The Minor Prophets: Micah

In this episode, we continue our Minor Prophets series with the book of Micah, exploring how corruption and injustice slowly unravel a society from within. 📖 Set against the backdrop of Assyria’s rise and the coming exile, Micah confronts the political and spiritual failures of Judah’s leaders, exposing exploitation, false security, and the devastating cost of systemic corruption. 🏛️

Along the way, we unpack Micah’s vivid courtroom and apocalyptic imagery, his warning that Jerusalem itself would fall, and his powerful vision of restoration—where swords become plowshares and a ruler will arise from Bethlehem. ✨ We also reflect on Micah’s enduring call to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.” 🎙️

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Transcript

JR: [00:00:00] Well, the other things that, that he points out is that the society doesn't collapse the moment it becomes corrupt. It collapses, to go back to the false prophet, it collapses when it can no longer tell the truth about its corruption.  

David: Hey, so this is the third in our series on the minor prophets, and we had talked about after our last one, I think we did Hosea, that we need to kind of recap because we're starting to see some of the distinguishing features between each prophet, even though if you just sit down and read each one individually, they start to all sound the same, and there might be a tendency to say, "Well, aren't they just saying the same thing?" 

It's a prophetic oracle, yeah. All these countries are doomed and you know, you need to repent. But I think we've picked up early on, we were saying this after we finished Hosea, you actually start to see what makes each one unique, and they're actually speaking to very different [00:01:00] situations. 

So we should start off just summarizing that a little bit and bringing that out. 

JR: Yeah. Well, there is, there's a tendency to read it and say, "Okay, I get it. Judgment's coming. The people are drifting. You gotta return to God. Restoration is possible." Right? And we've kind of went through all that pattern in previous episodes. And all that's true, but if that's all that you hear, then we're actually missing kind of what makes these prophetic voices unique. 

And I started to realize, especially in Micah, 'cause I did exactly what everybody else does. I'm reading Micah and I'm like, "Golly, this sounds the same. It sounds like all the same stuff." And I started to realize if all the prophets sound the same- It's because I'm not digging in or I'm not listening close enough, right? 

David: Yeah. 

JR: So, yeah. And so one of the reasons the prophets we've covered sound similar is because they're all in that same moment in Israel's history, right? They're all viewing the same thing. 

David: Mm-hmm. 

JR: And so, you know, it's the same drift. It's the same corruption. It's the same collapse that they see coming. 

And so there's gonna be overlap between them. But if [00:02:00] you read them... I don't know. There's a tendency to read and think that they're just repeating each other, but what they're doing is they're actually seeing the same reality from different angles. So they're not necessarily repeating each other. They're kind of circling and viewing it from a different vantage point. 

David: Yeah, and we talked about how prophets pick up the cultural patterns. That's at least part of what they do.  

AndI think part of what starts to distinguish each prophet is when you can start to pick the pattern up, and you go, "Okay, so there's a similar pattern here between Hosea and Joel, but there's also something very different that they're addressing as well." 

JR: Right. 

David: I've started to, like you, reading Micah, and I, I'm starting to go, "Okay, what are the clues about the pattern?" And once you start putting the pattern together, you go, "Okay, I see what Micah is addressing now." Because 

JR: Right. 

David: One of the things that can be frustrating about reading the prophetic oracles is they're not a narrative. We're used to reading the story, right? So tell me what the story is here. Well, they don't tell you the story, but they're telling you what the story is, two or [00:03:00] three layers underneath by talking about the pattern. So you go, "Okay, this is what they're addressing," and then you start to see the distinctions between them, right? Now Joel is kind of an easy one because Joel he's addressing a natural disaster, and he's tying in the natural disaster to repentance and restoration. That's a common theme. 

But he's approaching it from this natural disaster, which is something that I don't think the other prophets do much of, right? 

So Joel kind of stands out.  

JR: Yeah, Joel is, like, screaming. He's saying he's not subtle about his prophetic oracles, right? He's screaming, "Wake up. Something massive is happening." 

David: Yeah, pay attention, and if you're ignoring this natural disaster that just happened, then you're not paying attention to the larger thing that's happening either, right? 

JR: Right. Right. 

David: Yeah, so that's Joel, and then we talked about Hosea and Hosea is very different. Hosea is much more, this is personal, right? 

He's gonna take whatever is happening in Israel, but he's really going to embody [00:04:00] it in his own relationships, and he's going to make it a very personally painful thing, right? 

JR: Yeah, like he lives it out. And so it's no longer a storm that Joel's trying to describe, it's a marriage. And so, you know, when you start talking about a betrayal in a marriage, well, that's very personal. And so the readers and, even as I was reading, I'm like, "Man, this hurts. This is painful." You know? 

Can I think you mentioned that in that episode, like how difficult would it be to put yourself through this on purpose? And so yeah, Joel's talking about something massive, something destruction, and then Hosea comes in and brings it closer and makes it about betrayal, makes it about unfaithfulness, makes it about pursuing redemption. 

So you kind of feel Hosea a little bit more. You're scared of what Joel is saying. But then Hosea, you feel it, you feel it in your gut. You're like, "Man, this is painful. I don't even wanna keep reading this anymore." It's like it's, it's too much, right? Too, too close to home. Yeah. 

David: Yeah, that's right. So then today we're gonna talk about Micah, and Micah again is short. I forget how many [00:05:00] chapters it is. But again, it-- and you pick up pretty quickly, I think, and that's what we're gonna try and bring out today, that again, it's something different that Micah is addressing that Joel and Hosea didn't, right? 

There's a different level that he's really addressing here. So I don't know, do you have any initial thoughts on summarizing Micah? 

JR: Well, Micah kind of shows the damage on the ground. Like he shows the bodies laying in the street. Joel again, does the storm. Hosea shows a broken relationship, and then Micah shows what happens when those things go sideways. He shows the results. This is what happens on the ground. These are the people that it affects. 

And so Micah, in a lot of ways, is a lot more political, 

David: Yeah. 

JR: or at least it's pointing to those in power, the powers in Jerusalem. And we'll obviously get into this in a second, but that's what he's pointing to. He's saying, "This is what happens when corruption starts at the top. This is how it affects my little village," because he saw it firsthand. 

David: Yeah, that's true. [00:06:00] Hosea, you might say had this broken relationship, the broken covenant. And Micah's going to come in and he's really going to talk about how, Yeah, and this is what this broken covenant looks like at the highest level of office, right? of the political powers. What does a broken relationship look like then?" And so that's where he's gonna be very critical of the powers in Jerusalem, the leadership. "Are you paying attention?" So that's gonna be Micah's focus, yeah, in a nutshell. 

JR: Yeah, Micah I was a little bit more dialed into because he talks about-- When you talk about systemic corruption and those in power being corrupt and how that affects the rest of the people, how it affects normal people in everyday villages around the area. 

I don't know, it resonated a little bit more. It felt a little bit more twenty twenty, twenty-first century type of impact, you know, because we do the same thing. We have twenty-four-hour news, so we know every little thing that's going on in DC, and you know, we can jab online about who's right and who's wrong and go [00:07:00] back and forth. 

But there is a feeling that there is deep corruption I don't know, in the past fifteen, twenty years. I realize there's always been corruption. It's politics, right? But I feel like there's something which, m- we mentioned this in other podcasts. I feel like we're at the end of something, and our political powers tie into that. 

I think we're looking at a rot on the inside, and Micah seems to be addressing a lot of the things that, I don't know, that we're dealing with in the twenty-first century. 

David: Yeah. We've said before that we try not to get political on this podcast. I think in this episode, it's actually hard not to start to address some glaring political problems 

JR: Micah gets political. 

David: Because, Micah does. And so it's like, well, how can you avoid it? But we'll still try our best here. 

But, yeah, so that's Micah. Should we jump in? 

JR: Yeah. All right. Yeah, let's start it off. 

