Micah the Morasthite

A modern writer says, “the Hebrew prophets were intensely political,” and further, “some of them turned their attention to what we should now call ‘social reform.”’ This is quite true, but the approach is not made from the correct angle. Yet we can fully agree with our contemporary in the following citation: “They (the prophets) carried the common man past priest and temple, past court and king and brought him face to face with The Rule of Righteousness.”¹

The prophets of God were “intensely political” because the divine purpose enunciated through them was to be accomplished in the arena of national and international activities.

“His fixed, immutable decree
Binds this world’s hour and destiny.”

Their attention was divinely directed to questions of “social reform” because reform meant a return to God’s ways—a re-forming of Israel’s religious, national and social life in conformity with the revealed requirements of the Deity. Nowhere is this more plainly taught than in the prophecy of Micah. There we have the challenging declaration, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good.”² This, in truth, is the conveying of the human conscience past the verdicts of priests and the ritual of material temples, beyond the sham of courts and away from the waywardness of kings. This is to bring man face to face with The Rule, the divine dictum.

The prophet comes to us, as do so many of his co-labourers, practically unknown; but his work, like theirs, is of vital importance and replete with revelation and instruction. Even his name is significant, being the abbreviated form of a word meaning—“Who is as Yahweh.” Whether we regard this as a question or a declaration does not really matter, for the significance remains. Micah, in common with his fellow-workers in the prophetic office, stood “as Yahweh” in relation to Israel and Judah. The elements of his message are indicative of the Yahweh-character—immutable and awe-commanding in their purity and justice. It is not surprising, therefore, that this prophet’s work should vividly recall the apostolic teaching that the divine character is “without variableness or shadow of turning.”³ Thus, in the book of Micah, God’s determinate purpose (as in other prophecies) again appears in company with the constancy of His virtue and the permanence of His law. For this reason, the prophet’s name is peculiarly appropriate, since his task was accomplished in disquieting times, in days of defection and doubt.

Mareshah

“Not two miles from Beit-Jibrin lies Mer-ash, the Mareshah or Moreshethgath of the Old Testament, and the birthplace of Eliezer and Micah,”⁴ writes George Adam Smith, but he will not have Beit-Jibrin identified as ancient Gath after the manner of Thomson.⁵ Whatever the respective virtues of these views, it appears quite certain that Micah was a Judaean, domiciled in some small town situate in the Shephelah (“The Vale”) and, probably, quite close to Philistian Gath.

A Period of Violence

In the prophecy of Amos were seen the disastrous moral effects of the prosperous reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam II. Now, in the writings of Micah, there follows a phase of almost unrelieved gloom. Since the days of Amos, the northern kingdom of Israel had been torn by internal disorders. Her kings had but a precarious hold on the regal dignity and often rebellion brought them to an untimely and violent death.⁶ These vicissitudes, together with the resultant anxiety and confusion, brought Israel to a sorry condition. The conquests of the second Jeroboam were squandered, and the once formidable nation fell into a degraded and abject state. The newly-risen, and slowly growing Assyrian menace under the able leadership of Pul found the Israelites without the power of effective resistance. For a time they bought immunity, but soon the “unnamed invader”⁷ of Amos was on the march. Eventually, a captain named Pekah compassed the death of the reigning king, Pekahiah. His reign of some twenty years was unrelievedly evil and fraught with serious consequences for Israel; for, Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrian king, penetrated as far south as Galilee and carried into captivity the inhabitants. Then came Hoshea, who, like Pekah, was ready to stain his hands with blood in order to seize the throne. Thus Pekah went the way of his predecessor.

Meanwhile, in Judah, the sovereignty had rested in the hands of Jotham, son of Uzziah. It is recorded of him that “he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,” but he appears to have lacked the power to influence his people. In another place, we are told, “the people did vet corruptly.”⁸ His military movements, however, were crowned with a measure of success, and we learn of the subjugation of Ammon, who paid tribute for at least three years. Ahaz succeeded Jotham, and again the pendulum swung to the extreme of open, unashamed immorality and idolatry. The national morale, untouched by the inert virtue of Jotham, became actively decadent under the vigorous influence of the idol-worshipping Ahaz. It is both strange and illuminating to find one constant factor in this turmoil and change, this unrest and vacillation. Again and again, “the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat,” is seen in active operation. It was constant but not solitary, for, after the manner of some dread plague, it brought divers other ills in its train. To the original politically-actuated sin of the first Jeroboam there were added, in course of time, “the statutes of Omri” and “all the works of the house of Ahab.”⁹ National fortunes rose a little and slumped heavily, but the ancient sins always found their place in men’s hearts. The crown of the head was corrupt and the body was sick. “What is the transgression of Jacob?” asks the prophet, “Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?”¹⁰ The four-fold enquiry permits of one answer only. It leaves no doubt that Isaiah, the contemporary of Micah, spoke truth when he said, “O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.”¹¹

