Reflections on Micah 3:5 “8th Century Headlines”

Because I am writing this essay on the day after Halloween, and after walking with my children and grandchildren (the latter a four-year old lovely princess and a two-year-old fearsome tiger respectively) through a quiet and peaceful Los Angeles neighborhood, trolling for chocolate and other treats not nearly so commodious, the word “scary” remains in my mind. Not that I found much genuinely scary last night, though the two-old was seriously spooked by a very tall Tyrannosaurus Rex costume worn by a very nice man, but when I read Micah 3 again after some time away from the book, that word popped into my head. Micah, that 8th century BCE country prophet, was a really scary person!Just listen to this! “Thus says YHWH concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry ‘shalom’ when they have food between their teeth, but who sanctify battle against those who put nothing in their mouths” (Micah 3:5). I find that sentence nothing less than astonishing, a truly scary statement to make against those who claim to be prophets. The line is scary for more reasons than one short blog can begin to uncover, but I do wish to think about it a bit on this day that marks 500 years of Protestant Christianity on the planet.

Not all prophets are to be trusted, warns Micah, especially those who spout claims of shalom in the world only when they are well fed (and housed and clothed) by those who welcome a word of shalom. Of course, among others, Micah is talking to us preachers, part of whose role is that of prophet, of troublemaker, of the one who announces Godly demands, who stands in the breach against those who would trivialize the word of God; those who provide the dough are too often not interested in hearing truth, but only peace, a peace of sweet nothings, of right individual behaviors. While issues of inequality and injustice crowd the headlines, such preachers are content to address questions of individual morality. Micah speaks of them, too. “If someone were to go about uttering empty falsehoods, saying, ‘I shall preach to you of wine and strong drink,’ such a one would be the preacher for this people” (Micah 2:11)!

Ah, yes, keep your sermons to questions we can relate to: alcoholism, adultery, sexual behavior, church attendance, church music, carpet color. Please no more about immigration, gay rights, homelessness, care for the poor, the endangered environment. We have all had hard weeks at work and home, and have no stomach for other people’s problems. Speak to us of shalom; we crave shalom in the midst of our chaotic world.

Martin Luther, for all of his faults, and they are legion, did stand against the power of his church and demand from it more concern for faith and trust in God than in indulgences for the departed, fueled by gifts to Holy Mother Church for the pomp of its edifices, the earthly glory of its leadership, and the rich trappings of its services. “Here I stand; I can do no other,” he may have said, and if he did not say it, he surely did it. His later appalling anti-Semitism and abandonment of the mass of German peasants notwithstanding, Luther was indeed a prophet who decidedly did not utter his powerful words only when his mouth was full of the goods his church provided. We prophets would do well to remember that mad monk when we mount our pulpits this coming Sunday.

A second astonishing claim of Micah 3:5 is that prophet’s idea that these so-called prophets call a holy war against any who refuse to put things in their mouths. What exactly does he mean by that phrase? The NRSV’s translation of the sin as “declaring war” does not quite get to the horror of Micah’s charge. He avers that these prophets who feel slighted and not well fed by their charges, demand “holy battle” against their enemies. Not only do they cry out against those who disagree with them, but they further declare “holy war” against them; the Hebrew text says quite clearly: “they sanctify a battle against them.”

The would-be prophets not only publically reject those who will not listen to their empty words, but they also demand that they be humiliated as the recalcitrant and dangerous atheists that they certainly are. If they will not agree with these prophets of empty peace, then let them be slaughtered on the holy battlefield by God! How often in our own day do we hear such words, mouthed by religious leaders when their trivialities are questioned? “ If you cannot see the truth,” they shout, “then may you be thrown in the fiery pit of Hell, a place which has been prepared for you by the devil and his angels. May you burn in torment for all eternity, while we, the righteous ones of the Almighty, will spend our eternity in heaven with the blessed God.” Lest you think these things are not said, just switch on TBN or any other 24-hour religious TV station and see for yourself.

Is it not amazing that a prophet of some 2700 years ago would comment so presciently on the would-be prophets of our own day? It shows so clearly that religious behaviors seem not to change, and that constant vigilance must be maintained against false prophets of a false peace who might still be taken seriously even now. It is far scarier than Dracula teeth and spider hats and fake blood to know that prophets of a false peace continue to speak their foolishness in our day. May we not join their ranks, for lo their number is legion.