Deeper Commentary

Micah Chapter 7

Micah 7:1 Misery is mine! Indeed, I am like one who gathers the summer fruits, as gleanings of the vineyard: There is no cluster of grapes to eat Having just said that Israel would sow and not reap (Mic. 6:15), Micah feels as if summer has come, and he has gone to gather the harvest, but there is hardly any. Just the equivalent of left over gleaning quality harvest. This may imply that the harvest had been done by someone else; perhaps he envisages himself as picking up the pieces of a tiny repentant remnant after it. Although there was no cluster of grapes, there were a few odd grapes here and there, the kind of thing left behind for gleaning by the poor. Or perhaps this speaks of the tiny remnant who did respond to Micah's message, just a grape here and there; and that was enough for God to change His plans of destroying Jerusalem by the Assyrians.

 The voice of the prophets didn't go entirely unheeded. A tiny minority responded. Isaiah had his school of disciples, referred to in Isaiah 8. The books of the prophets were presumably written up (under inspiration) by their disciples, and the biographical sections added by them. So the very existence of the books of the prophets itself indicates they had some converts who hung on and valued their every word. And yet despite this, the prophets felt lonely men, despite the converts they made- Jeremiah “sat alone” (Jer. 15:17). Not only was their perspective on human sinfulness so very different to that of their audience. They preached a message which was counter-cultural and attacked the very bases of the assumptions which lay at the core of individual and social life in Israel. They appeared to back Israel’s enemies. Their message was therefore rejected by the vast majority.

My soul desires to eat the early fig- But the lack of wider response was indeed a "misery" to Micah, just as human indifference to our message should not be met by our indifference to that fact. He really wanted their repentance. His desire for the early fig was a desire to see at least some spiritual fruit in Israel, and is alluded to in Mt. 21:19; Micah's character looked forward to the passion of the Lord Jesus in desiring spiritual fruit, however immature, like an early fig, but at least something.

This leads to the reflection that Micah 7 is a prophecy shot through with Messianic allusion. Mic. 7:4 is alluded to in Mt. 7:16. The Lord openly quoted Mic. 7:6 concerning himself and His men in Mt. 10:35,36. There are many references to the Lord's betrayal and arrest: "They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net" (7:2 = Jn. 8:59; 10:31,39; 11:8). "The prince (Herod) asketh (for a sign, Lk. 23:8), the judge (Pilate) asketh for a reward; and the great man (Caiaphas he High Priest) he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up" (Mic. 7:3), i.e. hatch their plot together. Because of this, "the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh" (Mic. 7:4 = Lk. 19:44). See on :5.

Micah 7:2 The Godly man has perished out of the land- Isaiah uses the same word for "perish" to lament the same situation, where "the righteous perish and none lays it to heart" (Is. 57:1). Although it seemed that generally there were no good men left in the land, Micah like Elijah was overlooking the critical importance of the remnant of whom he has just spoken in :1, a grape here and there. But as noted on :1, the reference may here look forward specifically to the Lord Jesus the Messiah, "the Godly man".

 

And there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net- The spiritual situation at the time of Hezekiah was very low indeed. An individual like Hezekiah with the help of a small minority might impose reforms and appear to redirect the majority toward Godliness, but often the real spiritual level amongst the congregation is very low indeed. It is not the leadership which are specifically criticized here; "every man" was at war with his brother. And our attitude to our brother is chosen as the litmus indicator of how "upright" we are. To hunt with the net implies they considered their brothers small game, small animals who could be caught with a net for their own gain.

Micah 7:3 Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently- Evil had become a focus and obsession for them. This is the nature of sin; the apparently little things of falsifying weights led to a way of life focused upon it, with both hands (Heb.).

 

The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul- As noted on :1, this spirit came to its full term in the way the Jews condemned the innocent Lord Jesus. We note that even amidst the reforms of Hezekiah, the judiciary and leadership were utterly corrupt. Genuine spirituality was always in a minority; but that minority was significant enough in God's eyes for the Assyrian army to be slain and Jerusalem saved from the intended destruction. Or, as I have suggested earlier, it was the single intercession of Micah and others which was acceptable to Him, just as likely God would have saved Sodom for the sake of one man, or even just Abraham's intercession, had Abraham had the spiritual vision to perceive that.