David: All right. So I done this to the other two. I wanna give a little bit of context about who Micah is and when he is issuing his prophetic oracles. And again, verse [00:08:00] one of most oracles tells you what you need to know, you know? So it says, "This is the word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reign of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah: the vision concerning Samaria and Jerusalem." Okay? 

So we know that Micah is from Moresheth, right? He tells us, unlike I think Joel, he tells us that, "I'm prophesying during the reigns of these kings," and there are several there, so it's pretty long I guess you could say. And then he's going to address Samaria and Jerusalem. And I think it's helpful to keep in mind... All right, it's been really helpful for me even before this series. This was several years ago. Keep in mind two dates in israel's history, right? 722 BC is the fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria. 586 is the fall of the Southern Kingdom Babylon. If you can keep those two dates in mind, not you, but anyone, right? 

Like cement these dates in your mind. [00:09:00] And especially the second half of the Old Testament will just make a lot more sense to you, right?  

So when he says, the kings of Judah, all right, so this is the southern kingdom. And that's another thing that's confusing if you're not aware of this, that when the kingdom split after Saul, David, Solomon, right? the kingdom split, that Judah becomes the primary holdover, you might say, of that royal lineage. Jerusalem is the capital, but it's called Judah. It's not called Israel. And the northern kingdom is called Israel. And so sometimes that can get confusing too. So, you know, we thought, "Well, I thought he was talking to Israel." 

Well, he is, but it's divided now, and so he's addressing Judah, right? I 

JR: The reality is there's Israel and Judah, northern kingdom, southern kingdom. Yeah, I've always get... I mean, I would kind of look that stuff up and reacquaint myself, but I always seem to forget that. 

David: Yeah. 

JR: which was north. I think I've kind of got it finally in my head. The southern kingdom is Judah. 

But I'm glad you said that about [00:10:00] Assyria and Babylon, because throughout the Bible, obviously those are metaphors for wickedness or the fact that they were taken over. And it is kind of interesting that early on in the Old Testament Assyria is sort of the bad guy, that they're the black hat, and then later on in the Old Testament it turns into Babylon. 

And it, that makes sense because Assyria took over the northern kingdom, and then Judah still was h- holding on for another, what, 250 years or so, and then Babylon, they go into captivity to Babylon. And so now that's the black hat as far as kind of the metaphors in the Old Testament. 

David: Yeah yeah Assyria was the big superpower over the next course of the 100 years or 200 years It becomes Babylon becomes the superpower. Assyria actually collapses And so They become to embody all that is you know wrong with the world basically in the eyes of the Old Testament writers. Yeah. 

JR: Right. Well, so the first thing I noticed in verse one is the reigns Jotham has and [00:11:00] Hezekiah. That's the same as both Joel and Hosea. Is that right? It may not be exactly the same, but it lines up with those. And Isaiah also, right? 

David: Yeah, definitely Isaiah. Hosea as well Yeah So there's overlap there. And so you have these group of prophets who you know it's a pretty l long length of time But the northern kingdom falls and the prophets in the southern kingdom begin saying, "Hey, beware. This is going to happen to us if we're not paying attention." So you have several prophets at around that same time like we said earlier who seem to be addressing a very similar issue but they're coming at it from different angles. So yes this is going to be Micah saying to the leadership to the powers that be in Jerusalem, "Hey pay attention. We avoided the Assyrian, and that's a whole fascinating history thing too. "We avoided the Assyrian exile but pay attention because we're on the brink of this happening to us if we don't fix [00:12:00] things." Right? If we don't recommit ourselves to the covenant with God. 

JR: And I just think that overlap is important because it shows ... You know, there's a tendency to think, like Judges, that this was the first judge, and this is the second one, this is the third one. And I think we talked about in the Judges series, they could have overlapped. This isn't a sequential thing necessarily. 

They're in different parts of the kingdom, and that's clearly the same thing with the prophets. But the overlap is important because it shows that God isn't speaking to the people through one single voice, right? He's like saturating the culture with multiple voices. And so when numerous prophets are all saying similar things, that's not a coincidence, right? 

That's like a movement starting. 

David: Yeah that's right And remember the prophets are mainly outsiders and one of the things you're gonna see in Micah, Micah is also criticizing all the prophets who are aligned with the powers in Jerusalem. 

And that's where, that's where you start to see this criticism of the false prophets. Cause [00:13:00] the false prophets are saying No no no everything's fine, right? Don't worry about it. 

JR: Right. Right. 

No, I'm looking forward to that section. That's an interesting 

David: Yeah. 

JR: There's a lot of interesting things that we could pull modern day from that. 

David: So there were whole schools of prophets, right? And sometimes they just functioned as religious advisors or priests and things but yeah there's this definite role. So it wasn't just one prophet at a time. You're right, there was Isaiah going on, Hosea, Micah comes along. They're all saying similar things. But then you have all these other prophets too who are going, "Don't listen to those guys. They don't know what they're talking about." You know Look at their ratings They're really low. 

JR: They don't have near as many followers. 

David: no 
 

JR: Yeah. 

David: They have no credibility, right? So we'll get into that as well. 

JR: Yeah, the other thing that it just right away in verse one is where is this town of Moresheth? Did I say that right? 

David: Yeah 

JR: Moresheth. I think that's right. 

Yeah, where's, the modern equivalent, or do we know where that's at? 

David: We know it's a small town I was going to say it sounds like it should be somewhere in Middle Earth [00:14:00] but I don't think 

JR: It's exactly, yeah. That's exactly what I thought. It's like 

David: sure 

JR: Hobbits. The Hobbits are right-- The Shire is right next to it, yeah. 

David: Yeah, it's between the Shire and Mordor somewhere like that. But anyway yeah so I didn't look it up exactly where it is but we know it's a very small village which gives us a lot of good information too because Micah is from a small town. Micah's not from Jerusalem right? 

JR: Right. 

David: And so, yeah it's this rural town. It's a small village. So his perspective is going to be shaped by I think pretty quickly here we're going to see some of the oppression that he sees. You know like Hey you're stepping on the little man. You're taking people's fields. So he comes probably from an agricultural small village and people are making their living subsistence farming and they're being encroached upon the power class in Jerusalem. And so that's very much going to shape Micah's perspective as well. 

JR: Yeah, he sees what corruption looks like when it lands on real people. In [00:15:00] Jerusalem, they can debate policy, and they can debate religion, but Micah watches families lose land. He watches inheritances go away. He sees the instability, right? And so while the capital theorizes power, the village actually feels the results of that. 

What's that saying that when the aristocracy or something like that sneezes, the peasants die of pneumonia? 

David: Yeah, yeah, I've heard similar things, 

JR: Yeah. 

David: yeah 

JR: Right. I don't know exactly what this, what it says. 

But Micah feels that idea firsthand. He sees it firsthand. 

David: Yeah, that's right and you can kind of get from some of the things he says that this is deeply personal to him He's seen like you know he's seen people lose family farms He's seen people suffer because of what someone in Jerusalem, what some bureaucrat in Jerusalem is trying to do. And yeah that's a good way to put it. So yeah he feels it, He feels it in you know small town USA, all these big numbers that are being thrown around policies, all that. He's like, Look, I feel it, right? Today we'd say I feel it at the gas [00:16:00] pump, right? When I go to fill my car up, and it's a problem when I have to pay 10 more dollars just to fill my car up. So it's that kind of thing that Micah's background really helps inform his particular oracles that we're gonna read today. Yeah that's a good point. 

JR: Okay. No, that's good. That's a good way to do it, 'cause that's what we're seeing on the news today, all this stuff with Iran or wars, and this is driving oil prices, and OPEC, and all those things. But most people, you know, what you do is you interview the guy at the pump that says, "Man, my kids had to get out of little league 'cause there was too much travel. 

We scaled back the summer vacation." You know, and that's what Micah's doing. Micah is the microphone in the small town down on the ground relating it to, "This is how it affects me day to day." 

David: Yeah that's a good way to put it. All right so we're gonna jump in and we're gonna do the same thing. You're gonna listen to several sections of Micah but let's start with Micah 1:2-5 So we already read verse one so we'll have people listen to two through five and then we'll [00:17:00] come back and talk about it. 

Hear, you peoples, all of you, listen, earth and all who live in it, that the Sovereign Lord may bear witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. Look, the Lord is coming from his dwelling place. He comes down and treads on the heights of the earth. The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope. 

All this is because of Jacob's transgression, because of the sins of the people of Israel. What is Jacob's transgression? Is it not Samaria? What is Judah's high place? Is it not Jerusalem? 

JR: Okay. So this is not casual religious language here, right? Clearly Micah is saying judgment is coming in very profound ways. Mountains are melting, valleys are splitting open, and it's not gonna be pretty, right? God here is about to step into history both as, as what? As a witness and a judge, which we'll get into kind of [00:18:00] that language 'cause I think it's interesting. 

Which is a little strange for us because if the witness is the judge, I'm in big trouble, right? 

You know what I mean? It's not like I can discredit the witness. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Trust me, he's crazy. Ignore what he says, right? What is it, Judge Dredd? Judge Dredd was the comic book. He was both the witness, the judge, and the executioner all in one. But anyway, we see that and we're like, "That's not a good thing," right? 

David: Yeah yeah Yeah this is a courtroom scene and you're not feeling too good when the key witness against you also then puts his robe on and goes and sits in the seat of judgement. 

JR: Yeah, exactly. 

David: Right? But that's what he's saying here Like this is a bit of a courtroom scene that Micah's introducing and he said God is bearing witness against you. And oh by the way because he's God, he's the judge too. So we can already see where 

JR: now we're really in trouble. 

David: is going. Yeah yeah. No That was a good call-out there. And you talked about how the valleys are split apart, they melt like wax before fire. I don't know Do you have any more [00:19:00] thoughts on that imagery? That's just like apocalyptic language basically. 

JR: Well, what points out to me is just the way in you and I think. You've got the mountains melting like wax, you have the valley splitting open. So you basically are saying from the top to the bottom. 

The highest point to the lowest point, all of that's gonna be decimated. 

And when the valley's split open, where does that take you? You know, now we're talking about we're being dragged down to the underworld. Every foundation that we're standing on is about to be shaken to its core and ripped apart, and we're about to be dragged down to some place we don't want to go. 

David: Yeah that's right. So those images are very intentional. I also want to point out in verse five because this again I kind of alluded to this but this is something that can be lost. He says All this is because of Jacob's transgression because of the sins of the people of Israel. Now remember Jacob becomes Israel, right? And again when he's talking about Israel now he's talking about the northern kingdom. All right, so ... 

JR: Right.  

David: That's what makes sense of that. Then it says, "What is Jacob's [00:20:00] transgression? Is it not Samaria?" Okay, now Samaria was the capital at that time of the Northern Kingdom. Okay?  

JR: Okay. 

David: We talked a couple episodes about the Good Samaritan that that's not a good thing to be in Israel right is a Samaritan.  

JR: Right Right. 

David: So, it's interesting because he does spell it out then. He said "What is Jacob's transgression?" In other words why did the north fall. "Is it not Samaria?" And the point is 

JR: Power center. 

David: The power center of the north was thoroughly corrupted, given over to idolatry, injustice the whole laundry list of things. And he's like, This is what happened to Jacob slash Israel. And then he says this is interesting, "What is Judah's high place? Is it not Jerusalem?" 

Okay, we're starting into it. Now it's 

JR: He's about to be canceled. 

David: Yeah he actually says, Where is Judah's And he calls Jerusalem a high place. Now a high place is a place of pagan worship. 

JR: Oh, I didn't even think about that. Yeah, sure it is. 

David: [00:21:00] He's already throwing some jabs in there. Like he's already telling you up front that he's not happy with what's going down in Jerusalem, right? I just thought that was really interesting language in verse 5. 

JR: No, that's pretty good. I like that. Well, when you hear people... Again, modern day, you can hear somebody criticize the party in power, and you know immediately whether they're on the left or on the right because of the language that they use. 

David: Mm-hmm. 

JR: And so it's kind of funny that Micah right away you're like, "Oh, this guy is anti-power. This guy is countercultural, anti-establishment," right? You know, he's throwing that language out. I'm glad you pointed that out about the high place. I didn't even pick that up. But you're right, that's where they sacrifice to idols and so yeah, he's calling Jerusalem a high place, which is kind of strange for us today because Jerusalem's Jerusalem, man. 

I mean, it's the center of, 

David: yeah 

JR: you know, the Jewish faith and the Christian faith and so yeah, I mean, it's like don't bang on Jerusalem. You know what I mean? That's the holy place. 

David: Yeah. Not to Micah. No Micah's seen the [00:22:00] corruption and he's already calling it out. And we're only five verses in and Micah's already making a lot of enemies here, right? 

JR: Oh yeah, no, this is getting saucy. 

David: I love that imagery because we think of Jerusalem too is, well, that's where Mount Zion is. So it literally is a mountain, but then he refers to that mountain as a high place. And then in the next verse, if you look at verse six real quick he talks about, verse seven I guess actually, "All her idols are broken pieces. All her temples are gifts that will be burned with fire." So it's basically saying yeah Jerusalem has become a high place place, a pagan place of worship. 

JR: Yeah, so here we go. He's about ... And he's about to jump in. 

David: Okay so let's jump down then to verse eight real quick I wanna hit a couple more verses before we move on. Micah says, "Because of this I will weep and wail I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl. For Samaria's plague is incurable. It is spread to Judah." All right here again like if 

JR: Oh, yeah. 

David: if you get the layout of the land now [00:23:00] this is what he's saying. It has reached the 

JR: Yeah, he's spelling it out. 

David: even Jerusalem itself. Now it's interesting because he says, I will go about barefoot and naked I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl. And what he's really saying is basically he's saying if we don't change our course we're going to be in exile too. And he starts to almost enact this out. Now we don't know. It's interesting, we don't know whether Micah was the kind of prophet that actually did that because we know some prophets really would walk around naked and howl like an owl, right? You're like 

JR: Yeah, to, to make a point. 

David: Yeah that guy's nuts, right? 

But we don't know whether he was doing that or whether he was just kind of stating, This is how I feel right now, right? 

JR: Right. Yeah, well, we pointed that out in the Hosea episode. You know, the prophets were known to kind of live out their prophecies in a very public way because witnessing that behavior is different than hearing a sermon. You know, it elicits a stronger reaction than just simply hearing about it, than just gather round, I'm gonna start speaking these [00:24:00] prophecies out. 

You know, they live it out because it, man, it gets a visceral reaction. 

David: Yeah, and it also just demonstrates what we really saw with Hosea as well that, you know that these prophets aren't just standing outside, saying, "You all are going to hell." That's not what they're doing. Like, they feel this deeply, right? We saw that in Hosea and I think that's what I take from this part too, is we see this in Micah. Micah's like This is gonna be painful, not for you. It's gonna be painful for me, right? That I l my simple country home. I'm gonna lose it all. And this is painful, right? And we need to pay attention to that.  

JR: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and then he gets into the specifics of what's going on, where the corruption is. 

David: Yeah. And that really brings it to the second chapter, right? So I think should we let people listen to that? I think chapter two, verse one to three and then we'll come back and talk about it. 

Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it [00:25:00] out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them. They defraud people of their homes, they rob them of their inheritance. Therefore the Lord says: “I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity." 

David: Okay so that passage might even sound familiar to some people cause it's kind of well-known. "Woe to those who plan iniquity to those who plot evil on their beds." Man, the more I read Micah the more I like this guy actually. He's 

JR: Yeah, he's calling it out. 

David: after. Yeah, but what do you see? What jumps out at you with this passage here? 

