Micah 07: Hope In Difficult Times

A bleak harvest, a broken court, and a House divided—Micah 7 opens with a world out of joint and ends with a God who refuses to walk away. We read the chapter aloud, trace its sharp turns from judgment to joy, and sit with the honest tension: sometimes we suffer what we did not earn, and sometimes we suffer what we did. Either way, the promise holds—though we fall, we will rise, and the Lord will be our light.

I share why Micah’s realism matters for modern faith: it names corruption without flinching, calls out compromised leadership, and refuses to sugarcoat the cost of sin. Then we move to the surprising core of the passage—divine mercy that does not cancel justice but completes it. We talk about what it means for God to plead our case, to rebuild what’s ruined, and to “hurl our sins into the depths of the sea.” From the shepherd’s staff to the echoes of the exodus, Micah paints a future where restoration is not wishful thinking but the natural outflow of God’s character.

If you’ve lived with fear-based religion, this conversation offers a better frame: repentant honesty, patient waiting, and expectant hope. We apply Micah 6:8—act justly, love mercy, walk humbly—as the daily path through consequence and into freedom. Come hear how justice, mercy, hope, restoration, and the faithfulness of God thread through a hard chapter with a bright horizon. If this speaks to you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the message of hope.

We’d love to hear from you. (For questions, use the links above.)

Contact us-

Ask a Question
Send Encouragement

Take a Next Step-

SOAP Bible Study Method.
Bible Reading Plan.
Free Weekly Newsletter.

Socials-

Facebook.
Instagram.
X.
YouTube.

The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown
Podcast.
In this podcast, we will bebreaking down the Bible one
chapter a day.
Whether you are a new believeror have been following Christ
for a while, we believe that youwill learn something new and
fresh every single day.
So thank you for joining us.
Let's get into breaking down theBible together.

SPEAKER_01 (00:23):
Well, hello everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, the finale, Micah chapterseven.
And today's title is Hope andDifficult Times.
Hope and Difficult Times.
That is a theme that is justconstantly in the Bible because
difficult times come.
And the amazing thing is thatGod doesn't shy away from them.

(00:44):
He walks right into the middleof them and declares that this
will not be the end.
I love it so much.
And so if you have your Bibles,open up with me to Micah chapter
seven.
While you're doing that, asalways, make sure you take just
a moment to like, share, andsubscribe to the YouTube channel
and the podcast.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast.
It really does help.
And make sure you're going tothe Bible breakdown discussion

(01:04):
on Facebook.
There's an amazing group ofpeople doing a wonderful job.
And as always, you can get allthat information at the
BibleBreakdown.com.
Well, I was getting reallyexcited a minute ago.
So if you're watching theYouTube video, I went ahead and
hit this, but you can see thisscreen one more time that says
Micah's all about directionduring difficulty.
And that's what we have seenthroughout this book is that

(01:25):
over and over again, Micah, he'she's the southern prophet from
the middle of nowhere.
He comes into town and he says,Y'all gotta fix this.
The Assyrians are on their way,bad news is happening, you got
to fix this.
And he just constantly istalking about this, and that's
one of the things I love aboutGod is God doesn't leave when
things get difficult.
He shows up when things getdifficult.

(01:48):
And that's what he's been doingthroughout this, is he just
keeps telling them over and overagain, guys, we got we got to
fix this, we got to fix it.
I mean, just you know, and youcan see this throughout so many
of these, which by the way, Iwant to pause for a moment.
And if you are listening on thepodcast, I want to tell you
about a book.
And if you're doing this onYouTube, you can see this.
The book is called How to Readand Understand the Biblical

(02:09):
Prophets by Peter J.
Gentry.
Uh, this is an amazing bookrecommended to me by a wonderful
lady, and I wanted to recommendit to you because sometimes we
forget just how much time andspace passes between the people
of the Old Testament and thepeople of the New Testament.
I mean, there's so much that'salready there, so we have to fix

