MICAH – CHAPTER 4

Verses 1-8:

Universal Reign in Zion

Verse 1 describes how that in the last days of earth’s measured time, at the coming of the Christ to Zion, Jerusalem, to begin His millennial reign, over all governments of the earth, people shall flow to it for peace, glory, praise, and adoration, when it is exalted above the hills to heaven, as also described, Isa 2:2-4. It shall have a firm foundation and permanent continuity, Luk 1:32.

Verse 2 asserts the universality of the coming millennial kingdom of the Lord, as one of peace and prosperity, when all nations will flow to Jerusalem, the center of the government of the rule of the Lord, Gen 49:1; Jer 48:47; Eze 38:16; Dan 2:44; Dan 10:14; Hos 3:5; Act 2:17. In this glory era of one thousand years, as the earth is restored to Edenic glory, the Lord Himself shall teach men His ways in Zion, give them His laws in which men shall then walk obediently, Isa 2:1-5; Isa 11:1-12; Rev 20:4-6; Luk 1:32-33.

Verse 3 describes the equitable and peaceful nature of this reign of the Messiah. His judgment and rebuke will convict of sin and subdue enemies in judgment, John 16; John 8, 9; Psa 2:5; Psa 2:9; Psa 110:5-6; Rev 2:27; Rev 12:5. Israel and Judah, who once for defense, beat their plowshares into swords and their pruning hooks into spears, will reverse the order, in this Golden millennial era, Isa 2:4; Isa 11:6; Isa 11:9; Hos 2:18; Joe 3:10. Thereafter they shall learn war no more, Psa 72:7. Implements of war will forever thereafter be implements of peace.

Verse 4 speaks of universal prosperity when every person will sit under his own vine or fig tree, without fear, because of the favor and nearness of the Lord. To sit conveys an image of rest and safety, even in open fields. There men shall enjoy prosperous tranquillity, as described 1Ki 4;25. The fig tree and vine will be all the shelter one will need in that day, because the Lord has said so; His mouth has spoken, Psa 119:160. See also Lev 26:6.

Verse 5 describes the walk or deportment of every person in that millennial day, in the name of his god, Jer 2:11, and Micah asserts that all the remnant of the house of Jacob will walk in the name, by, or as authorized of, their Lord God for ever, Exo 3:14-15; Zec 10:12, as described also 1Sa 17:45; Zec 10:12; Pro 18:10. Those who walk after heathen gods find that they can do nothing for them. They can not hear them, see them, speak to them, walk before them, or lift a hand to help them as attested Psa 115:4-9.

Verse 6 offers a divine pledge to regather the nation of Israel, the house of Jacob, whom He has formerly driven out and afflicted, because of her rejection of Him and His laws -of conduct and worship and Divine service. Those who have halted or limped about, like sore-footed sheep from a weary journey, will be brought to Him again, Psa 35:15; Psa 38:17-18. This salvation or deliverance shall not fail, for the miserable and disbursed shall be brought back to their homeland, Psa 147:2; Isa 56:8; Eze 34:13; Eze 37:21-22. Those regathered are called the Lord’s flock, Jer 13:17; Zep 3:19.

Verse 7 further expressed God’s unconditional pledge to make those of Israel who once halted, wounded, chastened, and footweary, to be a strong nation, to be reigned over by Him from Mount Zion, from Jerusalem, forever thereafter, as pledged Dan 7:14; Luk 1:33; Rev 11:15.

Verse 8 is a direct, divine address to Jerusalem, called the tower of the flock, and strong hold of the daughters of Zion. From Jerusalem this “tower”, the Messiah, will both administer as King over Israel and lead the church, (His flock-bride) while her twelve apostles sit on 12 thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and members of His church-flock join Him in ruling, some over 5, 10, and 20 cities, in that day—O Blessed Day! Luk 22:28-30; Rev 21:14; Mat 19:28; 1Co 6:2; Luk 19:17; Luk 19:19. The dominion once given to Israel, from the days of Moses, through the faith pledge of the land grant to Abraham, shall surely come to Israel again, even as it was confirmed in David, 2Sa 7:10-17; Psa 89:3; Psa 89:20-37; Luk 1:32-33.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Here Micah begins his address to the faithful, who were a remnant among that people; for though the infection had nearly extended over the whole body, there were yet a few, we know, who sincerely worshipped God. Hence Micah, that he might not dishearten God’s children by extreme terror, reasonably adds what we have now heard, — that though for a time the temple would be demolished and laid waste, it would yet be only for a season, for the Lord would be again mindful of his covenant. When, therefore, the Prophet had hitherto spoken of God’s dreadful vengeance, he directed his discourse to the whole people and to the princess; but now, especially, and as it were apart, addresses the pious and sincere servants of God; as though he said, “There is now a reason why I should speak to the few: I have hitherto spoken of the near judgment of God on the king’s counselors, the priests and the prophets; in short, on the whole community, because they are all become wicked and ungodly; a contempt of God and an irreclaimable obstinacy have pervaded the whole body. Let them therefore have what they have deserved. But now I address the children of God by themselves, for I have something to say to them.”

For though the Prophet publicly proclaimed this promise, there is yet no doubt but that he had regard only to the children of God, for others were not capable of receiving this consolation; nay, he had shortly before condemned the extreme security of hypocrites, inasmuch as they leaned upon God; that is, relied on a false pretense of religion, in thinking that they were redeemed by a lawful price when they had offered their sacrifices. And we know that we meet with the same thing in the writings of the Prophets, and that it is a practice common among them to add consolations to threatening, not for the sake of the whole people, but to sustain the faithful in their hope, who would have despaired, had not a helping hand been stretched forth to them: for the faithful, we know, tremble, as soon as God manifests any token of wrath; for the more any one is touched with the fear of God, the more he dreads his judgment, and fears on account of his threatening. We hence see how necessary it is to moderate threatenings and terrors, when prophets and teachers have a regard to the children of God; for, as I have said, they are without these fearful enough. Let us then know that Micah has hitherto directed his discourse to the wicked despisers of God, who yet put on the cloak of religion; but now he turns his address to the true and pious worshipers of God. And he further so addresses the faithful of his age, that his doctrine especially belongs to us now; for how has it been, that the kingdom of God has been propagated through all parts of the earth? How has it been, that the truth of the gospel has come to us, and that we are made partakers with the ancient people of the same adoption, except that this prophecy has been fulfilled? Then the calling of the Gentiles, and consequently our salvation, is included in this prophecy.

But the Prophet says, And it shall be in the extremity of days, (114) that the mount of the house of Jehovah shall be set in order (115) on the top of mountains The extremity of days the Prophet no doubt calls the coming of Christ, for then it was that the Church of God was built anew; in short, since it was Christ that introduced the renovation of the world, his advent is rightly called a new age; and hence it is also said to be the extremity of days: and this mode of expression very frequently occurs in Scripture; and we know that the time of the gospel is expressly called the last days and the last time by John, (Joh 2:18,) as well as by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, (Heb 1:2,) and also by Paul, (2Ti 3:1😉 and this way of speaking they borrowed from the prophets. On this subject some remarks were made on Joe 2:0. Paul gives us the reason for this mode of speaking in 1Co 10:11 : “Upon whom,” he says, “the ends of the world are come.” As Christ then brought in the completion of all things at his coming, the Prophet rightly says that it would be the last days when God would restore his Church by the hand of the Redeemer. At the same time, Micah no doubt intended to intimate that the time of God’s wrath would not be short, but designed to show that its course would be for a long time.

It shall then be in the last of days; that is, when the Lord shall have executed his vengeance by demolishing the temple, by destroying the city, and by reducing the holy place into a solitude, this dreadful devastation shall continue, not for one year, nor for two; in a word, it will not remain only for forty or fifty years, but the Lord will let loose the reins of his wrath, that their minds may long languish, and that no restoration may be evident. We now then understand the Prophet’s design as to the last days.

He calls the mount, the mount of the house of Jehovah, (116) in a sense different from what he did before; for then it was, as we have stated by way of concession; and now he sets forth the reason why God did not wish wholly to cast aside that mount; for he commanded his temple to be built there. It is the same, then, as though he said, — “This ought not to be ascribed to the holiness of the mountain, as if it excelled other mountains in dignity; but because there the temple was founded, not by the authority of men, but by a celestial oracle, as it is sufficiently known.”

The mount then of the house of Jehovah shall be set in order on the top of the mountains, that is it shall surpass in height all other mountains; and it shall be raised, he says, above the highest summits, and assemble (117) there shall all nations. It is certain, that by these words of the Prophet is to be understood no visible eminence of situation: for that mount was not increased at the coming of Christ; and they who lived in the time of the Prophet entertained no gross idea of this kind. But he speaks here of the eminence of dignity, — that God would give to mount Zion a distinction so eminent, that all other mountains would yield to its honor. And how was this done? The explanation follows in the next verse. Lest, then, any one thought that there would be some visible change in mount Zion, that it would increase in size, the Prophet immediately explains what he meant and says, at the end of the verse, Come shall nations to God. It is now easy to see what its elevation was to be, — that God designed this mount to be, as it were, a royal seat. As under the monarchy of the king of Persia, the whole of the east, we know, was subject to one tower of the Persian; so also, when mount Zion became the seat of sovereign power, God designed to reign there, and there he designed that the whole world should be subject to him; and this is the reason and the Prophet said that it would be higher than all other mountains. Hence his meaning, in this expression, is sufficiently evident.

(114) In extremitate dierum, באחרית הימים, in the posteriority or postremity of the days; επ εσχατων των ημερων, in the last days.— Sept. “In the latter days,” or, “in the end of days.”— Newcome. “In the last of the days.”— Henderson. See Jer 23:20; Eze 38:8; Dan 10:14; Hos 3:5 Kimchi, as quoted by Lowth, says, “Whenever the latter days are mentioned in Scripture, the days of the Messiah are always meant.” — Ed.

(115) Dispositus , נכזן — constitus , constituted — praeparatus , prepared— firmatus , made firm — are the words by which the term is commonly expressed. It comes from כון, which Leigh justly says, means “aptly and timely to frame, and likewise to make firm and sure;” and he adds, “The word noteth the ordering, perfecting, and fast establishing of anything.” How suitably then it is here used: it is a mountain (which means evidently the Church) that is fitly framed, ordered, and firmly established. — Ed.

(116) Marckius adduces the opinions of the ancients as to the signification of this “mount.” Some, such as Tertullian, Jerome, and Augustine, interpret it of Christ; while others, namely, Origen, the two Cyrils, and Chrysostom, regard it as signifying the Church; and with the latter most modern commentators agree. Here the consent of moderns exceeds that of the ancients; and it is no doubt sounder and wiser. — Ed.

(117) Convenient, ונהרו, literally, “and flow;” σπευσουσι — hasten, Sept. It is flowing like that of a river, or of a strong current, and implies copiousness and spontaneity. “There shall be,” says Henry, “a constant stream of believers flowing in from all parts into the Church, as the people of the Jews flowed into the temple, while it was standing, to worship there.”

Kimchi says, that this word means to “run to what is pleasing or delightful,” —” currere ad beneplacitum, hoc est, ad id quod cupias An old author, quoted by Leigh, says, that it implies abundance and celerity — affluentiam cum celeritate It is rendered “flow together” in Jer 51:44.

Instead of “peoples,” עמים, Isaiah has כל חגוים, “all the nations.” One MS. Has the same here, and three have כל before עמים, and this seems to be the correct reading. עם, in the plural number, is synonymous with גוים, meaning nations. The rest of this verse is exactly the same in the two Prophets, except that נכון, “prepared,” is differently placed, and הוא, “it,” is added by Micah after נשא, “exalted.”

In the second verse, which is the third in Isaiah, there is a complete verbal identity, except that גוים and עמים are reversed, and that ו before אל is wanting in Isaiah; but it is supplied in several MSS.

In the third, the fourth in Isaiah, there are verbal varieties in the two first lines, the four remaining are exactly the same with the exception of a paragogic ן, nun, added to a verb by Micah, and the verb ישאו is singular in Isaiah. In the two lines referred to, there is also an addition of עד רחוק, “afar of,” in Micah.

Isaiah. ושפט בין הגוים 4. והוכיחלעמים רבים And he shall judge among the nation, And shall convince many peoples.

Micah. whwkyx lgwyM eumyM ed rxwq wspj byN emyM rbyM And he shall judge among many peoples, And shall convince strong nations afar off.

With this verse the passage ends in Isaiah; Micah adds another: and this, with the two other circumstances — that the passage is fuller and more connected with the context here than in Isaiah, may seem to favor the opinion that Isaiah, and not Micah, was the copyist; but the words, with which the passage is introduced in Isaiah, forbid such a supposition.

“

Bishop Lowth, on Isa 2:2, thinks that Micah took this passage from Isaiah. It is true that he has improved it after the manner of imitators. Or, the Spirit may have inspired both with this prediction: or both may have copied some common original, the words of a Prophet well known at the time. — Newcome.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

MICAH: THE FAITHFUL AND FAR-SEEING MINISTER OF GOD.

Mic 1:1 to Mic 7:20

THERE is every reason to believe that this Book wears its authors name. Micah was a native of Morasthi, near Gath, and probably belonged to the time of Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah. His message is all the more marvelous when one remembers that he was a villager. Born doubtless in a humble house, brought up in a despised burg, bred in no college, he would have been unequal to the modern denominational Editors demands for the ministry. But he does illustrate a Divine custom expressed in Sacred Scripture viz. that, Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

God has never seen fit to limit Himself to the great financial or intellectual minds of the world. He is dependent upon no mans money; and just as independent of conceited minds. He can take Peter, the unlettered fisherman, and by instructing him in the Scripture and sending upon him His Holy Spirit, make of him a minister in whose presence the Pope himself would seem a pigmy by comparison.

It is related that when the Emperor Domitian was persecuting believers he heard of two men reputed to be akin to Jesus, and he sent for them, intending to put them to death. But when they came, and he saw their horny hands and realized that they were evidently day-laborers, he dismissed them saying, From such slaves we have nothing to fear.

And yet, those men belonged to the very class who rocked Domitians empire to its foundation, and spread the knowledge of the Gospel to the ends of the known earth; and, their humble station notwithstanding, have had few worthy successors in the ministry of the Truth. Let us not object to Micah because he is from a village and does not carry a graduates diploma. If he is Divinely appointed, and Divinely endued, his work will be well done.

The exact date of this Book, as that of other Minor Prophets, is in dispute, and it would in no wise help you to review the opinions of Hitzig, Wellhausen, Stade, Vatke, Kuenen, Driver, Von Ryssel, and the rest.

We are more interested in his message, or messages; and to those I invite your attention.

HE UNCOVERS THE CHURCH OF HIS TIMES

When I speak of the Church of his times I do not mean to say that there was any organized body of baptized believers in Micahs day; but I do mean to say that there was an ecclesia, not in the New Testament use of the term, but in the natural interpretation of that word, namely, a called out body.

In the opening part of this prophecy he deals with that body:

Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from His holy Temple.

For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

And the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place (Mic 1:2-4).

He indicts the churchman; not the worldling.

For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the House of Israel.

It is a good place for the minister to begin. Gods people must be set right before the minister can make any headway with the world. There is many a true prophet of God who is preaching his heart out in a church where the professed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are, by their wickedness, bringing his every word to naught. It is not an exceptional experience for preachers to be requested to resign because the church is receiving no accessions, when the very men who make the request have rendered it impossible for any kind of preaching to bring converts into the church of which they are members. Rev. E. A. Whittier, in an old issue of The Watchman once remarked When Rev. Frank Remington came to the First Baptist Church in Lawrence many years ago the spiritual tide ebbed low. For six months he preached searching sermons to Gods people. It was like the voice of one of the old Prophets. The dry bones lived again. In about six months he turned to the unsaved, and the flood gates of Heaven were opened. In about three years he baptized nearly 500 converts in Lawrence and Andover, and organized the Second Baptist Church. Remington began at the right place. And Micah was Gods faithful minister, dealing first of all with Gods professed followers. Given a clean, consecrated membership, and accessions to the church of new converts is comparatively easy.

He arraigned the prospered; not the poor. After having spoken against the graven images, the idols, and the awful social sins, he tells Judah and Jerusalem what will be the result. He turns to the leaders of the land and says,

Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil.

In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our fields (Mic 2:1-4).

It is a fact to which the prospered of earth do not take kindly, but none the less true on that account, and Micahs arraignment of the prospered was in perfect accord with the words of His Saviour. No man can read the New Testament without noting that Jesus Christ never uttered a sentence against the poor, and never let the prospered escape His strictures. This, not because poverty is always righteous, and riches always wicked, but on the great law which He Himself laid down, To whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. Joseph Parker says, We have nourished ourselves into the pedantry of supposing that if a man has a bad coat he has of necessity a bad character. The Bible never proceeds along these lines. * * Christ did not gather around Him the halt, the lame, the blind, the poor, the neglected, the homeless, and say, You are the curse of society; you are the criminal classes. * * But Jesus Christ never let the respectability of His age alone; He never gave it one moments rest. I often wonder if our socialists have considered this subject? I wonder if the men who walk the streets berating the rich because they have more than their share of material wealth, and demanding, if not an equal, an equitable division of all property, have forgotten that prosperity does not necessarily make for righteousness, that all men of competence are not men of prayer; that all persons of good bank account are not necessarily persons of good character? That the rich are accomplishing more evil than they ever could with their riches taken away; that they are tempted ten thousand times more often than they ever would have been had their riches never come? And that these awful sins, against which Micah here hurled his anathemas, sins of covetousness, violent appropriation and corporate oppression, can never be committed by the poor; and the penalty of them can never be escaped by the rich who practise them?

I wonder also if these same socialists have not noticed that a freighted table, broadcloth, silks, jewels, and all the rest, consume so much of thought that the soul seldom receives any attention. I have just been preaching in another Western state. I found a man there who has made a considerable fortune already, and who is still accumulating, A number of times he came to the services. On some occasions he was so deeply convicted that he shot out of the house the moment the service concluded, apparently not being able to endure the invitation. Once back at his home there was only one theme on which he would converse with youthat was the subject of the crops. The rain rejoiced his heart; it did not matter to him whether our audiences had reduced. He said, That will make great crops. Concerning the scorching heat of the day, of which others complained, he said, This will make good crops. And if the present outlook for crops realizes it means riches for this vicinity. And for sixty straight years he has been absorbed in one subject; and for sixty straight years his soul has been in neglect. The history of Dives he is writing over again. The accumulation of riches is his one concern; and while about it he is forgetting the Lazarus at his gate, and in that very act neglecting the Lord of Life. His mistake was less grievous than that of the people of whom Micah speaks, for they made their money by oppression. But they have their successors also. As a writer has said, Many men among us are able to live in fashionable streets, and keep their families comfortable only by paying their employees a wage upon which it is impossible for men to be strong or women to be virtuous. Truly, as Micah put it, such feed upon their fellows.

He reprimands alike prince, prophet and people.

Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the House of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?

Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but He will not hear them: He will even hide His face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.

Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God (Mic 3:1-7).

It is a serious thing when the princes of the land abhor judgment, and pervert equity; it is vastly more serious when the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money.

It is a question whether Micah is not needed in modern times. There are not a few preachers who charge the princes with their sins, and call the attention of the people to their iniquities. But who will uncover the prophets and expose their serving methods, and show how their concern is, to be as popular as politicians, and to make their ministry a source of much money for selfish employment. Is not the multitude of timeservers now to be found in the ministry one secret of failure in soul-winning and church building? Was not that unhappy man George Herron warranted in the words in his volume The New Redemption, when he said, The philanthropy of selfishness and covetousness is the social antichrist. The adulation which the religious press lavishes upon the benevolence of mammon, the adoration which it receives from the pulpit, converts the church into an apostle of atheism to the people. The priests who accompanied the pirate ships of the sixteenth century, to say mass and pray for the souls of the dead pirates, for a share of the spoil, were not a whit more superstitious or guilty of human blood, according to the light of their teaching, than Protestant leaders who flatter the ghastly philanthropy of men who have heaped their colossal fortunes upon the bodies of their brothers. Their fortunes are the proudest temples of the most defiant idolatry that has ever corrupted the worship of the Living God. Their philanthropy is the greatest peril that confronts and deceives and endangers the life of the Church, and thinks to bribe the judgments of God and deceive the Holy Ghost.

If there is any class of people who are in special need of the Evangel it is the prospered class. The Moody Institute did wisely when once it started two attractive young women up the North shore drive to call at palaces and remind the people of the need of repentance. If there is any profession upon whom a solemn responsibility rests more heavily than upon any other it is the profession of the prophet. It is within his power to lead the people into the paths of the just; and it is also within his power to make the people err, by seeking selfish ends, destroying the vision, bringing darkness upon himself, and deep night upon the deceived multitude. Oh, you who are accumulating fortunes; and you who are graduates of colleges, and you who have come with honors from theological seminaries, remember that to whomsoever much is givent of him shall be much required, and when the true prophet of God rises to uncover the church of his times, see to it that he uncovers not your shame.

HE DISCOVERS THE CHURCH OF OUR TIMES

It is a marvelous fact that Micah is as true as a seer as he was faithful as a preacher.

He beheld the beginning of the New Testament Church.

But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the House of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the Law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Mic 4:1-2).

That prophecy found the beginning of its fulfillment at Pentecost, and will find its consummation in the Kingdom. Joel had already said,

It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions * * .

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance (Joe 2:28; Joe 2:32).

And Jesus remembering these prophecies reminds the people to whom He addresses Himself that It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luk 24:46-47).

Six and a half centuries before Jesus uttered these words, Micah, the Seer, had a vision of their beginning fulfillment in the coming and end of the New Testament Church. The ancient people hearing them, or reading them, were stirred with the prospect of this new movement which should make for righteousness, and be the real earnest of Gods conquest in the earth.

He pictured it also when its conquest should be perfected, and the Kingdom should come.

And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it (Mic 4:3-4).

As I have read the commentaries upon this passage and listened to the attempt of George Adam Smith and other students to make this reference merely a local one, and limit it to the time in which the Prophet lived, it has seemed to me not only a vain endeavor, but a foolish one! Centuries are in the sweep of the Prophets vision. The cause of God has many conquests to its credit, but, as yet, the major portion of this prophecy remains to be fulfilled, and will be in the coming of the Lord in the end of this age!

A few years since, not having studied the Scriptures wisely, or well, I joined in the common opinion that wars were probably at an end; and, that with an ever-increasing mutual admiration, the nations of the earth would arbitrate their difficulties and dwell together as loving princes of one house! But, alas for the thought! Recent years have shown how easy it is to strike a match at the powder houses of armies and navies; how easy it is to set rulers at one anothers throats; how hard it is for even the religious people of the earth to maintain peace when the unspeakable Turk long continued his slaughters of the Christian Armenian who happened to dwell within his borders; and Russian Soviet is red-handed by the outright murder of millions of Gods own.

When the most peace-loving of earth look on these things, or, standing afar off, read the red reports of them, he is tempted to join with the famed interpreter of these prophecies in saying, We are told by those who know best, and have most responsibility in the matter, that an ancient Church and people of Christ are being left a prey to the wrath of an infidel tyrant, not because Christendom is without strength to compel him to deliver, but because to use the strength, would be to imperil the peace of Christendom. It is an ignoble peace which cannot use the forces of redemption, and with the cry of Armenia in our ears the Unity of Europe is but a mockery. That cry has been lost in the wail from Russia. And one might add, With the cry of the murdered in our ears, the relations between Russia and the great English-speaking nations of Britain and America are kept undisturbed at the cost of character, and some think war were better.

That hour then to which this text refers must still be in the future, since as you come more and more into the last days you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, such as the world has never known since time began, and yet, Beloved, Gods Word will not fail.

As sure as Jehovah lives and sits upon the throne so surely the last sentence of it shall see fulfillment, and one day the last reverberations and the thunderings of war shall be heard in the earth, and He who shall be chief among many people, will bring in such a reign of righteousness, as shall convert swords to plowshares and spears to pruninghooks, and many shall see it. But we will treat this text in a later chapter.

The Prophet assigns such power to the rise of the proper person.

Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou he little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth; then the remnant of His brethren shall return unto the Children of Israel.

And He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the Name of the Lord His God; and they shall abide: for now shall He be great unto the ends of the earth (Mic 5:2-4).

George Adam Smith, says, Micah stands among the first, if he is not the very first, who thus focussed the hopes of Israel upon a great Redeemer. And beloved, more and more it is occurring to thoughtful men that power associates itself with personality. John Watson, in his Mind of the Master has called attention to this truth in his chapter entitled Devotion to a Person the Dynamic of Religion. And in that discussion he says one thing which ought never to be forgotten. Do you wish a cause to endure hardness, to rejoice in sacrifice, to accomplish mighty works, to retain forever the dew of its youth? Give it the best chance, the sanction of Love. Do not state it in books; do not defend it with argument. These are aids of the second order; if they succeed, it is a barren victorythe reason has now been exasperated. Identify your cause with a person. Even a bad cause will succeed for a space, associated with an attractive man. The later Stewards were hard kings both to England and Scotland, and yet women sent their husbands and sons to die for Bonnie Prince Charlie and the ashes of that Romantic devotion are not yet cold. When a good cause finds a befitting leader, it will be victorious before set of sun.

Ah, He is the secret of success for the New Testament Church. In spite of all its shortcomings, and, confessing as we must, all of its many and egregious failures, the destiny of that Church is gloriously determinedshe shall one day rule the world, for the solitary reason that Christ is her Head and God has already given Him the heathen for [His] inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for [His] possession. In spite of all adverse circumstances, all legions of enemies; in spite of Satan and the hosts of hell, He rises to victory. To Him The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him. Blessed be His glorious Name forever; and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen and Amen.

But the Prophet continues:

HE DEFENDS BOTH THE DIVINE CHARACTER AND REQUIREMENTS

He rehearses the history of Gods past graces.

Hear ye now what the Lord saith * *

O My people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against Me.

For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

O My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord (Mic 6:1; Mic 6:3-5).

It is a custom of the inspired writer to refer often to Israels early history. It was out of Egypt that God redeemed them; it was through the wilderness that God led them; it was in Canaan that God gave them conquest. This concern for the nations youth can never be forgotten. The older a man grows the more he appreciates what his parents did for him between the natal day and his twenty-first anniversary. The older a Christian grows the more highly he esteems his redemption from sin and the marvelous grace of God in keeping him in the early days of his spiritual life, when temptations were most strong; when in the wilderness Satan set before him the gifts of the world and the glories of them, an offer for an act of obeisance to him, their former master.

The older the Church grows the more highly it appreciates its early history, the pastors who did pioneer work, the people who sacrificed sorely to build the sanctuary, the men and women who bore the heat and burden of the day when they were so few in numbers; when their best efforts seemed so feeble. It ought to be so. It is a great thing to be brought to birth; it is a great thing to be kept through youth, and the nation for which God has accomplished this is no more able to discharge its obligation to Him than the child is to pay back all he owes to his parents. Right well did Israel inquire, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? That is the proper position for the people whose past is replete with such exhibitions of the keeping grace of great Jehovah.

He shows also the reasonableness of the Divine requirements.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Mic 6:8).

Even the believing world commonly discredits Gods character by their thought as to His requirements. There are not a few people who imagine that God will not be pleased with them unless they are ready to take their first-born and lay him upon the altar; part with their child, perhaps giving him to the grave for the sin of their soul, and God has never hinted that He demands any such thing. People begin at the wrong place to get right with God. He may want your child for Africa, but you could give him and still not feel approved. The Apostle Paul says, Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. And it is true; that is the one thing that God requires, for it covers all the rest. It leads one to do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God. And in that walk instead of finding the path to be one in which God is constantly calling for sacrifice, it will be discovered that there God is often bestowing blessing, and guiding into privilege, and making ones whole life a delight. Henry Van Dyke says, To please God. * * Simply to live our life, whatever it may be, so that He, the good and glorious God, shall approve and bless it, and say of it, Well done, and welcome it into the sense of His own joy,that is a Divine ambition. What vaster dream could hit the mood of love on earth? It has sustained martyrs at the stake, and comforted prisoners in the dungeon, and cheered warriors in the heat of perilous conflict, and inspired laborers in every noble cause, and made thousands of obscure and nameless heroes in every hidden place of earth. It is the pillar of light which shines before the journeying host. It is the secret watchword of the army, given not to the leaders alone, but flashing like fire through all the ranks. When that thought descends upon us, it kindles our hearts and makes them live. What though we miss the applause of men; what though friends misunderstand and foes defame, and the great world pass us by? There is One that seeth in secret and followeth the soul in its toils and struggles, the great King, whose approval is honor, whose love is happiness; to please Him is success, and victory, and peace.

Finally, He rests in the surety of the Divine justice, power, and grace. In the seventh chapter he speaks of the untoward circumstances in which he is situated. But after rehearsing the whole of it, he says, I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me (Mic 7:7). And in the seventeenth verse of the same chapter, speaking of the enemies of his soul, and of his Lord, he says, They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee.

And in the nineteenth, and twentieth verses he says, He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

The whole of this seventh chapter is given to the personal sense of the Divine justice, Divine power, and Divine grace, and one must appreciate all of these or perish with fear. Divine justice is approved by all good men; and Divine power is conceded by those who study the universe about them, or the earth beneath them. But this all necessitates only fear, except you see also the Divine grace.

There is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. One who has felt the justice of God and power of God feels the need of the grace of God, and is only filled with delight and joy unspeakable when he can say with the Apostle, For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

CRITICAL NOTES.] The salvation of Zion is closely connected with its destruction, and a future glory awaits the mountain, which is a wild forest. Last] The days of Messiah, the completion of all things. Mountain] i.e. the whole city; its elevation, moral dignity, not local situation. Estab.] A permanent foundation. Heb. abidingly established. An expression denoting continuance and perpetuity, that it shall continually remain on its settlement.

Mic. 4:2. Many] All nations (Isa. 2:2; Mat. 24:14) a powerful movement in the heathen world. For] The reason for such intense zeal in going up. Law] i.e. instruction in the ways of God; the law as a rule of holy life; the Word as the source of salvation.

Mic. 4:3. Judge] Instead of nations going to war (Isa. 2:4). Rebuke] Convict (Jer. 16:8-9); lit. to set right, settle disputes. Many] In contrast to one nation, which formerly acknowledged Jehovah; who were hitherto for the most part inclined of their own will to grasp the sword [Hengst.]. Beat] implements of war into implements of peace.

Mic. 4:4. Sit] An image of safety even in open fields (cf. 1Ki. 4:25; Lev. 26:6).

HOMILETICS

THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE.Mic. 4:1-4

Mount Zion is not doomed to be a perpetual waste. A glory is here predicted which it has not yet realized; but its chastisement shall end in mercy and moral dignity. It will become the residence of God and the centre of nations.

