Jerusalem Rising

Intro

I have a friend who is into free diving

Not free sky-diving - that’s an activity you only do once

But free diving to depths of like 150 feet

Not scuba… no tank or oxygen… just holding his breath

It seems crazy to me because most of us go in a pool and can hold our breath under water for 15-20 seconds and our bodies start screaming to us to come up for air

But there is a sense of relief when you take in that breath of fresh air… or hopelessness when you are in need of oxygen, but there isn’t any

Up to this point in Micah, there has been no fresh air, no coming up to breathe

It culminated in the brutal chapter 3 that we looked at last week - dark, stomach-wrenching imagery of condemnation against Israel and, in particular, the leaders who led Israel away from the Lord

And then we get to chapter 4, which may feel like whiplash, from one extreme to the very other

But to orient us, let’s start with the last verse of chapter 3 and then head into chapter 4

Scripture Reading: Micah 3:12-4:7

Micah 3:12–4:7 ESV

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. 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, 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. 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. 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. 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.

Pray

Transition

Chapter 3 ends with Zion being plowed under and Jerusalem left as a jumbled heap of rubble and ruins

Which makes the opening of chapter 4 even more unexpected

Micah 4:1 “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,”

From Jerusalem plowed under to the house of the Lord lifted up

Jerusalem rising - but how and when and why?

How do we get from such a dark picture of impending judgment to a picture of almost unimaginable grace?

To answer that, we are going to see:

Jerusalem Falling

Jerusalem Rising and then

Jerusalem Descending

And then we will seek to apply this passage to us, today

Jerusalem Falling

Up to this point in Micah, there has been no fresh air, no coming up to breathe

To mix metaphors, it’s like Micah knows he has his opponent pinned against the ropes and is unrelenting in his punches

It culminated in the brutal chapter 3 that we looked at last week - dark, stomach-wrenching imagery of condemnation against Israel and, in particular, the leaders who led Israel away from the Lord

And it ends with verse 12

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.”

Zion here is a a reference here to the temple because it was situated on Mount Zion

If Jerusalem is the holy city, then Mount Zion - the location of the temple - is its most holy place

But Zion would be plowed under and Jerusalem left as a jumbled heap of rubble and ruins

And if the temple was plowed under, then how great or powerful could this God - the God of Israel - actually be?

But, as the meaning of Micah’s name asks, “Who is like the Lord?”

No one - and he would not let his temple stay destroyed and, even more, his name would not be diminished

Because he is the one true Lord - and no one is like him

Latter Days

Which leads us into chapter 4

Verse 1 has that phrase, “latter days”

What is meant by that?

It is simple to think that a phrase like that refers to the end of time

Alas, that is not how that type of phrase is used in the Bible

Consider Hebrews 1:1–2 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

Or Acts 2:17 ““ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;”

If “last days” began with coming of Jesus, it contains a far greater expanse of time than just the very last things before the world ends

Instead, we understand that “latter days” are moments in the future when God would set things right and restore his people

But it could be that there is both near-term and more long-term fulfillment of those prophesies, and that is what we see in this passage

Jerusalem Rising

In 586BC, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians

The city was flattened and people carted off into captivity

All that was anticipated by the end of chapter 3 was fulfilled

But just 50 years later, Cyrus, king of Persia, granted a decree that the Jews could return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and, importantly, rebuild the temple

Jerusalem Rising!

The house of the Lord - the temple - was to be rebuilt on Zion

Look at how everything in these verses come to fruition

The highest of mountains

Now, Zion was not the highest of mountains - in fact, it was relatively small at only 2400 feet above sea level

But its greatness would rise and the name of the Lord would rise

And people would come from around the world to worship the Lord, to sit under the teaching of God’s word, to learn to obey the Lord

All those verses anticipated, fulfilled

Jerusalem Rising!

And yet, that temple fell in 70AD when Rome invaded Jerusalem

Jerusalem Descending

For all of this discussion of Jerusalem Rising, we are left with two challenges

First, there are parts of the passage that clearly were unfulfilled by the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem

Second, there are parts of history that we can’t make sense of if the Second Temple was the ultimate fulfillment

First, from the passage

Well, the easy ones to see are the references to “forever”

End of verse 5: “but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever”

End of verse 7: “and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore”

But even look back at verse 3

Micah 4:3 “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;”

This verse anticipates a day when weapons - swords and spears - will be repurposed as tools for working in the fields

And it anticipates a day when there will be no more war!

There are aspects of this passage that were left unfulfilled by the restoration to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple after the exile to Babylon

Even more, they still haven’t been fulfilled - after all, war still ravages all around us

And second, from history

In 70AD, Rome invaded Jerusalem

The city was decimated

And the temple? One again flattened to rubble and ruins

Jerusalem Rising after the exile brought some fulfillment to this passage, but not ultimate fulfillment

Which means that, even now, at this moment, we are still awaiting that day!

