Micah 1-3

I’m reading this in the New Oxford Annotated NRSV. The introduction to Micah tells me that the book can be divided into three sections, Chapters 1 - 3 (pronouncements of judgment), Chapters 4-5 (signs of hope), and Chapters 6-7 (judgment transitioning to hope), so I will organize my comments according to these divisions.

Micah 1-3

Background

Since Micah, like all the books of the prophets, is set deeply and specifically within a particular history of which my knowledge--Biblically or otherwise--is extremely limited, and of which I don’t intend to research to much extent, I’ll be limiting my thoughts and reactions to general concepts which I can comprehend and respond to.

The trusty NOANRSV (The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version) informs me that the setting of Micah occurs within the historical events covered in I KIngs 16-19, and I have read those chapters to provide me at least a little contextual information for reading Micah. In those chapters in I KIngs, a series of wicked kings man the throne in Israel while a long-term king (Asa) rules in Judah. The series of wicked kings includes the rule of Ahab and his wife, Jezebel; the foremost prophet of God at the time was Elijah, who, at the end of Chapter 19, passes his prophetic authority to Elisha.

With this background in mind, Micah, in the first three chapters, pronounces judgement on Israel for the evil it has committed, which appears primarily in two forms: idolatry (e.g. the worship of Baal) and the oppression of people by those in power.

Judgment will be dispensed in the forms of being conquered by other nations and being exiled from the homeland.

Beyond this cursory effort to summarize Micah’s content, my analytical comments focus on the theme of oppression and a little bit on the judgment itself.

Oppression

2:1-2 “Alas for those who devise wickedness and evil deeds on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in their power. They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away; they oppress householder and house, people and their inheritance.”

I doubt I can add much to the power of these verses. Yet it seems worthwhile to note that these exact behaviors are ongoing. The crazy thing--and I assume this was true in Micah’s time as well--is that many of these deeds are performed entirely within the bounds of the law. This is yet another subject in which I am not well-versed, but it is my impression that there have been so many caveats and loopholes written into our laws that injustice masquerades openly as justice. The forfeiture of property from the have-nots to the haves, fees for those without the money to pay them, etc., creates a reality in which those with little give the little they have to those who already have a lot.  

2:8 “But you rise up against my people as an enemy; you strip the robe from the peaceful, from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war.”

This seems to suggest that the oppressors have chosen to oppress their own people, which certainly includes relatives and could even include those as close as brothers and sisters. The literal truth of this is probably less important than the overall sentiment: what kind of people exploit members of their own community, their own nation? (Those who are considered evil by God.) And this is certainly going on here. In this verse there is a suggestion that it is not merely an oppression of the weak by the powerful, but rather an oppression that preys on anyone who desires peace and goodness rather than conflict and ruthless competition. One should be able to trust the goodwill of the community in which one lives, and this basic decency appears to have been violated here by those who care only for adding to their own wealth, privilege, and dominance in a variety of ways.

3:1-3 “And I said: ‘Listen, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Should you not know justice? --you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin off my people, and the flesh off their bones; who eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin off them, break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron.”

The groups who are indicted here are clearly the government leaders and others in positions of power. They have turned justice on its head, using, I would imagine, the law, and also circumventing the law at times, for only self-serving purposes. I imagine this is the kind of thing that was going on in the temple when, years later, Jesus overturned the tables of the money-changers. And the figurative language used to express the magnitude of this wrong is particularly compelling with its images of torture.

3:5 “Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry ‘Peace’ when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths.”

This verse seems to illustrate the epitome of selfishness; as long as things are going fine with us, we insist that things must be going fine with everyone else, or at the very least we insist that they shut up. And yet we’re completely willing to prey on or take from those who have nothing. And as we “declare war” on those who are starving, we rationalize and justify such action--as I’m sure the privileged of Israel did as well--and thus oppression becomes some kind of “noble” cause, but in reality it is an entirely self-centered and greedy action. One other possible nuance worthy of note. The phrase “declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths” could be interpreted in a couple of ways: 1) the idea I’ve just expressed, that we oppress those who are starving, and 2) a particularly interesting and even more extreme form of oppression, the possibility that we “declare war” on the destitute because they are contributing nothing to our well-being, i.e. if we aren’t profiting from others, we’ll damn well take what little they have from them by force.

