Micah is a well known Minor Prophet because of his contributions to the Christmas story. It wasn’t difficult for the Jews to tell anyone who would listen that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Micah says quite directly in his 5th chapter.
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”
That’s not the only reason. The quote from Isaiah 2:4 carved into stone next to the United Nations is also found in Micah 4:3. Isaiah and Micah were contemporaries. They served the nation of Judah with God’s word around 700 BC.
Micah – like all of the Minor Prophets – called God’s people to repentance. His look at immorality in society touches very closely with some of the modern fraud that his seen in 2020 America! The portion of Micah’s prophesy I would like to touch on is his criticism of God’s people on their reaction. These are selected verses from Micah 2.
2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance. 6 “Do not prophesy,” their prophets say. “Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us.” 7 Should it be said, O house of Jacob: “Is the Spirit of the LORD angry? Does he do such things?” 11 If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’ he would be just the prophet for this people!
There is still plenty of fraud going on. Email and the internet has been wonderful for the spreading of information around the world – including the Gospel of Jesus. However, Satan has used email and the interwebs to cause destruction in many areas of life. Take a simple Nigerian scam! Everyday people give their bank account information to people around the world who would do them harm financially. The reaction of God’s people in verses 6 and 7 are shock. As if God would ever take sin seriously?! Micah leaves God’s people to a prophet who would only offer a future full of “wine and beer”. I praise God that he strikes the sinful hearts of people of all time with his powerful word. God’s Spirit still calls people to repentance today.
Want to hear more? Check out this week’s Bible class taken from our series on the Minor Prophets: Micah.
Please click HERE for the Bible class slides.