Micah (The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary | THOTC)
Overview
Readers of the book of Micah learn a great deal about God: he is a mighty God who controls the nations, yet he is also concerned with everyday matters like equity, poverty, and care for widows and orphans. In presenting this transcendent-yet-immanent God, Micah’s message revolves around themes of justice, judgment, and salvation that continue to carry great significance today.
In this theological commentary on the book of Micah, Stephen Dempster places the text in conversation with the larger story of Scripture. After discussing questions of structure and authorship in his introduction, Dempster systematically works through the text, drawing links to the broader biblical story throughout. In the second part of his commentary, Dempster offers theological discussion that further explicates the most significant themes in Micah and their applicability to today’s Christians.
For more from the Two Horizons commentary series, see here.
- Features theological exegesis and reflection
- Asks, “What does this book contribute to biblical theology today?”
- Examines the text within its cultural, scriptural, and historical context
Top Highlights
“If the first short speech describes the transcendence of Micah’s God, the last speech concludes on the same note. The final speech (7:18–19) is a hymn sung in answer to the question provoked by Micah’s name: Who is like Yahweh? The answer is described in seven characteristics demonstrating ethical transcendence: pardon, forgiveness, cessation of anger, delight in mercy (חֶסֶד/ḥesed), conquest of sin, renewal of mercy, and removal of sin.” (Page 2)
“Much judgment has been described throughout the text, but the last word is one of grace” (Page 2)
“For his name—a four-letter word in Hebrew4 (מִיכָה/mîkâ)—is a rhetorical question: ‘Who is like Yahweh?’” (Page 1)
“high cultured church—or in the more popular movements, the concerns might be centered on quality praise” (Page 167)
“For Western thinkers God’s transcendence is often described with abstract ideas like omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, but for Micah transcendence was no abstraction. Yahweh’s presence immediately dissolves the most enduring elements of material reality, instantly revealing the enormous ontological gap between the infinite and finite. Who is like Yahweh? What is like Yahweh?” (Page 2)
- Title: Micah
- Author: Stephen G. Dempster
- Series: The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2017
- Logos Release Date: 2017
- Pages: 292
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible. O.T. Micah › Commentaries
- ISBNs: 9780802865137, 0802865135
- Resource ID: LLS:TWOHOR33MIC
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-05-15T15:38:59Z
Reviews
1 rating
Steve Mollins
11/23/2021
Great commentary. The material is laid out appropriately to aid the preacher and teacher: Starting with structure and culminating in application. Highly recommended. I use Dempster alongside Waltke and hardly feel like I need anything else.
