Week 3 – The People of God in a Strange Land
Micah 3:1-12 Destruction of Jerusalem
Micah 4:1-5 The New Jerusalem
Micah manages to present two images of Jerusalem in these texts, the old Jerusalem, and the new Jerusalem. The old Jerusalem has issues. Micah and God use a series of contrasting and conflicting images to present a city and it’s inhabitants who think they are holy and good, and who are far from being holy or good. Ultimately the verdict is that Zion will cease to be a nation, and will become a plowed field, and Jerusalem will be a heap of ruins.
Immediately after that description of the thing to come is the description of how God will rebuild Jerusalem and shall establish the kingdom. The description of the new is far different from the reality of the old. This new Jerusalem sounds pretty good. It sounds familiar as well, if we’ve read Revelation. This is what it looks like if God is in charge. This new Jerusalem is all about what it looks like when God is running the place, contrasted with what happens when we (humans( run the place.
The descriptions of the old are more graphic than the descriptions of the new. The descriptions of the new seem vague. How do we imagine the old Jerusalem and the new Jerusalem? The old Marion and the new
Marion, the old Illinois and the new Illinois, the old USA and the new USA, the old life and the new?
