Micah begins with a command for the nation’s leaders to hear his message from the Lord (Mic 3:1a). He opens with a rhetorical question, saying, “Is it not for you to know justice?” (Mic 3:1b). The answer, of course, is yes. Israel’s good leaders were marked by righteousness and justice (see 1 Ki 10:9; Psa 72:1-2, 12-14; Jer 22:1-3). However, the leaders in Micah’s day were so vicious, their behavior is likened to cannibalism, whereby they consumed the lives of those they were called to protect (Mic 3:2-3). The nation’s leaders were guilty of theft (Mic 2:1-2, 8-9), gross injustice (Mic 3:9), bloodshed (Mic 3:10; 7:2), and bribery (Mic 3:11). “By contrast faithful leaders protected their charges and looked out for their welfare. David, the epitome of a good leader for God, was taken from shepherding sheep (1 Sam. 17:15) to become a shepherd of the people (2 Sam. 5:2; 7:7). The people in Micah’s day were being betrayed by their leaders, for if they really cared about the people, they would have turned them back to the Lord.”[1] God’s judgment would eventually fall upon the nation, and because they refused to listen to His warnings, He would not hear their cries (Mic 3:4). God is omniscient and hears all prayers; however, He chooses not to answer the prayers of those who disregard Him and His Word (Deu 1:43-45; Pro 21:13; 28:9; Zec 7:11-13). Micah then addresses the false prophets who were leading God’s people astray (Mic 3:5a), whose messages of peace or calamity depended on the pay of the hearer (Mic 3:5b). For these false prophets, money was their master. Micah pronounces judgment upon them, describing their doom as a time of night and darkness (Mic 3:6), in which God will make them ashamed and embarrassed (Mic 3:7a), saying, “Indeed, they will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God” (Mic 3:7b). The silence of God means the messages of the false prophets were not from Him, but merely the product of their own imaginations (cf. Jer 23:16-22). In contrast with the false prophets, Micah declared, “I am filled with power—with the Spirit of the LORD—and with justice and courage to make known to Jacob his rebellious act, even to Israel his sin” (Mic 3:8). Walking with God gave Micah the right perspective to see what was happening in the nation, as well as the moral fortitude to address their rebellion and sin. Being filled with the Spirit, Micah addressed the corrupt leaders of the nation, “Who abhor justice and twist everything that is straight, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice” (Mic 3:9-10). The leaders included the magistrates, priests and prophets, who pronounce judgment for a bribe, instruct for a price, and prophecy for money (Mic 3:11a). Then they falsely claim that they trust in God, saying, “Is not the Lord in our midst?” and reject Micah’s message, saying, “Calamity will not come upon us” (Mic 3:11b). Because of the failure of the nation’s leaders, prophets and priests, Micah declares, “on account of you Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest” (Mic 3:12). This prophecy came to pass in 586 B.C. when the Babylonians destroyed the city and the temple. It occurred again by the Romans in A.D. 70.

 

[1] John A. Martin, “Micah,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1482.