Before approaching the person, the time and the preaching of the prophet Micah, it is necessary to know if this book contains the message of one or more prophets. Most commentators point out that the book of Micah contains in chapters 1-3 the preaching of a Jewish prophet of the eighth century B.C., contemporary to Isaiah. The rest of Micah’s work does not belong to a single prophet, but to anonymous characters, who added their words to the original nucleus of the first three chapters.
Micah, the power of God’s Spirit
Micah, in Hebrew Mîkayah means “who is like the Lord?”. The prophet was born in Moresheth (1:1), a village in Judah, 35 km southwest of Jerusalem. This is important because it places us in a peasant environment, in direct contact with the problems of small farmers. On the other hand, Moresheth is surrounded by fortresses; therefore, the presence of military and royal officials must have been frequent in the area and, according to Micah, not very beneficial for its inhabitants. Of his profession and social status we know nothing, only that he preached at the same time as Isaiah. His activity as a prophet was during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, that is, between 740-698 BC. approximately.
Samaria and Jerusalem under threat
At the end of the 8th century B.C., international politics in the Middle East was marked by a great power: Assyria and its king Tiglathpileser III, who had extended his dominions throughout Syria and Palestine. The northern kingdom (Israel) was subjected to the payment of a heavy tribute since 743 B.C.; but King Hoshea will end up rebelling in the time of Shalmaneser V. As a consequence, Samaria is conquered (722), the people deported (720) and thus the Northern Kingdom disappears from history.
The situation is very similar in Judah, a southern kingdom, which in the year 734 B.C. asks the Assyrian king for help during the Syro-Ephraimite war, for which he imposes his vassalage through the payment of the corresponding tribute. This situation will eventually provoke a strong desire for independence, especially during the reign of King Hezekiah (727-698). This king promoted a religious reform (2 Kings 18:1-18) and encouraged the people to hope for liberation. The revolt took place in 705 and meant for Judah one of the greatest catastrophes in its history: the invasion of Sennacherib (701): “Therefore I will mourn and wail, I will go barefoot and naked, I will howl like jackals, I will mourn like ostriches; for their wound is incurable, it reaches to Judah, it reaches to the gate of my people, it reaches to Jerusalem (Mic 1:8-9).
In addition to the political situation, in order to understand Micah, it is important to highlight the social situation, where corruption is everywhere. The powerful take over the lands and houses of the weakest, mistreat women, sell children as slaves (2:1-11). The authorities, judges, priests and prophets, who should stop injustices and denounce them, do not do so (3:9-11), believing that, by invoking the Lord, He will not be able to do them any harm (2:7; 3:4,11). Micah warns against worship that is not accompanied by the practice of righteousness, for it becomes an empty worship, worthless in the eyes of God.
A message with echoes of current events
Micah’s preaching is characterized by the denunciation of the sins of his people and by the announcement of the consequent punishment. Most commentators distinguish four sections in the book, in which threats and oracles of salvation alternate. In the first part (ch. 1-3) the prophet’s words reflect a clear social message. Micah denounces the leaders, false prophets and priests as the ones responsible for social injustices (oppression of the weak, theft of land properties…), while they do not even want to recognize the injustices committed: “And I say: Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you heads of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know the law? But you hate good and love evil. You tear off their skins and even cut off their bones; you eat the rest of my people, you strip them of their skins, you crush their bones, you put them in pieces in the pot, like meat in a stew. When they call and cry out, the Lord will not hear them; then he will hide himself from them because of their crimes” (3:2-4). Therefore, Micah is not only confronted with a series of injustices, but with a “theology of oppression”, and the prophet announces that “Jerusalem will be a ruin, the temple mount a heathen hill” (3:12).
The second section (ch. 4-5) is a collection of oracles all projected toward a future of well-being and peace. Hopeful oracles in which the prophet glimpses the future glory of the restored Israel around the Messiah who will be born in Bethlehem. It foretells the coming of the nations to Zion (4:6-8), the promise of the birth of the “governor of Israel” in Bethlehem of Judah (5:1-3), the deliverance from the oppression of Assyria (5:4-5) and the salvation of the “remnant of Jacob” (5:6-8).
The third part (ch. 6-7) is presented under the literary genre of a judgment (rîb) against Israel. God has done so much for his people, and they have been most unfaithful to him: “My people, what have I done to you, and wherein have I wronged you? answer me! As an expression of his conversion and repentance, the people want to offer him something on his return.
But God is not only pleased with ritual practices, but with personal surrender to Him and to one’s neighbor. The sentence in this judicial process is made known with great tenderness: “Man, you have been made to know what is good, what the Lord wants of you: only practice right, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). The following oracles are intended to convince the Israelites of the need to return to God and to the covenant, since disloyalty does not deserve future punishment, because it is itself the greatest punishment. God always invites us to return to him and to our most vulnerable brothers and sisters: “But I will wait for the Lord, I will wait for the God who saves me. My God will hear me” (7:7).
Finally (7:8-20), the prophet concludes his preaching with promises and introduces Jerusalem by expressing his repentance and his hope: “What God is there like you, able to forgive sin, to overlook the fault of the remnant of your inheritance? He does not keep his anger forever, for he loves mercy. He will again have compassion on us, he will destroy our faults, he will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. You will grant Jacob your faithfulness and Abraham your kindness, as you promised our fathers of old” (7:18-20).
Micah in the New Testament
In the New Testament there are at least two passages from Micah quoted in Mt 2:6, about the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem (Mic 5:1), and in Mt 10:35-36, about the enemies of man in his own house (Mic 7:6). Other texts of the prophet are mentioned more or less directly. Thus, for example, the Canticle of Zechariah – the Benedictus – alludes to the last words of Micah (Micah 7:20 and Lk 1:73). Apart from the oracle of the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem of Judah, used in the season of Advent and Christmas, the liturgy incorporated the passage from Micah 6:3-4 into the expletives in the chant of the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday.