The Book of Micah, Chapter by Chapter

We want to take you through the book of Micah chapter by chapter. In our Jonah study we saw God show mercy to the great city of Assyria. Now we come to a prophet who saw Assyria come against God’s own people. We will tell you what each chapter is about and how it fits into the message of the book. And how it points us to the one God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Micah was a country preacher. He came from a small farm town. And he saw what the rich and powerful in the big cities were doing to the poor. The leaders took people’s fields and houses. The judges took bribes. The priests taught for money. The prophets preached peace to anyone who fed them. And they all said “Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us” (3:11). Micah said Jerusalem would be plowed like a field. But he also said a ruler would come out of little Bethlehem. One “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (5:2).

There are three things we want you to take away from this study. Micah is about what God requires. “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (6:8). Micah is about the one God who has no equal. “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity” (7:18). And Micah points to Jesus Christ. The ruler born in Bethlehem. The one who “shall be the peace” (5:5). We will explain these points as we go through the book. But we want you to keep them in mind as we begin.

“The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem” (1:1). Micah was from Moresheth. A small town about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. He preached around 740 to 700 BC. The same time as Isaiah. Isaiah preached to kings in the palace. Micah preached for the common people in the country. He saw Samaria fall to Assyria in 722 BC. And he saw Assyria come into Judah.

His name means who is like the LORD. Notice how the book ends. “Who is a God like unto thee” (7:18). Micah ends his book with his own name.¹ Moses sang the same thing at the Red Sea. “Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods?” (Exodus 15:11). We saw that in our Exodus study.

Micah’s preaching saved Jerusalem once. We saw in our Jeremiah study that when the priests wanted to kill Jeremiah some of the elders stood up. They said Micah preached that Zion would be plowed like a field. And king Hezekiah did not kill him. Hezekiah feared the LORD and prayed. And God did not bring the judgment in his day (Jeremiah 26:18–19). 100 years later that saved Jeremiah’s life.

The book has three parts. Each one starts with the word Hear. “Hear, all ye people” (1:2). “Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob” (3:1). “Hear ye now what the LORD saith” (6:1). And each part goes from judgment to hope.² We will go through the book one chapter at a time. Then we will put together what Micah teaches about the one God. Just like in our other studies we will be using the KJV for our scripture quotations. And we will let you know where you can find the work of the scholars we reference.

“Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple” (v.2). The whole world is called into court. And God is the witness. “For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him” (vv.3–4). God was coming down. Here it was in judgment. In Jesus he came down in mercy.

“For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?” (v.5). The sin started in the capitals. In the palaces. With the leaders. So Samaria would become a heap of stones in a field (v.6). Her idols would be beaten to pieces (v.7). It happened in 722 BC.

Then Micah weeps. “Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked” (v.8). “For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem” (v.9). The sickness had spread from the north to the south. Then Micah names a list of towns in his own area. And he makes a play on words with each name.³ “Declare ye it not at Gath” (v.10). Gath sounds like the word for tell. That is from David’s lament over Saul (2 Samuel 1:20). We saw it in our 2 Samuel study. In Aphrah which means dust “roll thyself in the dust” (v.10). And so on. The towns Micah grew up with would be the ones Assyria walked through on the way to Jerusalem. And that is what happened when Sennacherib came.

They lay awake at night planning how to take someone’s land. Then in the morning they did it. Because they could. They had the power. We saw in our 1 Kings study how Ahab and Jezebel took Naboth’s vineyard. That was happening all over Judah. The land was each family’s inheritance from God. And the rich were taking it. So God said I will devise evil against this family too (v.3). Their fields would be divided up by the enemy (v.4).

The people did not want to hear it. “Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy” (v.6). Stop preaching like that. God said “do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” (v.7). The word only hurts those who are doing wrong. Then God says what kind of preacher they want. “If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people” (v.11). Give them a preacher who lies and promises them a good time. And they will love him. Paul said “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3).

Then hope. “I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah” (v.12). God will gather his sheep. Then this.

A shepherd would pen his sheep in for the night with a wall of stones. In the morning he would break open a gap and lead them out. The breaker goes first. And the sheep follow him out through the gate. Notice the last part. “Their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.” The breaker. The king. The LORD. All three are the one leading the sheep out. Not three leaders. One. Jesus said “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:9). He broke out of the grave. And he leads his people out behind him. He is our King. And he is the LORD.

“Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?” (v.1). The leaders should have known what was right. Instead they “hate the good, and love the evil” (v.2). Micah says they were like butchers. Skinning the people. Breaking their bones. Chopping them up for the pot (vv.2–3). One day they would cry to the LORD and he would not hear them (v.4).

Then the prophets. They “make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace” (v.5). If you fed them they preached peace. If you did not they declared war on you. Preaching for food. So God would turn off the lights. “Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision” (v.6). No more word from God. Then Micah says what a true prophet is.

