Hi James and Ellen,
Micah is the edited ruminations of a self-identified prophet whose name means ‘who is like Yahweh’. The resulting communiqués were compiled and became the Micah Book. Micah very probably scribed his first musings before the country of Assyria’s army overran Israel’s northern kingdom in 722 B.C. Israel’s northern kingdom’s land area took on being called the land of Israel with some of the land area later becoming called Samaria. Israel’s southern kingdom’s land area took on being called the land of Judah. Micah was born in the city of Moresheth. The city of Moresheth was located on the Judah-Philistine frontier. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet spokesman who God assigned to planet Earth to warn His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah – Israel’s southern kingdom, that because of their disobedience of His expectations that they serve Him only and for their defiance to not live out through their lives the mandates that He gave through Moses to them after He met with Moses on Mount Sinai, that He was going to very soon do a number on them. Micah predicted that the land of Samaria would soon become a land of rubble. Micah would realize that prediction. Micah predicted also that the land of Judah would suffer a similar fate as the land of Samaria. Micah did not realize that predication in his lifetime. Micah’s dire judgment pronouncement on God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Samaria – or in Israel’s northern kingdom, was God’s verdict for their intentional idolatrousness. God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Samaria worshipped inanimate wood, stone, clay and metal idols – that had been handmade, instead of worshipping only Him as He had instructed and expected them to do. Micah’s bleak judgment pronouncement on God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel’s southern kingdom – or in the land of Judah, was God’s verdict for their callous oppression of the poor and their calculated refusal to listen to what His prophet spokesmen were telling them that they needed to do. Because God’s specially chosen guys and gals wanted to only hear God’s planet Earth assigned spokesmen talking peace instead of giving warnings, God’s planet Earth assigned spokesmen were not heeded.
Micah Book’s seven chapters are made up of four distinct entries. The first entry has Micah predicting what was going to happen to God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel’s northern kingdom – the land of Samaria, and in Israel’s southern kingdom – the land of Judah, and why it was going to happen. Even though Micah lamented about the horrific destruction that was going to happen in the lands of Samaria and Judah, Micah knew that because of the corrupted lifestyles of God’s specially chosen guys and gals that God would no longer hold back doing what He said that He would do to them if . . . Micah placed the blame for the out of control, downward spiral of God’s specially chosen guys and gals on their leaders. Instead of continuing to hammer on God’s specially chosen guys and gals for their spiritual and principled failings, Micah Book’s next section has Micah building on Isaiah’s God-given message of hope by using it – through tweaking it, to get across what he wanted to say to God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land areas of Samaria and Judah. Micah picked up what Isaiah wrote about a coming kingdom and King. Micah Book’s third section has Micah having Hezekiah reigning as king over the guys and gals who were living Israel’s southern kingdom – the land of Judah, as the backdrop. Sargon II and his Assyrian army had already subjugated Israel’s northern kingdom – the land of Samaria, in 722 B.C. Because of his fear in 701 B.C. that Sennacherib and his Assyrian army would invade the land of Judah, Hezekiah arbitrarily decided to give forty Judah land area cities – including the city of Moresheth, to Sennacherib along with a tribute. This led to Micah recording God’s accusation against Hezekiah for what he did and God’s pending judgment for what Hezekiah had done. Micah Book’s last section has Micah going melancholic again as he is reflecting on the corrupt sinfulness of his people groups guys and gals. Even though evil ruled Micah’s day, Micah – per what he scribed in what may have been the last thing that he scribed, reflected back to the covenant promise that God made with Abraham that gives bright hope to a bleak future and which gives a victory declaration over an eminent defeat.
Your grandpaa thinks that there are similarities from when Micah lived on planet Earth to what is taking place in the United States today. Immoral relationships are polluting the United States society just as depraved lifestyles degraded God’s specially chosen guys and gals during Micah’s lifetime. United States Supreme Court decisions to legalize the killing of human embryos, to remove God’s Word from schools and to deny open talking with God in school venues has accelerated God being spurned by guys, gals and kids who are living in the United States just as God was shunned by guys and gals who were living in Micah’s lifetime when the poor were oppressed and God’s assigned planet Earth messengers were ignored. Guys, gals and kids who are now living in the United States have a President with a megalomaniac ego who uses God’s name and words as a pawn to promote his pride driven ego. (It is now 14 years later. God has permitted what that President planted in the United States to take root as socialism.)
Micah