I. The moral elevation of the Church. The elevation here is not physical, but moral; a spiritual exaltation.

1. Its eminent site. The tops of the mountains, &c., exalted above the hills. It is pre-eminently above all worldly heights. Above earthly potentates and above idols. Other eminences are insignificant compared to this mountain. Its doctrine and design, its author and its life, are above the wisdom of men. Small in its beginning, it shall grow and shine with greater lustre than kingdoms of this world. Lower than they, it will rise above and overtop them all. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

2. Its impregnable nature. It shall be established. Exalted, it shall be established above human institutions. Human elevation is unstable. This is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Its foundations are in the holy mountains (Psa. 87:1); its head stands securely aloft, between heaven and earth, and it rests, unassailable and serene, upon the purpose of God. Mount Zion cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

II. The attractive power of the Church. As a dominant, supreme power, it will be attractive to all nations.

1. As the centre of numbers. Many nations shall come. It shall not be confined to one people nor locality. I will make of thee a great nation. People shall flow into it; indicating multitude and eagerness. Like a river, distant peoples shall come and throng in one continuous stream. A flood once covered the highest mountains and destroyed everything on the face of the earth. But this river shall bring spiritual life and fertilize the universe They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord.

2. As the place of instruction. They go to know God and to learn his ways; not to be amused with idle speculations and novel theories. They go for grace, to practise what they know, to hear of heaven and learn the way. Religious instruction has ever been connected with Divine worship. The more we know of God, the more anxious shall we be to praise and please him. He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.

3. As the residence of God. The house of the God of Jacob. More glorious than the tabernacle and the temple of old. This is the pavilion of Gods splendour, the place where his honour dwelleth. Here he dwells and displays special signs of grace. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts.

4. As the seat of empire. And he shall judge among many people. God will here fix his throne and exercise spiritual rule over the world. He will rebuke the proud, convict the sinner, and subdue all things to himself. Tyrants and thrones, idolatries and superstitions, shall fall before the power of the Gospel. For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

III. The abiding prosperity of the Church. The Gospel is a rule of order and peace; brings tranquillity and prosperity to all people.

1. Wars shall cease. In the best governed states we see restlessness, suspicion, and insecurity. Kingdoms have been torn by civil and subdued by foreign wars. But here Jew shall not hate Gentile; implements of strife shall be instruments of peace; and nations shall learn war no more.

2. Social quietness shall be enjoyed. Vineyards shall be possessed by the poor; the fig, the characteristic fruitfulness of Palestine, shall not decay; and every one shall sit in domestic harmony. Each will be content and undisturbed in his lot. Abundance of peace shall mark the future Church. In secrecy men will sit securely, and openly walk in perfect safety. None shall make them afraid. This glorious future seems almost impossible, judging from the present. But God has purposed, and will bring it to pass. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it

HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES

Mic. 4:1. Flow. The metaphor of flowing importeth the coming of people to Christ by the preaching of the Gospel.

1. Freely (Psa. 110:3).

2. Swiftly, as the waters of the river Tigris; swift as an arrow out of a bow (see Isa. 60:8).

3. Plentifully, by whole nations turned to the faith, and giving up their names to Christ.

4. Jointly, as Mic. 4:2 (Zec. 8:21).

5. Zealously, bearing down all obstacles that would dam up their way.
6. Constantly and continually, as rivers run perpetually, by reason of the perennity of their fountains; and are never dried up, though sometimes fuller than others; as rivers swell oft with sudden showers and overflow the banks, so, beyond all expectation, many times doth God propagate his truth, enlarging the bounds of his Church with new confluxes of converts [Trapp].

Mic. 4:2. Let us go up.

1. The object of their journey. The mountain of the Lord.
2. The spirit in which they undertake it. And say, Come, let us, &c.
(1) A spirit of fervour.
(2) A spirit of mutual love. Exhorting one another, as Andrew exhorted his brother Simon, and Philip Nathaniel, and the woman of Samaria those of her city, to come to Christ; and so all since, who have been won by him, by word or example, by preaching or by deed, in public or in private, bring along with them others to seek him whom they themselves have found [Pusey].

3. The worthy end they have in view. He will teach us of his ways. They come in holy simplicity to learn whatever he will condescend to teach them; in holy confidence, that he, the Infallible Truth, will teach them infallibly.
4. The practical result. We will walk in his paths.

Law out of Zion.

1. The blessing issued. Law. Not mere doctrine or religion; not the Jewish law: but law (without the article) as the rule of life (Pro. 6:23; Pro. 28:4), which should be revealed to heathen nations (Lam. 2:9; Isa. 2:3).

2. The method of its issuing. Go forth. A personal, direct act of God; a continual influence of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit in the Church and Christian experience.

3. The centre from which it issues. Out of Zion and Jerusalem.

Mic. 4:3-4. The universal spread of the Gospel. Modern theories of the future exposed and refuted. The guarantees for the fulfilment of this prediction and its benefits described. This prophecy is fulfilled

(1) In the character of the Gospel.
(2) The prophecy has been fulfilled, within and without, among individuals or bodies of men, in body or mind, in temper or in deed, as far as the Gospel has prevailed [Pusey].

The cessation of war an effect of the prevalence of Christianity [Fosters Lectures, vol. ii.].

No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eves,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered oer,
Nor brazen trumpets kindle rage no more:
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end [PopeThe Messiah].

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

XION, CENTER OF WORSHIP . . . Mic. 4:1-5

RV . . . But in the latter days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of Jehovahs house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow unto it. And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem; and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it. For all the peoples walk every one in the name of his God; and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever.

LXX . . . And at the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, established on the tops of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and the peoples shall hasten to it. And many nations shall go, and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and they shall shew us his way, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many peoples, and shall rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares; and their spears into sickles; and nation shall no more lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn to war any more. And every one shall rest under his vine, and every one under his fig-tree; and there shall be none to alarm them: for the mouth of the Lord Almighty has spoken these words. For all other nations shall walk every one in his own way, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

COMMENTS

(Mic. 4:1) It will come to pass gives us transport to the future (from Micahs day). We leap the centuries far beyond the captivity to Messiahs day.

In the latter days is the English rendering of the phrase which fixes the time when it shall come to pass. The phrase is reminiscent of Heb. 1:2. There we are told that God, having spoken to the fathers in the prophets has spoken to us in a Son. No more conclusive evidence is needed to connect Micahs prophecy with the Messianic age The rabbis so understood this term. (The age was to be final and eternal. Nothing lies beyond it so far as earthly history is concerned. It is itself the final goal of history.) Upon the last of the days is the exact opposite of in the beginning of Gen. 1:1 (LXX) and Joh. 1:1. As Lange points out, it denotes the completion of the world in contrast to its beginning.

John indicates that we are in this end time. (CF. 1Jn. 2:18 -f) *(See my comment in Hereby We Know, College Press, pp. 59-ff)

In this end time, says Micah, the mountain of Jehovahs house shall be established on top of (or at the head of) the mountains. In the place of the literal mountain which is to be plowed as a field (Mic. 3:12), the ideal of God will be established.

Those who would take Micah literally here see the ultimate establishment of the kingdom with Jerusalem as the capital (The New Scofield Reference Bible). This is, of course, not in keeping with Jesus concept of true Jehovah worship. Just as Micah predicts that all peoples shall flow into Gods exalted mountain, so Jesus said Neither in these (Samaritan Gerazim and Ebal) mountains, nor in Jerusalem (Mt. Zion and Mt. Moriah) shall ye worship the Father . . . but the hour cometh and now is (italics mine) when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth . . . God is spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

The psalmist used this same metaphor in Psa. 68:17 to indicate the eminence of Jehovah worship on Mt. Zion over the other high places. The emphasis upon and contrast of high places, or mountains, is set against the backdrop of the tension between Jehovah worship on Mt. Zion and Baal worship on the various surrounding high places. In the last times, or Messianic age, true worship is to be firmly and finally exalted above all else.

In Mic. 4:5, Micah says all the peoples walk everyone in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever. The coming of the Messianic age has not eliminated false religion. The very site of Jehovahs temple is now the second most holy spot in Islam. But true Jehovah worship, i.e., Christian worship, has been exalted above them all.

(Mic. 4:2) Many nations here is not be understood in terms of political empires. The people in the Old Testament are generally all those in covenant relation to God while the nations are all those not in covenant relationship.

Many who in Micahs day were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise . . . (Eph. 2:12) are now made nigh in the blood of Christ. (Eph. 2:13)

Isaiah looked forward to this same glorious day (Isa. 2:2) when the universal concern of God for all men would be realized.

Significantly, both Micah and Isaiah see the movement of Gentiles toward the exalted mountain of Jehovahs house as voluntary. The religion of the prophets is of such quality as makes it independent of nationality or election. As the Jews understood election, any interpretation of prophecy which overlooks this basic truth cannot be correct,

The statement . . . out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem is not to be understood as limited to or even indicative of the law of Moses. Rather it is the law of the Spirit of life. (Rom. 8:1-2) It is in keeping with Jesus assertion that thus it is written . . . that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luk. 24:45-47) There is little doubt that such passages as this in Micah were in Jesus mind when He taught the apostles to so read and understand the Old Testament.

(Mic. 4:3-4) Men are at war with men because men are at war with God. In the Messianic age (our own time included) the ideal is peace based on His judgement. He will judge between peoples . . . He will decide concerning strong nations. When and if the leaders of nations seek His will together . . . when His judgement is taken seriously, there can be peace.

History has demonstrated in blood that this peace will not prevail so long as each nation believes God has only its own national interests at heart. When asked if he did not believe that God was on the side of the north, Abraham Lincoln answered that it was more important that we be on Gods side than He on ours. This is the Messianic ideal.

Both in the matter of war as described in Mic. 4:3 and the relation of races described in Mic. 4:2, the church, as Messiahs kingdom does not have the answer. The church is the answer. In the true church there is no Jew nor Greek, east nor west, male nor female. We are all one, and until we are all one, we are not truly the church!

The implements of war will be beaten into implements of peace, not by voting funds for welfare rather than warfare, but by seeking the will of Gods Messiah in international relations.

The ideal described in Mic. 4:4 of every man in the security and plenty of his own vine and fig tree will come not by civil rights agitation and legislation but by seeking the will of Gods Christ in human relations. God must become the ruler of our economy as well as our church doctrine!

(Mic. 4:5) On this verse we noted above that all false religion would not be obliterated in the age of the Messiah. This is obvious to anyone with definite conviction concerning the faith once for all delivered . . . We would simply add here that this verse is evidence Micah is not describing the final summing up of the ages when all false religion will be forever wiped out. When Micah says . . . all the peoples walk everyone in the name of his god, and (but) we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God . . . he is not condoning false religion. He is describing an era of tolerance or religious freedom unknown in the ancient world. It is, after all, better to discuss religious differences than to kill over them, as in the great religious wars of western European history.

Chapter IXQuestions

Future Exaltation and Messianic Hope

1.

Demonstrate that Micahs prophecy in Micah 4-5 has to do with the day of the Messiah, our own Messianic time.

2.

What does John tell us about this end time? (1Jn. 2:18 -f)

3.

What is the meaning of the mountain of Jehovahs house?

4.

Comment on all peoples walk everyone in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever. (Mic. 4:5)

5.

Discuss many nations. (Mic. 4:2)

6.

Discuss . . . out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. (Mic. 4:2 cp. Luk. 24:44 -f)

7.

Men are at war with men because ________________________.

8.

God must become ruler of our ____________ as well as our church doctrine. (Mic. 4:4)

9.

In that day (Mic. 4:6-7) refers us back to ___________________.

10.

That which is lame is the image of ____________.

11.

Discuss her that halted is become a remnant. (Mic. 4:7)

12.

Distinguish between that which was lame and that which was driven away.

13.

Discuss I will make . . . that which was cast far off a strong nation in Mic. 4:7 in light of Rom. 11:1.

14.

What is meant by tower of the flock? (Mic. 4:8)

15.

Discuss Mic. 4:11 in connection with Mic. 3:12.

16.

In Micahs own time the nation of ____________ dominated the international scene.

17.

____________ would wipe out the northern kingdom.

18.

____________ would enslave the southern kingdom.

19.

____________ would conquer the Medo-Persian empire.

20.

The Maccabean revolt was against the rule of ____________.

21.

All these powers, and others since have used the land of ____________ as a political pawn and a ____________ state.

22.

Discuss Romans 11, Mic. 4:11-13 in light of current events in the Middle East.

23.

The Jews are precious to Jehovah because ____________.

24.

This does not imply ____________.

25.

What New Testament reference is made to Mic. 5:2 -ff?

26.

What is the meaning of Ephratah? (Mic. 5:2)

27.

Bethlehem nestles on the ____________ slopes of a ridge some ____________ miles ____________ of Jerusalem.

28.

Discuss, the conditions of Jesus birth in contrast to what might have been expected for the birth of a king.

29.

The sheep tended on the slopes of Bethlehem were traditionally intended for _________.

30.

Why did the Roman emperor Harian forbid Jews to live in or near Bethlehem?

31.

Perhaps no other term in the Old Testament has been more grossly misunderstood than _____________.

32.

Humanly speaking, it was the Jews ambitious vision of ____________ that was responsible for the death of Jesus.

33.

It is the failure of many to recognize the kingly office and authority of Jesus that has brought about the ____________ in the modern church.

34.

Discuss the temptation of Jesus (Luk. 4:1-12) in relation to the Jewish dream of world power in the Messianic age.

35.

The real issue in Mic. 2:6 is the assurance that ____________.

36.

Why do the Jews object that Jesus cannot be the Messiah?

37.

Discuss the pre-existence of Christ in light of Mic. 5:2.

38.

God would not, Micah promised, fully vindicate His people and exalt them until ____________,

39.

The Messiah is to be a glorious prince, but His relationship to His people is that of a ____________.

40.

What is the significance of His greatness shall be to the ends of the earth?

41.

Discuss and this man shall be our peace . . .

42.

Discuss seven shepherds . . . eight principal men. (Mic. 5:5-6)

43.

What is meant by the remnant shall be as dew in a summer morning?

44.

Messiahs people are to be as bold as _____________.

45.

Mic. 5:15 must be almost unbelievable to ____________.

46.

The prophet sees in the age of

____________ God executing vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations which hearken not

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

IV.

(1) But in the last days.There is again a sudden transition. As the third chapter commenced with a startling denunciation, following immediately upon the predicted blessings of the restored kingdom, so upon that chapter, closed in deepest gloom, there now rises a vision of glorious light. The first three verses are almost identical with the second chapter of Isaiah, Mic. 4:2-4; and it has been almost an open question which of the two prophets is the original author of them, or whether indeed they both adopted the words from an older prophecy current at the time. Dr. Pusey takes very decided ground, saying, It is now owned, well-nigh on all hands, that the great prophecy, three verses of which Isaiah prefixed to his second chapter, was originally delivered by Micah. . . . No one now thinks Micah adopted that great prophecy from Isaiah (Minor Prophets, p. 289). This last statement, however, is far too sweeping; all that can be correctly said is that the preponderance of opinion is in favour of Micah being regarded as the original writer.

In the top of the mountainsi.e., the mountain of the Lords house shall be spiritually elevated above all else, visible and invisible, and it shall be established for ever.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Zion the center of the universal religion of the future, Mic 4:1-5.

These five verses furnish the first sublime picture of the glory of the Messianic era. 1.

In the last days Better, R.V., “latter days”; literally, sequel of days. “Last” days is ambiguous; the prophet does not mean to point to the end of the world, or to the end of the Jewish dispensation, but to some indefinite future. The phrase is used by the prophets only in referring to the Messianic age.

The mountain of the house of Jehovah The temple mount.

In the top Better, at the head. The meaning is not, “Zion will be so exalted above all the mountains and hills that it will appear to be founded upon the top of the mountains,” but rather that it will be at the head of the procession, towering above all others. By some this phrase has been taken literally, as if the prophet expected that, at some future time, the temple mount would in reality become the highest mountain, and Eze 40:2, and Zec 14:10, have been quoted in favor of this interpretation. On the other hand, Psa 68:15-16, shows that to the Hebrew the physical elevation of the temple site was not a necessary element of its pre-eminence as a sanctuary, and it is better to interpret the words figuratively as meaning that the fame of Jehovah will become so great that it will eclipse that of all other deities. The metaphor may be based upon an ancient belief that there was a mountain reaching from earth to heaven, on whose summit the gods dwelt.

People shall flow unto it Even outside nations will come to recognize Jehovah as the true God and Jerusalem as his earthly dwelling place; hence they will flock to Jerusalem in great numbers and will exhort others to come, that they may receive instruction in the principles of true religion. 2.

Law Parallel with “word.” Not “law” in the technical sense, but in the general sense of instruction (so R.V. margin). This instruction Jehovah gives through his servants, the prophets and priests (see on Hos 4:6).

Zion As the holy city was the religious center of Israel, so the prophet expects it to be the center of the universal religion during the Messianic era, the city in which Jehovah will dwell and from which all his activities will proceed.

Of his ways The “ways” of Jehovah denote the principles of ethics and religion laid down by Jehovah; of these he will teach the nations as the needs or circumstances of each may demand.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

However, In The End It Is YHWH’s Purpose To Establish His Temple Miraculously In A Place Where All Men Can Flow To It So As To Learn His Ways And The Whole Earth Will Eventually Enjoy Peace ( Mic 4:1-4 ).

But Micah wants it to be recognised that he is not despising the Temple and immediately points out its glorious future, although in terms which make it clear that it will be a very different one from the Temple of Solomon. This Temple is to be exalted heavenwards and is to become something to which all peoples will flow, and from which they can receive the word of God. The idea of a similarly exalted Temple is expressed in Revelation where the Temple has been raised into Heaven itself and is accessed through the prayers of God’s people, with the Lamb as the eternal sacrifice (Rev 5:6; Rev 5:8; Rev 8:3-4; Rev 9:13; Rev 11:19; Rev 14:15; Rev 14:17-18; Rev 15:5-8; Rev 16:1; Rev 16:7). That is fulfilling the words of Micah given here. The concept of an actual Heaven that men and women could enter had not even been thought of, and would simply have been looked on as polytheistic. To the nations it was the gods who indwelt the heavens.

Mic 4:1-3

are repeated almost word for word (with slight variations) in Isa 2:2-4. As they were contemporaries it is impossible to determine their connection. One may have depended on the other, or both may have been referring to a well known previous prophecy. (Each position has been well defended, which basically means that no one knows).

Mic 4:1

‘But in the latter days it will come about that the mountain of YHWH’s house will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will flow to it.’

Basically what Micah is saying is that it will be a heavenly Temple. It will rise far above all mountains and hills, and the people will flow upwards towards it. There is a deliberate indication of mystery here. ‘Flows’ usually take place downwards. But here the normal situation is reversed. God will draw the peoples to Himself (compare Joh 6:44). We can compare the heavenly Temple in Ezekiel which was situated on an unknown ‘very high mountain’ away from Jerusalem, and was never intended to be built. The only thing to be built was the altar in Jerusalem through which it could be accessed. It was the symbol that God was once again with His people.

Mountains and hills were looked on as having a kind of sacredness in the ancient world, which was why shrines (high places) were built on them and men thought that there people could better commune with God (compare Jdg 11:38). In the mountain above where I once lived on Hong Kong Island there was precisely such a sacred grove to which people would go in order to burn joss sticks and seek the favour of the gods. It was totally open and unguarded and anyone could go there at any time. We went there often, although not to worship.

So the Temple which had been treated as one of the despised ‘high places’ fit only for destruction (Mic 3:12) would once again become predominant as a heavenly Temple where all nations could approach God without let or hindrance. And as such it would become the goal of the peoples. YHWH’s purposes would triumph over man’s perfidy.

This was why Jesus would later say, ‘the hour will come when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father — the hour comes and now is when the true worshipper will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for such does the Father seek to worship Him. God is Spirit. And those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth’ (Joh 4:21-24). We too worship in the heavenly Temple as we enter through the way opened up for us by the blood of Jesus and through our great High Priest Jesus Christ (Heb 10:19-22).

Mic 4:2

‘And many nations will go and say, “Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of YHWH, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of YHWH from Jerusalem,”

And the Temple would no longer be exclusive. It would be open to many nations. And they would say, ‘Come let us go up to the mountain of YHWH, to the house of the God of Jacob.’ The point is that the nations would recognise that the God of Israel was the only true God (as Jesus would later say ‘salvation is of the Jews’ – Joh 4:22). Indeed one of God’s aims for Israel was that they should be His chosen witnesses to the nations (Isa 43:10), a commission fulfilled by the Apostles and the early Jewish church because the Jews as such had failed to accomplish it satisfactorily. (We must not overlook, however, that they had previously outside Jerusalem among the nations laid a groundwork on which the early church could build. Paul always went to the synagogues first, as did the other Apostles).

That this Temple was in the end, as far as earth was concerned, the living temple of the Spirit consisting of Jesus and the true people of God comes out regularly in the New Testament (Joh 2:19; Joh 2:21; 1Co 3:16 ; 1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16-18; Eph 2:19-22; 1Pe 2:5-6).

And through that Temple the people would learn the ways of YHWH, and would learn to walk in His paths. For out of Zion would go forth God’s Instruction, and His word would go forth from Jerusalem. This was amply fulfilled as the Apostles and the persecuted people of God spread out into the world taking with them the Gospel of Christ (Acts 1-12). And it goes on today as we the Temple of the living God bear our witness in the world. For in one sense we are the new Jerusalem (Gal 4:26).

Mic 4:3

“And he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.”

And the end promise is that as a result of the success of God’s activity among all peoples there would be peace among the nations. God Himself will reign over ‘many peoples’ and will exercise His authority among ‘strong nations afar off’, and in the end there will be total peace. War will be no more.

Today we see that God’s rule is exercised over many peoples, among Christians around the world, and that between them is peace, as their love reaches out towards one another (we must not judge Christianity’s success in this direction simply because of one nation’s bickerings and divisions). But, of course, the final fulfilment of this promise awaits the final everlasting Kingdom of God on the new earth when a new Heaven and a new earth is in place in which dwells righteousness (Isa 11:1-9; Isa 65:17-25; 2Pe 3:13).

Mic 4:4

“But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none will make them afraid: for the mouth of YHWH of hosts has spoken it.”

And in that day Israel’s ideal will be fulfilled with all being free and independent, and every man sitting under his own vine and his own fig tree. And in that day none will make them afraid, for it will be in a world at perfect peace. And all this will come about because the mouth of YHWH has spoken it.

We do not of course have to interpret this too literally. It does not mean that we will all have to become agriculturalists. It is rather a picture of man’s ideal world in terms of how it would have been seen in those days. Compare here 1Ki 4:25; 2Ki 18:31 (it was even the ideal expressed by the Assyrians. Possibly they had learned of Micah’s prophecy); Zec 3:10.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Mic 4:1-3 Comments – Mic 4:1-3 is identical to Isa 2:2-4.

Mic 4:4  But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.

Mic 4:4 “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree” – Comments – This phrase came to mean a time of peace and prosperity (1Ki 4:25, Zec 3:10).

1Ki 4:25, “And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree , from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.”

Zec 3:10, “In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree .”

Mic 4:8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

Mic 4:8 “O tower of the flock” Word Study on “the flock” Strong says the Hebrew word “flock” “eder” ( ) (H5739) means, “an arrangement, a muster (of animals), drove, flock, herd.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 38 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “flock 32, drove 4, herds 2.”

Comments – The phrase “O tower of the flock” occurs on once in the Old Testament. It is also translated “Migdal-eder” ( JPS, Rotherham), “tower of Eder” ( YLT), and “watchtower of the flock” ( God’sWord). John Gill and others believe that phrase refers to a place in Israel called the “Tower of Eder (Edor),” which is located just outside of the city of Bethlehem. It is believed to be indicative of the birthplace of David, as well as that of the Messiah, as Micah later indicates in his prophecies (Mic 5:2). [10]

[10] John Gill, Micah, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Micah 4:8.

Mic 5:2, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

Another view suggests that the “tower of the flock” symbolizes the city Jerusalem, which described as a vantage point by which God oversees and protects His sheep, the people of Israel (compare Mic 2:12). [11] Thus, the two phrases “O tower of the flock” and “the stronghold of the daughter of Zion” would stand in apposition and both refer to Jerusalem.

[11] Adam Clarke, Micah, in Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 1996), in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), notes on Micah 4:8.

Mic 2:12, “I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.”

Mic 4:8 “the stronghold of the daughter of Zion” Comments – It is generally agreed that the phrase “the stronghold of the daughter of Zion” is indicative of the city Jerusalem, where David ruled and where the Messiah will one day rule and reign over all the earth, as is indicated in the previous verse (Mic 4:7).

Mic 4:8 “unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Comments – One modern English paraphrases this statement to read, “your former government will come back to you. The kingdom will return to the people of Jerusalem.” ( God’sWord)

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Glory of the House of the Lord

v. 1. But in the last days, in the great Messianic period, it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord, of old typical of the Church of the true God, shall be established in the top of the mountains, the ideal Zion being elevated above all else in the world, Cf Isa 2:17; 2Co 10:5, and it shall be exalted above the hills, visible before the eyes of all men; and people shall flow unto it, members of all the nations of the world being added to the communion of saints.

v. 2. And many nations shall come, namely, in the representatives whom the Lord would choose and call, and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, the place where salvation is proclaimed, and to the house of the God of Jacob, the Church of the Messiah; and He will teach us of His ways, the one way of deliverance and sanctification, and we will walk in His paths, in agreement with the revealed truth concerning the sanctification of the Lord’s people; for the Law, as the revelation of the holy and righteous will of God, shall go forth of Zion and the Word of the Lord, particularly in the revelation of the way of salvation, from Jerusalem, the proclamation of the Word, in speaking of sin and grace, being in the hands of the Church.

v. 3. And He, the God of the covenant, shall judge among many people, teaching them true justice in accordance with His will, and rebuke strong nations afar off, to make them cease their enmity against Him; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, not in an earthly, temporal, millennial peace of which men are dreaming from time to time, but in the spiritual peace in Him who is our Peace, Eph 2:14, in whom there is truly peace on earth; nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, this being said of the inner peace and harmony of the Church of Christ. Cf Joh 17:21.

v. 4. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, in the enjoyment of the rich blessings of the New Testament; and none shall make them afraid, all the enemies of mankind having been overcome by the power of the Messiah; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it, His solemn declaration being the consolation of all believers until the end of time.

v. 5. For all people, all those concerned in this prophecy, will walk every one in the name of his God, in the power of the one true God in whom he believes, whose essence is thus made known, and we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and ever, with a full trust in His supporting strength and powerful protection, which turns aside all the efforts of the enemies to disturb the inner peace of the Church.

v. 6. In that day, in the great Messianic period, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, all those who are in distress, suffering with the misery of this world, and I will gather her that is driven out, those who are dispersed among the nations, and her that I have afflicted, whom He has punished for their sins;

v. 7. and I will make her that halted a remnant, the nucleus of His Church, and her that was cast far off a strong nation, those gathered from spiritual exile; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion, in His Church, from henceforth even forever, throughout all eternity. Thus this sketch, composed of bold figures taken from the general aspects of Judah’s history, sets forth the glory of the Church of the New Testament, beginning here in time, and continuing through all eternity, as the Church Triumphant.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Mic 4:1-5

4. The prophet suddenly announces the future glory of the temple mountain and the ideal happiness of the people

Mic 4:1

But. There is no adversative particle here; the verse is merely connected with what precedes without any expressed contrast. What is implied is that it was impossible that the temple, to which God’s high promises attached, should lie waste forever. The passage, Mic 4:1-3, occurs in Isa 2:2-4, The question as to which prophecy is the earlier cannot be settled. Possibly both prophets borrowed the language of some earlier work, as Isaiah is thought to have done on other occasions, e.g. Isa 15:1-9. and 16. the community of ideas leading them to the same source of testimony. In the last days; literally, at the end of the days; Cheyne, “in the days to come.” It is the usual phrase to designate the time of Messiah, unto which the prophet’s thoughts are directed, and for which all preceding events and periods are a preparation. Septuagint, , “at the last days.” The phrase may often suitably be rendered, “in latter days,” as spoken not absolutely, but relatively to preceding times. The mountain of the house of the Lord. Mount Moriah, the ruin of which was foretold (Mic 3:12). But the term here seems to include Jerusalem itself. Shall be established, firmly and permanently (as 1Ki 2:45), no longer subject to ruin and devastation. In the top of the mountains; better, on the head of the mountains. The idea is that the temple mountain shall be raised above, and stand forth prominently from the lower hills that surround it and form its basis (comp. Eze 40:2; Zec 14:10; Rev 21:10). The prophet speaks as if he contemplated a physical change, expressing thereby with singular force the notion that the worship of the true God (of which the temple was the symbol) shall be promulgated among all nations of the world; that from the old Jewish centre of religion a new order of things shall arise, not transitory, nor local, but extending to all time and pervading the utmost parts of the earth. And people (peoples) shall flow unto it. The prophet beholds the nations of the world coming up in formal procession to join in the service of the temple. Thus is adumbrated the comprehension of all nations in the Catholic Church. Isaiah says “all nations” in the parallel passage (comp. Zep 2:11 and Zec 8:22, and notes there).

Mic 4:2

The prophet further explains his last statement The new revelation shall be so conspicuous and so attractive that all men shall hear, and desire to become partakers of it. Many nations. In contrast to the one nation from whom the Leer emanated. They shall exhort one another to resort to the great religious metropolis, i.e. to the true religion. Of his ways. His plans in the moral government of the world, and the way in which he would have men walk in order to please him. For the law (torah); teaching, direction; not the Mosaic Law, but a rule of life (Pro 6:23). This is the reason given by the prophet for the eagerness of the nations to resort to Jerusalem. They would seek instruction at the hand of those authorized to give it (see note on Mic 3:11). The word of the Lord. The revelation of Jehovah, the gospel. From Jerusalem. It is obvious that in a defined sense the gospel sprang from Jerusalem, the place where Christ exercised his ministry, died, rose, ascended; where the apostles received their commission and the gift of the Holy Ghost (Luk 24:47; Act 1:8); the gospel being not set up in opposition to the Law, but being its fulfilment and development.

Mic 4:3

The effect of this reception of true religion shall be universal peace. He shall judge among many people; or better, between many peoples. The Lord shall be the Arbiter to whom all disputes shall be referred, as in the next clause. When his reign is acknowledged and his Law obeyed, all war and all causes of war shall cease. The gospel is a gospel of peace and love, and when “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ” (Rev 11:15), peace and love shall everywhere abound. (For the phrase in the text, comp. Jdg 11:27; 1Sa 24:12,1Sa 24:15.) Rebuke strong nations afar off. The word rendered ‘”rebuke” means here “decide concerning,” “act as umpire for.” The arbitration of the sword shall no more be resorted to. The words “afar off” are omitted in the similar passage of Isaiah. Beat their swords into ploughshares; i.e. they shall practise the arts of peace instead of war. Literally, the short broad sword of the Israelites might readily be converted into a share, and the spear forged into a pruning hook (comp. Hos 2:18; Zec 9:10). Martial has an epigram entitled, “Falx ex ense” (14:34)

“Pax me certa ducis placidos curvavit in usus:

Agricolae nunc sum, militis ante fui.”