Thus they conspire together- There was a feedback between the sinful desires of the powerful, and the openness of the judges to bribes. The one encouraged the other, until society slipped into a headlong rush into sin. We earlier noted on Mic. 2 that the desires of the people likewise led the false prophets to prophesy what the people wanted to hear. An upward spiral of spirituality in any group of people is so much harder to initiate and sustain, but it is possible; for the body of Christ makes increase of itself in love.

Micah 7:4 The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge- Even amongst sinners, God seems to grade them. There are better and worse sinners. This reflects His extreme sensitivity to sin and careful calculation of the meaning of every sin.

The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion- The watchman were the prophets; "the day" they had predicted of Yahweh's judgment "has come" in Micah's time. The word is used of Micah personally in :7, and we can imagine that he had the school of prophets centered around Isaiah in view (Is. 8:18). And yet by grace, the day of Jerusalem's destruction was averted, thanks to Micah's ministry. What was "now" was still changed. "Confusion" is only used elsewhere in the contemporary Is. 22:5, where it is the time when Zion's walls should be broken down. That was effectively "now", but was changed. It did indeed come about in the Babylonian invasion, but that was a rescheduled fulfilment of the words of Isaiah and Micah.

Micah 7:5 Don’t trust in a neighbour. Don’t put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth!- As noted earlier in this chapter, those who were truly with the Lord were just a grape here and there on a harvested tree. Being part of such a tiny minority was a lonely experience. Micah implies that this minority were liable to betrayal by their family members, and perhaps he had had the same experience with his own wife (Dt. 13:6) and relatives. Again we see that the judiciary and ruling classes even under Hezekiah were not only morally corrupt but abusive towards the righteous remnant. This is something not immediately apparent in the historical records.

 

The application to the Lord Jesus is clear. "Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide (reference to Judas- Ps. 55:13): keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom". This begins a reference to Samson's experience with Delilah. "I will look unto the Lord (Samson first used the Yahweh Name when he cried in his final suffering)... my God will hear me (cp. "Hear me this once" )... rejoice not against me, O mine enemy (the Philistines mocking Samson): when I fall, I shall arise (Heb. elsewhere used about the resurrection); when I sit in darkness (Samson sitting in blindness in the prison), the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him (Samson's thoughts, surely), until he plead my cause ("Remember me")... will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. Then she that is mine enemy (Delilah, symbol of the Philistines to Samson) shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me (as Delilah did?), Where is Yahweh thy God? mine eyes shall behold her (is this Samson imagining the judgment, with restored eyesight?)". If these connections are valid- and it is hard to deny this- then Samson died full of vision of the resurrection, judgment and the final manifestation of his forgiveness which he would then receive. Paul likewise has plenty of these references in his final writings in 2 Tim. 4. One question remains: why are there these Samson references in a prophecy of the Lord's betrayal? Surely Samson was a type of Christ. It could be that the Lord Jesus was being warned, prophetically, of how a particular woman could be his undoing, as she was Samson's. The way the Messianic Proverbs warn the Son of God against a particular woman lend weight to this. Or it could be that in the same way as Delilah betrayed Samson, so Judas was to betray Jesus, and He would go through the same gamut of emotions. This would be why this prophecy of His betrayal is described in terms of Delilah's betrayal of Samson. 

 

Micah 7:6 For the son dishonours the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house- These words are alluded to in the Olivet prophecy. The situation in Jerusalem in Micah's time on the eve of the Assyrian invasion was to be that in the Jerusalem of both AD70 and the last days. And we wonder whether Micah's own family had experienced this situation, with Micah divided even from his own wife (:5). We know that he was married, for he speaks of his firstborn son in Mic. 6:7.

Micah 7:7 But as for me, I will look to Yahweh- "Look" is the same word as "watch[man]" in :4. Micah is saying that despite the overall lack of response to his message, even amongst his own family, he will focus on his prophetic ministry as a watchman.

I will wait for the God of my salvation- Judah at that time had forgotten the God of their salvation (s.w. Is. 17:10), but Micah had not, and on this basis it seems God was prepared to accept him standing for Judah.

My God will hear me- Micah expresses faith that God would hear him, strengthening the suggestion made that the averting of the Assyrian destruction of Jerusalem was due to his personal intercession.

