Micah 6:1-8

God Challenges Israel

6:1 Hear what the LORD says:

Rise, plead your case before the mountains,

and let the hills hear your voice.

2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD,

and you enduring foundations of the earth;

for the LORD has a controversy with his people,

and he will contend with Israel.

3 “O my people, what have I done to you?

In what have I wearied you? Answer me!

4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,

and redeemed you from the house of slavery;

and I sent before you Moses,

Aaron, and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,

what Balaam son of Beor answered him,

and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,

that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.”

What God Requires (Cp Am 5.24)

6 “With what shall I come before the LORD,

and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves a year old?

7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,

with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:1-8, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here with minor editing from October 15, 2006 (The Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, refs. for the Sunday closest to October 12, Year Two), when comments were revised and supplemented from October 10, 2004 (the Sunday closest to October 12, Year Two):

The two final readings from Micah in this series use portions of the last two chapters. As note earlier (Wed., Oct. 8 and Fri., Oct. 10, with citations from Gregory Mobley in the NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001), the first three chapters present mainly judgment, and the next two mainly promise. By his analysis, the final chapters present some of each. He calls them “a prophetic sampler [which] moves from legal indictment of Israel’s guilt to liturgical affirmation of God’s mercy . . . four units, of different genres, which extend the themes of the first section (1:2-3:12)” (ibid., on 6:1-7:20). He calls today’s reading “a divine lawsuit” (ibid., on 6:1-8).

The LORD summons his people to court. “Rise, plead your case (byr9, rîv, imperative verb) before the mountains, / and let the hills hear your voice” (Mic. 6:1), and the prophet, who has relayed the summons, characterizes the situation. “Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD (byr9, rîv [noun] YHWH) . . . for the LORD has a controversy (Om0f1-Mf9 hv!hyl1 byr9 yK9, kî rîv [noun] laYHWH ‘îm-‘ammô). As a noun, the Hebrew word byr9 (rîv) usually refers to a lawsuit, but the related verb byr9 (rîv) can refer to a quarrel, though it often means “conduct a (legal) case, lawsuit” (William L. Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. byr9 rîv [both entries]. Here it clearly refers to a lawsuit, though, of course, in a metaphorical sense. The mountains and hills are the jury (v. 1, repeated in v. 2).

The LORD’s complaint begins with a question, “O my people, what have I done to you? / In what have I wearied you? Answer me!” (v. 3). God has delivered Israel from Egypt (v. 4), and from other enemies along the way (v. 5). What then is Israel to offer in return? Not a multitude of burnt offerings and related sacrifices (vv. 6-7) but humble and righteous living. “What does the LORD require of you / but to do justice, and to love kindness, / and to walk humbly with your God?” (v. 8). According to Mobley, “In this single sentence the prophet sums up a century of brilliant prophecy; see Am 5:21-24; Hos. 6:6; Isa. 1:11-17)” (ibid., on v. 8). Ehud Ben Zvi would agree; he comments:

This didactic saying is one of the most influential and often quoted sayings in the prophetic literature. It was considered as a possible compendium of all the Mitzvot [commandments]. ‘R. Simlai when preaching said: Six hundred and thirteen precepts were communicated to Moses, three hundred and sixty-five negative precepts . . . Micah came and reduced them to three [principles], as it is written, He has told you, O human, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: only to do justice, and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God. “To do justice,” this concerns justice; “and to love goodness,” this concerns “gemilut hasadim” (acts of kindness); “and to walk humbly with your God,” this concerns walking in funeral and bridal processions’ (b. Mak. 23b-24a; cf. b. Sukkah 49b and Radak). To walk modestlly [NJPS] with your God (cf. Targum) is usually translated as ‘to walk humbly with your God,’ but its original meaning is likely to be ‘to walk wisely with your God’ (and cf. v. 9). (The Jewish Study Bible, 2004, on Mic. 6:8)

Ben Zvi follows the NJPS translation, which reads, in verse 9: “Then will your name achieve wisdom,” appended as the concluding line of verse 8. Text note c says, “Emendation yields ‘And it is worthwhile to revere His name.” The NRSV reads the line as part of verse 9: “The voice of the LORD cries to the city / (it is sound wisdom to fear your name): Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!”

Hosea 11:1-11 (Presbyterian and Lutheran traditions–compare the comments on Hosea 11:1-9 for Saturday, October 4, 2006, eight days ago.)