The reverse process is seen in Joe 3:10, where ploughshares are beaten into swords. Thus Virgil, ‘Georg.,’ 1.508

“El curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.”

(Comp. Ovid, ‘Fast.,’ 1.699, etc.)

Mic 4:4

This verse is omitted in Isaiah. They shall sit every man under his vine. This image of plenty and security is derived from the account of the material prosperity of Israel in the days of Solomon (1Ki 4:25), in accordance with the Mosaic promise (Le Isa 26:4, etc.). It passed into a proverb expressive of peace and happiness (comp. Zec 3:10; 1 Macc. 14:12). The mouth of the Lord of hosts. The great promise is thus confirmed (Isa 58:14). The LXX. usually renders this expression in Jeremiah and the minor prophets by , elsewhere by , and . It means, “the Lord of the powers of heaven and earth,” the idea being originally that God was the Leader of the armies of Israel.

Mic 4:5

This verse gives the reason why Israel is thus strong and safe. In the parallel passage in Isaiah (Isa 2:5) it is converted into an injunction to the house of Jacob. All people will walk; rather, all nations walk. Everyone in the name of his god. “To walk” is generally used of moral and religious habits (e.g. 2Ch 17:4; Psa 89:31; Eze 5:6, etc.); so here the meaning is that all other nations adhere to their false gods, and frame their life and conduct relying on the power and protection of these inanities, and, by implication, shall find their hope deceived. And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God. This is the secret of Israel’s strength. The heathen can never prevail against the true believers who put their whole trust in the Lord, and live in union with him. By saying we, the prophet identifies himself with the faithful people. Forever and ever. The Church shall never fail. Heathen powers last for a time; the kingdom of Messiah is everlasting.

Mic 4:6, Mic 4:7

5. In this promised restoration all Israel is included, if they choose to accept, the offer.

Mic 4:6

In that day. The Messianic age of Mic 4:1. Her that halteth; Septuagint, , “her that is bruised;” Vulgate, claudicantem. Under the image of a flock footsore and dispersed, the prophet signifies the depressed condition of the excelled Hebrews (comp. Mic 2:12; Zep 3:19). It is the sick and afflicted here who are to he gathered together, the remnant, that is (verse 7), wherever found, which turns to the Lord in repentance and humility.

Mic 4:7

I will make her that halted a remnant. The” remnant” is “the election,” that portion of Israel which accepts the offered redemption (Rom 9:27; Rom 11:5); and God declares that he will treat this section, now miserable and depressed, as sharers in the Messianic promises (see note on Zep 3:19). As commonly, the restoration from captivity and the privileges of Messiah’s kingdom are combined in one foreshortened view. But this “remnant” shall be made into a strong nation, which no power shall overthrow (Isa 11:14; Isa 55:1-13 :22). The Lord shall reign over them. Not through an earthly representative, but by himself (comp. Isa 24:23; Isa 52:7; Oba 1:21; Zec 14:9). In Mount Zion. This prophecy does not necessarily point to any literal earthly fulfilment, but rather to the establishment of Christ’s spiritual kingdom, and the revelation of that new Jerusalem which St. John saw “descending out of heaven from God” (Rev 21:10).

Mic 4:8-10

6. After a certain period of calamity and captivity the kingdom of David shall be revived.

Mic 4:8

And thou, O tower of the flock (migdal-edar). There was a village with a tower so called near Bethlehem (Gen 35:21), and it is thought that Micah refers to it as the home of David and as destined to be the birthplace of Messiah. But the context compels us to consider the expression as a periphrasis for Jerusalem, which the prophet here addressee, declaring that the royal power shall be restored to her. It is evidently the same place as the stronghold (ophel, “the hill”) of the daughter of Zion. The name “Ophel” is affixed to the southern spur of Moriah, opposite to the Mount Zion, from which it was separated by the Tyropoeon Valley. It was fortified by Jotham (2Ch 27:3) and Manasseh (2Ch 33:14), and on it were the king’s house, i.e. the old palace of David, and “the tower that lieth out,” or the upper tower (see Neh 3:26, Neh 3:27). This is probably the “flock tower” mentioned in the text (comp. Isa 32:14, where Ophel and the watch tower are named together); and it is so called as having been originally a place of refuge for flocks, or of observation for shepherds. Micah uses the two expressions to represent the power and dominion of Jerusalem. The propriety of the usa of the term “flock tower” is seen when we remember that David was a shepherd before he was king, and that the Israelites are the sheep of the Lord’s pasture. The reference to a flock in the prceeding verses may also have influenced the prophet’s thought. Owing to a slight variation in the reading, the LXX. renders Ophel by , “dark;” so Jerome, “nebulosa;” Aquila, : Symmachus, . These translators would refer the term to the ruinous condition of the tower. The first dominion shall come, i.e. the former, original empire, such as it was in the days of David and Solomon, and which had been lost in later times. The LXX. adds, : and hence the Greek expositors explain the passage as referring to the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. The verb “shall come” is better taken with “the first dominion,” and this clause in apposition to the former, “the kingdom of” or “the reign over the daughter of Jerusalem.” Sovereignty over Jerusalem, or, as others take it, that appertains to Jerusalem, represents rule over the whole country. In Messiah the glory and power are restored to the throne of David (Luk 1:32, Luk 1:33).

Mic 4:9

Before this glorious revival the prophet foresees calamity and exile in the nearer future; yet he bids the people not to despair. Why dost thou cry out aloud? The prophet hears the cry of Zion, and asks the cause. Septuagint, ; “Why knowest thou evils?” from a variation in reading. Is there no king in thee? Hast thou lost thy king? Is this the reason of thy sorrow? The allusion is to the captivity of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah (2Ki 24:1-20; 2Ki 25:1-30.). The loss of the king, the representative of the help and favour of God, was a token of the withdrawal of the Divine protection (comp. Lam 4:20; Hos 13:10). Thy counsellor. A synonym for “king.” Cheyne notes that the root of melech (“king”) in Aramaic means “to counsel.” In Isa 9:6 Messiah is called “Counsellor.” The Septuagint, treating the word as a collective, renders, , “thy counsel.” Pangs, etc. The comparison of sorrow of heart to the anguish of labour pains is very common (comp. Isa 13:8; Jer 6:24; Jer 6:1-30 :43; Hos 13:13).

Mic 4:10

Be in pain. The anguish is not to be resisted, but shall end, like birth pains, in deliverance. Septuagint, , “Be in pain, and do bravely, and draw near,” which is like Aeneas’s encouragement to his friends (Virgil, ‘AEneid,’ 1.207)

“Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis.”

For now shalt thou go forth. The prophet leaves his metaphor, and announces that the people shall “go forth” into captivity. He says “now,”as having the scene before his eyes. They must leave their city, live shelterless in the open country, be carried to a distant land, even to Babylon. Shall dwell in the field; i.e. while they are making their way to the place of their captivity. Thou shall go even to Babylon. This is simple prophecy, and could have been known to Micah only by inspiration. In his day Assyria was the enemy whom Israel had to dread (as Mic 5:5, Mic 5:6), Babylon being at this time in the position of a conquered country, and not becoming again powerful and independent for another century, So Isaiah prophesied of the captivity to Babylon (Isa 39:3-8), if modern critics have not shaken our faith in the genuineness of that chapter. Micah does not define the time of the Captivity, or the agents; he notes merely the place whither the Jews were at last to be deported. Even in this case “Babylon” may have its typical import, and be taken to represent the great world power arrayed against the chosen race; and the prophecy may look forward to other fulfilments in succeeding ages. Some commentators think that Babylon is here mentioned as the most distant country known, or as a portion of the Assyrian empire. Others suppose that Sargon transported some Israelitish captives to Babylon to replace the rebellious Babylonians whom he exiled to Palestine, and that thus Micah was naturally led to represent the Judaeans as following their brethren. Whichever explanation we take, there is no reason to consider that the reference to Babylon is the interpolation of a late editor of the prophetic writings. There shall thou be delivered. In Babylon deliverance shall arise. This prophecy was first literally fulfilled in the return from captivity under Cyrus; it is further fulfilled, under Christ, in the rescue of the true Israelites from the bondage of sin and the world.

Mic 4:11-13

7. Rescued from Babylon, Zion overcomes all enemies in the strength of God.

Mic 4:11

Now also; and now. A new scene is presented in contrast to the view in Mic 4:1-4. Many nations are gathered against thee. Primarily the Assyrians are meant (Isa 33:3), whose armies were composed of various nationalities (Isa 22:6; see below, Mic 5:5). Pusey thinks that the reference is rather to the attacks of petty enemies, e.g. in Maccabean times, and in the Samaritans’ opposition to the rebuilding of the temple. Cheyne would place Mic 4:5-10 in a parenthesis, and connect the present with the ideal description in Mic 4:1-4. Let her be defiled; i.e.. profaned, despoiled of her boasted holiness and inviolability. LXX; , “we will rejoice.” The Vulgate, lapidetur, points to her punishment as an adulteress, which does not suit the context. Let our eye look upon Zion. The heathen anticipate with malicious pleasure the sight of the humiliation of Jerusalem (comp. Oba 1:12, Oba 1:13).

Mic 4:12

But the enemies who came to exult over Zion do not know God’s design while blindly working it out. God’s people are not to be destroyed, but their adversaries. They know not the thoughts of the Lord. The heathen, who were the instruments of God’s wrath against his people, knew nothing of his purpose in thus afflicting them, nor perceived that they themselves were drawn together for punishment. He shall gather (hath gathered) them as the sheaves into the floor. Their blindness is proved by their not perceiving till too late that God has brought them together before Jerusalem, as sheaves are brought into the threshing floor, in order to be broken up and destroyed (comp. Isa 21:10; Jer 51:23). The metaphor is carried on in the next verse. Various are the explanations of the prophet’s reference in this prophecy. Many commentators see in it a reference to the destruction of the army of Sennacherib (2Ki 19:35); others discern a defeat of the Scythians after the return from captivity; others, again, place it in the times of the Maccabees; and others interpret it of the defeat of the mystical adversaries of God’s Church adumbrated in Eze 38:1-23.; Zec 12:1-14.; and Rev 20:1-15. But the prophet has not one definite event in view, but looks forward to the general conflict between the powers of the world and the Church, of which the historical events and material enemies were the types. Certain historical circumstances may exactly suit the prediction, but they do not exhaust it. And indeed we do wrong to seek for minute and definite fulfilment of particular predictions. Such utterances are often conditional and are modified by subsequent circumstances. The prophets are concerned with great moral truths and the righteous government of the world, and are not always to be interpreted with literal exactness.

Mic 4:13

Arise. Shake off thy sorrow and fear and despair. And thresh. Tread thine enemies underfoot, now that they are gathered in the floor, as the oxen tread out the corn (Isa 41:15, etc.; Jer 51:33.) Thine horn. The horn is an emblem of power and victory, as appertaining to the wild ox, the most powerful animal in Canaan (Deu 33:17; 1Ki 22:11.) The metaphor of threshing is dropped for the moment, but resumed in the next clause. Hoofs. In allusion to the mode of threshing mentioned above (Deu 25:4; 1Co 9:9). People; peoples. Israel shall crush all the nations that rise up against her. I (God) will consecrate. So the Masoretic text; but the second person, which the ancient versions give, is preferable. Septuagint, , “thou shalt dedicate;” Vulgate, interficies. Thou, Zion, shalt devote their gain unto the Lord. This consecration, or devotion, to the Lord in the case of living things involved death, the restitution to the Lord of the life which he had given (see Le 27:21, 28, 29; Zec 14:21). Thus the spiritual Israel, purified by suffering, and redeemed, shall consecrate to the Lord the power of the world; and all the wealth and might of earth shall be subservient to the glory of the kingdom of God,

HOMILETICS

Mic 4:1-8

The Messiah’s spiritual kingdom.

These verses call us away from the contemplation of sin and its effects as set forth in the previous chapters, and hid us turn our thoughts to the golden age that rose before the prophet’s vision, and animated and cheered his heart in the dark days in which his lot was cast. We live in happier times. Much that was to him only distant expectation has become fully realized by us. “Blessed are our eyes,” etc. (Mat 13:16, Mat 13:17). Still, favoured as we are, the kingdom of Christ has not, even in our own day, attained unto the highest perfection. The noontide splendour of his rule has not yet been reached. The cross has brought the crown, and the Lord Christ now reigneth as King in Zion; but u we see not yet all things put under him.” There are still many difficulties and discouragements, and there is much to sicken and sadden the hearts of all to whom his Name is precious, and his truth and kingdom dear. And amidst all this we do well, like this seer, to look on to the ultimate complete triumph which the Christ shall assuredly win, and by this bright vision to gain the renewal of heart and hope. We have indicated here

I. CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MESSIAH‘S KINGDOM.

1. Its spirituality. We shall assuredly lose sight of the beauty of these prophetic descriptions if we give to them a literal and material significance. This, indeed, is what the Jews themselves did, and hence the true Messiah was by them “despised and rejected.” “As upon the figure of David the prophetic figure of the Messiah is developed, so upon the figure of Jerusalem is the prophetic figure of the holy community of the future” (Lange). Connecting Mic 4:1 with the last verse of the previous chapter, we are reminded that whilst the material kingdom was marked to fall, and should, in due course and as the result of national guilt, decay and pass away, yet this mournful apostasy of the chosen race should be rendered in the Divine wisdom “the riches of the world” (Rom 11:11, Rom 11:12). The old economy should eventually disappear, but the new dispensation should follow. The long promised Messiah should appear and establish a spiritual kingdom, the subjects of which should be renewed and sanctified men; to which kingdom higher privileges and honours should be attached than Judaism had ever presented, and the influence of which should extend to the wide world.

2. Its pure and righteous principles of government. “For the Law shall go forth of Zion,” etc. (Mic 4:2). These have been framed with a due regard to the interests of all the subjects; they are not only designed to regulate the outward conduct and actions of men, but they go deeper and effect the heart and the secret springs of action. The great law of the kingdom is lovelove to God and to man. “Love is the fulfilling of the Law” (Rom 13:10).

3. Its comprehensiveness. “Peoples shall flow unto it” (Mic 4:1); “And many nations shall come” (Mic 4:2). Judaism was marked by its exclusiveness. Its privileges were confined to a particular nationality. But lo! it is here declared that the kingdom of the Messiah should be world embracing. It shall become indeed “a great nation,” for “unto it” all peoples and tribes “shall flow.” The King whom Jehovah has “set upon his holy hill of Zion,” and who shall “reign in righteousness,” shall sway his sceptre at length over a ransomed, regenerated, happy world.

4. Its perpetuity. “It shall be abidingly established” (Mic 4:1). “The Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever“ (Mic 4:7). The kingdoms of this world are unenduring. “They all shall perish.” They rise, progress, attain unto their zenith, and then decline and pass away. Egypt and Tyre, Assyria and Babylon, Greece and Rome, powers that once dominated the world, their glory is laid in the dust, their pomp has passed away like a dream, their works survive only in chambers of antiquity, and their deeds have only a record in historical lore. So perishes the glory of this world! But this spiritual kingdom of the Lord Christ lives and shall never fail. Its throne shall never be shaken, its riches shall never be impoverished, its glory shall never be dimmed. “Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,” etc. (Psa 145:13).

5. And hence, its pre-eminence. “It shall be exalted above the hills” (Mic 4:1). It shall attain unto heights such as no worldly power has ever reached, and its King shall enjoy distinction and honour such as earthly monarchs have never known. “He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high” (Isa 52:13); “And he shall bear the glory” (Zec 6:13).

II. THE INFLUENCE OF THE MESSIAH‘S RULE. It is here predicted that this should be of the most healthy and beneficent nature. Under his sway:

1. Enthusiasm should be enkindled. “Come, and let us go up,” etc. (Mic 4:2). Men drawn to him in the spirit of whole souled devotion should seek to lead others to participate with them in the enjoyment of the blessings he imparts. “The love of Christ” has “constrained” men to the consecration of all their energies to his service. So Paul (Act 20:23, Act 20:24). Xavier said, “You say they will kill me by poison. It is an honour unto which such a poor sinner as I dare not aspire; but I am ready to die ten thousand deaths for the salvation of a single soul.” In our own day we have seen men thus impelled to go forth to distant and uncivilized tribes; and when they have been stricken down by fever ending in death, lo! others have been found ready to be “baptized for the dead.”

2. Knowledge should be diffused. “And he will teach us,” etc. (Mic 4:2). The true Messiah is also “the true Light,” “the Light of men,” “the Light of the world.” He came to rule, but his rule should be an enlightened one. Where his influence touches there is light. He dissipates the darkness of error, superstition, idolatry; and his enlightening power shall extend until the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth” (Isa 11:9).

3. Obedience should be rendered. “And we will walk in his paths” (Mic 4:2). The connection between this and the preceding sentence is very intimate. All true knowledge is designed to affect the conduct and life. Knowing and doing are closely related (Joh 13:17). How purifying and elevating Christ’s moral influence upon the world has proved! Wherever the influence of his truth is felt, there, as sure as day succeeds night, a higher morality becomes developed.

4. Peace should be established. (Mic 4:3.) The Messiah is “the Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6). “Glory to God in the highest,” etc. (Luk 2:14), was the song of angels as they welcomed his advent. Strange, then, that men should ascribe to his religion the prevalence in the world of war and conflict. His religion has often been made the pretext for entering into deadly strife; but underlying this there has been some ambitious design which has been the real though concealed cause. The growing disposition amongst the nations to seek peaceful solutions of existing difficulties, and not to draw the sword until these have been exhausted, is an effect of the influence of the principles of Christ upon society at large. The universal dissemination of his truth shall be followed by the complete fulfilment of this glowing prediction (Mic 4:3).

5. Security should be realized. (Mic 4:4.) In the Assyrian monuments representations are given of men in a reclining posture, with the vines in rich profusion over their heads, suggestive of quiet and rest and freedom from everything calculated to disturb and alarm. And this is the idea expressed here. Fear had taken possession of the hearts of those whom the prophet was addressing. They thought with sadness and dismay of the awaiting judgments to follow national sin. The enemy had come well nigh to the gates; but lo! the seer cheers them by the prospect of happier days which should at length dawn upon them. As it had been with the nation in the peaceful days of Solomon, so he declared it should be in a spiritual sense under the rule of the Messiah. “Such is that most quiet fearlessness which the law of Christ bringeth as being the law of charity, peace, and concord.”

6. Restoration should be effected. (Mic 4:6, Mic 4:7.) Into the enjoyment of these high blessings even they should be brought who had erred from God’s ways, who had “halted” in his service, and had divided their allegiance between him and Baal. They must, in consequence of their sin, be “driven out” and “afflicted” and “cast off;” yet in their exile he would watch over them, seeking them in his deep compassion, “devising means that his banished be not expelled from him” (2Sa 14:14), and in his own time and way these should be brought in with “the fulness of the Gentiles,” to form “a strong nation” over whom he would reign forever and ever (Mic 4:6, Mic 4:7).

III. THE CERTAINTY OF THE REALIZATION OF ALL THUS EXPRESSED. The seer throughout uses the language of holy confidence. And he was warranted in this; for:

1. Such is the Divine purpose. The issue is divinely guaranteed. God has promised the kingdom to his Son.

2. This Divine purpose has been repeatedly expressed. “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Mic 4:4).

3. That which God has purposed and declared, his power can and will fulfil. Despite the humble circumstances and conditions through which the chosen of Heaven would have to pass, “the kingdom should come to the daughter of Jerusalem””the first or former dominion;” i.e. the rich spiritual honour which had been promised to David’s line should be bestowed (Mic 4:8), for such was the Divine will and which the Divine power would assuredly accomplish. Our hope for a bright future rests upon the same foundation. And as God requires us to put him in remembrance of his Word, we will say, “For Zion’s sake,” etc. (Isa 62:1); and will cry in the words of our own Milton, “Come forth out of thy royal chamber, O Prince of all the kings of the earth! Put on the visible robes of thy imperial majesty; take up that unlimited sceptre which thy Almighty Father hath bequeathed thee; for now the voice of thy bride calls thee, and all creatures sigh to be renewed.”

Mic 4:2

Enthusiasm in religion.

I. THE SPIRIT OF ENTHUSIASM IN RELATION TO RELIGION IS EMINENTLY DESIRABLE. It is SO:

1. As indicating the possession of loving devotion to God.

2. As prompting to endeavour with a view to the spiritual well being of others. (Mic 4:2, “Come, and let us go up,” etc.; Joh 1:41, Joh 1:42, Joh 1:45, Joh 1:46; Joh 4:28, Joh 4:29.)

3. As being contagious. For, all aglow themselves, they will be the means of inspiring others with the same fervour.

II. THIS SPIRIT, UNLESS UNDER WISE CONTROL, MAY PROVE INJURIOUS. It may seem a very simple matter to invite others to God, to say to them, “Come, let us go up,” etc.; but it is possible, by undue familiarity of approach, or by extravagance of language, to alienate those it is desired to win.

III. THIS SPIRIT IS IN SAFE KEEPING IF ITS POSSESSOR CULTIVATES THE DISPOSITIONS HERE EXPRESSED (Mic 4:2), viz.:

1. Of seeking to understand God‘s truth more dearly. “And he will teach us of his ways.” The consciousness of his imperfect attainments will keep him humble, and preserve him from mere dogmatism and self-conceit.

2. Of endeavouring to be obedient in heart and life to God‘s will. “And we will walk in his paths.” His realization of the importance of ethical practical life will preserve him from either thinking or advocating the false notion that piety consists in profuse verbal declarations and mere outward professions.

Mic 4:2

Higher spiritual life.

“Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.” We are too prone to be content with living at a very low level of spiritual attainment. We need to hear and heed the voice of God’s own Spirit addressing us through our own consciences, and through all the holy influences encompassing us, and bidding us leave the ordinary plain on which we have been content to dwell, and to ascend the mount of the Lord, and thus to rise to the nobler heights of spiritual privilege and goodness. “Let us go up,” etc.

I. WHAT IS THIS HIGHER SPIRITUAL LIFE? It is a life of obedience to God and of faith in him. It is a life of holy and hallowed fellowship with the invisible. It is a life sustained and strengthened by hidden Divine springs. It is not perfect life, but life characterized by constant endeavour after the perfect. It is a life characterized by the patient endurance of trial, the successful resistance of temptation, and the cheerful performance of duty. It is a life animated by hopes entering “within the veil,” and in which is increasingly realized union with the spiritual world.

II. HOW MAY IT BE REACHED?

1. The ministration of the truth is designed to this end. The advancement of the good in Divine knowledge and in the varied graces of the Christian character is one aim of the Christian ministry (Eph 5:11-13).

2. The commonest duties of our daily life may be so discharged as to be made to contribute to our spiritual elevation. The aim should be to make every duty subservient to the great end of our spiritual advancement.

3. The sorrowful experiences of our life are all designed to secure to us “more life and fuller.” These constitute the threshings of the spiritual man by means of which God would separate his servants from evil, and enable them to enter into the higher joys of his kingdom.

4. And this soul elevation is to be secured not only by receiving, but also by imparting, holy influences. We rise ourselves as we invite others to rise; as we speak to them the encouraging word, and hold out to them the helping hand. Ruskin reminds us that the name which of all others is most expressive of the being of God is that of “the Helpful One,” or, in our softer Saxon, “the Holy One.” And we may each know what one has beautifully called the holiness of helpfulness.

III. WHAT ADVANTAGES WILL ACCRUE FROM ITS ATTAINMENT?

1. There will be greater enjoyment in connection with religious privileges than can otherwise be experienced.

2. Tranquillity will possess the heart amidst the disappointments, changes, and bereavements of life.

3. A clearer apprehension of the truth of God will be gained. (Mic 4:2.)

4. More effective service to God in the world will be rendered. Certain saints of God belonging to the past are sometimes set forth as having been specially eminent, and as though the same altitude could not be reached nowadays; whereas we are to be “followers” of such (Heb 6:12), and the “helps” they used am as available to us. Use them, and say

“Go up, go up, my heart!

Be not a trifler here;

Ascend above these clouds,

Dwell in a higher sphere.

Let not thy love go out

To things so soiled and dim:

Go up to heaven, and God

Take up thy love to him.”

Mic 4:2

God our Teacher.

“And he will teach us of his ways.” How?

I. BY WORKING IN OUR HEARTS THE SPIRIT OF TRUE HUMILITY. There must be humility in order that we may apprehend spiritual things. We must become “as little children” would we enter the kingdom of truth. And this disposition is fitting; for what, after all, are we but children in relation to such knowledge? “Embryos we are all.” Too many, forgetting this, and cherishing the opposite spirit, misapprehend or pervert the meaning of God’s truth. Pride of intellect is cherished, and, strong and dogmatic in their adherence to false intellectual conceptions, they miss the highest truth. “The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way.” As low trees and shrubs are free from many violent gusts and blasts of wind which shake and rend the taller trees, so humble souls are free from those gusts and blasts of error that rend and tear proud lofty souls.” “The high tide quickly ebbs.” “The valleys laugh with fatness when the hills are bare.” “I thank thee, O Father,” etc. (Mat 11:25, Mat 11:26).

II. BY CONSTRAINING US TO CHERISH THE SPIRIT OF HEARTY OBEDIENCE. By the gentle constraints of Divine love the will is brought into harmony with the higher and perfect will of God; and to the man thus obedient there is unfolded the glorious treasures of Divine wisdom and knowledge. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant” (Psa 25:14); “Then shall we know, if we follow on,” etc. (Hos 6:3).

III. BY IMPARTING UNTO US SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT. The heart being rendered humble and obedient, light springs up within; a spiritual insight is imparted; the unction of the Holy One rests upon the man; higher perceptions are his; he apprehends and understands truths which formerly were unperceived or distorted by him. “Pure in heart,” he “sees God;” spiritually minded, he discovers spiritual things. God’s ways stand revealed to him, and God’s Word is no longer a dead letter, but is instinct with life and power to his soul. Then, with an earnest desire to enter into the full significance of spiritual realities, and with a deep consciousness of our own weakness and need of guidance, we do well to cry, “Lead us in thy truth and teach us;” and to rejoice in the encouraging assurance, “And he will teach us of his ways.”

Mic 4:2

Obedience to the Divine will.

“And we will walk in his paths.” The idea isliving obediently to the will of God. Observe

I. GOD HAS REVEALED HIS WILL UNTO MAN. “The Law has gone forth,” etc. (Mic 4:8). The revelation of what God requires of his creatures has been given

(1) in the commandments unfolded to Moses on Sinai;

(2) in the full and perfect exposition of those commandments given in the teaching of Christ;

(3) in the complete transcript of them presented in the Divine Teacher’s spotless character and life.

II. TO OBEY THAT WILL INDICATES THE POSSESSION OF TRUE PIETY. Sincere piety does not consist in outward observances, although these have so high a value that we are not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together” for Christian fellowship and teaching; nor does it consist in Church association, although there are many advantages resulting from Christians banding themselves together that thus they may be helpful to each other in the spiritual life, and by combined, action the more effectually do God’s work; nor does it consist in the repetition of a Creed, however admirably conceived and expressed, and however desirable it may be for us to be well grounded in the foundation doctrines of our holy religion; but it consists in obedience to the will of God, and in seeking, like the great Exemplar, to act in harmony with God’s holy Law.

“Nor name, nor form, nor ritual,

But simply following thee.”

III. IN THIS OBEDIENCE LIES THE TRUEST WELL BEING BOTH OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND OF THE RACE. Walking in these paths, it is found that they are “right paths,” that they yield “peace” and “pleasantness;” “mercy and truth” also abound to the obedient, whilst the wide adoption of this course by the children of men is pointed to as the token of the coming of “the latter day glory.” “A world wide Christ-likeness is the great necessity. If, in imitation of him, there were truth on every tongue and kindness in every heart, gentleness in every spirit and obedience to God in every will, purity in every life and blamelessness in every character, the bloom and blessedness of Eden would be seen tomorrow,” Too many, alas I still resolve that “they will walk every one in the name of his god” (Mic 4:5); but our hope for humanity lies in the growing number whose feet are being turned into “the ways of righteousness,” and who are impelled to say, “And we will walk in his paths.” “We will walk in the Name of the Lord our God forever and ever” (Mic 4:5).

Mic 4:9-13; Mic 5:1

Through trial to triumph.

There is a very natural connection between these and the previous verses. The seer has presented a glowing picture of the ultimate triumphs of the Messiah’s kingdom. In choicest language he has unfolded the nature of the Messiah’s rule, and the beneficent effects to be secured thereby. And now he reminds us that this victory should be won by sufferingthat God’s order is through trial to triumph. Notice

I. THE EXPERIENCE OF SORROW AS PREPARATORY TO JOY; OF CONFLICT AS PREPARATORY TO VICTORY. (Mic 5:9-13; Mic 5:1.) Whatever view may be taken as to the true application of these verses, it is very clear that they refer to deep sorrow, through which the nation must pass before the manifestation of the true spiritual King whose coming is so clearly indicated in the chapter following. Captivity must be experienced; conflict must be engaged in with “many nations;” loss of rulers and leaders must be sustained; war an siege must be felt. Yet all these should prove but preparatory to the experience of joy and victory; they should be but as the pangs preceding birth; out of and following these throes there should come the establishment of a kingdom which should never be moved, and which their material kingdom, now being so shaken, even in its most prosperous and peaceful days only faintly symbolized. And this is ever the Divine order of procedure. It is the all-wise appointment of God that his servants should pass through trial and be made perfect through suffering. He takes the seed and plants it in rough soil, and as the result he causes to arise beauteous flowers. The tear often precedes the smile. The thick cloud gathers over our heads, and lo! afterwards the triumphant arch spans the sky, telling of the Divine faithfulness and love. We must suffer would we ultimately reign; we must bear the cross would we wear the crown. God’s servants are soldiers, and the soldier must “endure hardness” (2Ti 2:3), and engage in sharp conflict ere he reaps the warrior’s reward. His followers are trees of righteousness, and God prunes his trees that they may bring forth much fruit” (Joh 15:2).

II. STIMULATING THOUGHTS AMIDST THESE DARKER EXPERIENCES OF LIFE. Several such thoughts are suggested here.

1. There‘s “a needs be“ for these sorrows. (Mic 5:10.) It is here declared that there was a necessity for the sorrows here predicted. The trials are referred to as experiences that must be, and that could not be avoided. The travail must be endured, the captivity must be experienced, the discipline must be passed through. The nation had woefully transgressed, and only thus could it be purged and purified. As the crushing of the seed results in a more abundant increase, so the oppression of God’s servants should result in the upspringing of “the peaceable fruits of righteousness.” “Of sorrow, sanctity is born.” Here is one solution of “the mystery of suffering.” It is designed to work purification; it is a healthful discipline. It is not that our Father-God is wanting in sympathy that we have to pass through adverse scenes, but because his sympathy is so large and so perfect that it extends to the whole of our being. When he says, “Be in pain,” etc. (Mic 5:10), it is not that he does not feel with us, but rather because his sympathy is so large that he deigns to lift us up to a higher level, and to lead us to attain unto a purer and more perfect character and life; and hence, whilst “he will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax,” he will also “send forth judgment unto victory” (Isa 42:2, Isa 42:3).