JR: Well, I guess what hits me is that he's not, primarily he's not focused on any abstract sin. You know what I mean? He's focused on specifically the exploitation, and he lays out a pattern that he's witnessed in this village that he's from. And he says the powerful, what is it? The powerful, they see, they covet the field, so they desire it, and then they take [00:26:00] because they have the power to do it. 

And so what he's laying out here is he's saying that when desire gets backed up by power, corruption becomes systemic. And again, that's just one of those things that's like, man, we see that modern day. When you have the power behind desiring, like, who's gonna stop you, right? 

And so when the powerful are strong enough, they don't even hide it anymore. The shame is gone. They just, they just take it. And so I read that section and I immediately thought about something like the insider trading epidemic among our politicians. And this is a problem on both sides. 

You know, neither side's gonna do anything about it 'cause both sides benefit from it. And so you go into politics and you're making, I don't know, your net worth is something like 100, $200,000 a year, and you leave politics 10 years later and you're a multi, multi-millionaire from trading stocks. 

And it's like, golly, they don't even hide it. And so the very people that make the laws are the ones exploiting it. And so who's gonna have the power to change it or stand up to it? 

David: Yeah. And it does help to [00:27:00] remember again that Micah's a small town a s That's a Journey song, right? Just a small town boy.  

JR: Small town boy, yeah. 

David: So yeah Micah's that small town kid and look He's seeing the family fields being taken, right? He's seeing inheritances being gobbled up by taxes and being shipped off to Jerusalem. And so this section here really hones in on what Micah's going to target. Micah's targeting the power in Jerusalem. And he ends with, "Therefore the Lord says 'I am planning disaster against this people for which you cannot save yourselves.'" That's a pretty bleak outlook, but that's what Micah's addressing right now. 

JR: Yeah. And I just think it's worth pointing out the language that he's using, it's not like he's exposing some corruption. You know, he's not doing an exposé. You may not know this people, but there's corruption in Jerusalem. It's like he's saying it in a way, "Look, you all see it. You see it, I see it. We all know it's going on." 

And so it kind of has that weight of, again, there's just no shame in the corruption that he's [00:28:00] seeing. It's just the way it is, and everybody knows it and sees it and nobody can do anything about it. 

David: Yeah, exactly. Now then he moves on in the same chapter. I love this part here because he moves on in verse six. He starts to address then the false prophets. We talked about this earlier. Verse six says, "Do not prophesy" their prophets say. Okay their prophets, the prophets linked to the powers that be in Jerusalem, right? "Don't prophesy about these things. Disgrace will not overtake us." So Micah's just said God is saying, right? You cannot save yourselves. Then he starts to address the false prophets who are saying, "Don't say these things." "What are you doing? Disgrace will not overtake us. Everything's fine." Right? Gosh you cannot help but see you know whether you wanna talk about the corrupt media, whether you wanna talk about people running interferences, you know, press secretaries, who are like "Don't say these things. That's not true." And even more [00:29:00] nowadays I think especially in the the news cycle, you see something happening and you go to the news and the news is like, "No that didn't happen." And you're like Well 

JR: Yeah. Right. 

David: I just saw it. 

JR: Yeah. 

David: you 

JR: Yeah, I know. Right. No, this has very much a Fox News, MSNBC feel to it, where it just depends on the channel you watch, and you can get two completely different stories. And Micah, I think it's great that he just calls that out. You know, he's calling out the false prophets in a way that's a little bit different than Elijah facing off the prophets of Baal. You know, 'cause I think of that as a false prophet. I mean, these are prophets for Baal. But Micah's clearly talking about prophets for Israel, you know. 

These are prophetic voices. They're just running cover for the powers that be. 

David: Yeah yeah 

I just love the imagery of Micah says, "Look here's, what it is. Like I've had it with the corruption. And God is saying You can't save yourselves." And then the prophets, the false prophets are going, No no no, what is this guy saying? And then Micah turns his finger to [00:30:00] them and says, "Yeah I've got something to say to you guys next too. I'm tired of you running cover for all this nonsense." 

JR: Yeah. 

David: Right? 

JR: Fake news.  

David: Yeah. Yeah and that's, that's very much what he's doing here. 

JR: Yeah. Well, I think fundamentally what Micah is pointing out is it, just a reality, is that corrupt systems very rarely ever just stand alone. They recruit other voices, you know. The leaders exploit, and then the prophets create the narrative that their exploitation is normal or even honorable, right? 

David: Mm-hmm 

JR: And every corrupt system eventually finds its prophets. 

David: No I'm glad you said a corrupt system because that's what we're witnessing here, right? We're not just witnessing a corrupt leader or a corrupt king. 

JR: Yeah, king. 

David: Right? We're witnessing a corrupt system and a system implies that look it's from the top down, right? And it's a self-protecting system as well. 

And again you could talk about examples today where you could say [00:31:00] the whole system is corrupt, right? And to try to break it down and identify. It's like, no one's gonna cooperate with you, right? 

People are going to run interference. People are gonna game the system. People are gonna bribe the judges and the courts. And it's like, Well I can't get anywhere. And I like that you said it's a system here. Micah's not identifying a corrupt person, he's identifying a corrupt system. 

JR: And I it just sounds very modern to point out that corrupt systems have to have their mouthpieces. It just blows me away that, whatever, 6th, 7th, 8th century BC that Micah's calling this out, and yet it feels so today. It feels like a modern problem. 

David: Right. 

JR: Not only is there corruption, but they have, a propaganda wing. You know, whether it's something like Germany, World War II Germany, they had an official, propaganda wing that this is what... 

But every corrupt system has to have their propaganda wing to justify the corruption and justify the rot that's in there. And it's just so funny that this is so old, but I guess [00:32:00] it's a reality as old as time. 

David: I guess, yeah, that's really does tell you it's timeless, right? Corruption. 

JR: Yeah. 

David: Alright,so then if Micah hasn't made enough enemies already, we go to chapter 3 real quick. And I just have to highlight this. Chapter 3, verse 1, he's continuing on this rant against this corrupt system. And then he said, "Listen, you leaders of Jacob." Okay, now, again, Jacob is Israel, right? "You rulers of Israel. Should you not embrace justice, you who hate good and love evil. Who tear the skin from the people and the flesh from their bones, who eat my people's flesh, strip off their skin, and break their bones in pieces, who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot." Okay, so, so basically he's basically saying, "You are treating the people you are supposed to serve, you are treating them like consumable goods," right? And so really this has become a place where the corrupt system has just become a devouring system, right? 

JR: Oh, yeah. [00:33:00] Yeah. As soon as you read that, I'm like, "Man, Micah, tell me how you really feel, dude." You 

David: Yeah. 

JR: know? 

David: Yeah, 

JR: But I love this because he completely strips away polite language and what the leaders call policy or growth or whatever he calls cannibalism. And so the prophets, the reason they're dangerous is because they translate accepted evil into just plain speech. 

They translate it in a way. And if you want something that's memorable, you start spitting this stuff off on the corner street in DC, Washington DC, or Jerusalem or something like that, you know, in the power centers. And it's like, man, it resonates with people. And he's just calling them out, and I just love the language that he's using. 

David: Yeah, and this idea of cannibalism is such a stark contrast with the leadership is supposed to promote the well-being of the people, and all you're doing is cannibalizing the people, right? You're just 

JR: Yeah. 

David: Devouring them. You're devouring the land, the crops, the inheritances, and there's going to be nothing left, right? Which gets... [00:34:00] Okay, so this gets back to that idea of, and Micah calls them evil, is evil consumes, right? 

So that's another pattern I just realized. Like, evil consumes. It is not a what? A replicating system. Right? So 

JR: Yeah, it's not a creative force. 

David: Yeah, like, it's not like the trickle-down, you know, where everyone's getting better off in theory, right? But it's just consuming. And it's like, okay, we have a problem when this system is consuming because eventually there's going to be nothing left to consume, and then of course comes collapse. 

