Minor Prophets: Micah and Justice

Micah and Justice:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel..(Gal 1:6 ESV)

Micah 6:8  He has told you, oh man, what is good; and what does YHWH require of you? But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? 

• These three statements begin small and build upon one another, like stair steps which lead us to the Father.

Quick Background Facts:

• Micah’s transliterated Hebrew name is Mikayahu or Mikhah. It means “Who is like YHWH?”

• During the time of this book, Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and Jerusalem was the capital of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Each of these cities had become hubs of sin for the people of Israel.

We read in the first verse of Micah that this is another prophetic warning to Samaria and Jerusalem, which is essentially to the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. 

• Micah was a prophet about 700 years before Jesus. 

• Prophets weren’t dudes peering into crystal balls, divining the future. They knew God’s word, looked out over society, and saw gaps between what God wanted and how people behaved. 

• The prophets intervened to help people get back on the right path.

Micah was one of the prophets who addressed the people during sunny days of prosperity, for the elites. 

• Everyone else limped behind, and the poor were getting crushed.  

• The prophets intervened. 

• They saw the system rigged against the poor, with oppressive taxes, corruption, and judges on the take.

Interestingly, the Bible never uses the term “social justice.” 

• The gospel is the Gospel of a Kingdom, not good news of a program or entitlement. 

• The Gospel of the Kingdom is not a handout but a hand up. 

  • It’s about people, not programs.

  • Changing people from the inside out, not the outside in. 

The Social Gospel makes a significant assumption that if you give people resources and expect little responsibility, they will be motivated to change. 

• Why do you think so many times Jesus asked people if they wanted to be healed? 

• It’s because not everyone wants what comes along with the healing. 

• If you are healed, you are now responsible for yourself and for healing and helping others! 

A very wealthy US businessman in 2024 donated 100,000 chickens to Bolivia to alleviate extreme poverty. [1] According to his foundation, he was investing in long-term economic development, helping families establish a sustainable source of income. Bolivia rejected the offer. [2] It viewed the effort as demeaning and unnecessary, highlighting that often what we think is best for others may not be what they want, or even what they need.

• Just give us the eggs that we need, not the responsibility of chickens! 

• We want the fish not to learn how to fish! 

“The danger of social gospel and liberation theologies is that they tend to elevate sociopolitical change above spiritual redemption, thus depreciating mankind’s spiritual need for a Savior and fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of the kingdom of God.” 

The Christian worldview asserts that mankind’s primary need is not physical or sociopolitical, but spiritual. 

• This is why the Church is called to evangelize and disciple, to proclaim and teach the good news of Jesus Christ with the hope of eternal salvation for all people.

1. Justice

Why does God expect Justice from us? 

• If you were a praying mantis, it would be socially acceptable to devour your mate.

• And if you’re a honey badger, you have no regard for other animals. You don’t care.

• If you’re a panda with twins, it’s normal to abandon one to take care of the other

• But if humans do any of these things. 

• Why do humans care so much about justice?

Well, the Bible has a fascinating response to that question. On page one, humans are set apart from all other creatures as the image of God.

• And this identity is the bedrock of the Bible’s view of justice: all humans have the right to be treated with dignity and fairness. 

• Because they bear God’s image. 

2. Justice in Scripture

•  And this word “justice,” it’s the Hebrew word mishpat. 

• Most often in the Bible,mishpat refers to restorative justice. 

  • It means seeking out vulnerable people who are being taken advantage of and helping them.

  • It means restoring them to dignity and caring for them as unto the Lord because they bear the image of the Lord. 

  • In doing so, the Kingdom of God is restored on Earth and the whole Earth is full of His glory through the restoration of His image bearers! 

• Solomon would say in Proverbs 31:8, “Open your mouth for those who can’t speak for themselves.”

• Jeremiah would say in Jeremiah 22:3, “Rescue the disadvantaged, and don’t tolerate oppression or violence against the immigrant, the orphan, and the widow.”⁷

•  David would say in Psalm 30:18, “The Lord God upholds justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, and sets the prisoner free, but he thwarts the way of the wicked.” 

