Among the books included in the Old Testament, there is one, the author of which is the holy prophet Micah, who has become a symbol of the conviction of evil, done, first of all, by those in whose hands the power is enclosed. The exact date of his birth is hidden from us, but from biblical texts it is clear that he was born in the first half of the VIII century BC. e., and performed his ministry during the reign of the Jewish king Jehoshaphat and the Israeli rulers Ahab and Jezebel.
The decayed tribes of Israel
The once united and powerful kingdom of Israel shortly after the death of King Solomon was divided into two independent states. Judea with its capital in Jerusalem became one of them, while the other, which included Samaria and the lands surrounding it, became known as the kingdom of Israel. Separatism never bore fruit. So it happened with the broken twelve tribes of the sons of Jacob, who later suffered many troubles because of this.
Revealer of King Ahab
The life of the prophet Micah says that his family belonged to the tribe of Ephraim, who lived in the kingdom of Israel. It is known that he was born in Morishet, a village located south of Hebron, and was the son of a simple peasant named Iemvlai. Nothing is known about his childhood and growing years. On the pages of life and in the Holy Scriptures, he immediately appears before us, as a formidable accuser of sins and injustices committed by the Israeli king Ahab. In particular, he accused him of falling away from the true God and worshiping idols.
However, for all the hatred that King Ahab had for the prophet Micah, he did not dare to execute him, because he seriously feared that the prophecies would come true and the wrath of God would come upon him. In addition, he felt an involuntary shame before this righteous man, expressing in his eyes what he was trying to hide in the depths of his gloomy soul. The prophet, knowing that Ahab is subject to outbursts of blind rage and does not control himself at these moments, sometimes retired to the mountains to wait out dangerous moments for his life there.
The military plans of the king of Judah
One of the events described in the Book of the Prophet Micah and in its entirety representing his image is the prediction of the tragic outcome of the war, which was launched by the Jewish king Jehoshaphat against the Assyrians. The fact is that at that time very friendly relations were established between the rulers of the two Jewish states, and when the Jews decided to take away the city of Ramofh Gilead, once owned by the Syrians, Jehoshaphat arrived in Samaria to ask for military help from Ahab.
Evidence of False Prophets
He was greeted with all the cordiality and assurances of eternal friendship. But before giving consent to participate in hostilities, Ahab, according to the custom of that time, called the prophets from all over the country, who gathered four hundred, and ordered them to say whether God would bless his intention to fight the Syrians. There was no prophet Micah between them, since he was in the mountains at that time.
All the sages and soothsayers summoned to the palace, realizing that a positive answer would be more pleasant to their overlord, vied with each other to assure him that the Lord would bless any undertaking of His anointed, including the one in question in this case. The head of these false prophets, Zedekiah, began to assure that the Almighty would give into the hands of Ahab and his ally Jehoshaphat not only the city of Ramoth, but even the Syrian king himself. In his zeal, he went so far as to make horns out of iron and declared that they were the likeness of those with whom the Jewish kings would plunge an army of enemies into dust.
Insolent Prophet
Such an answer came to the liking of the near and proud Israeli ruler, but the ruler of Judea doubted the sincerity of the foretellers, and at the same time the clairvoyant gift of the prophets themselves. He wished to know if there was anyone else in the country who was endowed with the gift of foresight and able to predict the outcome of a future war. Very reluctantly, Ahab called the name of the prophet Micah, adding that he was very impudent and always foretells him only troubles. Nevertheless, Jehoshaphat insisted on his own, and ambassadors were immediately sent to the disgraced prophet.
Arriving at the palace and listening to the question asked by the kings, the prophet Micah first declined to give a direct answer, as if wishing to further arouse the curiosity of his listeners. But then he bluntly and openly declared that he could see innumerable calamities with his internal gaze, which would entail an imprudent decision to engage in a war with a more powerful enemy, which at that time was Syria. The prophet outlined a picture of their future defeat before the kings, presenting the Jewish and Israeli soldiers as sheep, deprived of a shepherd and scattered in the mountains. With these words, he predicted the death of the wicked king of Israel.