JR: Yeah. And so he's pointing out same thing that people that warn about our government or other governments, you know, today, is that if this doesn't get fixed, look at our national debt, look at the money we spend every year, and there are people that are constantly calling out saying, "Do you think this can go on forever?" 

Just this huge debt and just continue to debt spend and pay for this and pay for that. And it's like, How do you think this is gonna shake out in the long run? And so he's pointing out this not just corruption, it's [00:35:00] a rot. It's a rot, it's a cancer that's gonna spread, and he's saying eventually it's gonna kill all of us, not just the people in Jerusalem, cause again, it's gonna start at the bottom. 

They're the ones that are gonna feel the effect. But eventually you're just gonna consume yourself, and that's why he uses the image of cannibalism. 

David: Wow. Yeah. Yeah. 

JR: Yeah. Powerful. 

David: Which is why then in verse 12, the, I, I think it's the end of chapter three, is he actually comes out and just says, "Because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets." So basically he's like, the end result of all this corruption and all this consumption, right? Not replication, not reproducing, but consumption, is basically Jerusalem will collapse. So he describes this pattern perfectly. 

The center is going to collapse. The center that consumes everything around it it eventually consumes itself, and then we're going to see the entire southern kingdom collapse. I mean, [00:36:00] he nailed it. 

JR: Yeah. 

David: He nailed the pattern. 

JR: Yeah. Well, the other things that, that he points out is that the society doesn't collapse the moment it becomes corrupt. It collapses, to go back to the false prophet, it collapses when it can no longer tell the truth about its corruption. You know what I mean? It reminds me of the fairy tale of the emperor with no clothes. 

Like, everybody in the entire kingdom is lying about how well the king is dressed, and I forget the specifics of that. I basically remember the Disney book, right? But then a kid finally states the obvious, right? That the king is running around in his underwear, and- Just like that, the spell is broken, and immediately the entire kingdom wakes up and laughs at the king. 

And that's how these movements work. Everyone is lying until somebody finally recognizes it and awakens the mob, so to speak. And that's what he's-- That's another thing that he's kind of warning about, or at least that's the voice that he's trying to be. He's trying to be the kid that says, "You realize the king has no clothes here, right?" 

And he's [00:37:00] trying to wake up the mob and hopefully mock the powers that be before they collapse the entire system. 

David: Yeah. All right, so first three chapters, Micah has pulled no punches. He is going after Jerusalem. He's going after the political structure, the social structures, and he's like, "This is teetering and it's going to collapse." Right? 

So then, this brings us to chapter 4. And we're kind of moving through this quick, because there is a lot of details in here. We can't go verse by verse. But, chapter 4 is another familiar turn that we've seen with the other prophets, and I love this because he doesn't just say it's all doom and gloom. He's actually going to paint a picture of what restoration looks like. Okay, so chapter four, verses one through four. We'll let people listen to this, and we'll come back and talk about it.  

In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will [00:38:00] stream to it. Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Ja 

The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. 

Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken. 

David: All right, so this is one of these things that you start to recognize in the prophets that's really cool, actually, once you see it, is after he's just berated everyone, right, he's just burned the system down. 

Then all of a sudden chapter four comes along, and he says, "In the last days, the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established on the highest mountains exalted [00:39:00] above all the hills." 

And what he does is he suddenly really shifts gears and says, "This is the vision of the future," right? 

JR: Mm-hmm. 

David: Because all this may collapse, but there is hope. There is restoration that will come one day. Yeah, so what do you take from these verses? 

JR: Well, he's not just describing merely restoration. He's describing a complete rebuilding from the ground up. Because remember, go back to chapter one, the mountains melted like wax. You know, they're gone, 

David: true. 

JR: right? And now we've got this, the mountain of the Lord. So he's basically kind of talking about what we talked about in the previous episode, is that not only is there collapse, but something new is gonna be rebuilt out of this. 

So restoration is not merely, "Okay, let's get on our knees and pray that God doesn't destroy our establishment," asking for forgiveness. It's more than that. It's actually a process of tearing down the existing systems so something new can be rebuilt. And in this case, the mountains melted, but it's gonna be rebuilt as [00:40:00] the mountain of the Lord. 

David: Yeah, and it's interesting earlier, too, because he called the mountain in Jerusalem a high place, but now he's calling it the mountain of the Lord, right? 

JR: Yeah. Yeah. 

David: So it's that restoration piece, and it's not just a restoration piece. It's a... Well, as Joel called it, it's the day of the Lord, right? It's the place of repentance where God starts restoration that will ultimately point to an ultimate restoration. 

So he's painting a vision of the future. So as bleak as things look now, there is hope. Now, I don't know if we'll be around in our generation to see it, but this is what God has promised of the future. And I like that idea that he doesn't just berate people, he actually paints the ideal picture of the future. 

JR: Yeah, the other two prophets that we've looked at in previous episodes, they kind of paint the same thing. It's the process of tearing down the corruption, and that makes room for the new world to rebuild. 

And so in that way, you start off all three of the [00:41:00] prophets and you think that they're saying the house is on fire, right? But then they end by saying, but this is... He just reminds the people what a home ought to look like. And so it sounds like complete destruction at the beginning, but then he comes back and says, "Here's what the real mountain of the Lord," which is what we should have been from the beginning, "this is what the real mountain of the Lord can look like." 

And so that's the process of restoration. It's pointing to the future. And again, they may not be able to live it out in their lifetime, may not be able to see the fruits of this, but he's pointing it out and saying, "This is what it can be. We've corrupted it, but it can be torn down and God can make something of it." 

David: Yeah. So he's leaving the people with hope. He's not done yet, but he's leaving the people with hope. It's not just "Yeah, everything's done. We're through as a society," right? 

JR: Right. 

David: Okay. So then we move on to chapter five because I wanna point out a really cool verse in here. 

So chapter 5:2, because he's continuing to talk about this restoration, right? So [00:42:00] then in chapter 5 verse 2, he says, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will rule over Israel, whose origins are from of old, who are from ancient times." 

Okay, so that should sound a little bit familiar. 

JR: Say, that's really prophetic. Now we're getting into real prophecy, man. 

David: So it actually helps then to see that in its context in Micah, 'cause he's talking about all this restoration, and now he's saying, "and God will be leading it through his true ruler, through his true king." And by the way, he says it's going to come from Bethlehem.  

JR: Yeah, he's getting real specific there, right? He's not just saying it's gonna come from the north or it's gonna come from the south. He specifically names this tiny town of Bethlehem. 

David: Yeah. That's oddly specific. Yeah. That's gonna play out somehow in the future. 

JR: What do you think-- This is another one of those great verses where it's so obvious to us looking back. What do you think that the listeners at the time took from [00:43:00] that specific town? What did they hear when they hear that you, Bethlehem though you're small, out of you is gonna rise up? 

I just wonder if they took that as a metaphor of that it's not gonna come out of Jerusalem, it's gonna come out of a rural town. You know, it's not gonna come out of the traditional power center. 

David: Well, there were little pieces going on about who this Messiah figure would be. I think it says it's from the line of David. But I, I think there are other clues around the idea that it's not gonna come from the power center, right? 

It's gonna come from Bethlehem. It's going to come from the outside, right? 

And if you think about it, that's where King David came from too.  

JR: Right. 

David: So, I think there might be a tie to King David, but yeah, I'm not real sure about the specific tie to Bethlehem. But of course, they pick this up in the New Testament and everyone says, "Yeah," looking back in hindsight, "Yeah, this is where we would expect the Messiah to come from." 

JR: Yeah, didn't Micah call it? Right. 

David: It's interesting 'cause we've been to Bethlehem. It's not that far outside of Jerusalem. [00:44:00] But back in those days, maybe, I don't know, 10 miles. It wasn't that long of a car drive. Re-remember we had to pass through the checkpoint? 

