735BC-700BC – Micah the Prophet

The Old Testament includes writings which are called major and minor prophets. They are major or minor because of their size, e.g., Isaiah and Jeremiah are called major prophets because they are large books. By contrast, there are twelve books which we call minor prophets because they are small books. The writers of the major and minor prophets lived in similar times.
Micah is one of the minor prophets. Micah prophesied around 735BC-700BC which was around the same time as Isaiah 739BC-680BC.

One of Micah’s prophecies is quoted in the Gospels, stating where Jesus was to be found by the Magi, as given to Herod the Great by the Sanhedrin – see Micah 5:2.

Like Jonah, Micah’s preaching changed history. As directed by God, Jonah challenged the city of Nineveh and Micah challenged the city of Jerusalem. Both cities got approximately another hundred years of life because they repented and turned to the one true God.

Background Reading: Micah 1:1-7

God’s Coming Judgment

1:1 This message from the LORD came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of the Judean kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah concerning the vision he saw about Samaria and Jerusalem:

2 “Listen, people! All of you! Earth! Pay attention, and all you inhabitants of it! May the Lord GOD be a witness against you— the Lord from his holy Temple.

3 Look here! The LORD is coming from his place! He will come down and will trample down the high places throughout the land.

4 The mountains will melt under him and the valleys will split apart, like wax in the presence of fire and like water gushing down a steep incline.

5 All this comes about due to the transgression of Jacob, and due to the sins of the house of Israel. What is Jacob’s sin? It’s Samaria, isn’t it? And what’s Judah’s high place? It’s Jerusalem, isn’t it?

6 “So I will turn Samaria into a mound of dirt in a field, a place to plant vineyards. And I will dump her building stones into the valley, uncovering her foundation.

7 All of her carved images will be crushed to pieces, all the earnings of her prostitution will be burned up, and I will destroy all her idols; because she collected the wages of prostitution, and to the wages of prostitution they will return.”
Micah 1:1-7
Read the rest of the book of Micah 1:8-7:20.


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