I’VE SAID IT before: I’m not always a patient man, though I do keep working on it. I no longer feel obligated to dash for the shortest line at the supermarket checkout. I don’t have a burning need to jockey for that space that just opened up in freeway traffic. I can be gracious with delays on projects; after all, sometimes, I’m the bottleneck.

That’s a little different, though, than the patience needed when something truly important is at stake. So what if it takes me a few more minutes to finish my shopping, or to get home on the freeway? Those are minutes I would probably have frittered away mindlessly anyway. That’s not the same thing as waiting for the fire department or the paramedics or the police to arrive in an emergency. When every minute counts, and there’s nothing you can do to speed things up, you watch, you wait, and you pray.

THROUGHOUT OUR STUDY of Micah, we’ve looked at the long time frame of prophecy and its fulfillment. Micah’s career spanned the reigns of three of the kings of Judah. His prophecy against Samaria was fulfilled in his lifetime, but the prophesied destruction of Jerusalem wouldn’t happen until long after his death. Others of his prophecies, meanwhile, have yet to be fulfilled.

But again, the vocation of the prophet is not to foretell the future per se; it’s to bring an authoritative word from God, such as a promise of blessing, a curse, or both. Predictions of disaster, in practice, were often open-ended. The prophet could only say what would happen if the people didn’t repent and God relented accordingly. Unfortunately, history tells us that in the end, Judah and Jerusalem didn’t change course enough to avert the punishment that came through the Babylonians.

Thus, as we’ve seen, the beginning of Micah chapter 7 paints an incredibly bleak picture of the dissolution of the kingdom of Judah. Greed and corruption would become so widespread that no one was to be trusted: not your neighbor, not your friend, not even the members of your own family. It’s a portrait of the complete breakdown of a communal society, the polar opposite of loving one’s neighbor.

Is there any hope left? For Micah, there is always hope, because there is always God. Listen to what the prophet says next:

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,
    I wait for God my Savior;
    my God will hear me. (Mic 7:7, NIV)

What the New International Version translates as “watch in hope” is actually only one word in Hebrew; the word “hope” isn’t there, but Micah’s language implies it. He isn’t watching for God the way one “watches” television. The verb suggests leaning forward and peering intently into the distance, as one might diligently keep watch for the arrival of someone important. Similarly, the word translated as “wait” is used repeatedly in the Psalms to mean waiting expectantly upon or hoping in God.

But what, exactly, is Micah watching and waiting for? The immediate fulfillment of his dire prophecies? The destruction of Jerusalem? The invasion of Babylon and the exile of the people of Judah? Surely not: he’s already said more than once how brokenhearted he is about the fate of his nation and his people. That’s not hope; that’s mourning. That’s resignation.

Rather, Micah’s words suggest that he has been praying or lamenting to God about something. Translated literally, he calls God “the God of my salvation,” which implies that he is waiting for God to hear him and save him personally. But save him from what?

THE VOCATION OF the prophet is a difficult one. Micah is sent to bring bad news to people who don’t want to hear it (which is the way it always goes with bad news). Indeed, he doesn’t welcome the news himself. But think for a moment about all the challenges that come with that role. Speaking truth to power is always a risky business. Prophets are routinely mocked and persecuted for doing so.

And in the extreme, it can get you crucified.

Moreover, Micah grieves over the fact that some of the false prophets who are taking money to say only what the rich and powerful want to hear are probably former colleagues of his. Their betrayal of their divine vocation is also a betrayal of Micah. People who used to be his friends are officially denouncing him in public.

What Micah wants, what Micah is probably praying for, is vindication. He waits for God to hear his prayer; he watches for what God will do. And we know, in retrospect, that his prophecies would continue to bear weight over the centuries. His preaching influenced Hezekiah. His words would be quoted by Jeremiah a century after his death. And nearly 600 years later, his words would be cited before Herod the Great to announce the birthplace of the Messiah.

Micah, of course, didn’t live to see all that. But he didn’t need to. Whatever might happen, he trusted God’s sovereign righteousness, and could watch and wait in the hope that God would hear his prayers.