Micah’s shepherd-king (Mi 2:12–13): An ethical model for reversing oppression in leadership praxis

Blessing O Boloje

doi:10.4102/ve.v41i1.2088

Abstract

The exposition attempts to use Micah’s metaphor of shepherd-king (Mi 2:12–13) as a heuristic ethical model for reversing oppression and violence in leadership praxis. Given the reality of widespread oppression and violence perpetrated by the powerful, Micah 2:12–13 is interjected into the oracle as a means of accentuating the hope of those who are marginalised and dispossessed. Although Micah’s shepherd-king metaphor interrupts the foregoing context of the oracle of condemnation and doom, the unit logically balances the general rhetorical pattern of judgement, and afterward salvation. Such a canonical and ideological reading presents a window through which informed ethical models are constructed for the reversal of oppression and violence in the readers’ socio-economic and religious context. Micah’s shepherd-king metaphor imagines a restoration of fortune under the leadership of a coming eschatological shepherd-leader allows one a positive construct of a visionary leader, who is a passionate agent of restoration rather than one who is an agent of exploitation, oppression and bondage. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: As a rhetorical literary production, there are seemingly noteworthy ideological and theological intentions in the Book of Micah. Consequently, this exposition brings together biblical, literary, exegetical and theological discourses into dialogue with ethics, ethical demands and practical theology. Granted that leadership affects every aspect of community life, Micah’s beautifully harmonised, biblical shepherd-king in time and context generates insightful alternative and viable components of the process of conveying its life-giving and instructive power for contemporary leadership praxis, both within the ecclesia community and larger human society.

Highlights

Shepherd-king metaphor applies generally to deities and human leaders both within the ancient Near East (ANE) and the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (HB/OT)
In the ANE, it seems that the shepherd-king metaphor develops from its geographical and agricultural setting, where the knowledge of the relationship between shepherd and sheep is well established
The central focus of this investigation is that of evaluating the literary and theological implications of shepherd-king metaphor, and that of the people of Israel and/or Judah, as Yahweh’s sheep. This exploration is done against a background of the oppression which Micah witnessed, as represented in the literary prophetic text

Summary

Introduction

Shepherd-king metaphor applies generally to deities and human leaders both within the ancient Near East (ANE) and the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (HB/OT) (cf. Varhaug 2019:16). The central focus of this investigation is that of evaluating the literary and theological implications of shepherd-king metaphor, and that of the people of Israel and/or Judah, as Yahweh’s sheep This exploration is done against a background of the oppression which Micah witnessed, as represented in the literary prophetic text. Unlike previous leadership, who had coveted and confiscated property, robbed garments, plundered the house of Jacob and deprived the children of Yahweh’s glory forever (‫( )ּ ִת ְקחּו ֲה ׇד ִרי ְלעוֺ ׇלם‬cf Mi 2:1–11), Yahweh was the good shepherd-king who gathered his flock together in their prison house of exile, broke down the prison walls and led his people out to freedom. In a deeply rooted cultural default where the pursuit of power in the service of greed, strength and power, success and achievement, entitlement and honour is profoundly entrenched in people’s hearts and minds, one can imagine and see the bitter fruit of this in proportionate dimension of covetousness, oppression, pervasive economic exploitation, dysfunction and violence in communities, institutions or organisations, all around the world

Conclusion

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