On the other hand, I am filled with power –

With the Spirit of the Lord –

And with justice and courage

To make known to Jacob his rebellious act,

Even to Israel his sin. (NASB)

At this point in history, Israel has been rebelling against God for about 500 years. In the first two chapters of the book, Micah calls out the leaders of Israel who had become wealthy through theft and greed. They run the land to pad their own pockets through bribery and unjust laws, enriching themselves and thus depriving the poor of their land. If these poor had been able to become landowners, they would have lived rent-free and even produced income from the land. But without land, one was perpetually poor, and it was easy to lose hope for a better future.  

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Micah also calls out the prophets who had become wealthy by promising God’s protection, as long as people could pay them, thus depriving the poor of their “protection.” With no way to pay to get into favor with the religious leaders, it furthered the hopelessness of their lives. God uses Micah to bring the news that God has judged these greedy, selfish religious leaders and their actions, and that he will bring destruction upon the nation of Israel for the centuries of this embedded culture of the rich and powerful becoming more rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.  

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What is more, Micah’s message was to all of Israel, not just a few. When he mentions Jacob and Israel in the last two lines of this passage, repeating himself for emphasis, he drives his point home: Micah had a message to deliver to all the people.  

The Lord uses Micah to announce or bring the news, and Micah declares this in our verse, Micah 3:8. He starts out by setting himself apart (“I, on the other hand”) from the ruling class of the day, and then he gets real. He uses three words to describe his character as set apart: power, justice, and courage, all three of which come from the Spirit of the Lord.  

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So, let’s break this down a little. He begins by acknowledging the source of his character, the Spirit of the Lord. It’s so easy for us to lean on ourselves or sometimes to forget the source of the godliness that is inside us.  But there are three things here that spring from the Spirit.

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Power. This springs only from the source, the Holy Spirit, within Micah and within all believers, including you. I see power as the supernatural – something only from God beyond our comprehension. We have God in us in the form of the Holy Spirit, we have a shadow of this supernatural power that we must keep surrendering to and plugging into.  

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Justice. Setting things right. At ACF, our vision, “In Alaskan as it is in heaven,” is a way of stating that we seek to “make things right” where we live and serve.  Jesus came and died to make things right with us, and God’s whole plan is to make things right. We have the Spirit of that God within us to change things in our world. Feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and sharing the good news of Jesus are all ways to live that out.  

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Courage. Change is hard and uncomfortable. To go out and make a difference requires courage in all sorts of areas of our lives, in what we say, things we do, ways we give. Going beyond the norm is uncomfortable. But we have the Spirit beside and within us, so this uncomfortable journey is not one done alone.

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Power, justice, and courage all flow from the source of the Holy Spirit to supernaturally take us out of our comfort zones to make things better in the world. We often feel like it’s up to us to make a difference, and that is true to a point.  But it’s up to us as a communal effort with the supernatural Holy Spirit as our guide and comforter.  Leaning into how God has designed us to “make things right” is the challenge.

Lord, make me attuned to the Spirit you have in me. Help me to continually surrender and lean into your power, to see where you are challenging me to make a difference, and give me the courage to take that step. Amen.