The MAJOR & MINOR Prophets - The 16 Writing Prophets Of The Hebrew Canon

The Book of Micah

Micah is yet another book by a farmer-turned-prophet. A contemporary of Amos, the Judean farmer who preached in Israel, Micah came from an agricultural area in Judea ´%XW unlike Amos he does not come from a bare desert; his home at Moresheth is green and fertile, with abundant cattle-grazing, cornfields and olive- JURYHV µ 1 Located about twenty-five miles

southwest of Jerusalem in the foothills of Judea on the border of Judah and Philistia, near the Philistine c LW\ RI *DWK 0LFDK·V KRPHWRZQ ZDV Moresheth Gath (1:14). This small, rural town located near the international highway for caravan travel both northward and south to Egypt, lying at the edge of good farming country, is not elsewhere mentioned in Scripture. Incidentally, Tekoa, the home town of Amos, was only twenty miles east of Moresheth; there could well have been contact between them. L LNH $PRV 0LFDK ZDV ´D FRXQWU\ UHVLGHQW UH moved from the national politics and religion, yet chosen by God to deliver a message of judgment to the princes and people of Jerusalem µ 2 The Life and Times of the Prophet

´0LFDKµ PHDQV ´:KR LV OLNH WKH /25'"µ and is the shortened form of Micaiah. With a name that was carefully chosen by his parents and divinely appointed by God, Micah skillfully weaves the prophetic meaning into his message theme, showing that no man or false god is perfect like the LORD or has His infinite, gracious capacity to forgive those who willfully repent and cease from their transgressions.

´ Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, %HFDXVH +H GHOLJKWV LQ PHUF\µ (Micah 7:18).

We do not know exactly when and how Micah was called or how he received his prophetic inspiration, and we know practically nothing of him as a person, but one verse shows us where his authority and boldness came from:

´%XW WUXO\ , DP IXO l of power by the Spirit of the LORD, and of justice and might, T R GHFODUH WR -DFRE KLV WUDQVJUHVVLRQ DQG WR ,VUDHO KLV VLQµ (Micah 3:8).

:H FDQ HVWLPDWH WKDW 0LFDK·V PLQLVWU\ LQ WKH VRXWKHUQ NLQJGRP RI -XGHD KDG D PLQLPXP span of twenty years and a maximum of fifty-five years, with a suggested dating for the prophet 1 Phillips, Four Prophets, p. 143. 2 The MacArthur Study Bible, p. 1298.

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