The name “Micah” means “Who is like Yahweh?” The theme of the biblical book of Micah alternates between God’s deliverance and destruction: there are always glimmers of hope breaking into the despair and destruction. “Micah spells out the disobedience of God’s people, particularly in the city of Jerusalem, and the certain judgment of the Lord which will be thorough but will leave a faithful remnant under the leadership of God’s chosen king” (Bible Speaks Today). The people of Judah had learned “to perfect the perennial heresy of compartmentalizing their religious beliefs and separating them from their daily lives” (BST).  They were learning to live comfortably without God.  

The people did not want to hear God’s word declared passionately by the prophet: “Don’t preach with such impassioned rhetoric.  These prophets should not preach of such things; we will not be overtaken by humiliation” (Micah 2:6 NET).  The NET provides this alternative meaning: “do not foam at the mouth.” “The sinful people tell the Lord’s prophets not to ‘foam at the mouth,’ which probably refers in a derogatory way to their impassioned style of delivery.”  But Micah was intensely moved by what God had shown him: “This is why I lament and mourn.  This is why I go around in rags and barefoot.  This is why I howl like a pack of coyotes, and moan like a mournful owl in the night” (Micah 1:8 – MSG).

In Micah 2:7-8 (NLT), God challenges the people through the prophet: “Should you talk that way, O family of Israel?  Will the Lord’s Spirit have patience with such behavior?  If you would do what is right, you would find my words comforting.  Yet to this very hour my people rise against me like an enemy!”  The Lord accuses them of defiling the land with their rebellious behavior.  He tells the apostate people, “Get up, go away! For this is not your resting place, because it is defiled, it is ruined beyond all remedy” (2:10).  The land could no longer be the resting place God had intended it to be.  The land was defiled and beyond cure.  

Then, in verses 12-13 we hear of God’s message of salvation for his faithful remnant.  False prophets said God’s judgment would not come. “But Micah promised salvation beyond the judgment for a righteous remnant” (CSB). This can be received as both good news and bad news. It assures the salvation of a remnant, while at the same time affirming the destruction of Judah as a whole. “I will surely gather all of you, Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.  I will bring them together like sheep in a sheepfold, like a flock in its pasture” (v. 12). 

How will this happen?  As we read this passage we can shout, “King Jesus has come!”  “Micah’s prophecy telescopes two great events – Judah’s return from captivity in Babylon, and the great gathering of all believers when the Messiah returns” (Application Bible).  “Your leader will break out and lead you out of exile, out through the gates of the enemy cities, back to your own land.  Your King will lead you; the Lord himself will guide you” (Micah 2:13 NLT).  

As faithful followers who take our marching orders from King Jesus, we seem to be more and more in exile.  In the midst of the post-Christian destruction of our institutions and our former way of life, God is preserving a remnant.  As the faithful remnant, we see more clearly than ever that this is not our resting place, “It is defiled, and ruined beyond all remedy.”  My counsel: find fellow believers who have the same vision and follow King Jesus into the new land.  

In Micah 7:1-6,  the prophet grieves over the condition of Israel.  After being the mouthpiece for the Lord (6:9), Micah takes a figurative  walk through the city (Jerusalem).  He is overcome with what he sees, “What misery is mine!” (v 1).  He becomes aware of the wickedness and the impending doom he can see coming.  “The faithful have been swept from the land” ( v 2).  Wickedness has become deeply ingrained, leading to the unravelling of the whole fabric of life.  The heart of the problem is  one of leadership:  “the ruler…….the judge…….the powerful……the best of them” (3-4) have become skilled in doing evil.

As a watchman, Micah declares, “But your judgment day is coming swiftly now.  Your time of punishment is here” ( 4). It will be  “a time of confusion” (v 4)).  This one phrase seems to describe what is characteristic of the soul of our nation.  There would be social disorder with the brake down of relationships. “The situation is so dire that the people can’t trust a neighbor, a friend, or even a spouse (5).  Close family relations have broken down (6).  Judy and I are experiencing confusion among people we have know for years.  Jesus later used verse 6 to say that following him may also damage family relationships (Matt. 10:35-36) 

Micah pictures a society turned upside-down, in which “a  son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother” (6). It is important to note that Micah’s critic of society is not political but spiritual.  “Political comment on social disintegration today often revolves around the need to focus, not so much on crimes and criminals, but on the causes of crime.   Micah would direct us all back to the way we have steadily ignored, and often directly flouted, the requirements of God for our personal, social and working lives, as well as for our nation.  Defiant rejection of God’s revealed truth is the fundamental reason for the social disintegration we see around us” (Bible Speaks Today)

After the darkness and gloom of contemporary life, Micah straightens up and declares his confidence in God.  “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior, my God will hear me” (7:7).  Men, notice three things from this prayer uttered in the midst of a literal brake up of society.  It sure can point us in the right direction, when we stand for Jesus in the midst of significant confusion.  

First, “But as for me” Micah was contrasting himself with the message of other “watchmen.”  He was looking “to the Lord for help” (7).  He was confident of better days ahead. “I confidently for God to save me.”  Remember Jesus taught us to pray, “your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Micah could see beyond the confusion

Secondly, Micah said he would “wait.”  The same Hebrew word is translated “depend” in 5:7.  Micah had faith that God would preserve Israel through the coming judgment.  He saw beyond the headlines. “Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light” (8).

Thirdly, Micah was confident that God would hear his prayer of lament, as he witnessed the brake up of society.  This chapter “began with a cry of mourning (v 1-2) ends with the quiet confidence that God will act.” (NIVZSB)

Then in 7:8-20 Micah looks past the coming defeat and destruction to the future day when the Lord would reverse that judgment.  A repentant people will raise again (7:8-9), the enemies would be defeated and Israel would be rebuilt (vv. 10-11).  “This enemy who kept taunting, ‘So where is this God of yours?”  I’m going to see it with these, my own eyes – my enemy disgraced, trash in the gutter” (v 10 MSG).