Christ Shall Be Your Peace

Page 776, between Jonah and Nahum.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned in passing that there was a bit of a controversy concerning the book Gentle and Lowly, yet I refused to elaborate. The core of the controversy was that people believe that the author Dane Ortlund gave a one sided view of Jesus. They only portrayed Jesus as gentle and lowly, meek and mild. The felt that he portrayed an effeminate Christ who is full of love and empty of justice.

Now I think the controversy was blown out of proportion and essentially a “nontroversy.” Because Ortlund does indeed address the issues that he was being critiqued of, however, that also wasn’t the scope of his book. He was writing about a specific verse, not a dissertation on every aspect of Christology.

However, I think the controversy does reveal to us something about how we as people view Jesus. I think the reason that people were bothered by the book was because many people view Jesus too frequently as only gentle meek and mild rather than a warrior and a conquering king.

While I agree that our culture certainly has historically undermined the conquering King part of Jesus’ character, to emphasize Jesus meek and mild.

But the pendulum swings both ways.

I hear many cries these days that Jesus is King. And Amen he absolutely is. But he’s also a shepherd. And that’s one thing that I love about the book of Micah it regularly gives us the picture of Jesus as a Shepherd King. He is both.

Micah takes this shepherd language to demonstrate that while Jesus will shepherd his people with a staff and a rod (Psalm 23:4), but he will also shepherd his enemies with a sword.

The promise of the shepherd, is not the promise of a pacifist.

If we only think of Jesus as being the temple-table flipping Hulk Hogan figure we miss Jesus, but also if we only think of Jesus as the bleeding-heart homeless hippie we also miss the point. Both of those are inaccurate caricatures.

Jesus, the shepherd who is our peace, who will use his enemies as a footstool is far more complex than the foolish caricatures that our society tends to reduce him to.

This text shows us that Jesus is a shepherd to run to for salvation, but a conquering King who will destroy his enemies.

When we were last in Micah, the Sunday before Christmas, I ended with the point that He shall be their peace. However, I did not fully touch on all of verse 5. This morning I intend to cover the remainder of chapter 5.

However, I want to start with Christ Shall be Your Peace. If you get lost in everything else today, and if the history of Israel is confusing and boring… then remember that Christ is your peace.

Christ is Your Peace

But what does it mean that Christ shall be your peace?

There are two significant aspects to what this means.

Christ shall give you peace before God.

Christ shall give you peace among men.

Both of these definitions are carried through the entire passage.

The first definition that God will give us peace before God, is the most important. Our biggest problem is not that we have enemies - but that we are God’s enemy.

Paul demonstrates this to us in Romans 5, in verse 6 Paul tells us that in our natural state, apart from Christ’s work of salvation, we are weak and ungodly, and then in verse 8 he continues to tell us that we are sinners. And as then in verse 10 he further specifies that those who are dead in the sins are enemies of God.

Romans 5:10 ESV

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

And this verse, demonstrates to us that those who are saved by faith in Jesus, and saved by his life are no longer enemies, but now they are reconciled to God. Though our sins once separated us from God and cast us off far from him, now we have been brought near through the blood of Christ. Though our sins deserve wrath Christ has brought us peace before God.

If you’re not a Christian, If you don’t know Jesus, if you aren’t sure what any of this means then you are still dead in your sins.

We cannot assume that we have peace before God just because. Yet many people do.

Why do you think you have peace with God?

The only answer is: Because of Jesus, and his finished worked on the cross, his substitutionary death, and resurrection from the dead. In nothing else will you find peace. The second way that Jesus is our peace is that he is going to triumph over our and his enemies. We see this clearly in our text this morning - especially in v9 and v 15 of our text this morning.

But this assertion begins in verse 6. And in this passage that we are looking at this morning we learn that the peaceful shepherd will remove our enemies and our idols.

As we have been studying through the book of Micah we have seen two prominent themes arise.