2. There is an overruling Providence. (Mic 5:11, Mic 5:12.) In these verses the heathen nations are represented as encouraging each other to make a decisive onslaught, upon the favoured people, and as speaking as though, their plans, could very easily be executed, the overthrow of Judah be effected, and they gaze with satisfaction upon the downfall and desolation (Mic 5:11). But there was a higher than any mere human power swaying the destinies of the peoples of the earth. The Lord God omnipotent was reigning. He had his purposes and plans of which, the nations took no account, but which nevertheless were to be developed. And in the unfolding of these all the dark designs of the evil would be overruled, and whilst the nation of his choice should. thus be tried as by fire, and so have its dross consumes, they who, prompted by their own mercenary and ambitious ends, assaulted it, should be brought to utter confusion and shame (Mic 5:13). The world still abounds in evil doers who am pursuing their own ends, and that they may gain these are ever planning and contriving harm; but it may well comfort and strengthen our hearts, amidst the anxiety and distress such occasion, that there is still an overruling Providence guiding human affairs, and that under God’s all-wise and loving direction good only shall eventually come to the good, whilst the counsel of the wicked shall perish, and the arm of their power be broken.

3. There is the Divine abiding presence. This is implied in Mic 5:9. The prophet, abounding in deepest sympathy with his people in their calamities, would, nevertheless, have them feel that they were not left utterly destitute; that, though earthly rulers had failed them, there was One who ever abides, and who, if they but trusted him, would bear them safely through all. He who had been the King and Guide of their nation before earthly monarch had ever been appointed over it (1Sa 12:12) would not forsake them now that human supports had given way, but would make their present sorrows to end in higher joy than they had formerly experienced (Hos 13:9, Hos 13:14). Nor need we fear in the time of trouble, so long as it remaineth that “the Lord of hosts is with us,” etc. (Psa 46:7).

4. There is ultimate deliverance. (Mic 5:10.) The Lord would assuredly “turn again the captivity of Zion” (Psa 126:1-6). Through fire and through water they should be brought out into a wealthy place (Psa 116:12). Weeping might endure for a night, but joy should come in the morning (Psa 30:5). And so with his servants in every age. The way he would have us take, despite all its difficulties and discouragements, shall bring us at length to the palace and to our crown.

HOMILIES BY E.S. PROUT

Mic 4:1, Mic 4:2

A new Mount Zion.

The threat of Mic 3:12 has been fulfilled. Mount Zion, the glory of the nation on account of its situation, its buildings, its history, and its religious associations, has become as a forest, or as desolate heaps of ruins. But while the prophet gazes through the tears which patriotism and piety bring to his eyes, as in some dissolving view a new vision unfolds itself before him. Instead of a ploughed field and a ruinous mound, he sees an exceeding high mountain, a glorious city, and countless multitudes flocking towards it. It is the new Mount Zion.

I. ITS ELEVATION. There were other hills or mountains that already were or soon would be of note among men, such as the “high places” of a corrupt worship in Judaea and Samaria, the huge artificial hill of Babylon sacred to Belus, the acropolis of Athens, the seven hills of Rome. But this Mount Zion was founded on the summits of the world’s loftiest heights, and towered above them all. Thus the mountain is seen to be spiritual and the elevation figurative. It is a vision of “the latter days,” of the days of the Messiah, when the new kingdom of God is set up. Because it is “the mountain of the house of the Lord,“ it is thus exalted. Illustrate from Ezekiel’s vision of the “very high mountain” (Eze 40:2), and the sublime conclusion of it, “Jehovah-Shammah” (Eze 48:35; and of. 1Ti 3:15). “This mountain of the Church of Christ transcends all laws, schools, doctrines, religions, synagogues, and philosophies, which seemed to rise among men like mountain tops” (Corn. a Lapide, in Pusey). It is “a city set on a hill.”

II. ITS CONGREGATION. The prophet sees a stream of worshippers ascending that hill; not an unfamiliar sight in the old days of the literal Zion. But much earnestness is needed to scale this lofty mountain. And it is a miracle of grace that not only the chosen people of God, but “the peoples” of the world lying in wickedness, should be attracted by a Church so lofty and so pure. For, as the prophet watches, he sees strange companies gathering, of varied colours, costumes, and languagesnegroes from Ethiopia, Chinese from the land of Sinim, and pale-faced strangers from the western isles of Europe. Contrast the mountain-like tower of Babel, man’s scheme of unity, issuing in dispersion, and this Mount Zion, God’s way of union, attracting a congregation from all kindreds and peoples and tongues (Isa 55:8, Isa 55:9). The prophet hears their language as they encourage one another,” Come ye,” etc. They thus confess:

1. Their ignorance. “He shall teach us of his ways”a comprehensive term (Psa 25:4, Psa 25:8, Psa 25:9).

2. Their dissatisfaction. Their old paths had been “broad;” “destruction and misery had been in them. Henceforth they desire to walk in other “paths,” in God’s way of holiness.

3. Their confidence; that the God of Jacob alone was both able and willing to supply their need. The prophet foresaw what Christ still more clearly predicted (Mat 8:11, Mat 8:12), and what we are seeing in these days of missionary enterprise.

III. ITS EMANATIONS. As light and heat stream from the sun, and fragrance from the flowers, so from this new Mount Zion, this city of God, there stream forth the very blessings which the nations needtruth, light, life. It is a Divine power that first draws this congregation towards the Church of Christ (Joh 6:44, Joh 6:45). And the blessings they need and receive are summed up in two terms.

1. “The Law.“ They receive it as a rule of life, as an ideal of daily conduct. It goes forth as a stream of blessing which can turn the wastes of heathen life into a paradise. But more than law is needed:

2. “The Word of the Lord.“ This is a more comprehensive term. It includes the revelation of his will, his mercy and grace, “the word of the truth of the gospel.” This goes forth with all the attractiveness of a message of mercy (Luk 24:47, etc.), but also with all the authority of a law (Act 17:30; 1Jn 3:23). The preaching of the cross proves itself the power of God. This word of the Lord has free course and is glorified. No wonder that such blessings follow as are described in the following verses.E.S.P.

Mic 4:3, Mic 4:4

The peaceable fruit of righteousness.

The wonders of Micah’s vision (verses 1 and 2) are not yet at an end. He sees a succession of the most improbable and incredible events, as the nations return from their pilgrimage to the new Mount Zion to their distant capitals and homesteads. With those distant and “strong” heathen nations there are associations of horror and dread in the minds of the Hebrews, especially of the godly among them. Illustrate this from what we know through Hebrew prophets and historians of the Gentile nations near and afar off; e.g. border wars and frequent invasions of the Philistines (2Ch 21:16, 2Ch 21:17), Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and others (Psa 83:1-18.; and cf. the impressive messages of judgment in Amo 1:1-15. and 2.). Egypt, at one time their oppressor or invader (2Ch 12:1-16.), later on their untrustworthy ally, always the home of degrading idolatries (Isa 19:1-25.; Isa 30:1-7). Assyria, the seat of a relentless despotism, the captors of their northern brethren, casting its war cloud over Hezekiah’s kingdom (Nah 3:1-19.). Beyond these were the mountaineers of Media, the barbarous tribes of the far north, “Meshech and Tubal,” and the sons of Greece in the distant west. The gloomy vision of Ezekiel (32) graphically describes how the sword and bloodshed are bound up with the histories of these and other nations. All these are seen welcoming a new King, who “shall reign in righteousness,” new legislation and new customs. The strangest of all these new customs is that “the peoples that delight in war” are seen changing their weapons into instruments of peace, and enjoying a tranquillity equal to that of the palmy days of Solomon. The mystery is explained by the fact that the word of the Lord had gone forth from Jerusalem. We learn

I. THE GOSPEL OF GOD PREPARES FOR THE REIGN OF GOD.

1. It reveals God‘s love. It thus comes as a revelation, startling, almost incredible to heathens, in whose minds lust not love, hatred not mercy, are bound up with their thoughts of God. That central verse of the New Testament (Joh 3:16), a “miniature Bible,” as Martin Luther called it, applied by the Spirit of God, has broken many a rocky heathen heart, and opened the way for the blessings that God’s love has prepared for sinful souls (1Jn 4:19).

2. It inspires men‘s hope. Those who were once living “having no hope, and without God in the world,” find that all things are become new. All the most bright and buoyant emotions, love, hope, joy, are called forth by the gospel of God. The brightest visions of a golden age in the future which heathen poets have sung about are seen to be possible under the reign of a righteous and merciful God. They are “saved by hope.”

3. It awakens men‘s consciences. An educational process ensues. The dormant conscience is awakened; the blind conscience sees the light of truth; the blunt conscience is made sensitive and tender. Thus gradually things which were tolerated in the individual or the community are branded as unchristian, or even infamous. Illustrate from 1Co 5:1-13. and 6. In those whose spiritual education is most advanced, every thought is brought “into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Thus gradually the average standard of morality is raised first in the Church and then in the nation, and the gospel of God is seen to have prepared the way for the reign of God.

II. THE REIGN OF GOD WILL BE A REIGN OF PEACE. War is a terrible defiance of God and of his authority, and yet it is one of the most popular forms of wickedness. The press, the clubs, “the forces,” often make it hard even for a government calling itself Christian to resist the gusts of popular passion which sweep nations into war. Even as late as 1882 we were told that on board the ironclads off Alexandria the countenances of the officers fell as the sight of a flag of truce made it possible that after all their new guns might not be tested by a bombardment. Yet even this unclean spirit will be exorcised by the power of the gospel of Christ, which has already been at work in many ways; e.g. “the truce of God” in the Middle Ages, providing for the suspension of hostilities during Advent, Lent, and other seasons; the sparing of the lives of prisoners; the care and kindness shown towards the wounded; the power of the public opinion, even of a minority, to restrain governments from hastily rushing into war; the introduction of arbitration, in which the British Government set so honourable an example at Geneva in 1872. In such cases it may be said that God, through the judgments of upright men, is called to “judge between many peoples,” and “reprove” even strong nations when they wronged their neighbours. Thus gradually war will be banished, even as duelling and other abominations have been. “Fraternity” will be one of the watchwords of the future, and war will be regarded as fratricide. Lucian says of Christians, “Their first Lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brethren.” Christianity is working towards the restoration of that ideal. Then Solomon’s days shall be reproduced in more than their ancient glory. New princes of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts at the court of the Prince of Peace, whose subjects shall “dwell safely, and be quiet from fear of evil.” The glorious visions of Psa 72:1-20.; Isa 60:1-22; etc; shall be fulfilled, “for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.”

Learn:

1. That the only hope of true national righteousness is in the reign of Christ.

2. That the Christian who witnesses for unpopular truths is the noblest among patriots.

3. That the sanctification of individual souls through the power of the gospel is the surest method of securing the ultimate and universal reign of Christ on earth.E.S.P.

Mic 4:6, Mic 4:7

The restoration of Israel.

It is the Gentile nations for whom the blessings of “the last days” have just been predicted (Mic 4:2-4). The new Mount Zion of the Messiah’s days will have a magnetic power on “the East and the West” (Mat 8:11; Joh 12:32). But Israel, through whom these blessings reach the nations, shall not be excluded from a share in them. Yet the form of the prediction reminds us of the abject condition of God’s ancient people and of the gradual extension of the glories of Messiah’s reign over them.

I. THEIR ABJECT CONDITION. They are described as:

1. Halting. This was the result of internal infirmity or of injury from without, or of both. The Jewish people at the advent were suffering both from ecclesiastical and moral corruptions, which made them figuratively like the folk at Bethesda, “halt, withered, impotent.”

2. “Driven out.” Multitudes had been driven out of their heritage in Palestine by the decrees of conquerors or the oppressions of foreign tyrants. Centuries before, Jeremiah had declared, “Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the King of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon hath broken his bones” (Jer 50:17). In subsequent centuries similar captivities or oppressions were endured at the hands of the Ptolemies, the Seleucidae, the Idumeans, and the Romans. Those who remained were as strangers in their own fatherland. And soon a far more fearful catastrophe scattered them from one end of the heavens to the other, after the destruction of their city by the Romans.

“But we must wander witheringly

In other lands to die;

And where our fathers’ ashes be

Our own must never lie:

Our temple hath not left a stone,

And Mockery sits on Salem’s throne.”
(Byron)

3. “Stricken of God, and afflicted.” Unfaithful “shepherds” among their own rulers (Eze 34:1-6) or heathen conquerors were the scourges; but “shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?” Devout men recognized this, and uttered such penitential wails as we find in Psa 44:1-26; Psa 74:1-23.; Lam 1:1-22; Lam 2:1-22; etc.

II. THEIR RESTORATION. The establishment of the new kingdom of GodChrist’s kingdomon Mount Zion was itself a pledge of the restoration of the Jews and of their participation in its blessings. For it could not be that Christ should reign over the Gentile nations and leave “his own people” (Joh 1:11) to perish finally in unbelief. This would be opposed both to the ancient promises of God (Isa 45:17; Isa 59:20, Isa 59:21, etc.) as well as to the predictions and the heart of Christ (Mat 23:37-39). Yet there are stages in this process of restoration.

1. The halting ones are restored, but they are only a remnant. (Cf. Mic 5:3, Mic 5:7, Mic 5:8.) The immediate effect of the establishment of Christ’s kingdom was seen in a great religious revival among the Jews from Pentecost onwards. But all the converts were but a remnant of the nation which, because of its unbelief, was “broken off” (Rom 11:1-5, Rom 11:17-20). Yet in the fact of the salvation of the few the Apostle Paul sees the pledge of the final salvation of the many.

2. The banished ones shall be made a strong nation. Trace St. Paul’s inspired argument in Rom 11:1-36. till he arrives at the sublime conclusion in Rom 11:32-36. The nation’s restoration to God will be accompanied by a restoration to their own land (Zec 12:10-14; Zec 14:8-11, etc.).

3. “The Lord shall reign ever them in Mount Zion.“ We look for the restoration of Israel to their Saviour and to their land as one of the marvellous evidences of the truth of the prophetic word which God is reserving for the scepticism of these latter days. We need not anticipate a literal and local throne of Christ at Jerusalem. But the Lord Christ, being enthroned in the hearts of his long faithless yet much beloved people, will as truly “reign over them in Mount Zion” as though they had his glorified humanity always manifested in their midst. And then his reign shall be “from henceforth, even forever.” “I the Lord will hasten it in his time.”

“O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice, rejoice: Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!”

E.S.P.

Mic 4:9, Mic 4:10

Discipline and deliverance.

A glorious future has been held up to the view of the Jewish nation (Mic 4:6-8). It is like the ideals of peace and blessedness presented to all in the Word of God; like the visions of the heavenly glory set before even the most ungodly. Such promises are attractive; even the godless Jews in Micah’s time would exult in the thought of “the former dominion,” the days of David and Solomon returning to Zion. But the vision again changes. Cries of pain and distress are heard. There passes before the prophet’s mind a view of the discipline and chastisement which must fall on the disobedient nation before the promised blessings can be enjoyed.

I. THE SALUTARY DISCIPLINE. In brief, vivid words a succession of calamities is sketched.

1. Their monarchy is overthrown. “Is there no king in thee?” Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah in succession were dethroned by foreign conquerors, and carried into exile. Many national premises and blessings were bound up with the name and family of David (2Sa 7:1-29), so that the loss of their king was no ordinary loss. He was their chief stay and “counsellor” (cf. Isa 9:6), “the breath of their nostrils” (Lam 4:20). No wonder their consternation and distress: “pangs,” etc..(cf. Psa 89:38-51). Thus one step in Divine discipline then and now may be the striking down to the ground of the chief objects of our confidence, the earthly props which we seek to substitute for God.

2. They are humiliated before their foes. They “go forth out of the city;” some in a vain attempt to escape, like Zedekiah and his troops (2Ki 25:4-6); others as prisoners of war from a city which has capitulated and is being sacked by its conquerors. Illustrate from Lam 5:1-16. They are driven forth into “the field;” without shelter even from the elements unless in tents (contrast their former “ease in Zion,” Amo 6:1-7, etc.); without the protection of the old towers and bulwarks in which they had prided themselves (Psa 48:12, Psa 48:13); without weapons or leaders, and thus exposed to any indignities that these conquerors choose to inflict upon them. Thus may it be with those whose way God “turneth upside down,” stripping them of all their old sources of securitymoney, position, friends; turning them out of the “nest” in which they expected peacefully to spend the remainder of their days. Illustrate from contrasts in Job 29:1-25. and 30.

3. They are carried captive “even to Babylon.“ Babel in early days had been a symbol of a godless world power. It does not rise again on the Hebrew horizon till the days of Isaiah and Micah. Making friendly overtures to Hezekiah, it is presented to his view, by his faithful seer, as a distant, mysterious, hut formidable foe of the futureignotum pro mirifico (Isa 39:1-8.). As the ten tribes had been carried captive to Halah and Habor and adjacent districts, so should Judah be taken “even to Babylon.“ Thus is it in God’s discipline with his prodigals now. They may find themselves in “a far country,” brought down to the lowest depth of humiliation, shut out from all earthly help, shut up to God. And even now, in the midst of the pleasures of sin, prophetic voices within may warn them: “Thou shalt go forth thou shalt go even to.” The dreadful possibilities of judgment, whether in this world or another, may at times mar their peace. For, unlike the servants of God, they dare not say, “Things to come are ours.“

4. In the house of bondage pangs of sorrow must be borne. “Seventy years!”a long lifetime of captivity. “Tribulation ten days!” a time of discipline indefinite to us, though fixed by the counsel of God. Those pangs will be “resistless, remediless, doubling the whole frame, redoubled till the end for which God sends them is accomplished, and then ceasing in joy” (Pusey). For the very term “daughter of Zion” suggests hope. It is a term of friendliness, like “Father of spirits” (Heb 12:9), which reminds us of the essential relations between us and our God, and gives us a pledge that in wrath he will remember mercy (cf. Isa 57:16).

II. “THE END OF THE LORD.” Then and there the end for which the trials are sent will be reached, and deliverance will come. As with their king Manasseh, so shall it be with the nation. In their affliction they will seek the Lord (Jer 29:10-13).

1. They shall be delivered. Set free from the burden of their sins, a burden too grievous to be borne; purged from idolatry; blessed with a revival of religion, as shown by a renewed regard to God’s Law through the gracious work of his own “free Spirit” (Eze 36:16-27).

2. They shall be redeemed from the hand of their enemies. God will visit them as their Goel, their Kinsman-Redeemer, who has not forgotten or forsaken them (Jer 30:8-11). By the manifestation of his righteous grace and irresistible power they shall be “redeemed without money” (Isa 52:3), restored to their land and to the enjoyment of ancient privileges. Such is “the end of the Lord” in the discipline of life. The revelation of the Fatherhood of God in the Person of Christ and in his sacrificial death for the redemption of sinners assures us that he chastens “for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.” But it is only by sitting at his feet and learning of him, and thus being “exercised” by our trials, that we can hope to win from them “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:9-11).E.S.P.

HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS

Mic 4:1-4

The gospel age.

“But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains,” etc. “The last days” is an expression frequently used in the Old Testament. It points to the future, beginning with the Christian dispensation and running on to its close. It means the times of the Messiah. The patriarchal times had passed away, the Mosaic epoch was on the wane, and would soon vanish. The times of the Messiah, or “the last days,” would succeed, and run on to the end of time. This prophecy, with scarcely any variation, is found in Isa 2:1-22. Whether Isaiah borrowed it from Micah, or Micah from Isaiah, or both from some older prophecy, does not appear. One thing seems certain, that the prophecy has never yet been fulfilled in the history of the world, and that its accomplishment must be in some distant period”the last days.” It enables us to make certain remarks concerning the true religion of the gospel age.

I. THE TRUE RELIGION OF THE GOSPEL AGE WILL BECOME A GREAT POWER, “The mountain of the house of the Lord.” Referring particularly to the temple that was built on Mount Moriah, and called the mountain of the Lord’s house. The temple was the greatest thing in the religion of the Jews; it was the “mountain” in their scenery. The true religion is to become a mountain. The little stone will become a mountain, and fill the whole earth. In truth, the true religion, where it exists, is the biggest thing. In the individual soul it is the largest thing. It is the dominant power, it is the mountain in the scenery of a good man’s experience. Let all men possess it, and then it will be to the whole world what it is to the individual. In sooth, true religion is either everything or nothing; supremacy is its essence the supreme thought, the supreme love, the supreme aim. Two things are here stated about this mountain.

1. It is to become established. How is it to be established? By civil authority, legislative enactments? Our foolish forefathers have thought so, and many of the dolts of this generation think so too. But this to the last point is unphilosophic and absurd. The weakness of religion in Christendom today may be ascribed to the futile attempts of unwise and ambitious men to establish it by law. You may as well endeavour to govern the planetary universe by the ten commandments as to establish religion by civil laws.

2. It is to become conspicuous. “In the top of the mountains.” It will be seen from afarthe most elevated power of the world. It will be the chief thing in the markets, professions, and governments of the world, high up on the top of all.

II. THE TRUE RELIGION OF THE GOSPEL AGE WILL BECOME UNIVERSALLY ATTRACTIVE. “And people shall flow unto it.” “This is a figurative expression, denoting that they shall be converted to the true religion. It indicates that they shall come in multitudes, like the flowing of a mighty river. The idea of the flowing of the nation is of the movement of many people towards an object like a broad stream on the tides of the ocean, and is one that is very grand and sublime” (Barnes). In this period the social element will be brought into lull play in connection with true religion. Men will stimulate each other to inquire after truth. “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.”

1. They will study its laws in order to obey them. “He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” In those good times that are coming, men will study God’s ways, and not man’s theories, and study these ways, not as a matter of intellectual speculation, but in order to obey them, to walk in his ways. Religion in those days will be practical; it will be the law of every one’s life, the great regulative force of society.

2. They will study its laws at the fountainhead. “For the Law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Jerusalem was the fountainhead of Christianity. Christ commanded his disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until they should be endued with power from on high. There also he commanded that the first sermon should be preached, a sermon concerning repentance and remission of sins; and there Peter opened his commission in his wonderful Pentecostal discourse. In those days men will go for religious instruction, not to patristic, puritanic, Anglican, or any other theological school, but to the fountainhead, to Jerusalem, where it is fresh and pure, most potent in spiritual stimulation and suggestion. Men in these days have gone far away from the theology of Jerusalem. In that theology there are none of those miserable dogmas that are now preached, but facts concerning a Person, and that Person none other than the Son of man and the Son of God.

III. THE TRUE RELIGION OF THE GOSPEL AGE WILL BECOME POWERFUL TO TERMINATE ALL WARS.

1. Here is the destruction of war. “Beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.” The arts of war destroyed, in their stead will flourish the arts of peace. The sword and spear, what ills of immeasurable enormity they have inflicted upon the race! Implements of hell, instruments by which all the infernal passions of the human heart have been excited and gratified. War is antichrist.

2. Here is the establishment of peace. “Shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree.” The words, “sit under his vine,” are taken from 1Ki 4:25, etc. Most incredible must this prediction have been to the men of Micah’s time; but it will be accomplished, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. If he has spoken it and it does not come to pass, it must be for one of three reasons:

(1) Insincerity; which cannot be entertained.

(2) Change of purpose; which is equally inadmissible.

(3) Unexpected difficulties; which is an absurdity when applied to Omniscience.D.T.

Mic 4:5

Man’s religious nature.

“For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the Name of the Lord our God forever and ever.” It is trite to say, what has been said a thousand times, that man has a religious nature. Albeit the practical recognition of the fact is of immense importance; without it, more than half the history of the world would be inexplicable, all methods for its true improvement would be futile, and man would pass through this world to another without a God or any hope for a future. This verse suggests the wrong and the right development of this nature.

I. THE WRONG DEVELOPMENT. What is that? Idolatry. “All people will walk every one in the name of his god.” Polytheism proper is, and generally has been, the most popular religion in the world. Men have gods which they have made, palpable objects which they fashioned after an ideal, and the ideal not unfrequently of the most base and loathsome kind. And they walk after these gods. The mariners in Jonah’s vessel, when the storm came on, cried every man unto his god. Whence the cause of polytheism? The one great cause, which comprehends all others, is depravity. Depravity:

1. Involves moral corruption. What are heathen gods, as a rule, but the deification of the lower passions and vices of mankind?

2. Involves carnality. Depraved men are so carnal that they have no idea of real things which have not size and form and tangible properties. Hence they want a god they can see and handle and touch.

3. Involves thoughtlessnss. Polytheism cannot stand reasoning. It is supported by the thoughtless millions through the craft and sophistry of the priests. Every true thought will shatter a heathen deity.

II. THE RIGHT DEVELOPMENT. What is that? Practical monotheism. “We will walk in the Name of the Lord our God forever and ever.”

1. This is rational. The one God is the sum total of all moral properties, the Proprietor of all resources, and the Bestower of all the existences and all the blessings therewith. What can be more rational than to walk in his way? In truth, it is the only true rational way in life.

2. This is obligatory. No man is bound to walk in the name of an idol; nay, he is commanded not to do so. But every man is bound to walk in the Name of the Lordbound on the ground of his supreme excellence, his relations to man, and the obligation springing therefrom.

3. This is blessed. To walk in his Name is to walk through sunny fields abounding with all beauty and fruitfulness.D.T.

Mic 4:6-8

The moral monarchy of Christ in the world.

“In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; and I will make her that halted a remnant, and bet that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever. And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Whether the subject of these verses is the restoration of the Jews after the Babylonish captivity or the gathering of men by Christ into a grand spiritual community, is a question on which there has been considerable discussion among biblical scholars, and therefore should preclude anything like dogmatism on either side. I am disposed, however, to entertain the latter idea, because it seems most in accordance with the previous verses, in which there is an undoubted reference to the gospel age, and because it gives the passage a wide practical application. Delitzsch says, “‘In that day’ points back to the end of the days. At the time when many nations shall go on pilgrimage to the highly exalted mountain of the Lord, and therefore Zion-Jerusalem will not only be restored but greatly glorified, the Lord will assemble that which limps and is scattered abroad.” We shall take the words, then, as illustrating certain facts connected with the moral monarchy of Christ in the world.

I. IT EMBRACES AMONGST ITS SUBJECTS THE MOST WRETCHED AND SCATTERED OF MEN. “In that clay, saith the Lord, will I assemble [gather] her that halteth [that which limpeth], and I will gather her that is driven out [that which was thrust out] and her that [which] I have afflicted; and I will make her that [that which] halted [limps] a remnant, and her that [that which] was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever.” Christ was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mat 10:6), and his invitation was to all that are “weary” and “heavy laden.” The Church of Christ from the beginning has comprised those who were the most afflicted, the most scattered, and the most distressed of mankind. It has been and is the grand asylum for the tried and the sorrowful and those who are counted “the offscouring of all things” (1Co 4:13).

1. Christ‘s moral monarchy knows nothing of favouritism. It does not treat men according to their physical condition, social status, or temporal circumstances. It has respect to souls. It is as much interested in the soul of the pauper as in that of the prince, the soul of the slave as in that of the sovereign. Human monarchies have ever been taken up with man in his material relations. The more wealthy and influential a man is, the more favours will worldly kings bestow; the indigent and the homeless are only regarded as beasts of burden. Not so with Christ as the Monarch. Every soul to him is a matter of profound practical interest.

2. Christ‘s moral monarchy is remedial in its design. It brings all the miserable together in order to rid them of their sorrows. By working into human souls right principles of action and expelling wrong ones, it indirectly, though most efficiently, heals all the temporary woes of mankind. “Seek first the things from above, and all others shall be added unto you.” “Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life which now is, as well as of that which is to come.”

II. IT ESTABLISHES ITSELF AS THE GUARDIAN OF MEN FOREVER. “And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion,” etc. The address to the “tower of the flock” shows that, as the most wretched and scattered of men will be brought into a great community, so shall the reign of the daughter of Zion be restored, i.e. the Jews be converted and brought in with the Gentiles. The watch tower spoken of by Isaiah (Isa 32:14) is most likely the tower here referred to by Micah. “Flock tower” is a good expression, inasmuch as it indicates the watchfulness of Christ as a moral Shepherd, the great Shepherd of souls. It is said here that “the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” It did so come; it began with the Jews. “He came to his own, and his own received him not.” Although oh his last visit to Jerusalem the common people did receive him as their King: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” What a Guardian, what a “Bishop of souls,” is Christ!

1. He knows all his sheep. Each of the millions is known to himhis idiosyncrasies, imperfections, necessities, etc.

2. He has ample provision for all his sheep. His provisions are adapted to all, and are inexhaustible.

3. He has power to protect all his sheep.

CONCLUSION. Thank God this moral monarchy of Christ is established on our earth! The kingdom of God is come unto us. Thousands of all grades and classes have entered into it, and they have found it to be “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Would that it were universal! It will be so one day. It is not so yet, because, being moral, men have the power of resisting it.D.T.

Mic 4:9-13

The moral regeneration of the world.

“Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion,” etc. The prophet here, without doubt, refers to the carrying away of the Jews to Babylon. He refers to the consternation in which the Jews would be placed on the approach of the Chaldean army, The questions relative to a “king” and a “counsellor” (Mic 4:9) are, it is thought, put forth in bitter irony, in order to provoke an answer. “Is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished?” The answer, perhaps, would be, “Yes, we have a king, and we have counsellors, but they are utterly worthless; they have power neither to protect us from the terrible calamities nor to invent means for our escape.” The metaphor of the parturient woman seems intended to shadow forth the agony of their consternation at the idea of going forth from the city of Jerusalem, being located in the open country, and afterwards conveyed to Babylon. After this comes the promise of emancipation. “There the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.” Their restoration is metaphorically represented by a travailing woman. Whilst it is unfair to attach to Scripture a wrong interpretation, it is perfectly fair to use its passages as symbols of truths applicable to man in all ages and all lands. These words may serve to illustrate, therefore, some points in relation to the moral regeneration of the world.

I. THE STATE OF MANKIND REQUIRES IT. “Is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished?” It was more serious for the Jewish people to be deprived of a king than for any other people, for their king was theocratic; he was supposed to be the voice and vicegerent of God. The prophet means to say that when the Chaldeans would come and carry them away, they would have no king and no counsellors. Now, men in an unregenerate state:

1. Have no king. A political ruler is to man, as a spiritual energy, only a king in name. He does not command the moral affections, rule the conscience, or legislate for the inner and primal springs of all activity. Such a king is the deep want of man; he wants some one to be enthroned on his heart, to whom his conscience can render homage. No man in an unregenerate state has such a king; he has gods many and lords many, of a sort, but none to rule him, and to bring all the powers of his soul into one harmonious channel of obedience.