3:9-11 “Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong! Its rulers give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the Lord and say, “Surely the Lord is with us! No harm shall come upon us.”

Wow. Everything has become a commodity. Even the system built to assure justice for the community is run by bribes: those with money buy their “innocence” and those without money are (I bet) pronounced “guilty.” I can’t help but think of Ecclesiastes’ observation that “in the place of justice, wickedness was there” (Eccl. 3:16). Everything is “for profit,” and the entire culture is a sham. Religious leaders take payment for their “guidance” and prophets dispense “truth” when compensated financially. Even physical bodies are a commodity: Zion and Jerusalem are “built with blood.” Specific examples of this are referenced in the I Kings passages, as the kings who built grand structures are said to have done so at the cost of their own sons’ lives. Applied to my current time and culture, the rationale of a capitalistic economy cannot honestly deny that our bodies are commodities, a means to achieve profit. How can we live within such an economy and practice the "kingdom" economy of God? I could certainly reflect on this in writing, and as a member of a church community, I discuss this in various ways each week, but this remains an extremely difficult question. I welcome input from anyone who has put thought into this, and any recommendations of theologians who have focused on this question would be welcome as well.

Given the forms of oppression described in Micah 1-3, it seems that another form of idolatry (in addition to worshiping gods such as Baal) is materialism. Acquiring and accumulating possessions seems to have become an ingrained cultural value in Israel.

The judgment

The ultimate point of this first section of Micah, of course, is to announce that judgment is on the horizon. As a literature major and a writing teacher, I’m particular drawn to the way this judgment is expressed with powerful figurative language . . .

1:3-4 “For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. Then the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will burst open, like wax near the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.”

These are powerful images, illustrating the power of God. These fixtures which seem immutable to us, permanent parts of the landscape, will become soft and elastic at God’s command. I particularly like the fact that the mountains aren’t crushed but rather “melt,” as well as the active voice that makes these images vivid (will melt, will burst, like waters poured).

2:3 “Therefore thus says the Lord: Now, I am devising against this family an evil from which you cannot remove your necks; and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be an evil time.

The oppressors will know what oppression feels like, and the feeling is sheer helplessness. Through Micah, the Lord announces a future evil from which “you cannot remove your necks.” I think of Orwell’s 1984 and the image of a boot pressing down on a human face, symbolizing not only heartless domination by the wearer of the boot but also extreme helplessness by the possessor of the face. Another way the oppressors will know oppression is that they will see their fields be divided among their conquerors. There’s a pretty strong theme of “what goes around comes around” in these pronouncements of Micah’s.

When hearing these pronouncements of judgment, the response of the leaders/oppressors is, in retrospect, somewhat amusing:

2:6 “‘Do not preach’--thus they preach--’one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.’”

I take this to be the oppressive leaders attempting to discredit Micah’s pronouncement of judgment. They say, “These things aren’t going to happen to us, so shut your mouth. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Later, in Chapter 3 this sentiment is echoed: “yet they lean upon the Lord and say, ‘Surely the Lord is with us! No harm will come to us.’” It’s hard to read this without thinking of the US’s position of leadership within the world, partnered with an undeniable participation in oppression, both past and present, as well as a consistent choice to dominate by the use of force. Yet as a country we refuse to claim anything other than “God is on our side. Our causes are righteous.” Anybody who wants to can make the claim that God is on his or her side. But the wiser use of speech is probably to ask the question from that old hymn: Who is on the Lord’s side? In fact, as oppression is ongoing around the world by various governments and groups, it seems this judgment in Micah anticipates not only an immediate judgment of Israel but also a still-to-come, final righting of wrongs, when mountains are lowered, valleys are raised, and crooked places are made straight, basically a removal of injustice and inequity and a placing of all on the same ground.

A post-script addition: Given that the US so stubbornly proclaims its God-willed righteousness, it seems appropriate to balance this narrative with a voice akin to the Biblical prophets: You think you are righteous? You think you know what is best for everyone else? You are oppressors of your own people! You have filled your prisons with the unpaid laborers who brought your country wealth! Your gods are money and possessions and popularity! You spout about peace as you agitate wars! Your “righteousness” is exploitation disguised with talk of philanthropy! Joseph Conrad wrote about your “philanthropic pretense of the whole concern,” and he called it Heart of Darkness!