Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry “Peace” when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths.
Micah is prophesying against Samaria and Jerusalem, cities in the divided communities of Judah and Israel. He outlines much injustice that God will address, including injustice created or perpetuated by prophets themselves. God is condemning prophets who are seemingly fair weather prophets, able to call for peace, when they themselves have food to eat but declare war on those who have nothing to eat. Ouch.
In my observation of myself, I find it is easy to call for goodness, when I’m not suffering. Sitting in my warm house, full from good food, it’s easy to take the high ground – to encourage peace and mercy. Meanwhile, there are people beyond my doors who are hungry and cold. I might not be warring with them, but my speech is not doing anything to help them either.
I’m reminded of sister- and brother-in-law’s experience when they were in a very poor country working for the US State Department. It was around the time of Y2K, and they were asked to work with the local government to survey the country leaders and assist them with any Y2K vulnerabilities. The country was likely to experience zero problems, because they were so impoverished and ill-equipped, they were not reliant on computers. Around the same time, the State Dept asked for employees to work with their assigned country leaders to be sure that fishing practices protected porpoises. This country was so impoverished, that it was embarrassing to ask them to worry about anything extra in their nets, when their people were dying from starvation.
As I see it, this passage from Micah cautions me against several potential wrongs. First, I should be careful about speaking about peace, when I’m warm and well-fed. My contentedness might create an apathy or blindness towards the needs of others. I should not be contended to just speak out from my place of comfort. Second, I need to be very cautious when I want to ‘help’ someone else, when I’m not in their place.
The accompanying reflection is from Henri Nouwen and focuses on the difficulty we have with exhibiting compassion, literally being with someone else’s suffering. When others are suffering, we frequently jump to solutions, to fixing the problem. Compassion asks us to join them in their suffering.
This morning, I’m thinking about how to prophecy from a place of com-passion, of knowing and sitting with people in places of deep pain. It’s a deeply difficult thing to do. But it’s what God did, in sending Jesus Christ to know and sit with us in our places of deep pain.
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