2. Have no counsellor. Society abounds with counsellors who proffer their advice; but some of them are wicked, most of them worthless, few, if any, satisfactory, that is, to conscience. What the soul wants is not the mere book counsellorthough it be the Bible itselfbut the spirit of that book, the spirit of reverence, love, Christ-like trust. Such a spirit, when it comes to us, will guide us into all truth; it is the “unction from the Holy One.”

3. Have no ease. “Pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.” The unregenerate soul is always liable to consternation, remorse; it often writhes in agony. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Now, moral regeneration brings the man a true King, a true Counsellor, a true Peacea peace “that passeth all understanding.”

II. IT IS OPPOSED BY FORMIDABLE ANTAGONISTS. “Many nations are gathered against thee.” The nations here referred to are those that composed the army of Nebuchadnezzar, or those that joined it in the attack against the Jews. What formidable opponents there are to the conversion of man!

1. The depraved elements of the soul. Unbelief, selfishness, carnality, etc. These are Canaanites that battle mightily against the moral Joshua.

2. The corrupt influence of society. How much, in this country and this age especially, is there struggling against man’s regeneration custom, fashion, amusements, pleasures! And then, too, acting through all these forces within and without, there are the principalities and powers of darkness; so that it comes to pass that it is no very easy thing to effect the regeneration of men; there are nations of moral forces battling against it.

III. IT IS GUARANTEED BY THE WORD OF ALMIGHTY GOD. “They know not the thoughts of the Lord,” etc. The enemies of the Jews were utterly ignorant of God’s purpose to deliver his people from Babylonish captivity. “They had not the most distant idea that the object of Jehovah, in permitting his people to be so treated, was to recover them from idolatry, and thus prepare them for a triumphant restoration. The metaphor taken from the process of threshing out grain is frequently used by the prophets to denote the complete destruction of a people.”

1. Man in ignorance fights against God‘s purpose. The Chaldeans and all the enemies of the Jews did so now. Men are always doing this. “Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

2. Man, in fighting against God‘s purpose, brings ruin on himself. It is here predicted that the enemies of the Jews should be as “sheaves,” and that the Jews themselves should be strengthened. “I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass.” “When God,” says an old writer, “has conquering work for his people to do, he will furnish them with strength and ability for itwill make the horn iron and the hoofs brass; and when he does so, they must exert the power he gives them, and execute the commission: even the daughter of Zion may arise and thresh.” The nations thought to ruin Christianity in its infancy, but it was victorious over them. Those who persisted in their enmity were broken to pieces (Mat 21:44), particularly the Jewish nation; but multitudes by Divine grace were joined to the Church, and they and their substance were consecrated to the Lord Jesus, the Lord of the whole earth.D.T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Mic 4:1. But in the last days, &c. See what has been said upon this subject on Isa 2:2; Isa 2:22.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

THIRD DISCOURSE

Micah 4, 5

Mic 4:1 And it shall be in the last days,

That the mountain of the house of Jehovah
Shall be established on the top of the mountains;
And it shall be exalted above the hills:
And peoples shall flow unto it.

2 And many nations shall go,

And shall say: Come ye,
And let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah,
And to the house of the God of Jacob;
That he may teach us of his ways,
And we walk in his paths.
For out of Zion shall go forth law,
And the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem,

3 And he shall judge between many peoples,

And decide for strong nations, to a great distance;
And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
And their spears into pruning-knives.
They shall not lift up sword, nation against nation,
Nor shall they learn war any more.

4 And they will sit, each one under his vine,

And under his fig tree,
And none shall terrify;
For the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken,

5For all the peoples walk,

Each in the name of his God;
And we will walk in the name of Jehovah,
Our God for ever and ever.

6 In that day, whispers Jehovah,

I will gather her that is lame,
And her that is dispersed will I collect together,
And whom I have afflicted;

7 And will set the lame one for a remnant,

And the far removed1 for a strong nation;

And Jehovah shall reign over them in Mount Zion,
Henceforth and forever.

8 And thou, tower of the flock,

Ophel, daughter of Zion, to thee shall approach,
And come, the former dominion,
A kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem.2

9Now why dost thou cry out aloud?

Is there no king in thee?
Has thy counsellor perished,
That pangs have seized thee as the travailing woman?

10 Writhe, and bring forth,

Daughter of Zion, as the travailing woman!
For now thou must go forth out of the city,
And dwell in the field,
And come unto Babylon.
There shalt thou be redeemed,
There shall Jehovah deliver thee,
Out of the hand of thy enemies.

11And now are gathered against thee

Many nations,
That say: Let her be defiled,
And let our eye gaze upon Zion!

12 But they know not

The thoughts of Jehovah,
And understand not his counsel;
That he collects them as sheaves into the threshing-floor.

13Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion !

For thy horn will I make iron,
And thy hoofs will I make brass,
And thou shalt beat in pieces many nations,
And I will devote3 to Jehovah their gain,

And their treasure to the Lord of all the earth.

14 (Mic 5:1.4) Now gather thyself in troops, thou daughter of troops;

They have set a siege against us;
With a staff they smite on the cheek
The judge of Israel.

Mic 5:2. (1) And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah

Small to be among the thousands of Judah,
From thee shall come forth for me
He that is to be ruler in Israel;
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From the, days of eternity.
(2) 3Therefore will he give them up,

Until the time when she that travaileth hath borne;
And the residue of his brethren shall return
To the sons of Israel,
(3) 4And he shall stand and feed,

In the strength of Jehovah,
In the majesty of the name of Jehovah, his God;
And they shall dwell; for now shall he be great
Unto the ends of the earth,

5 (4) And he will be peace;

Asshur, when he cometh into our land,
And when he treadeth upon our castles,
Then will we set up against him
Seven herdsmen,
And eight anointed of men;
(5) 6And they shall pasture the land of Asshur with the sword,

And the land of Nimrod in her gates:
And he will deliver from Asshur,
When he cometh into our land,
And when he treadeth on our borders.
(6) 7And the remnant of Jacob shall be

In the midst of many peoples,
As the dew from Jehovah,
As rain upon the grass,
Which tarrieth not for man,
Nor waiteth for the sons of men.
(7) 8And the remnant of Jacob shall be

Among the nations, in the midst of many peoples,
As a lion among the beasts of the forest,
As a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
Which, if he pass through, treadeth down,

9 (8) High be thy hand over those that distress thee,

And let all thy enemies be cut off!

10 (9) And it will be in that day, whispers Jehovah,

That I will cut off thy horses from the midst of thee,
And will destroy thy chariots;

11 (10) And I will cut off the cities of thy land,

And pull down all thy fortresses;

12 (11) And I will cut off incantations out of thy hand,

And sorcerers thou shalt not have;

13 (12) And I will cut off thy carved images,

And thy statues out of the midst of thee,
And thou shalt no more worship the work of thy hands;

14 (13) And I will tear down thy Asherahs, out of the midst of thee,

And lay prostrate thy cities;

15 (14) And will in anger and fury execute vengeance

On the nations who have not heard.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

This discourse also falls into two main portions, chapters 4. and 5., the close connection of which is shown by their contents and arrangement. The leading thought common to both is, that the deliverance and glorification of Israel is certain to come, because the promise cannot be broken, while yet it will come only through grievous afflictions, and after the deepest humiliation. In respect to the plan, Micah 4. begins, in an immediate antithesis to the threatening which had preceded,

a. Mic 4:1-8. With a description of the future glory of the kingdom of God in Israel, having Jerusalem for its central point (eight verses with forty members), and then passes,

b. Mic 4:9-13. (Six verses with thirty members), to the description of the heavy affliction, distress, and banishment of the people, which must come before their salvation.

Parallel to this, Micah 5. begins:

a. Mic 4:1-8. By describing the person and work of the Messiah, with whom that glorification must arrive (eight verses and forty members), and proceeds,

b. (Six verses with fifteen members), to the threatening which, from the nature of the case, is pronounced with this promise upon all ungodly practices in Israel.

There is nothing in the historical situation to oblige us to assume a chronological advance from the preceding discourse. For, although in Mic 4:9 ff. the picture of the affliction appears to be drawn into the immediate present, still it is prophetically given throughout, and we easily perceive that the prophet speaks not out of a state of facts corporeally visible, but from prophetic intuition.

Micah 4 : Mic 4:1-8. The future kingdom of God in Jerusalem, the centre of the world.And it will come to pass, the usual form by which the discourse is transferred to the future, so that we have to recognize an antithesis to the conclusion of the preceding chapter, without any immediate progress, but with a new flight of the discourse (Hos 2:1; Joe 3:1). At the end of the days, therefore not soon, as those false prophets supposed (Mic 2:12 f.), but only in the final completion of salvation. The phrase (Targ. , at the end of the days, LXX. ), is the opposite to (Gen 1:1) and thus denotes in the prophets (Hos 3:5; Joe 3:1; Eze 38:16, cf. Deu 4:30), the completion of the world in contrast to its creation, the aim of all ages, the last time, witli which closes the historical development in which the prophet stands and in the light of which he tests the present time and foretells the futurethe Messianic time. Then shall the mountain of the house of Jehovah, which represents, according to the connection, the whole elevated, (Mic 1:5), holy city, including Zion, called in the Messianic Psalms 87. also a foundation of God on the holy mouutains;thus in gaining a universal character prophecy gives, instead of the localities named in connection with the destruction (Mic 3:12), etc., the ideal conception of Jerusalem (cf. the Doctrinal and Ethical below),be established, not on the top of the mountains (Hengstenberg, Keil) for in this sense is construed with (Jdg 16:26), and the conception could not be carried out, but as the head of the mountains ( predicative as 1Ch 12:18; Psa 35:2; Exo 6:3; metaphorically for the first, most eminent, as 1Ch 12:18. Thus the question is already answered, whether the exaltation is to be understood as physical (Hofm., Drechsl.) or moral (Casp., Hengstenb.). The ideal Zion will be elevated above all else in the world (Isa 2:17; 2Co 10:5). The apocalyptic style of directly designating the kingdoms of the world by mountains (Rev 17:9), would suit well here, but cannot be supported for the O. T., by the passages adduced by Hengstenberg. At the bottom of the phrase lies the image presented in Psa 63:7, where the advantage which Zion enjoys as the dwelling-place of God is indicated by the envy with which the higher mountains look upon it. Before God, not the lofty but the low has value

See Mic 5:1 ff for DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL and HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.

Footnotes:

[1][Mic 5:1 of the Eng. Vers is Micah 4:14 of the Hebrew Bible.TR.]

[2] [Mic 4:8. The only considerable objection to the translation above, regarded merely as a translation, is that it makes too little account of the Athnac; but this pause seems here no more than a rhetorical suspension of the construction, and the repetition of the verb (not the same verb) approach, come (and with change of tense), makes no tautology, but only raises the soul to think of the greatness of that which should come. (Pusey.) This view appears to be favored also by the Rebhia in the second member, and is that adopted by Dr. Pusey, except that he treats as a genitive, not appositive, and translates Ophel, of the daughter of Zion. This is au allowable alternative. On Ophel. rid. Smiths Diet, of the Bib., Am. Ed.

Zunzs version reads: And thou flock-tower, the height of the daughter of Zion will come to thee, etc which makes a separate subject for each verb, and allows a more complete division at the Athnach; but it labors under the equally serious difficulty of an irregular concord between and , and keeps not quite so close to the order of the Hebrew.

Kleinerts translation, given in the exeget. notes, sacrifices the accent in making as a genitive, limit the two preceding words as a compound term; but his interpretation deserves very careful consideration.Tr.]

[3]Mic 4:13. On , vid. Lange on Jos 2:10.Tr.]

[4][Mic 4:1. Kleinert and Pusey: at the end of the days ; but means, properly, the latter part, end in that sense.Tr.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 1206
UNIVERSAL ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY

Mic 4:1-4. In the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.

THE Prophet Micah was contemporary with Isaiah; and most probably had seen his prophecies. The prophecy before us is almost word for word the same as that in the second chapter of Isaiah, except indeed the concluding part of it, which is peculiar to Micah. The mode in which the prophecy too is introduced is different. In Isaiah, it is the commencement of a new prophecy; but, in Micah, it is the continuation of a prophecy of a very different complexion. Micah was a man of singular fidelity and courage. He declared to all the elders of his nation, and in a way that made a deep impression upon all [Note: Jer 26:18-19.], that on account of their iniquities God would give up their city and temple, to be destroyed and plowed up as a field. But, whilst he announced to the Jews Gods determined purpose to punish them in this awful manner, he foretold also his intention at a future period to restore them to his favour, and to make them a source of blessings to the whole earth.

This is the substance of the prophecy before us; in elucidating which we shall notice,

I.

The universal establishment of the Christian Church.

Here it will be proper to notice,

1.

The prediction relative to it

[The temple of Solomon was built on a lofty hill: the altars also which were consecrated to false gods, were built on high places: hence the Christian Church is called by the prophet, the mountain of the Lords House, and by the Apostle Paul, Mount Zion [Note: Heb 12:22.]. Of this Church it is said, that it shall be established on the top of the mountains, that is, on the foundations of the Jewish Church, and on the ruins of all idol worship. It is the superstructure for which alone the foundations of Judaism were laid: and, when this edifice shall be complete, all idols shall fall before it, as Dagon before the ark. The period for its completion is in the last days, the days of the Messiah; a period yet future, though, we hope, not far distant. The terms of the prophecy are such as evidently to shew, that the prediction has never yet been fulfilled, and consequently, that its accomplishment is yet to be expected by us in the appointed time.]

2.

The mode of its accomplishment

[People, or, as Isaiah expresses it, all nations, shall flow unto it. Yes, this mountain shall be established on the top of mountains, and all nations, like a majestic river, shall flow unto it. By this metaphor, which is indeed a most extraordinary one, it is intimated, that all nations shall be united in one common sentiment and purpose; that their progress towards its completion shall be irresistible; and that the whole shall take place under a preternatural and divine influence; since the natural progress of a river is downward, whereas this shall be upward, to a mountain on the top of other mountains. What a grand idea does this convey! The natural propensities of all men checked in their course, and their affections directed into a channel, in which Omnipotence alone can uphold them!

But the mode in which this shall take place is more fully stated by the prophet himself. The people of different and distant lands shall suddenly become penetrated with one common principle, and shall call on one another to unite in one common cause, the cause of true religion. Come, they will say, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, the House of the God of Jacob. Just as, in the days of old, the Jews from every part of their land went up thrice a year to worship at Jerusalem; so will the Gentiles in every quarter of the globe go up with one consent to the mountain of the Lords House: God will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear him for ever.
The motives too by which they will be actuated are here distinctly specified. They will not go from regard to a particular ordinance which they feel constrained to obey, nor from a mere carnal partiality, such as the Jews evinced for their native land; but from a real desire to know, and do, the will of God. It is this which they will contemplate with such peculiar pleasure. In the Christian Church they will have an opportunity of becoming more deeply acquainted with that great mystery of godliness, God manifest in human flesh, and dying for the sins of men; and they will have ampler means of knowing the whole extent of their duty, which it will thenceforth be their one labour to perform: to attain these things, I say, will be the one object of their ambition; and they will be alike filled with this one desire, to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

This is the change which we expect assuredly to be wrought on the Gentile world in due time; and by this shall the predicted establishment of Christs Church be fulfilled.]
Yet simple, and as it might be thought weak, are,

II.

The means by which it shall be effected

The mere preaching of the Gospel is the appointed instrument which God will make use of for the attainment of this great end; The law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
The Gospel is here called a law
[It is a law, because it is authoritatively enjoined to be obeyed by every creature under heaven. And it is so called by the Prophet Isaiah, who characterizes it as Gods judgment which he would make to rest for a light of the people (the Gentiles;) even as his righteousness (or method for making people righteous before him,) and his salvation, for which all the isles shall wait, and in which they shall trust [Note: Isa 51:4-5.]. St. Paul also calls it the law of faith [Note: Rom 3:27.].]

And by the publication of that shall the great work be effected
[It was that which produced such wonderful effects in the apostolic age; and it is still a weapon mighty through God to the pulling down of the strong holds of sin and Satan. It is the rod of Gods strength which was to go forth of Zion, and by which all his enemies are to be subdued before him. If we look into the discourses of the Apostles, we shall find nothing of that high-wrought eloquence for which the orators of Greece and Rome were famed: we shall see little else than a simple exhibition of Christ crucified, and a solemn declaration, that there was no other name given under heaven whereby any man could be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ. This is the truth which still approves itself quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and still is made the power of God unto salvation to many souls. This began to be preached at Jerusalem; and is from thence come forth; and will in due time be preached unto all nations. No human power shall be called to its aid; no human policy shall cooperate with it: this alone, accompanied with power from on high, and preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, will do the work: conviction will flash upon the consciences of thousands, as on the day of Pentecost; conversion will instantly ensue: Christ being erected as an ensign, all will flock to it, and a nation will be born in a day. He shall be acknowledged by all as the Shiloh that was to come: and to him shall the gathering of the people be. The doctrine of the cross being universally proclaimed, the universal flow shall take place, and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea.]

From the work itself let us turn to the contemplation of,

III.

The fruits that shall every where proceed from it

The Lord Jesus Christ will reign in the hearts of all
[As judges of old swayed the sceptre of Israel, so will the Lord Jesus rule over the whole earth; and whatever is contrary to his will, he will rebuke and subdue. Nothing will be able to withstand his power: He will work, and who shall let it? As in former days, when he brought his people out of Egypt, and planted them in Canaan, he made them triumphant over every enemy, so will he do in the day to which we are looking forward: he will go on in the chariot of his Gospel, conquering and to conquer, till all his enemies and theirs be put under their feet.]
Then shall peace and happiness universally prevail
[The distinctions between nations will then be no longer accompanied with rivalry and hate: all will be as children of one common Father, all as members of the same body. War will then no longer be a science, which even the most peaceful nations are constrained to learn for their own preservation: the cultivation of peaceful arts will be the one desire of all; they will beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and they will learn war no more. Then also personal and domestic peace will abound throughout the world: every man will sit under his own vine and fig-tree, as in Patriarchal times, none attempting to molest him, and not so much as the fear of molestation existing in his mind [Note: Isa 32:16-18.]. Doubtless the internal peace which all will enjoy in their own heart and conscience is also to be included under this beautiful image: for the very character of Christ himself is, that he is the Prince of peace; and the character of his reign is, that it diffuses an abundance of peace throughout his whole empire, so that the peace of all floweth clown like a river. Blessed, blessed state! May the Lord hasten it, in his time!]

From this subject we may clearly see,
1.

What an unspeakable blessing the Gospel is

[Wherever the Gospel has come with power, these effects may be already in a measure seen. True it is, they are not seen to the extent that they will hereafter be, because real piety is at so low an ebb, even amongst the professed followers of Christ. But from what is partially seen, we may know what shall hereafter obtain throughout all the world. The hateful passions which produced so much hatred and contention in the world, are slain, wherever the Gospel has its due effect; and peace, and love, and every amiable disposition, have an habitual ascendant in the soul. O professors, judge yourselves in relation to this matter: see whether ye be putting off the old man, which is corrupt, with its deceitful lusts; and be putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness: and look to it, that, in these and all other respects, ye walk worthy of Him who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.]

2.

How we may ensure to ourselves all its glorious effects

[The Gentiles, in the latter days, may well be proposed as a pattern for us in the present day. Let an entire conformity of heart and life to Gods revealed will be the one object of our pursuit. Seek knowledge, not for its own sake, but for its influence upon the soul: and seek grace, not for the aggrandizement of yourselves, but that God may be glorified in the whole of your conversation. If you come up to the House of God with such dispositions as these, you will find that there is a power in the word to enlighten and sanctify the soul; and, in proportion as you cultivate these dispositions, you will grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
It will also have a good effect to animate and encourage one another. This will characterize the Christians in the latter day: and the influence of social piety will be found most beneficial to your souls. Be careful, however, when exhorting others to come up to the House of the Lord, never to omit, in spirit at least, if not in word, I will go also [Note: Zec 8:20-21.].]

3.

What glorious times are hastening upon us

[We do hope that the times here spoken of are not far distant. Multitudes of us who are here present can remember when the Church was by no means what it now is: even twenty years have made an immense difference; so great, comparatively, has been the out-pouring of Gods Spirit, beyond what it has been for centuries before. And we account it no small privilege to live in a day when some of the greatest Potentates upon earth are uniting, with their subjects of every denomination and description, to disseminate throughout the world the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. By this we may form some little judgment what to expect in that day, when, in every nation under heaven, kings shall be the nursing-fathers, and queens the nursing-mothers, of the Church. O blessed times! May God accelerate them! and may we all exert ourselves, as his instruments, to accomplish his will, and to hasten forward these glorious events! If it be thought that these prospects are too good to be ever realized; let any one only compare Britain as it now is, with what it was before the banners of the Cross were erected on our shores; and then he will see no reason to despair of those nations that are yet sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. But were the change far more beyond the reach of human probability than it is, there would be no resason to doubt of its ultimate accomplishment, since Omnipotence is pledged to effect it: It shall take place, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

CONTENTS

Here is a Chapter which looks into Gospel days, and is indeed full of blessed promises concerning the Messiah’s kingdom, from beginning to end.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

So very important in the eye of God the Holy Ghost, is this blessed prophecy, that he thought proper to commission two of his servants the Prophets to deliver it to the Church, and almost in the very same words. If the Reader will look back to the second Chapter of Isaiah’s writings, he will find the same there delivered to the Church, as the Prophet Micah hath in this Chapter. And is not this as if to say, in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall, every word be established? 2Co 13:1 . Reader! do mark the several features here set forth, of the blessings of Jesus and his gospel. His Church shall be established in spite of hell and the world. All nations shall flow to it. Every redeemed soul shall invite his neighbor. The enemies of the Church, the Lord will judge. Peace shall be established in the earth, and the Church shall enjoy uninterrupted quiet. Who that hears this, but must join in the ardent prayer of the Church; Lord! thy kingdom come!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Golden Age

Mic 4:1

The Prophet lifts his eyes away to the latter days to gain refreshment in his present toil. Without the anticipation of a golden age he would lose his buoyancy, and the spirit of endeavour would go out of his work. What are the characteristics of the golden age to which the Prophet was looking with hungry and aspiring spirit?

I. In the golden age emphasis is to be given to the spiritual. In the latter days the spiritual is to have emphasis above pleasure, money, armaments. In whatever prominence these may be seen they are all to be subordinate to the reverence and worship of God. Military prowess and money making and pleasure seeking are to be put in their own place, and not to be permitted to leave it. First things first! ‘In the beginning, God.’ This is the first characteristic of the golden age.

II. People are to find their confluence and unity in common worship. The brotherhood is to be discovered in spiritual communion. We are not to find profound community upon the river of pleasure or in the ways of business or in the armaments of the castle. These are never permanently cohesive. Pleasure is more frequently divisive than cohesive. It is in the common worship of the one Lord. It is in united adoration of the God revealed in Christ that our brotherhood will be unburied, and we shall realize how rich is our oneness in Him.

III. The conversion of merely destructive force in to positive and constructive ministries. ‘And they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruninghooks.’ That is the suggestion we seek in the golden age; all destructive forces are to be changed into helpful ministries. Tongues that speak nothing but malice are to be turned into instructors of wisdom. All men’s gifts and powers and all material forces are to be used in the employment of the kingdom of God.

IV. There is to be a distribution of comforts. ‘They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree.’ To every mortal man there is to be given a little treasure, a little leisure, a little pleasure. In the golden age peace is to be the attendant of comfort, and both are to be the guests in every man’s dwelling.

V. The beautiful final touches in this Prophet’s dream; ‘I will assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out and her that is afflicted ‘. They are all to be found in God’s family. The day of grief is to be ended, mourning shall be the thing of the preparatory day which is over; ‘He shall wipe away all tears from the eyes, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away’.

J. H. Jowett, Homiletic Review, 1904, vol. xlviii. p. 309.

The Reign of Peace

Mic 4:1-3

The Holy Ghost, we say, as we repeat our Creed, spake by the Prophets; and when we read verses like these we feel that we have here one of the great utterances thus inspired and spoken long ago. This vision of the Prophet Micah is recognized as one of the great visions of history, one of those flashes from the Divine life that remains with us as a great possession for all succeeding generations of men, illuminating, enriching, inspiring with a new spirit. But the strange and the melancholy thing is that this vision of the reign among men of the spirit of peace, a vision so noble and so beautiful, and universally recognized as expressing some of the highest and bent aspirations of the human heart, still remains unrealized, even in the most advanced and the most Christian communities.

I. These facts of life may well perplex thoughtful men. Does the goddess of warfare and strife still rule the nations, even the most civilized and the most enlightened among them? Is the issue of the days still practically as far off as it was when Micah saw it in his vision? We acknowledge that, indeed, it is not so. The issue of the days is nearer to us. We see striking phenomena on the other side great armies of peace, and self-sacrifice, and personal devotion, and charity marching to their lifelong warfare under the banner of Jesus of Nazareth; or, again, we contrast the ways of Turk and Christian, and we see that there is a great gulf separating them in all their moral and spiritual attributes, and that gulf is the witness of what you and I owe to the revelation of Jesus. That revelation has given to men a new sense of the value of each human soul. As under its influence and possessed by its spirit you look in the eyes of man, woman, or child, you are moved to a new feeling of the sacredness of human life. It has given you a new pity for human suffering in one word, a new sense of humanity.

II. The rule of the Spirit in men’s hearts, the history of moral enlightenment and progress, has been strangely partial. It has laid its redeeming hand on one nation, or race, or continent, and left another hardly touched, unmoved. It has changed one half of a man’s life and not the other half; changed, for instance, our standards of private conduct but hardly those of political conduct, bringing half of our life into, at any rate, a nominal allegiance to Christ, but leaving the other half practically pagan. How marvellously inconsistent and contradictory are the phenomena of our complex Christian society! And amidst all this there comes to us day by day, little noticed it may be in the excitement of the daily life, the soothing voice of the pleading Saviour as He stands at our side, invisible, but really present with us, calling us one by one to give Him an unstinting and not a conventional or halfhearted allegiance, to make our Christianity a real power, actual and dominant, in the practical affairs of both public and private life.

III. Among the lessons of Christ we have to learn more fully is this one that war is a weapon of barbarism, a dreadful scourge, and full of misery, and all the more because the miseries fall not on the men who make the war, but on the victims who suffer. Thus a selfish war, a war of greed, a war to satisfy the pride or the personal ambition or temper of a politician, or a really unnecessary or ill-ordered war, is a great crime. Our plain duty is to put goodwill above jealousy and enmity, and to enthrone law in the place of brute force. ‘Even in thy warfare thou must be of the peace-making spirit,’ said the great Augustine to the soldier of his day. It is a great and a good word for you and for me. Let us carry it with us into all the opinions and the conduct of our common life.

IV. It is because through all the clouds and the dust of politics and of war we see unmistakable signs of the growth and the spread of this love of peace among men, among men of goodwill, that we do not despair. The growing signs of brotherhood among nations, the growing conviction that war is a method of barbarism, the growing feeling that it is a crime, a national crime, to sacrifice the humble multitudes to the ambitions of the comparatively few, the growing recognition that, if the Spirit of Christ is to rule amongst us, and not to be a mere shadow of a name, our conduct must be regulated by law, and justice, and goodwill, and not by force or greed all this makes for growing peace and extending happiness in the years that lie before us. A great orator declared that what is morally wrong cannot be politically right. It is an obvious truth as we listen to it Well, then, let us translate it into the language of bur practical politics, for it simply means that what would be indefensible or wrong for us, as individuals, to do, cannot be right for the conduct of nations or empires. And it is because of the growing hold of great truths like this upon the consciences and the lives of men that we feel ourselves to be nearer to the ultimate fulfilment of the Prophet’s vision, even while what he saw be far off on the distant horizon.

References. IV. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No. 249. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1704. IV. 7, 8, 9. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Prophets, vol. ii. p. 129. IV. 8, 9. Ibid. p. 129. V. 2. Bishop E. H. Browne, The Messiah as Foretold and Expected, p. 56. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii. No. 57. F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings, p. 324. V. 4. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x. No. 560. V. 4, 5. Archbishop Benson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv. p. 225. VI. 2. R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. iii. p. 112. VI. 3. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 167. R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, p. 103.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

The Glory of the Church

Mic 4 , Mic 5

We cut up our time into days and years, little spaces and periods, and we magnify them exceedingly by the trifling incidents which occur within them; but to the prophetic gaze the whole question of time was divided into two the first days, and the last days; the days before Christ, and the days after Christ. As to all that went between, it was matter of detail and necessary progress, and sequential development. How much we lose by frittering away our time by a frivolous division into parts, and minor parts, and major parts! Thus we are vexed by detail, exceedingly tormented, and our minds are clouded, and the horizon is shut out, and we are the victims of little views and small conceptions and narrow prejudices. Why do we live in the valley when we might live on the hilltop? The higher we ascend the more distant is the view. There is poetry in distance, there is music in the horizon; but who can find anything in smoke and cloud and fog but depression and fear, and loss of those higher enthusiasms that ought to rule our life. Arise, awake! Climb any hill that you can get your feet upon; it is good to be much in the upper air. Politically and socially, we are always beginning and ending; we are in a circle of elections and depositions and reconstructions, but in the spirit of our Lord we are seated with himself upon the circle of eternity, and oh, how small everything appears far away yonder! Yet what trouble the inhabitants are in! how they are voting and canvassing and knocking at each other’s doors, and exciting one another in momentary fury about nothing! Yet if all this inferior and temporary business must be done it can be best done in the spirit of eternity. It is when we have been most in heaven that we can most effectually and successfully handle the affairs of time. All depends upon the point of approach: if we approach the work from below it will be all uphill toil; if we descend upon it from communion with God we shall bring the whole stress of our strength to bear upon it, and a touch will have in it the force of a battering-ram. Why all this toiling, and upheaving, and struggling, and strenuous endeavour, when life might be made a joy; when life might be made to grow the flower of peace and the fruit of plenty, and the whole action might be a movement of triumph? Men will not be right until they are geometrically right; they must have the right point of origin; they must put themselves into proper figure; they must accept something that was in the universe before they came consciously into it; they must receive, and adore, and obey the will of God. The prophets looked forward to Christ, and we do just the same. We talk about ancient prophets there is nothing in the world but prophecy. Yet we have in our transient wisdom classified men into major prophets and minor prophets, and we go to the Old Testament for prophets of all sorts and qualities, forgetting that Jesus Christ is the greatest Prophet of all, and that Christians are still in the region of prophecy, and that if we could get out of the region of prophecy, we should soon get into the region of monotony, and the region of monotony lies close to the region of despair. It is hope that saves us; it is prophecy that gives us all our music and higher cheer and nobler enthusiasm; it is the beyond that holds our home, and it will be the beyond eternities hence. To see the invisible is to live; to lay hold of the eternal is to be safe for evermore.

“But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established” ( Mic 4:1 ).

