Today’s Scripture Reading (January 21,
2014): Micah 1
We want life
to be fair, even though we know that it is not. Andy Stanley makes a plea for
the unfairness of life imploring us to do for the one what we wish we could do
for everyone. Instead, the typical reaction tends to be that if we cannot do it
for everyone, then we should not do it for anyone. I sat in a room with a
Pastor that operated on this principle. He wished that he could sit in
Starbucks and drink coffee and talk with every person in his congregation. But
since that was impossible, he decided to sit in his office and drink coffee
with no one. At least, in his eyes, that was fair.
Stanley
talks about one of the ones in his life. In his life, the one takes the form of
an addict that Stanley has helped out in various situations over the years. He
wishes that he could have this kind of an effect on everyone, but he can’t. So
he settles for the one. In return, he also speaks of the impact that this
addict has had on his life – an impact and experience that has enriched him,
and that he would never have had if had not done for the one what he wished he could
do for everyone. Stanley’s stance recognizes the inherent unfairness of life,
and the responsibility of each of us to minister in the midst of that
unfairness.
We really
have no idea about the place that Micah call Maroth. Some experts have
questioned whether this might be a clerical error and the town identified
should be rather Ramoth (of which there were three in ancient Israel). But
Maroth fits better with the tone of the beginning of Micah’s prophecy.
Specifically, Maroth sounds like the Hebrew word for “bitter” or “perfect
grief” which fits perfectly with the context of the verse.
Other
experts have simply indicated that Maroth was an evil town in Judea – one that
was rightly destroyed by the attacking Assyrian army in the late 8th
century B.C.E.. As Micah correctly indicates, that attack of the Assyrians
stopped at the gates of Jerusalem and the Holy City never fell into Assyrian
hands. But the problem with assuming that Maroth was evil is that this is the
only mention of the town that we know of – and nothing in this passage would
indicate that Maroth was evil, it only says that Maroth was in pain because of
a disaster – assumed to be the Assyrian attack on Judah – that came from God.
The inference seems to be that if the attack came from God, then Maroth must be
evil. But that is inconsistent with the Hebrew understanding of God. For the
Hebrew people. God was all-powerful and therefore God was fully able to stop
anything from happening. It was the hand of God that stopped the Assyrian army
at the gates of the city of Jerusalem. And because he was able to stop it, then
all of the bad things in life came from God. And yet the Hebrew Bible also
teaches that the good and the bad happen to both the righteous person and the
evil one. Assuming that Maroth was evil just because it suffered goes against
that teaching.
Probably the
best way to interpret Micah’s comment about Maroth is to admit that this is a
commentary on the unfairness of life. Jerusalem was preserved from the Assyrian
attack – and that preservation was because of God – yet Maroth suffered and was
destroyed even though the town existed just outside the gates of Jerusalem.
Maybe the people could have fled to Jerusalem, but they were too proud. Maybe
there was not enough time for the people to get out. Either way, Maroth became
a place of “perfect grief” in an unfair world – dying on the very steps of the
great city that God decided to preserve from the Assyrian army.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Micah 2
No comments:
Post a Comment