The seventh chapter of Micah contains one of the most powerful messages on the new covenant ever preached. In this incredible sermon, Micah is speaking to natural Israel—yet he is also speaking to the church of Jesus Christ in these last days. He begins his sermon with a heartbroken cry—one that is still being heard from spiritually starved believers around the world today: “Woe is me! . . . There is no cluster to eat” (Micah 7:1).
Micah is describing the effect of a famine in Israel—a famine of food and of God’s Word. It echoes the words of an earlier prophecy by Amos where the Lord says: “Behold, the days are coming . . . that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall . . . run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it” (Amos 8:11–12).
It was harvest time in Israel and the vineyards should have been bursting with fruit, but there were no clusters hanging from the vines. Micah watched as people went into the vineyards looking for fruit to pick and finding none. In his prophetic eye, Micah saw multitudes in the last days running from place to place, seeking to hear a true word from God. He envisioned believers scurrying from church to church, from revival to revival, from nation to nation— all seeking to satisfy a hunger and thirst for something to nourish their souls. The cry is still heard, “Woe is me—there is no cluster!”
There is a great famine in the land. Yet, in spite of multitudes running about looking for spiritual food, those who truly desire God’s Word comprise only a remnant (see Micah 7:14, 18). This is certainly as true today as it was in ancient Israel. Few Christians today truly hunger to hear the pure word of the Lord. Instead, the majority fatten themselves on Sodom’s apples, feeding on the straw of perverted gospels.