Join us as we reflect on personal encounters with Micah’s teachings through decades of Bible journaling. Explore how Micah’s warnings resonate today as a call to reassess our spiritual commitments and priorities. This episode invites you to consider the role of idol worship in contemporary life and challenges you to an intentional daily engagement with scripture for a more grounded and fulfilling spiritual journey.
Welcome to ADDBIBLE, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Allen J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
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Today we begin the Old Testament book of Micah. I will be using my English Standard Version introduction to the book of Micah for most of this introduction. Micah is never referred to as a prophet. His calling as such is not recorded, but the source of his power and message are recorded in chapter 3, verse 8. He says, I am filled with power with the Spirit of the Lord. His name, Micah, means, Who is Yahweh? Micah prophesied during the reigns of three kings of Judea, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, a span of some 63 years between 750 and 687 BC. He writes like God is bringing a lawsuit against his people. The theme of Micah is judgment and forgiveness. God is judge and scatters his people for their transgressions and sins, but he is also the shepherd king who gathers, protects, and forgives them. Dr. Woodrow Kroll, in his book Introduction on Micah, says be prepared to allow your jaw to drop in awe at a holy God who still delights in mercy. In this short book, you will be impressed that there is no God like this God. What to listen for in the book of Micah? Why God doesn’t always answer prayer. The specific birthplace of Jesus… what God wants from us. There are seven chapters in the book of Micah. We’ll take them one chapter a day. I will read chapters 3, 5, and 6, and we’ll listen to Faith Comes By Hearing’s reading of the other chapters of Micah. So let’s begin with Micah chapter 1. Micah.
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Micah 1. The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
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Hear, you peoples, all of you, pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you. The Lord from His holy temple. For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. All this is for the transgression of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste. For from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return. For this I will lament and wail, I will go stripped and naked, I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable, and it is come to Judah. It has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem. Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all. In Bethlehaphra, roll yourselves in the dust. Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shepher, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitants of Zanon, do not come out. The lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place. For the inhabitants of Moroth wait anxiously for good, because disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem. Harness the steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish. It was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel. Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Akzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Moreshah. The glory of Israel shall come to Adullam. Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they shall go from you into exile.”
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To guide us through the book of Micah, I like to use my personal Bible reading journals. I have been journaling my Bible reading for over 30 years, and you’re going to see that from the journals I choose to use through the book of Micah. We’re going to start with a journal from 1991 when I was 36 years old. Then we’re going to look at a journal from 2006 when I was 51 years old, and then finally close with a journal from 2015 when I was 60 years old. There are 24 years between the first journal in 1991 and the last one we’ll use in 2015. So let’s begin with my journal entries from 1991. In 1991, I read Micah chapters 1 through 3 on the same day, and I just referred to chapter 2, verse 6 in my journal entry. I quoted that verse. It says, “…but if they do not speak out concerning these things, reproaches will not be turned back.” So sometimes my journal entries are pretty short. And if you would like to journal your way through the book of Micah with me, then just pick up a journal and start writing what you get from the Lord as we go through the book of Micah. In 2006, I did the same thing. I read Micah 1 through 3 in the same day. And I just wrote one line. Why will God judge and punish? And I quoted verse 5 of chapter 1. For the rebellion of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. By the way, in 2006, I was also reading a New Testament passage with an Old Testament passage each day. Sometimes I refer to my prayers that I also record in my journal. And in 2006, I wrote this prayer. Thanks for prophets. Are there prophets today? In 2015, again, I was reading a New Testament passage each day with an Old Testament passage. So I read Micah chapter 1 on this day and I wrote… Here, pay attention, for the Lord is coming, and I was referring to chapter 1, verses 2 through 3. Then I wrote, God’s judgment is a response to the transgression of Jacob and for the sin of the house of Israel. And I quoted chapter 3, verse 5. And then I finished with chapter 3, verse 9. Eventually, our sinfulness becomes incurable. Micah is known as one of the minor prophets. What does that mean? Does it mean he was less of a prophet than others? No. It just means that