1 Corinthians 4:9-16

9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. 10 We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, 12 and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

Fatherly Admonition

14 I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me. (1 Corinthians 4:9-16, NRSV)

On February 18, 2008 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year Two), comments were repeated from September 24, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 21, Year One), when comments were based on those of March 13, 2006 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year Two), and comments on 1 Corinthians 4:9-16 from October 15, 2006 (the Sunday closest to October 12, Year Two) that were repeated then from two years earlier, October 10, 2004 (the Sunday closest to October 12, Year Two). The combined comments are repeated again here with some further editing:

In the first four chapters of First Corinthians, Paul addresses the problem of divisions within the church at some length. Since the divisions seem related to the allegiance of some to one apostle, and some to another (1 Cor. 1:12-13), Paul discusses the relative importance of “the one who plants and the one who waters” in chapter three (3:8).

Today’s reading brings the first main section (argument) of 1 Corinthians to a close. Paul began the letter by thanking God that “in every way you have been enriched in him” (1 Cor. 1:5a), but here he returns to the theme of “riches” with heavy ironic contrast between himself and other apostles on one side, and the Corinthian people on the other. “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings!” (5:8a). The irony becomes even clearer in the reversal. “Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you!” (v. 8b). Earlier Paul thanked God for their “speech and knowledge of every kind” (1:5b), and though he repudiated “the wisdom of the wise, / and the discernment of the discerning” (1:19), he later claimed to “speak wisdom” (2:6), “God’s wisdom, secret and hidden” (v. 7). But now he says, “We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute” (4:10). These ironic contrasts and Paul’s emphasis on his own weakness in human terms–“as though sentenced to death . . . a spectacle to the world” (v. 9), “hungry . . . poorly clothed . . . beaten and homeless” (v. 11), reviled, persecuted, slandered, like rubbish (vv. 12-13)–are presented as fatherly admonition (v. 14). A part of the cure for the divisions within the community is a transformation of their value system. The surrounding culture values status and honor, which produced a rigid hierarchy of social classes. Paul seeks to move them in the direction of equal regard, yes love (chap. 13) for one another. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus,” says Paul to the Galatians (Gal. 3:28).

Paul reminds the Corinthians that he is their “father in the gospel,” that is, that he founded the church (v. 15), and he appeals to them to live as Christian believers should. “‘Be imitators of me,” he says (v. 16), which means to live in Paul’s “ways in Christ Jesus” as he teaches everywhere (v. 17). What imitating Paul means is not spelled out in detail in the immediate context, but it is surely similar to what he means in Philippians, chapter 3. Paul wants to “gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own . . . but one that comes through faith in Christ” (Phil. 3:8-9). He wants to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (v. 14), and he wants the Philippian believers to join him in that (vv. 15, 17), not focused on the goods of this world, like some, whose “god is the belly” (v. 19), but with their “citizenship . . . in heaven” (v. 20).

As Paul continues in 1 Corinthians, he rebukes a certain arrogance (1 Cor. 4:18-19), an arrogance, perhaps, that emerged in Paul’s absence from the city, perhaps because Apollos and others exhibited an eloquent rhetorical style that lacked the substance of Paul’s gospel. “For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power” (v. 20). Paul implies that if they heed his admonitions, he will come to Corinth again “with love in a spirit of gentleness,” but if not, he will come “with a stick” (v. 21). They were perhaps thus put on notice about Paul’s later “painful visit” (cf. 2 Cor. 2:1).

Matthew 15:21-28 (Mk. 7:24-30)

Today’s Gospel reading is included in the following table.

On June 9, 2008 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to June 9, Year Two), comments were repeated from November 13, 2007 (Tuesday in the week of the Sunday closest to November 9, 2007), when comments were repeated from October 15, 2006 (the Sunday closest to October 12, Year Two), from June 12, 2006 (Monday of the week of Trinity Sunday, Year Two) and earlier. The combined and revised comments are repeated again here. For recent comments from the perspective of Mark’s version, see the Archive for March 3, 2008 (Monday in the week of the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year Two).

