Reflections on Micah 4

Micah 04 (Contemporary English Version)


1. In the future, the mountain with the LORD's temple will be the highest of all. It will reach above the hills, and every nation will rush to it.
   
2. People of many nations will come and say, "Let's go up to the mountain of the LORD God of Jacob and worship in his temple." The LORD will teach us his Law from Jerusalem, and we will obey him.
   
3. He will settle arguments between distant and powerful nations. They will pound their swords and their spears into rakes and shovels; they will never again make war or attack one another.
   
4. Everyone will find rest beneath their own fig trees or grape vines, and they will live in peace. This is a solemn promise of the LORD All-Powerful.
   
5. Others may follow their gods, but we will always follow the LORD our God.
   
6. The LORD said: At that time I will gather my people-- the lame and the outcasts, and all into whose lives I have brought sorrow.
   
7. Then the lame and the outcasts will belong to my people and become a strong nation. I, the LORD, will rule them from Mount Zion forever.
   
8. Mount Zion in Jerusalem, guardian of my people, you will rule again.
   
9. Jerusalem, why are you crying? Don't you have a king? Have your advisors gone? Are you suffering like a woman in childbirth?
   
10. Keep on groaning with pain, you people of Jerusalem! If you escape from your city to the countryside, you will still be taken as prisoners to Babylonia. But later I will rescue you from your enemies.
    
11. Zion, because of your sins you are surrounded by many nations who say, "We can hardly wait to see you disgraced."
    
12. But they don't know that I, the LORD, have gathered them here to grind them like grain.
    
13. Smash them to pieces, Zion! I'll let you be like a bull with iron horns and bronze hoofs. Crush those nations and bring their wealth to me, the LORD of the earth.
    

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Micah provides us a look into the future. That future he saw is still future to us, though we are now some 2500 years nearer that time. The view Micah gives us in the first eight verses of chapter 4 is during a time bible scholars identify as the millennium. This is a 1,000 year period after Christ's return to earth, when He will rule the earth. As described in these first eight verses, during this time Christ will rule from Jerusalem which will be the political and religious center of the world. God's plan to bless the world through Israel will finally be fulfilled.

Finally, during this period, the world will see peace. Rather than defaulting to war to settle disputes between nations, Christ will be the arbitrator. His arbitration will settle the dispute with finality and there will be no need for war or the implements of war. Thus the nations will turn these implements into peacetime implements used for productive purposes. People will be able to sit peacefully and enjoy life without fear of harm. Presently, all efforts to bring peace are imperfect. While we have international peacekeeping organizations operated by major nations that have formed agreements for this purpose, we see more strife between nations in our time - not less. These organizations seek international peace through peaceful means, which is admirable. Peaceful methods, however, will work only with rational leaders who have good intentions. That does not describe every national leader. For those it does not describe, their destructive intentions will only be stopped by meeting force with force. This solution is only justified when the potential destruction of the despot leader appears greater than that of the force used to stop him. Either way, many innocent people are harmed. This is the plight of the imperfect world in which we live.

But when Christ rules the world it will become the world it was intended to be. We ask why God allows bad things to happen. He allows it because He has given everyone of us the freedom to choose what we will do and He will not intervene to take away that freedom. Therefore, people make bad choices and these choices have consequences. God does not intervene on the choice or on the consequence. I suspect that many, who complain the loudest about a God who allows bad things to happen, would also complain the loudest about a God who did not give them freedom to do what they wanted to do. But it can't be both ways.

In the last verses of the chapter (verses 9-13), Micah tells of events to happen before the time of the Millennium. These should not be seen as happening in rapid succession, but as spreading out over thousands of years. In fact, though some have now taken place, others have not. To start this sequence, Micah drops back to the near future for those he is addressing. The Israelites will be like a woman in labor, as they cry out in pain, because of what they will experience. They will be defeated by the Babylonians and exiled to that country. So the first event in the sequence is Israel's exile to Babylon. This happened in Micah's time. The second event in the sequence is her rescue from this exile. This happened about 70 years after the exile. The third and final event mentioned is the gathering of many nations against Israel. We have history in our favor to understand the timing of the first two events, but are left to make assumptions about the third event. And the assumption of many, if not most, interpreters is that this third event takes place when Christ returns to establish His worldwide kingdom. The battle in which Christ enables Israel to defeat these nations gathered against her is then understood to be the "Battle of Armageddon." Israel at that time is the nation God desires her to be and devotes the spoils of this battle to the Lord.