his book is shorter than some of the bigger prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, or Jeremiah. Micah’s prophecy is only seven chapters, but it is still powerful and a very important part of Scripture. In Micah 1.1, he reminds us where he gets his information. He says, So Micah records what he has heard from the Lord. He reminds us in chapter 1, verse 3, Did he come? Yes. Jesus came to earth. Will he come again? Yes. He will come again. But here in this first chapter of Micah, Micah is warning the people that God is coming. He is coming to judge them. He says so in verse 5. All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What was one of the things Israel was doing wrong? They were worshiping carved images and idols. Let’s look at verse 7. All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces. All her wages shall be burned with fire. And all her idols I will lay waste. God was not pleased with idol worship then. He’s not pleased with it today. Now you might say, well, we don’t worship idols today. Do we? Or don’t we? An idol is anything that gets between you and your relationship with the Lord. So we may not be worshiping carved images today, but we may be worshiping some things that certainly get in the way of our relationship with the Lord. Why do I say that? Because the number one reason Christians confess that they don’t read their Bible is because they’re too busy. Is that your confession? If so, take inventory today in what you’re too busy doing that you don’t have time for daily time with the Lord. What do you need to stop doing so that you can have more time for your quiet time of Bible reading and prayer? Father, you weren’t pleased with idol worship then, and you are not pleased with what gets between us and you today. Holy Spirit, prick our hearts with a conviction to spend more time with you daily. What you want is relationship with us. The question is, do we want relationship with you? Lord, help us remove some of the things that get in the way of our relationship with you so that you can be well-pleased with us. Most of us say you are our number one priority. Let’s make it so. In the name of Jesus, our Savior, we pray it. Amen. Thanks for listening to ADDBIBLE today. You know, sometimes we need a plumb line, a true north, a solid basis of truth to live life. We’re not going to find it in the media or in social media or Google or your friends, but it is available right at your fingertips. Pilate asked Jesus in John 18, 38, what is truth? The chapter before, Jesus had answered the question in his prayer to God for his disciples. In the 17th verse, Jesus pleads with the Father, Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. So what would it be like if everyone, everywhere, read the Bible every day? Wow, it might be heaven on earth. What would it be like if every Christian read the Bible every day? Would we be better ambassadors for Christ? What would it be like if everyone in your community read the Bible every day? Would we have greater impact in our communities? And what would it be like if you personally read the Bible every day? Could you use a closer walk with Jesus? Could you use a light unto your path and a lamp unto your feet to walk through this life? Could you use a spiritual power surge in your life? Matthew 22, 29, Jesus speaking to the Sadducees said, You are mistaken not understanding the Scriptures or the power of God. Yes, the Scriptures can give us power to live this life. So I’m going to give you three easy action steps to make the Bible worth your time each and every day. Number one, commit to daily Bible readings. Commit to seek God and His Word daily, every day. And if you miss a day, start again the next day. Change your belief about God’s Word to behavior in God’s Word. Use any of our Ezra Project resources to help you. Visit EzraProject.net to get an Ezra Project Bible reading journal. or one of our day-by-day through the Bible books. Commit today and visit EzraProject.net for easy-to-use resources for your daily time in God’s Word. Number two, be intentional. Decide what you want out of your Bible reading. I got to visit the headquarters of Back to the Bible once in Lincoln, Nebraska, and in one hallway down one side, they had scribbled all the reasons people say they don’t read the Bible. On the other side were all the reasons people do read the Bible, and I want to give you some of those to encourage you. On that wall, it said, God wants me to. Yes, God wants you to read the Bible. Do you want to meet with Him daily? Because He’ll meet with you every day through His Word. Number two, it changes me. Where could you be in one year with more Bible reading in your life? Number three, it improves my outlook on life. Yeah, turn out the bad news and saturate yourself with good news from the Word of God. Number four, it keeps me grounded. Yes, when the storms of life come, and they will, can you stand? Yes, you’ll stand better and more solid because you’re in the Word of God. Next, it keeps my heart soft. Yeah, Nehemiah 8, when people heard the Word, they wept and they worshiped. You will do the same as the Word softens your heart. Lastly, on the wall, it said, it keeps my daily focus on God. Yeah, that’s a great reason to read the Bible. You’ll gain the spiritual power to live life in our secular world. And then thirdly and lastly, feed your soul. Let God minister to your soul. Hebrews 4.12 says the Word of God pierces between your soul and your spirit, between joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of your heart. Nothing else goes that deep. I don’t know where the place is between my soul and my spirit, but I want to put the Word of God there each and every day of my life. I hope you do too. God bless you as you spend time in God’s Word.
