| "And this man shall be the Peace, when the Assyrian comes into our land. And when he treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him Seven shepherds and eight Principal men (Commanders)" Micah 5:5 "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" Micah 5:2 | | Micah, Hosea and Isaiah prophesied together for about 35-40 years. They lived in the same era and served people in the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, Kings of Judah. Amos also prophesied during the same time, but during Uzziah’s reign. For brevity’s sake we will focus only on Micah and what revelation the Holy Spirit gave him about Christ | Every prophet longed that Christ would be born in his lifetime or at least he would manifest in his fullness during his life and unto his people. This is the cry of a real prophet. He is crying for God’s fullness and he is crying for his people. | Micah preached about the corruption in high places, land grabbing, powerful people pushing little house owners out and grabbing fields and family houses, rowdies continually doing evil, drinking from morning till evening, judges taking bribes, Govt and politicians totally reckless and mindful of their own money (Micah 2, 3). How men were oppressing men, youth ruling wantonly, elders oppressing too (Isaiah 3) . And women were haughty, fashion focussed, flirtatious, focussed on ornaments, bangles, purses, mirrors and hair styling and fragrances (Isaiah 3:16-24). How right he was! | On the other hand he spoke of Pastors teaching for hire, Prophets saying smooth things for offerings, and speaking lies about prosperous times and good things to come, and the Word of the Lord being totally absent in that day. They were living on the edge and in the face of impending judgement and captivity. But no Pastor was preaching that. Only these 3-4 godly men stuck their necks out and pointed out the sins of the people and asked them to repent (Micah 3:8). It was pretty much like the present times. Economic alliances, security pacts between nations, and Commerce and Big business driving society, lets get rich at all costs attitude. |
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