All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 in total
Episode 1: Prophet motive
Even if you've never read the book of Micah, you may be familiar with some of the passages from it. When King Herod is visited by the magi, for example, the foreigners...
Episode 2: Good kings, bad kings
The very first verse of Micah tells us that his ministry spanned the reigns of three of the kings of Judah: Jothan, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. If we want to understand Micah'...
Episode 3: Holding out hope
Let's face it: there's so much doom and gloom in the prophets that it can make for a depressing read. But there is also hope amidst the heartache. This episode gives a...
Episode 4: Where have all the good kings gone?
Circling back to Micah's political context: the story of the kings of Israel in the years before their downfall is a sorry one. So too for the southern kingdom of Juda...
Episode 5: Court is now in session
After a brief introduction of the prophet Micah himself, the text goes right into prophecy, as Micah delivers an oracle from God. As we'll see in Micah 1:2-4, God is c...
Episode 6: Pointing fingers
It's human nature to want to blame others when there's a problem. But that doesn't work when God comes in judgment. While the people might first have thought that Mica...
Episode 7: The heart of the prophet
Micah 1:6-7 gives a sobering picture of the destruction that is coming to the kingdom of Israel and its capital, Samaria. But Micah doesn't preach his message self-rig...
Episode 8: Tell it not in Gath
Micah has already foretold the destruction of Samaria (which would happen in his lifetime). He then turns to prophesying against Jerusalem, opening with the words, "Te...
Episode 9: When names become omens, part 1
As we saw in the previous episode, Micah begins his oracle against Judah with the ominous words, "Tell it not in Gath" (Micah 1:10). What follows from there may sound ...
Episode 10: When names become omens, part 2
The previous episode began exploring the odd wordplay Micah uses in chapter 1. This episode continues that exploration, looking at Micah 1:13-15. But the wordplay is n...
Episode 11: Mourning
As I've suggested, Micah mourns for the fate that will befall Judah and Jerusalem. In Micah 1:16, he invites the people themselves to mourn as he predicts the coming e...
Episode 12: The rich get richer
Why is doom coming upon Judah? In Micah chapter 2, we begin to find out. The people are living lives of greed and economic injustice. The powerful are taking advantage...
Episode 13: How the mighty have fallen
As Micah delivers words of judgment from God, he suggests that the pride of the powerful will become an object of scorn; they will become proverbial for their arroganc...
Episode 14: The professional half-truth
It's hard enough for Micah to bring words of condemnation from God. Would the powerful listen to what he had to say? But his job is made even harder by the fact that t...
Episode 15: Does God help those who help themselves?
Some people think the saying "God helps those who help themselves" comes from the Bible. It doesn't--though Eugene Peterson's The Message does in fact translate one se...
Episode 16: Poetic justice
Against the teaching of the false prophets who told people what they wanted to hear, Micah now turns to describing the unjust way those with power among God's people h...
Episode 17: The prophet we deserve
As we've seen, Micah has spoken out boldly of the poetic justice that will befall the leaders of Judah. Here, he not only accuses them of injustice, but of both hedoni...
Episode 18: The LORD is my shepherd
Perhaps the best-known, best-loved psalm is Psalm 23, the so-called Shepherd Psalm. We are the sheep for whom God as shepherd cares. The metaphor is used throughout th...
Episode 19: The shepherd is my king
As we've seen, some of Micah's words portray God as the shepherd of his people, conveying a sense of comfort and protection. But the metaphor would have meant more tha...
Episode 20: Corruption instead of justice
In chapter 3, Micah turns to some of his harshest condemnations. There are three oracles against the corrupt leaders of Judah, which we will explore one at a time in u...
Episode 21: Eaten alive
Imagine going to court as a plaintiff seeking justice, and finding that the judge is taking bribes from the defendant. Such is the injustice in Jerusalem, and Micah do...
Episode 22: The slippery slope
Micah now turns his condemnation against the false prophets who are paid to tell the powerful what they want to hear. While the previous oracle against corrupt judges ...
Episode 23: Breaking through
In contrast to the false prophets--who may have been Micah's former colleagues!--Micah claims to be filled with the Spirit and therefore empowered to declare the peopl...
Episode 24: Paid by the word
Micah has already lashed out against corrupt judges and false prophets. Here, he again speaks against judges and prophets, but also priests. What do all these leaders ...
Episode 25: Drinking the Kool-Aid
As we've seen, the various kinds of corrupt leaders in Judah had all been swayed by lure of money. But what they also share in common is a spiritual delusion: despite ...
Episode 26: Reduced to rubble
In chapter 1, Micah already pronounced doom upon Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. Now, in 3:12, he uses similar language to predict the destruct...
Episode 27: Like moths to a flame
Chapter 3 ended with a grim prediction of the fall of Jerusalem. But chapter 4 opens with a hopeful vision of the city being restored to a place of prominence, with th...
Episode 28: Swords into plowshares
The oracle at the beginning of chapter 4 envisions Jerusalem a place to which the nations stream. Not only do they come to learn from God, they come seeking justice. A...
Episode 29: Relaxed and unafraid
Imagine living (as many in the world do) under the constant threat of war. Then imagine having that burden lifted, so that you were free to relax in your garden and ta...
Episode 30: Walking, not waiting
In previous verses, we've seen how Micah both predicts the punishment that is coming to Jerusalem and Judah, and yet also a future in which the nations will actually s...