Destruction (Judgment)

And Deliverance

And this is a key in the Old Testament promises of exile, that not only is exile going to come - but God will deliver them from that exile. However, in the book of Micah, we see the deliverance coming in a slightly different manner. Namely because as we look back at the Biblical history we see the people of Israel who are delivered into exile and then delivered from that exile.

I’ve mentioned these dates recently but even I often forget them and I know they can be confusing so if you’ll bare with me I’m going to run through the timeline here again…

First: Micah is writing sometime between 750-686BC.

722 - the Northern Kingdom of Israel is captured by Assyria and the people are deported. 701 - the Southern Kingdom, Judah, is attacked by Assyria, there is a siege against Jerusalem, but they are unable to capture the city. 626 - Babylon Conquers Assyria. 587/586 - Babylon captures Judah, destroys Jerusalem. The people of Judah go into exile. 539 - Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, conquers Babylon. Ends the Babylon Empire. 538 - Cyrus permits exiles to return to their land 517/516 - the 2nd Temple is completed.

I hope you’re still following me. Assyria at the time that Micah was writing was the main oppressor of Israel. Babylon who is mentioned in chapter 4 inevitably conquers Assyria and then Israel. But then Persia captures them and allows the captives of the various places Assyria and Babylon captured to return to their land.

I put all of that history out there to state that we know how all of this happens - and some of those things happen somewhat different than we might expect in this text. This would give us a need to consider a bit more breadth in the text than we might assume. For example: the text speaks of the Shepherd being one who will deliver them from Assyria, but we know that this shepherd is Jesus. And from the timeline I just mentioned Assyria as a nation hadn’t existed for 6 centuries. By the time the shepherd comes, Assyria as a nation is long gone.

Micah 5:5–6 ESV

5 And he shall be their peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men; 6 they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances; and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border.

Those of Assyrian descent are still around today. Some have even suggested that the wisemen may have been from Edessa and thus of Assyrian descent.

What’s interesting though, is that modern day Assyrians, those who are descendents of ancient assyrians are exclusively Christian - and have been since sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries. So we should not assume that Assyrian here refers to ethnic Assyrians. Rather it is ends up being an illustration for the enemies of the people of God. So while it speaks of the Assyrians being shepherd with the sword - there is a degree to which the Lord has done that through judgment from Babylon, but also Jesus is quite literally the shepherd of Assyrian Christians.

So as we read verses 5-6, we do not historically see Jesus freeing Israel from the Assyrians. But we do historically see that God used Babylon to conquer Assyria, and that he used Persia to conquer Babylon, and that Jesus will conquer he enemies, and that he will reign until his enemies are made into his footstool. (Psalm 110). And we do see Jesus liberating his people from a much more devastating captor - their sins.

The statement of 7 shepherds and 8 princes is a common Hebrew idiom. Here Micah is using this to demonstrate an abundance. So this statement is asserting that God will enable his people to triumph over their enemies.

The pronouns in this part here get a little confusing. (Use laser) The first He… he shall be their peace, is the Ruler from Bethlehem, Jesus. Then him that is mentioned in verse 5 is Assyria. And then He in verse 6 would again refer to the Shepherd King Jesus.

Verse 6 essentially reiterates what verse 5 says.

So the summary of verses 5-6 are This shepherd that is promised in earlier part of chapter 5, will be their peace. And the judgment that they were promised in the chapters prior to this will come to pass, but it will not be the final answer. This shepherd will conquer over their enemies.

They are promised judgment, but they are also promised deliverance. So the promised Shepherd, will along with the shepherds and princes of men from Israel, rule or shepherd over the Assyrians with a sword. Verses 5 and 6, are ultimately a promise of both peace and hope. Jesus is our peace, and also there is hope for triumph in him.

So this text leads the people of Israel in 700ish BC to have hope because they will not be treaded on forever. There will be a time when they will be freed from the Assyrian. There will be a time when they will be delivered from their oppressors.

Micah 5:7–9 ESV

7 Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man. 8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver. 9 Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.