There is a word wanting there; at least, the word is wanting in the English. The word was in the language of the prophet and in the tone of the prophet. The word “established” may be accepted as conveying a sense of only temporary security. We speak of our establishments, we speak of an established institution; but in so using the term we are aware that the establishment is regulated by certain unwritten and necessary laws, which govern the rise, the flourishing, and the decay of empire and institution. Micah used a word which means abidingly established, for ever firm, eternally secure. Not established even as a mountain is established, for mountains were planted that they might be torn up. Below the mountain there is a fire mightier than they, and that gleesome, grim, playful fire makes toys of the mountains, shapes them and reshapes them, lifts them up and tears them down; and yet we speak of the everlasting hills. Micah is now speaking of an eternal settlement, a position that never can be disturbed, part and parcel of the duration, because part and parcel of the quality of God. Where shall the mountain of the Lord’s house be established? on “the top of the mountains.” Whatever is on the top of the mountain is higher than the mountain. A child standing on the Andes, or Teneriffe, or Himalayan glories, is higher than they all. The little child looks down upon the mountain it stands upon; the mountain was never so high as that child is. Here is the mountain of the house of the Lord; it is a mountain upon a mountain. The house of the Lord itself is spoken of under the figure of a mountain, and the mountains of the earth have to carry the mountain of God. They are all his; he made the staircase as well as the temple; he made the vestibule as well as the palace; he made the earth first, and then he built upon it; he made the mountain first, and then he set his Church on the top of it. The meaning is, that the Church is to be the uppermost institution, the sanctuary of God is to be at the top of things, and out of it is to come law; out of it also is to come the spirit of righteousness, and out of it, day by day, is to come the spirit of peace, the spirit of benediction. We must be right at the top, or we never can be right otherwhere. Given a proper sovereignty, a rule of righteousness, truth, beauty, love, music, honour, and we shall have a world at peace. Who is on the throne? is the uppermost question. Who reigns? What governs? for the “what” in that case is larger than the “who.” Say righteousness is on the throne, and the earth may be at peace; say the highest interests of humanity as a whole are represented by the throne, and no misfortune can befall that symbol of majesty. Every Church that is selfish must be torn down; nay, may we change the phrase, and say, Why tear it down? Time is against it; the ages coming and going are against it; the spirit of liberty is against it; Providence is against it. Distress not thyself, therefore, with any tearing down violence, for all bad institutions, political, ecclesiastical, theological, social, will fall, and no man shall care to look into their dishonoured graves.

What a wonderful forecast was this on the part of the villager Micah! The prophecies of these men seem to my own mind not only to suggest, but to confirm their inspiration. This is not only talk. Here are men that shoot out above us all, miles and miles beyond. They are in the heavens, whilst we are on the earth. Yet they were unlearned men they were rustics, they were villagers; they laid down their credentials, and in those credentials there is nothing of so-called ancestral and hereditary glory. But how they lived! They sat down as guests at the banqueting-table of the ages. Micah, the villager, comes and sits down at the latter-day feast; he is a guest of the Lord, and takes part in the song of festival. We might have more joys if we understood that all things are ours. All time belongs to the children of light. We are not bounded by the little grey dewy morning of the present; we have all the mornings that ever grew in the garden of the horizon. We are only poor because we are faithless. If we had faith we should have all time, all strength, all confidence, and all peace. Lord, increase our faith.

What does Micah see? Whole nations coming to the Lord, and saying to one another,

“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” ( Mic 4:2 ).

Here is a popular sentiment; here is, indeed, a universal sentiment. At present our ideal Christian life is represented by a one-man ministry. If you close your eyes, and look upon the ideal Church of to-day, it is that there shall be a congregation, and one man shall be addressing it; and that one man shall sustain the position of exhorter, and in high, poignant, hortatory tones he shall call men, and warn men, and bless men. Micah saw a much larger ministry; he said, The time will come when the people will exhort one another; when all the congregations shall mutually excite one another to higher enthusiasm and nobler endeavour. Wherever you meet a man he will say, Come to the mountain of the house of the Lord; wherever you see an assembly of men they shall, with one concurrent and dominating voice, say, Come! and their call will be to festival, to banqueting, to the holy rite of harmonious joy in the living Saviour. What wonder that Micah was rich and strong, and full of peace and gladness! The image is one of an inspiring kind.

What shall happen when this mountain of the house of the Lord is exalted on the top of the mountains? This shall come to pass,

“And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” ( Mic 4:3 ).

How is that result brought about? Not by argument, not by voting, not by overwhelming majorities; it is brought about as a detail it is part of something else, it is the issue of a certain all-inclusive process. The third verse is in the second verse: let the mountain of the house of the Lord be in its right place, and all other things shall adjust themselves to the genius that presides and governs. We have been working at the wrong end too much; we have been trying to do things in parts that were never meant to be done, except as in relation to sublimer movements. Let the temple of the Lord be in the right place; let it be rightly defined as the sanctuary of righteousness and judgment, the abode of law and the home of pureness and peace, and then all other things will fall into harmonic and helpful relation. We cannot carry on our poor shoulders the universe; it is impossible for us to hasten millenniums to any appreciable extent. We lose ourselves so much in false enthusiasm. The thing to be remembered is this, that you never can have peace until you have righteousness; you cannot have a happy earth until that earth is governed by eternal and indestructible principles: if you think you can, then you will have reformations, and insignia, and paraphernalia, and clubs, and arrangements of divers social kinds, all of which may be momentarily pleasant. They will never bring in the millennium. Only one thing can carry the earth, and that is gravitation. Gravitation will pick it up, but your hands cannot, your institutions cannot, your politics cannot; only one thing keeps the universe right, and sends it whirling through its musical revolutions, and that is gravitation. Gravitation can pick up a thousand universes, and hold them all in fact, it can make them hold one another; but we, with our poor shoulders, yea, with both of them, cannot carry the tiniest planet. Better come to an understanding about this whole business of reformation, elevation, education, and progress. Nothing is right until it is religiously right. By religiously right do not understand any mean, detestable, and utterly unworthy sectarian interpretation of the term. Dismiss all meddlers, welcome all helpers; but know that nothing is right until it is right in its soul. All compromises, adjustments, and temporary relationships are but for a moment. That is right which is religiously true; that is right which God pronounces very good.

What comes after peace? Security:

“But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid” ( Mic 4:4 ).

The vine and the fig tree were children of Palestine, they were the typical plants of the country; and every man shall have his own vine growing by his own door, and putting out its leafage so plentifully that it can curl itself around the trellis-work of the portico, and the old grey-haired sire shall sit and think over the past, and forecast the future, and meditate in the law of the Lord, the very air itself being a speechless benediction. There shall be personal security, there shall be a sense of nearness to God; but all coming out of the proper establishment of the house of the Lord. If that house had not been on the top of the mountains you could not have had the vine and fig tree; or if you had the vine and fig tree they would have been no security. If you had no sun you could have no violet. Is that little blue-eyed thing born in the sun? Yes. If you had no solar system you could have no daisies in the meadow, no redbreasts, no larks, no songs in the air. Do not look at the violet and say, “Bless thee, sweet little blue-eyed stranger, we are glad to see thee,” and think that it is not part of the solar system: it eats at the table of the angels, it is a guest in the household of the Father; it is a snip of the sun, one infinitesimal glint of his infinite light. So you could not have your vine and fig tree if you had not the mountain of the house of the Lord established on the top of the mountains. Religion carries everything with it. It is a true religious settlement that gives you your home, your cottage, your palace; it is the spirit of righteousness that hangs your walls with pictures; it is the spirit of goodness that makes it possible for the poorest man to have one poor little pot of flowers on his sloping window-sill. Look at things in their right relations. Seize the bigness and unity of all things. Otherwise, what shall happen to you? You will be the victims of detail and accident and incident and hap, and you will say, Chance thus, and thus it fell out. Nothing of the kind. Why do you not live in the sanctuary? Why do you not find your habitation in eternity?

“For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever” ( Mic 4:5 ).

Why not? Do not worldly men excel us in this matter of brute courage? It is difficult for the worldly man to keep down his vulgarity. He will chaffer about the market-place before he leaves the church; he will say his creed. The worldly man is not afraid to speak about his markets, and his bargains, and his chances, his profits and his successes; is the Christian to be a dumb soul that has nothing to say about the living Lord? The worldly man will talk about his unclean little deities, his chance and his fortune, his opportunities and his investments, and his progress and his sagacity, and he will revel in the detestable pantheon of his own imagination and idolatry; and shall Christian men have nothing to say about righteousness and truth, the all-grouping and all-controlling Cross? If dumbness were piety, Christianity may be said to have won the day.

Now comes the great evangelical prophecy. Hear it, and remember who spake it:

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” ( Mic 5:2 ).

If we were not familiar with these words they would be amongst the grandest utterances of the ages; we know them so well that we miss their meaning. We are too frivolous. We have seen the sun so often that we now never look at him; we have been so many mornings in the world, that morning comes to us with no song, no poetry, no new testament just written with the blood of the heart of God. “But” should be “And.” Nor is the word “and” a simple conjunctive in grammar; it is a conjunctive in history, in genius, in spiritual intent, “And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah.” Thus the events are run into one another. We slip up history by our disjunctives. “But” we assign as dividing a sentence; Micah says “and.” Many a chapter begins with “and.” The little pedantic grammarian says “and” ought not to begin a sentence; but the great grammarians, the spiritual interpreters of ages and eternities, make all grammar bend itself to their uses. Chapter iii. begins “And.” Thus we get the unity of history, the solidarity of events. One thing belongs to another: Bethlehem, thou art very little, but out of thee shall come the greatest Man that ever lived; Bethlehem, thou art not worthy to be counted among the Gileads of Judah, but out of thy little thousand there shall stand a man who shall rule all men. There is a wonderful spirit of compensation in providence. God is saying to each of us, Though thou art poor, thou mayest be wise; though thou art slow, thou mayest be painstaking and persevering; thou art though misunderstood by men thou art fully comprehended by thy Father. Look for the “though” in every history; look for the compensation in every life. “… From of old, from everlasting” here is pre-existence; the whole mystery of the Gospel is here; for here we have eternity, personality, a historical point; we have the divine before the human. In the Old Testament language God is called by a very simple term the God of Before. You cannot amend that phrase; do not paint that lily, bring no tinsel to that gold. If we cannot understand the term “Eternity” because of its vastness and its sublimity, we have some inkling of the meaning of the word “before.” Of the Saviour, the Nazarene, the Man of Sorrows, of him who was acquainted with grief, whose face was marred more than any man’s, it is said he was “before all things.” Here is the altar at which we worship, nor are we ashamed to render homage here.

Prayer

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? He is mighty to save; he is the Son of man, who came not into the world to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. He is the good Shepherd; he giveth his life for the sheep. We do not know the meaning of all his words, but we feel them as we feel the power of love; we know them without knowing them; they are answered by our hearts: we feel that we need all his speech, all his life, all the miracle of his priesthood. We have done the things we ought not to have done; he alone is the Daysman between the offending soul and the offended law. We have heard of him with the hearing of the ear, and when we have seen him with the eyes of our heart we have fallen down before him as men abase themselves before a great glory. He is the Son of God; he is called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. We love his name; with tears and heart-brokenness we bow down before his Cross; it is the image of law, the image of love, the sign of righteousness, the token of mercy. This is love, this is the condescension of God. We look unto Christ, and are lightened; we bring our sins to him, and never take them away again; he is the Saviour of the world; he puts his arms round about the race he redeemed, and none can pluck a soul from his keeping. We are safe in the arms of Jesus; locked in his hand, we are safe eternally. In such thoughts would we find light, consolation, peace, encouragement; we would not receive them as topics of contemplation, but as stimulants to action, calls to service, challenges to sacrifice. Thus would we have the gospel of Christ in our hearts, a call to labour, to suffering, to heroism, and to all the joy that comes of agony for others. The Word of the Lord is a living Word; the tumults of the ages cannot disturb it; its pulse throbs amid the activities of the generations, and is not to be stilled, for it is the eternal life. May we hear the gospel, now and again a great call, a tender voice, a loving whisper, a martial blast, the very wonder of the glory of God. May thy Word comfort human hearts and direct human steps, and bring all the uproar and shapelessness of life into form and beauty and living colour, so that we may see God in all things, and hear his voice in the storm. Grant consolation unto thy servants according to their daily need; make the home a church; make the market-place a sanctuary; make the chamber of affliction the very nearest chamber in the house towards heaven. May sorrow bring messages which prosperity could never deliver. May all the way of life show itself to have been first trodden by the feet of the Son of God. He is our glory, our redemption, our propitiation; he is the door, the bread of life, the truth, the way to the upper places, the shepherd of the sheep, the vine whose blood is for our hearts’ cheering. Help us to know the Saviour more and more, to live more nearly as he lived, to represent him in temper, spirit, purpose, action, in all the course of changeful time. These prayers we pray, where prayers become their own answers, at the Cross of Christ, at the gate of heaven. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXIX

THE BOOK OF MICAH PART 2

Micah 3-7

The title of this section (Micah 3-5) in the analysis is “A Gross Sin, a Great Salvation (Restoration), and a Glorious Saviour.”

The prophet characterizes their sin in Mic 3:1-4 . In Mic 2 we have a painful picture of their sins but in this paragraph we have a more detailed account of their sins and the punishment. He again addresses the heads of Jacob and the rulers of the house of Israel, and asks them the question, “Is it not for you to know justice?” You are the men that should do right: you are the men appointed to bring justice to the people, but what are you like? “You hate the good, and love the evil.” And then he gives another and more terrible description of their oppression and the way they have treated the poor, “who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones; and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron,” which of course) is an extremely strong way of putting it. Before the French Revolution it was much the same. A peasant said, “They crop us as a sheep would crop the grass,” and another peasant made the remark, “They treat us as if we were but food.” This condition existed many times previous to the time of Micah, and many times since. The result will be destruction: “Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them; he will even hide his face from them at that time.”

Micah attacks the false prophets in these words: “Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people to err; that bite with their teeth.” Most people thus bite, but these prophets had a peculiar purpose in biting with their teeth; they did all their prophesying that they might have something to bite. “They bite and cry, Peace; and whoso putteth not into their mouths they even prepare war against him.” Just as in Jeremiah’s day so they did in Micah’s day; both prophets had to contend with the false prophets. “And whoso putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him,” that is, if a person did not feed them or give them something they proclaimed a war against him in the name of God. Because of this, the result would be darkness, mental, moral, and spiritual as well as political: “It shall be night unto you that ye shall have no vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them.”

The seers, the soothsayers, the diviners, the visionaries, the fortunetellers, and the class that live by preying upon the people, shall be ashamed and confounded; “Yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.”

Now, the contrast between those false prophets and Micah, the true prophet of God, follows: “But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.” The difference is an ethical and a spiritual one. One is indwelt and filled with the power of the Spirit, the other is indwelt and filled with the power of his own selfish ambition and desires. The difference is fundamentally one of character. In Mic 3:9-12 we hear Micah, again addressing the heads of Jacob, accusing them of abhorring justice and perverting equity. He says, “They build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us: No evil can come upon us.”

They felt this way when Jeremiah prophesied their downfall; they said, “The Temple ! The Temple! The Temple! It is impossible! This city, this temple, this people of Jehovah: God will protect us.” And in reply to this plea of false safety Micah says, “Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.” This, the princes in Jeremiah’s time said, produced in Hezekiah a deep repentance, and was largely influential in producing the reformation under that excellent king.

Micah’s vision of the mountain of the Lord’s house is found in Mic 4:1-5 . This magnificent passage is to be found almost word for word in Isaiah. Micah says,

In the latter days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow unto it. And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. Mic 4:1-4

If we compare that with Isa 2:1-4 we see the verbal likeness between the two.

And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and say. Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. Isa 2:2 ff.

As we stated before these two prophets were contemporaries. Now the question arises, Which of these two copied from the other, which borrowed the other’s thought and the other’s phraseology, or are they both original, or did both Isaiah and Micah borrow from another prophet? It is the idea of a great many of the critics that both borrowed from another prophet, an earlier one, but it is not necessary to infer that Isaiah was the kind of man who needed to borrow from any other prophet. He himself was one of the most sublime poetic geniuses the world had ever seen; he possessed an imperial imagination, and he never needed to borrow or plagiarize. It seems more probable that Micah borrowed from Isaiah, if any borrowing was done. They lived in the same age, they prophesied at the same time and in the same city, and no doubt were acquainted with each other. They moved in a similar circle of ideas, and it is possible that a similar idea would come to both at the same time; that the Spirit of God would present a vision to each mind very much the same. That is possible, but the most reasonable explanation is that this is Isaiah’s vision, his phraseology, his picture. It is Isaiah’s imagination and Isaiah’s literary genius that is behind this, and Micah being familiar with the thought incorporated it into his prophecy and adds Mic 4:4-5 which we do not find in Isaiah, thus:

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. For all peoples walk every one in the name of his god; and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

For the interpretation and fulfilment of this great prophecy see, Interpretation on Isa 2:1-4 , pp. 115-117.

The thought is carried forward in Mic 4:6-8 . This is the promise of the restoration. Here he takes up the same thought from a little different standpoint. He comes now to the details and peculiarities of the age and deals with the conditions of those people to whom he is speaking, thus: “In that day, saith Jehovah, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted.” This refers to the exiles. “And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off, a strong nation; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.” This agrees with Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. This is a picture of the restoration, while the other was a picture of the restored kingdom. This picture of the former power and dominion is expressed thus: “Thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, yea, the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”

A period of anguish must precede this restoration. This is indicated by Micah’s questions, thus: “Now why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee?” There didn’t seem to be when we remember the king was such a weakling. “Is thy counselor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail?” All good counsellors had perished. He goes on: “Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shall thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt come even to Babylon: there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord will redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.” This statement, that they should go into Babylon troubles the critical school. They say that Babylon was not in the ascendancy in the time of Micah. Assyria was the nation that loomed upon the horizon as the power that would destroy, therefore they reason that Micah could not have conceived of Babylon being the place of exile because Babylon was not the leading nation. Of course, according to their theory Micah could not see into the future one hundred years.

They also say that this is an interpolation, in fact many of them say that Micah did not prophesy this at all, but it was spoken during the exile or after by some anonymous writer. But in Mic 4:11 he pictures the attitude of the other nations toward Judah and Jerusalem, thus: “Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see our desire upon Zion.” Isn’t that exactly why Ezekiel prophesied against all these nations and buried his threats of denunciation against them? Now Micah gives the reason why they act thus: “They know not the thoughts of Jehovah, neither understand they his counsel; for he hath gathered them as the sheaves into the threshing-floor.” Because of his attitude toward Judah they will be gathered as sheaves on the floor to be threshed.

The call of Mic 4:13-5:1 is a call to liberty and dominion. The prophet is now speaking of triumphant Israel whose time of deliverance is at hand, and through whom the nations are to be beaten and threshed in punishment. He says to the people of Israel, “Arise, and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples: and I will consecrate their gain unto Jehovah, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.” The figure is that of a great threshing floor upon which the sheaves lay, and the threshing instruments are driven over them, Israel is to be as a threshing instrument of iron which shall be driven over the other nations, and shall break in pieces many people, and their wealth shall be taken by Israel and devoted to the worship of Jehovah. That corresponds with Isa 60 one of the finest passages in Isaiah’s writings.

It also resembles his prediction of Tyre, which shall be destroyed and her whole wealth devoted to the worship of Jehovah. In Mic 5 he again summons Israel to activity: “Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us; they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.” A strange expression, “they shall smite.” In spite of the fact that “thou hast been smitten, arise, smite back and conquer; your time has come, your dominion ye shall receive again.”

Mic 5 is devoted to the glorious Saviour and consequent deliverance, or the messianic King and the Blessedness of Israel. This is another view of the same glorious age of the restoration, a different vision, a different point of view, but essentially the same.

The king of this blessed age arises from among the poor (Mic 5:2-4 ). We saw in the last chapter that Micah was the prophet of the poor, that his sympathies went out for them in particular and now when he pictures this glorious age, and its king as rising, he represents him as rising from the poor class: “But thou Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Bethlehem, the home of David, the village where the shepherd boy, who afterward became the shepherd king, lived, the place dear to the heart of every Israelite; this is to be the place whence the king shall come. It is one of the smallest places, the most insignificant and most obscure little villages.

It was no accident that the Saviour of the world rose from among the poor, the working class. Is it not the most fitting thing that could possibly have happened that a king of the world should rise from among the poor? Whether it be wise or not in our estimation it certainly was in God’s estimation, and a little thought along that line will convince us that God could not have done a wiser thing than to have Christ rise from among the poor people. “Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting,” that is, there have been prophecies of him that had been looking forward, expecting him, and he had been manifesting himself in various ways from the beginning, and had been set forth in types and shadows as the one who should come and appear in his glory. Then he goes on with his picture: “Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.” And then this king, this shepherd-king, this descendant of David, as it says in Mic 5:4 , shall stand and shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. This is the picture of the Shepherd so common in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea, and again in that immortal parable of the shepherd as found in Joh 10:1 . “And they shall abide, for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.”

Micah’s vision of him as a deliverer is found in Mic 5:5-6 He is here presented as the one who shall deliver them from the Assyrian. He uses the Assyrian here because the Assyrian was the great barbaric power that was rising up on the horizon of the world at that time and extending her power over every nation. The very name itself sent terror to the people of that time. “And this man shall be our peace. When the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.” These officials will surround him as his cabinet, to stand by, to support, to give aid, and he will be amply and ably supported on his throne. “And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof.” On time’s horizon the end seems close with Micah. Twenty-six hundred years or more have passed by since, and time’s horizon is yet enlarging. The Assyrians have been extinct since a hundred years after Micah’s time. So the Assyrian here is used to represent the enemies of the Messiah’s kingdom and thus includes all the nations that know not God.

The relation of Israel to her friends and to her foes is stated in Mic 5:7-9 . To her friends the remnant of Jacob shall be as dew from Jehovah, as showers upon the grass that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.” That is true yet regarding the remnant of Israel. But for their enemies, “the remnant of Jacob shall be among all the nations in the midst of many people, as a lion among the beasts of the forests and as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go through both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.” This is not to be taken literally. There is a sense in which God’s people go forth like a lion, conquering, but the Messiah’s kingdom is spiritual.

Israel’s relation to idolatry in this new condition is set forth in Mic 5:10-15 . All idolatrous connection shall be rooted out: “I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots: and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strongholds. And I will cut off witchcraft out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers: thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.” Israel shall be cleansed of her idolatry.

The title of Micah 6-7 in the analysis is “Jehovah’s Controversy with His People.” This is a different section of the book of Micah, different problems arise here, different modes of expression. A great many of the critics maintain that this was written during the reign of Manasseh when idolatry was revived, and heathen sacrifices were carried on. It would fit in with the reign of Ahaz, however, and Micah prophesied during the reign of Ahaz, Jotham, and Hezekiah. The conditions found here existed during that time.

The case of the controversy of Jehovah with his people is stated in Mic 6:1-9 . Here Jerusalem is called upon, thus: “Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, the Lord’s controversy and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.” All nature is called upon to hear. This is not mere poetry: there is eternal truth underlying it. “The Lord hath a controversy with his people and he will contend with Israel.” He goes on to describe the controversy. What is it about? Not about sin. Jeremiah calls the people to a great controversy regarding their sin; Micah does not. It is how they shall serve Jehovah, how they shall worship him.

Jehovah speaks: “O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.” A marvelous statement, Jehovah asking his people to testify against him, if they have anything to testify. What condescension! Just like Isaiah I “Come now and let us reason together.” Then he goes on, “For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” “Remember what happened between Shittim and Gilgal,” that plain bordering on the Jordan in Moab, and Gilgal across the Jordan. What happened between these two places? “Ye know the great miracle I performed, the stopping of the waters, and the multitude crossing over on dry ground; remember that ye may know the righteous acts of Jehovah.” Mic 6:6 gives a little glimpse into the religious condition of the people, “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?” They had been doing that in abundance. “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? and shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” The numbers used are an exaggeration of course, for purposes of rhetoric and making it effective “with ten thousands of rivers of oil.” Oil was a part of the sacrifice and worship. “Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” This gives us an idea of what the people were doing, and how they were worshiping. They were sacrificing the first-born, and seemed to seriously believe that Jehovah required them to do so.

Mic 6:8 is one of the greatest passages in the Old Testament. Micah sums up the whole of religion in one little verse; he gives one final answer to all such questions as to how we should serve and worship God, thus: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” No prophet or writer ever summed up the whole duty of religion better than Micah does here to do justly, righteously in all conduct, i.e., kings, rulers, business magnates, commercial princes, millionaires, land owners, workmen. That is the first thing. And more than that, “love mercy,” go beyond strict justice; go farther than that, delight in tenderness, show mercy. That goes as far as Christianity almost. And then finally, “humble thyself to walk with thy God,” or “walk humbly with thy God”; the better translation, perhaps is, “Humble thyself to walk with God.” This is the finest expression that has ever been used to describe the service of true religion: “Do justly,” there is our relationship in all civil life. “Love mercy,” there is, our relationship in all home life, family life, all social life; there is the tender side of human life. “Walk humbly with God”; there is the divine side. There is just one passage that equals this, says Dr. George Adam Smith, and that is where Jesus says, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Mat 11:28-29 ).

The charges here against the city (Mic 6:9-16 ) are their various sins which are the reasons for Jehovah’s visitation. Here we have the city’s life pictured in a vivid and lurid way. Mic 6:9 , “The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.” Mic 6:10 , “Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?” Mic 6:11 , “Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? For the rich men thereof are full of violence and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.” And because of this he utters his threat of destruction and predicts the utter desolation of the country and the people. In Mic 6:16 he charges them with following the example of Omri: “For the statutes of Omri are kept and all the works of the house of Ahab.” Ahab seized Naboth’s vineyard and they followed his example, “and ye walk in their counsels: that I may make thee a desolation and the inhabitants thereof an hissing; therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.”

The prophet’s part in the case is found in Mic 7:1-6 . He appears as the prosecuting attorney here in this passage and bewails the utter corruption of society: “Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat; my soul desireth the first ripe fig. The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.” It does not necessarily mean literal blood, but when one takes away a man’s means of support, his wages, his necessities of life, he takes away his life because he will have less of the necessities of life. The oppression of the poor is simply the taking of the blood of the people. “They hunt every man his brother with a net,” and how many businessmen there are in this age that do love to get the net around another man! “That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward; and the great man, uttereth his mischievous desire; thus they weave it together.” There is a lot of sharp dealing among them, a hard people to deal with; “The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.” No one can be trusted. When a man dare not confide in his own wife, it is about as bad as it can be. “For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.” How desperate the entire life of the nation must have been with every form of deceit practiced. Jesus Christ used this very expression to tell how his gospel was going to cause division and enmity.

The righteous remnant takes part in the case (Mic 7:7-13 ). They plead guilty and hope for mercy and pardon. It is the voice of the prophet and in the prophet the voice of the righteous kernel the true Israel that speaks here, not the voice of the people nor the rulers, but the righteous kernel, the true Israel, the mother of sorrow. Notice what she says in resignation: “As for me, I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.” That is a fine text, and the next one is even better: “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.” To translate it literally: “I have fallen, I will arise.” Faith seldom, if ever, in dark moments, uttered a more hopeful, a more blessed sentiment than that. In Bunyan’s immortal allegory, where he describes Christian in the Valley of Humiliation and fighting with Apollyon, and Apollyon throws him to the ground, Christian thrusts him with his sword, quoting these words, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise.” In Mic 7:9 we have a note of resignation that is beautiful: “I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me; he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.” How hopeful and trustful that is!

Now the effect upon his enemies: “Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.” He gives another glimpse of the future: “In that day thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.” That reminds us of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls. Micah says the time will come when the walls will be rebuilt. “The decree”; we do not know just what is meant here, perhaps the marginal reading, “boundary,” is correct. Then he goes on to picture in glowing language the return of the people from all nations whither they have been scattered: “They shall come unto thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress, even to the River, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain,” but that is to be after the desolation takes place, for in Mic 7:13 , it says, “Notwithstanding, the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.”

The prophet’s final plea for and hope held out to Israel is as follows: “Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.” This seems to imply that Northern Israel had not been depopulated in Micah’s time, for just before this Tiglathpileser had deported all Palestine beyond the Jordan; that seems to have taken place and Micah pictures the return here as the people coming to feed in Bashan in the land from which they had been taken.

The hope here is that the nations, when they see this, shall come in dread and dismay, Mic 7:17 . “The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth; their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like the serpent,” referring to the account in Gen 3 regarding the serpent, saying that dust should be his meat, and that he should move along close to the earth and should lick up the dust. “They shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee.” A picture of the terror of the nations after the Restoration. Ezekiel pictures them as being utterly subdued, so does Jeremiah to some extent, but Micah pictures them as being in abject submission and terror, crawling like servile beasts in fear before the presence of Israel.

Now come the beauties of the doxology (Mic 7:18 ): “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.” Isn’t that a beautiful picture of God? There are several texts there. “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us: he will subdue our iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” How deep is the sea? In some places it is five miles deep. If their sins are cast down to the bottom of the sea they are gone forever. And he closes this beautiful statement thus: “Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to ABRAHAM, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.” He goes back to Abraham, God’s promise to him: “All nations shall be blessed in thee,” and that promise must be fulfilled.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the title of this section (Micah 3-5) in the analysis?

2. How does the prophet characterize their sins in Mic 3:1-4 , what instances in modern history, and what is the result of the sin of Jacob?

3. Describe Micah’s attack on the false prophets and his contrast between himself and them.

4. What charge does Micah bring against the heads, the priests & the prophets, respectively, what their reply and what the consequent result?

5. What is Micah’s vision of the mountain of the Lord’s house (Mic 4:1-5 ), how does it compare with Isa 2:1-4 . Who borrowed in this case?

6. How is the thought carried forward in Mic 4:6-8 ?

7. Describe the period of anguish that must precede this restoration, the radical critics’ position on this passage, and the attitude of the other nations toward Judah and Jerusalem.

