Micah 7:1 - Meaning and Application

This is a picture of very bad times, so bad that some people think it could hardly fit Hezekiah’s reign, when Micah was prophesying. They therefore take it as a warning of what would happen under Manasseh. But it may better fit the time of Ahaz, when Micah began to prophesy (Micah 1:1), or the early years of Hezekiah, before his reforming work took full effect. Even in Hezekiah’s best days, after he had done much to clear away corruption, there was still much wrong.

The prophet cries out, “Woe is me!” He is grieving that he has been placed in such a sinful age. He feels it as a great sorrow that he lives among a people quickly heading toward ruin, a ruin that would pull many good people down with it. David had the same feeling when he said, “Woe is me that I stay in Mesech” (Psalm 120:5).

Micah laments, first, that there are so few good people left, even among God’s own people. This was their shame: “The godly man has disappeared from the land” (Micah 7:2). The “good man” here is both godly and kind, for the word includes both ideas. Truly good people are devoted to God and also compassionate and generous toward others. They love mercy and walk with God.

These good people had vanished. The honest, faithful men who had once honored the land were gone, and no one had risen to take their place. Honesty seemed banished, and no true good man could be found. People raised in religion had gone bad, and many had become as wicked as the worst. “The godly man ceases” (Psalm 12:1). Micah compares this to looking for summer fruit after the harvest. It is as hard to find a good man as it is to find choice fruit when the gathering season is over.

The prophet felt almost like Elijah, who said, “I, even I only, am left” (1 Kings 19:10). Good people, who once seemed to hang together in groups, were now only like a few grape-gleanings, a berry here and there (Isaiah 17:6). There were no clusters to be found, and the best grapes grow in clusters. Some think this also means that the few who remained, though counted as good people, were good for very little, like the small withered grapes left behind after the gathering.

Seeing this wide decay, the prophet longed for the first ripe fruit. He wished to see men like those of earlier times, the honor of the older generations, who were as much better than the people of his day as the first ripe fruits are better than late fruit that never fully matures. When we read about the wisdom, zeal, seriousness, devotion, and generosity of believers in past ages, and then see how far today’s professors of religion fall short, we cannot help sighing, “Oh for primitive Christianity again.” We ask where the plainness and honesty of those who went before us are. We look for true Israelites, without deceit, but we look in vain. The best days are gone, and we cannot bring them back. We must make the best of the time we have, because we are not likely to see such days again.

Micah laments, second, that there were so many wicked and harmful people among them. It was not only that no one did good, but that many did all the harm they could. “They all lie in wait for blood, and each one hunts his brother” (Micah 7:2). To gain wealth for themselves, they do not care what wrong or harm they do to their neighbors, even to close family. They act as if human life were war and force were the only rule. They are like beasts of prey. They lie in wait for blood as lions do for their prey, and they hunt their brother with a net, as though innocent people were dangerous creatures to be destroyed.

They are also like hunters who trap game to feast on it. They use every wicked trick to catch people and ruin them, as long as they can profit from it. In this way they do evil with both hands eagerly. Their hearts desire it, their minds plan it, and both hands are ready to carry it out. The more eager and determined people are in a sinful plan, and the more effort they put into it, the more offensive it becomes.

Micah laments, third, that the leaders, who should have protected justice, were instead promoting injustice. “The prince asks, and the judge asks for a bribe” (Micah 7:3). They use their power to support wicked schemes, and they do it eagerly. Some understand the phrase to mean that they are skilled in doing evil, and they even boast of how well they do it. Others take it to mean that they have both hands ready for evil, while for any good they must be paid. If they do any helpful act, they do it only for money.

The great men, who had both wealth and power to do good, were not ashamed to join the prince and the judge in their harmful desires. Together they twisted matters, tangled the case, and made justice hard to see so they could make the outcome go whichever way they wanted. It is a sad thing when princes, judges, and leading men work together to pervert justice.

Their character is described very sharply: “The best of them is like a brier, and the most upright is worse than a thorn hedge” (Micah 7:4). It is dangerous to have anything to do with them. Anyone who touches them will be scratched, torn, and badly hurt. David used a similar picture of wicked men that must be handled with care, like thorny branches (2 Samuel 23:6-7). If this is the best and most upright among them, what must the rest be like?

When things have reached that point, the day of thy watchmen comes, that is, the day of God’s judgment. God will call them to account for all this evil. It is called the day of the watchmen because God had set his prophets over them as watchmen, and they had often warned the people about that coming day.

When everyone has corrupted his way, even the best and most upright among them, what else can be expected except a day when God visits them in judgment, like the flood that drowned the old world when the earth was full of violence?

There was no trust left between people. They had become so openly treacherous that no one knew whom to rely on (Micah 7:5). People who still had some sense of honor or even a little virtue normally keep the rules of friendship. They do not repeat private talk or betray secrets to hurt a friend. But now those things were treated as a joke. You could not find a friend you could safely trust, whose word you could count on, or who truly cared for you. So wise people had to live by this rule, do not trust a friend, because you will find him false. You can trust him only as far as you can watch him. Even the man who seems honest may be that way only when he knows someone is watching. And the person who offers to guide you in business, and claims to know it better than you do, cannot be trusted either, because he may mislead you if it helps him.

Some understand a guide here to mean a husband, since a husband is called the guide of your youth. That fits well with what follows: keep the doors of your lips from her who lies in your bosom, even from your own wife. Be careful what you say before her, because she may betray you, as Delilah did Samson, or as a bird of the air that carries the sound of what you said in your bedchamber (Ecclesiastes 10:20). It is a very evil time when careful people are forced to keep even this kind of silence.

Children were also abusive toward their parents, and people found no comfort or peace even in their own homes and closest relationships (Micah 7:6). The times are bad indeed when a son dishonors his father, speaks badly to him, exposes him, threatens him, and plans harm against him. It is just as sad when a daughter rises up against her mother, with no sense of duty or natural love. No wonder then if the daughter-in-law quarrels with her mother-in-law and becomes a constant trouble to her. Sometimes they cannot agree over property or money. Sometimes their temperaments and passions clash. Or, in a spirit of hard religious zeal and persecution, the brother gives up his brother to death, and the father his child (Matthew 10:4; Luke 21:16).

It is a sad thing when a man’s own family members become his betrayers and worst enemies, even his own children and servants, who should protect him and be his closest friends. The breaking of the duties that belong to family life is a sure sign that manners have become deeply corrupted. Those who dishonor their parents and keep provoking them are never likely to turn out well.