The fulfillment of the prophecy
A similar prediction led Ahab to terrible anger. Seeing the reaction of his master, the false prophet Zedekiah ran to Micah and hit him on the cheek, demanding to admit the spirit that prophesied in his mouth. The Holy Prophet, however, said this, that everyone would be convinced of the correctness of his words when they sought salvation from the Syrians who had rushed into their country and did not find it.
Wanting to punish Micah for bold speeches, the king ordered him to be thrown into prison and kept there on bread and water until he, having won, returned from the war. So the prophet Micah was imprisoned, and King Ahab went to war, where he was soon killed, which was an exact fulfillment of the prophecy. But his army was defeated, and the people of Israel after that still reaped the bitter fruits of foreign enslavement for a long time.
The prediction of the nearness of God's punishment
Taking mountains as witnesses, among which he often hid from the wrath of the earthly rulers, the prophet announced to his people that the Lord would judge him for apostasy and violation of the Laws of Moses. Moreover, the punishment, he said, will follow not only for violation of religious attitudes, but also for the lack of love for one's neighbor.
It is very characteristic that with his inner eyes he could see and then predict the Babylonian captivity, in which the Jewish people stayed from 598 to 539 BC. e., that is, almost two centuries after his death. Moreover, his words about God's punishment, which is destined to collapse in the future, are full of such a realistic description of impending troubles that there is no doubt about the gift of perspicacity with which the prophet was endowed.
He not only spoke in detail about everything that was hidden from his contemporaries, but even accurately pointed to the Assyrians who were destined to become a tool in the hands of God's wrath. Studying the history of the Jewish people, it is not difficult to verify that all these prophecies were fulfilled with amazing accuracy.
The main prediction of the prophet Micah
The interpretation of the statements included in the book of this great Jewish prophet has always been the subject of the work of the most prominent Christian theologians. Many of them saw in his words about a future appearance in the world of the Mission, which is to “shepherd the renewed flock of Israel,” the anticipation of the coming of Jesus Christ coming in more than seven centuries. By this, he seemed to indicate the connection between the Old and New Testaments.
The death of the holy prophet
Information about the last days of the earthly life of the prophet is very contradictory. The Holy Scriptures only mention in passing that he may have been killed by the son and heir of King Ahab, Joram. This is quite possible, since both the widow of King Jezebel and all the numerous relatives had hatred for the prophet who predicted his death, and one of them could well put the saint to martyrdom.
In Chetii-Minei - a book containing the lives of the saints on each day of the year, the death of the prophet is described in more detail. According to the version given in it, he was thrown into the abyss for exposing tsarist lawlessness, after which pious people drew his honest remains and put them to earth according to Jewish tradition.
A century and a half after his death, the Lord sent a new prophet to the Jewish people, also named Micah. Unlike his predecessor, he was born not in the kingdom of Israel, but in the Jewish village of Morasfi, for which he went down in sacred history as the prophet Micah Morazfityan. By the commonality of the names of these two characters of the Old Testament, they often confuse and incorrectly indicate the authorship of certain statements belonging to them.
Memorial Day of the Prophet of God Micah
The Russian Orthodox Church commemorates the prophet Micah annually on August 14 (27). This tradition has developed in the first decades following the baptism of Russia. Since he became the embodiment of a true fighter against sin and the transgression of God's commandments, the sermons on the day of the prophet Micah, delivered from the pulpits of Russian churches, are full of calls for universal repentance and the eradication of all evil from our lives. In all ages, they have not lost their relevance.
It is characteristic that, having opened the Full Orthodox prayer book, we will not find in it any special prayer to the prophet Micah. Therefore, anyone who wants to solicit his intercession to the throne of God can use the text called “Prayer to the beloved saint,” in which his name can be included. There is no doubt that a prayer, read with humility and a deep faith in the fulfillment of what is asked, will help get rid of bodily and spiritual ailments, devilish temptations and sorrows. Through it, human hearts will be filled with love, meekness and purity.