Jonah & Micah

Richard D. Phillips

• Publisher: P Publishing
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781596385078
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblischer Kommentar

Jonah reminds us that the characteristic of redeemed people is not that they never sin, but that they are ready to repent of their sin when reminded of God's grace.

Micah

AFTER DARKNESS, LIGHT

14

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Micah 1:1

The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. (Mic. 1:1)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”¹

So begins Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, considered by some to be the finest novel ever written in English. Dickens sought to chronicle the spirit of the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century A.D., but he could just as well have been writing of another time long before: the late eighth century B.C. in Israel and Judea. For what Dickens wrote about the cities of London and Paris is similar to what the prophet Micah had to say to Samaria and Jerusalem. The themes of Micah are precisely those cited by Dickens: wisdom and folly, belief and unbelief, light and darkness, hope and despair, heaven and hell.

MICAH OF MORESHETH

Who was the prophet Micah? While the name is fairly common in the Old Testament (fourteen men are named Micah), there are only two biblical references to this Micah who prophesied in Jerusalem during the late eighth and early seventh centuries B.C. One of these is in the opening verse of Micah’s book: “The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth” (Mic. 1:1). The other reference is in the book of Jeremiah, written a hundred years later. Jeremiah identifies Micah as the prophet whose warnings of judgment persuaded King Hezekiah to repent and seek the Lord (Jer. 26:18–19).

Reflection on these two passages will provide at least some clues about the identity and personality of this prophet. First, we should note that his name has theological significance. “Micah” means “who is like the LORD?” Bruce Waltke comments, “It reveals the essence of his parents’ faith, who wished above all to praise [Yahweh], and it portends our prophet’s message.”² Micah employs his own name at the book’s end, praising the Lord with the words, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?” (Mic. 7:18). This indicates that Micah identified with his name, and it shows that for all his oracles of judgment, at the heart of his faith was joy for the saving grace of God.

In addition to his name, we are told Micah’s town of origin. He is known as “Micah of Moresheth.” This was an agricultural town in the lower lands to the west of Jerusalem, about halfway to the sea. It was the kind of place whose traditional values were being undermined by the decadent rich from the capital city, and therefore an ideal place to produce a reforming prophet like Micah. David Prior writes: “His instinctive empathies were with the farmers, shepherds and small holders of the [agricultural region]. . . . He was not lured away by the glittering façade of the new culture—fine houses, advanced fashions, get-rich-quickly businesses—but kept a firm grip on the moral realities that make for true national greatness.”³

A SEASON OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT

Just as important as Micah’s identity is the question of when he lived and served. He says that he prophesied “in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” (Mic. 1:1). This follows the Old Testament convention of keeping time by means of the kings. Micah preached during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, which places his ministry between 740 and 687 B.C., a period of 53 years. Micah therefore followed the prophetic ministries of Hosea and Amos, and served in Jerusalem alongside the better-known prophet Isaiah.

Two great concerns dominate this period of Israel’s history, one external and one internal. The external concern was the spreading power of the Assyrian empire: the same Assyria whose capital had been brought to repentance by the preaching of Jonah about a generation earlier. By now Assyria had returned to its rapacious ways. As the superpower of its time, and under new and vigorous leadership, Assyria cast its shadow far and wide. Assyria’s policy was to recruit a vast standing mercenary army that was practically invincible in battle. To pay for these forces, they intimidated their surrounding kingdoms to extract crushingly high tributes. “In other words,” writes Waltke, “the conquered nations supported the international army that raped them.”⁴ The political history of this era consisted mainly of rebellions small and large against this policy, to which Assyria would respond with overwhelming and savage force. Conquered peoples would be relocated en masse into the vast Assyrian domains, and conquered lands were organized as permanent Assyrian provinces.

This was the backdrop for the great crises that dominated the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Through our studies of Micah, we will learn much about the power and depredations of such Assyrian conquerors as Tiglath-Pileser III, Shalmaneser V, Sargon, and Sennacherib. We will also learn about the weakness of Judah’s king Jotham, the perfidy of Ahaz, and the triumphant faith of Hezekiah.

As the prophets saw it, the political and military problems were mere symptoms of a greater and deeper problem: the moral and spiritual condition of Jerusalem. Just as Western civilization has abandoned its Christian foundations in our time, Judah had abandoned its religious heritage. Despite an outward embrace of biblical religion, Jerusalem had turned its heart away from the Lord, and the fruit of its unbelief was rampant corruption and vice.

The Old Testament prophets as a group were greatly concerned with societal standards of justice and mercy. But Micah is particularly pronounced in his concern for civic godliness. In his day the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, often by the most violent and ungodly means. Micah is sometimes considered a defender of the poor, but really he particularly defended what we today call the middle class. Their land was unlawfully seized (Mic. 2:2); deceitful business practices were rife (6:10–12); community and family life had broken down (7:5–6). Above all, Micah denounced the corrupt leaders and false prophets. Leslie Allen writes: “Even religious leaders—priests and prophets—did little more than echo the spirit of the period, buttressing the society that gave them their livelihood.”⁵

In both of these respects—our attitude toward outside threats and the reality of our inward spiritual state—the prophet Micah speaks powerfully to our time. For just as Judah’s kings had to respond to danger, we too live in a threatening world, and Micah calls us to a calm reliance on our faithful God. And just as Jerusalem’s true religion was revealed by its outward conduct, our profession of faith is likewise tested by our obedience to God’s Word.

