Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Micaiah and Micah


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by
 
Damien F. Mackey
 
 
 
 
“Micah uses the imagery of a threshing floor (same word in Hebrew) and
iron horns that come from the events surrounding Micaiah’s prophecy”.
 
Christadelphian Books 
 
   
 
 
 
Many have observed the amazing series of compelling likenesses between the words and visions of the prophet Micaiah and those of the prophet Micah. {“The name Mica(h) is the accepted abbreviated form of the name Michaiah (like … Rick is to Richard)”: Abarim Publications: http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Micah.html#.W8vYKWdRc_w}
However, the next step, to identify Micah as Micaiah, would clearly seem to be a step too far, given Micah’s contemporaneity with king Ahab of Israel (c. 871 - 852 BC, conventional dating) (1 Kings 22:8-28), and Micah’s contemporaneity with king Hezekiah of Judah (c. 715 - 686 BC, conventional dating) (cf. Jeremiah 26:18).
 
That is a time separation of at least a century and a half!
 
 
Micah, though, does seem to be making definite reference to king Ahab and the Naboth incident.
(See chart below). Not to mention this clearly direct reference to Ahab and Omri (Micah 6:16): “The statutes of Omri and all the works of the house of Ahab are observed; and in their devices you walk."
So I suspect that the Divided Monarchy needs further shortening, with the age of Ahab brought significantly closer to that of Micah.
 
The following chart is one example of just how well Micah lines up alongside Micaiah: http://www.christadelphianbooks.org/mannell/jehoshaphat/JEH5%20(Micah%20and%20Micaia
 
Micah
Micaiah
Comment
 
“Hear, O peoples, all of you; listen, O earth”
(1:2)
“Listen, all you people."
(2Chron 18:27)
Micah’s opening quotes Micaiah’s final words
(the only occasion of this phrase in scripture).
 
“…the Lord from His holy temple.“
(1:2)
“I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and
all the host of heaven standing on His right
and on His left.”
(2Chron 18:18)
 
 
“All this is for the rebellion of Jacob and for the
sins of the house of Israel. What is the rebellion
of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? What is the high
place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? For I will
make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open
country, planting places for a vineyard. I will pour
her stones down into the valley, and will lay bare
her foundations. All of her idols will be smashed,
all of her earnings will be burned with fire, and all
of her images I will make desolate, for she
collected them from a harlot's earnings, and to
the earnings of a harlot they will return. Because
of this I must lament and wail, I must go barefoot
and naked; I must make a lament like the jackals
and a mourning like the ostriches. For her wound
is incurable, for it has come to Judah; it has
reached the gate of my people, even to
Jerusalem.”
(1:5-9)
 
Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the
king of Judah were sitting each on his
throne, arrayed in their robes, and they were
sitting at the threshing floor at the entrance
of the gate of Samaria; and all the
prophets were prophesying before them.
(2Chron 18:9)
Micah’s concern is that the evil from Samaria
is infecting Judah, it has even reached the
gate of Jerusalem. That infection can be
traced back to the gate of Samaria.
 
Micah
Micaiah
Comment
“Woe to those who scheme iniquity, who work
out evil on their beds! When morning comes,
they do it, for it is in the power of their hands.
They covet fields and then seize them and
houses, and take them away. They rob a man
and his house, a man and his inheritance.”
(2:1-2)
So Ahab came into his house sullen and
vexed because of the word which Naboth
the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he
said, "I will not give you the inheritance of
my fathers." And he lay down on his bed
and turned away his face and ate no food.
(1Kings 21:4 and context)
Micah’s description of evil doers is very
reminiscent of the incident of Ahab and
Naboth.
"If a man walking after wind and falsehood had
told lies and said 'I will speak out to you
concerning wine and liquor,' He would be
spokesman (KJV: prophet) to this people.”
(2:11)
"Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a
deceiving spirit in the mouth of these
your prophets; for the LORD has
proclaimed disaster against you.”
(2Chron 18:22)
Lying prophets
"I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob, I will
surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put
them together like sheep in the fold; like a
flock in the midst of its pasture they will be noisy
with men.
(2:11)
So he said, "I saw all Israel Scattered on
the mountains, like sheep which have no
shepherd…”
(2Chron 18:16)
Scattered sheep.
“Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets
Who lead my people astray; when they have
something to bite with their teeth, they cry,
"Peace," but against him who puts nothing in
their mouths, they declare holy war.“
(3:5)
Then the king of Israel assembled the
prophets, four hundred men …And they
said," Go up, for God will give it into the
hand of the king."
(2Chron 18:5)
400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at
Jezebel's table.
(1Kings 18:19)
Ahab’s false prophets were clearly only saying
what their employer wanted.
 

