Sermons on the Book of Micah

Book excerpt: The Book of Micah confronts idolatry, superstition, confusion, alienation, inhumane acts against one's neighbors, and desolation of one's being at the most profound personal and societal level. When preaching through this prophetic book, John Calvin had no more difficulty applying Micah's prophecies to his sixteenth-century countrymen than do preachers today. Calvin's twenty-eight sermons on Micah were preached in no political or theological vacuum. They were powerful Christian directives, meant both to instruct and edify Geneva's citizens, writes Benjamin Wirt Farley. Many of these are mirrored in his sermons and are either alluded to indirectly or occasionally referred to openly from the pulpit. These sermons make clear that, for Calvin, the Word of God is clearly the immutable, incontrovertible, and irrefutable truth of God, Farley continues. It is a verite certaine that supercedes all other forms of truth, the sole authoritative basis for faith and life. Any departure from it, or reliance on any other foundation, leads to the very sins denounced by Micah.