It is truly both miraculous and insightful when one reads the biblical prophets just how much connection there is between the issues God’s messengers denounced then and our own time with its troubles. Power, greed, injustice, turning a blind eye to sin, and so much more can be found in the book that we focus on in this article: Micah.

Micah lived in the 700s B.C. His indictment against his fellow Jews was not because Judah’s military was not the greatest, the economy was not the largest, or even that Judah was not a mighty world empire. All of the earthly sources man trusts in for power and safety did not matter to those who heard Micah’s message. Judgment was coming for one reason and one reason only: Israel and Judah, God’s people, were not living up to their side of the agreement they had made when He graciously delivered them from slavery in Egypt and gave them the Ten Commandments.

Part of living that relationship with God in one’s life is caring for the “least of these”: widows, orphans, and others that have been forgotten by society, but never forgotten by God. So often the temptation in our world today is to keep our “religious life” separate from the rest of our lives. I know you have heard me say this often, but again I must emphasize that the Bible makes no such separation. As the book of James says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (1:27). This among many other verses in the Bible show us that what we believe must be lived out in our everyday lives and in every aspect of life. Just as God created us as one whole person, so therefore our faith must touch our whole lives.

As one reads through the book of Micah, we see a list of corrupt individuals that are the perpetrators of the injustice done to the innocent: “property barons who enrich themselves at the expense of their countrymen (2:1-2), opportunists whose moral compass is stuck on greed (2:8-9), government officials who use their power to enrich themselves on the backs of those they govern (3:1-4), self-appointed prophets and corrupt priests who are ready to preach health and wealth as long as the offering plate is full (3:5-7, 11), and dishonest businessmen who use every trick to extort more profit (6:10-12).” (How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens, pg. 133-34).

God’s aim for his people is that they would show his mercy, justice, and goodness to the whole world by the lives they lived. If justice would not be done by those whom God had appointed, the leaders of His people, then it would come from God Himself, by bringing down the high and lofty and remind them and us all, that He does not show favoritism but instead looks at the heart. Yet, even in the aftermath of the judgment that was to come to Jerusalem many years later when the city and temple would be destroyed and the people would be exiled, Micah delivers a message of hope and deliverance. God promises a time when not just Israel and Judah would be restored, but that “many nations” will come to the Lord and learn his ways. This new people of God would be led by a just and merciful shepherd who later on would say to His followers, “Whatever you did to the least of these, you did it to me” (Matt. 25).

The church is to act as a voice of prophetic reform in a society, to show and remind that society of God and His ways, and then champion the cause of those whom that society would overlook. More often than not throughout the history of the church, the exact opposite has happened. The church would cozy up next to the state and rather than make the state holy it would make the church corrupt. Instead, we are to heed the words that another prophet Jeremiah would write to those same people of God after His judgment once they had been exiled so long ago. They were not to forget who they were and to still be God’s people, but to act like this with the purpose of going into another country and showing them what that means and that He loves all men and desires that all repent.

Today, we can look at the above perpetrators and still see the same injustice happening everywhere. We have the same responsibility as the people of God to practice justice and mercy in all situations as well as to be a voice of reform to call all people to turn away from sin, injustice, greed, and exploitation and to follow the merciful shepherd, Jesus Christ. We do this with the truth found in the Bible and with the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Ask God to show you areas of your life, your work, your family, or your community where injustice is taking place, where wickedness is being tolerated, and then ask Him to show you what must be done to correct it and bring righteousness and holiness to that place. And take this verse from Micah with you: “He [God] has told you, O man, what is good: and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Your Brother,

Craig