November 9, 2014: Micah

Micah 5:2-4; 6:6-8

As for you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
    though you are the least significant of Judah’s forces,
        one who is to be a ruler in Israel on my behalf will come out from you.
    His origin is from remote times, from ancient days.
³ Therefore, he will give them up
        until the time when she who is in labor gives birth.
        The rest of his kin will return to the people of Israel.
⁴ He will stand and shepherd his flock^[a] in the strength of the Lord,
        in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
        They will dwell secure,
        because he will surely become great throughout the earth;

⁶ With what should I approach the Lord
        and bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings,
        with year-old calves?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
        with many torrents of oil?
Should I give my oldest child for my crime;
        the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?
⁸ He has told you, human one, what is good and
        what the Lord requires from you:
            to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.

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The prophet Micah lived during tough times: trouble was brewing both outside of the land of Judah and also within its borders. At this point in the people of Israel’s history the Kingdom that had been united under Saul, David and Solomon has been divided into two entities: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. It appears that Micah lived in Judah and he saw a great deal of less-than-perfect things going on. The rulers of the land, both political and religious, were corrupt and lazy.  They had a bad habit of abusing the poor and twisting justice to suit their needs.

At the same time, large empires in the region where growing even larger and there was always the chance that the Assyrians or the Egyptians would gobble up a little country like Judah.  Needless to say: there was a lot on the line.

These selections cover two topics: the first is how God will one day send a ruler who will clean up the corruption and complacency that was the norm. The second is how we should live in the meantime.  Verse 4 describes what this ruler from Bethlehem will be like: a shepherd who protects his flock so that they “will dwell secure.”  This is an amazing standard of leadership that can be used to judge ALL leaders.  Do they protect and NOT exploit those underneath them?

And in the meantime, there is the second topic: how should we live in the meantime?  In those days people quite often offered extravagant and costly sacrifices to appease the gods as if they could buy the deities off and “wow” them.  In verses 6-7, Micah uses some hyperbole in listing truly over-the-top sacrifices that would cost the equivalent of a country’s Gross Domestic Product.  But then he says something revolutionary.  God doesn’t care about getting fancy gifts, God wants us to treat each other will justice, fairness and love.  THAT’S what matters. Many people have memorized verse 8, and with good reason! It gets at the heart of what a life in the name of God and in the name of Jesus Christ looks like. It’s the standard by which to grade everything we do, the measure of our actions.

Many centuries after Micah, the people of Israel were still waiting for the promised ruler to appear.  When three star-gazers from the east arrived in Jerusalem with the announcement that they had seen the star of a new ruler for Israel, it produced some excitement. The King at the time, a man named Herod, consulted with his religious scholars and they pointed to these words from Micah. 

And guess what?  A king was born in Bethlehem, and he has changed the world. Maybe not in the way people expect, but in a much, much better way indeed.  Wonder who that king might be? His name is Jesus and he’s the Son of God.