Another Bible Commentary: Micah

Micah worked in the same place (the southern kingdom of Judah) and time as Isaiah. This book shares themes with the Book of Isaiah. Micah predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (Jeremiah 26:17-19). Micah spurred the reforms of King Hezekiah. For a brief and oversimplified historical recap of what happened after this book, the northern kingdom of Israel/Samaria fell to Assyria after a three year siege. Assyria came in through the Philistine coast and got Lachish, Damascus, and Ashdod. King Ahaz of Judah had been an Assyrian vassal. King Hezekiah of Judah participated in an anti-Assyrian coalition with Phoenicia and the Philistines, so Sennacherib destroyed most of Judah but left Jerusalem unharmed for the time being, which produced a false sense of security that was addressed by Jeremiah.

1:2 Micah started his section breaks with things like “Hear!” and “Listen!”.

1:3 Jesus should not have been a surprise.

1:4 like Psalm 68:2.

1:6 This was fulfilled in 2 Kings 17 in 722 BC. Regarding “planting vineyards” He saw the beginnings of an Isaiah-5-like people when Samaritans were early believers in Jesus in John 4:39-42. Jesus is the Vine, and we are branches (John 15). He produces our fruit.

1:8 More nude performance art (Isaiah 20).

1:14 “Moresheth” Micah’s hometown (Micah 1:1).

1:16 in 2 Kings 18:9-11.

2:1-2 Besides being theft, these land grabs were an affront to God because He had set those boundaries. See Leviticus 19:13, Isaiah 1:23, and 1 Kings 21.

2:6 like Isaiah 30:10.

2:8 “like men returning from battle” They act as if they were looting the slain.

2:11 is about promising abundance instead of disaster. See Jeremiah 13:12.

2:12-13 Jesus is the Good Shepherd. See Ezekiel 34, Isaiah 40:11, and Isaiah 49:4-12.

3:1 A new section begins. Micah addressed what an Ezekiel 34 perspective would call bad shepherds.

3:2-3 See Ezekiel 11:3 and Ezekiel 24.

3:5-7 See Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah 28, and Ezekiel 13.

3:11 They were used to singing Psalm 46:5. Sennacherib leaving Jerusalem standing would add to their false feeling of security.

3:12 Leviticus 26:31 was an early promise. This was to be fulfilled in 586 BC.

4:1-3 “In the last days” it seems the Temple is to be rebuilt; after all, it was rebuilt and knocked down again in 70 AD. However, Christians are the Temple now (1 Corinthians 3:16-17), and we already reign above with Him (Ephesians 2:6), make of that what you will. See Isaiah 2:2-4 and Jeremiah 3:17.

4:4 like Isaiah 65:21; these are images of home, peace, prosperity, etc.

4:7 Jesus is Lord; Jesus rules.

4:9 like Isaiah 26:17. Prophets can speak of events in their future in the past tense.

4:11-13 like Isaiah 41 and Isaiah 60:11. This gathering of nations is also seen in Revelation 20.

5:2 Bethlehem, or “House of Bread” – See John 6:35. Bethlehem was David’s hometown. See Ruth 4:11. Being descended from Boaz and Ruth met the “clan” requirement for Jesus no matter how much time he spent in Nazareth. His “origins are from Everlasting”; See Isaiah 9:6. “Ephrath” or “Ephrathah” means “fruitful”, and this was an old name for the town of Bethlehem; one of the wives of of David-esque giant-killer Caleb, ancestor of Bethlehem (1 Chronicles 2:19,50-52 and 1 Chronicles 4:4 for the genealogists out there), was named Ephrath/Ephrathah.

5:3 “His brothers” Christians; see Hebrews 2:11.

5:5 “Assyrians” can pertain to future threats, too. Prophets can be poetic. The Seleucids that God helped the Maccabees defeat had held historical Assyrian land, for example. Regarding “seven…even eight”, it is an idiom for “enough” or “plenty” as in Ecclesiastes 11:2. The gist is that God has got us; this section is similar to Isaiah 54:15.

5:6 “land of Nimrod” Nimrod founded Babylon and ruled several other city-states; see Genesis 10:8-12.

5:9 like in Esther.

6:1 Here’s a new section.

6:5 “Balak” is from Numbers 24 and Numbers 25; “Gilgal” was where the Hebrews entered the Promised Land in Joshua 4:19.

6:6-8 See Amos 5:21-24, Isaiah 1:10-17, Hosea 6:6, and 1 Samuel 15:22.

6:8 deserves repeated readings. See Isaiah 1:17. The “walk” is like that of Noah in Genesis 6:9.

6:9 Here’s a new section. See Proverbs 1:7.

6:10-11 like Amos 8:4-6.

6:12 James wrote against rich oppressors. Remember this section about cheating, lying, killing the righteous, etc., to avoid getting confused about whether being okay financially is a bad thing.

6:15 like Deuteronomy 28:38.

6:16 To remember what the Omride dynasty was like, see 1 Kings 16:25-33. Their “practices” were, in addition to idolatry, things like killing prophets (1 Kings 18) and killing to steal land (1 Kings 21).

7:1 Jesus’ object lesson with the fig tree (Mark 11) points to this. God wanted righteousness and found none.

7:2 like Isaiah 9:17.

7:5-6 like Matthew 10:21.

7:8 Jesus rose from the dead and left the darkness of the grave. Some commentators say this bit is about the return of Israel as a nation, but if that were true, then who is “you” in verses 11 and 12 compared to the “I” and “me” of verses 8 through 10?

7:9 Jesus took my sins for me (2 Corinthians 5:21). That’s my mess that He’s owning right there. If I were the only human in the world, He would have had to die to save me, and He loves me enough that He would have done it anyway. I just phrased that personally but it applies to everyone.

7:12 like Isaiah 19:18-25.

7:13 like Isaiah 24.

7:14 like Psalm 23.

7:16 Silent and deaf like idols.

7:18 like Isaiah 43:25 and Exodus 34:6-7.

7:19 Christian, your sins are gone, drowned like the Egyptian army (Exodus 14:16-31); God’s not looking for them.

7:20 as seen in Genesis 22:16-17 and reiterated in Genesis 28:14-15. An old English translation of the faithfulness in this verse says that God “gave truth” to Jacob; while faithfulness is the focus, He did give Jacob truth by teaching him not to scheme so much.

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