Micah 4:1-5; 5:2-4

Peace and Security through Obedience (Cp Isa 2.2-4)

4 In days to come

the mountain of the LORD's house

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be raised up above the hills.

Peoples shall stream to it,

2 and many nations shall come and say:

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob;

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths."

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3 He shall judge between many peoples,

and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more;

4 but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,

and no one shall make them afraid;

for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.

5 For all the peoples walk,

each in the name of its god,

but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God

forever and ever. (Micah 4:1-5, NRSV)

The following is repeated here with adaptation from Wednesday, December 1, 2005 (Wednesday of the first week of Advent, Year 1). The comments are on Isaiah 2:1-11 which includes material (Isa. 2:2-4) nearly identical to Micah 4:1-4. (Isaiah and Micah were contemporaries, both prophets of the eighth century B.C.)

Isaiah presents a vision of the new age with peace among the nations, who will come to Jerusalem for instruction (Isa. 2:2-4), which is practically identical to Micah 4:1-4 (which adds “up” in v. 1 [“raised up” Mic. 4:1, cf. “raised” Isa. 2:2, and a couple transpositions of “nations” and “peoples”). They were contemporaries, Isaiah of Jerusalem, and Micah of the small village Moresheth, but they shared a common vision of peace among nations.

            For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

               and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

            He shall judge between the nations,

               and shall arbitrate for many peoples;

            they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

               and their spears into pruning hooks;

            nation shall not lift up sword against nation;

               neither shall they learn war any more. (Isa. 2:3d-4, NRSV)

The last four lines (Isa. 2:4b, c) are inscribed on the wall at Peace Park at the United Nations in New York City (http://habitat.igc.org/peace-park/pp03.htm). A bronze sculpture at the UN also celebrates the “Peace” theme: http://flickr.com/photos/pjs-omi/1741691

This sculpture sits at the United Nations in New York City. It depicts this prophecy of Isaiah in its fulfillment. A figure is beating a sword into a plowshare. The bronze sculpture was created by Russian artist Evgeniy Vuchetich called “Let Us Beat Swords Into Plowshares” and was a gift to the UN from the Soviet Union in 1959.

Isaiah continues with a list of Jacob’s sins (vv. 5-11) which is shifted to Thursday’s reading in the Daily Lectionary of the Presbyterian Book of Worship. The sins include the use of diviners and soothsayers (v. 6), idols (v. 8) and pride (v. 11), but resources for war, horses and chariots, stand in sharp contrast to the earlier vision of peace. However, Micah sets the passage about beating swords into plowshares within a longer section of good news about Israel’s restoration. The LORD will “assemble the lane/and gather those who have been driven away,/and those whom I have afflicted” (Micah 4:6), for, contrary to the ways of other nations, Israel “will walk in the name of the LORD our God/forever and ever” (v. 5)

The Ruler from Bethlehem

2 But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,

who are one of the little clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to rule in Israel,

whose origin is from of old,

from ancient days.

3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time

when she who is in labor has brought forth;

then the rest of his kindred shall return

to the people of Israel.

4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD,

in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.

And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great

to the ends of the earth; (Micah 5:2-4, NRSV)

Copied from October 9, 2004 (Saturday of the week closest to October 5, Year 2, Proper 22):

Micah draws a sharp contrast between present humiliation, "Now you are walled around with a wall/siege is laid against us;/with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel/upon the cheek" (Micah 5:1; cf. the "now' situations of 4:9, 11), and the glorious future, when another king, like David, will come from Bethlehem to rule (v. 2), return his people (v. 3), and "feed his flock" in peace (vv. 4-5). But the war machines (horses and chariots), sorceries, soothsayers, images, pillars, and sacred poles will have to go ("be cut off/uprooted," vv. 10-15).

