Up next in 10
The CU Catecast with Fr. Ryan Humphries
The Book of Micah
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
freeze our topic today is the Book of
0:03
Micah the book of the prophet Micah so
0:05
we're halfway through the Minor Prophets
0:08
now at number six we've done all the
0:10
names unfortunately that are familiar to
0:12
us we've all you know the ones that are
0:13
coming unless you're a Bible scholar
0:15
unless you've read the whole Bible you
0:17
have no idea who these folks are and
0:18
that's okay
0:19
um but we've done all we've done Jonah
0:21
we've done Hosea we've done Amos and so
0:23
we're now going to make our way through
0:25
to even the less more minor of the Minor
0:28
Prophets so to speak now Micah overlaps
0:32
with Isaiah okay so that's just good to
0:35
keep in your mind Isaiah of course is
0:37
the great prophet of the uh the
0:39
Babylonian exile and so Micah is kind of
0:41
doing some of his stuff at that time I
0:43
recommend that we kind of associate in
0:46
our heads Isaiah and Micah because
0:48
there's a lot of overlap in what they
0:50
say as well
0:52
um now Micah is writing we should say
0:54
just a very very little bit before
0:56
Isaiah is doing his thing he's writing
0:59
before the time time of the Babylonian
1:01
exile but there's a ton of overlap and
1:03
theme and some overlap in time now he's
1:05
writing from 740 BC to about 700 BC now
1:11
like Amos
1:12
Micah is a country boy he's from the
1:15
country he has no time for the big city
1:19
folks who have their heads stuck in the
1:21
clouds and all that kind of stuff it is
1:23
very very similar to nowadays where
1:26
folks who are from rural communities
1:28
look to people living in the big city
1:30
and go these people are insane I mean
1:32
goodness gracious God Bless America I'm
1:35
glad I'm a Country Boy kind of John
1:37
Denver sort of thinking and so Micah is
1:40
going to be criticizing those people who
1:43
are in the cities he's going to be
1:45
criticizing corruption both religious
1:48
corruption and civil corruption now
1:50
unlike Amos
1:52
Micah has a blend of promises to go with
1:56
his threats remember Amos is nothing but
1:58
dour sad depressing start to end Micah
2:01
though is going to give us kind of a woe
2:03
is the world but there's a promise woe
2:06
is the world there's a promise
2:08
um and where anger where Amos is angry
2:11
all the time Micah is going to have uh
2:15
not just a sense of of depressing threat
2:19
but a sense of this is something that is
2:22
necessary so you could almost think of
2:24
it as it's not like the doctor coming in
2:27
saying the world is ending and it's all
2:29
terrible it's more like the doctor
2:30
coming in saying you're going to have to
2:32
have a knee replacement it's going to be
2:34
miserable it's going to hurt a lot and
2:36
yet it's just what we need to do we've
2:38
got to have it so we're going to do it
2:39
and it's it's a very very subtle
2:42
difference but it does matter and it
2:44
makes Micah a great deal more readable
2:46
than Amos now he also has Micah has some
2:50
pretty good promises where God is just
2:53
itching to bless you if you will simply
2:57
kind of get your act together Micah 6 8
3:00
for example says what does the Lord
3:02
require of you but to do justice to love
3:05
kindness and to walk humbly with your
3:08
God and so we we get in addition to the
3:11
kind of hard anger and and even some of
3:14
that optimistic anger as well as the
3:16
kind of incredible optimism we get kind
3:19
of this Middle Ground as well
3:21
where you have the sense especially
3:22
after he's just said you can't avoid it
3:25
the bad stuff is coming where he says
3:26
but if you Embrace The Good the Lord
3:28
will protect you individually in the
3:31
midst of the mess and so we have kind of
3:34
this nice little little uh crossovers of
3:37
these things and I should add at this
3:39
point
3:40
um these are short books right so you've
3:42
probably have heard me say this kind of
3:44
thing before and gone this stuff happens
3:46
in one verse father Ryan's talking about
3:48
how this changes and does that this is
3:50
short too so we're going to have you
