concludes his accusation with the fact that they should see the righteous acts of the Lord in this.
So write next to verses 3-5 “Accusation”
In a court case, after an accusation has been made the defendant is allowed to have a chance to respond and to defend themselves. So we see that taking place here in verse 6-7.
Honestly, they sound a little childish in their response. “What do you want from me? It seems that when we give you sacrifices and we give you offerings it’s never enough for you. We can’t please you. Do you need us to give you our firstborn? Is that how far we have to go to please you?
Write Defense next to verses 6-7.
But the plaintiff has a response to the defendants in verse 8. Don’t act like you don’t know what it is that God expects from you. He expects you to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Israel thought they could essentially “buy God off”. If we give him a thing, a sacrifice or an offering, then he will be pleased with us and we can get on with our lives. It’s kind of like bribery. We pay you and then you let us do what we want elsewhere. But Micah explains, no. It’s not the payment or the “bribe” that God wants. You can’t pay him off. He wants a life that is transformed. He wants your heart, your actions, and your love.
Write Rebuttal next to verse 8
So how would this type of thing apply to us today? How would you fare in court if God were to call you in?
If God called the hills of Arkansas, the little tiny ones, to be the jury and to review your whole life before him, what would they have witnessed?
God would come to you and say “What have I done to you? Have I wearied you? Answer me.”
Then he would proceed to say “Let the records show” and review your history. For those who are Christians, he redeemed you when he gave you a new life at first salvation. Then he gave you the leadership of the Holy Spirit to guide you. He has protected you from the devil’s destructive accusations and plans. He repeatedly forgives you and gives you chances over and over again when we sin. Haven’t you seen how he is righteous in your life?
Now how do we respond? Do we say? God, you’re so hard to please. What do you want from me? I show up at church. I give you money. No matter what I do, I can’t make you happy. What can I do to get you off my back? What do you want my firstborn?
Or do we say, God I could never give enough to you to satisfy you. If I worked tirelessly my whole life it wouldn’t be enough to make up for my sin. I am in fact guilty. But you gave up your firstborn for my sins. You paid the highest possible price to satisfy justice. And I am right with you because of what you’ve done.
And when we respond to God in that way, we follow up by living out the life he calls. We do justice because God has enacted justice for us. We love kindness because God has been kind to us. And we walk humbly with God because we are unworthy recipients of his grace and he is lavishing it upon us over and over.
In the courtroom with God, your only appeal is to the work of Jesus. You have no other defense. But the appeal to Jesus will deliver you from every possible indictment.
6:9-16
We’re still in the judgment portion of the cycle. In verses 10-12, they are called out basically for not doing justice, loving kindness, or walking humbly with God. Instead they are very unjust and they don’t care about kindness. Justice is often represented by scales right? But they have been cheating with their scales. When they would go to buy some goods from someone, maybe they were being sold some wool. They would have false weights that they would claim “Oh this is my 10-pound weight” But really it would be 11 pounds. So they would buy 11 pounds of wool from someone, but only pay as if it was 10 pounds of wool. They cheated the seller.
They are all around dishonest. The scales of justice are completely imbalanced in their hands.
But God is just and he says, “How long can I allow this to go on without intervening?”
He strikes them with what one commentator calls “futility curses”. No matter how much effort they put forth, nothing will come of it. This is God keeping his word. He had made a covenant with them back in Deuteronomy. If they obey him they will be blessed, if they disobey they will be cursed. Part of that curse was that they would not get to see the benefits of their own labor and here God has said, “Enough is enough. I’ve been patient with your sin. But because I am just I cannot continue to let this injustice take place. I’m enacting the curse.
He finishes in verse 16, accusing them of being like Omri and Ahab. This father/son pair were notoriously wicked kings from the northern kingdom around 875 BC. Maybe 150 years before Micah.
Ok. This brings us to the last of the judgment sections before the salvation section of this cycle.
7:1-7
Micah is a bit distraught here. He starts talking about himself in the first person and he feels as if he is the only godly person left. He makes the comparison to looking for fruit in a harvest and not being able to find any. The way the Jewish laws were supposed to work is that you’re allowed to go through your field and harvest once, but you should leave behind a small amount for the poor to come after your harvesters and they could take it. But Micah feels like the wicked have come through and gleaned every bit off the trees. There is nothing left. There is no one godly left in the land.
Using a second analogy in verse 2 he compares them to hunters. It’s as if they are seeking out the godly for the sake of destroying them. Even the princes and judges are wicked.
But in verse 4 just like a watchman looks out for danger, the day of their danger has arrived. Their punishment has come.
These next verses are interesting. People in the same house can’t trust one another. The wicked will try to take advantage of anyone, even those in his own house. This is probably a pretty scandalous thing for them to consider. We like our families in our culture today. But their families were everything. You had to stay with your family at all costs. But Micah warns, there will be a time to get away from your family. If they are wicked, then they have become your enemies because your allegiance is to the Lord.
Micah closes the section by saying, “But as for me” and I have to wonder how personal this was to him. Did he have to abandon his family to follow the Lord? He’s going to keep calling out to God to save him and not attempt to save himself.