The remnant ought to be defined as the people whom God has kept back for himself even in the midst of judgment. This isn’t a separate people within the people of God, these are God’s people - and that even though it seems that they are being eradicated God will not permit that to happen. The remnant are the faithful jews in exile and captivity, the remnant are the disciples of Jesus who planted the church, the remnant are the believers in Jesus Christ.

And the remnant will grow like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass. Dew from the Lord, the Lord brings the growth. The language makes it clear here that the remnant will not grow by their own strength, but only by the strength of the Lord.

And remnant is told that they shall be among the nations. And this is exactly what we have seen in the church, spread out between many nations so that we might proclaim the gospel message to all that they might believe and have life in Christ, and that he may be peace to all those who he has called to himself.

Though the language of conquest continues in this second as the metaphor of a lion further demonstrates that this group will conquer. And Romans 8 tells us that we are more than conquerors with Christ.

So verses 7-9, promise that the people of God will not merely be delivered, but that they will also conquer their enemies through Christ Jesus.

God has not made a vain promise.

Now aspects of this have a partial fulfilling now - the peace that we have in Christ is a real peace that those who confess their sins and believe that Jesus is Lord can have today, but this text will have a complete fulfillment in the return of Christ. As we read that at Jesus’ second coming he will have complete victory over all of his enemies.

And in our final section today, God tells the people that he will cut of four different things:

Horses and chariots

cities and strongholds

sorceries and fortunes

idols and pillars

This is a judgment, but also a blessing.

verse 10 - God will remove their horses and chariots. This is not because God hates horses. He created horses. But it is because of what the horses and chariots are used for. Horses and chariots are often used as a symbol of war, and a status of military prowess. In this first removal, we see that Gos is removing their offense. In the next removal we see the opposite. He tells them he will remove cities and strongholds.

And this continues, the Lord will remove cities and strongholds. Now again, God is not against cities, or strongholds. But he is removing things that get in the way.

He will cut off sorceries and fortunes. And then in verse 13, he also states that he will cut off their carved images and pillars. They will not longer bow down to idols, and asherah images. In short, 10-15 is all about God removing from them anything that they would depend on rather than him.

“Why so? Because it is the Lord’s will that we should be like sheep that we might depend wholly on his power, and know that we cannot be otherwise safe than under his protection. This reason then ought to comfort us, that it may not be grievous to us, when we find that we are in the midst of wolves, and that we have no equal strength to contend with them; for even this destitution hardly extorts from us a real confession that our safety is in the hand of God.”

God is forcing Psalm 23:1 to be their reality. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. I have nothing else to want - because none of it is sufficient. None of it satisfies. The Lord will be your shepherd, you will have no other desires, and it will be for your good and his glory - is the core of what 10-15 says. And while this seems forceful, consider it this way… you have to force your kids to take medicine, but you do not need to force them to eat chocolate.

Christian, Christ shall be your peace, and he will do this by removing any disrupter of that peace. He will do this in his time. But enemies, idols and iniquity are all things that disrupt peace - and Christ will remove them.

And it is in verse 15, where we read of the fate of the Lord’s enemies. They will be crushed. He will execute his judgment upon the nations that did not obey. While I certainly do not have the time to address the issue of Christian nationalism today - especially, because there is no consistent definition. Here is what I will say… every tribe tongue and nation will bow before the Lord. Some by delight and joy, others by force because they will be overwhelmed by the glory of the one whom they hate. The Church is called to go into all nations declaring the gospel.

We have a message of peace to proclaim to all. Christians have the responsibility to tell the world that they are dead in their trespasses and sins. The judgment of God awaits them as verse 15 tells us. That those who do not obey will face his wrath and vengeance.

But rejoice, oh Christian, for Christ shall be your peace before God. The Prince of Peace has taken our place that we might have peace before God. He has taken the wrath that you deserve for your sins upon himself, he has drained the cup of the Lord’s wrath down to the dregs - and there’s no more wrath left for you if you are in Christ.