For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Micah 7:1-7

1 What misery is mine!
I am like one who gathers summer fruit
    at the gleaning of the vineyard;
there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
    none of the early figs that I crave.
2 The faithful have been swept from the land;
    not one upright person remains.
Everyone lies in wait to shed blood;
    they hunt each other with nets.
3 Both hands are skilled in doing evil;
    the ruler demands gifts,
the judge accepts bribes,
    the powerful dictate what they desire—
    they all conspire together.
4 The best of them is like a brier,
    the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.
The day God visits you has come,
    the day your watchmen sound the alarm.
    Now is the time of your confusion.
5 Do not trust a neighbor;
    put no confidence in a friend.
Even with the woman who lies in your embrace
    guard the words of your lips.
6 For a son dishonors his father,
    a daughter rises up against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
    a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.

7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,
    I wait for God my Savior;
    my God will hear me.

A. Find Out

1. What Micah now feel? v.1
2. Who have gone and who is left? v.2
3. Who are picked out for their sins? v.3,4
4. What had they been doing? v,3,4
5. What should they now be aware of? v.4b
6. How should they now be careful? v.5
7. Why? v.6
8. But what will he do? v.7

B. Think:

1. Consider again the state of this people at this time.
2. What were their specific sins and what was happening?

C. Comment:

Micah looks at his people and as he had been hoping to find good fruit in his people, he was disappointed (v.1). It seems that anyone who he might have considered ‘good’ has disappeared and so only those who are blatantly ‘bad’ are left. (v.2)

The sins? Violent attacking of one another, no doubt the strong bringing down the weak (v.2), rulers wanting payment (v.3a), judges taking bribes (v.3b), those who are powerful conspiring to harm the weak (v.3c). As he looks around, even the best of them of harmfully unpleasant (v.4a), so he warns them, watch out, God’s time for dealing with you has come (v.4b).

He warns them. Realise what you’re all like and be careful, you can’t even trust friends and neighbours or even those within your own household (v.5). For sons are against father, daughters against mothers, and so on, every household turning in on itself (v.6).

In the light of this, the prophet will trust no one but the Lord, and so he will pray and wait upon the Lord. (v.7)

It is too easy to scan through scripture and fail to take in the awfulness of what is being recorded and when we do that, we also fail to see characteristics that we see in the lives of modern families, modern communities, modern nations, especially in the West. Don’t do that.

D. Application:

1. Scripture is to open our eyes to reality. May we let it do that.
2. Sins then are so often the same as sins today. Be discerning.

Micah 7:8-13

8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
    Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
    the Lord will be my light.
9 Because I have sinned against him,
    I will bear the Lord’s wrath,
until he pleads my case
    and upholds my cause.
He will bring me out into the light;
    I will see his righteousness.
10 Then my enemy will see it
    and will be covered with shame,
she who said to me,
    “Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will see her downfall;
    even now she will be trampled underfoot
    like mire in the streets.

11 The day for building your walls will come,
    the day for extending your boundaries.
12 In that day people will come to you
    from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
even from Egypt to the Euphrates
    and from sea to sea
    and from mountain to mountain.
13 The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants,
    as the result of their deeds.

A. Find Out

1. How does he now perhaps speak as the nation? v.8
2. What does he acknowledge and hope for? v.9
3. Who will be challenged and how? v.10
4. What will yet come for Jerusalem? v.11
5. With what consequence? v.12
6. Because what will be happening further afield? v.13

B. Think:

1. How is the role of a prophet often burden-bearing, seen here?
2. How does it provoke prayer and further prophecy?

C. Comment:

The nature of the prophetic word in this small book, now changes dramatically. Whereas it had been largely assessing the state of the nation and bringing condemnation, now the prophet seems to more fully enter into it, expressing his feelings for all that is going on, almost empathetically. He speaks as one who had fallen before enemies and is now in darkness (v.8) but who has come to realise that only the Lord can be his light.

On behalf of the nation he acknowledges their sin, recognizing they are going through the Lord’s punishment, with the hope that He will bring them out the other side of this (v.9).

When the world sees them coming out the other side of this period of failure and discipline, into a place of restoration, those who had mocked them will be challenged (v.10).

This time of restoration will be a time of restoring the city, so that it stands out and is clearly distinguished from the rest of the world (v.11), and then, when that happens, they will attract seekers from all over the world (v.12). The world at large will be in a state of (moral) desolation because of godlessness and unrighteousness (implied) and it will be this that drives many to their senses and they will come looking for an alternative wherever they can see it, and see that God’s blessing is there.

Surely this is a process that is in its early stages in the West in the first quarter of the twenty-first century, recognition of growing ‘desolation’.

D. Application:

1. Catching the heart of God can cause anguish as well as joy.
2. The godly realise that both things should provoke prayer.

Micah 7:14-20

14 Shepherd your people with your staff,
    the flock of your inheritance,
which lives by itself in a forest,
    in fertile pasturelands.]
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
    as in days long ago.

15 “As in the days when you came out of Egypt,
    I will show them my wonders.”

16 Nations will see and be ashamed,
    deprived of all their power.
They will put their hands over their mouths
    and their ears will become deaf.
17 They will lick dust like a snake,
    like creatures that crawl on the ground.
They will come trembling out of their dens;
    they will turn in fear to the Lord our God
    and will be afraid of you.
18 Who is a God like you,
    who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
    of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
    but delight to show mercy.
19 You will again have compassion on us;
    you will tread our sins underfoot
    and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
20 You will be faithful to Jacob,
    and show love to Abraham,
as you pledged on oath to our ancestors
    in days long ago.

A. Find Out

1. What does Micah now pray? v.14
2. What does the Lord appear to reply? v.15
3. Who and what does Micah now prophesy about? v.16
4. What does he say will happen to them? v.17
5. What he say of the Lord and ask of Him v.18
6. What does he ay the Lord will do for them? v.19,20

B. Think:

1. Look back over this passage and distinguish between prayer, prophesy and petition.
2. What sort f relationship with the Lord, do you think Micah has that he can pray and prophesy as he does?

C. Comment:

The book ends with this mixture of prayer, prophesy and petition. Let’s see if we can distinguish between the different writings.

It starts with a simple prayer, that is not so much a heart-petition, as it is a very simple request for the Lord, having said what He’s just said about Israel’s role among the nations, to now shepherd His people – to look after them, guide them and provide for them (v.14) in similar ways to the way He did when He first miraculously led them out of Egypt (v.15). Then he starts prophesying how nations will respond to them.

They will look on them and be astounded (v.16) but even more than that they will be brought down in fear before the Lord (v.17).

Then he turns back in prayer-praise, extolling the Lord who pardons and forgives the remnant (v.18a), not staying angry with them but showing them mercy (v.18b).

He concludes with a prayer-prophesy affirmation of the way the Lord will have compassion on His people, dealing with and removing their sin (v.19) remaining faith to the people He raised up and kept through the centuries ever since Abraham’s initial call and the eventual creation of Jacob-Israel (v.20), all in accordance with the promises He had made to them. The book which has faced and challenged Israel (Jerusalem and Samaria) to face their sin, concludes with giving them future hope.  

D. Application:

1. Know the God of accountability and disciplinary judgment.
2. Know Him also as the God of mercy and grace.