8. What is the call of Mic 4:13-5:1 ?

9. To what is Mic 5 devoted?

10. What Micah’s vision of this king as to his origin and place of birth?

11. What Micah’s vision of him as a deliverer and why the mention of the Assyrian in this connection (Mic 5:5-6 ) ?

12. What the relation of Israel to her friends and to her foes (Mic 5:7-9 )?

13. What shall be Israel’s relation to idolatry in this new condition (Mic 5:10-15 )?

14. What the title of Micah 6-7 in the analysis and what can you say in general of this section?

15. State the case of the controversy of Jehovah with his people (Mic 6:1-8 ).

16. What can you say of the beauty and meaning of Mic 6:8 and what the application of its several points?

17. What are the charges here against the city (Mic 6:9-16 )?

18. What is the prophet’s part in the case (Mic 7:1-6 )?

19. What part does the righteous remnant take in the case (Mic 7:7-13 ), and what hope do they see?

20. What is the prophet’s final plea for and hope held out to Israel?

21. What are the beauties of the doxology (Mic 7:18 )?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Mic 4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, [that] the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

Ver. 1. But in the last days it shall come to pass ] God reserveth his best comforts till the last, as that ruler of the feast did his best wine, Joh 2:10 , and as the sweetest of the honey lieth at the bottom. These last days are the Gospel days, Heb 1:2 , times of reformation, Heb 9:10 , of restitution, Act 3:21 , called the world to come, Heb 2:5 , that “new heaven and earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” 2Pe 3:13 , that new Jerusalem, that is all of gold, Rev 21:18 , Ezekiel’s new temple, larger than all the old Jerusalem, and his new Jerusalem, larger than all the land of Canaan, Eze 40:41-49 . Let Popish buzzards blaspheme that description of the temple and city; calling it (as Sanctius doth once and again) insulsam descriptionem, a senseless description; so speaking evil of the things that they know not, Jdg 1:10 . We believe and are sure, Joh 6:69 , that God hath provided some better thing for us than for those under the law, Heb 11:40 , viz. that great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh, 1Ti 3:16 , who should again restore the kingdom to Israel, the spiritual kingdom to the Israel of God; as is here foretold in the self same words with those of Isaiah, Isa 2:1-2 , whence he is not ashamed to take it.

That the mountain of the house of the Lord ] The Church, 1Ti 3:15 , called elsewhere the mountain of the Lord, and his holy hill, Psa 15:1 ; Psa 24:3 ; Psa 48:2 Isa 30:17 , both for its sublimity, Gal 4:26 , and firmness, Psa 46:3 ; Psa 125:1 : winds and storms move it not; no more can all the power and policy of hell combined prevail against the Church, Mat 16:18 . She is , a kingdom that cannot be shaken; and may, better than the city of Venice, take for her posy Immota manet. May she stand immovable.

Shall be established in the top of the mountains ] Constituetur firmiter, She shall be established more securely, shall be strongly set upon a sure bottom, upon munitions of rocks; yea, upon the Rock of Ages, Mat 15:18 Jer 31:35 Isa 33:16 . Some by “the house of the Lord” here understand the Church; and by the mountain of this house, Christ, whereon it is built, and whom Daniel describeth by that great mountain that filled the whole earth, that stone cut out without hands that smote in pieces the four monarchies, Dan 2:35 . And hence it is that this mountain of the Lord’s house is exalted above the hills: the Church must needs be above all earthly eminences whatsoever, because founded upon Christ; who therefore cannot be exalted, but she must be lifted up aloft together with him. God, who is rich in mercy, saith that great apostle, “hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Eph 2:5-6 . The Church is mystical Christ, 1Co 12:12 , she is his wife, and wherever he is Caius she is Caia; she shineth with his beams and partaketh of his honours; union being the ground of communion.

And people shall flow unto it ] As waters roll and run toward the sea; but that these waters shall flow upward, flow to the mountain, as here, is as wonderful as that the sun should send his beams downward to the earth, when as it is the property of all fire to aspire and fly upwards. This is the Lord’s own work, and it is marvellous in our eyes. The metaphor of flowing importeth the coming of people to Christ by the preaching of the Gospel. 1. Freely, Psa 110:3 Psa 110:2 . Swiftly, as the waters of the river Tigris, swift as an arrow out of a bow. See Isa 60:8 Isa 60:3 . Plentifully, by whole nations turned to the faith, and giving up their names to Christ. 4. Jointly, as Mic 4:2 Zec 8:21 Zec 8:5 . Zealously, bearing down all obstacles that would dam up their way. 6. Constantly and continually, as rivers run perpetually, by reason of the perennity of their fountains; and are never dried up, though sometimes fuller than some: quin ut fluvii repentinis imbribus augentur, saith Gualther; as rivers swell often with sudden showers, and overflow the banks, so, beyond all expectation, many times doth God take away tyrants, and propagates his truth, enlarging the bounds of his Church with new confluxes of converts.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mic 4:1-5

1And it will come about in the last days

That the mountain of the house of the LORD

Will be established as the chief of the mountains.

It will be raised above the hills,

And the peoples will stream to it.

2And many nations will come and say,

Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD

And to the house of the God of Jacob,

That He may teach us about His ways

And that we may walk in His paths.

For from Zion will go forth the law,

Even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3And He will judge between many peoples

And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.

Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares

And their spears into pruning hooks;

Nation will not life up sword against nation,

And never again will they train for war.

4And each of them will sit under his vine

And under his fig tree,

With on one to make them afraid,

For the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.

5Though all the peoples walk

Each in the name of his god,

As for us, we will walk

In the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.

Mic 4:1; Mic 4:3-5 These are words from Micah, as are Mic 4:9-13. In Mic 4:2 the nations speak and in Mic 4:6-8 YHWH speaks. This entire section is similar to Isa 2:2-4.

Mic 4:1 in the last days This phrase (BDB 31 CONSTRUCT with BDB 398) is repeated often in the OT (cf. Gen 49:1; Num 24:14; Deu 4:30; Deu 31:29; Isa 2:2; Jer 23:20; Jer 30:24; Jer 48:47; Jer 49:39; Eze 38:16; Dan 10:14; Hos 3:5; Mic 4:1). BDB (p. 31) describes it in this way, The final period of history so far as the speaker’s perspective reaches that sense thus varies with the context, but it often equals the ideal or Messianic future.

The phrase has some variation:

1. Dan 2:28 – BDB 1079 CONSTRUCT with BDB 1095 (the end of days)

2. Eze 38:8 – BDB 31 CONSTRUCT with BDB 1040 (the latter years)

In Ezekiel 38 the phrase is parallel to the famous prophetic phrase that day (cf. Eze 30:2-3; Eze 38:10; Eze 38:14; Eze 38:18; Eze 39:11; also Isa 2:12; Isa 10:3; Isa 13:6; Isa 13:9; Isa 34:2; Isa 34:8; Isa 61:2; Jer 30:7-8; Joe 1:15; Joe 2:11; Joe 2:31; Amo 5:18; Zep 1:14-16; Zep 1:18).

The Jews of the interbiblical period developed a concept of two ages: the current evil age (begun in Genesis 3) and an age of righteousness inaugurated by the Messiah (cf. Mic 3:12-12; Mic 5:1-5 a). However, from further NT revelation (i.e., progressive revelation), we understand that the Messiah came not once, but twice. The period from the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem until the Second Coming could be called the last days. The interpretive issue is when does the Second Coming occur? (1) some unknown future time; (2) before an earthly thousand year reign; (3) before the beginning of eternity? Part of this question deals with how we view the future. Is it earth-like (restored Garden of Eden) or totally different (cf. 1Co 15:35-49)? Is the Bible literal (dispensational premillennial) or literary (see D. Brent Sandy, Plowshares and Pruninghooks)? See Special Topic: This Age and the Age to Come .

the mountain of the house of the LORD Jerusalem was built on seven hills. The two major ones were Mt. Moriah, on which the Temple stood, and Mt. Zion (i.e., site of the old Jebusite fortress and David’s palace), which became a literary metaphor for the whole city (cf. Mic 4:2).

The imagery of a mountain as the dwelling place of god/God is recurrent in Mesopotamian, Canaanite, Hebrew (e.g., Psa 48:2; Psalms 87; Isa 14:13; Eze 28:14), and Greco-Roman literature. There is an interesting article, Divine Assembly, in Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, pp. 50-53 and also Mountain (pp. 572-574).

1. for Mesopotamia – ziggurats (man-made mountains)

2. for Canaan – Mt. Zaphon

3. for Hebrews – Mt. Zion/Moriah or a mountain in the north

4. for Greeks – Mt. Olympus

Micah has just predicted the total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (cf. Mic 3:12). Now he asserts that God’s universal kingdom will come to fruition in Jerusalem. God will establish His reign on a renamed Mt. Zion (i.e., New Jerusalem, cf. Revelation 21). The ruined hill will become the most important mountain on the earth (note the parallelism between lines 2, 3, and 4). For the difference between OT prophecies about the future and NT prophecies, see full note at Mic 4:7.

It will be raised above the hills This is figurative language representing the preeminence of the temple in Jerusalem. Always Jewish people say, Let us go up to Jerusalem. This concept is now widened into a universal sense. Mt. Moriah is viewed as the highest, most significant elevation on the planet, that place that is closest to God!

the peoples will stream to it Notice this wonderful universal element in Mic 4:1-3. This is a recurrent theme in the OT (cf. Psa 22:27; Psa 66:4; Psa 86:9; Isa 19:21; Isa 19:23; Isa 27:13; Isa 45:20-25; Isa 50:6-8; Isa 66:23; Jer 3:17; Jer 4:2; Jer 12:14-16; Zec 2:11; Zec 8:20-23; Zec 14:16).

Notice how in the OT people come to God’s mountain on the temple, but in the NT His people are sent out (Mat 28:18-20; Luk 24:47; Act 1:8). There is a new templeJesusand by faith in Him each believer becomes a temple. Instead of coming to the temple in Jerusalem, the NT temples go to the nations! God’s universal, eternal, redemptive plan is now functioning!

For the difference between these OT prophetic predictions and the NT forecast of the future kingdom see Special Topic: Why are OT Covenant Promises so Different from NT Covenant Promises? .

Notice the startling contrast between Mic 3:12 (i.e., exile) and 4:l (i.e., restoration and glorification). Also notice the universal nature of the coming reign of the Messiah (cf. Mic 2:13; Mic 5:2-5 a). This universal aspect is so characteristic of Isaiah and Micah (e.g., Dan 7:9-10; Dan 7:13-14). It is uncertain if they come once and go home or come every year like a Jewish annual feast.

It is to be noted that in a context of Babylonian exile (cf. Mic 4:10) the VERB will stream (BDB 625, KB 676, Qal PERFECT) is the same VERB Qal IMPERFECT) used to describe the captive nations streaming away from Babylon in Jer 51:44. Cyrus (cf. Isa 44:28 to Isa 45:3), God’s chosen vessel, allowed all the exiled people to return home.

Mic 4:2 And many nations will come and say Mic 4:2 records the supposed comment of the nations. All people are welcome (e.g., Isa 11:10; Isa 49:22). If there is one God (i.e., monotheism, cf. 1Ki 8:43; 1Ki 8:60), all humans are made in His image (cf. Gen 1:26-27), and He promises to redeem all mankind (cf. Gen 3:15), then one people is the ultimate goal (cf. Gal 3:23-29; Eph 2:11 to Eph 3:13). YHWH chose to reveal Himself through national Israel, but ultimately through the ideal Israelite, His Servant (cf. Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12), His Son (cf. Psalms 2 : 2 Samuel 7).

Mic 4:2 has several IMPERATIVES:

1. come – BDB 229, KB 246, Qal IMPERATIVE

2. go – BDB 748, KB 828, Qal IMPERFECT

3. teach – BDB 434, KB 436, Hiphil IMPERFECT, but JUSSIVE in meaning

4. walk – BDB 229, KB 246, Qal COHORTATIVE

That he may teach us about His ways

And that we may walk in His paths There are three aspects to biblical faith: first is knowing God (personal relationship), second is knowing God’s will (Scripture, cf. Psa 19:7-14; Psa 119:1-176), and the other is living God’s will (Scripture obedience, cf. Isa 51:4-8). God wants a people who reflect His character. God’s goal has always been to reach the world (cf. lines 6 & 7)! Humans were created for fellowship with God! See Special Topic: Terms for God’s Revelation .

Mic 4:3 And he will judge between many peoples This is an extreme contrast between Judah’s judicial actions and YHWH’s (cf. Mic 3:1; Mic 3:9; Mic 3:11). YHWH’s judgments (i.e., Messiah’s judgments [so Ibn Ezra], Isa 11:3-5; Mic 5:4) will result in social peace, not exploitation (cf. Isa 2:2-4).

Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares

And their spears into pruning hooks It is a beautiful metaphor to describe the peace of the days of the Messiah (cf. Psa 46:9; Psa 76:3; Hos 2:18; the reverse in Joe 3:10).

The exact nature of these agricultural implements is uncertain (BDB 88 III). They were made of metal and were used, not like a wooden plow to turn over soil, but to scratch a furrow. This was usually a metal tipped piece of sharpened wood.

And never again will they train for war The VERB train (BDB 540, KB 531, Qal IMPERFECT) means to learn (e.g., Deu 4:10; Deu 17:19; Psa 119:73). It can refer to warfare (cf. 1Ch 5:18; Son 3:8). Not only is the coming restoration universal, it is also permanent (cf. Mic 4:5 line 3; 7 line 4).

Mic 4:4 And each of them will sit under his vine

And under his fig tree Israel and Judah were agricultural societies. This idiom denoted a peaceful and happy agricultural life. These phrases reflect the restoration of all descendants of Abraham back to the Promised Land, where each had their family land restored (cf. 1Ki 4:25; Isa 36:16; Zec 3:10).

With no one to make them afraid In the OT if God’s people live in light of His promises and covenant, He will defend them (cf. Lev 26:3-6). This text in Micah reflects the Messiah’s presence and rule (which reflects an eschatological setting).

For the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken This speaks of the power and trustworthiness of God’s Word (cf. Isa 40:5; Isa 40:8; Isa 45:23; Isa 55:11). God’s promises and trustworthiness are the basis of man’s faith (cf. 1Ki 8:56).

The title for God, LORD of hosts, in a context relating to Israel and Judah, refers to God the commander and leader of the army of angels. In some contexts (i.e., Mesopotamian astral worship) it refers to the pagan theory of gods/angels behind the lights in the sky (i.e., planets, stars, constellations, comets, etc.). see Special Topic: Names for Deity at Amo 1:2.

Mic 4:5 This verse seems to be out of context. This is a strange verse in a context which speaks of the universal and permanent reign of the one true God, YHWH of Israel. Some see it as:

1. This glorious future is not here yet because currently every nation has its own god (cf. 2Ki 17:29).

2. Not all people of all the nations would recognize YHWH even in a future ideal time (e.g., Rev 22:15).

3. This is an affirmation of those who have come to Jerusalem (cf. Mic 4:1 e, 2a, 3a,b) and now affirm YHWH their sovereign and God forever.

The tension in this chapter between believing nations and unbelieving nations is seen in the contrast between Mic 4:1-4 and Mic 4:5!

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

in the last days = at the end of the days. Here we are carried forward to a yet future day. Reference to Pentateuch (Gen 49:1, the same phrase. Num 24:14). App-92. Compare Isa 2:2, &c. Eze 38:8, Eze 38:16. Hos 3:5

the mountain, &c. Compare Mic 3:12; and see Isa 2:2-4. Both prophecies are independent, and complementary (see Psa 24:3. Eze 28:16).

the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.

established: abidingly: not merely for a time.

people = peoples.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 4

But in the last days ( Mic 4:1 )

Or in the later days. So we move on out into yet the future. This has not yet happened, far from it, but it is going to happen. And I am convinced that it is going to happen in the near future.

But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it ( Mic 4:1 ).

God is going to establish His throne upon the earth and the mountain of the house of the Lord is going to be established.

And many nations shall come, and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem ( Mic 4:2 ).

He is talking now about the Kingdom Age when Jesus comes and reigns again. And God shall give to Him the throne of David and He will order it and establish it in righteousness and in judgment from henceforth, even forever. And the nations will be going up to Jerusalem, for out of Zion will come the law of the Lord. They’ll say, “Come let’s go to Jerusalem and let’s sit at the feet of Jesus and just learn for a while.” Hey, those are the days when I’m really wanting to take the tours to Israel, when the Lord is there sitting on the throne reigning in Zion. Won’t that be exciting? And thank God we won’t have to go on these old 747 jumbo jets. God will have a whole new mode of transportation for us. And we’ll go and when we arrive Jesus will be there teaching us the ways of the Father. And we can sit at the feet of Jesus and just learn, for the law will go forth out of Zion. Oh, that’s glorious to me. What an anticipation!

And he shall judge among many people, he will rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: and nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more ( Mic 4:3 ).

Now I get rather upset when many times politicians make reference to this verse and intimate if you’ll just vote for them they will bring in this age. It will not be brought in by any politician. It is not going to come until Jesus the Prince of Peace comes and reigns in righteousness. This is not something that man will ever be able to affect. In fact, we’re doing just the opposite right now. We are beating our plowshares into swords so to speak. What this says to me is that in the Kingdom Age the military budgets which are almost bankrupting us here in the United States today, the military budgets will be diverted to agricultural development.

Now this past year the nations of the world spent approximately one trillion dollars for weapons, for armament, for defense. One trillion dollars. Imagine if we had spent one trillion dollars this past year to develop agriculture. You would not have thousands of people starving to death in Cambodia or thousands more in the deserts of Oden, nor would you have them starving in Ethiopia. There would be enough for everybody and you wouldn’t be paying a dollar for a loaf of bread if we would put this much money in feeding the world. You see how twisted man’s values become when he is governed by his greed and his lust rather than by the Lord? Because it is necessary for us to arm ourselves to defend ourselves from being subdued by the enemies, there has been a misappropriation of funds. And money that could go for the betterment of mankind is being spent to destroy mankind. How twisted are the values of sinful man, more money in the budget to destroy than to aid and to help.

Now I’m not arguing with Reagan’s budget. I feel that the defense budget is necessary, because I know what Russia has done and is doing. And if we are going to survive, we’ve got to be strong. But it is tragic that we live in a world where there are those who are greedy for more power and more control who have to be stopped and will only stop through the threat of force of arms. It’s a sad world that you live in. It is a world that is preparing for war. A world that is coming to another gigantic conflict like our minds cannot imagine or conceive, as nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel. After the next major world war, men will realize there is no profit and there is no future in this. And Jesus will come as King of kings and Lord of lords and we will have one ruler over the whole earth. And He will establish His throne in Jerusalem on Mount Zion and then, and only then, will they beat their swords into plowshares and their swords into pruning hooks, and they will not learn war any more. They’ll begin then to divert the resources towards the betterment of mankind, towards agricultural development, towards just a better overall life for everyone.

In that day,

They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and no one will make them afraid ( Mic 4:4 ):

You can send your children to the store to get a bottle of milk and not worry about them being molested or accosted. You can take a walk in the evening along the beach and not worrying about someone assaulting you. They will live in safety. They will live in peace. No one will make you afraid. You will not have to lock your doors at night. You’ll not have to put chains up and all. You can live in safety and in peace; not be afraid.

for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken it ( Mic 4:4 ).

That day is surely going to come. God has declared it.

For all the people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God for ever and ever ( Mic 4:5 ).

Literally, all of the peoples do now walk in the names of their god, but then they will walk in the name of Yahweh in that day.

In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted ( Mic 4:6 );

In other words, here is God prophesying now the regathering of the Jews, the people of Israel, those that have halted, those that were driven out, those who have been afflicted.

And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever ( Mic 4:7 ).

Of course, that’s what also Isaiah said, “He shall sit upon the throne of David to order it, and to establish it in righteousness and in justice from henceforth even forever the zeal of the LORD of host shall perform it” ( Isa 9:7 ).

And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughters of Jerusalem. Now why do you cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is your counselor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail ( Mic 4:8-9 ).

Before this comes, Israel is yet to have a period of great sorrow. They are going to be in travail. But when Zion travails, then shall she bring forth, then will Christ come. When the Jews really begin to cry out for their Redeemer, for their Savior, and when Zion travailed, then she brought forth, the scripture said. So he speaks here also of the woman in travail.

Now Jesus said to the Jews, “Look, you’re not going to see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'” The Lord has gone on up to be with the Father. He’s not going to come back until they really travail and say, “O blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field ( Mic 4:10 ),

They are actually going to be driven out into the wilderness where God will nourish them for times, time and a half time–or three and a half years.

and thou shalt go even as far as Babylon [which is Iraq]; and there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies ( Mic 4:10 ).

And now the kingdom is to be set up.

Now also many nations are gathered against thee, and they say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion ( Mic 4:11 ).

There will be many who will be looking at Jerusalem with a covetous eye.

But they know not the thoughts of the LORD ( Mic 4:12 ),

Now today this is actually what is happening. So many nations, the Arab nations especially, looking at Israel, looking at Jerusalem, calling for a holy war against Israel, and these very things are happening right now. Many nations gathered against her. I think Israel has that unfortunate distinction of being probably the most isolated nation on the face of the earth; almost every nation is gathered against her. Even as Zechariah prophesied though the whole world be gathered together against her, if she didn’t have the Lord on her side, she’d really be in big trouble.

They know not the thoughts of the Lord. They’re all looking at Jerusalem saying, “We’ll make Jerusalem the universal, the international city and all.” They don’t know the thoughts of the Lord.

and neither do they understand his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves on the threshing floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thine horn iron ( Mic 4:12-13 ),

The horn is always a symbol of power. Now make your power as iron.

and I will make thy hoofs brass ( Mic 4:13 ):

I will use you for judgment against these nations.

and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD ( Mic 4:13 ),

You’re going to spoil them. You’re going to take their spoil.

Now we read in Eze 38:1-23 that as Israel has been regathered as a nation, in that time when God makes them a nation again that He’s going to put an evil thought into the leaders of Magog, which are identified historically as those north of the Krymia Mountains, or the present day Russia. And He will bring them out of the north quarters with all of their bands, the hordes, along with Iran and Iraq and Togarmah (the Balkan states) and Gomer (the eastern European states), along with Libya and Ethiopia to invade the Middle East in order that they might take the spoil, the vast oil resources of the Middle East. But when they come into the mountains of Israel, God’s fury is going to arise in His face and He is going to turn them back. And the Bible says that the Israelis will not have to worry about fuel for seven years. They will burn the fuel of the invading armies for seven years. So no worries about oil prices for them for seven years as they just take and burn the fuel that has been brought in this invasion into the land, and it will be a seven-year supply. So it is here he said, “Thou shalt beat in pieces many people, and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord.” You’ll spoil them. You’ll take the gain.

and their substance unto the Lord of the whole eaRuth ( Mic 4:13 ). “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Mic 4:1-5

ZION, CENTER OF WORSHIP (Mic 4:1-5)

(Mic 4:1) It will come to pass gives us transport to the future (from Micahs day). We leap the centuries far beyond the captivity to Messiahs day. In the latter days is the English rendering of the phrase which fixes the time when it shall come to pass. The phrase is reminiscent of Heb 1:2. There we are told that God, having spoken to the fathers in the prophets has spoken to us in a Son. No more conclusive evidence is needed to connect Micahs prophecy with the Messianic age The rabbis so understood this term. (The age was to be final and eternal. Nothing lies beyond it so far as earthly history is concerned. It is itself the final goal of history.) Upon the last of the days is the exact opposite of in the beginning of Gen 1:1 (LXX) and Joh 1:1. As Lange points out, it denotes the completion of the world in contrast to its beginning.

Zerr: Mic 4:1. The first five verses of this chapter (Mic 4:1-5) as a group predict the kingdom of Christ, but I shall comment on the several verses in their order. In the last days corresponds with “afterward” in Joe 2:28, and “last days in Act 2:17. It means the last days of the Jewish dispensation, for that system was still in force when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostiea to set up the kingdom of Christ. Mountain in symbolic language means a government, so the government of the Lord was to be established above all others, which was predicted also in Dan 2:44.

John indicates that we are in this end time. (CF. 1Jn 2:18 -f) *(See my comment in Hereby We Know, College Press, pp. 59-ff) In this end time, says Micah, the mountain of Jehovahs house shall be established on top of (or at the head of) the mountains. In the place of the literal mountain which is to be plowed as a field (Mic 3:12), the ideal of God will be established.

Zerr: Mic 4:2, Many nations means people from many nations, not that, any government as a body would attach itself to the kingdom of Christ. This prediction of the many nations was begun to be fulfilled in Act 2:6. Shall say, come let us go vp refers to the generous response that was made to the call of the apostles recorded in Act 2:41-47; Act 4:4 and other passages. The law means the law to govern the kingdom of Christ, not the Jewish government, for that had been given many centuries before by Moses (Joh 1:17) It was the law or government predicted by the patriarch Jacob in Gen 49:10. which makes the wording of this verse very appropriate.

Those who would take Micah literally here see the ultimate establishment of the kingdom with Jerusalem as the capital (The New Scofield Reference Bible). This is, of course, not in keeping with Jesus concept of true Jehovah worship. Just as Micah predicts that all peoples shall flow into Gods exalted mountain, so Jesus said Neither in these (Samaritan Gerazim and Ebal) mountains, nor in Jerusalem (Mt. Zion and Mt. Moriah) shall ye worship the Father . . . but the hour cometh and now is (italics mine) when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth . . . God is spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

The psalmist used this same metaphor in Psa 68:17 to indicate the eminence of Jehovah worship on Mt. Zion over the other high places. The emphasis upon and contrast of high places, or mountains, is set against the backdrop of the tension between Jehovah worship on Mt. Zion and Baal worship on the various surrounding high places. In the last times, or Messianic age, true worship is to be firmly and finally exalted above all else.

In Mic 4:5, Micah says all the peoples walk everyone in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever. The coming of the Messianic age has not eliminated false religion. The very site of Jehovahs temple is now the second most holy spot in Islam. But true Jehovah worship, i.e., Christian worship, has been exalted above them all.

(Mic 4:2) Many nations here is not be understood in terms of political empires. The people in the Old Testament are generally all those in covenant relation to God while the nations are all those not in covenant relationship.

Many who in Micahs day were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise . . . (Eph 2:12) are now made nigh in the blood of Christ. (Eph 2:13)

Isaiah looked forward to this same glorious day (Isa 2:2) when the universal concern of God for all men would be realized.

Significantly, both Micah and Isaiah see the movement of Gentiles toward the exalted mountain of Jehovahs house as voluntary. The religion of the prophets is of such quality as makes it independent of nationality or election. As the Jews understood election, any interpretation of prophecy which overlooks this basic truth cannot be correct,

The statement . . . out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem is not to be understood as limited to or even indicative of the law of Moses. Rather it is the law of the Spirit of life. (Rom 8:1-2) It is in keeping with Jesus assertion that thus it is written . . . that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luk 24:45-47) There is little doubt that such passages as this in Micah were in Jesus mind when He taught the apostles to so read and understand the Old Testament.

(Mic 4:3-4) Men are at war with men because men are at war with God. In the Messianic age (our own time included) the ideal is peace based on His judgement. He will judge between peoples . . . He will decide concerning strong nations. When and if the leaders of nations seek His will together . . . when His judgement is taken seriously, there can be peace. History has demonstrated in blood that this peace will not prevail so long as each nation believes God has only its own national interests at heart. When asked if he did not believe that God was on the side of the north, Abraham Lincoln answered that it was more important that we be on Gods side than He on ours. This is the Messianic ideal.

Zerr: Mic 4:3. In the midst of a group of verses most of which consist, of figures and symbols, it would be unreasonable to give the present one a literal Inter-pretation. It does not predict that carnal warfare will cease after the kingdom of Christ is established. It is true that the tendencies of the Gospel are in Hie opposite direction from violence of any kind in the conduct of the true followers of Christ. But it is also true that as long as the world stands the scriptures teach us that the great majority of mankind will reject the Gospel, hence this verse could not be a prediction of the end of carnal warfare. The explanation lies in the difference between the Jewish and Christian dispensations. The former was a combination of religious and political government, hence it was right to use the support of carnal warfare. That is why Jesus said that if his kingdom were of this world his servants would fight in his defence (Joh 18:36). But the Christian dispensation is strictly religious and Its citizens will not resort to the material sword for its propaganda and support. Hence the members of the Lord’s kingdom will use their metal for instruments of peaceful industry, and depend upon the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God for the defence of the kingdom of Christ. Let the reader understand that this paragraph has nothing to do with the subject of Christians engaging in carnal warfare as a citizen of the temporal government. When he does that he is acting as a citizen of the temporal government and in its defence, and not for the defence of the kingdom of Christ, for they are two separate and distinct institutions and a Christian is a member of each just as Paul was a Christian and a Roman at the same time (Act 22:25).

Both in the matter of war as described in Mic 4:3 and the relation of races described in Mic 4:2, the church, as Messiahs kingdom does not have the answer. The church is the answer. In the true church there is no Jew nor Greek, east nor west, male nor female. We are all one, and until we are all one, we are not truly the church! The implements of war will be beaten into implements of peace, not by voting funds for welfare rather than warfare, but by seeking the will of Gods Messiah in international relations.

The ideal described in Mic 4:4 of every man in the security and plenty of his own vine and fig tree will come not by civil rights agitation and legislation but by seeking the will of Gods Christ in human relations. God must become the ruler of our economy as well as our church doctrine!

Zerr: Mic 4:4. Like the preceding verse, this one uses terms figuratively to express the thought in the mind of the prophet. If a country was sure there would be no hostile army invade it, the Inhabitants would feel no need of secluding themselves within protective buildings but would feel safe in the great outdoors. The vine and fig tree were prominent sources of nourishment and good cheer, and a land that was permanently free from danger could offer these comforts to its inhabitants without fear. I have gone into these details to explain the significance of the illustrations used by the prophet. However, the reader should remember that they are illustrations only and that they represent the spiritual safety and feeling of security that a citizen of the Kingdom of Christ was to enjoy. This prospect was guaranteed by the Lord who gave the vision to the prophet Micah to be delivered to the people of the nation.

(Mic 4:5) On this verse we noted above that all false religion would not be obliterated in the age of the Messiah. This is obvious to anyone with definite conviction concerning the faith once for all delivered . . . We would simply add here that this verse is evidence Micah is not describing the final summing up of the ages when all false religion will be forever wiped out. When Micah says . . . all the peoples walk everyone in the name of his god, and (but) we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God . . . he is not condoning false religion. He is describing an era of tolerance or religious freedom unknown in the ancient world. It is, after all, better to discuss religious differences than to kill over them, as in the great religious wars of western European history.

Zerr: Mic 4:5. All people means the people of the world in general. It was not expected that the kingdom of Christ would be able to enlist the majority of the race of mankind, but instead it was even predicted in literal language that the many would be in the service of sin. That would include the idolatrous practices of walkiug in the name of his god. We is prospective and means the inhabitants of the kingdom of Christ who would honor the true God only.

Questions

Future Exaltation and Messianic Hope

1. Demonstrate that Micahs prophecy in Micah 4-5 has to do with the day of the Messiah, our own Messianic time.

2. What does John tell us about this end time? (1Jn 2:18 -f)

3. What is the meaning of the mountain of Jehovahs house?

4. Comment on all peoples walk everyone in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever. (Mic 4:5)

5. Discuss many nations. (Mic 4:2)

6. Discuss . . . out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. (Mic 4:2 cp. Luk 24:44 -f)

7. Men are at war with men because ________________________.

8. God must become ruler of our ____________ as well as our church doctrine. (Mic 4:4)

9. In that day (Mic 4:6-7) refers us back to ___________________.

10. That which is lame is the image of ____________.

11. Discuss her that halted is become a remnant. (Mic 4:7)

12. Distinguish between that which was lame and that which was driven away.

13. Discuss I will make . . . that which was cast far off a strong nation in Mic 4:7 in light of Rom 11:1.

14. What is meant by tower of the flock? (Mic 4:8)

15. Discuss Mic 4:11 in connection with Mic 3:12.

16. In Micahs own time the nation of ____________ dominated the international scene.

17. ____________ would wipe out the northern kingdom.

