Family can be a wellspring of great suffering. Offering examples of severe familial breakdown, the book of Micah briefly elaborates in chapter 7, verse 6, on extreme relational dysfunction in the titular prophet's lifetime as depravity leads to abundant strife. Some present day readers would only be familiar with Micah's phrasing because it is referenced by Jesus in the New Testament. More specifically, Micah 7:6 is referenced in Matthew 10:35-36 concerning himself. But that does not mean what some might assume. Reading Micah 7:6 with some of the previous verses gives not only an additional example of a family relationship for the prophet's audience to be wary of, but also part of the context as to how things became so dire to start with, as well as some illumination about why Jesus would use similar language.
Micah 7:2-6—"The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each other with nets. Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire—they all conspire together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day God visits you has come, the day your watchmen sound the alarm. Now is the time of your confusion. Put no trust in a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace guard the words of your lips. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man's enemies are the members of his own household."
The prophet's day was characterized by such sin, including those mentioned in verses 2-3, and such confusion that it was unsafe for friends, immediate family members, and extended family members (by marriage as well as by blood) to speak honestly and openly with each other. Verse 5 subtly addresses how husbands and wives should be able to have conversational intimacy if not for the chaos that sin can wreak upon relationships. Yet evil has become so widespread in the land that judgment is at hand. In this time of great urgency, it is as if "not one upright person remains" besides the prophet Micah himself, for this statement in verse 2 would have to be extreme hyperbole in light of the titular figure of the book itself, at the least. Besides the commonplace tendency for those in the region to do wrong, immense stress due to internal societal decay and external threats as God removed his protection could easily have produced sharp divisions within households.
Jesus uses words in Matthew very similar to Micah 7's own words about divided families, though they are not entirely identical. If anything, this is far more likely to be where modern churchgoers have encountered the statement about sons against their fathers and daughters against their mothers. The part that might surprise some of these people is the manner in which Matthew brings up the phrasing so distinctly associated with Micah, which is in the context of Matthew and Micah alike not about a prophetic Messiah figure. Micah 7:6 is a warning about confiding in or relying upon confused and probably very selfish people, even if they live in one's own home. Matthew 10:35-36 is a simple summary of what it might be like when part of a household embraces Christ and the rest does not.
Matthew 10:34-36—"'Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man's enemies will be the members of his own household."'"
All Jesus says is that he has come to by his actions and worldview stir up conflict between his followers and those who do not follow him. Namely, his followers simply holding to his doctrines will be a source of deep contention within certain families. In his words is no trace of a declaration that the words of Micah were really and solely about the impact of his then-future life. One can see rather easily from the way he embeds the reference to Micah 7 into his own words that this is not necessarily even supposed to be a perfect quotation, but more of an allusion to a thematically relevant Old Testament passage. The quotation marks do not appear in, for instance, the King James Version unlike in the New International Version as shown above.
Micah 7:6 is not a prophecy even in its original context, so it cannot be some clear Messianic prediction fulfilled by Jesus. It is rather a declaration of what is said to have been the perilous state of families and the broader culture in the time of the prophet. However, Jesus rejects none of this, pointing out a similarity between the familial division described in Micah and the divisive outcome of some people committing to him (and his philosophy) while other people are perplexed by or antagonistic towards this. Conflict over legitimate reasons is, vitally, not a problem except on the part of the one in the wrong. Hence, Jesus does not condemn Christians for causing or living under relational strain due to controversy.
It is very plain that Jesus does not assert he has fulfilled some prediction in Micah 7:6 about himself. He alludes to a conceptually relevant verse, and that is all. This happens over and over in the New Testament: a portion of the Old Testament is brought up for reasons that are not attributed to fulfilled prophecy. Now, sometimes the Old Testament is cited specifically for the purpose of attributing a New Testament figure or event to the fulfillment of a prophecy distinctly about that very person or occurrence. For example, Acts 2:14-21 credits Joel (the second chapter) with predicting aspects of early church history as described earlier in Acts 2. Like it or not, that is not the point of Matthew 10:35-36's connection with Micah 7.
Actually, besides acknowledging the fact that people having differing worldviews can lead to entrenched conflict and that his own life and worldview will inspire such division, Jesus does provide the reason why he borrows from Micah's words. Immediately after giving examples of one member of a family turning against another, Jesus declares that whoever loves their father or mother or son or daughter more than they do Christ himself is not worthy of him (Matthew 10:37). The same would be the case of other family members not mentioned or of others beyond one's family. He proceeds to say that anyone who is unwilling to face at least some hardship because of their affiliation with Jesus is not worthy of him (10:38).
In other words, someone who is utterly unwilling to experience inconvenience or risk emotionally upsetting their family for the sake of Christ (and by extension a truth or idea underpinning Judeo-Christianity) is unworthy and cannot be a genuine Christian. This is not exactly the superficially uplifting philosophical point so many espouse who would claim allegiance to Christ. Somehow, many in the church actually regard relationships with biological family as supremely or borderline supremely sacred pillars that should never be challenged or toppled. A person's parents (despite being owed a special honor for bringing someone into the world; Exodus 20:12, 21:15, etc.), siblings, and children, as well as extended family members, are just people. Anyone who lives for their family or for their own personal comfort above grand truths is not worthy of living forever or being treated like a paragon of rationality and righteousness, for they are shallowly devoted to inferior priorities.
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