Faith Formation: Micah - Justice, Kindness, humility

On that day, says the LORD, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted. The lame I will make a remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation, and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion now and forevermore. Micah 4:6-7

And you, O tower of the flock, hill of daughter Zion, to you it shall come, the former dominion shall come, the sovereignty of daughter Jerusalem. Micah 4:8

The oracles of Micah do not connect like paragraphs of a story, consistent and progressive. They were collected and ordered according to themes or vocabulary, but not necessarily in a chronological or logical pattern. Disjointed as they are we do read them together. Micah 4:6-7 and 8 are connected by sheep/shepherd, people/king, imagery. these passages are connected to the prior saying by "In the days to come, ..." and "On that day...". They are connected to what comes next by the concern that there is no king to shepherd the people, "Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you?"

The people of God knew dominion and exile. Abraham's family was established in Canaan and enslaved in Egypt. The Book of Judges is a litany of stories about times of peace followed by times of unfaithfulness and suffering. The unfaithful northern kingdom of Israel survived for a long time by the grace and patience of God until Assyria conquered and exiled the people. Judah lasted longer, faithful in terms of worship, but not in terms of justice. The prophets sought to reform the leaders so that they might care for the sheep like good shepherds but the shepherds of Jerusalem treated the people like sheep to be fleeced or worse. Babylon conquered Judah and many were exiled. Later prophets like Ezekiel, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and a writer in the line of Micah looked to God who gathered the remnants of his people from the places they had been dispersed, and who stayed with the ones who remained in the land separated from those who were exiled. A few terms are worth noting: "the lame" and "tower of the flock."

The Hebrew term "the lame" is uncommon in the Hebrew scripture, occurring four times. Here the term is used twice. Another occurs in Zephaniah 3:19, "I will deal with your oppressors at that time. I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth." "Lame" in common usage has referred to a physical disability or injury that prevented free use of limbs. Literally it refers to "the limping ones." The other use of the term is suggestive of a different significant referent. In Genesis Jacob wrestled all night with mysterious divine like being. At the end of the night Jacob was blessed but his hip was put out of joint. "The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip." Genesis 32:31 In this encounter Jacob's name was changed to "Israel." The sense of it would be that the people of God were ones who wrestled and limped as they walked with God. We walk humbly, disjointed, rather than in certainty, strength and independence. Faith is always a bit tentative. Faith asks difficult questions that may not have answers. Faith wrestles with God and does its stumbling best to be remain faithful. God gathers a limping people, an exiled driven off people, an afflicted people, a cast off people, and by God's justice and kindness makes them God's people. It would not be by their own political or military power and strength that they would become a great nation, but by the grace of God with whom they would walk in limping humility.

"And you, O tower of the flock..." Tower of the flock was a place name, "Migdal-eder." It also has connections to Jacob's story. After his wife Rachel died and was buried at Bethlehem, Jacob/Israel "journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder." Genesis 35:21 "The phrase would be echoed when Micah wrote, "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah ..." 5:2 in a poem that also concludes with sheep shepherd imagery. Migdal" refers to a fortified watchtower protecting a city or in this imagery a flock of sheep, the people of God. The second parallel phrase, "hill of daughter Zion," sets the scene in Jerusalem. Isaiah 32:14 associates "the hill and watchtower" with Jerusalem. Jerusalem was supposed to watch over the people of God, protecting and caring for them like a good shepherd cared for the sheep. It's dominion spoken of in Psalm 72 was based on how it tended to "the weak and the needy ... the poor and those who have no helper." The promise and hope of this saying was that God would restore the dominion Jerusalem had lost via injustice and greed. The promise expressed by other prophets stressed that such hope might be fulfilled only when God sought out and rescued the scattered people, the lost sheep, something the shepherd leaders failed to do. "I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strays, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice." Ezekiel 34:16

Do Justice. Love Kindness. Walk humbly with God.

Pastor Tim Bauer.