(02:30):
it, you know, as far as in likeadjust the culture, and then
after we fix that, then we gotto fast forward 2,000 years.
I mean, so there's just so muchthat has to be done, and I just
want to recommend that to you.
I thought it's been a reallygood book as we are just walking
through some of these OldTestament books, and Micah's one
of those.
And so now as we get into Micahchapter seven, he just wants to
remind them one more time thatGod is going to make all things

(02:53):
new.
That doesn't mean it's not gonnaget bad, but he's gonna make it
new.
So we're gonna read thistogether and then just finish
this kind of sad book on asalways, that high note of God
never gives up.
You ready?
Here we go.
Micah chapter seven, verse onesays this.
It starts off really happy bysaying how miserable I am.
I feel like a fruit picker afterthe harvest who can find nothing

(03:16):
to eat.
Not a cluster of grapes or asingle early fig can be found to
satisfy my hunger.
The godly people have alldisappeared.
Not one honest person is left onearth.
They are all murderers, settingtraps even for their own
brothers.
Both their hands are equallyskilled at doing evil.
Officials and judges alikedemand bribes.

(03:38):
The people with influence getwhat they want, and together
they scheme to twist justice.
Even the best of them is like abriar, the most honest as a
dangerous as a hedge of thorns.
But your judgment day is comingswiftly now.
The time of your punishment ishere, a time of confusion.
Don't trust anyone.

(03:59):
Don't not your best friend oreven your wife, for the son
despises his father, and thedaughter defies her mother.
The daughter in law defies herfather in law, or mother in law,
and your enemies are right inyour own household.
But as for me, I look to theLord for help.
I wait confidently for God tosave me, and my God will

(04:20):
certainly hear me.
Do not gloat over me, myenemies, for though I fall, I
will rise again, and though Isit in darkness, the Lord will
be my light.
I will be patient as the Lordpunishes me, for I have sinned
against him.
But after that I will take hewill take up my case, and he
will give me justice for all Ihave suffered for my enemies.

(04:42):
The Lord will bring me into thelight, and I will see his
righteousness.
Then the enemies will see thatthe Lord is on my side, and they
will be ashamed that theytaunted me, saying, Where is the
Lord, that God of yours?
With their own eyes I will seetheir downfall, or with my own
eyes I will see their downfall,and they will be trampled like
mud in the streets, and in thatday, Israel, your cities will be

(05:06):
rebuilt, your borders will beextended.
People from many lands will cometo honor you, from Assyria all
the way to the towns of Egypt,from Egypt all the way to the
Euphrates River, and from thedistant seas and mountains, but
the land will become empty anddesolate because of the
wickedness of those who livethere.
O Lord, protect your people withyour shepherd's staff, lead your

(05:29):
flocks, your special possession.
Though they live alone in athicket on the heights of Mount
Carmel, let them graze in thefertile pastures of Bishon and
Gilead as they did long ago.
Yes, says the Lord, I will domighty miracles for you, like
those I did when I rescued youfrom the slavery in Egypt.

(05:49):
All the nations of the worldwill stand amazed at what the
Lord will do for you.
They will be embarrassed attheir feeble power.
They will cover their mouths insilent awe, deaf to everything
around them, like snakescrawling in their holes.
They will come out to meet theLord our God, and they will fear
him greatly, trembling in terrorat his presence.

(06:11):
Where is another God like you,who pardons the guilt of the
remnant, overlooking the sins ofhis special people, will not you
will not stay angry with yourpeople forever, because you
delight in showing unfaithful orunfailing love.
Once again, you will havecompassion on us, and you will
trample our sins trample youwill trample our sins under your

(06:34):
feet and throw them into thedepths of the ocean.
You will show your faithfulnessand unfailing love as you
promised our ancestors Abrahamand Jacob long ago.
Wow.
I kind of got lost in that for amoment because when I think
about this, remember who Micahis prophesying to.

(06:54):
He's prophesying to a bunch ofjerks.
He's prophesying to people who,when they see this enemy coming,
instead of turning to God, theyturn to everybody else.
And they're turning toeverything else, every God,
everything they can do, exceptfor God, except for the God.
And remember when they firststarted, he was like, hey,
listen, this bad stuff's coming.