3:52
know scripture Scholars take to like to
3:54
talk about everything as if all these
3:56
big themes are interacting we're talking
3:58
here about five or six verses where he
4:00
says the world is ending we have one or
4:02
two verses where he says I'll look after
4:04
you if you do good then we have another
4:06
10 or 15 verses about the promise so
4:08
we're not talking here about themes like
4:10
Moby Dick you know where we get a an
4:12
entire chapter on this we're talking
4:14
about brief little little bites that
4:17
that in the context of Jewish culture
4:19
which was very very much let me grab one
4:22
little proverb or one little verse we're
4:25
incredibly important for us it does feel
4:28
a little bit rushed and that's okay so
4:30
Micah is predicting that there's a
4:32
pretty good uh rather that if we do what
4:36
the Lord says then we can be pretty
4:38
happy even if the world is crazy because
4:41
again that's the perspective of the
4:42
country boy most of the drama is City
4:45
drama and so if we embrace the country
4:48
life things will be better for us and I
4:51
can't disagree with him now Micah like
4:54
most of the Minor Prophets is very short
4:57
seven chapters in this case and it's
4:59
fairly easy reading you can get through
5:01
it in one sitting no problem like most
5:04
of the Minor Prophets we're going to
5:05
start with a laundry list of sins that
5:08
get committed then we're going to have a
5:10
call to repentance that's that theme
5:13
we've seen going back to the judges but
5:15
unlike Micah are unlike others rather
5:18
Micah doesn't imply that the coming
5:20
destruction can be avoided remember the
5:22
image of the knee replacement so he's
5:24
saying look here's the sins that we're
5:26
committed here is the brief sense of the
5:29
need for repentance but the punishment
5:32
is going to come it cannot be avoided
5:35
and so here's how we need to knuckle
5:37
under and hunker down and find a way
5:41
through it and that's when the promise
5:43
shows up the general theme has been
5:46
here's the bad stuff we need to repent
5:48
if we repent God will let us off the
5:51
hook and oftentimes he doesn't let them
5:54
off the hook and that's fine but there
5:56
is no sense in Micah that if we behave
5:58
God will let us off the hook it's coming
6:00
we just need to be prepared for it and
6:03
we need to hunker down one of the things
6:05
that makes Micah somewhat depressing
6:08
is he's he writes as if he's like I'm
6:11
sure some people will survive and if
6:13
they do I mean there's nothing like the
6:15
oh God's going to bring us through it
6:16
with 20 losses it's like if anybody
6:19
makes it to the other side open this
6:21
book and it'll help you get to the you
6:22
know get back to the promised land
6:24
there's some pretty bleak moments in the
6:27
Book of Micah just as there are
6:28
throughout the Old Testament prophets
6:31
um so we get now this kind of overall
6:33
picture of Mike now the final argument
6:36
that Micah makes and this is this is
6:38
kind of an interesting way of framing it
6:40
because he has two main sections of the
6:43
laundry list of sins call to repentance
6:45
bad stuff's going to happen anyway now
6:47
here's a promise the last little chunk
6:50
is often called mico's final argument
6:52
and it's summarized in chapter six and
6:55
seven in chapter six we see a rehash of
6:58
the case against Judah and then in
7:01
chapter seven we get a final promise but
7:04
it's wrapped in ceremonial language now
7:08
the time I'm giving this we just went
7:10
through uh two or three weeks of Queen
7:13
Elizabeth's desk may she rest in peace
7:16
and so we have seen a lot of ceremonial
7:19
language we've seen a lot of you know
7:21
big dramatic things with people dressed
7:23
in you know big huge red things
7:25
screaming the queen comes and whatnot
7:27
that's kind of the language that seems
7:30
to appear in chapter 7 of Micah we
7:33
almost feel like this book was either
7:34
written for the purpose of or was
7:37
written kind of in response to Temple
7:41
Temple worship like the idea of this is
7:43
kind of the the way things would be
7:45
