Summary of my sermon, based on Micah 3. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto on November 9, 2025.
Today we continue our Christmas sermon series, God With Us: Advent in the Book of Micah. As the title suggests, we are going through one of the minor prophets—Micah. We started early in October because there is so much we can learn about God and his character here, and it’s not common to walk through a prophetic book at Christmas.
As a reminder: read Micah in one sitting. It takes about twenty minutes. If you’ve done it already, read it again—and try a different translation (I preach from the ESV, but in preparation I also consult NLT, NIV, NASB). Expect more encouragement about Bible reading as we near year-end.
In the first sermon we saw the broad concern of the prophets—idolatry. For Micah (and his contemporary Isaiah in Judah) the message was urgent because the judgment preached against Judah had already fallen on the northern kingdom. After David and Solomon the nation split; Israel had many evil kings and was almost completely conquered by Assyria in Micah’s day. So Micah can point south to Judah and say, “Learn from the north.” We also noted that prophetic preaching is often judgment and wrath—but a truly good and righteous God does not allow evil to go unpunished. And yet with the threat of judgment, God also offers hope and deliverance.
In the second sermon we looked at Micah’s particular concern in Judah: social justice. We must be careful with that term. There is a real difference between contemporary social justice (man-centered—problems and solutions are human structures and fixes) and biblical social justice (God-centered—sin is ultimately against God; helpless in our sin, we cannot reform ourselves, so God must step in with salvation). That brings us to today, which continues Micah’s particular charge; now he turns from wealthy land-grabbers to the leadership of Israel and Judah.
“Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?” (Micah 3:1)
Leaders should know justice. Micah then uses graphic imagery:
“You who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
and their flesh from off their bones,
who eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.” (Micah 3:2–3)
He compares their evil to cannibalism—universally taboo—to show how disgusting their injustice is. The issue is not merely ignorance; ignorance is not a defense. Worse, they are willfully ignorant: “You who hate the good and love the evil.” This reminds me of Jonah, who ran from preaching to Nineveh because he knew God would be merciful if they repented:
“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly… And he prayed to the LORD and said, ‘…That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.’” (Jonah 4:1–2)
Micah continues:
“Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob… who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.” (Micah 3:9–10)
Leadership affects people—but influence also flows both ways. Leaders shape the people, and people shape leaders. Consider Herod at the first Christmas:
“When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” (Matthew 2:3)
So the whole society is implicated. And the rot spreads to religious leadership:
“Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, ‘Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.’” (Micah 3:11)
This is the ancient version of prosperity preaching—preying on depraved desires, promising health, wealth, and prosperity in God’s name while enriching themselves (right down to private jets), feeding on the flock that can least afford to be fleeced. The result:
“Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.” (Micah 3:12)
This is heavy because the land is a covenant sign of Israel’s special relationship with God. Its loss is a severe judgment.
What do we learn? We are commanded to pray for leaders:
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” (1 Timothy 2:1–2)
It’s easy to pray for those we agree with; harder to pray for corrupt leaders. Remember: Paul has in mind Roman emperors—some of the most vicious persecutors of Christians. Pray not only for wisdom; pray for repentance. And pray at all levels: not just prime minister or premier, but mayor, councillors, and especially church leaders—board and council—those guiding the spiritual direction of GCF Toronto. Influence goes up and down; if we would influence our leaders for good, we must be formed by Scripture. As we near year-end, plan again to read the whole Bible. If you stopped, don’t try to “catch up.” Just start again—and keep going.
Now to what I consider the scariest part of this judgment—God’s silence:
“Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.” (Micah 3:4)
Concerning the corrupt prophets:
“Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets… The seers shall be disgraced… for there is no answer from God.” (Micah 3:6–7)
Many of these leaders likely started well, but turned their gifts into tools for profit; what they used for gain becomes their shame. In contrast Micah says:
“But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.” (Micah 3:8)
God’s silence is severe judgment—giving people over:
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity… because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” (Romans 1:24–25)
Historically, after Malachi, God stopped speaking for about 400 years (the intertestamental period). Then, at Christmas, the Word Himself came:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him… In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1–5)
Ultimately, God chose not merely to speak through people, but to come as the Word—Jesus Christ. If you do not know Christ, don’t let it get to the point of God giving you over to your passions, or of no longer hearing His call. With the warning of judgment comes the offer of salvation in Jesus.
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