(07:15):
You know why it's coming?
Because you guys are a bunch ofjerks.
I mean, and he's telling themwhat they need to do and what
they need to do and all thiskind of stuff.
And then because we knowhistory, we know that they don't
turn back to God.
But even in the middle of all ofthis, God is still saying, When
this is over, I'm still notgoing to give up on you.
I'm still going to be for you.
And and there's a there's adouble-edged sword in that when

(07:37):
I when I think through that,because there's a part of me
that wants to warn everybodylistening or watching this to
say, don't ever turn your backon God because judgment's gonna
come.
And that's true.
And uh I I spent some time insome environments where that's
the way people would would thinkand they would live, is they
would live in fear of God andlive in the fear of the judgment

(07:58):
of God.
And and people, you know, woulduse that, you know, and in their
best moments, they would usethat as a way to try to keep
people from doing bad things,right?
This is the fear factor.
Well, what happens when you fallto it anyway?
What happens when you go and youdo the thing?
What happens?
Well, here's the thing there'smerit to that.
God says, I love you enough thatif the only thing that will

(08:21):
reach you is to let you fall andexperience the consequences of
your actions, I love you enoughto let you have what you want.
But here's the amazing thing iseven when we fall, even when we,
as it said in here, hit the mud,God doesn't walk away.
He comes right down where we areand he starts picking us back up
again.

(08:41):
Wow.
You imagine?
You imagine somebody that youyou loan some money to and you
told them, hey, listen, if yougo gamble this money, then
you're gonna lose it and you'renot gonna have anything to eat.
Oh no, no, I'm uh, you know, I'mgonna do what I want, and then
they go lose that money andthey're not gonna have anything
to eat.
Would you go give them somethingto eat?
You know, would you do that?

(09:02):
Or would you say, hey man, yougotta learn that lesson?
Well, you know what God does ishe lets us learn the lesson, but
then he still comes over thereand he says, Here, let me help
you.
That's the mercy of our God.
That doesn't mean that he smilesat our sin.
He will let us experience theconsequences of our sin, but
while we're experiencing theconsequences, he's right there
beside us.

(09:23):
While at the mercy of God.
And so the hope in difficulttimes is sometimes we go through
things we did not earn.
You know, it just the Bible saysit rains on the just and the
unjust alike.
And there's sometimes you'relooking around going, God, I did
not earn this.
Um, so help, you know what Imean?
And then there's other timeswhen we earned it, if we're real

(09:44):
honest, we did the thing that weweren't supposed to do, the way
we weren't supposed to do it,all the things.
And there's times when we'rekind of going through that
difficult time and we don't wantto cry out to God because we
think, well, I earned this.
You know what's amazing though?
Is even when we earned it, Godsays, Come to me, all who labor
and are heavy laden, and I willgive you rest.

(10:05):
God, you but you don'tunderstand.
I did, oh, I know, I understand.
Did I tell you that was gonnamake me stop loving you?
Of course not.
I love you more than you canimagine.
And if you're if you're sittingin this trouble, I'm gonna sit
right here with you.
And though I walk through thevalley of the shadow of death, I
will not be afraid.
Why?
For you are right beside me.

(10:25):
When we go through a valley thatwe didn't ask for, that we
didn't see coming, he's with us.
And when we walk through avalley because of our own
decisions, he walks with us.
What a powerful, powerful God,full of mercy that we serve.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you, God, for the book ofMicah.
Because it does everything.

(10:46):
It it warns us of our sin, it ittells us what we should do, and
then it gives us hope for thefuture.
And the hope is that even if wekeep getting it wrong, you will
let us experience theconsequences of our bad
decisions, but you go throughthem with us.
You never leave us.
You're always close to us.
And I pray, Lord, that we willembrace that not as an excuse to
sin, but as a reason to be freebecause you are worth it.

(11:11):
You are worth the effort, and wecelebrate you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
One more time.
Micah 6, verse 8 says, What doesthe Lord require of you?
To act justly, to love mercy,and to walk humbly with your
God.
Can't say it better than that.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for thenext part of the Bible Breakdown
Podcast.