'I think I see a Glimmer’
Joining the voiceless is the first step to the recovery of the vision as chapter 3 moves into chapter 4. Sitting with the voiceless Micah rediscovers his dream and helps his new-found friends to dream what might be until (like Bunyan’s Pilgrim) they see a glimmer of hope. Having asked a different question (2:11) he now sets off on a different road. Israel is not like other nations. Their God is looking for something different from the gods of the surrounding nations and the way of life many of his Jerusalem compatriots now seem eager to embrace. Revolutionary? Yes. Popular? No. A matter of priorities? Definitely.
Mosala, a South African biblical scholar, had a similar experience shortly before the end of apartheid. Sitting with the poor Mosala turned afresh to those familiar words about ‘swords and plowshares’ (v 3), but with a difference. Placing the emphasis less on swords (weaponry) for the benefit of the few (to preserve power for the benefit of some while depriving others of the basic means of sustenance), and more on plowshares (food production) for the benefit of the many, Mosala hears Micah calling for a revision of priorities to create a new world where food, the economy and survival come first. True People Power with something special for those who need it most.
This can be the beginning of a very powerful dream. It may not be fulfilled in every detail (and in Micah’s case none of it was fulfilled in his lifetime) but it is the dream that creates hope and it is hope that delivers us from lethargy and indifference to action.
Mosala’s backdrop was not identical with that of Micah. Ours is different again, but both remind us that once we learn to ‘sit where they sat’, ask the questions they ask, and dream the dream that Micah dreams, everything we see and hear is different. That gives God his opportunity to speak to us in a new way.