{"id":78162,"date":"2020-07-28T06:44:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T03:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78162"},"modified":"2020-07-28T06:44:50","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T03:44:50","slug":"micah-the-exception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/micah-the-exception\/","title":{"rendered":"Micah The Exception"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"78162","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":73524,"related_cahpter":"533","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"How did Micah convince the Jewish people to listen, when other prophets failed?\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the Bible doesn\u2019t laud many prophets for their persuasive talents, Micah is a notable exception. Jeremiah 26 describes a clash between the prophet Jeremiah and the angry populace. His prophecies of destruction were intolerable; the mob demanded that he be put to death. Jeremiah was almost lynched; instead, he was put on trial for blasphemy. During the proceedings, the elders reminded the people that Micah also uttered sacrilegious words a century before during Hezekiah&#8217;s reign. He was the first prophet who dared to utter what had never yet been said \u2013should the people not mend their ways, God would not hesitate to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. However, Micah not only avoided death, but he also managed to persuade the populace to change, averting disaster and saving Jerusalem from ruin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Micah lived during tumultuous times. During the second half of the eighth century BCE, Judah fell dazzlingly quickly from the heights of political power and prosperity to the depths of poverty and powerlessness. By the end, only the fortified city of Jerusalem survived among hilltops charred with the burnt remains where villages and towns once stood. Micah likely witnessed the three major traumatic events that afflicted Judah during the closing three decades of the eighth century BCE:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, the Syro-Ephraimite war in 734-2 BCE, which saw the two kingdoms to the north pillage Judah;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second, the fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria in 722-1 B.C.E, with the resulting displacement of many refugees to the south;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And finally when Hezekiah chose to take advantage of Sargon&#8217;s sudden death in 705 BCE to stop paying tribute to Assyria.\u00a0 Sennacherib&#8217;s forces would arrive within a few short years \u2013 unleashing a deadly invasion that left dozens of cities ruined and tens of thousands sent to exile.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How was Micah successful in convincing the Jewish people to listen, when other prophets (including his contemporary the great Isaiah) failed? The text doesn&#8217;t tell us specifically, but the endings of the two prophecies in chapter 1 hint towards a clue. Micah describes the eventual downfalls of both Samaria and Jerusalem \u2013 and both end with a specific image. Decreeing the destruction of the northern kingdom, Micah\u00a0 shares with us his reaction to the Divine judgment \u2013 he will wail and cry, approach insanity, and walk around in a state of undress. While some may not be comfortable with the image of a prophet going naked, we\u00a0 imagine Micah himself walking alongside the chained and fettered rows of captives, crying with them, wishing to share their burdens and their sufferings, as they leave behind the land of Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His lament for Judah concludes with a similar act of identification, calling to an unknown mother (likely Jerusalem) to pull out their hair in mourning for her precious children who have disappeared. Symbolically &#8211; hair growth is characteristic of living persons, so removing the hair allows the mourner to identify with the dead. In the Bible the act of going into exile was equivalent to death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>image:\u00a0Paul Gustave Dor\u00e9, Micah Exhorts the Israelites to Repent, 1866 \/ wikipedia<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":78163,"id":78163,"title":"mic1-Micah_Exhorts_the_Israelites_to_Repent","filename":"mic1-Micah_Exhorts_the_Israelites_to_Repent.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic1-Micah_Exhorts_the_Israelites_to_Repent.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/micah-the-exception\/mic1-micah_exhorts_the_israelites_to_repent\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"mic1-micah_exhorts_the_israelites_to_repent","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":78162,"date":"2020-07-28 03:44:36","modified":"2020-07-28 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