 
Micah
Micaiah
Comment
Therefore it will be night for you-- without vision,
and darkness for you-- without divination. The
sun will go down on the prophets, and the day
will become dark over them. The seers will be
ashamed and the diviners will be embarrassed.
Indeed, they will all cover their mouths Because
there is no answer from God.
(3:6)
And Micaiah said, "Behold, you shall see on
that day, when you enter an inner room to
hide yourself."
(2Chron 18:24)
Zedekiah was a blind seer (“seer” and “see”
are almost identical in Hebrew) who would
finally see on the day he cowardly hides
himself in shame. (Inner room can mean the
toilet as in Judges 3:24)
On the other hand I am filled with power-- With
the Spirit of the LORD-- And with justice and
courage To make known to Jacob his rebellious
act, even to Israel his sin.
(3:8)
"How did the Spirit of the LORD pass
from me to speak to you?"
(2Chron 18:24)
Zedekiah claims that Micaiah did not have the
spirit of Yahweh as he makes known Ahab’s
sin.
"But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD,
and they do not understand His purpose; for He
has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing
floor. Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion, for your
horn I will make iron and your hoofs I will make
bronze, that you may pulverize many peoples,
that you may devote to the LORD their unjust
gain and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
(4:12-13)
Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the
king of Judah were sitting each on his
throne, arrayed in their robes, and they were
sitting at the threshing floor at the entrance
of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets
were prophesying before them. And
Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made
horns of iron for himself and said, "Thus
says the LORD, 'With these you shall gore
the Arameans, until they are consumed.'"
(2Chron 18:9-10)
Micah uses the imagery of a threshing floor
(same word in Hebrew) and iron horns that
come from the events surrounding Micaiah’s
prophecy.
"Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of
troops; they have laid siege against us; with a rod
they will smite the judge of Israel on the
cheek.”
(5:1)
Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came
near and struck Micaiah on the cheek…
(2Chron 18:23
Struck on the cheek
 
 

Micah
Micaiah
Comment
And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the
strength of the LORD…
(5:4)
Shepherd Thy people with Thy scepter, the
flock of Thy possession which dwells by itself in
the woodland, in the midst of a fruitful field. Let
them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days
of old.
(7:14)
Israel Scattered on the mountains, like
sheep which have no shepherd; and the
(2Chron 18:16)
Micah looks forward to the day when Israel
and Judah will have a proper shepherd.
He also looks forward to that flock feeding in
Gilead, the very place Ahab and Jehoshaphat
were seeking to reclaim.
"My people, remember now what Balak king of
Moab counselled…Does the LORD take delight
in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of
oil? Shall I present my first-born for my
rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul?
(6:5, 7)
When the king of Moab saw that the battle
was too fierce for him, he took with him 700
men who drew swords, to break through to
the king of Edom; but they could not. Then
he took his oldest son who was to reign
in his place, and offered him as a burnt
offering on the wall. And there came great
wrath against Israel, and they departed from
him and returned to their own land.
(2Kings 3:26-27)
A couple of years later Jehoshaphat and
Ahab’s son were again joined in a campaign,
against Moab when the king of Moab offered
his first born son.
"The statutes of Omri and all the works of the
house of Ahab are observed; and in their
devices you walk."
(6:16)
 
Micah’s criticism of Judah is that it is following the example Ahab and his father.
 
 
 

Part Two:

Not an overshadowed prophet

 

“It seems poor Micah is destined to forever play backup to headliner Isaiah”

Michael Williams 

   

  

This view expressed here by Michael Williams about Micah is by no means the one that I found to have been the case when Micah is accorded some stunning prophetic alter egos. See e.g. my:

 

Prophet Jonah's long life of service


 

And, in the first part of this particular series:


I had embraced a tradition according to which Micah was the same as the prophet Micaiah at the time of king Ahab of Israel.

