Micha 1:1-7 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. Hear, all you peoples! Listen, O earth, and all that is in it! 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; He will come down And tread on the high places of the earth. The mountains will melt under Him, And the valleys will split 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 are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? "Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, Places for planting a vineyard; I will pour down her stones into the valley, And I will uncover her foundations. All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, And all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire; All her idols I will lay desolate, For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot, And they shall return to the pay of a harlot."

Samaria was the capital of Israel, the northern kingdom. The leaders of this kingdom initiated idol worship so that the people turned away from God. However, several of the people in Judah made intercession for the mistakes of their leaders; and, as a result, God sent them the prophets Elijah, Elisha, and Amos, with the intention to make them turn away from idol worship. However, this did not happen. And, therefore, the prophet Micah came who prophesied their future destruction and the future judgement of God. A well known verse in the book of Micah reminded the Israelites of God's will: To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God".

This verse is still important today! To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God".

And in Micah 5:2, the prophet Micah prophecies about the birth place of the Messiah, hundreds of years before His coming: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." jk

Additional verses to study: Deut. 5:6-10; Judges 10:11-16; Psalm 68:1-3; 97; Jeremiah 26; Acts 1:1-8