The True and False Prophets

Under these discouraging conditions, lightened only by the intensive but all too brief reform under Hezekiah, lived and worked the stout-hearted Micah. In him, the prophetic claim was fully justified. The prophets of Israel professed to speak the word of the living God. History irrefutably provides both the illustration and vindication of that truth, which Micah had to proclaim emphatically and with courage. It was imperative for him to meet and defeat the efforts of competitive, smooth-tongued and false prophets.¹² In an atmosphere of corruption and injustice, of spiritual poverty and mercenary motives, these false diviners spoke smooth things at the bidding of their paymasters. Micah however, was no obsequious flatterer. From him comes the clear and compelling challenge—the declaration vibrant with eternal truth, “I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.”¹³ Here is no trimming of sails to catch kingly winds, nor blandishment of mien for venal motives, but the stern, powerful voice of God clearly speaking-through the prophet. Judges may be corrupt, priests may be mercenary and prophets may speak according to the purses of their patrons—but, says Micah, “Ye shall not have a vision, . . .it shall be dark unto you . . .there is no answer of God.”¹⁴ These men and their works have perished; but the immutable and immovable things of God spoken by Micah, still survive.

The Prophecies

Micah’s work ranges from the denunciation of great wrongs and the prediction of almost contemporary events, to the foretelling of the place of Messiah’s birth; from thence, his prophecies point forward to the substitution of divine rule for human mismanagement.

Retribution

In the past Israel had been both strong in war and valiant in battle, and they had been ascendant among the nations. As long as they were faithful, God had declared through Moses,¹⁵ He would be with them; and so it was—through the wilderness, during the Palestinian conquest, and whilst David and Solomon were laying the foundations of empire. But the day of national supremacy, alas, had passed—never to return to Israel under mortal administration. The misdeeds of generations had created an ever-widening gulf between God and the people of His choice; and now, in Micah’s day, they stood in imminent danger of dissolution. The hour had come when “the Lord shall judge His people and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone.”¹⁶ We glean something of the extent to which their minds were set to do evil in the threefold step—to devise, to organise and to perpetrate evil.¹⁷ It is eloquent of deliberate, inexcusable wrong-doing. Add to this, the abominable practices by which the pure worship of Yahweh had been displaced, and the resulting aggregate of national and individual transgression invests the word “Woe” with a terrible and retributive significance.

Further, this proneness to do evil and consequent loss of confidence in God, inevitably produced the weak and vacillating policy of the rulers. This natural circumstance hastened and ensured the speedy fulfilment of the prophet’s words, “I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.”¹⁸ Thus Micah graphically announced the deliberate judgment of God.

The Sequence

Before the days of Micah, Menahem, ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel, had paid heavy tribute to the Assyrian Pul, father of the militant Tiglath-Pileser. Not having a sacred treasury—like that at Jerusalem—upon which to draw, it became necessary for him to impose a cruel tax-burden upon the people in order to raise the money. A bribed enemy is a proud and unrelenting master, and a bribe curseth him that gives and him that takes. Thus the position in Israel grew steadily worse. The nation was impoverished, the people were exasperated and the whole community committed idolatrous practices. Then Pekah, murderer and successor of Menahem’s son Pekahiah, resorted to an alliance with Rezin the Syrian king against the southern kingdom of Judah. Thereupon, Ahaz desperately sought the aid of the mighty Tiglath-Pileser. The Assyrian eagerly accepted the opportunity and subjugated the whole of Galilee and Gilead. Enmity within and pressure from without speedily produced a complex situation. Having bought off one foe, Israel now fell a ready victim to the subtle arts of Egyptian diplomacy, for Egypt was alarmed at the movements of the Assyrians. She sensed a challenge to her own designs upon the vital “landlink” between north and south. With characteristic duplicity and false promises, she prevailed upon Hoshea, successor of Pekah, to withhold the annual tribute. Thus the Assyrians found conspiracy in Hoshea and imprisoned him. Then, like some ravening beasts, they descended upon the land under Shalmaneser. The city of Samaria was besieged and, after three years, taken and spoiled. As Micah foretold,¹⁹ her idols, the price of her faithlessness, and the riches of her heathen temples became the victor’s spoil. Her people, after the Assyrian manner, were transported to other parts of the empire. Thus perished the northern kingdom after a chequered existence of nearly three hundred years.