framed in the context of the temple if a
7:49
Priestly class person were were
7:51
preaching this to folks who were
7:53
expecting to hear a ceremonial kind of
7:56
speech given
7:59
um the the most quoted verse in Micah is
8:01
also one of the last in the book where
8:03
he says as for me I will look to the
8:05
Lord I will wait for for the god of my
8:08
salvation my God will hear me and that
8:11
is very much a temple dialect a temple
8:14
way of speaking about things and it also
8:16
does a good job of summing up the
8:17
entirety of Micah where it is a you know
8:21
a sense of as for me the the world be it
8:24
a mess I am going to do my very best to
8:27
be near to the Lord I'm going to try to
8:29
endure and I'm going to wait for the god
8:31
of my salvation I'm simply going to hope
8:33
and trust that my God will hear me
8:35
because whatever's going on there is
8:37
this deeply individual sense within the
8:40
prophet Micah and that's the last theme
8:42
I want to mention because it is relevant
8:44
in the New Testament
8:46
we get a lot of these things where you
8:49
have the one individual needs to step
8:52
aside and figure his own thing out but
8:55
in the Old Testament it's almost always
8:57
within the framework of the people or
9:01
the tribe or the family or the nation
9:03
we've seen a couple of examples where
9:06
it's stepped out or been a little
9:07
different almost always in relation to
9:10
the prophet himself or the king or some
9:13
specific major player but here we have
9:16
this kind of interesting moment where
9:18
throughout Micah we get the idea that
9:20
that the chaos is coming and it's the
9:23
individual who has to knuckle under and
9:25
find a way to make it not for himself
9:28
but for the whole nation but the
9:30
individual has to be the one to do it
9:32
and we're seeing here a dramatic
9:34
transition uh now in a way of thinking
9:36
where we start to say maybe we need to
9:39
think more about the role of the
9:41
individual even within the Catholic
9:43
Church nowadays we still have some
9:45
distinctions being made and so some
9:47
different ways of talking about this
9:49
whole question of of individuality
9:52
versus the whole of the church but Micah
9:55
contributes some interesting things to
9:57
that and so that is kind of the book of
9:59
the of the minor prophet Micah we're
10:02
going to see and hear a profound lack of
10:05
reference to the day of the Lord which
10:07
was a big deal for Joel and Amos and
10:09
others I don't think it's mentioned at
10:11
all or if it's mentioned it may be
10:12
mentioned once in kind of a of a um an
10:16
adjustment we might call a
10:17
circumlocution a different way of saying
10:19
it but it's not a major theme in Micah
10:21
and we're going to see that it's going
10:23
to become a major theme very very rarely
10:25
from here on out and so I hope that's
10:27
been helpful for you the Book of Micah
10:29
is very simple and it comes in those
10:31
three big chunks laundry list of sins uh
10:34
woe is the universe but we can do better
10:37
we're still going to have to have the
10:39
knee replacement but let's just find a
10:41
way to make it through and be happy and
10:43
then it ends with this kind of odd
10:44
chapter 7 Temple language and that that
10:46
really is going to get you through the
10:47
Book of Micah and I hope it's going to
10:49
be helpful for you as you make your way
10:50
through
10:51
we I think next week we're just
10:53
continuing on our Bible series I don't
10:55
think we have the Sunday the Wednesday
10:56
evening catechism next week but we'll
10:58
move into uh to the next book and as I
11:01
said we're about six weeks away and uh
11:03
and then we will be ready to kind of
11:05
bring it into the Old Testament I'm
11:07
ready to to be done with it I don't know
11:08
if you are and we can move into the New
11:10
Testament but we still have probably the
11:13
better part of a year of these talks
11:15
before we're going to be done with our
11:17
Bible series uh and so I appreciate you
11:19
following along I've been Father Ryan
11:21
Humphries this has been the CU catech
11:22
cast and I hope you have an excellent
11:24
afternoon