Jesus goes up the mountain to teach. The writer of Matthew’s
Gospel addresses a Jewish audience for whom Moses’ teaching
from Mount Sinai loomed large in both geography and
self-understanding. Commentators suggest that Matthew places
this interaction on the mountain in order to make this very connection.
Matthew’s report of Jesus’ message makes a claim about
Jesus’ authority and his prophetic role in salvation history.

Micah’s description of salvation history directly refers
to Moses, as well as to Aaron and Miriam. The inclusion of
Miriam is unique to Micah, as is his claim that she, like her
brothers, was sent by God. The Hebrew Bible records pieces of
her story: Her mother sends her to protect the baby Moses. She
is a prophet and leads in worship. She is punished with a skin
disease and isolation when she and Aaron play politics; she dies
in the desert and is buried there.

Both Matthew and Micah curate the narrative of God’s
power in action. They claim that God is at work in the world
through these particular people. Making these sorts of claims
is risky. Miriam, like Moses or Aaron, did not perfectly follow
God’s call. Jesus doesn’t claim to be a new Moses—not abolishing
the law but fulfilling it—and overt comparisons would
surely have inflamed the religious leaders.

However, being a disciple, just like being a prophet,
involves seeing the work of God and making some risky claims.
We claim that God is still at work. We claim that God works in
and through people in this time in history. We claim that God
speaks through unlikely people, men and women. We claim
that we can receive new understandings that express and fulfill
the message God has been telling since the world began.