A Brief Respite for Judah

It is testified by the friends of Jeremiah that Micah uttered his prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in the reign of Hezekiah. Zion as a “plowed field” and Jerusalem a “heap of stones” formed the substance of his prediction. It was probably given in the first year of Hezekiah and became one of the contributory causes of the fine enthusiasm and commendable zeal for reform which characterised that king’s reign. This suggestion is supported by Jeremiah, Isaiah and the Second Book of Kings.²⁰ As James reminds us, “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” By divine intervention, the Assyrians, under Sennacherib, were turned away and the peril of extinction was temporarily averted. Perhaps that is why Micah was so careful to say. “He is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.”²¹ As all the world knows, the sentence was eventually executed in a later age and the ploughshares of the Roman Titus obliterated the glories of Judah’s capital.

Bethlehem

Great was the power of God in the prophet when he spoke of Messiah’s birthplace and when, in addition, he delineated his wonderful character and disclosed the source of his power.²² In one word the inspired Micah presents the unique trait which marks Jesus out from among the sons of men as pre-eminently one who walked with God. “He shall . . . stand . . . in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord, his God.” The life of Jesus is an enigma unless that fundamental unity of thought and purpose is discerned. The prophet also says, he shall rule “in the strength of the Lord”; and again, “this man shall be the peace” in the time of invasion of the latter-day Assyrian—that power whose onslaught is so vividly portrayed in the prophecy of Ezekiel.²³ The doctrinal completion of the thought is set out at large in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.²⁴

The Breaker

Under this title, Micah prophesies concerning the more drastic aspect of the final work of Jesus after the welding together of the Jewish polity, in language reminiscent of, and harmonious with, the words of Isaiah.²⁵ Still more forcible and striking is the similarity between this passage and that in Daniel.²⁶ We can visualise the restored, redeemed Israel and Jesus coming forth to conquer. The glorious nucleus of the divinely constituted Kingdom is seen under the sway of the returned Christ—the true shepherd-king over his “sheep of Bozrah.”

The Millennium

The glorious reign of Christ is portrayed in the glowing words of chapter 4—a celestial harmony of things greatly to be desired.

As yet, universal peace is an Everest, inaccessible and humanly unattainable; but shortly, it will be even as the lowest hills, and within the reach and experience of all mankind “in that day.” For, “the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills . . . Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Conclusion

Thus, by a strange irony, we find this “gem of ray serene,” embedded in an age of bitter wrong, hateful strife, and tumultuous change. Courageous and confident, Micah feared not to declare, be it weal or woe, the message of his God. We shall have achieved something if only we can understand the arduous nature of his task. We may sense—though we may not fully appreciate—the deep yearning of his faithful heart as he turned his gaze from contemporary Israel to the divinely-evoked vision of the Glorious Israel-to-Come.

Footnotes:

H. G. Wells’ Short History of the World, p. 81. (The capitals of the quotation are ours).
Micah 6:8.
James 1:17.
The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, p. 233.
The Land and the Book, p. 565.
Vide 2 Kings chaps. 15-19 and 2 Chron. chaps. 27-32.
Vide The Testimony, Dec., 1935, p. 444.
2 Chronicles 27:2.
Micah 6:16.
Micah 1:5.
Isaiah 3:12.
Micah 3:5.
Micah 3:8.
Micah 3:6 and 7.
Deuteronomy 28:1.
Deuteronomy 32:16.
Micah 2:1.
Micah 1:6.
Micah 1:7.
Vide Jeremiah 26:18; Isaiah 37:15-20; 2 Kings 19:17-19.
Micah 1:9.
Micah 5:2 and 4.
Ezek. chaps. 38 and 39.
Ephesians 2:14.
Compare Micah 2:12 and 13 with Isaiah 59:16-19.
Daniel 2:44 and 45.

Micah the Morasthite