Renewal & Restoration
 For the Lord’s Day:  the 15th of February 2004

Micah 4: 6-13

The Reformer's Fire
/\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Exposition by Max A Forsythe

 Introduction:  We had spoken early in this series about the prophetic emphasis of warning and promise scattered throughout the various books composed by those granted the office and perspective of prophecy.  Here in these verses, not only do we see both warning and promise, but we also sense that God is greater than any current events which may challenge and concern the people of any nation.  Our passage is divided into three sections by commentary analysis.  In verses six and seven we read that the Lord will restore His weaklings to the courts of His special kingdom.  Then in verse eight we sense as one commentator, Bruce Waltke commends it: “This oracle promising the restoration of Jerusalem’s former imperial power serves as a hinge between” [verses 6-7 and verses 9-13].  Then in verses nine to thirteen the Lord God makes it clear that it is precisely through the captivity in Babylon that true Israel shall be rescued.  Despite the current grim situation – the Lord has a hand in it and if the people will stand firm in their resolve, a great work will be accomplished before the coming humiliation and salvation of the future.

How much the issues of national security and international relationships played in this period when Judah was threatened by the vast un-numbered hosts of Assyria.  The great King Hezekiah, who was a believer seemed powerless, the nation was overrun by contentious enemies and there was nothing good that could be done – except for the sudden revival that came through divine intervention in the wars of Judah and in the hearts of her citizens.  The dangers to the kingdom were pushed back across the immediate horizon, but the promised punishment for unbelief was only held for a time, but once judgment must finally come, thereby would all true Israel finally and fully be saved.

Development:  We begin our study in verses six and seven.  The lame here may refer to the condition of Jacob whose salvation came through wrestling with the Lord God and his having been overpowered and thus reminded of that action ever after.  Here we can certainly assent to a common sense understanding that it is indeed by the power of God’s Spirit that all of His people by various means and causes have their own proud will and character subdued through the various vicissitudes of living under the greater rule of  God in heaven.  What I am getting at is the common domestication of various animals that over the course of many centuries have been tamed to serve the cause of humanity.  Horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, camels, donkeys, chickens and fowl of many sorts – all of these and more have prospered in the management of humanity.

Of course, as my father always mentioned – young horses and cattle do not submit all too easily and there were a few wild ones that were sent to the market because they could not contain their aggression.  I remember an Ayrshire heifer that was probably the prettiest cow we ever had – but that grand image quickly disappeared in her intemperate reaction to being milked.  Every milking became a grand contest to see whether dad could get and keep even a quart of milk in the bucket.  It only took six or seven attempts at milking before Addie the Ayrshire, as she was called – was sent to market to become hamburger.

Now remember, I have often compared our own conversion to the “captives in [Christ’s] train” as the church is described in one of the psalms.  My meaning is that we too were wild and not only lost, but given to grazing up to our noses in the sins of world.  At least until Christ came into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit and suddenly we wanted to be better people.  Not completely certain why, of course – until we were properly introduced to the Savior of the Church.  From then on, we have grown in grace and even learned to delight in the great spiritual freedom of being “captive in His train.”

Further we read in those same verses that the Lord will collect many “who were cast off” and turn them into “a strong nation; and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.”  While there is in this prophecy a hint that the nation of Judah will be returned to Mount Zion, the real aim and purpose of this prophecy is only met in and through the great spiritual kingdom of Christ’s Church under the New Covenant.

Then in verse eight we read the peculiar phrase “kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.”  Commentator Waltke observes that “because ‘city’ is feminine in Hebrew, Jerusalem is personified as a daughter.”  At least the evangelical commentator Michael Bently, suggests that this phrase means “the people of God.”   Now, I must admit that I have precious few resources concerning the idiom being used here.  However, I am thinking that with the destruction of old Jerusalem and then the reconstruction made by a returning remnant – thereby we may speak of a “daughter of Jerusalem” in that sense as well as in the spiritual sense.  I would also push the image a little further and allow that given the fact that the Church: which is composed of the people of God does indeed transcend both Covenants.  And in that consideration, the “daughter of Jerusalem” could also be identified with the New Covenant Church.  I do not think this is too gigantic a step to take with the image, especially since so many commentators look forward here to the church age as a major consideration and theme.