THE WORD OF THE LORD

Perhaps the most important words in this opening verse are the very first: “The word of the LORD that came to Micah.” This makes the essential statement, common to all the biblical writers, that what Micah wrote did not originate with himself. John Mackay writes: “The message that follows is not to be attributed to the insight of human genius. It is rather a word that came. This message was revealed by divine initiative. Micah does not ask for any credit for having thought it up. What he claims is that it is the vision he saw.”⁶ Notice that the prophet is passive in this action: Micah is the recipient, the action of revelation having been taken by the Lord (Yahweh, the covenant name of Israel’s God, which appears in most English Bibles as LORD, with small capital letters).

The divine authorship of this book of Scripture, as with the rest of the Bible, carries several key implications. One of them is that it is inerrant. Certainly the prophet himself was subject to error, as well as bias and sin. But because the all-knowing God of truth is the ultimate author, we may be assured that everything contained in this book—its history, its ethics, and its message of salvation—is true and without error, and thus is completely trustworthy. Secondly, because of its divine authorship, we may interpret Micah in light of the entire Bible. Divine authorship is the basis of the unity of the Bible and all its books. What Bruce Waltke says of Micah may be said of the Bible as a whole: “In this book the invisible God becomes audible.”⁷

Most importantly, since Micah’s message came “from the Lord,” it carries the very authority of God, and is to be believed and obeyed today. John Calvin comments: “We owe to the Scripture the same reverence which we owe to God, because it has proceeded from Him alone.”⁸ For the same reason, the message of the prophet Micah is completely relevant to us, since God and his ways never change. This is why when New Testament authors cited the Old Testament, they typically described it speaking in the present tense: “As the Holy Spirit says” (Heb. 3:7); “for the Scripture says,” writes Paul (1 Tim. 5:18).

To be sure, we must interpret Micah’s book in light of his own historical context. But we must not stop there. We must ultimately interpret it in light of the completed revelation of the whole canon of Scripture, with its focus on the saving work of Jesus Christ. Micah’s ministry played a role in the unfolding drama of Christ and his gospel, and its most important message is in anticipating, revealing, and, in some of Micah’s prophecies, foretelling the coming of Jesus.

Lastly, because of the divine authorship of Scripture, it must be precious to all God’s people. An example is seen in the coronation service of a king or queen of the United Kingdom. The moderator of the Church of Scotland presents the new monarch with a Bible and utters these words: “The most precious thing this world affords, the most precious thing that this world knows, God’s living Word.”⁹ So it is, in all its parts, including the Word of the Lord that came to Micah.

THE PROPHETIC MESSAGE OF JUDGMENT

The final statement of verse 1 tells us that, like Dickens’ novel, the message of Micah is a tale of two cities: “The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth . . . which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.” Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, which broke off from Jerusalem during the days of Solomon’s son Rehoboam, with ten of Israel’s twelve tribes. The history of this kingdom is an unbroken record of evil, idolatry, and apostasy. During Micah’s lifetime, the Assyrians would utterly destroy Samaria and deport the ten tribes into historical oblivion. Micah’s concern is primarily over Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom: he sees the judgment of Samaria as a dire warning that Jerusalem must heed to avoid divine wrath. Samaria’s wound, he says, “is incurable, and it has come to Judah, it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem” (Mic. 1:9).

With this in mind, Micah is rightly identified as a prophet of doom. His message of divine wrath on sin is in keeping with that of the prophets as a whole; one of the prophets’ chief functions was to deliver God’s warning of judgment against his faithless people.

This is why the prophetic message of judgment is one of the Bible’s most important themes. We can summarize it by asking four key questions. The first is, Does God have expectations and demands of people? This is an important question because many people assume that God really doesn’t care how we conduct our individual lives, to say nothing of our corporate behavior in society.

Does God demand anything of us? The answer of the prophets, including Micah, is a resounding “Yes!” Micah’s very first message says: “Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness” (Mic. 1:2). Micah’s later summary of God’s demands declares: “He has told you, O man, 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?” (Mic. 6:8). God demands reverent holiness, and Micah preached that God would come to Jerusalem in judgment for sin: “For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. . . . All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel” (Mic. 1:3, 5).

One of the dangers of reading these oracles of ancient judgment is to assume that God is talking about someone other than you. James Boice rightly warns:

When we read of judgment on others we almost sigh in relief, assuming wrongly that if judgment is spoken against them, it is therefore not spoken against us. But this is wrong. God is no respecter of persons. Consequently, if we are going our way and not God’s way, as the people of Jerusalem were doing, then we must do as they eventually did and turn back to God. It is the way we ourselves will escape God’s judgment.¹⁰

A second question to ask of Micah’s prophecy is, Should sin be rebuked? This is a sensitive topic, because our society generally believes that everyone should mind his own business. But Micah clearly shows that sin is to b...