The false prophets were full of food. Micah was full of power. By the spirit of the LORD. Notice what the power was for. To name sin. Not to entertain. Not to make money. To tell people the truth about their sin so they could repent. Jesus told his disciples “ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me” (Acts 1:8). The same Spirit that filled Micah fills the church. And Jesus said when the Comforter comes “he will reprove the world of sin” (John 16:8).

“The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us” (v.11). Everyone had a price. And they still thought God was on their side. Because the temple was there. Then the verse that saved Jeremiah’s life 100 years later.

For your sake. Because of you. The leaders would bring the whole city down. And it happened. Babylon in 586 BC. And again Rome in 70 AD.

Right after Zion is plowed comes this. “But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains … and people shall flow unto it” (v.1). The mountain that was plowed would be lifted up. Verses 1 to 3 are almost the same as Isaiah 2:2–4. We covered them in our Isaiah study. Nations coming to learn God’s ways. Swords beaten into plowshares. Then Micah adds this. “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid” (v.4). Peace. Every family on its own land. No one taking it away. The very thing the rich had stolen in chapter 2 God would give back.

Every nation walks in the name of its god. We walk in the name of the LORD. A name means who you belong to. Whose authority you live under. The New Testament tells us how to walk in that name. “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17). We are baptized in his name (Acts 2:38). We pray in his name (John 14:13–14). We cast out devils in his name (Mark 16:17). We walk in the name of the LORD our God. And that name is Jesus.

“In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth” (v.6). The lame. The outcast. The ones who were hurt. God would make them a strong nation. “And the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever” (v.7). Then Micah names “the tower of the flock” (v.8). That was a place near Bethlehem where the shepherds watched the sheep that were raised for the temple.⁴ Some believe that is where the shepherds were when the angel came to them (Luke 2:8).

Then a surprise. “Thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies” (v.10). In Micah’s day the enemy was Assyria. Babylon was not a great power yet. But Micah said they would go to Babylon. And be redeemed from there. More than 100 years before it happened.

“They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek” (v.1). The king in Jerusalem would be humiliated. And the Judge of Israel was humiliated. “And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head” (Matthew 27:30). Then the most famous verse in Micah.

Bethlehem was little. Too small to even be listed with the towns of Judah in Joshua.⁵ But it was the town of David. We saw in our Ruth study that Boaz and Ruth lived there. And in our 1 Samuel study that Samuel anointed David there. The ruler of Israel would come from the same little town as David. 700 years later when the wise men came looking for the King of the Jews Herod asked the chief priests where the Christ would be born. They knew right away. “In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet” (Matthew 2:5). And they quoted Micah 5:2. Even the common people knew it. “Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” (John 7:42). Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. But God moved the whole Roman empire with a tax so that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:1–4).

From of Old, From Everlasting

Now notice the last part. “Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” The one born in Bethlehem had been going forth from everlasting. A baby with no beginning.

Trinitarians will say this shows the Son existed from eternity as a second person beside the Father.⁶ But notice. The verse does not say a second person. It says the ruler born in Bethlehem had his goings forth from everlasting. There are two ways we believe this is true. And they do not need two persons. First the one who was born in Bethlehem is the everlasting God himself come in the flesh. Isaiah called the child that would be born “The everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6). We covered that in our Isaiah study. The child had no beginning because the child is the everlasting God manifest in a man. Second the Son was in the plan of God from everlasting. Peter says Christ “was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:20). God did not make up the plan of salvation after Adam fell. He planned it from everlasting. And in Bethlehem the plan was born.

Notice also two words. “Unto me.” He shall come forth unto me. The ruler comes forth for God. To do God’s will. Then verse 4 says “And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God” (v.4). As a man he stands in the strength of the LORD. He has the LORD as his God. Jesus said “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17). As a man Jesus had a God. As God he is that God. That is the mystery of godliness. “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16).

Then “And this man shall be the peace” (v.5). Not bring peace. Be the peace. Paul says “For he is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14). The remnant of Jacob would be like dew from the LORD among the nations (v.7). And God would cut off their horses and chariots and witchcraft and idols (vv.10–14). Everything they trusted in instead of God.

“Hear ye now what the LORD saith” (v.1). This is the third part of the book. God takes his people to court again. The mountains are the jury (vv.1–2). Then God speaks. And he does not start with an accusation. He starts with a question. “O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me” (v.3). God was asking them to name one thing he did wrong. Then he reminds them. I brought you out of Egypt. I sent Moses and Aaron and Miriam (v.4). I turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing (v.5). We saw that in our Numbers study. Everything God did for them was good.

Then the people answer. And their answer shows they do not get it.

