The book of Micah is named after its author who was a prophet to Israel. Now we don’t know much about the person Micah except that he came from a town call Moresheth, and he served as a prophet in Judah, the Southern Kingdom of Israel and most likely lived between 740 BC – 670 BC.
The dates of Micah’s life puts him right in the middle of one of the darkest and most devastating seasons in the history of Israel. He began his ministry right before the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And he lived his life in the shadow of the fall and destruction of the southern kingdom of Israel.
Micah lived and served and ministered during a time in which Israel was falling apart. It was a time in which Israel was a nation in crisis. And it was during this crisis, the Lord spoke through Micah. And through these his words, we get to be reminded of what is important to God. We get to learn that when our own life is in a season of crisis, when our life gets rattled what it is that God truly desires of His people.
For us to understand the the book of Micah it is important to understand some of the challenges that Israel was facing during this time.
In 1000 BC after Solomon died, the once united and prosperous and unified nation of Israel split into two Kingdoms: a northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom was sometimes known as Israel and its capital was Samaria. The Southern Kingdom was sometimes known as Judah and its capital was Jerusalem. And so when we get to Micah about 250 years later, Israel is living as a divided nation, existing as two separate Kingdoms.
Around 745 BC a man named Tilgrath Pileser III became King of a neighboring nation called Assyria and this King set his sights on world domination. And when your neighbor decides he wants to conquer the world, that may be a time to get worried. And so it is during this period a young prophet named Micah began to speak. This book contains some of the words that he spoke to a troubled and anxious nation.