Micah 7:8 Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me- I have suggested on :7 and elsewhere that Micah personally was counted as God's people, and his intercession on that basis was accepted, resulting in the salvation of Jerusalem at his time from the otherwise inevitable Assyrian judgment. And so "my enemy" refers to Israel's enemy, Assyria. Micah expected the fall of Judah and the threatened darkness of judgment descending, but believed that just as he would be saved out of it, so would Judah. It was the Judah and Jerusalem specifically of Micah's day who were to "fall" under Divine judgment (Is. 8:15; 30:25). Indeed, they were to fall and not rise again (Is. 24:20). But Micah was confident that he would fall with Judah and rise again, and God accepted this and therefore Judah did rise again. We see foretold the power of the Lord's rising again in resurrection, through which all identified with and in Him would thereby be justified. And yet finally Judah refused to make this identification, and so they did fall, as stated so often (Ez. 5:12; 6:4 etc.).

The "darkness" was that of Divine judgment (Is. 5:30; 59:9; Lam. 3:2; Joel 2:2; Am. 5:18), because Judah themselves had preferred darkness to the light of God's ways (Is. 5:20; Ez. 8:12). It was through the work of Messiah that those who sat in darkness would see light (Is. 9:2; 58:10; 60:2), and Micah surely alludes to these words [remember Isaiah was contemporary with him]. Whilst not claiming to be Messiah, he interceded for Judah in the spirit of Messiah, and so his personal darkness [on account of association with God's condemned people] was turned to light, and he was accepted as the representative of God's people. The hope of Israel was to finally come out of the darkness of judgment (Is. 29:18; 42:7; 49:9), and Micah represented the people.

Micah 7:9 I will bear the indignation of Yahweh, because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case, and executes judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light. I will see His righteousness- As explained on :8, Micah was Judah's representative. He was innocent, but he totally identified with their sin. In the metaphor of God having opened a court case against Israel, Micah as it were now stands up in court and gives his witness, and God both pleads his case as his advocate, and is also the judge. And on this basis, Micah and the people he represented were brought to light out of the darkness of Divine judgment (see on 8); and therefore the Assyrian army was slain by God in righteousness, so that Jerusalem did not fall as was otherwise inevitable. In all this we see a foretaste of how God would allow the salvation of His people through the work of the supremely representative and sinless Lord Jesus, who like Micah, totally identified with our sin and consequent condemnation. Therefore Micah as a sinner, by identification with Judah, could confidently ask for Yahweh to plead his case and give the judgment of acceptance, turning the darkness of condemnation into the light of salvation (see on :8).

 There are an interesting set of allusions to David’s sin with Bathsheba in Micah 7, almost leading us to wonder whether Micah too had a femme fatale in his life- whom he speaks of in Mic. 7:10 as “she that is mine enemy…shame shall cover her”. He says that “I have sinned against the Lord” (Mic. 7:9), using the very same words as David does in 2 Sam. 12:13; and he marvels how God ‘passes by’ transgression (Mic. 7:18), using the very same Hebrew word as is found in 2 Sam. 12:13 to describe how God “put away” David’s sin. And there are many references throughout Micah 7 to David’s Psalms of penitence. Could it be that David’s sin and repentance served as a personal inspiration to Micah, as well as being held up as the inspiration to all God’s people to repent and experience the sure mercies which David did? Micah saw David's sin as the epitome of Israel's, and his salvation by grace as their pattern.

Micah 7:10 Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her who said to me, where is Yahweh your God?- I have suggested above that Micah is totally identified with God's people, and their enemy was his. But we also saw hints in :5 and :6 that Micah's own wife betrayed him. Perhaps this is why he speaks of Assyria as a woman, when Assyria is elsewhere personified by Micah as a male (Mic. 5:6). "Where is... God?" was the attitude of the faithless in Judah (Mal. 2:17). And yet this was the attitude of Judah's enemies (Joel 2:17), as exemplified in the blasphemous claims of Rabshakeh and Sennacherib in Micah's time outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Then my enemy will see me and will cover herself with shame. Now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets- To tread down in the streets was what Assyria was to do to Jerusalem (Is. 10:6 s.w.; Is. 5:5; 28:18; Dan. 8:13). Micah imagined that this would happen to his wife, who like Job's wife had mocked his faith in God. But we can also apply this to the Assyrians themselves, who would be judged as they had intended to judge Zion by the repentant remnant (s.w. Zech. 10:5).