Calves. Then thousands of rams. Then ten thousand rivers of oil. Then my own firstborn child. They thought God wanted more and more stuff. They thought they could pay God off. But notice the last question. Shall I give my firstborn for my sin. No man can do that. But God did. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). We cannot pay for our own sin. God paid it himself. Then Micah gives the answer.

Do justly. Treat people right. Do not take what is not yours. Do not take a bribe. Love mercy. Not just show it. Love it. The word is chesed. Loyal love. And walk humbly with thy God. Close to him. Every day. That is not a way to earn salvation. They already were God’s people. This is how God’s people are supposed to live. Jesus said the Pharisees tithed their spices “and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith” (Matthew 23:23). That is Micah 6:8.

Then back to the charges. Scant measures. Wicked balances. Bags of deceitful weights (vv.10–11). Violence and lies (v.12). So they would sow and not reap. Tread olives and not have oil. Make wine and not drink it (v.15). “For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab” (v.16). We met Omri and Ahab in our 1 Kings study. Judah was living like the worst kings of Israel.

I Will Look Unto the LORD

“Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits” (v.1). Micah went looking for a good man like a man looking for a grape after the harvest. He could not find one. “The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men” (v.2). Everyone was out to get everyone. You could not trust a friend. Or even your wife (v.5). “For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother … a man’s enemies are the men of his own house” (v.6). Jesus quoted this. He said following him would divide families like that (Matthew 10:35–36).

When everyone else fails look to the LORD. Wait for him. He will hear. When I fall I shall arise. When I sit in darkness the LORD is my light. Jesus said “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Then Micah says “I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause” (v.9). He did not blame God. He owned his sin. And he trusted God to take up his case.

He Delighteth in Mercy

Micah prays like a shepherd. “Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage” (v.14). And God answers. “According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things” (v.15). A new exodus. Then the nations will be ashamed and afraid of the LORD (vv.16–17). Then the last 3 verses of the book.

Who is a God like unto thee. There is none. Not because he is stronger than other gods. Because he forgives. He pardons iniquity. He passes by transgression. He does not stay angry forever. Because he delights in mercy. Judgment is something God has to do. Mercy is something he loves to do.

“He will subdue our iniquities.” He will stomp them down like an enemy. “And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Remember how Pharaoh’s army went down into the Red Sea and never came up. That is what God does with our sins. Gone. Never coming back. The God who drowned Egypt drowns our sins. Some have said that God put up a sign there that says no fishing.

And he will keep his promise to Abraham. When John the Baptist was born his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost. He praised God “To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham” (Luke 1:72–73). That is Micah 7:20. And he said it because the Saviour was about to be born. In Bethlehem.

Micah’s own name asks the question of the book. Who is like the LORD. Before we finish we want to put it all together. There are three things we want to point out.

First there is no one like the LORD. “Who is a God like unto thee” (7:18). The nations walk in the names of their gods. We walk in the name of the LORD our God (4:5). He is the judge who comes down from his holy temple (1:2–3). He requires justice and mercy and humility (6:8). And he alone pardons iniquity and casts our sins into the sea (7:18–19). One God with no equal.

Second the one God came to lead his people himself. The breaker goes up before them. Their king passes before them. And the LORD is on the head of them (2:13). Not three leaders. One shepherd King who is the LORD. Jesus said I am the door. And I am the good shepherd. He leads us out. And we walk in his name. In word and in deed. In baptism and in prayer (Colossians 3:17; Acts 2:38).

Third the ruler born in Bethlehem is the everlasting God in the flesh. His goings forth have been from of old. From everlasting (5:2). Not a second person from eternity. The everlasting God himself. Planned from before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20). And manifest as a man who stood in the strength of the LORD his God (5:4). He is our peace (5:5). We could not give our firstborn for our sin. God gave his only begotten Son. One God. Revealed in Jesus Christ. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

We have gone through Micah chapter by chapter. Here is what we can conclude. First Micah is about what God requires. The rich took the poor man’s field. The judges took bribes. The priests taught for hire. The prophets preached for food. And they all said the LORD is among us. God did not want more rams and oil. He wanted his people to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with him. That is still what he wants.

Second Micah is about the one God who has no equal. Micah’s name asks who is like the LORD. And the book answers. No one. He pardons iniquity. He passes by transgression. He delights in mercy. He casts our sins into the depths of the sea. And he keeps the promise he made to Abraham.

Third Micah points to Jesus Christ. The breaker who goes before his sheep. The judge of Israel struck on the cheek. The ruler born in little Bethlehem whose goings forth are from everlasting. The man who stands in the strength of the LORD. The one who is our peace. If you have been trying to pay God off with your own works you can stop. He has already shewed thee what is good. And he gave himself for your sin.

Micah saw Assyria come against Judah. About 100 years after Jonah preached in Nineveh the city was as cruel as ever. The next prophet was sent to tell Nineveh that this time there would be no second chance. That is where Nahum begins.