Micah 1

Micah 1
From verse 1 it is seen that this prophet served God in the land of Judah at the same time as Isaiah, but beginning later, for Isaiah 1:11The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. (Isaiah 1:1) includes an earlier king, Uzziah, the father of Jotham, whose long reign ended with his death in B. C. 758. “Morasthite” means an inhabitant of Moresheth, a town in the west of Judah, in which section the other places mentioned in verses 10-16 were found.
The prophecy of Micah has been called a key to the much more extended book of Isaiah, since it has largely the same character, though again differing, so as to have a character of its own. Both tell of the Messiah’s coming and rejection, and as we shall see, Micah contains important details of prophecy found nowhere else.
The first two chapters are introductory. The whole earth is called to hear (verse 2), and judgment, awful in its intensity, is announced for the day of Jehovah’s coming out of His place (verses 3-4). (See Isaiah 2:12-2212For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: 13And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, 14And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, 15And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, 16And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. 17And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 18And the idols he shall utterly abolish. 19And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 20In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; 21To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 22Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? (Isaiah 2:12‑22); 2 Thessalonians 1:7-87And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (2 Thessalonians 1:7‑8)).
There is always a divine purpose (which will repay prayerful study) in the names by which God is spoken of in His Word, and as three names are used in verses 2-3 it may be appropriate to remark that “the Lord GOD” (the Lord Jehovah) combining His Old Testament name of relationship with man and particularly with Israel, with one telling of lordship, of authority and power, is associated with the judgment of the rebels against Him, whether of Israel or of the world at large. “The LORD” is the translator’s usual substitute for “Jehovah” in the Old Testament, and is not the same as “The Lord”. “Jehovah” is the name used generally in the book of Micah, “Lord Jehovah” being used but once, “Lord” twice, and “God” ten times (in chapters 3 to 7).
It is because of the transgression of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel, that God will come forth, —because His people have left Him no testimony in the earth (except a false one). He must render a testimony, therefore, to Himself, and in view of that, all the sins of the Gentiles must be judged.
Samaria and Jerusalem, respectively the seats of government in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, were the chief places of departure from God; Samaria the worse of the two, devoted to idolatry, was to be made a heap of ruins, and its idols beaten to pieces, the idol gifts burned with fire.