The names are the same, and it is interesting that the prophet Jeremiah gives Micah the longer form name of Micaiah: “His name is a shortened form of Micaiah (Jdgs. 17:1,4; I Kgs. 22:13), which meant "who is like YHWH" (BDB 567). Jeremiah 26:18 has the full name in the Hebrew text (i.e., Micaiah) [מיכיה ×”ַמּוֹרַשְׁתִּ×™]”: https://bible.org/seriespage/introduction-micah

Whilst this tradition is extremely difficult to sustain within the context of the extended conventional chronology of the Divided Kingdom, it becomes feasible when it is recognised that (as according to the Prophet Jonah article above):

 

(a)    our composite prophet lived to 120-130 years of age; and that

(b)   the early-mid Divided Kingdom period needs to be considerably shortened.    

 

I have already applied such a radical shortening to the later kingdom of Judah period in my article:

 

'Taking aim on' king Amon - such a wicked king of Judah


 

Far from Micah’s having played second fiddle to the great Isaiah, he was - according to my reconstructions - the very father of Isaiah. For one, he was the “Micah” of the Book of Judith (6:15): Uzziah son of Micah, of the tribe of Simeon …”, with the “Uzziah” here being Isaiah.

This was when the reluctant prophet (cf. Jonah), a shepherd and tender of sycamore trees, had been assigned to Bethel (“Bethulia” of Judith) in the reign of Jeroboam II (cf. Amos).

Micah (“Amos redivivus”) was thus Amos (or Amoz) the father of Isaiah (Isaiah 1:1).

Micah and Isaiah were a father-and-son prophetic combination, operating both in northern Israel and in the southern kingdom.

 

Wrongly Michael Williams writes (Hidden Prophets of the Bible: Finding the Gospel in Hosea through Malachi):

 

We have already seen that Micah's ministry was far overshadowed by that of Isaiah, his contemporary. Although the precise dates for the ministry of many of the Minor Prophets are difficult to nail down with any precision ...

 

My comment: Absolutely impossible “to nail down with any precision” the way that the conventional biblico-history has been constructed.

 

tradition maintains that Micah's ministry also overlapped that of at least two other prophets: Hosea and Amos.

 

My comment: I have already noted, though, that Micah was Amos.

Hosea, I believe, to be, again, Isaiah, operating (like his father) in northern Bethel.

 

So, according to tradition, possibly as many as three other biblical prophets who have left books for us in our canon ministered at the same time as Micah.

 

My comment: Perhaps make that just one other biblical prophet: namely, Isaiah (= Hosea, Uzziah).

 

That same tradition asserts, however, that Micah “was a younger contemporary of the other three” ….

 

My comment: Swing and a miss! Micah was older than the other one, who was his son.

 

It seems, therefore, that our hidden prophet Micah had to deal not only with other practitioners of his craft, but also with the fact that he was a junior to them.

 

My comment: Same comment. Micah was in fact like an Alpha prophet!

Further on, Michael Williams will write:

...

Although extrabiblical traditions regarding Micah are rare, there is one that claims he was a disciple of Elijah. …. Elijah ministered during the reign of Ahab in Israel (874–853). Clearly, this period precedes the time of Micah's ministry by at least a hundred years. So how an assertion that Micah was a disciple of Elijah could possibly be true is interesting to consider.

 

My comment: Micah was Elijah according to my reconstruction (see Prophet Jonah article above). And Jonah, too - thought to have been the boy raised to life by Elijah - was Elijah.

 

As we saw above, Micah's name is actually a shorter form of the name Micaiah. And there is indeed a prophet named Micaiah who ministered during the reigns of King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah (I Kings 22:8). Apparently, Jewish tradition has confused our Minor Prophet Micah with this earlier prophet Micaiah son of Imlah ... even though they clearly ministered at different times.

 

My comment: “Different times” during a very long life of 120-130 years.

Jewish tradition got this connection dead right.

 

So not only is poor Micah overshadowed by Isaiah and opposed by false prophets, but he has also been mistaken for someone else.  

 

My comment: The reality of Micah is far less negative than this, so I think.

 

 


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