December 15

OT: Micah 1:1-4:13

Man, I didn't get a chance to blog--or even read--this morning, and I have begun to face the fact that I am not a night person. I am beat. But here goes...

I read what Harris had to say about Micah. Micah was a "younger contemporary of Isaiah," a rural prophet who was full of condemnation for the cities, particularly Samaria and Jerusalem. According to Harris, Micah "espouses the cause of the village peasant and is sharply critical of the Davidic dynasty and Temple cult. He scornfully denies that the sanctuary's presence in Jerusalem will protect the city from harm and predicts that both city and Temple will be reduced to rubble (3:1-3, 9-12)." To me, those verses condemn Israel's leaders in general, not the Davidic line per se. And I mean, maybe the current kings were part of the Davidic line (I have no idea), but didn't Isaiah and others condemn Israel and Judah in similar terms? I don't know. I also don't know, based on the section I read today, if Micah is indeed harsher against cities than other prophets were. I didn't really get that he saw the cities as the source of sin, as much as he saw the people as the source of sin. Most prophets have addressed their prophecies to countries and cities, and I've taken that to mean that they are addressing the people within those locations. I guess I just didn't see a huge difference in Micah from any other prophet.

But I am really tired, and perhaps not in the most analytical frame of mind.

And perhaps that is why I find that I have nothing insightful to say about the actual text of Micah. Like other prophets, he condemns those who practice injustice and mistreat others. In a typical passage, he declares:

"Woe to those who plan iniquity,
to those who plot evil on their beds!
At morning's light they carry it out
because it is in their power to do it.
They covet fields and seize them,
and houses, and take them.
They defraud a man of his home,
a fellowman of his inheritance" (2:1-2).

I did get a bit confused with all the quotation marks, and sometimes had a hard time figuring out who was talking. For example, in 1:6-7, God is clearly talking and describing the way He is going to destroy Samaria. The verses naturally flow into verse 8, which starts with, "Because of this..." But then that person says that he "will weep and wail" and "go about barefoot and naked." Now, it would seem that that would be Micah talking, and the quotation marks back that up. But...how did they know to put quotes there? Are there quotes in the Hebrew? It's just that the person does not shift, nor does the general tone. I guess it goes from anger to sadness. And obviously, the image of God going barefoot and naked doesn't really work. But those kind of shifts always make me wonder...how do they know that it is a new person talking? Perhaps the interpreters are shutting the door on some interesting imagery regarding God. I don't know....I'm tired:).

NT: Revelation 6:1-17

Crazy stuff happens today! Seals are opened, voices boom, the four horsemen of the apocalypse ride in, the souls of the martyred cry out to God, earthquakes happen, stars fall to earth, the sky rolls back, and everyone on earth flees.

And I got about 0% of that imagery. I did get the idea that the end times were going to be bad, but that's about it.

Psalm 134:1-3

Another very short psalm, exhorting the priests and those who minister in "the house of the Lord" to praise Him (1).

Prov. 30:1-4

An introductory section for the sayings of Agur, in which Agur claims to have no knowledge of God and poetically asks who made the world.