Marshal your troops now, city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod. – Micah 5:1

Today's Scripture Reading (May 2, 2026): Micah 5

A number of years ago, I received a prophecy from an unknown prophet and he asked me to read his document. I have been the recipient of many prophecies over the years, and they basically fall into three categories. Some are incredibly accurate. Others are accurate, but not in the way that or for the purpose the prophet imagined. The last group of prophecies is the predictions that are simply off base or false. Often, I find that this last group of prophecies is the one in which the prophet has attempted to predict what seems right, but things don’t turn out the way we think they will. Life can often be surprising. In this case, the prophecy I received fell into that last group

The prophet had written his prophecy, but he had tried to give it the look of a biblical prophecy. He did this by breaking his writing into chapters and verses, making it look much like the Bible we read. I frequently have to remind myself that the verses and chapters we use to divide our modern Bible are artificial, and sometimes, in my opinion, the people who did the dividing got it wrong.

That is the case with Micah 5:1. I would argue that this verse actually belongs in the previous chapter. It is closer in subject matter to Micah 4:13 than it is to Micah 5:2, and the Hebrew Bible in fact does just that. In the Tanakh, this verse is actually designated as Micah 4:14 in that copy of Micah’s prophecy.

What is so earth-shattering is that Micah is prophesying during the reigns of King Ahaz and King Hezekiah, around the time of Israel's fall to the Assyrians. Micah experienced the siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C.E. The prophet lived about 5 years past that traumatic event, dying in 696 B.C.E., and what is so weird is that he actually mentions Babylon. The last part of verse 10 reads: “You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies” (Micah 4:10b). Micah accurately describes exactly what is about to happen to Judah more than 100 years after he died. (Micah died in 696, and the Babylonian Empire did not rise to be a major player on the world stage until 626 B.C.E.; for those of you who struggle with the math, that is 70 years after Micah’s death).

Micah 5:1, or 4:14, shouts to the people of Judah that it is time to wake up. You think that you are immune to all the bad. You think that God has put a hedge around you and that nothing bad can get to you. You think that the mysterious disappearance of the Assyrian army, which happened in 701 B.C.E., means that nothing bad can happen to you. You believe that you can have peace. But I am here to tell you that you are wrong. Peace only comes from God, and even now you refuse to follow Him. There is a bad boy who is in his infancy right now, but he will grow up, and he will destroy any thoughts of peace that you might have. And even though it is more than a hundred years in the future, I am talking about this as if it is in the past because the seeds have already been planted, and those trees are about to grow up. There is no peace.

It reminds us of a carol that we sometimes sing at Christmas. The words were written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the midst of the American Civil War. Longfellow hated the war, and in the middle of his Christmas song, his hate is revealed.

            And in despair I bowed my head

            “There is no peace on earth” I said

            “For hate is strong and mocks the song

            Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Micah 6

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law, Laurie. Have a great day!