Micah 4-5
Notes
Transcript
Glory
Glory
We’ve now clearly entered the Glory portion and we’ll have chapters 4 and 5 to cover today if I can get it all packed in.
This hope comes immediately after the most shocking statement we’ve ever read in the minor prophets… at least to the people reading them in their time. Micah 3:12
Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height.
We weren’t sufficiently shocked last week but this was a shocking verse. Jerusalem will be destroyed? Zion, the temple will no longer exist! heaven forbid! But we have reassurances right away of a future where God restores his mighty city as the center of worship for the world.
so lets get right in.
It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
The mountain here all understand to be the temple mount in Jerusalem. Which represents the place of worship where in the end days all peoples will worship God.
and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
This puts Jerusalem and the temple into the most promonent position in the world. It will be the center of all attentions and teach every nation right and wrong. I think this is the final fulfilment of Gen 12.3
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
This ultimate fulfillment is first revealed through Jesus who forgives sins, even the sins of the gentiles. Is the beginning of the fulfillment that blessed all nations and I think in Him who is the Word it will be ultimately fullfilled in the end days.
He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore;
but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
and no one shall make them afraid,
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
Wait, He? Here’s Brenda with a pronoun objection, what He are they talking about we haven’t named anyone. But we did, at the end of the last verse we were told the law and the word is what goes forth from Jerusalem. That is not just ideas and words, but the person who is law and Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Who does John say this Word is? Jesus the Christ. So now having had the NT revealed we are able to see more clearly what is being talked about here in Micah. Then in contrast to the events happening in Joel 3 when we talked about that in the opposite way now we see peace is coming and you won’t need a sword or weapons anymore. No one will end up afraid with threats etc.
For all the peoples walk
each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
forever and ever.
But here is the reality everyone walks after their own gods but the people of Israel have the promis to walk in the name of the Lord forever. FOREVER as Mark said on Sunday. This is almost an aside about the current here and now for Micah because he had just told us that all people will come to the Lord in the end days.
In that day, declares the Lord,
I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away
and those whom I have afflicted;
and the lame I will make the remnant,
and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion
from this time forth and forevermore.
Here we see a familiar reversal of the lowly to esteemed.
Next verse we switch o addressing Jerusalem
And you, O tower of the flock,
hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you shall it come,
the former dominion shall come,
kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.
What’s coming? Jesus is coming!
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Now, we begin 3 “Now”s where it seems maybe like we’re dipping back to gloom but this is all how these turn to glory.
Now why do you cry aloud?
Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished,
that pain seized you like a woman in labor?
Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you shall go out from the city
and dwell in the open country;
you shall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued;
there the Lord will redeem you
from the hand of your enemies.
Their captivity in Babylon although a punishment further brings the picture of salvation closer in how they are rescued out of Babylon from their enemies.
Now many nations
are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be defiled,
and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
But they do not know
the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
Arise and thresh,
O daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron,
and I will make your hoofs bronze;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples;
and shall devote their gain to the Lord,
their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.
This then is addressed almost to the other nations, though it speaks directly to the Israelites. These other nations are going to be used in Israel’s judgment from God, yet God is bringing in those nations as the fluff that will be burned up after the true harvest is complete. Surely some that are drawn in will be saved but the nations in this time as a whole will generally not be saved. I’m not sure if it’s a comfort or a further burn to know that those who God brings in to punish Israel end up themselves much worse off. The do have to opportunity that they likely wouldn’t have otherwise though to be exposed to the Truth about God. In some way I think that accountability for knowing God and not he idols the nations worshipped is strengthened by bringing those nations in. Like the ones who attack the church at first but end up turning to God. It’s not many of them but the ones that do tend to be some of the biggest pillars of Faith. The church however grows ever larger in number and faith during times of persecution.
Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops;
siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike the judge of Israel
on the cheek.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return
to the people of Israel.
And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
A pre-fulfillment is maybe...
They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.
Christ being the ultimate fulfillment like all things are ultimately fulfilled through Him somehow.
And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.