Micah 5

Micah 5:4

And He will arise and shepherd His flock
In the strength of the LORD,
In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God.
And they will remain,
Because at that time He will be great
To the ends of the earth.

When Jesus comes, He will lead in the strength of God.  It will not be by His sole strength, but through that of the entire Trinity.  And He will serve on behalf of God, not as an individual ruler.

However, it appears that under normal circumstances, the Israelites wouldn't stand for that, and would flee.  Why is this, that they would run from their own God?  I think it's because while they (and we) like giving lip-service and ritual to God, we're less comfortable when it comes to truly obeying Him in all things.

Micah 4

Micah 4:2

Many nations will come and say,
"Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD
And to the house of the God of Jacob,
That He may teach us about His ways
And that we may walk in His paths."
For from Zion will go forth the law,
Even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

The day will come when every knee will bow and every tongue confess the truth.  When that day comes, no one will doubt God's power or primacy.  They will instead seek Him out, to learn what He has to teach them.

The best thing about this is, we have a head start!  We already know God's sovereignty and wisdom.  All that is left is for us to seek Him, with the same enthusiasm that everyone eventually will.  I'll admit, I'm not the best at this.

Micah 3

Micah 3:11

Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe,
Her priests instruct for a price
And her prophets divine for money.
Yet they lean on the LORD saying,
"Is not the LORD in our midst?
Calamity will not come upon us."

Leaders hold a special trust with the people.  They are who is looked up to, and trusted to do the right thing.  But with that station comes special responsibilities.

Chief among those responsibilities is to discharge your duties fairly and impartially.  When influence can be bought, it's the beginning of downfall.  To still couch one's work in God's blessing after being so corrupt is literally asking for it.

Micah 2

Micah 2:11

"If a man walking after wind and falsehood
Had told lies and said,
'I will speak out to you concerning wine and liquor,'
He would be spokesman to this people.

I'm not quite sure what's meant by the first part of this voice.  What/how does a man walk after wind?  Is this some kind of saying that means his actions are like wind, going here and there but never having substance?  I'm only guessing here, I have no idea.

However, the rest of the verse is pretty straightforward.  This people was in such desperate shape that just having someone around who could talk about good things would ensnare them.  When the people are desperate, they will cling to anything they can find, even if it's flimsy and unlikely to hold.

Micah 1

Micah 1:6

For I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country,
Planting places for a vineyard.
I will pour her stones down into the valley
and will lay bare her foundations.

Samaria was the capital of the nation Israel, after it broke away from Jerusalem.  It tried in some ways to follow God, but quickly went off on a bad tangent.  Worship of false gods became predominant, but the remnants of connection to God eventually contaminated Judah, as well.

As a result, God crushed Israel before Judah.  Samaria was laid waste by the Assyrians, and it appears Micah is prophesying this event.  When the Assyrians came, they took away the existing population, and destroyed its cities completely.

Jonah 4

Jonah 4:4

The LORD said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?"

There are subtleties in this question that I find interesting.  The first is that God asked it at all.  He knew perfectly well what Jonah was angry about.  So He wasn't asking to gather information; He was asking to make Jonah think.

Second, what He wanted Jonah to think about was in one small word.  He didn't ask if Jonah had a reason for his anger, because he obviously did.  Instead, He asked if that reason was good.  We all too often get mad for very silly reasons, or spiteful ones, or otherwise reasons that are not right and good.  There is a place for anger, but being mad because a large group of people weren't killed is very rarely among them.

Jonah 3

Jonah 3:6

Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish."

The way this story is often presented, the people hear Jonah telling them to repent, and do so.  But that's not how the story actually goes.  Jonah didn't preach a message of repentance that we know of; he preached one of destruction, plain and simple.

The people didn't know that God would spare them if they repented.  They simply were told that the city was doomed on its current path.  They took a chance that God would hold back if they did repent, but they had no guarantee; they could have been making themselves uncomfortable for nothing.

Shouldn't that be a lesson for us, that even when we don't know what God will do, we should still do the right thing?

Jonah 2

Jonah 2:9

But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving.
That which I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation is from the LORD."

I've always wondered, is this a prayer of thankfulness in advance, or one of last rites?  Did he think that God would still save him somehow?  Or was this a final expression of his belated return to God and His commands?

I get the feeling it was the former.  He knew that because he was in this fish, that he wasn't doomed yet.  He knew God still was planning for him to continue His work, and was thanking Him for the opportunity that would come.

Jonah 1

Johan 1:3

But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.  So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah obviously didn't want to do what God had commanded.  He could have just stayed put, decided to ignore God's instructions.  He could have also argued with God, or asked for another assignment.  But Jonah didn't do any of this.

Instead, he fled.  But he didn't flee from God's instruction.  He was trying to flee from God's presence.  Were his directions given in some special ceremony or place, where he thought God could only work inside it?  If he was a prophet, why didn't he know that God's presence is everywhere, and can't be escaped from

Obadiah

Obadiah 13

"Do not enter the gate of My people
In the day of their disaster.
Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity
In the day of their disaster.
And do not loot their wealth
In the day of their disaster.

Too often, people look at something bad that happens to someone else, and wonder how they can find a benefit for themselves in it.  Looters, con men promising help, speculators looking for a deal.  These types of people are less worried about the victims than about their own profits.

However, the people of God are called to be different.  We are to use what we have to help those in need, not try to expand what we have.  This is one of the ways that we can show that we are different from the world.