Micah 7:11 A day to build your walls! In that day, He will extend your boundary- Micah envisaged that Isaiah's contemporary prophecies about the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls and the extension of Judah's boundaries was to happen in his lifetime (Is. 54:2; 60:10). He as it were had a vision of that day coming, and shouts out the message in joy. All this could have happened after the destruction of the Assyrian army outside Jerusalem, but Hezekiah and others were satisfied just by God's immediate deliverance in this life, and shrugged off the great potentials possible. And that is true for many believers today. 

Micah 7:12 In that day they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and mountain to mountain- After the Angelic destruction of the Assyrians, representatives did indeed come to Hezekiah from such places. But he was lifted up in pride and was drawn down to their level, rather than using this as the springboard for establishing a Messianic kingdom over the surrounding peoples. The reference to the territory from the Nile to the Euphrates recalls the promises to Abraham. The entire eretz promised to Abraham could have flowed to Jerusalem and received teaching, leading to them being incorporated into Yahweh's dominion or kingdom. This looks forward to the prediction in :16,17 that finally some of the invaders would repent and come to Zion in acceptance of Yahweh and His Son.

Micah 7:13 Yet the land will be desolate because of those who dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings- Micah appears to have foreseen, or had revealed to him, that Judah would not ultimately make good. Despite the power of his intercession and the response of a remnant to his message, the baton would be dropped by Hezekiah. The land would still be desolated, using the language of the curses for breaking covenant with Yahweh (s.w. Lev. 26:33). Isaiah's many threats of a desolated land would still come true in the end (Is. 1:7; 6:11; 17:9 etc.). However we could understand that the land was indeed desolated at Micah's time by the Assyrians and only Jerusalem remained unconquered.

Micah 7:14 Shepherd Your people with Your staff, the flock of Your heritage, who dwell by themselves in a forest, in the midst of fertile pasture land; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old- And yet Micah returns to the great prophetic theme, after recognizing Judah's sin and ultimate punishment (:13). The scattered remnant of the flock, wandering in forests [whereas sheep don't usually live in forests] would be shepherded by Yahweh and herded together into a good pasture land, that of eretz Israel. And that would be a re-establishment of God's Kingdom ["as in the days of old"]. Ez. 34 speaks of Yahweh as Israel's shepherd at this time in terms which are applied to the Lord Jesus in Jn. 10. Yahweh's shepherding will be through the Lord Jesus.

Micah 7:15 As in the days of your coming forth out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvellous things- I suggest that the "marvels" are not so much the miracles of the plagues, but the "marvellous things" done at Sinai when God entered into covenant with Israel after they had left Egypt (Ex. 34:10 s.w.), and when they crossed Jordan into Canaan (Josh. 3:5 s.w.). Yahweh will do the same when He enters into a new covenant with the redeemed, regathered, repentant remnant. In Mic. 6:4, God reasoned that His bringing Israel forth out of Egypt was a parade example of His grace and desire to save. The marvel will preeminently be His grace in finally saving Israel. In the short term, the destruction of the Assyrians who had surrounded Jerusalem was a foretaste of these "marvellous things", and indeed that phrase is used of how God could save Jerusalem from besieging armies (Jer. 21:2).

Micah 7:16 The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might- This is a consistent theme of the prophets; that the nations will be ashamed of all trust in human strength. And we should learn that lesson now, surrounded as we are by so many temptations to trust human strength.

They will lay their hand on their mouth. Their ears will be deaf- Shame and laying the hand on the mouth all suggest repentance (Job 21:5; 40:4), which we have stated specifically in :17. A remnant of the invaders will apparently repent in the last days, as noted on :12. GNB "and cover their ears" would be another sign of capitulation and recognition of sin.

Micah 7:17 They will lick the dust like a serpent- This is the language of Ps. 72:9 and Is. 49:23 about God's enemies bowing before Him when they do this. Their humiliation leads to their repentance. God's hand in human life seeks to humble us, but in order that we may come to Him, and not for its own sake.

