In the final days of Judah, the prophet Jeremiah issued a stinging rebuke to the nation in the holy city of Jerusalem: “This is what the LORD says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.”

For hundreds of years before Solomon, the city of Shiloh had been the home of the Tabernacle, and the presence of God. But Israel had been disobedient, believing that God’s presence would insure them against catastrophe regardless of how they lived. At one point, they even carried the Ark of the Covenant into battle, believing its presence guaranteed victory.

The ark was captured.

Shiloh was destroyed.

Now, Jeremiah was telling them the same thing would happen to Jerusalem if it’s citizens didn’t mend their ways.

The religious elite of Jerusalem arrested Jeremiah and brought him to court charging: “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!” Jeremiah, in their eyes, was guilty of treason.

Fortunately, some of the older, respected men of the community stepped forward in Jeremiah’s behalf. They said: ‘Micah of Moresheth in the days of King Hezekiah said: ‘Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.’ No one put Micah to death. Instead, they repented.”

And so, Jeremiah’s life was spared – thanks to the work of Micah. Unlike the days of Micah however, the people didn’t repent.

The prophecy of Micah is found in the book the bears his name. He did his work about the middle of the 8th century B.C., just before the fall of the Northern Kingdom. His book describes the people of God in a most unflattering manner. They “lay awake at night plotting treachery against their neighbors.” They use their power to oppress people – just because they can. They “hate good and love evil.” They will do anything to make a dollar. Their lack of concern for others is vividly portrayed in these words addressed to the political leaders: “[Y]ou tear the skin from my people . . . break their bones in pieces . . . [and] chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot.” Religious leaders led Israel astray, preaching an “I’m ok, you’re ok gospel,” and they did it because that was precisely what the people wanted to hear. In God’s mind, His Church had been ruined “beyond all remedy.”

The result? “Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.”

It didn’t happen immediately of course. Jeremiah was still talking about the coming calamity two hundred years after Micah. But less than twenty years later, the end had come – just as God said.

What did God want from His people? Simply this: “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God” (Micah 6:8). If she would but do that, God would pardon and forgive them, hurling their sins into “the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).

Micah stands as a lasting rebuke to the People of God in every age who, remembering who they are, forget what they are about; people who, because of their relationship with God, believe they can get away with being inattentive to His will. Micah also has a message for the world: God is sovereign over the nations. They may deny His existence and repudiate His will, but God remains sovereign, and ultimately he promises to “take vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that have not obeyed me” (Micah 5:14-15).

Micah affirms that God delights to show mercy (7:18), but is unafraid to discipline the wayward.