18. ____________ would enslave the southern kingdom.

19. ____________ would conquer the Medo-Persian empire.

20. The Maccabean revolt was against the rule of ____________.

21. All these powers, and others since have used the land of ____________ as a political pawn and a ____________ state.

22. Discuss Romans 11, Mic 4:11-13 in light of current events in the Middle East.

23. The Jews are precious to Jehovah because ____________.

24. This does not imply ____________.

25. What New Testament reference is made to Mic 5:2 -ff?

26. What is the meaning of Ephratah? (Mic 5:2)

27. Bethlehem nestles on the ____________ slopes of a ridge some ____________ miles ____________ of Jerusalem.

28. Discuss, the conditions of Jesus birth in contrast to what might have been expected for the birth of a king.

29. The sheep tended on the slopes of Bethlehem were traditionally intended for _________.

30. Why did the Roman emperor Harian forbid Jews to live in or near Bethlehem?

31. Perhaps no other term in the Old Testament has been more grossly misunderstood than _____________.

32. Humanly speaking, it was the Jews ambitious vision of ____________ that was responsible for the death of Jesus.

33. It is the failure of many to recognize the kingly office and authority of Jesus that has brought about the ____________ in the modern church.

34. Discuss the temptation of Jesus (Luk 4:1-12) in relation to the Jewish dream of world power in the Messianic age.

35. The real issue in Mic 2:6 is the assurance that ____________.

36. Why do the Jews object that Jesus cannot be the Messiah?

37. Discuss the pre-existence of Christ in light of Mic 5:2.

38. God would not, Micah promised, fully vindicate His people and exalt them until ____________,

39. The Messiah is to be a glorious prince, but His relationship to His people is that of a ____________.

40. What is the significance of His greatness shall be to the ends of the earth?

41. Discuss and this man shall be our peace . . .

42. Discuss seven shepherds . . . eight principal men. (Mic 5:5-6)

43. What is meant by the remnant shall be as dew in a summer morning?

44. Messiahs people are to be as bold as _____________.

45. Mic 5:15 must be almost unbelievable to ____________.

46. The prophet sees in the age of ____________ God executing vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations which hearken not

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

From this scene of a corrupt people governed by corrupt rulers, the prophet lifts his eyes, and looking into the future sees the day when under true government deliverance will be wrought and the divine order be established. In this look ahead he saw the mountain of Jehovah’s house established and the peoples flowing into it. Out of Zion the Lord would come forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The result of this establishment of divine authority would be cessation of war, and peaceful possession of the land, with all its benefits.

In the light of this future deliverance the prophet addresses himself to the present. In the midst of diction there was assurance. Even while the cry of pain and travail was heard, there was hope. He declares that there was to be yet further pain and suffering, but that the day of deliverance is certain.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

the Promise of Peace

Mic 4:1-13

It is not improbable that Isaiah, Mic 2:1-4, and Micah quoted an older prophecy, which in its fullness, is yet to be fulfilled. In the millennial age Israel, in her restored beauty, will be the center of a renovated world. That restoration will bring great glory to God and blessing to mankind, Rom 11:15. The time center of unity is not to be found in creeds or systems, but in the impulse of a common desire after God and common worship. When men have found their unity in God they will renounce war; and the home-life will become the preservative of society, Mic 4:4. Mic 4:6-7 foretell the gathering of Israel to their own land. Babylon probably stands not only for the literal nation by which the Jews were carried into captivity, but for all of the Gentile nations that have afflicted the Chosen People. Notice that Gods deliverances discover and help us in the midst of our direct affliction.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Chapter 4

The First Dominion

It is refreshing indeed, ere the sad story of failure and sin is resumed, to turn our eyes for a little time to the glad scenes depicted in the first half of this chapter.

The three opening verses are an almost exact duplicate of Isa 2:2-4. We need not inquire whether the charge of plagiarism should be brought against the elder or the younger prophet. We have not here to do with the literature of men, but with the inspired Word of God. He says, The testimony of two men is true; and He has given the same promise of millennial blessing through both Micah and Isaiah, that all may know that neither wrote from himself, but as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. It need be no matter of surprise that He chose to use the same language on each occasion.

In the last days, the time to which all prophecy points, the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains. The future millennial temple will not stand on mount Moriah, but on a magnificent table-land, lifted up above all the surrounding hills, after the land has gone through some remarkable topographical changes, caused by a great earthquake, which will occur when the feet of the Lord Jesus stand again on the mount of Olives. See Eze 40:2 and 48:8-12; Zec 14:4.

There, in commanding position, shall the house of the God of the whole earth be located, and thither shall the nations come up regularly to worship and to inquire the ways of Jehovah. From this sanctuary the law will go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, the metropolis of the world in the age to come.

At last all delegated rule shall have ceased in the closing up of the times of the Gentiles. Henceforth our once-rejected Lord Jesus shall show who is that blessed and only Potentate, King of kings, and Lord of lords. He shall minister unerring justice, and bring in everlasting righteousness. No more will nation lift up sword against nation; but all warlike instruments shall be destroyed, and the implements of peaceful agricultural pursuits take their place.

In that day of universal blessing there will be no curse of poverty to contend with, no vexatious property questions to settle, no struggle to acquire or conflicts to hold what can never be properly administered; but in contentment and comfort every man shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid. What men have vainly striven to attain through socialist propaganda, or other equally impracticable economic systems, will then have been reached, and will be maintained for a thousand years by the personal presence of Him whose right it is to reign (vers. 1-4). The statement of the fourth verse is not found in Isaiah, but the call to walk in the ways of the Lord occurs immediately after what is here found in ver. 3. Micah presents the more nearly complete picture, and then gives the remnants answer to the exhortation of Isa 2:5 in the lovely words, For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and [or, but] we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. It is faith laying hold of the promise, and the believer walking now by the glory that is coming.

But the nation to whom the first dominion is yet to be given must, ere that day of triumph, be scattered among all nations because of their sins. Therefore the Lord Himself will regather them ere the kingdom is set up in power. So the prophet goes on to tell how Jehovah will assemble the halting and afflicted remnant, and bring them back by omnipotent power to the land of their fathers. The nation, as such (continuing in unbelief, and accepting the false Christ when he arrives), will never be restored; but a repentant remnant will be found in the last days who will become the nucleus of a new nation in the land. Over them the Lord shall reign in mount Zion from henceforth, even forever. Then shall the first dominion indeed have come for Israel, when Jerusalem shall be the joy of the whole earth (vers. 6-8).

But much had to elapse ere the glorious vision should be fulfilled. The daughter of Zion, as a travailing woman, should first pass through her hours of bitter anguish. She was to be carried to Babylon, and there made the sport of unfeeling Gentiles who were blind to her beauty and ignorant of her wondrous destiny. Her enemies are to magnify themselves against her till the hour when the set time to favor her has come, and the Lord Himself shall appear, to act the part of her Kinsman-Redeemer, delivering her from her bondage and bringing her into everlasting blessing. In that day their wealth shall be devoted to Him through whom all their joys shall come, and their substance will gladly be held at His bidding (vers. 9-13).

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Mic 4:5

A very peculiar use is made of missions in our text. The heathen are surveyed, not as abandoning their falsehood and superstition, but as adhering to them with the greatest earnestness and tenacity. False gods they have, but they refuse to forsake them; dark and oppressive is their service, but they will not abandon it. And from this steadfastness of the heathen the argument is drawn for making the resolve, “and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever,” as though it had been urged: If the pagan adhere to what is false, shall we forsake what is true? If he serve his idols with constancy, inexcusable must we be if we turn aside from the Lord our God.

I. What the missionary ascertains is, not that idolaters refuse to add to the number of their idols, but only that they will not exchange their idols. If they admit new, they nevertheless adhere to the old. Shall the pagan adhere to his idols, because they were the idols of his fathers?-and shall we virtually revolt from that God whom our ancestors served, and whose truth, though at the cost of substance and life, they handed down to us as the most precious possession? Shall the pagan hold that his idols are the tutelary deities of the land, and therefore not to be forsaken; and shall we turn away from that Almighty Being, who hath mercifully spread over our land the shield of His protection, or kept us within the hollow of His hand.

II. Far-off islands preach to us. The vast districts of the earth, which are yet darkened by superstition, assume the office of counsellors. Cities where the Cross of Christ has no place; mountains whose summits are yet altars to the stars, forests whose recesses shroud lying vanities; rivers whose waters are thought to wash away sin,-all these combine to give forth an utterance which chides the wavering, rebukes the unstable, and warns the indifferent. The heathen are not to be persuaded to forsake what is cruel, and oppressive, and galling; whereas we scarcely need persuasion to induce us to forsake what “hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” They observe with all vigour what is stern and revolting, and we too often treat with all carelessness what is as gracious as it is glorious. Let us take a lesson from idolatry, and be shamed by it into zeal for our religion and faithfulness to our God. There are other spectators of our course besides angels, other witnesses than the noble army of martyrs. The millions of China look on; the untold tribes of Africa take the post of observation; the broad Pacific bears upon its bosom a multitude of watchers, and if we fall away from the faith, a cry shall be heard from heathen lands, a cry against which there will be no appeal.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1,704.

References: Mic 4:1.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 249. Mic 4:2.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xvi., p. 222. Mic 4:3, Mic 4:4.-G. Carlyle, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 213. Mic 4:9.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 13. Mic 5:1.-G. Lewis, Pulpit Analyst, vol. i., p. 318. Mic 5:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 57; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 58; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 328. Mic 5:4.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 560; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 232. Mic 5:4, Mic 5:5.-Archbishop Benson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 225. Mic 5:6-8.-Pulpit Analyst, vol. iii., p. 652. Mic 5:7.-W. Lindsay Alexander, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 248. Mic 6:2.-R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. iii., p. 112. Mic 6:2, Mic 6:3.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xvii., p. 225. Mic 6:3.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 342; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 167; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, p. 103. Mic 6:3-8.-A. P. Stanley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 289; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 299. Mic 6:6, Mic 6:7.-J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 50.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 4

1. The future of glory (Mic 4:1-5)

2. The restoration and the final victory (Mic 4:6-13)

Mic 4:1-5. The last verse predicted the long desolation and ruin of Zion. This is followed at once by a great prophecy of the future of glory in store for Zion. Isaiah also uttered this great prediction. Not that Micah copied Isaiah, nor Isaiah Micah, but the same Spirit gave to the men the same prophecy. It concerns the latter days, which means the coming of Messiahs kingdom on earth. These days are not yet here. To apply these words, even in a spiritual way, to the present age, or to the Church, is a serious mistake. The house of the Lord is not the Church, but the house in Jerusalem, to which in the kingdom the nations will come to worship the Lord of hosts. The nation will be judged and rebuked by Him whose glorious throne will be established in Jerusalem. Then, and only then, comes the time of universal, world-wide peace. How blind Christendom is in not seeing in what connection the favored text concerning peace on earth stands! It will be in that day when they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. The prediction of our Lord that throughout this age, down to its end, nation would lift up sword against nation, is then ended, and another order of things begins; for then nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. What peace and prosperity will then follow! It is described in the fourth verse, But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Mic 4:6-13. The regathering of all Israel then takes place. Not the boasting, proud, infidel, portion of the nation as it is today. Reform Judaism and the other apostates in the nation will suffer judgment in the future as they did in the past. But there is a feeble, God-fearing remnant, and to that remnant belong the promises. In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted. In His grace He will make the remnant a strong nation and reign over them in the established kingdom. To Zion shall return the first dominion, that is, the reign and power and glory that was manifested in the monarchy under David and Solomon; only it will be greater than Davids or Solomons kingdom.

All this is preceded by her sorrow and captivity. It must be noticed that Mic 4:10 goes beyond the Babylonian captivity, for it could not be said that the Lord redeemed in that past captivity Israel from the hands of her enemies. Nor was it true then that many nations were gathered against her. The Babylonian captivity is a type of the greater dispersion throughout this present age. When it ends, as it will end, the Lord will then redeem His people and deal in judgment with the opposing nations which finally gather against Jerusalem. (See the annotations of the last chapters of Zechariah.) He gathers the nations for the harvest time, when the sheaves are to be threshed. The daughter of Zion is to trample on them and beat them, and the grain, the riches of the Gentiles, will be consecrated unto the Lord. In connection with Mic 4:11-13 the following Scriptures should be read and studied with the annotations:Joe 3:1-21; Eze 38:1-23; Zec 12:1-14.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

mountain

General predictions concerning the kingdom. In Scripture a mountain is the symbol of a great earth power Dan 2:35, hills, of smaller power. The prediction asserts

(1) the ultimate establishment of the kingdom, with Jerusalem for the capital (Mic 4:1);

(2) the universality of the future kingdom (Mic 4:2);

(3) its character–peace (Mic 4:3);

(4) its effect–prosperity (Mic 4:4) 4). Cf.; Isa 2:1-5; Isa 11:1-12

it shall be exalted See “remnant” (See Scofield “Jer 15:21”)

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

in the last: Gen 49:1, Isa 2:1-3, Jer 48:47, Eze 38:16, Dan 2:28, Dan 10:14, Hos 3:5, Act 2:17, Heb 1:2, 2Pe 3:3

the mountain: Mic 3:12, Psa 68:15, Psa 68:16, Isa 11:9, Isa 66:20, Eze 17:22-24, Eze 40:2, Eze 43:12, Dan 2:35, Dan 2:44, Dan 7:14, Dan 7:18, Dan 7:22, Dan 7:27, Zec 8:3, Rev 11:15, Rev 20:4, Rev 21:1-8

and people: Gen 49:10, Psa 22:27, Psa 68:29-32, Psa 72:7-11, Psa 72:16-19, Psa 86:9, Psa 110:3, Isa 11:10, Isa 27:13, Isa 43:6, Isa 49:6, Isa 49:19-23, Isa 54:2, Isa 60:3-14, Isa 66:18-23, Jer 3:17, Jer 16:19, Zep 3:9, Zep 3:10, Zec 2:11, Zec 14:16-21, Mal 1:11, Rom 11:25, Rom 11:26, Rev 15:4

Reciprocal: 1Ki 15:4 – and to establish Psa 48:1 – mountain Psa 48:8 – God Isa 2:2 – And it shall Isa 25:6 – in this Isa 42:4 – and the isles Isa 56:7 – them will Jer 17:3 – my Jer 26:18 – the mountain Jer 30:24 – in Jer 31:6 – Arise Jer 31:12 – the height Jer 31:23 – and mountain Jer 49:39 – in the Jer 50:5 – Come Eze 20:40 – in mine Eze 34:26 – my hill Zep 2:11 – and men Zec 4:7 – O great Zec 8:20 – there Zec 14:9 – the Lord Mat 8:11 – That Mat 13:32 – the least Mar 4:31 – is less than Luk 13:19 – and it Act 15:17 – the residue Rom 11:12 – their Rom 15:12 – and he 1Co 14:36 – came Gal 4:26 – Jerusalem Eph 1:10 – in the 1Ti 4:1 – the latter 2Ti 3:1 – in Heb 9:26 – in Jam 5:3 – the last

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Mic 4:1. The first five verses of this chapter as a group predict the kingdom of Christ, but I shall comment on the several verses in their order. In the last days corresponds with “afterward” in Joe 2:28, and “last days in Acta 2: 17. It means the last days of the Jewish dispensation, for that system was still in force when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostiea to set up the kingdom of Christ. Mountain in symbolic language means a government, so the government of the Lord was to be established above all others, which was predicted also in Dan 2:44.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mic 4:1-5. In the last days it shall come to pass, &c., The first three of these verses are the same as Isa 2:2-4, where see the notes. They evidently contain a prophecy which was to be fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah; when the [believing] Gentiles were to be admitted into covenant with God, and the apostles were to preach the gospel, beginning at Jerusalem; when Christ was to be the spiritual Judge and King of many people, was to convince many nations of their errors and vices, and was to found a religion which had the strongest tendency to promote peace. Newcome. They shall sit every man under his vine, &c. This shall be the effect of that peace foretold in the foregoing verse, every man shall securely enjoy his own possessions, and the fruits of his labours. The expressions are figurative, signifying a state of uninterrupted tranquillity. All people will walk every one in the name of his god It is the practice of all people to serve their gods, and to be attached to the religion of their forefathers, though false and absurd. And surely it much more becomes us to cleave steadfastly to the service of the true God, and not to disobey his laws or forsake his ordinances, as we have too often done. This prophecy will be remarkably fulfilled at the time of the general conversion of the Jews, as has been observed in the notes on the parallel place in Isaiah.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Mic 4:1. In the last days it shall come to pass. In the new times, as in Isaiah 4., which Micah had read, and now repeats by the Spirit. In the gospel age the new-testament church, built above the hills of human power, shall rise in glory over all the earth.

Mic 4:2. Many nations shall come. Those who have been worshippers of idols, and constantly engaged in war, shall, after their conversion, to the great shame of carnal christian nations, leave their wilder habits of hunting and war, for agriculture, and the comforts of a religious life.

Mic 4:7. I will make her that halted a remnant, which shall multiply to a great and flourishing kingdom, and the Lord will come to Zion with the shekinah or visible glory, and reign there to the end of time, as seen by Ezekiel in vision: Eze 43:2.

Mic 4:8. And thou, oh tower of the flock, mount Zion, shalt be the seat of his holy empire. But chiefly, the new-testament Zion is here intended.

Mic 4:13. Arise and thresh, oh daughter of Zion. Gog and Magog, who shall be gathered together against the Israel of God, as described by Ezekiel, in chap. 39., and by Zec 14:12, shall become as a threshing floor. The destruction of the Assyrians by the angel, 2Ki 19:35, is a reference wide of the mark, and unconnected with the blessings here promised. Notwithstanding the glory of the city of Jehovah-shammah, and of its temple, we should be cautious of understanding these predictions too much in a secular sense. They are mixed with things near and things remote, as in the next chapter.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Mic 4:1-5. Jerusalem the Metropolis of the Worlds Religion.The general character of this passage shows that it is later than Micahs time, e.g. the post-Deuteronomic conception of the Temple, so different from that of the previous section, and the kinship with the ideas of Deutero-Isaiah. The first three verses are found also in Isa 2:2-4*; in both cases, this later prophecy has been inserted to soften the harshness of preceding threatenings. In the Messianic future (the end of the days; cf. Jer 23:20, Hos 3:5, etc.), Mount Zion shall be (supernaturally) made (physically) loftier than all other mountains, that the nations may stream to it as their religious centre. They will exhort each other to this pilgrimage (cf. Zec 8:22; Zec 14:16 f., Jer 3:17, Psa 8:7) that they may become Yahwehs disciples. Yahweh will thus become the recognised arbiter of the world, and there shall be universal peace (contrast Joe 3:10, and cf. 1Ki 4:25, Zec 3:10). Mic 4:5 (mg.) seems a gloss on this glowing, never-realised vision, and says in effect, We, at any rate, will be loyal to Yahweh, whatever other peoples do.

Mic 4:1. But should be and. With the idea of the miracle cf. Zec 14:10, and note the feeling of Psa 68:16; such transformations of nature belong to the Messianic cycle of ideas (cf. Isa 40:4) Eze 47:1 ff., Zec 14:4 ff.).

Mic 4:2. of: lit. out of, for the law read mg.

Mic 4:3. reprove, as mg.

t (sing. with LXX).

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

4:1 But in the {a} last days it shall come to pass, [that] the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the {b} hills; and people shall flow unto it.

(a) When Christ will come, and the temple will be destroyed.

(b) Read Geneva (a),(b),(c) “Isa 2:2”

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

1. The exaltation of Zion 4:1-8

Micah mentioned several characteristics of the future kingdom of Messiah in this section. Mic 4:1-3 are similar to Isa 2:2-4. Scholars debate whether Isaiah borrowed from Micah or vice versa, whether they both drew from an older original source, or whether they each received their similar words directly from the Lord. There is no way to tell for sure.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Zion’s positive future role 4:1-5

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Reference to "the last days" often points to the eschatological future in the Prophets, and it does here (e.g., Deu 4:30; Eze 38:16; Dan 2:28; Dan 10:14; Hos 3:5). This phrase usually refers to the Tribulation and or the Millennium. Some New Testament writers said that Christians live in the last days, namely, the days preceding Messiah’s return to the earth and the establishment of His kingdom on earth (e.g., Heb 1:2; Heb 9:26; 1Pe 1:20).

"The mountain of the house of the Lord" is Mt. Zion where the temple, the Lord’s house, stood in the past and will stand in the future (cf. Ezekiel 40-43). In the future, Mt. Zion would become the chief of all the mountains on earth rising above all other hills in its importance (cf. Gen 12:3; Zec 8:3). "Mountain" is also a figure for a kingdom in the Old Testament (e.g., Dan 2:35; Dan 2:44-45). Here it probably has the double significance of literal Mt. Zion (Jerusalem) and the whole kingdom of Israel that Mt. Zion represents (by metonymy). People from all parts of the earth will migrate to it. This is quite a contrast from what Micah predicted about the immediate future of Jerusalem and the temple: its destruction and abandonment (cf. Mic 3:12). Literal streams of water will flow from this millennial temple (Ezekiel 47), but people will stream to it. [Note: Mays, pp. 96-97.]

"Year by year bands of pilgrims would make their way to Jerusalem to engage in festive worship, in the course of which they would receive instruction in the moral traditions of the covenant. This Israelite pilgrimage is here magnified to universal dimensions. Not merely Israel, but their pagan neighbors from all around would one day wend their way to Yahweh’s earthly residence, and there learn lessons which they would put into practice back in their own communities." [Note: Allen, p. 323.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

ON TIMES HORIZON

Mic 4:1-7

THE immediate prospect of Zions desolation which closes chapter 3 is followed in the opening of chapter 4 by an ideal picture of her exaltation and supremacy “in the issue of the days.” We can hardly doubt that this arrangement has been made of purpose, nor can we deny that it is natural and artistic. Whether it be due to Micah himself, or Whether he wrote the second passage, are questions we have already discussed. Like so many others of their kind, they cannot be answered with certainty, far less with dogmatism. But I repeat, I see no conclusive reason for denying either to the circumstances of Micahs times or to the principles of their prophecy the possibility of such a hope as inspires Mic 4:1-4. Remember how the prophets of the eighth century identified Jehovah with supreme and universal righteousness; remember how Amos explicitly condemned the aggravations of war and slavery among the heathen as sins against Him, and how Isaiah claimed the future gains of Tyrian commerce as gifts for His sanctuary; remember how Amos heard His voice come forth from Jerusalem, and Isaiah counted upon the eternal inviolateness of His shrine and city, -and you will not think it impossible for a third Judean prophet of that age, whether he was Micah or another, to have drawn the prospect of Jerusalem which now opens before us.

It is the far-off horizon of time, which, like the spatial horizon, always seems a fixed and eternal line, but as constantly shifts with the shifting of our standpoint or elevation. Every prophet has his own vision of “the latter days”; seldom is that prospect the same. Determined by the circumstances of the seer, by the desires these prompt or only partially fulfill, it changes from age to age. The ideal is always shaped by the real, and in this vision of the eighth century there is no exception. This is not any of the ideals of later ages, when the evil was the oppression of the Lords people by foreign armies or their scattering in exile; it is not, in contrast to these, the spectacle of the armies of the Lord of Hosts imbrued in the blood of the heathen, or of the columns of returning captives filling all the narrow roads to Jerusalem, “like streams in the south”; nor, again, is it a nation of priests gathering about a rebuilt temple and a restored ritual. But because the pain of the greatest minds of the eighth century was the contradiction between faith in the God of Zion as Universal Righteousness and the experience that, nevertheless, Zion had absolutely no influence upon surrounding nations, this vision shows a day when Zions influence will be as great as her right, and from far and wide the nations whom Amos has condemned for their transgressions against Jehovah will acknowledge His law, and be drawn to Jerusalem to learn of Him. Observe that nothing is said of Israel going forth to teach the nations the law of the Lord. That is the ideal of a later age, when Jews were scattered across the world. Here, in conformity with the experience of a still unraveled people, we see the Gentiles drawing in upon the Mountain of the House of the Lord. With the same lofty impartiality which distinguishes the oracles of Amos on the heathen, the prophet takes no account of their enmity to Israel; nor is there any talk-such as later generations were almost forced by the hostility of neighboring tribes to indulge in-of politically subduing them to the king in Zion. Jehovah will arbitrate between them, and the result shall be the institution of a great peace, with no special political privilege to Israel, unless this be understood in Mic 4:5, which speaks of such security to life as was impossible, at that time at least, in all borderlands of Israel. But among the heathen themselves there will be a resting from war: the factions and ferocities of that wild Semitic world, which Amos so vividly characterised, shall cease. In all this there is nothing beyond the possibility of suggestion by the circumstances of the eighth century or by the spirit of its prophecy.

A prophet speaks:-

“And it shall come to pass in the issue of the days, That the Mount of the House of Jehovah shall be established on the tops of the mountains, And lifted shall it be above the hills, And peoples shall flow to it,”

“And many nations shall go and say: “Come, and let us up to the Mount of Jehovah, And to the House of the God of Jacob, That He may teach us of His ways, And we will walk in His paths. For from Zion goeth forth the law, And the word of Jehovah from out of Jerusalem! And He shall judge between many peoples,”

“And decide for strong nations far and wide; And they shall hammer their swords into plough shares, And their spears into pruning-hooks: They shall not lift up, nation against nation, a sword, And they shall not any more learn war. Every man shall dwell under his vine And under his fig-tree, And none shall make afraid; For the mouth of Jehovah of Hosts has spoken.”

What connection this last verse is intended to have with the preceding is not quite obvious. It may mean that every family among the Gentiles shall dwell in peace; or, as suggested above, that with the voluntary disarming of the surrounding heathendom, Israel herself shall dwell secure, in no fear of border raids and slave-hunting expeditions, with which especially Micahs Shephelah and other borderlands were familiar. The verse does not occur in Isaiahs quotation of the three which precede it. We can scarcely suppose, fain though we may be to do so, that Micah added the verse in order to exhibit the future correction of the evils he has been deploring in chapter 3: the insecurity of the householder in Israel before the unscrupulous land-grabbing of the wealthy. Such are not the evils from which this passage prophesies redemption. It deals only, like the first oracles of Amos, with the relentlessness and ferocity of the heathen under Jehovahs arbitrament these shall be at peace, and whether among themselves or in Israel, hitherto so exposed to their raids, men shall dwell in unalarmed possession of their houses and fields. Security from war, not from social tyranny, is what is promised.

The following verse (Mic 4:5) gives in a curious way the contrast of the present to that future in which all men will own the sway of one God. “For” at the present time “all the nations are walking each in the name of his God, but we go in the name of Jehovah forever and aye.”

To which vision, complete in itself, there has been added by another hand, of what date we cannot tell, a further effect of Gods blessed influence. To peace among men shall be added healing and redemption, the ingathering of the outcast and the care of the crippled.

“In that day-tis the oracle of Jehovah-I will gather the halt, And the cast-off I will bring in, and all that I have afflicted; And I will make the halt for a Remnant, And her that was weakened into a strong people, And Jehovah shall reign over them In the Mount of Zion from now and forever.”

Whatever be the origin of the separate oracles which compose this passage Mic 4:1-7, they form as they now stand a beautiful whole, rising from Peace through Freedom to Love. They begin with obedience to God and they culminate in the most glorious service which God or man may undertake, the service of saving the lost. See how the Divine spiral ascends. We have, first, Religion the center and origin of all, compelling the attention of men by its historical evidence of justice and righteousness. We have the worlds willingness to learn of it. We have the results in the widening brotherhood of nations, in universal Peace, in Labor freed from War, and with none of her resources absorbed by the conscriptions and armaments which in our times are deemed necessary for enforcing peace. We have the universal diffusion and security of Property, the prosperity and safety of the humblest home. And, finally, we have this free strength and wealth inspired by the example of God Himself to nourish the broken and to gather in the forwandered.

Such is the ideal world, seen and promised two thousand five hundred years ago, out of as real an experience of human sin and failure as ever mankind awoke to. Are we nearer the Vision today, or does it still hang upon times horizon, that line which seems so stable from every seers point of view, but which moves from the generations as fast as they travel to it?

So far from this being so, there is much in the Vision that is not only nearer us than it was to the Hebrew prophets, and not only abreast of us, but actually achieved and behind us, as we live and strive still onward. Yes, brothers, actually behind us! History has in part fulfilled the promised influence of religion upon the nations. The Unity of God has been owned, and the civilized peoples bow to the standards of justice and of mercy first revealed from Mount Zion. “Many nations” and “powerful nations” acknowledge the arbitrament of the God of the Bible. We have had revealed that High Fatherhood of which every family in heaven and earth is named; and wherever that is believed the brotherhood of men is confessed. We have seen Sin, that profound discord in man and estrangement from God, of which all human hatreds and malices are the fruit, atoned for and reconciled by a Sacrifice in face of which human pride and passion stand abashed. The first part of the Vision is fulfilled. “The nations stream to the God of Jerusalem and His Christ.” And though today our Peace be but a paradox, and the “Christian” nations stand still from war not in love, but in fear of one another, there are in every nation an increasing number of men and women, with growing influence, who, without being fanatics for peace, or blind to the fact that war may be a peoples duty in fulfillment of its own destiny or in relief of the enslaved, do yet keep themselves from foolish forms of patriotism, and by their recognition of each other across all national differences make sudden and unconsidered war more and more of an impossibility. I write this in the sound of that call to stand upon arms which broke like thunder upon our Christmas peace; but, amid all the ignoble jealousies and hot rashness which prevail, how the air, burned clean by that first electric discharge, has filled with the determination that war shall not happen in the interests of mere wealth or at the caprice of a tyrant! God help us to use this peace for the last ideals of His prophet! May we see, not that of which our modern peace has been far too full, mere freedom for the wealth of the few to increase at the expense of the mass of mankind. May our Peace mean the gradual disarmament of the nations, the increase of labor, the diffusion of property, and, above all, the redemption of the waste of the people and the recovery of our outcasts. Without this, peace is no peace; and better were war to burn out by its fierce fires those evil humors of our secure comfort, which render us insensible to the needy and the fallen at our side. Without the redemptive forces at work which Christ brought to earth, peace is no peace; and the cruelties of war, that slay and mutilate so many, are as nothing to the cruelties of a peace which leaves us insensible to the outcasts and the perishing, of whom there are so many even in our civilization.

One application of the prophecy may be made at this moment. We are told by those who know best and have most responsibility in the matter that an ancient Church and people of Christ are being left a prey to the wrath of an infidel tyrant, not because Christendom is without strength to compel him to deliver, but because to use the strength, would be to imperil the peace, of Christendom. It is an ignoble peace which cannot use the forces of redemption, and with the cry of Armenia in our ears the Unity of Europe is but a mockery.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary