Week 38 Study Page - Psalm 90-106, Micah, & Esther
Week # 38 Study Page
Psalm 90-106
Micah (1-7)
Esther (1-10)
Suggested Daily Reading Breakdown:
Sunday: Psalm 90-96
Monday: Psalm 97-102
Tuesday: Psalm 103-106
Wednesday: Micah 1-4
Thursday: Micah 5-7
Friday: Esther 1-5
Saturday: Esther 6-10
Degree of Difficulty: 6 out of 10. We’re reading 34 chapters this week! Even though many of these chapters are shorter than average, this week is a little heavier than normal according to word-count. In this week’s reading we’ll get three completely different genres of literature: poetry, prophecy, and history. Our reading begins with book IV of Psalms which, though it is only 17 psalms long, has some of the most unique chapters in the entire book.We’ll skip forward in our Bible, but back in time for the Prophet Micah who is speaking to both Israel and Judah while the Assyrian Empire was rising up in the east and north to deliver God’s punishment for their unfaithfulness. Finally, we’ll skip backwards in our bible, but far forward in time to read the story of Esther, Mordecai, Haman, and Xerxes; a story which takes place in the capitol of the Persian empire. Before you read Micah and Esther, make sure to read the historical background info below so that you can put the words you’re reading into context, and see how God acted in history to both punish and rescue His chosen people.
About the Book(s)
PSALMS
About: "Psalm" is a translation of the Hebrew word mizmor, which is is a technical term for a song sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments. The book of psalms or the "Psalter" came into being over a period of centuries. It is a collection of songs / prayers which are sung / spoken to God. The Psalter is divided into five books, each ending in a doxology. This week's reading will cover all of book III. Psalms is the only book of the Bible that we're not reading straight through.
Book IV of Psalms has some really unique chapters. It begins with a prayer of Moses - did you know that Moses wrote a Psalm? This section closes with two historical psalms that tell the story of God’s people. The rule is that no two adjacent psalms should be read together or as a singular unit, but Psalm 105 & 106 are an exception as 106 seems to pick up on the history of Israel, right where Psalm 105 had stopped.
Micah
Date of Authorship: Micah begins by giving us a historical reference point, saying that Micah’s ministry spanned the reigns of Jothan, Ahaz and Hezekiah (1:1). This marker leaves a window of 739 to 686 BC. it appears that some of Micah is written while Samaria and the northern kingdom of Israel still exist (see 1:5-7). Samaria was besieged and destroyed in 722 BC, and Assyria conducted successive campaigns into Palestine in 711 and 701 BC. Micah’s threats of destruction seem to be written in anticipation of these later Assyrian incursions. Think of Micah as being contemporaneous with Isaiah, and a century before Jeremiah.
Author: We know little about Micah other than the fact that he was from a small town in south-west Judah named Moresheth. Although Micah mentions Israel and prophesies against them, his prophecy is mainly directed to the southern kingdom of Judah. as written in 3:1 & 9 Micah is writing primarily to the leaders of God’s people.
Purpose: Micah is constructed as a series of threat/promise iterations. Through Micah, God threatens to punish his people for their unfaithfulness to their covenant. These threats are made because the sinfulness of God’s people in both idolatry and interpersonal injustice. Justice plays a big role in Micah’s prophetic message as it becomes apparent that God is infuriated by the leaders of Israel cheating and mistreating the people. Although Micah recognizes the sin of the whole nation, he seems to take up the cause of the oppressed and powerless against the injustice of the rulers, priests, and leaders. This perspective in Micah is foreshadowing Jesus ministry which had a similar dichotomy between the Jewish leaders and the Jewish people - especially in the Gospel of Luke. In Micah, each series of condemnations and threats of punishment is followed by a promise of hope and restoration. Notice how many of these promises for restoration are pointed at the people, and not the leaders of Judah. Notice the promises for a new leader - God himself who will govern justly - when God’s people are someday restored.
Esther
Date of Authorship: The events of Esther take place during the reign of the Persian king Xerxes I who reigned from 486-465 BC. We have no other information by which we can assign a date for the authorship of this book. Since there is no trace of Greek influence upon the Hebrew of the book, we can reasonably assume that that it was authored before the rise of the Greek empire across the east around in around 330 BC.
Author: the Author of Esther is unknown and does not seek to be an object of attention. This author points the reader to the characters instead of him or herself.
Historical Background: many people from Judah had been taken into exile by the Babylonian empire early in the sixth century BC. As recounted in Daniel 5, Babylon falls to the Medo-Persian empire. The first Persian King is Cyrus and he takes Babylon in 539 BC. One year later, Cyrus issued a decree allowing the exiled people of Judah to return to Jerusalem. over the next several decades, Jews returned to Jerusalem in waves. Esther and Mordecai are Jews who remained in the east (in their cases Susa - capital of Persia). Around three months ago we read the accounts of Ezra and Nehemiah, Ezra returned from Persia to Jerusalem in 458 BC, and Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem in 445 BC; 7 and 20 years after the death of Xerxes I (Esther’s husband) respectively. Recall that in Jeremiah 29:7, the prophet instructed the exiles to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I [God] have carried you into exile.” Mordecai must have done an excellent job of this considering the important position he had acquired in the court of Xerxes I.
Purpose: Esther shows God’s protection and deliverance to the people of Israel without ever mentioning his name. more on that below
As You Read Notes
Psalm 99:5: God’s footstool
Psalm 99 is a psalm of worship centered around the temple; it was probably used there during feasts. Here the psalmist uses a nickname for the temple that may seem unfamiliar:
Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his footstool;
he is holy. (Psalm 99:5)First of all it must be recognized that the ark of the covenant was considered the footstool of God’s invisible throne. Second, the footstool must be understood to be an integral part of the throne, representing the closest accessibility to the king. Third, the imagery of the footstool has significance because it is used to express the kings subordination of his foes (see Psalm 110:1) finally, worshiping at the footstool is another way of expressing the reverence that is shown by prostrating oneself at the feet of God or king. On the black stela of Shalmaneser III, the Israelite king Jehu is portrayed kissing the ground before the Assyrian king’s feet. This gesture occurs in a wide range of Akkadian literature as fugitives or supplicants take hold of the king’s feet to demonstrate their submission or surrender and make their petitions. (IVP Bible Backgrounds Commentary)
The Temple and the Ark, for all of their grandeur and the reverence paid to them, were not thought of as containing God’s presence, but merely representing the tip of God’s connection to the physical world - his footstool. This imagery is connected to a passage we’ll read in Micah this week where Micah says that “[God] comes down and treads on the heights of the earth” (Micah 1:3). the Israelites did not worship a God who could fit in-between the Cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant. they worshiped a God who uses the mountains as stepping stones, and - at the temple - they worshiped at his feet.
Psalm 104:18: Hyrax
The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the crags are a refuge for the hyrax. (Psalm 104:8)
Prior to this week i did not know what a hyrax was - am I the only one? Full disclosure, i thought it was some sort of ancient mythical (a term which should not be read as precluding actual existence) creature like others found the Bible including the behemoth and leviathan. Boy was i surprised when i decided to find out what a hyrax was this week! far some some mythical-featured mountain beast. The hyrax is a small adorable mammal also known as a “rock-rabbit.” they dwell in the pockets of rock piles or small cavities on mountainsides. Even today, in modern Israel, if your garden has been chewed up, a pack of Hyraxes is a likely culprit.
Micah 4:10: Micah’s clairvoyance
Micah prophesies something incredible in Micah 4:10. Can you identify which claim in this verse is incredible?
Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you must leave the city
to camp in the open field.
You will go to Babylon;
there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will redeem you
out of the hand of your enemies.
None of that seems out of place to the reader familiar with Old Testament history, who knows that Jerusalem is destroyed and exiled by the Babylonian Empire. However, at the time of Micah’s ministry, there is no Babylonian Empire. It would have been more logical in Micah’s day if he had assigned Ashur or Nineveh as the place of exile because it was the Assyrian empire threatening Judah. Babylon was just a subjected city & province of Assyria like all the other nation states in the Ancient Near East. Nobody, in Micah’s day, would predict Babylon exiling anyone, but God’s foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom. Micah here, like his contemporary peer, Isaiah, in 2nd Kings 20, is used by God to prophesy the unforeseeable ascension of, and invasion by, Babylon that would occur a century later.
Micah 6:10-11: Injustice in Judah
We’re familiar with God’s condemnation of his people for the practice of Idolatry in which they worshiped the gods of their Canaanite neighbors like Baal, Asheroth, and Molech. Micah is also prophesying condemnation and punishment, but instead of focusing on Idolatry like Hosea and Isaiah, Micah is focused on injustice and immorality. In these two verses we see that God is angered by the leaders in Jerusalem who are using dishonest scales and standards to conduct business. This message is similar to Amos and a consistent theme throughout the Old Testament. It is an important thread for us to understand because we are not tempted, in modern times, to offer sacrifices to Baal like the people of the Old Testament were, but we do frequently encounter opportunities to lie, cheat, and have a calloused heart towards the poor and powerless. Do not think that that because we don’t worship graven images, that our sins will not anger God in the same way. Micah’s prophetic ministry is primarily directed towards those sins which flourish in the 21st century. In February of last year, Brady Erickson preached on the most famous verse from the prophet of Micah, if you’re reading the study notes online, you can see that video here (adjacent) the message starts at the 24:45 mark.
Esther: God’s Providence
The book of Esther does not mention God’s name, not even once. That is remarkable feature of a book in the Bible, but most commentators believe this omission to be intentional. The absence of God’s name is like a challenge to the reader to find the source of Esther and Mordecai’s good fortune. Esther and Mordecai are already long-shots for success, because they are exiles in a foreign land, and Esther is an orphan. The roller-coaster ride of a story brings them into several crisis points where their very lives were in danger, not to mention the fate of Jews all over the kingdom of Persia. Somehow, through all of it, God’s people are delivered, Mordecai is elevated, Esther is queen, and Haman dies. The absence of God’s name to the ancient reader would make the presence of God’s providence in this story felt even more poignantly.
There are fun parallels between the story of Esther and the story of Joseph, son of Jacob . People exiled in a foreign land, serving their city & civil leaders faithfully, the elevation of the humble servants, and the servants ultimately providing for the deliverance of God’s people.