That will only happen at the New Creation, with Jerusalem Descending from the heavens

Revelation 21:1–5 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.””

The day is coming when the New Jerusalem will descend from the clouds to the New Earth - an earth without war, without conflict, without death or pain or sorrow

All that will remain will be to walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever, teaching his ways and obeying them perfectly

All that will remain is for the Lord to reign over us, his people, from this time forth and forevermore

Application

So we have seen:

Jerusalem Falling at the exile to Babylon

Jerusalem Rising and the building of the Second Temple and

Jerusalem Descending from the New Heavens to the New Earth at the final, ultimate fulfillment of all things

Two points of application for us:

Hope will rise from the ashes because God is faithful

There will be success in the church’s mission because God is victorious

First, hope will rise from the ashes because God is faithful

Imagine how Micah felt writing the words of chapter 3, ending with the destruction of Jerusalem

Imagine how the Jews felt when they heard him declare those words

Summed up in one word: hopeless

They had screwed up, and the consequences of their actions was the fall of their most holy place…

And then we get to chapter 4

It may feel like whiplash after the words that preceded it

But those words also resonate as a flicker of light in the dark, hope where all hope seemed lost

Hope would rise from the ashes because God is faithful and God had promised that land to his people as their inheritance forever

He had not forgotten or failed or been sidetracked

Yes, they would be punished for turning away from the Lord

But he was faithful still

Listen to verses 6-7 again

Micah 4:6–7 “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.”

Two observations from this:

First, God is the subject of all the verbs here

He is the actor - the one who does all these things

He is the one who will assemble and gather and make a remnant and reign

God is faithful and he will restore all that was broken and lost

Second, this idea of the remnant

We have read that word a few times already in Micah and each week we are closing with the final words of chapter 7, including a reference to “remnant”

But what is that?

The remnant is an important concept from the Old Testament

The remnant is a group that God preserves and protects through the midst of suffering and judgment to experience restoration

But this remnant? They will not be preserved because they were especially holy or had somehow avoided the same sinful patterns of everyone else

In fact, verse 7 there says “the lame I will make the remnant”

Hope rests not in their deservedness, but in the Lord’s kindness

And the same is true for us

Jesus didn’t die because we somehow deserved it

But rather because we, like the Jews to whom Micah was preaching, are the lame upon whom the Lord poured his kindness

Yes, chapter 3 is really dark and hopeless

But there is hope that rises from the ashes because God is faithful

And it is a hope not for the rising of Jerusalem, but for the descending of Jerusalem from Heaven

Second, there will be success in the church’s mission because God is victorious

Let me make an observation for you here

In the passage we read - from 3:12 - 4:7, the word “shall” appears 15 times!

And the word “will” occurs 4 times!

19 words of guaranteed action - not may or could or probably

Shall and will

The house of the Lord shall be established

Many nations shall come to the mountain of the Lord to worship

He shall judge

He shall put an end to war

He will make a remnant

And, most beautifully, “the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore”

There is no doubt, no cross-your-fingers

There is shall and will

God will succeed in everything he has purposed

And part of what he has purposed is to make a remnant of people for himself

God is making the lame and casts off and those who have been afflicted into a people of his own choosing

That remnant? It is what we now refer to as “the church”

The end of verse 1 and 2 declares that “many people shall flow to it, and many nations shall come”

But Revelation goes further than just saying “many nations”

It tells us that the remnant will include some from every people, tribe, tongue and nation

People from all around the world will… shall… come to the holy mountain to worship the Lord

When we go and proclaim Christ, we do so with the firm assurance that there will be success in the church’s mission because God is victorious!

Conclusion

I opened with a story about my friend who likes to go free diving

Personally, I can’t imagine

But I also know that he has seen some creatures and underwater formations that I will never see

Beauty… colors… amazing creations of God

But also some incredible risk, and not just because our bodies need oxygen

There are some of those amazing creatures who are dangerous to humans

Even the beauty at those depths is marred by the reality of a Micah 3 world of flattened ruins due to sin

I came across a quote this week though that is so good

"God's creative and redemptive agenda is the consummate restoration of the good." --Perry Shaw

Everything God does is for the purpose of restoring the good, of making all things right again

Yes, Jerusalem fell as punishment for the sin of the people

But it wasn’t the Second Temple that was the fulfillment of Micah 4

It is Revelation 21 and 22 and the promise of the New Heavens and the New Earth

It is the promise of all things made new and made right

It is the promise that, one day, King Jesus will return to sit on his throne in the New Jerusalem to reign forever and ever

Pray