Daily Bible Encouragement

Micah 3:11b-12 Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say,      ‘Is not the Lord among us?      No disaster will come upon us.’  12 Therefore because of you,      Zion will be ploughed like a field,  Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,      the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets. If you think back to yesterday’s verses, what we’ve just read is completely shocking! Verses 9-11 told u...

Micah 3:9-11a Hear this, you leaders of Jacob,      you rulers of Israel,  who despise justice      and distort all that is right;  10 who build Zion with bloodshed,      and Jerusalem with wickedness.  11 Her leaders judge for a bribe,      her priests teach for a price,      and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Just in case we’d missed it, these verses reinforce for us the great contrast be...

Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power,      with the Spirit of the Lord,      and with justice and might,  to declare to Jacob his transgression,      to Israel his sin. The first 7 verses of chapter 3 have all been pretty bad news. The leaders and prophets have abused their position, misleading and destroying the people, and so they will be silenced. We’re left thinking, “What now?  How...

Micah 3:5-7 This is what the Lord says: ‘As for the prophets      who lead my people astray,  they proclaim “peace”      if they have something to eat,  but prepare to wage war against anyone      who refuses to feed them.  6 Therefore night will come over you, without visions,      and darkness, without divination.  The sun will set for the prophets,      and the day will go dark for them.  7 The...

Micah 3:4 Then they will cry out to the Lord,      but he will not answer them.  At that time he will hide his face from them      because of the evil they have done. Do you remember the graphic picture we had in chapter 1, of crumbling mountains and destroyed cities? If we found ourselves in the middle of a scene like that, the noise would be deafening. Here in chapter 3, by contrast, there is a...

Micah 3:1-3 Then I said, ‘Listen, you leaders of Jacob,      you rulers of Israel.  Should you not embrace justice,  2     you who hate good and love evil;  who tear the skin from my people      and the flesh from their bones;  3 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.’ In chapt...

Micah 2:12-13 ‘I will surely gather all of you, Jacob;      I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.  I will bring them together like sheep in a sheepfold,      like a flock in its pasture;      the place will throng with people.  13 The One who breaks open the way will go up before them;      they will break through the gate and go out.  Their King will pass through before them,      t...

Micah 2:10-11 Get up, go away!      For this is not your resting place,  because it is defiled,      it is ruined, beyond all remedy.  11 If a liar and deceiver comes and says,      “I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,”      that would be just the prophet for this people!   What does ‘rest’ mean to you? The feeling of sinking into your bed at the end of a long day? 10 minutes on the s...

Micah 2:8-9 Lately my people have risen up      like an enemy.  You strip off the rich robe      from those who pass by without a care,      like men returning from battle.  9 You drive the women of my people      from their pleasant homes.  You take away my blessing      from their children for ever. Here’s another one of the shocking statements that we’re coming to expect in this book. God descr...

Micah 2:6-7 ‘Do not prophesy,’ their prophets say.      ‘Do not prophesy about these things;      disgrace will not overtake us.’  7 You descendants of Jacob, should it be said,      ‘Does the Lord become impatient?      Does he do such things?’ ‘Do not my words do good      to the one whose ways are upright?’ I imagine I'm not the only who finds these chapters in Micah hard to listen to. I d...

Micah 2:3-5 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.  4 In that day people will ridicule you;      they will taunt you with this mournful song:  “We are utterly ruined;      my people’s possession is divided up.  He takes it from me!      He assigns ou...

Micah 2:1-2 Woe to those who plan iniquity,      to those who plot evil on their beds!  At morning’s light they carry it out      because it is in their power to do it.  2 They covet fields and seize them,      and houses, and take them.  They defraud people of their homes,      they rob them of their inheritance. In chapter 1 we saw how God’s people were facing his judgement because they had fail...

Micah 1:13-16 13 You who live in Lachish, harness fast horses to the chariot.  You are where the sin of Daughter Zion began, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.  14 Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moresheth Gath.  The town of Akzib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel.  15 I will bring a conqueror against you who live in Mareshah.  The nobles of Israel will flee to...

Micah 1:10-12 10 Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all.  In Beth Ophrah roll in the dust.  11 Pass by naked and in shame, you who live in Shaphir.  Those who live in Zaanan will not come out.  Beth Ezel is in mourning; it no longer protects you.  12 Those who live in Maroth writhe in pain, waiting for relief,  because disaster has come from the Lord, even to the gate of Jerusalem. So far in Micah,...

Micah 1:8-9 8 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.  9 For Samaria’s plague is incurable; it has spread to Judah.  It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself. As we saw yesterday, Samaria – in the North – had a long history of idolatory. But we see from verse 9 that this isn’t just a priva...

Micah 1:5-7 5 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? 6 ‘Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble, a place for planting vineyards.  I will pour her stones into the valley and lay bare her foundations.  7 All her idols will be broken to p...

Micah 1:3-4 3 Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling-place;      he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth.  4 The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart,  like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope. Yesterday, we thought about the extraordinary privilege that is it to have the Almighty God speak to us. Today we see something even more extraordinary. T...

Introduction to Micah The next series of Daily Bible Encouragement will be working through the Old Testament book of Micah. Micah was a prophet who spoke God’s word to God’s people sometime between 748 and 687 BC. The nation of Israel had been living in Canaan, the land God had promised them, for many generations but they had not consistently lived as his people. Micah is one of a number of prophe...

Micah 1:1-2 1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah – the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2 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. “Micah? Really? Why?!” Perhaps that’s what you thought when...