This is what I call Redemptive and Restorative Justice. 

• We see the poor —we feed the hungry from our hearts and give

• We stand against racism and fight just as the early abolitionists did. 

• We stand against abortion and help mothers care for their children, 

• We work to rescue people from the cycles of poverty by teaching them to fish and not just giving them a fish. 

The Good Samaritan (Jesus’ example of what it meant to love our neighbor is to get personally involved) 

3. God’s Response to Injustice

• Israel ended up as immigrant slaves being oppressed unjustly in Egypt. 

• And so God confronted Egypt’s evil, declaring them to be rasha’, guilty of injustice, and so he rescued Israel. 

• But the tragic irony is that these redeemed people went on to commit the same acts of injustice against the vulnerable. 

• And so God sent prophets who declared Israel guilty.

God’s response to humanity’s legacy of injustice is to give us a gift:

• The life of Jesus. 

• He did righteousness and justice, and yet he died on behalf of the guilty. 

• And Micah prophesies this: 

Micah 5:2-5 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. 3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. 4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. 5 And he shall be their peace. – 

The great commission is a call to justice, just as Jesus read the scroll of Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, / to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn,”

When John was imprisoned and sent his disciples for reassurance that Jesus was the messiah, Jesus said in

Luke 7:22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”

The message and work of the Messiah and His church is restorative justice! 

Mark 16:17-18 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

4. Justice in God’s definition is restorative.

1.  “Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy.”(Psalm 82:3)   

2. “Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and learn to do right. See that justice is done— help those who are oppressed, give orphans their rights, and defend widows.” (Isaiah 1:16-17 – GN)

Restorative Justice is action, 

• Jesus quoted Hosea when he said Matthew 9:17 But go ye and learn what that means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

• Hosea 6:6. He prophesied at the same time as Micah 

We are empowered by the Spirit to bring restorative justice to the souls! 

• There is a war going on with only two sides

• We cannot sit on our hands and do nothing. 

Our ultimate example of justice is found in the life and person of Jesus, who healed the sick, defended the weak, and ultimately paid the price for our sins and freed us from our oppression of sin and death. 

Social justice, however, takes a route that directly contrasts the meaning of biblical justice.

• The First problem is that the core value of social justice is not redemptive and restorative, but to redistribute 

  • Redistribute “resources and advantages to the disadvantaged to achieve social and economic equality” for all. 

    1. But for this to happen, it requires the identification of those who have advantages and resources with those who do not. 

• This is the first problem with social justice.

Examples:  

• It pits people groups against each other and instills jealousy in those deemed “oppressed” of those who are “oppressors.” 

• It creates a victim mentality in the oppressed. They begin to be groomed to place the blame on others (oftentimes unjustly) for their plight.

• While biblical justice unites and uplifts people, social justice tears down certain groups and creates division.

• The second problem with social justice is that it surrenders more power to the government, since it appears to be the only one powerful enough to correct these systematic inequalities.

  •  Voddie Baucham said that “social justice seeks to find out who is to blame for unequal outcomes (academically, economically, politically) and then there needs to be a redistribution of power and resources in order to address those issues.”

    1. In America, politicians earn votes and approval by catering to the needs of specific groups in order to “lift them out of oppression,” particularly minority groups such as Black individuals, women, LGBTQ members, etc. 

    2. They identify ways in which these groups are “oppressed” and if they are given more control, they can free disadvantaged groups from their chains.

• This is communism at its finest: the redistribution of wealth so that all equally share resources. 

• But as Soviet Russia, Fidel Castro-led Cuba, and modern-day Venezuela show us, this type of thinking and government only brings destruction and chaos. 

• ALL THREE COUNTRIES ARE FILLED WITH OLIGARCHS AND DICTATORS!   

  • However, people who don’t have a biblical sense of justice will look for an anti-biblical solution to the problem of injustice, which always leads to problems.