JR: Right. 

David: But 

JR: 'cause that's Palestinian territory now. 

David: Right, so yeah, West Bank, I think. So it's not that far away, but in these times, Bethlehem would've been considered a little backwater town. 

JR: Sure. It's adjacent to Jerusalem, and it's walking distance, but it would be, you know, a day's walk or something, 

David: Yeah, it'd be a solid half-day or day walk, yeah. 

JR: Yeah. But yes, you're right, it's a suburb. And I think the point of bringing up how would they have seen this in that time, 'cause again, it's easy for us to look back and say, "Oh, wow, you know, Jesus was born in Bethlehem." 

That's what it's pointing to. But I think at the time, the thing that Micah's pointing out is that God bypasses the center of power, right? Jerusalem is where the temple was. 

David: Yeah. 

JR: But Bethlehem's where the future's coming from. And this is true across the board, true renewal often comes from places that the system has [00:45:00] ignored. Something like that. You know what I mean? And so if you're looking to Washington to create a transformative change in your life, then you're looking in the wrong direction, right? Real transformation comes from the places that are currently ignored. And, this is the seed that fell on the beaten path, right? 

You can't grow where everyone's walking, but that's what everybody tends to do. We tend to look to Washington and say, "That's where change for my life is gonna be beneficial. That's where it's gonna happen." And what we find out is that's rarely what happens. It usually comes from some backwater town. 

David: Yeah, I think that's what he's getting at, and this is a really important section because he's been talking all about Jerusalem, gives this picture of renewal, and then it's no little insignificant add-on that he says, "Oh, and by the way, God's Messiah is going to come from Bethlehem." Right? What he's saying by that is like you said, transformation is going to come from the margins. It's going to come from the outside, because once a system becomes too corrupt, it's not gonna happen [00:46:00] from the inside. And, you know, 

JR: Yeah. 

David: you witness enough political elections, and, every party, every election promises we're gonna change things, and you start to realize, "No, you're not," 'cause it's just the same system that's producing all this, right? 

JR: Yeah, you have to work within the system, and if the system's corrupt, what are you gonna do? And th- I think there are well-meaning people that go to Washington to enact change, but it's interesting because you see them either quit after a few years, like, "Yeah, I can't, I can't do anything about this," or they become part of the corruption. 

And, that's the only two choices you have when the power center is corrupt. 

David: Yeah. 

JR: You either conform to it or you just walk away from it and say, "I can't, work within this system." 

David: Yeah. That's right. And so the alternative is the system has to collapse, and someone new from outside has to come in and renew. 

JR: Right. 

David: With that little detail of Bethlehem, that's very much what Micah's saying here. 

JR: I saw a good movie last night. I won't even go into it, but it was a classic Western where the outsider comes in, [00:47:00] comes into town. The sheriff's corrupt. There's one guy, the roadhouse type, you know, script, where there's one guy, one rich billionaire that runs the whole town, got the sheriff in his pocket, and the outsider has to come in and disrupt everything. 

And so, I don't know, it's just kind of interesting. That's the classic Western, and before that's a thing, Micah's describing it. The outsider from the small, sleepy town. The stranger's gonna have to come in and make changes. 

David: Yeah. And one thing I like about this vision of restoration and the future that we've seen the prophets now talk about in several of these examples is that it's not just saying, "Hey, let's go back to the good old days." It's a vision of the future where things will be much better. And of course, in God's kingdom, it will be perfect. 

It will be a perfect, just society. But, you know, that's the other thing. It's a, it's a vision of moving forward, of not, "Hey, let's return back to when so and so was in power, 'cause things were pretty [00:48:00] good then." 

JR: Yeah, that's a very human response , especially when you get to our age, is to say, "Man, back in my day when, you know, kids drank out of the..." We said this before, when kids drank out of the hose and we were on our bikes until the lights came on at night. Let's go back to that. Well, there's nothing wrong with nostalgia, but those days are gone, and if you're gonna move forward, that you don't go backward, you know? 

And so something new has to be rebuilt. Something new has to emerge. But it's such a human response to say, "Can't we just go back? Can't we just go back to..." 

I think I mentioned this last episode. There's a tendency in unfaithful marriages to say, "Look, I'm sorry. Can't we just go back to the way things were before?" And Hosea pointed that out. It's like, no, things are gonna be different moving forward, and that's what Micah's saying the same thing, is there's just a human tendency to say, "Man, can we just rewind that? 

Can you just act like I didn't say what I said?" You know? And can we erase that? And it's like, man, it's out there. You can't unsay it. [00:49:00] You can't put the genie back in the bottle. And so the only way to do that is move forward with the knowledge that you were unfaithful, or move forward with the knowledge that you said this. 

So Micah's kind of painting... I guess he's addressing the human tendency to say, "Man, is there any way we can go back, Micah? Can't we just go back to the way things were?" And he's like, "Nope, that's not the way this works. We can only do this moving forward." 

David: But he is offering hope that you can move forward to something better, right? 

JR: Right, but it's gonna be something different. 

David: It's gonna be something different. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. 

JR: Right. 

David: So Micah spent several chapters now of painting this vision of the future, right? And so in chapter six, he's going to return to this courtroom imagery. 

So he started in chapter one with God saying, remember being witness and judge. So he kind of returns to this imagery in chapter six. And this should actually be a familiar passage to people. We're going to let people listen to chapter six, verse six through eight. And then we'll come back and talk about it. 

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the [00:50:00] exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 

JR: Okay, so can we just take just a moment and appreciate the crafting of those verses? You know, there's a reason that these verses are so well-known, because they just capture some fundamental truths that had clearly been forgotten. 

David: Yeah. 

Yeah, these are well-known, and even as well-known as they are, listening to them now in the context of Micah and picking some stuff up. So this is really about we've said this before about performative religion, right? So in other words, the people's-- basically, he's speaking on behalf of the people's [00:51:00] response going, "Okay, so what should we do then?" 

Right? "Shall we come to Him with burnt offerings, a calf a year old, a thousand rams?" Right? "What will it do to make things right?" But then in verse seven, he actually says, "Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Right? And 

JR: Yeah. 

David: So it's almost like the people are actually willing to say, "Look, do we need to sacrifice our kids? What will make God happy?" Right? 

JR: Right. Well, I think this is another one of those verses that's really interesting 'cause we look back on it and say, "Oh, that's kind of pointing to, obviously, the sacrifice of God's Son, Jesus," right? 

David: Sure, inverts it, right? 

JR: Yeah, but obviously at the time they wouldn't have known that. And so they would've seen it exactly as you just said. 

Yeah, I mean, look, is that what we're gonna have to do? 'Cause that seems extreme. And then ironically, that's exactly what God does later on, what, 500 years later. 

David: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. and [00:52:00] so he's kind of playing out the fears of the people, "What do we have to do?" And that leads into the Micah six, eight, which very well-known verse. But you had some thoughts on that? 

JR: Well, it just, that line, "To act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God," I mean, obviously that's a super memorable line. But verse eight, now that I know the background of Micah and kind of where he came from and the corruption that he's calling out, I read that and it's not just some moral slogan. 

He's trying to recalibrate reality in a way, right? He's saying justice, mercy, and humility, they're not just optional virtues. They're what it looks like when power is properly aligned with God. 

David: Yeah. 

JR: You know what I'm saying? And so, he's not tearing down power, so to speak. And there's a lot of people in our society that say power is the problem or the pursuit of power, and maybe the pursuit of it, that is a fundamental issue. 

But he's not saying that power is the problem. He's saying that power, when it's not [00:53:00] aligned with justice, mercy, and humility, then it's not gonna be aligned with God, and that's when it becomes corrupt. 

