Many people believe that the motto “God helps those who help themselves” comes from the Bible. It doesn’t. Indeed, quite the contrary. The saying is often used to give vaguely divine sanction to ideas that have nothing to do with the Bible: rugged individualism and free enterprise, blaming the poor for being lazy and relying on handouts, or even suggesting that salvation is contingent on our industry and initiative.

But let me insert one qualification here. In The Message, Eugene Peterson’s widely read paraphrase version of the Bible, we find the words, “Doesn’t he help those who help themselves?” The “he,” of course, is God.

So is the motto actually in the Bible after all? Sort of. But it’s hardly a justification of the saying. Peterson uses the motto to parody it, and Micah puts in on the lips of false prophets.

Previously, we saw how Micah’s job in Jerusalem was complicated by the preaching of false prophets who contradicted his message of doom. They preached feel-good sermons that turned a blind eye to the people’s corrupt behavior, reassuring everyone that things were fine and would stay that way. Against Micah’s preaching, these false prophets insisted, “Disgrace will not overtake us” (Mic 2:6, NIV).

Micah responds, but in a way that’s read differently by interpreters. Here’s how verse 7 reads in the New International Version:

You descendants of Jacob, should it be said,
    “Does the LORD become impatient?
    Does he do such things?”
“Do not my words do good
    to one whose ways are upright?”

The problem for translators is figuring out who’s saying what. Which words belong to Micah, and which to the false prophets? There are no quotation marks in the original; where should we put them?

The NIV has it so that Micah is addressing the false prophets as “descendants of Jacob” and criticizing them for questioning his message, as if it were impossible for God to lose patience with his people (it isn’t) and do the things Micah describes (he does). The last sentence, then, belongs to God; the righteous among the people will listen to what God has to say through Micah.

But here’s how Peterson reads the same verse. He puts all of the words in the mouths of the false prophets:

Talk like this to the family of Jacob?
Does God lose his temper?
    Is this the way he acts?
Isn’t he on the side of good people?
    Doesn’t he help those who help themselves?

“Micah,” Peterson takes the false prophets as saying, “stop talking like this! We’re the family of Jacob. We’re God’s people. He isn’t going to lose his temper with us. He doesn’t act the way you suggest. We’re the good guys, and he’s on our side. And remember — God helps those who help themselves.”

There’s no way to be certain where to put the quotation marks. The NIV’s reading, I think, makes sense. But Peterson’s reading, if correct, is sobering. The words attributed to the false prophets represent the ways we so easily rationalize away bad behavior:

• We pick and choose the characteristics of God we like, and leave the rest. The false prophets preach that God is endlessly patient and doesn’t punish his people.
• We know that God rewards the righteous, and see ourselves as such. We’re the heroes and heroines of the story; the bad people are out there.
• “God helps those who help themselves”: we take success and prosperity as signs of God’s blessing. It’s the self-serving but illogical obverse of the previous point. God rewards the righteous; we seem to be doing great; therefore, we are righteous and blessed.

This is not a purely abstract point. It makes me think of how church leaders get away with abusive, dictatorial behavior. We start with a skewed, number-driven notion of “success”: a particular church is considered “successful” because attendance and giving are up. Add to that the fact that people are coming to Christ through the pastor’s preaching, and it’s a sure bet that people will start talking enthusiastically about how much God has blessed the ministry.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that these things aren’t blessings. But thinking too one-dimensionally in this way and creating the congregational culture to go with it is dangerous: it lulls us into ignoring or explaining away bad behavior on the part of the leadership. Wow, the way the pastor shut down that elder during the meeting seemed a little over the top. But I must be misunderstanding something. After all, look at the way God has blessed us since he became our pastor!

We can read Micah’s words as saying that God expects his preaching to have a positive impact on those with upright hearts. Or we can read them as the delusional and self-deceptive thinking of the false prophets, who refuse to believe that they or the people who support them could be in the wrong. Which reading is correct?

Maybe it doesn’t matter — as long as we remember that being upright includes being willing to listen when God sends prophetic words our way.