Series: November 2025
Speaker: Rob McClellan
Today's Sermon
"The Right Kind of Remnant: The Not So Minor Prophet 5"
They say, “revenge is a dish best served cold.” Delayed, calculated payback is more satisfying. Really? I would have said it’s satisfying, certainly most tempting, when the moment is hot. Can you think of a time when you wanted revenge for something? You were so angry, felt so wronged, that you wanted to give it back and then some? Sometimes a cooling off period is what allows us to avoid taking revenge.
Other times, the offending behavior is so egregious, or we’re too stubborn, that we don’t move on. We stew, even plot. We fantasize about turning the tables. The prophets, one of whom we’ve been studying these weeks, do some of that. Whether they give us license to take revenge by our own hands or they are merely giving us hope is a different question.
I have told you before my favorite college professor was in the religion department, an ordained rabbi named Jay Holstein. His parents named him Jay rather than Jacob because they were afraid of giving their child a name that was too Jewish. One of the five courses I took from him was on the Holocaust. Now there’s an example of something that would foster a desire for revenge in just about anyone. During one lecture, Professor Holstein was talking about Israeli intelligence apprehending Nazis after the war to bring them to justice. He went into graphic detail of what he would have liked to have done to captured Nazis. Professor Holstein was known for his colorful vocabulary. Then, he paused and offered a sentiment I won’t forget, something to the effect of: But I wouldn’t torture them…because I’m afraid once I tasted blood, I might like it. He understood the allure of vengeance.
In a moment, he conveyed the conundrum of revenge and retribution. Thinking you can be restrained in your payback you become the monster under whom you once suffered. You do to others what has been done to you, not what Jesus taught. Professor Holstein knew enough to know his limits, which is why a functioning system of justice is so important, one that helps protect us not only from those who would do us harm but protects us from our worst impulses and propensity to respond in kind.
What do you do when you have been knocked down, when power has been taken from you, or, rather, once it’s been returned to you? This is the subject of our fifth installment of our series on the not so minor prophet Micah, the fifth chapter. Today’s reading is rather long and takes several turns so let me outline it for you so that you might more easily follow it. It begins with the people surrounded, under siege. Micah prophesies of someone being born who will lead the people to freedom. The later language about Jesus draws on this kind of prophetic imagery. Here this one is described as a shepherd, one of peace. The vision doesn’t stay peaceful, however. Rulers with swords enter the scene. This isn’t where I get my commitment to nonviolence, and while I remain committed to it as the way of Jesus, I can understand how those who have been assaulted would want to return violence either to inflict pain or just make their assailant stop inflicting it on them.
Micah then draws on a common prophetic theme, the survival of a remnant of the people. They make it through this awful period and one day wield their own power. However, at that point, God’s judgment turns to them, the very remnant whose people were once the victim.
We will read this passage in two voices. See if you can follow the arc:
Micah 5:1-15
5 Now you are walled around with a wall;
siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel
upon the cheek.
2 But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has brought forth;
then the rest of his kindred shall return
to the people of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth,
5 and he shall be the one of peace.
If the Assyrians come into our land
and tread upon our soil,
we will raise against them seven shepherds
and eight rulers.
6 They shall rule the land of Assyria with the sword
and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword;
they shall rescue us from the Assyrians
if they come into our land
or tread within our border.
7 Then the remnant of Jacob,
surrounded by many peoples,
shall be like dew from the Lord,
like showers on the grass,
which do not depend upon people
or wait for any mortal.
8 And among the nations the remnant of Jacob,
surrounded by many peoples,
shall be like a lion among the animals of the forest,
like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
which, when it goes through, treads down
and tears in pieces, with no one to deliver.
9 Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,
and all your enemies shall be cut off.
10 On that day, says the Lord,
I will cut off your horses from among you
and will destroy your chariots;
11 and I will cut off the cities of your land
and destroy all your strongholds;
12 and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
and you shall have no more soothsayers;
13 and I will cut off your images
and your pillars from among you,
and you shall bow down no more
to the work of your hands;
14 and I will uproot your sacred poles from among you
and destroy your towns.
15 And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance
on the nations that did not obey.
Could you follow? The people are given a hopeful vision of a future. When that future arrives, however, the remnant faces their own divine judgment. Why is not exactly clear. Is it because of unfaithful behavior that got them in the predicament in the first place? There was widespread belief at the time that loss to foreign powers was the result of faithlessness. This would explain the references to soothsayers, sorceries, and images, which would have been verboten in their tradition as idolatrous. The unfolding of this passage, however, is unusual. The prophetic pattern typically flows from bad news too good: you were unfaithful, you’ve paid your price, changed your ways and now you are restored. Here it’s the opposite: from promise to judgment.[1]
Perhaps part of what is going on is a critique of how the people of the remnant handled being in power once they gained it. Maybe they enjoyed it a little too much, at the expense of others. Maybe they were so stuck in their trauma they were afraid to give anyone an inch. Either way, God is not happy. As one commentator puts it, God cuts off the people’s warmaking instruments—horses and chariots—so they can be reminded that human might is not the source of true security in this world. Only God is.[2] When you take up the cause of vengeance you are dealing in the tools of false security, even idolatrous behavior. In cutting down your enemy, you are severing your very connection to God.
This begs the question of whether being faithful always provides security? Life experience would seem to say no. There are plenty of people who have kept the faith yet have not enjoyed safety, physical or otherwise. Micah is either denying that or he means something else by security. Maybe what you keep is your soul. Maybe what you secure is your integrity. Maybe your integrity wins you friends and alliances and that’s what saves you. Maybe your way of faithful being convicts and converts the other.
Whatever the answer, the lesson seems to be there is a faithful way to be a remnant and an unfaithful way. Whether or not you believe your circumstances are some punishment for past behavior—and tread carefully there—there is something to be learned from navigating a defeat, when your side doesn’t win. To put it abruptly, what kind of loser are you? I am not asking if you’re a good sport, though humility may be a piece of it. I mean something deeper. Can you keep your faith when it is not paying obvious material dividends, and by faith I don’t mean just some blind hope, but a commitment to a certain way of being in the world? Can you hold onto righteous convictions and be willing to pay the price for them? Can you, as the apostle says, “hold fast to what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) not because it is working but because it is good? That way, if you are fortunate enough to be among the faithful remnant, what will have been preserved will have been worth saving. What good is it to survive if you have lost your soul? Who do you want to be on the other side? Be that throughout.
Vengeance is not the way. I read about a number of experiments by psychologists based in game theory. If participants work together, everyone benefits. If someone behaves selfishly, they disproportionately benefit. The experimenters planted cheats to intentionally sabotage the group. Then they took the participants and gave half of them the chance to punish the cheaters, taking revenge, which most of them angrily did, while restraining the other half. Afterward they surveyed everyone who was wronged, and this is what they found: Those who took revenge thought it would make them feel better, but upon surveying them about happiness it did not. The others reported wishing they could have taken revenge too, but actually tested higher on a happiness scale. In other words, “both groups thought revenge would be sweet” and both were wrong. Revenge doesn’t resolve the feelings of being wronged; it exacerbates them.[3]
I want to be clear that this is not an argument for putting up with abuse or mistreatment. No, it’s about how to persevere through a difficult time without losing yourself or what you stand for. We are a culture that idolizes—intentional word choice—winning, but the prophet here is teaching about how to be a good loser, one that has an eye on a much longer game, whose victory is the subject of God’s dream. Don’t just plot to become someone else’s nightmare.
If you can, envision again someone on whom you’d like revenge. Now shift your focus back inward, no longer concerning yourself with who they are. See who you are and identify what you want to hold onto as you await God’s dream, a dream that comes after the long night has passed. That’s what will get you through, not payback. When everything feels as though it’s been taken from you, the only thing you can control is the you that will be left when, God willing, it is over. What kind of you will it be?
Amen.