David: Yeah. That's right. I also think it's interesting because it's almost like the people are saying, "What sacrifices do we need to do? How many, you know, we need to make pilgrimages? A thousand rams," right? "Our firstborn. What will it take?" And he comes back and says, here's what will take: To act justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly." And you all-- I just had this image all of a sudden of some of the rich and powerful going, "Ugh, are you sure I can't just sacrifice a thousand sheep, you know? Because I got 'em out in my pasture that I just absconded from all the villagers last week," right? 

JR: They're actually your sheep, but man, I'll give them back. 

David: And in some ways, I, I 

JR: I'll sacrifice them. 

David: In some ways it's like a relief to go, "Really? That's all God wants?" 

But look, to a corrupt system, it's like, Ahhh, are you sure I can't just steal from someone else? Like, I, my firstborn's a [00:54:00] jerk. Right? Are you sure I can't just sacrifice my firstborn, right? To a corrupt system, this is actually a painful thing to go through, because we're talking about transformation. But Micah's saying this is all God wants. 

JR: Yeah. And, you know, again, it's like I don't think he's, I think Micah recognizes the necessity for power, right? Justice is the proper use of power. You can argue that there is no justice if you don't have any power to back it. And it goes back to that verse or chapter one where he says the powerful see, what is it? The powerful see, they desire, and they take. 

And so he s- he recognizes the need for power, but I think he's just pointing out that power exposes weak character. And so you have to have this power, but at the beginning, he's saying the power in Jerusalem is exposing this terrible character that they've got. But we can reorient and use power properly, and that's what justice is. 

And so he's ultimately, he's calling for justice, the proper use of [00:55:00] power. 

David: Yeah, and justice in the biblical sense is not social justice that we think of, but it's actually restoring things to a proper order, right? That's what justice is. 

And so, if you think about it, yeah, you have to have some kind of-- maybe power's the wrong word. You have to have some kind of ability to enact change in order to restore the way things should be, right? To bring order out of chaos. You have to have some kind of ability to do that. 

JR: Well, I mean, that's what a judge does. You know, when he slams the gavel, there is power behind him to drag somebody off to prison, right? If that's the judgment. Yeah, you, you're right. Maybe power's not the right word because there's negative connotations. 

But I mean, you have to have something to back up justice. You can say it all you want. You know, we have a United Nations that they can say whatever they want but there's nothing behind it because the United Nations doesn't have an army, right? 

So there's gotta be some kind of [00:56:00] force behind the judgment to make it justice. It's something like that. I don't know. I may be getting on a rabbit trail here. The, but that's kind of the stuff that pops in my head at least. 

David: Yeah. And I think You know at this point, I'm not sure it's even just berating the people in Jerusalem. I think he's talking to everyone at some point, because I may not have the ability to enact justice in Washington, DC, right? But I can enact justice in myself and within my family, right? 

JR: Right. 

David: I have it within my certain scope of influence to make sure things are functioning in order, not in chaos. 

JR: We talked about this in another episode, that great ideas are scalable, right? They work on the individual level all the way up to the global level. And what Micah is laying out here is a universal, scalable idea. 

That if it's gonna work in Washington, so to speak, if it's gonna go work in Jerusalem, you can also scale that down and, start in your own [00:57:00] life. 

Everybody can do something, to your point. Everybody can do something tomorrow if what is gonna correct the system is justice, mercy, and humility, right? 

Everybody can start in our own lives, and that is what's gonna change this whole system that we're gonna tear down. That's what's gonna rebuild it, is from bottom to top. 

There's also a top-down component with the mountain and a bottom-up component from what Micah's saying here also. He's saying that the problems that he describes in chapter one are the people at the pinnacle, and all of that cycling down to affect the people on the ground. 

But then he's interestingly saying that the solution is the exact opposite. We're gonna start from the bottom in individual lives and if we put justice, mercy, and humility at the core of it, then we can see something new build. 

David: Yeah, and again, he's addressing, like we said, performative religion. And I think we said this last time. There's nothing wrong with the [00:58:00] rituals, right? And the performative part, but it has to reflect what's in the heart. And that's where I think he's actually moving beyond the power structures in Jerusalem at the time, and he's saying, "Look, for us to be in a right relationship in this covenant with God, if we have any hope of restoration, of saving this, it's going to come from transformation, and not from Jerusalem, but from us." Right? And that's kind of that bottom up. 

It's going to come when each one of us actually move beyond performative religion and actually allow the covenant to transform us. And if we all do that, working, you know, for justice, putting the world to order, loving mercy. We haven't talked about these words yet, but, that's that loving kindness. 

It's basically how you treat people around you, right? That's that idea. 

JR: Yeah. 

It's that idea about before you try to change the world, let's work on yourself. 

David: Yeah. 

JR: Make sure... I don't wanna say clean your room because that's just completely ripping off Jordan Peterson, but, 

David: but is it-- I thought 

JR: before... [00:59:00] Yeah. I mean, just before you change the world, let's start with yourself. 

We can go out and protest and shout and shake our fist at the powers that be at the top, but before we tackle those big problems, let's start off with ourselves. 

Let's make sure that our fundamental position is justice and humility and mercy. Get that right, and then work on your neighbors, and then let's work on our community, and then let's work on my city. 

And, if you learn how to do it on the small scale, then that can build momentum to actually enact change on the large scale. 

David: Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I was thinking about these words. This is really interesting. So what does this mean personally, like justice? And I wrote down, "Don't ignore what you know is broken." Right? 

JR: Yeah. Yeah. 

David: I was thinking about this, you know, when I became a homeowner, you quickly realize it's very easy to ignore what is broken. But, the house is going to collapse if you do that for too long, right? 

JR: Right. Yes, exactly. 

David: But we [01:00:00] can do that in our own lives, too. So justice is actually a call to say, " Look, don't-- If it's broken, don't ignore it." If your relationship with your spouse or your kids is broken, man, it's not gonna get better by just ignoring it, right? 

JR: Yeah. 

David: That's the idea of justice. So I like that idea of justice is don't ignore what you know is broken.  

JR: Yeah, I like that too because it's easy to say justice is somebody else's problem. That's the judge's problems. That's the court's issue. And it's like, no, justice starts off... What's the the line? A problem ignored is a problem multiplied. I mean, that's what justice is, is calling out injustice even if it's in your own family or in your own relationships. 

David: Right, again I can't help but making some of these connections because so much of the social justice movement today is pointing out what's wrong with everyone else. And actually, I the more I watch some of these movements, the more I'm like, "Do I wanna be like those people?" And I look at them, sorry, apologies. 

Sorry, not sorry. But [01:01:00] it's 

JR: Yeah. 

David: But no, it's like, I don't wanna be like them, right? So it's very easy to point your fingers at everything else, what's wrong with the world. You said this earlier, but then you said, "We won't use this," but I am gonna use it. But, like, clean your own room. Per Jordan Peterson, right? Clean your own room before you point out what's wrong with the world. And I, I 

JR: Yeah. Get up before noon. 

David: Yeah, So that's what justice is at a really personal level, right? It's not just the ability to point out what's wrong with everyone else. It's actually identifying what's broken in me and in my relationships. 

JR: Yeah, you see this on both sides, just to make things fair. These big social movements, these protests, I mean, kind of the unifying theme that I see is a bunch of people that don't have their lives together. 

And again, this happens on both sides. This is not just left or right. This is, kind of people that don't have their lives together and, yeah, it's almost like you're blaming the powers that be for the situation that [01:02:00] you're in. And I'm not saying that there's none of that, that none-- that obviously corruption can work its way down. 

But at the same time, the only thing you can change is yourself, and start there. And if you get your act together in your own life, then hopefully that will be like the spread of a good virus that actually transforms people around you, and that's how... That's why they call it grassroots movements. 

It's something that grows from the bottom up, and that's how to enact change. 

David: I wonder if that flows into this idea of mercy then, because we talked about justice. Then mercy is this idea of don't lose sight of the person. So, it's not-- mercy actually is that reminder of 

JR: Yeah. 

