Prophet Micah was very conscious of God's call to him to be a prophet, and wasn't afraid to voice criticism in the Lord's name, unlike those timid false prophets who only said things that people wanted to hear. His book alternates quite strongly between threats and promises, condemnations and hopes: he is forceful and direct in his language, suspicious of city life and of power and wealth.

Today's reading has him attacking powerful people who plot to acquire more and more land, and take over not only other people's property but even their lives as well. God, he says, is plotting disastrous times for such people, and they won't have any share in His future Kingdom. We who share Christ's prophet-role should also be conscious of God's call to us in the circumstances of today's world. Great injustices plague us on both the world scale and on the smaller scale of our families, and communities, cities and countries we belong to. People of conscience, not necessarily all Christians try to speak out, to do something about the situation. They make people feel uncomfortable, saying things that are not "politically correct", that certain people don't want to hear. So they're criticised, ignored, and sometimes even 'silenced' by governments, big business and other interests. They did that to Jesus too, when He "presented judgement to the nations" (Mt. 14:18).