The story of the Gentile woman’s faith is one from that part of Mark which Luke lacks (his so-called “gap” in the use of Mark as a sequence of events), Mark 6:45-8:26. Matthew and Mark have accounts that are close parallels, but with significant differences too, beginning with the designation of her as “a Canaanite woman” (Mt. 15:22) or “a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin” (Mk. 7:26). According to Philip L. Shuler,

The term ‘Syrophoenician’ indicates that this woman was from Phoenicia, located in the Roman province of Syria, or, more specifically, from the area of the old cities of Tyre and Sidon. In the parallel passage (Matt. 15:22), the woman is called a ‘Canaanite,’ an ancient geographical designation that would have included this area. (Harper’s Bible Dictionary, 1985, s. v. Syrophoenician)

Dennis C. Duling says that “Canaanite [is] a scriptural term for ancient Israel’s pagan enemies (see, e.g., Deut 7:1; cf. Mk. 7:26) here used to designate a Gentile” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Mt. 15:22). The term translated “Gentile” in Mark 7:26 is literally “a Greek woman” (  JEllhnivV, Hellēnis, fem.), but the point, of course, is that she is not a Jew. “The issue about clean and unclean is closely related to the attitude towards the Gentiles,” notes Krister Stendahl (Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, 1962, reprint 1972, sec. 686h, p. 787 on Mt. 15:21-31). Mark calls the woman Syrophoenician (Surofoinivkissa, Syrophoinikissa, Mk. 7:26), but Matthew calls her Canaanite (Cananaiva, Chananaia, Mt. 15:22). The terms could both refer to the same ethnic group, but Matthew’s “biblical term” alludes to “the chief enemies in the time of the Judges, as the epitome of the heathen” (ibid.). All the more remarkable, then, that “Gentiles could now [in Matthew’s church?] share in the riches at the table of God’s children.”

Matthew reports that at first, Jesus “did not answer her at all,” adding that “his disciples came and urged him, saying ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us’ ” (Mt. 15:23). In Mark Jesus “entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there” (v. 24), so the coming of the woman seems to interrupt an attempt to withdraw from the crowds and get some rest. Jesus responds to her directly, saying “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Mk. 7:27; cf. Mt. 15:26). By children, Jesus means the Jewish people, as reflected in Matthew’s pointed statement, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt. 15:24; cf. 10:5-6, in the instructions for the mission of the Twelve). One would like to think that Jesus speaks of throwing the children’s food to the dogs (Gentiles) with a twinkle in his eye. His last words in Matthew’s Gospel call for the disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (pavnta ta; e[qnh, panta ta ethnē, a term often translated “Gentiles”), and in Matthew’s Gospel the first persons to recognize the newborn Jesus and “pay him homage” (Mt. 2:11) are “wise men (mavgoi, magoi) from the East” (2:1), that is, Gentiles. The Gentiles are clearly not forgotten in this most Jewish of Gospels.

 As I remember, Tom Mullen’s book on The Humor of Jesus included this remark about the dogs along with the saying about the camel and the eye of the needle (Mt. 19:24//Mk. 10:25//Lk. 18:26) and others. (Tom Mullen is a former Dean of Earlham School of Religion.) Jesus certainly “makes it up to her” in the end. “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” (Mt. 15:28). The word “dogs” is an insult, of course, But “to Jesus’ insistence that the manifestation of the kingdom (food) is primarily for Israelites (children), she gives a reply that wins the debate” (Richard A. Horsley, NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Mk. 7:27-28 cf. Mt. 15:26-27). I believe that since Jesus commended her faith, “great is your faith!” (Mt. 15:28, cf. “For saying that . . .” Mk. 7:29), and healed the daughter, that must have been his intention all along, and the “debate” was intended to bring out the woman’s expression of faith. William Barclay points to her love for her child, and her faith, a “faith which worshipped,” for “she began with a request; she ended in prayer” (The Gospel of Matthew, Daily Study Bible, 2^nd ed., 1975, vol. 2, pp. 122-123). She also had “indomitable persistence” (p. 123) and “the gift of cheerfulness” (p. 124):

This woman brought to Christ a gallant and an audacious love, a faith which grew until it worshipped at the feet of the divine, an indomitable persistence springing from an unconquerable hope, a cheerfulness which would not be dismayed. That is the approach which cannot help finding an answer to its prayers. (ibid.)

There is further irony in the saying of Jesus, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v. 24, noted above; lacking in Mark), after which he proceeds to heal the daughter of a Gentile woman. But joking aside, there are serious issues here, the place of Gentiles in Jesus’ kingdom and the mission of the church. In both Gospels this account follows the speech about the “tradition of the elders,” which criticizes Pharisees for focusing on external piety and neglecting defilements that proceed from the heart. Jesus has moved into Gentile territory, “the district of Tyre and Sidon (v. 21, cf. Mk. 7:24).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net