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 3:1-7

1 Then I said,

“Listen, you leaders of Jacob,
    you rulers of Israel.
Should you not embrace justice,
2     you who hate good and love evil;
who tear the skin from my people
    and the flesh from their bones;
3 who eat my people’s flesh,
    strip off their skin
    and break their bones in pieces;
who chop them up like meat for the pan,
    like flesh for the pot?”

4 Then they will cry out to the Lord,
    but he will not answer them.
At that time he will hide his face from them
    because of the evil they have done.

5 This is what the Lord says: “As for the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
they proclaim ‘peace’
    if they have something to eat,
but prepare to wage war against anyone
    who refuses to feed them.
6 Therefore night will come over you, without visions,
    and darkness, without divination.
The sun will set for the prophets,
    and the day will go dark for them.
7 The seers will be ashamed
    and the diviners disgraced.
They will all cover their faces
    because there is no answer from God.”

A. Find Out

1. To whom does the Lord next speak? v.1
2. What does He say they have been doing? v.2,3
3. What is coming for them? v.4
4. What had the prophets been doing? v.5
5. What He bring on them? v.6
6. Who will be disgraced and why? v.7

B. Think:

1. How would you sum up in your own words what the leaders and rulers had been doing?
2. How had the prophets been failing the Lord and the people?
3. How will they be shamed?

C. Comment:

The focus of this chapter is the failure of both leaders (rulers)(v.1) and the prophets (v.5) So, first of all their leaders or rulers (v.1) As leaders they should uphold and maintain justice (v.1c) in the nation, but it is clear they do not. He very graphically (v.2) portrays what they do – they strip people of everything they have and leave their lives shredded and in pieces (v.3) Imagine what it feels like when your life is in ruins, and this is what you feel like.

The trouble is the whole nation has gone astray so when these people cry out to God for help from these rulers (v.4), that help is not forthcoming – because they are still idol worshipper and thus separated off from God.

But then he turns to the prophets (v.5a) who prophesy good things if they are fed by the people (v.5b) but they are so off the rails they will use their role as prophets to demean those who won’t pay them. Yes, this idolatrous people may deserve this but the Lord’s focus fort the moment at least is on these so-called prophets.

He is going to deal with them (v.6) and whereas once they might indeed have had some semblance of a prophetic ministry, the Lord will remove that from them (v.6). Indeed this will include anyone who calls themselves a seer or diviner, they are all as bad. (v.7)

D. Application:

1. Leaders are always particularly held to account by the Lord.
2. To can claim any ministry, but f the Lord’s not in it, it’s fake.

Micah 3:8-12

8 But as for me, I am filled with power,
    with the Spirit of the Lord,
    and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression,
    to Israel his sin.

9 Hear this, you leaders of Jacob,
    you rulers of Israel,
who despise justice
    and distort all that is right;
10 who build Zion with bloodshed,
    and Jerusalem with wickedness.
11 Her leaders judge for a bribe,
    her priests teach for a price,
    and her prophets tell fortunes for money.
Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say,
    “Is not the Lord among us?
    No disaster will come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you,
    Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,
    the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

A. Find Out

1. What does Micah claim about himself? v.8a
2. With what aim in mind?  v.8b
3. To whom does he now return again? v.9a
4. How does he describe what they have been doing? v.9b,10
5. What does he say about all of them?  v.11
6. So what will He do? v.12

B. Think:

1. What, do you think, is clear about the Lord’s expectations of the secular and spiritual leaders of His people?
2. How had they been failing Him in caring for His people?
3. So how was He now going to hold them to account?

C. Comment:

Micah, clearly filled with the Spirit, declares that fact (v.8) as a way of distinguishing himself from the so-called prophets, seers and diviners who existed in the land at that time.  He comes speak of what is right and wrong (justice) and comes with the power of the Lord (might) to point out to the nation their failures, their sin.

He turns back to the leaders again (v.9). If they thought the spotlight had been taken off them onto the prophets, they should think again! Whereas he declares justice, they abuse it (v.9b) and all they put into the life of the community is bloodshed and wickedness (v.10).

Instead of upholding justice, they pervert it for money (v.11a) and indeed money is the focus, not only of them but also the priests and the prophets (v.11b); they’re all at it! And they dare to think they can count on the Lord’s support to protect them as a people! (v.11c)

But there is going to soon come a time of accounting when the Lord will bring all this to an end, not simply because He’s going to deal with these particular groups of leaders but, (by implication) with all the people (for the idolatry he’s been previously speaking about) but it won’t just be one-to-one confrontations, He’s going to come and bring destruction to Jerusalem (v.12) and the nation at large. It would be a few years and a few kings yet but it did happen in 587BC, the start of the real Exile.

D. Application:

1. If God appears to delay it is for our benefit (see 2 Pet 39)
2. All WILL have to account, either now in at the Final Judgment.