a) find an example of imagery and comment.
b) Find a part in which Micah sounds relatively angry (or as if God is angry) and a part where Micah is relatively sweet and conciliatory (or God is). How do the two modes work together?
c) What is your favorite verse? Why?
d) Make an observation and do some column two thinking about it.
2. Read in Mythology pp. 105-121.
In the first chapter of Micah, I thought it was interesting how there was some rich imagery used for example; "And the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will be cleft, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place" The bible is mostly filled with straight forward inferences about how the universe was created and hardly uses any literary devices such as imagery.
ReplyDeleteA few parts suggested the Lord was both good and bad. To characterize the Lord as harsh could come fromt the passage where the Lord speaks and says: "I am planning disaster against this people,
ReplyDeletefrom which you cannot save yourselves.
You will no longer walk proudly,
for it will be a time of calamity"
However, in the last chapter the people say the Lord would save people from sin and evil. It is said in part of Micah 4:10
"... there you will be rescued.
"There the LORD will redeem you
out of the hand of your enemies.""
So these people charactarize their God to be both good and bad to people, depending on who the Lord feels the need to save or favor.
-Maddie Adams
Madeleine- I noticed that two. The paticular passage that caught my eye was "and the mountians will melt under him and the valleys will be cleft, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place" It is so poetic. However, throughout all the entires I wasnt always sure what was going on and who was talking... It wasn't clear to me. I might be because we were skipping around but I found these paticular passages harder to understand the plot (if there is one...)
ReplyDelete-Audrey Emerson
In chapter 2, the bible reads, "Behold, against this family do i devise and evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks..for this time is evil." Here we can see that god is very angered by something and plans to destroy or punish a people. We can see from verse 4 where the book reads, "we be utterly spoiled" god is probably angered by the ease with which his people are living, which we also get a sense from several other verses. This follows a pattern in the bible, where god will punish or complicate matters for a people that are being productive and sucsessfull. I believe gods reasoning for doing this may be that when things are going particularly well for a people for an extended period of time, they are going to be less worried about pleasing god, because everything is already going well for them. So when people are doing well, and ignoring god, god gets angry, potentially throws a hissy fit, and destroys or punishes a people, slowing their productivity, and thus they need to work to please god again. And as we can see with this book of Micah, the people seem to be getting along reasonably well, so god is angered and plans to punish them.
ReplyDeleteGod seems some what harsh in Micah chapter 6 when he is telling his people all of the things that is going to make their lives worse. He states that people will eat, and not be satisfied. Also God states that the humans shall put away things such as money, but thy will not save it. This seems harsh to me because God is making all of these rules that are not helping his people at all; it is just making their lives harder. God also says "you shall bear the scorn of my people." Micah 6:16. I still don't know what that means. I have thought a lot about it, but if any of you know I was just wondering if you could comment on it.
ReplyDelete-Miranda
My favorite verse was number 7 in chapter 6: "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?" I connected with this part of the chapter because after reading parts of the genesis and exodus, I was asking the same question to my self: What does God want from these people? Not only that, but I think this touches on the subject of God being almost too harsh on what he wants to be sacrificed, like when he wanted Abraham to offer his first born, Isaac. Also, I agree with what Julian had to say about god not wanting his people to get to spoiled. However, I don't think he would necessarily punish them just for not paying much attention to him, I think he is harsh on his people only when they have done something deliberately wrong
ReplyDeleteI find this topic extremely interesting; while i was reading i saw that Micah 4:1 and 4:3 were very strong verses about the judgement day that the bible often talks about. "In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it." ... "He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and thier spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Every man will sit under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid for the lord almighty has spoken." This passage gives us a nasty visual image for the day that God makes his judgements and could influence people about christianity in both positive and negative ways. They could view god as cruel and nasty, or they may choose to become a christian because they don't want to get on Gods "bad side".
ReplyDelete-Erin Moody
When reading the passage I really liked this section:who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong. This struck me as interesting because it talks about these cities being based on a foundation of evil. The narrator also goes on to say that these people worship God but do not live in the ways of the Lord. Like what we have been talking about in class this is a contradictory way of living. Why spend the time going through the motions of worshipping God but not truly living in his ways?
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter Two, Micah states, "I shall gather them together like sheep in an enclosure. And like a flock within their fold, they will bleat far away from anyone". It seems that sheep are always very sacred in the Bible. When Jesus was born there was a lamb being carried on the little sheperd's shoulders. In the Latin mass, one of the major sections is the "Angus Dei" which translates as "Lamb of God". The lamb obviously symbolizes some kind of sacredness in the Christian religion. The fact that Micah is comparing the Israelites to sheep shows some kind of affection for them.
ReplyDeleteI thought the exact section from the reading that Madeline thought was interesting, interesting. Out of the entire reading I felt as thought this section of the reading was my favorite:
ReplyDelete"The mountains melt under him and the valleys split open, Like wax before the fire, like water poured down a slope."
I really like that part because it was an unusual way to describe something that was happening. Where it was an unusual way, it was also a cool and different way of describing something. I really like how the author of Micah goes into such dept and detail as to almost, and even did, go into a feigned and erratic scene.
I agree with Dustin in the fact that whoever wrote Micah had great detail and were very talented writers. I also think that part that dustin and Madeline was interesting, because of the detail. But i really didn't like the judgement day pages because I don't feel like God should be portrayed as having a bad side and that a lot of the bible is scare tactic and I don't feel that is a moral way of getting people to follow a religion ,but the writers did a pretty good job because it clearly worked.
ReplyDeleteI found every segment in the reading incredibly compelling. One of my favorite sections would have to be Micah, due to its attributes, and one of its parts in it really drew to my attention. "Like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place". At first I wasn't too sure about what it meant, it barely started to become comprehensive to it. That's why I chose it, because I like to think about passages when I read them. There are plenty of them in the bible, but since Micah is one of the most powerful ones, it's more interesting to write about.
ReplyDeleteI think that God ,or Micah speaking through God, sounds angry in these passages quite often but each time that anger is shown it is always justified from a wrong (in God's opinion), and the passage that comes next speaks of how God can be sweet and assuaging. For example in the second chapter entitled "Social Evils Denounced" God is angry, for he speaks of people who steal and covet what is not to be coveted, and walk haughtily but work lazily. But then in the fourth chapter, entitled "Peace and Security through Obedience" God becomes calm for he speaks of when people will work hard and fair, and rejoice in the praise of the lord.
ReplyDeleteThese passages stress God's desire and requirement of obedience to God and how people always should be working for God. How this is the way that order and peace can be achieved.
These modes represent exactly what God expects from people and what God will not accept from people.
-Alana
I think that the image of judgment day is one of the most vivid images that was presented in the four chapters that we had to read. In chapter four, there is lots of talk about what judgment day was like what it looked like. Many people's first thought on death is what their judgment will be, whether is being sentenced to something evil or something good and right. Heaven is considered a privilage, while Hell is considered a punishment, however, neither are reversable (or at least that we know of).
ReplyDeleteAnother part of these chapters that I found interesting and controversial is when in the sixth chapter under the "What God Requires" section when it says " shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the soul of my sin". At first this quote stood out to me because of its eloquence but when I really thought of it it became almost vulgar. If I interpreted this right, it is suggesting sacrificing your first child for your son. Your children for your sin. I personally find that disgusting.
ReplyDeleteAnd Julian I completely agree with your comment. I felt that God was enforcing the idea that people always needed to be working for God and for themselves.
I have read.
P.S I really enjoyed reading these passages. These and the chapters in Exodus are my favorite parts of the bible we have read so far. Also do you know how many Bob Marley songs there are written about the Bible? Alot.
Oh, and I've read.
ReplyDeleteI have read.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHA Thats hilarious Alana, about the Bob Marley part, if u didn't know what I was talking about. :)
ReplyDeleteI have read...again
Micah 4:6&7 are my favorite passages.
ReplyDelete“In that coming day,” says the LORD, “I will gather together those who are lame, those who have been exiles, and those whom I have filled with grief. Those who are weak will survive as a remnant; those who were exiles will become a strong nation. Then I, the LORD, will rule from Jerusalem as their king forever.”
If no other passages prove it, this absolutely confirms that God is caring for his people who obey and follow Him. Especially, instead of people with titles, fame, or wealth, God extremely cares for those who are disabled, weak, or depressed, but have a big faith in Him. In the Greek Mythology, physical beauty was such an elite factor that even goddess Hera threw her son down from Mount Olympus when she figured out that he was lame. It’s amazing how God can make exiles become a strong nation because of their trust and of God’s love for them. This points out that Christianity required a serious mentality control of focusing only on God.
I have read. Interesting comments!
In the book of Micah I found my favorite verse to be in chapter three. The quote is, "They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem wit iniquity." At first I didn't understand this quote because I couldn't define the word iniquity. Well for those of you that don't know what it means the definition is extreme unfair behavior. This verse is interesting to me because it is showing the similarities between Jerusalem and Zion even though before hand we knew nothing about Zion. Zion is perceived to be a dark, war vastly city from saying it is made up of blood. Jerusalem is also perceived to be a dark place but not for the same reasons, more so for having unfair government and such.
ReplyDeleteI have read
ReplyDelete-Maddie A