Interestingly, this passage is quoted by Jesus in the New Testament. Let me read to you Matthew 10:34-39. Jesus is making the same argument as Micah. Your supreme allegiance is not to your family, but rather to me. And unfortunately, this can result in separating people who ought to be close. Is this a cost you’re willing to pay? Is Jesus’ question.
That concludes our judgment section so you can put a line underneath vs 7.
We made it to the salvation portion of the last cycle and we’ll read the whole thing in one fell swoop.
7:8-20
Micah starts by imagining himself as a prisoner in a jail cell. He’s sitting in the dark. And he even states that he deserves it in vs 9. I’m bearing his indignation. I have sinned against him.
Vs. 9 UNTIL. That’s a great word. He pleads my cause. Circle that phrase. Because that is the same legal language we heard in the beginning of chapter 6. We see that for Micah, God is both the plaintiff and the defendant. Micah sins against God, but God pleads his case.
There are two other words worth noting in verse 9. Circle the words judgment and vindication. We’re looking at the ESV and they have made some translation decisions here that unfortunately make it difficult to see some of the parallels. The word judgment is the same word that earlier in 6:8 was translated justice. So you can write justice next to it. God earlier said they were to “do justice” and now he is working out justice on behalf of Micah.
Also the word vindication here is the same word from 6:5 that was translated righteousness. So you can write righteousness next to it. God said he wanted everyone to know his righteousness in 6:5 and when God acts in Micah’s life, they will all see his righteousness.
Vs. 11-13 Micah goes on to say that in the future God’s city will have strong walls and the boundaries will be very large to include an enormous area, from Assyria in the north all the way down to Egypt in the south.
Vs 14-17, Micah calls on God to be a shepherd to his people. In all three of the cycles, in the salvation half, we have a direct reference to God shepherding his people. The other two were also explicit about the shepherd being a king. In this cycle the king portion is a little bit more veiled, but it could be there. But remember how we said in the story of the Bible, the OT is always pointing forward with expectation. Someone has to come save them from the problem of sin? Micah over and over points forward that the one who will come to save them will be the shepherd/king. And he will lead them to a beautiful garden land. Now if you remember the story of the Bible chart here. The story begins and ends in the same place. We start in the garden of Eden and the story ends in a very garden of Eden type place. Micah picks up on that and says, the shepherd/king will lead them back to the beautiful garden. It’s going to be just like the Exodus, but better.
Vs. 18-20 These words that close out the book are so beautiful and yet so baffling. All along the way in this book God says over and over that I will punish sins. I won’t wait anymore. Your judgment is coming. But then he concludes the book by saying, I will pass over transgressions. He talks all the time about how he is just and he cannot turn a blind eye to sin, but then he says I will cast your sins away from you. He says that his patience won’t last forever, but then he concludes saying, his anger won’t last forever. Which one of these is the real God?
The only answer to this back and forth sounding God is Jesus Christ. He punishes sin. He refuses to turn a blind eye to injustice. His time of waiting expires. But all of that is absorbed by Jesus. For those who look for God to defend them in the court of law and who don’t attempt to defend themselves, our sins are cast off of us. His wrath is ended. And the only thing we receive is his compassion and his delight.
In the final verse, Micah states that God will show faithfulness and steadfast love to his people. Those are the two words that we encountered in Hosea 4. They are the Hebrew words Emet and Kesed. Those two words are paired together to represent God’s covenant faithfulness to his people. Like a marriage where he is committed in love towards them. God declares at the end here, that he is not giving up on them.
Micah throughout the Bible
Before we wrap up since we have some time, I’ll point out how Micah is used throughout the Bible.
We already spoke last week about how Micah 5:2 foretells the coming of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem and in Matthew 2:5, the scribes quote it to Herod for him to share with the wisemen.
Today we also mentioned how Micah’s complaining about one’s own family rising up against him is quoted by Jesus in Matthew 10:34-39.
But there’s one more place where Micah is plainly referenced that we haven’t looked at. Turn to Jeremiah 26:16-19. Jeremiah is a prophet that lives right at the destruction of Judah. He’s in Jerusalem when Babylon knocks down the walls and comes in. But he also prophesies for many years prior to this event. And the court officials have had enough of his words because he keeps telling them that the city will be destroyed. So they want to kill him. But here’s what it says in Jer. 26:16-19.
READ JEREMIAH 26:16-19
Before they put Jeremiah to death, some wise elders stand up and say, “Wait a minute.” Micah prophesied during Hezekiah’s time that the city would be destroyed” That was in Micah 3:12. “And apparently Hezekiah called out to the Lord for mercy and Jerusalem was saved!” Shouldn’t we also respond to the preaching of God’s prophet the same?
This tells us a couple things. First, that within 100 years the people already were reading the prophecies of Micah as God’s Word. They were all in agreement that God had spoken through Micah, even though it was rather recent.
Second, that the prophecy isn’t merely a prediction of the future, it’s a call to repentance. This future can be avoided if you repent. God’s judgment always allows for repentance.