Day 33 – Friday -- The Book of Micah

Day 33 – Friday

The Book of Micah

You’ve noticed that we’ve been going backwards. We had been through the Exile and returned to Jerusalem. But the prophets Hosea, Amos, and now Micah take us back to the 8th century BCE in the northern kingdom (Israel).

Micah has similar indictments against Israel that Amos had. Using the wording of the version known as The Message, here are some summary statements from Micah:

• The people covet and grab fields and homes from others.
• They bully their neighbors.
• Leaders are contemptuous of justice; they kill people.
• Judges sell verdicts to the highest bidder.
• Priest mass-market their teaching.
• Prophets preach for high fees.
• The people cheat and commit fraud and live with obscene wealth.
• They tolerate shady deals.
• The rich are violent and lie.


In chapter six God finally says: I’m fed up. You’re finished. You’ll pay for your sins…You’ll plant grass but never get a lawn. You’ll make jelly but never spread it on your bread (MSG).

Here are four important passages:

Micah 4.1-4

In days to come
    the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains…
   3 He shall judge between many peoples,
    and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war any more;
4 but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
    and no one shall make them afraid;
    for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

This “beat your swords into plowshares” is on a monument at the United Nations. (Though it quotes the same words from Isaiah.)



Micah 5.2-5

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
    who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
    from ancient days…

4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God…
5 and he shall be the one of peace.

Christians have looked to this passage as an Advent or Christmas text. Jesus comes from Bethlehem. He is the good shepherd. He is the bringer of peace.


Micah 6.8

God has told you, O mortal, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

Next to the Great Commandment given by Jesus, this verse sums up Biblical faith. This is the moral imperative for all who put faith in God: Justice, kindness, humility, walk with God. The “kindness” is the central word in the Hebrew Scriptures—hesed—meaning “steadfast love and faithfulness.”


Micah 7.18-19

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
    and passing over the transgression
    of the remnant of your possession?
He does not retain his anger forever,
    because he delights in showing clemency.
19 He will again have compassion upon us;
    he will tread our iniquities under foot.
You will cast all our sins
    into the depths of the sea.

God does it again. After pronouncing judgment, God ends with mercy. Like a good mafia Don, God ties concrete blocks onto our sins and throws them overboard. They sink out of sight, never to be seen again.


Finish this: When it comes to doing justice, loving mercy, and walking with God in humility, I see myself as….