The godly [man] hath perished out of the land, and there is none upright among men they all lie in wait for blood, they hunt every man his brother with a net.
Micah looks around his own nation and cannot find one person who lives up to the name "people of God." The verse raises two questions. What is lost when the godly are gone? And what does a faithful person do then?
One writer ties this lament to a moment in Judah's history: the death of King Jotham, and the reign of Ahaz that followed.
Did Micah have Jotham's death in mind when he wrote, "The godly man has perished out of the land"? From what follows in the chapter, down to verse 7, it would appear so. The violence, fraud, bribery, treachery, and other forms of wickedness described here are just what took hold after Jotham. They prevailed under Ahaz's infamous rule. Jotham was indeed a godly man, and the righteous might well say at his death, "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases!"
One writer traces the word behind "godly" through its other translations, and finds God's own graciousness at the root of it.
In one place the word translated "holy" is given in the margin as "one whom You favour," and in the Revised Version as "godly." The same word is also translated "saint," "the merciful," and in Micah 7:2, "the good man." There is a close and beautiful connection here. God is gracious, and so is the heart that knows Him by faith and delights in Him. But how different the result in those who do not! The same sun that perfects the beauty of the rooted living flower withers the rootless one.
This verse is the result of a search. Micah does not judge strangers from a distance. He stands inside his own nation, looks for anyone who fits its name, and turns the whole complaint into a confession before God.
In Micah 7 the prophet takes the place of intercessor before God, in the name of the people. He brings to Him both their deep misery and their sins, speaking in their name and identifying himself with them... He searches anxiously among the people for something that matches their title, the people of God. He finds nothing but fraud and deceit, and men lying in wait for blood, eager to do evil with both hands... Still, all of this is said as the confession of the city, and out of that confession she can bow to God's hand and look to the One who will Himself plead her cause and carry out judgment for her.
The verse uses pictures from hunting: an ambush, and a net cast over another person. The ruin does not stop in the street. It reaches into the home.
The prophet Micah describes the moral corruption that prevailed in his day (vv. 2-4). He declares that all confidence between friends, and even between husband and wife, had completely vanished. In that state of things people openly violated the most sacred family ties, so that a man's enemies were the men of his own house. It is a dark though true picture of the power of evil ruling in the prophet's day.
Micah does not stop at describing the ruin. One writer hears in him the voice of the remnant — the faithful few left in Israel — in a future time of trouble, and shows where the prophet turns for refuge.
It is the prophet's voice complaining over the conditions of the people. But he also stands as a picture of the remnant during Zion's time of anguish... In the middle of the conditions he describes, we read that his refuge was prayer. He looks to the Lord, sure that He will hear: "I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me" (verse 7). This will be the attitude of the godly Israelites during the time of trouble.
Micah 7 is not left in the past. One writer finds the same state of evil where the Saviour is present, because His coming brings out what is already in the human heart.
It is well to note how the presence of the Saviour draws out the evil of the human heart. The state described here is found in Micah, where we have the picture of the most dreadful state of evil imaginable (Micah 7:1-7).
- Look back. The lament fits the years after King Jotham died. Under Ahaz, violence, fraud, bribery and treachery took over the land.
- Look for. Micah searches his own people for anyone who fits the name "people of God." He finds only deceit and men lying in wait for blood.
- Look at the word. The word for "godly" is also translated "saint" and "the merciful." It describes a heart made gracious by knowing the gracious God.
- Look around. Trust between friends, and even between husband and wife, is gone. The closest ties break, and a man's enemies live in his own house.
- Look up. The complaint turns into prayer. The prophet's refuge is to look to the Lord and wait for the God of his salvation. The godly will do the same in the coming time of trouble.
Both hands are for evil, to do it well. The prince asketh, and the judge [is there] for a reward; and the great [man] uttereth his soul's greed and [together] they combine it.
Micah searches his nation for one decent person and finds none, and verse 3 shows why: even the ruler and the judge have a price. So where does a godly person turn when the courts themselves are for sale?
Micah looks through his own people for anything that matches the name they carry. He finds hands that work evil with skill and effort. One writer reads his report as the city's own confession:
He searches anxiously among the people for something that suits their title as the people of God. He finds nothing but fraud and deceit, and lying in wait for blood, so that they might do evil with both hands earnestly. Yet all of it is said as the city's confession. Out of this she can look, as one bowing to God's hand, to the One who will Himself plead her cause and execute judgment for her.
The great man puts his craving into words, and the word behind "desire" is the ordinary Hebrew word for soul. One writer traces its range across Scripture — appetite, pleasure, will — and places this verse under "desire":
So its derived meanings are: "Appetite" (Proverbs 23:2; Ecclesiastes 6:7). "Pleasure" (Deuteronomy 23:24; Psalm 105:22; Jeremiah 34:16). "Desire" (Jeremiah 44:14; Micah 7:3; Habakkuk 2:5). "Mind," in the sense of will or intention, not of understanding (1 Samuel 2:35; 2 Kings 9:15).
The verse names the prince, the judge and the great man, then says they weave it together — corruption by agreement, not by accident. One writer describes what authority becomes when nothing higher holds it in check:
Human judgement and human government are therefore open to the worst corruption. Judges and governors, if left to themselves and not under the direct sway of divine principle, are capable of twisting justice for the sake of money. They can favour a wicked man because he is rich, and condemn a righteous man because he is poor. They can give a judgement that openly contradicts the plainest facts, for the sake of some advantage — money, influence, popularity, or power.
