Micah: Three Calls to Hear

The Pattern

Micah is seven chapters in three rounds. Each round opens with the same command — Hear (shim’u) — and each moves from judgment to hope. Hold the three rounds and the whole book is held.

• Round one (chapters 1–2): Hear, all ye people (1:2). Judgment on Samaria and Jerusalem; hope in 2:12–13.
• Round two (chapters 3–5): Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob (3:1). Judgment on rulers, priests and prophets; hope in chapters 4–5.
• Round three (chapters 6–7): Hear ye now what Yahuah saith (6:1). Yahuah takes His people to court; hope in 7:7–20.

The book carries one more pattern in its last lines. Micah’s name means Who is like Yah? The book ends: Who is a El like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity? (7:18). The prophet’s name becomes the closing question, and the answer is the whole book.

The Setting

Micah prophesied under Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (1:1), the same years as Isaiah. He came from Moresheth, a farm town, and his anger is aimed at the people in power: the rich who seize land, the judges who take bribes, and the prophets who preach for pay. A century later his words saved Jeremiah’s life, when elders cited him as a prophet Hezekiah had heeded (Jeremiah 26:17–19).

Round One: Hear, All Ye People (1–2)

The charge: the sin of the capitals. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? (1:5). The powerful covet fields, and take them by violence (2:2), and tell the true prophets, Prophesy ye not (2:6).

The hope: I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee … The breaker is come up before them … and Yahuah on the head of them (2:12–13). A shepherd gathers the flock, and Yahuah goes at its head.

Watch for: the people want a different preacher: If a man … do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people (2:11).

Round Two: Hear, O Heads of Jacob (3–5)

The charge: 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 Yahuah, and say, Is not Yahuah among us? (3:11). So Zion for your sake shall be plowed as a field (3:12).

The hope: The law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of Yahuah from Jerusalem … they shall beat their swords into plowshares (4:2–3). Isaiah has the same oracle almost word for word (Isaiah 2:2–4). Then a ruler from Bethlehem (5:2).

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. (Micah 5:2)

Watch for: this verse is a standing Trinity proof text, and Micah answers it himself. The ruler comes forth unto me — two parties, Yahuah and the one sent to Him. From of old, from everlasting is miqqedem mimei olam, from ancient days, and Micah uses the same words in chapter 7 for Israel’s past: as in the days of old (7:14, yemei olam) and from the days of old (7:20, yemei qedem). His origins run back to the ancient promise, in David’s town. Two verses later the ruler shall stand and feed in the strength of Yahuah, in the majesty of the name of Yahuah his Elohim (5:4). The ruler has an Elohim, so he is not that Elohim.

Round Three: Hear Ye Now (6–7)

The charge: Yahuah hath a controversy with his people (6:2), and He opens with a question: O my people, what have I done unto thee? (6:3). The people ask what would satisfy Him: thousands of rams, rivers of oil, my firstborn for my transgression? (6:7).

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Yahuah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy Elohim? (Micah 6:8)

The hope: I will look unto Yahuah; I will wait for the Elohim of my salvation (7:7). The book closes on pardon: he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy … thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea (7:18–19).

Watch for: He hath shewed thee — shown already, and where. Micah 6:8 echoes Deuteronomy 10:12–13: what doth Yahuah thy Elohim require of thee, but to fear … to walk in all his ways … to keep the commandments of Yahuah.

Three Pulpit Errors Micah Answers

• Micah 5:2 proves an eternal Son. The ruler comes forth unto Yahuah, from ancient days as Micah himself uses the words, and serves Yahuah his Elohim (5:4).
• Micah 6:8 replaces the commandments with being kind. Do justly is mishpat, the judgments of Torah, and the verse restates Deuteronomy 10:12–13, which ends in keeping the commandments.
• The law was only for Israel. In the last days the law shall go forth of Zion and the nations come saying he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths (4:2). The apostolic writings place the last days from the first coming onward (Acts 2:17; Hebrews 1:2).

Where Micah Points Next

Micah ends with sins thrown into the depths of the sea (7:19). Revelation ends with the sea itself gone: and there was no more sea (Revelation 21:1). And the question in Micah’s name gets its answer from the redeemed: who shall not fear thee, O Yahuah, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy (Revelation 15:4).