Like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their dens. They will come with fear to Yahweh our God, and will be afraid because of You- As noted above and on :12 and :16, even a remnant of Israel's enemies will come to "fear Yahweh", to become His servants. They will recognize that all human might or 'strongholds' ["dens"] is of no account; for in the lead up to this situation in the last days, human strength and military technology will be seen as of supreme meaning.

Micah 7:18 Who is a God like You- No god or idol of any conceivable religion has the grace and forgiveness of the one true God.

Who pardons iniquity- This is the Hebrew phrase usually translated 'to bear iniquity' (Ex. 28:38,43 etc.). God forgives iniquity by as it were bearing or carrying it, as if taking the guilt Himself. For 'to bear iniquity' also means 'to take guilt for iniquity' (Ez. 44:10,12 etc.). This was done by Micah, as noted throughout Mic. 6 and 7. But God did this supremely in the work of His Son, who bore the iniquity of Israel so that God might thereby pardon it.

And passes over- The language of God's Passover deliverance of Israel on account of the blood of the lamb, representative of Jesus (Ex. 12:23), continuing the allusion to those events which began in :15.

The disobedience of the remnant of His heritage?- Not every Israelite or Jew will be saved. Micah's marvel is at God's forgiveness of the repentant remnant. "The remnant of His heritage" is the phrase used in 2 Kings 21:14 of those who would go into captivity. Micah seems to have foreseen this, and yet looked ahead to their repentance and eternal restoration.

He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because He delights in loving kindness- God's grace and love only have depth and meaning because He also does feel great anger at sin. But within His personality, the pole of loving kindness eventually comes out as His dominant feature; His mercy triumphs over His necessary judgment. Quite simply, God loves being merciful and gracious, and asks that we have the same attitude (Jer. 9:24; Hos. 6:6).

Micah 7:19 He will again have compassion on us- The salvation of Israel from Egypt was by grace, as they left Egypt with the idols of Egypt and tabernacles of their gods. As noted on Mic. 6:4, God's saving of Israel from Egypt was by grace alone, and "He will again" show that grace. This was the compassion which was to be shown when the remnant were regathered from captivity (Dt. 30:3). It was tragic that the returning exiles were indifferent to this. The same amazing, saving grace is available to all now who wish to quit this world and enter the new covenant which the exiles then spurned.

He will tread our iniquities under foot- As noted on :10, it was Judah and specifically Jerusalem who were to be trodden under foot for their sins. But Jerusalem was saved by grace in Micah's time as a result of his intercession and identity with them, the just for the unjust. This looked forward to the far greater future salvation. God will make a difference between the sinners and their sins. Their sins rather than they personally would be trodden under foot, and thus the sinners themselves would be saved. And we are to maintain this same clear differentiation in our dealings with people, between sin and sinner.

David asks God to wash him from his sins (Ps. 51:2). The Hebrew means literally to tread out or down, alluding to how a fuller trod clothes to remove the dirt or old stain. This is the sense of how the word is used in Mic. 7:19 "He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea". The Lord's clothing is presented as whiter than any human fuller can whiten; this is the extent of our forgiveness and the total nature of the righteousness imputed to us. Judah of Micah's time were invited to experience the same cleansing as David had. The washing, cleansing and blotting out (:1) speak of the removal of a stain in the way that only God can do.

And you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea- This was the punishment of the Egyptians, and we have noted the Passover allusions on :15 and :18. The destruction of Israel's enemies (cp. the Egyptians) is paralleled with the destruction of Israel's sins. The allusion is also to Dt. 9:21, where Moses "cast your sin, the calf which you had made" into the water. As noted above, their sin is differentiated from the persons. The sin was to be totally and permanently destroyed. It is only those who identify with their sins who will likewise be personally cast into the depths in condemnation (Lk. 17:2). Like Paul in Romans 7, we are to recognize our sins, but not identify ourselves with them. And then the sins are dealt with by God, so permanently that they could be searched for and never found (Jer. 50:20), and we as persons are saved.

Micah 7:20 You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old- "Mercy and truth" is a reference to the promises to the fathers; and it is here defined specifically as the total forgiveness of sin (:19). The same interpretation of the blessing embedded in the promises is found in Acts 3:25,26. This is the final word of Micah's prophecy; this is the essence of God's purpose- the blessing of forgiveness by grace. The ultimate truth is of God's saving mercy towards His people.