Another writer comments on the law that bans bribes, and traces the damage past the courtroom:
Verse 8 forbids every form of bribery, which is an appeal to the feelings of the one bribed. Where bribery is widespread, justice all but disappears. "The bribe blinds those whose eyes are open" (an older translation). Let us read this verse in its spirit as well as its letter. Self-interest can blind the eyes of a sincere Christian who would never for a moment think of accepting a bribe.
Corrupt courts look like a problem better laws could fix. One writer says the repair has to start somewhere else:
It is impossible to act justly and to be truly humble before God until we have turned to Him in faith. We may turn before we have seen our sins covered by His grace, and before we know for certain that He will not charge our sin against us. There is a real repentance worked in the soul first, and Israel will be brought into this. It is faith that produces real repentance and true humility.
Jesus quoted from this passage when He described the division His coming would cause. That connection gives the chapter a weight beyond Micah's own day.
He shows in detail the divisions that His mission would produce. It is worth noticing how the presence of the Saviour draws out the evil of the human heart. The state described here is the one in Micah — the most dreadful state of evil that can be imagined (Micah 7:1-7).
Micah has no plan for cleaning up the courts. The next verse shows where he goes instead, and the same path stays open to anyone who meets these conditions later.
It is the prophet's voice complaining about the condition of the people. But he also stands for the faithful few in Israel during Zion's time of anguish. Note that our Lord quotes from this part of Micah (see Matthew 10:21, which looks on to that faithful group in the future). In the middle of the conditions the prophet describes, his refuge was prayer. He looked to the Lord with the assurance that He will hear: "But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me."
- Search — Micah looks for one man fit for the name "people of God" and finds fraud, deceit and hands eager for evil.
- Soul — the great man speaks his craving aloud without shame; the word here means desire, not simple appetite.
- Sale — rulers and judges left to themselves trade justice for money, influence or power. The same self-interest can blind a sincere believer too.
- Source — the cure is not stricter rules but repentance. No one acts justly or walks humbly until faith has turned him to God.
- Shelter — every human refuge is corrupt, so the prophet looks to the Lord and waits for the God of his salvation.
The best of them is as a briar; the most upright, [worse] than a thorn-fence. The day of thy watchmen, thy visitation is come; now shall be their perplexity.
Micah 7 opens with the prophet grieving over a harvest already stripped bare. Verse 4 gives the verdict. Even the pick of the nation now wounds whoever touches them, and the announced day has arrived. Two questions follow. How can the best be the problem? And what does a person do when that day lands?
Verse 4 is a conclusion, not a starting point. It follows a deliberate hunt through the nation for anything worthy of the name "people of God".
In Micah 7 the prophet stands before God as intercessor for the people. He lays before Him both their deep misery and their sins. He speaks in their name and makes himself one with them... Anxious, he searches among the people for anything that matches their title as the people of God. He finds nothing but fraud and deceit, and men waiting in ambush to shed blood, eager to do evil with both hands. Yet all of this is said as the city's confession. So from that place she can look up, bowing to God's hand, to One who will Himself plead her cause and carry out judgment for her.
Without faith there is no real repentance, and the rot reaches from the people to the king.
It is faith that produces real repentance and true humility. Where there was no faith, right to the end of the chapter we find solemn proof of evil showing itself in both the people and the king. What the prophet says here is a lament, and in the end it turns into a prayer.
The two images have a history. Thorns are what the curse brought into the world after man's sin.
Six different Hebrew words are translated as thorn or brier, and several of them cannot be pinned down exactly. This shows how plentiful the fruits are of the curse God pronounced in Eden because of man's sin. Those fruits will be removed in the millennium, when the myrtle and other plants will take the thorn's place.
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Set that against what God once found in these same people.
The LORD's soul is left unsatisfied. When Israel was helpless in the wilderness at the first, He had found them like grapes, like the first ripe fruit on a fig tree. But now the best of them is a brier.
The picture of a search that ends in disappointment turns up again in the Gospels, where the Lord comes to a tree in leaf and finds nothing on it.
Verses 1, 2. Compare these verses, on to verse 6, with the words of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels — Mark 11:13, and Matthew 21:19. "The time of figs was not yet."
The problem is not a shortage of decent behaviour. It is a break at the source.
When God does not have His place in the soul, we assert our independence. Then our weakness and inconsistency open the way to the enemy's cunning, and the mind does not see that it has left the truth. "I said in my haste, All men are liars," Psalm 116:11. So again, Micah 7 (where there is every kind of corruption), "The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge... Trust not in a friend, put no confidence in a guide; keep the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom." They had departed from God. To learn what sin really is, you must learn the source you have departed from. We have departed from God.
Verse 4 announces a day that leaves people bewildered. A few lines later the prophet shows what he does with it. Some translations read "visitation" where the ESV has "punishment".
Verses 1-6. It is the prophet's voice complaining over the conditions of the people. But he also pictures the remnant during Zion's time of anguish. Note that our Lord quotes from this part of Micah (see Matthew 10:21, which applies to the future remnant). In the middle of the conditions he describes, we read that his refuge was prayer. He looked to the Lord, sure that He would hear. "But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me" (verse 7). This will be the attitude of the godly Israelites during the time of trouble.
- Search. The prophet hunts through the nation for anything worthy of its name. He finds only fraud, deceit and violence.
- Verdict. God once found first-ripe fruit here. Now He finds a brier — the mark of the curse that sin brought in, and that God will clear away in the age to come.
- Measure. The charge names the best and the most upright. So no one can point to a better example in the nation.
- Root. All of it traces to one source. They had departed from God, and to learn what sin is, you must learn what you left.
- Refuge. The day lands and confusion sets in. One thing stays open: the prophet looks to the LORD and waits for the God of his salvation.