Our next section, verses nine through thirteen are easily divided into two sub-sections:  nine to ten and eleven through thirteen.  Waltke again advises us of the division:  “Israel’s King has a secret strategy behind Jerusalem’s present distress, which extends from the Assyrian invasion into the Babylonian exile.  Through the exile he plans Zion’s liveration (vv. 9-10), and through the invasion against Jerusalem he conspires the defeat of her enemies (vv. 11-13).

Let us look at these verses and see how this scenario is played out.  The word “Now” at the beginning of nine and eleven is indicative of something special being highlighted, and it is this outline that informs our division of the text.  Micah uses the example of pregnancy to demonstrate that something good can come from the common afflictions of life.  Yes, he assures the people of God: the Babylonian captivity will not be pleasant, but because of it – you will be transformed as a people.  One thing we know for certain, is that forever after the restoration: the people of Israel troubled themselves no longer with pagan gods and goddesses!  But even more, the great seminal event of redemptive restoration will hint at something more to come when the kingdom is transformed from its earthly format into the spiritual format granted in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Application:  In verse eleven, the prophet returns the people to their present circumstance, being shut up in the confines of their national redoubt:  Jerusalem.  Even as the Assyrian power humbled the nation, government and king – the lesser lands on the borders made plans to extend their petty political precincts at the expense of Judah.  “Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion,” the kingdoms of the world chortle as the wait in grand expectation of collecting a few square miles of bordering real estate.  Let us walk upon the Temple Mount where we are not allowed, and let us gaze into the holy of holies to see if there is any divine presence they dream.

Then the prophet of the Lord shares the mind of He who inspires the prophets, priests and kings of Israel.  “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.”  The worldly never ever get it, just when they think that the elect people of God are given into their hands, they are suddenly frustrated and destroyed.  After all any final conquest of the true Church is beyond human capacity and even when they do the devil’s work – even that devilish strength must finally fail.

We like Micah and the people of Hezekiah’s kingdom do also live in interesting times.  Like the Kingdom of Assyria, the Supreme Soviet has dissipated through its own inefficiencies and corruption.  In its place have arisen countless little kingdoms who challenge the contemporary American suzerainty.  Certainly, we well understand – that the prophets words to the people of Judah apply even more directly and succinctly to our own politicos, weirdoes and depraved worldly sinners.  Whether there be nine, seven or less – the political dwarves of our day and age have nothing to offer this generation but a common hatred of a president and population who might know what the word civilized actually means!

And so the worldly, tell their lies and their suffragette friends line up in countless court houses demanding marriage licenses to justify their corrupt and perverted relationships.  The educated fools in this world continue to spend money on everything and anything that fails to improve the country or its people.  Votes on almost any piece of legislation can easily be bought and pagan judges legislate their own depraved morality from the bench.  And everyman does what seems best in his own eyes as law and order disappear down the moral sewers that must spill over into every good cause!

O how much we need the prophecy of verse thirteen fulfilled in our own day and time!  “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.”  Of course we well know that when all heaven breaks loose – this shall be so and all the elect will be brought into the glorious everlasting kingdom of God which shall know no end.  But like Micah and Isaiah – we can hope for an immediate change in the fortunes of God’s Church here on earth.  We too can pray like Martin Lloyd-Jones for a real renewal and restoration in the present.  Micah & Isaiah both give us hope that the Lord not only can but does indeed do great things in the course of history.  May we be praying day in and day out that once again revival and reformation may visit our once fair land and that all the good and noble things once done here might be restored.  Amen.

      Amen.

Return to
The Minor Prophets

Return to
The Reformer's Fire

Return to
 Table of Contents