David: It's not about the issue and it's not about the structure and the law. It's about the person over there who you're actually trying to help. Or the person over there that you think is the absolute enemy, right? 

What does mercy look like to that person?  

JR: Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's easy to say something about generalized statements. But if you don't understand on a personal level, then yeah, you're [01:03:00] just broad-brushing things, and you're painting them as the enemy, so to speak. 

And yeah, when you understand mercy, you... I guess, I, I don't know if part of mercy is trying to see things the way somebody else does or try to live in someone else's shoes, or if there's empathy involved in that. I feel like that's kind of all part of that idea, that concept of mercy. 

But yeah, understand where somebody else is coming from. And it's okay to disagree and to go back and forth, but understand where somebody else is coming from and, I don't know, be sympathetic for where people's views differ from yours. And do your best to try to understand where they're coming from. But we live in a day and time of just labeling somebody as left, as right, as MAGA, as racist, as whatever. You know what I mean. It's just it's just easy to throw a label on them, and I think we've said this before, but when you throw a label on somebody, then that is a subliminal way to dehumanize them. 

It's a [01:04:00] subliminal way to say, I don't have to listen to a bad person. Once you get a label, it's just like categorizing them and saying, "I no longer have to listen to them," and that's the opposite of mercy. 

David: Yeah, and there is a component of mercy. Sometimes the word is loving kindness, so there is an action associated with it, right? It's not just, "I feel sorry for that person." It's actually do something kind for that person. So anyway, and then the last phrase, "Walk humbly with your God," and I love this. Don't assume that you're the exception. And, ah, boy, our culture can-- our 

JR: Yeah. 

David: culture should take that one to heart. Because everyone has, again, the people who are always pointing out the problems with the world. But I'm the exception, right? 

JR: I'm the one guy who sees it clearly. 

David: I'm the one guy, yeah. And so I just love this idea of humility, and that's where I almost think that that whole passage where they say, " Can I just sacrifice 1,000 sheep?" In some cases, that's easier than actually being a humble person, right? 

JR: Yeah, you're totally right. And I like that of, humility is assuming I [01:05:00] don't have it all figured out. And one thing I really am trying to do in a very, very genuine way is politically to try to see where the other side is coming from, to have the most charitable view of the hot button issue that I disagree with, right? 

What's the most charitable way to view the other side? And it's interesting because when you get in the practice of that, at the very least, it strips away sort of the memes, sort of the easy, you know, "Oh, you think this just because you're ABC," right? It strips away all that, and it str- it strips away a lot of the nonsense. 

And what you'll find yourself doing is saying, "Well, somebody who holds that opinion is typically coming from this perspective." Now there are life experiences that shape us and all those types of things. And so it's just helpful to go back to the idea of humility, to A, not think that you have all the answers, and to tie it into mercy, to genuinely try to see what the other side, where it's coming from. 

'Cause you'll [01:06:00] find it... You really will find it helpful, and find different ways to consume news and information. If you go to different sources and, you'll also pick up on, I don't know, you'll pick up on what the other side, what the enemy is saying. And if you can break that down, then they're no longer the enemy. 

You realize, man, we're all Americans. We all want the same end goal. We all want justice. We all want to live in a just society and an uncorrupt society. And I don't know, I just think there's something to those simple verses that we could certainly use today. 

David: Yeah. It reminds me, I don't know if it's apocryphal or not, but G.K. Chesterton, I think, that supposedly someone wrote him a letter and said, you know, "Dr. Chesterton, what's wrong with the world?" And he wrote back and said, "I am." And that was it. Like 

JR: That's great. 

David: And, and that's humility. 

It's really understanding that for all the problems in the world, it's embodied in myself. I actually think that's really helpful for-- We've come full circle [01:07:00] now in the whole Micah thing, because we've talked a lot about politics, because Micah did, really. Micah brought it up, so. But 

JR: Yeah. 

David: He really does bring it down to the very personal level, and it makes sense to fit the pattern, right? So the pattern again, if the center is  

JR: evil  

David: and corrupt, then it's all-consuming, and it will consume itself, then it means it's going to collapse, right? 

Well, how do you spark renewal? Well, you spark renewal not by a new power center coming in, but all the fringe transforming, right? Transformation at the margins, right? 

JR: Yeah. 

David: Coming together and building something new. And that's really the pattern, and, and that's why I think Micah ends the way he does. Because at the end of the day, it's not about what's going on in Jerusalem and Samaria and Washington. It's about you and me, and what are we doing to fix what's broken? What are we doing to walk humbly, right? What are we doing to align our hearts with God? And if enough of us do it, [01:08:00] transformation will happen. I think it's a great 

JR: Yeah. Yeah, and it's a great-- No, it is, it's a great way to end it because if you just take the first couple chapters then you're railing, you're shaking your fist at the power structure and saying, "This is the problem. Look what..." M-Micah's pointing out the problem, right? This is where the corruption is. 

And he's right, but at the same time, the solution is not shaking your fist upward. It is looking inward and saying, "Here's how I can enact the change." And it's just the classic psychology 101. Assume your best stand is to any problem that you come across, assume that you're the source of that problem. 

And you may not be. If you blow a tire on the way to work, well, maybe you ignored the tire too long, but maybe it's just you ran over a nail. Maybe it's not your fault. But the best thing is to assume that you're the source of the problem because that's the only person who can fix it. 

Because otherwise you're just pointing around and saying, "This person did that, and this person did something to me." And it just, it projects out. I can't change other people. All I can do is change myself. And to [01:09:00] go back to the fairy tales, transformation is changing yourself so that you can move forward in a chaotic world. 

It's not just screaming at the chaos. That does no good. 

You know, you have to change yourself to move forward w-when things change. You have to change. 

David: Yeah, and to look at it even at a different angle, say society does collapse, But if I have my house in order, I've at least put myself in the best position to weather the collapse, is another way to think about it. 

JR: And to, rebuild. Right. Yeah, no, that's exactly right. 

David: Yeah, I don't know. I, I think more so than the other two, I think we've said this previously, but I think Micah just resonates with a modern-- with everything going on in modern day, right? 

JR: Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah. You just see it all over... I mean, it's like you and I have, during this podcast, have said, "Should we mention this? Should we mention that?" You know, it's 

David: Too political, 

JR: it's-- There's so many... Yeah, it's like, is that too politically charged? [01:10:00] And I don't know. We don't have to mention anything for the listener to be able to attach it to a political movement things that are going on in our modern day. 

Yeah, it was, very enlightening to read Micah and to see how modern these problems are from an ancient prophet. 

David: Yeah, how relevant they are, what, thousands of years later. Yeah. 

JR: Yeah, yeah, exact- exactly. Yeah. 

David: Yeah, any final thoughts? Or should we just tell people that next time we're gonna do Habakkuk, so read Habakkuk, read ahead. Again, these are pretty short, so couple of sittings you'll be able to read Habakkuk. 

JR: Yeah, I mean, I guess the final thought is just that remember, we always want to land on the pattern. And so Micah is revealing the same repeating pattern that other prophets are pointing out, that corruption leads to reassurance, which leads to collapse until reality finally breaks through the illusion and something new is built. 

So it's the same pattern as the other prophets, but don't miss it. 

David: Yeah, and my final thought, I guess, is [01:11:00] just that I feel like there's so much we missed here in Micah. There are so many little verses where you go, "Yes, that rings true. That hits home." so we can't possibly cover it all in an hour. But if you are reading through Micah too and you go, "How did you guys miss this?" 

Right? Then we'd love your feedback. We'd love to hear your comments. Depending on how you listen to this, you can leave a comment. You can go to our YouTube channel. That's probably the easiest way is leave a comment on that episode, because this is one especially I just feel like we've missed a ton. 

JR: Oh, yeah, we miss, things left and right. And so, yeah, we humbly ask for your opinion on what we missed. 

David: Good tie-in. 

JR: Yeah, there we go.