1 John 4:7-16

God Is Love (Cp Jn 3.16)

7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. (1 John 4:7-16, NRSV)

The following comments on 1 John 4:7-21 are repeated here from Tuesday, April 12, 2005 (Tuesday of the third week of the Easter Season, Year 1):

This passage might be considered as extensive commentary on the verse we call “the gospel in a nutshell” (Jn. 3:16). “God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him” (1 Jn. 4:9). Those who love are “born of God” and know God (v. 7). Not loving is a sure sign of not knowing God (v. 8). But we do not initiate such love. “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v. 10). We ought to respond to God’s love by loving one another (v. 11).

John Wesley sees the explanation of “if we love one another, God lives in us” (v. 12) in verses 14 to 16, and the explanation of “his love is perfected [‘has its full effect’] in us” (v. 12) in verses 17 to 19. (http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/notes/1John.htm). Of verse 14 Wesley says, “And in consequence of this we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son -- These are the foundation and the criteria of our abiding in God and God in us, the communion of the Spirit, and the confession of the Son.” Of verses17 and 18 he says:

Hereby - That is, by this communion with God. Is our love made perfect; that we may - That is, so that we shall have boldness in the day of judgment - When all the stout - hearted shall tremble. Because as he - Christ. Is - All love. So are we - Who are fathers in Christ, even in this world. (Wesley, on v. 17)

There is no fear in love - No slavish fear can be where love reigns. But perfect, adult love casteth out slavish fear: because such fear hath torment - And so is inconsistent with the happiness of love. A natural man has neither fear nor love; one that is awakened, fear without love; a babe in Christ, love and fear; a father in Christ, love without fear. (Wesley on v. 18).

Among other things, Wesley finds here a warning about bigotry. He comments on verse 21:

And this commandment have we from him - Both God and Christ. That he who loveth God love his brother - Every one, whatever his opinions or mode of worship be, purely because he is the child, and bears the image, of God. Bigotry is properly the want of this pure and universal love. A bigot only loves those who embrace his opinions, and receive his way of worship; and he loves them for that, and not for Christ's sake.

If he only knew how many kinds of bigotry our own times would engender! (But perhaps that’s for another time.)

John 3:31-36

The One Who Comes from Heaven

31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. 34 He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God's wrath. (John 3:31-36, NRSV)

After Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus (Jn. 3:1-21), John’s Gospel reports period of time when John was baptizing and Jesus’ disciples were also baptizing (3:22-24; cf. 4:1-3), which led to “a discussion about purification” (3:25) and John the Baptist’s further testimony about Jesus (cf. 1:19-34). John is asked about Jesus, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and all are going to him” (3:26). John further testifies that he is “not the Messiah” (v. 28). He is “the friend of the bridegroom” (v. 29). “He must increase, but I must decrease” (v. 30).

So it is tempting to take the following paragraph, with its reference to “the one who comes from above” and “the one who is of the earth” (v. 31) as a contrast between Jesus and John. But that would not be correct (or at least not adequate). Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., says that the words “no one” (v. 32) present “a generalization about Israel (see 1:11)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Jn. 3:32-34). I would agree that it’s no longer about John, for “no one accepts his testimony” (v. 32), not the testimony of John, but the testimony of “the one who comes from heaven” who “is above all” (v. 31, the antecedent of “He” in v. 32). But it’s not just about the Jews, or the unbelieving Jews, either. The phrase “his own people” (hoi idioi) in John 1:11 (to which Hendricks refers) refers to the people of the world which Jesus, the Logos, has created. “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being” (Jn. 1:3). “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him” (v. 10). “He came to what was his own,” that is, the world which he had created, “and his own people,” that is, the people of the world he had created, “did not accept him” (v. 11).

The emphasis in John 3:31 is on the fact that Jesus is “the one who comes from above.” He gives true testimony “that God is true” (v. 33), for he “speaks the words of God,” and “gives the Spirit without measure” (v. 34). One’s eternal destiny depends on a positive response of trust in the Son: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God's wrath” (v. 36).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

rworden@houston.rr.com