Micah 5:2-5 second cut
We should be reminded that this passage is maddening to translate, and we deal with the push to link it to Christmas with the Matthew citation for the Magi.
1)As usual in apocalyptic pieces, this description of a better future is in contrast to issues of punishment and judgment, even if it is not full blown apocalyptic visionary work. I suppose that it could be referring to a birth of a royal child as in Is. 7,8. I would tend toward going back to Micah 4’s relation of labor and apply it toward a more apocalyptic birth pangs reading. Not only will pain not last forever, but better times are coming.
2) Of course, one could emphasize that the immense God is one who seems to like to work at small scale. of a Bethlehem.. One could talk of the "butterfly effect"
I am not sure of ephrathah/fruitful. I assume it is a place name, maybe a clan name,but do not grasp it use i here clearly.
3) I don't have a good notion why mosel=ruler is used and not king. Still God reigns, not kings.Is it reflecting some continuing disquiet with the monarchy, or being sick of the terrible rulers under which they suffer. To dwell securely itself would be a good sermon topic. Be careful to avoid the notion, not in the text, that to dwell securely would mean only some sort of spiritual security. After all shalom=well-being, health, wholeness, not only inner spiritual peace. This will be peace could refer to what just preceded, what will come next,as a demonstrative pointer,or I suppose, both.
4) The shepherd imagery is often used for leaders. This time he will be a "good shepherd.'I don;t know if people have already heard too much about the shepherd image or not, especially its political connotations/. I would note that this messianic text does not use hte word in the passage. Some would read v.2 as of old as referring to Jesus, maybe even pre-existence and not the promise itself.
5) In history this goes back to David, around 300 years. Christians see it as taking 700 years to come to pass. I see a tinge of exilic material here, but that will not happen for some time, unless we are seeing some insertions over time.
6) I tend to read in line with the apocalyptic themes in 4:9-10, for instance, as Paul does in Rom. 8 It uses the pain of birth as a prelude to a miracle to come. Twice a woman, maybe Jerusalem/Dame Zion and this time announced in Bethlehem of a woman in childbirth. The image of a new age arriving with birth pangs continued. At any rate, we have a birth of a messiah being part of an apocalyptic point of view.
7) One could look at Bethlehem, house of bread. A then and now approach could work. One could plumb its association with David and Ruth. Bethlehem is litt.e The small as harbinger is in biblical territory. We could apply it to a small church, or even to the PCUS, once prominent, now riven by factions and no longer a denomination of size nor public standing. It social position appears more in line with anabaptist churches.
8) The way we approach this text is a great example that we have the world of context, when this was composed and edited, but it also creates a world within its pages as well that frees it from context, but we also read the words from our vantage pt, and that changes the reading, so there is the world behind the text, the world of the text, and the world in front of the text. Of course, the direct quote from Mt. 2 is a spur to this reading, so a nativity scene overwhelms reading it from Micah alone.
We are in ancient territory here, the late eighth century. perhaps he was working at the same time as early Isaiah material. His work is known to Jeremiah (see 26:18-19).
Micah stands for me as opening us to perennial concerns: peace, theodicy, poverty, but also a stirring call to hope.
Most of my work in the ministry has been in small churches. Sometimes I could pick up on the barely suppressed sneers of pastors of large churches of social and ecclesial importance. I recall a denominational executive speak of love for the small churches, as long as they don’t cause us any trouble. Congregational members pick up this cultural attitude and often use the phrase: “we’re just a small church.” Micah is from a small town, just like Jesus. In large churches or small, we often hear his words, at least quoted, if we read Matthew’s account of the Magi as they seek to honor the one announced by the great star sighting.
I also think of the King Arthur legend, where we look to the misty past to find the utopian leader.
Of course, this promise is here due to the Zion theology of a promise to David in II Sam. 7:16-17
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