In his great grace…God sent the prophet Micah to confront their [Samaria and Judah] sin, warn them of judgment, and call them to repentance. Micah prophesied of the coming judgment, when God would abandon them (for a time) to the invading enemies of Assyria and Babylon, who would trample their cities and carry their people off to exile. 

But while God is a righteous Judge who carries out deserved judgment, he is also a merciful Savior who gives undeserved grace and full forgiveness to those who turn to him in repentance. The specific hope Micah presented was the promise of a Shepherd-King who would gather his faithful remnant back in the land, tenderly care for them, and defeat their great enemy. The result would be that people from many nations would come to worship Israel’s God. To God’s people who had suffered under a line of failed kings and oppressive foreign regimes, Micah announced the coming of a Shepherd-King who would arise from Bethlehem, saying, “He shall be their peace” (Micah 5:2–5 ESV). 

Ultimately, Jesus himself is the long-anticipated Shepherd-King who has made peace with God. He has done it, however, not through the raw power of military deliverance but through “the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20 ESV). He did not come to destroy but to be destroyed, laying down his life for his sheep (John 10:15). He now rules over his people in perfect justice and abundant mercy, empowering his people, by his Spirit, to walk humbly in his just and merciful ways (1 John 2:6)—the very life Israel in Micah’s day had abandoned. 

—ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible

Source: Content adapted from the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible. This article first appeared on Crossway.org; used with permission.

But the theme of the book is plain: it is the wretched estate of all Israel because of their sin, and the wonderful deliverance to be brought in by him “whose goings-forth have been of old, from everlasting,” yet who was to come out of Bethlehem-Ephrathah to effect salvation for his people. Hence, though this first chapter begins with their solemn arraignment for “the transgression of Jacob” and “for the sins of the house of Israel,” the book concludes with the precious assurance that he whom they have offended will cast all their sins into the depth of the sea.

—H.A. Ironside

Source: Ironside, H. A. “Commentary on Micah 1”. Ironside’s Notes on Selected Books. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/isn/micah-1.html. 1914.

Micah is going to come to the south [Southern Kingdom of Judah] about the time that the north [Northern Kingdom of Israel] is going to be taken away by Assyria. So he’s going to be prophesying during the Assyrian captivity. Assyria is going to come, they’re going to take the Northern Kingdom, they’re going to strip them naked, they’re going to put hooks in their mouths like fish, they’re going to put shackles on their necks and on their hands, and they are going to lead them in shame out of the nation of Israel back home to Assyria where they will become indentured servants there. 

Micah is going to be watching this happen in the north, and he’s going to speak to the south and say, “Listen guys, what got them in trouble is the same stuff that’s going on down here and there’s no way that we should think we are above the law and we are going to miss out on this sort of judgment.” God is giving this word to Micah. So he is primarily a prophet to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, often describing and reflecting upon events that are happening or did happen in the north. 

—Garrett Kell

Source: Garrett Kell, quoted from his lecture “1:1-2:5” on the book of Micah from his course called Study Micah. This message originally appeared here at The Gospel Coalition.

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.” 

—Micah 3:11 NIV

Micah 3:5 elaborates on the extent of the prophets’ wickedness: they “cry ‘Peace’ when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.” These false prophets were engaging in a type of spiritual extortion. They prophesied positive messages to those who provided them with sustenance. But, if someone refused to pay, these selfish prophets-for-hire would utter negative or even violent oracles against him. In other words, these wicked men were abusing their office, and their messages were based solely on what brought them the greatest benefit. 

—Got Questions

Source: “Why is the lack of visions and divinations considered a punishment (Micah 3:6)?” Got Questions Ministries, accessed May 25, 2023, [https://www.gotquestions.org/lack-of-visions.html]

Amos (ca. 775-743 BC) gives us eyewitness testimony to the moral rot at work inside Samaria a generation before Micah (cf. Amos 2:6-7; 4:6-9; 5:10-12; 8:4-6). Hosea, who bridged the generations between Amos and Micah (ca. 760-725), testifies that the same sorry situation continued to obtain in Samaria. From Hosea’s successors, Micah and Isaiah, we learn that the contagious social injustices that prevailed in Samaria now prevailed in her… sister Jerusalem as well.

