Comments on: Monday Musings 1, Micah 6.6-8 http://www.servingbread.net/2008/03/03/monday-musings-micah-66-8 Thoughts, Musings, Reflections, and Ramblings of a campus minister, father, husband, and a Jesus-follower Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:56:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Tyler Watson http://www.servingbread.net/2008/03/03/monday-musings-micah-66-8#comment-9050 Tyler Watson Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:36:38 +0000 http://www.servingbread.net/2008/03/03/monday-musings-micah-66-8/#comment-9050 I think you're probably right that it may not matter in the big picture, but I think some things can be brought out by seeing verses 6 and 7 as spoken by the people or a person. It seems no one would have the means to offer such lavish sacrifices but the king. (Granted, some may see these verses as hyperbole, but follow me for a second.) If it is the king who wants to make sacrifices that seem beyond compare and God says no to them, what hope do the regular people without great resources have? The answer is the same to king and peasant: do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Anyone regardless of class or position can do those things. What's more, Micah is reminding them that this isn't a new revelation from God. God has already shown the king what to do in the Torah, where sacrifices are in the context of right relationships with God and neighbor. At the very least, it is fascinating that Yahweh says to the people that by their crimes against one another they haven't upheld their end of the covenant with God. I think you’re probably right that it may not matter in the big picture, but I think some things can be brought out by seeing verses 6 and 7 as spoken by the people or a person. It seems no one would have the means to offer such lavish sacrifices but the king. (Granted, some may see these verses as hyperbole, but follow me for a second.) If it is the king who wants to make sacrifices that seem beyond compare and God says no to them, what hope do the regular people without great resources have? The answer is the same to king and peasant: do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Anyone regardless of class or position can do those things. What’s more, Micah is reminding them that this isn’t a new revelation from God. God has already shown the king what to do in the Torah, where sacrifices are in the context of right relationships with God and neighbor. At the very least, it is fascinating that Yahweh says to the people that by their crimes against one another they haven’t upheld their end of the covenant with God.

]]> By: Eddy E http://www.servingbread.net/2008/03/03/monday-musings-micah-66-8#comment-9047 Eddy E Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:10:43 +0000 http://www.servingbread.net/2008/03/03/monday-musings-micah-66-8/#comment-9047 Thanks for the clarification, but not sure it matters. I see Micah throughout the book not just speaking the words of God to the people but also taking on / articulating the people's thoughts to God. Thanks for the clarification, but not sure it matters. I see Micah throughout the book not just speaking the words of God to the people but also taking on / articulating the people’s thoughts to God.

]]> By: Tyler Watson http://www.servingbread.net/2008/03/03/monday-musings-micah-66-8#comment-9046 Tyler Watson Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:44:56 +0000 http://www.servingbread.net/2008/03/03/monday-musings-micah-66-8/#comment-9046 Thanks for this reflection, Eddy. I disagree with you on one main point, however. I don't think it's Micah who speaks in 6.6-7. In verses 1-5, Micah speaks on behalf of God with an indictment against Israel -- namely, that Yahweh has been faithful in the covenant, but Israel hasn't. Verses 6 and 7 seems to me to be the response of the indicted audience asking how he/they need to get right with God again. Verse 8 is Micah's answer back to that person ("O mortal"). I don't think God is rejecting the sacrificial system that he set up in the first place. I think Micah's admonition falls in line with a lot of the prophets, that right worship goes hand in hand with justice for our neighbors, or as you put it, our horizontal relationships and vertical relationships require just as much effort. In fact, one cannot be fully healthy in only one of those relationships if one isn't healthy in the other simultaneously. Your reflection made me remember a great commentary I read when I studied the 12 Prophets in seminary. (I don't care for the term "Minor Prophets.") Bruce Waltke writes about Micah 6.8, "The prophets did not repudiate sacrifice but subordinated it to ethics (1 Sam. 15:22-23; Isa. 1:12-20; Hos. 6:6; Amos 5:21-27). Sacrifices without a spiritual commitment that displays itself in ethics profit nothing." Thanks for this reflection, Eddy. I disagree with you on one main point, however. I don’t think it’s Micah who speaks in 6.6-7. In verses 1-5, Micah speaks on behalf of God with an indictment against Israel — namely, that Yahweh has been faithful in the covenant, but Israel hasn’t. Verses 6 and 7 seems to me to be the response of the indicted audience asking how he/they need to get right with God again. Verse 8 is Micah’s answer back to that person (”O mortal”). I don’t think God is rejecting the sacrificial system that he set up in the first place. I think Micah’s admonition falls in line with a lot of the prophets, that right worship goes hand in hand with justice for our neighbors, or as you put it, our horizontal relationships and vertical relationships require just as much effort. In fact, one cannot be fully healthy in only one of those relationships if one isn’t healthy in the other simultaneously.

Your reflection made me remember a great commentary I read when I studied the 12 Prophets in seminary. (I don’t care for the term “Minor Prophets.”) Bruce Waltke writes about Micah 6.8, “The prophets did not repudiate sacrifice but subordinated it to ethics (1 Sam. 15:22-23; Isa. 1:12-20; Hos. 6:6; Amos 5:21-27). Sacrifices without a spiritual commitment that displays itself in ethics profit nothing.”

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