—Bruce Waltke

Source: Waltke, Bruce K. A Commentary on Micah. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007.

Apart from Isaiah 2:2-4, three other passages from Micah are quoted elsewhere in Scripture. Micah 3:12 is quoted in Jeremiah 26:18, thereby saving Jeremiah’s life from King Jehoiakim’s death sentence. Micah 5:2 is quoted by the chief priests and scribes (Matthew 2:6) in response to Herod’s query about the birthplace of the Messiah. Micah 7:6 is employed by Jesus in Matthew 10:35 and 36 when commissioning his disciples.

—John MacArthur

Source: Copyright 2022, Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission. This Grace to You article originally appeared here at gty.org.

This is really important to understand and it travels through all of these prophets: warnings of judgment are always grace. Because if all God wanted to do was to judge us, he wouldn’t warn us first, he would just judge us. Whenever God announces his judgment—why is he doing that? To give us a chance to listen, and to see, and to confess, and to turn. The core message, then, of Micah is that this Righteous Judge is also a Tender Savior, and he will not forsake his righteous requirement in order to deliver his mercy.

—Paul David Tripp

Source: Paul David Tripp, quoted from his video “Micah Summary” in his series, The Gospel: One Book at a Time, published on his blog paultripp.com. 

Micah promises a future deliverer who will gather God’s people as a shepherd gathers his flock but will also fight for them and lead them as their King. Such imagery, reminiscent of King David, a shepherd who eventually became king (1 Samuel 16:11–13; 2 Samuel 2:1–4), anticipates a coming King like David who will once again gather God’s people, fight for them against their enemies, deliver them from bondage, bring about lasting peace, and rule over them with justice. With echoes of Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt (Exodus 13:21; Deuteronomy 1:30–33), Micah proclaims that the Lord himself will be that Shepherd-King. Of course, Micah’s original audience would likely hear such a promise in terms of God’s Spirit being with a human king, as the Spirit was with David. However, God’s plans were much greater, as it was indeed God himself, the Lord made flesh, who would rescue his people through his own life, death, and resurrection.

—Kristofer D. Holroyd

Source: Content taken from Jonah, Micah, and Nahum: A 12-Week Study © 2018 by Kristofer D. Holroyd. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

God’s judgment often seems to threaten the total annihilation of humanity, as in the days of Noah (Genesis 6); and sometimes the spread of wickedness seems to threaten total annihilation of God’s people, as in the days of Elijah (1 Kings 19). In both cases, however, God preserved for himself a remnant, a small group of those faithful to him, through whom he preserved the reputation and glory of his name. In the days of Noah, God preserved the remnant of Noah and his family; in the days of Elijah, God preserved 7,000 in Israel who had not worshiped the false god Baal. Throughout the struggles of Israel in the Old Testament, God always preserved a remnant of his people, a small group of those called by God and faithful to him (e.g., Isaiah 10:20–23; Micah 2:12–13). Similarly today, despite judgment on the earth or the apparent expansion of wickedness to the detriment of the church, God preserves his people as a remnant among all people on earth, protecting the reputation and glory of his name through that remnant.

—Kristofer D. Holroyd

Source: Content taken from Jonah, Micah, and Nahum: A 12-Week Study © 2018 by Kristofer D. Holroyd. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

God is looking for wholeheartedness. He’s looking for people that love him with all of themselves—inside and out…[God says in Micah 6] “Don’t come with rituals, claiming that you love me. Show that you love me by how you treat your neighbor. Show that you really love and regard and honor me by the way that you follow my command to love your neighbor as yourself, to act justly and to love mercy”…In other words he tests their asserted devotion in their hearts and in their worship to God by how they are treating other people. Are you treating other people the way the God that you say that you love has told you to treat other people? By the way that is very important for us today as believers—that our treatment of our neighbors concords with our profession of love to God.

—Ligon Duncan

Source: Ligon Duncan, quoted from his message, “Micah: Who Is Like God?,” from the series The Minor Prophets, preached at Christ Covenant Church on July 22, 2018.