The Minor Prophets: Micah

They spurred their beasts gently and trotted off on the final leg of their quest. About three hours later, they arrived in the market town. It was late, this must be the place, but where would the baby King be born. In regal splendor their lieutenants went from house to house. Finally they came to the place where Mary and Joseph were hosted. The hour was late, but could the majestic Magi see their little child? And so an apparently common child was visited by philosopher kings from the East. To a small rude village in Palestine land, these kings had come. Not to a castle fortress high on a hill, not to a grand palace, neither to a rich and fancy hostel, but to a common place, most probably with dirt for a floor.

Come they had, to see the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To Him they brought their gifts and more importantly their worship. To one who as the Lamb of God was born in a stable manger they came through the power of God's Spirit even as millions more have come from earth's remotest regions. Even as our ancestors have come from the highlands and lowlands, from villages and cities, from Malaysia, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Scotland and places we may even have forgotten.

Development: But why to this place of all places? Cecil B DeMille our Father in Heaven isn't! Why this rude village on a knoll south of Jerusalem? As the scriptures have it, Bethlehem was the least of the suburbs of the mighty citadel of Zion. This leastness is well celebrated in the vision of the prophet Micah. In the fourth chapter our ESV Bibles subtitles the last paragraphs of chapter four as "The Lord's Shall Rescue Zion".

And there in that chapter the Lord promises His people through Micah that while there is to be a brief captivity in Babylon, ultimately the people will be rescued and restored to bring the wealth of nations to their God and Father. In chapter five Micah has a vision of the future shepherd ruler of true Israel. This ruler will be born in the village of David's birth. The royal family will return from palace splendor to village labor. And there in the Lord's good time will come one "whose origin is from of old, from ancient days."

Does the prophet guess the meanings of this vision. Does He understand even as we do: the eternal life of the Son of God? Perhaps he has a hint, we might easily read that last phrase as: "whose goings out are from days of eternity". Thus, we might guess the certainty of who Christ is when once He came! Certainly many scholars would argue against the truth of prophecy since we now only have the skill to see the Lord's hand chronologically behind us. We are no longer gifted as prophets to perceive the future. But, by the power of the Holy Spirit, any of us so gifted with the new birth, may easily understand the fulfillment of what was once written so many years ago. Well may we understand the third through fifth verses since those times have now been fulfilled. “Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth.” We know that from the time of the last prophets there were some four hundred years without any revelation from the Lord. And so verse three was fulfilled. We also know that the gentile Magi came to worship as have peoples from a thousand tribes. We may also affirm that Christ has indeed stood in the strength of the Lord and that we are shepherded by His love, grace and Holy Spirit. We even see in the latter phrases of verse four that God's people are secure in the Lord's majesty and because His greatness gradually reaches the ends of the earth. So much of this prophecy has been accomplished that we ought to be at peace!

Over a decade ago, one of my friends was asked what he wanted for Christmas. He answered that he wanted peace on earth. Little did he dream in 1988 the grandest Christmas gift of the Twentieth Century was soon to be accomplished: the Soviet Union is no more! Mighty indeed is the Father God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even as His prophet Micah here foretells the rescue of His people from the bloody hands of Babylonians and Assyrians. Even now, as the armies of the Supreme Soviet have melted away, peoples long captive are once again breathing free air again! And in the Middle East, for the first time in many hundreds of years – there is a chance, small perhaps: but still a chance, that the iron grip of the Muslim Mullahs may finally be broken and their captives set free to find the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our King came not to the Kremlin, neither to the fanciest Hotel in Washington and certainly not to Jerusalem. Instead he arrived wrapped in swaddling clothes in Bethlehem town. Just as the birth announcement sent out hundreds of years earlier had it on perfect authority. Earlier in the year, Sherry, her mother and our second daughter-in-law sent out invitations for a baby shower for our first grandchild. The shower had to be postponed because the guest of honor was in the hospital giving birth! And so, another celebration had to be planned later, after the blessed event. God’s timing, unlike ours is perfect indeed – by the power of the Holy Spirit – the invitations to come and visit the child king: could and were arranged hundreds of years before.

Application: And yet, the promised Savior & Lord over the Kingdom of the Spirit was many generations in the future when He was described by Micah. Certainly, there was in the contemporary prophecy a kernel of hope, even as the Judeans were summoned in the first few verses to “muster [their] troops” as a “siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek.” The meaning here is not too difficult, because it has been a certain rule of diplomacy that an act of war should ordinarily be announced. And the ordinary means of declaring war is detailed in the first verse before us. And that method is the striking of the enemy with the war gloves the gauntlet commonly worn to protect the hands of warriors.

And of course, if the promise of Mel Gibson’s “Passion” is anywhere near accuracy – the inflicted violence upon our Lord and Christ was not only despicable but almost deadly. A careful reading of the gospels informs us that Pontius Pilate was surprised to see the Lord standing up on His own accord after being beaten by the pagan guards. If you decide to visit this contemporary “Passion Play” be forewarned that the violence portrayed is all too truthful. Even the “crown of thorns” would have been exceptionally painful.

Now I am not certain how graphic our entertainment should be allowed? There is a danger here in the infliction of visual drama – that like all too many soldiers, home from the battles and wars, that an excessive visual exposure to such things could scare the soul in ways unanticipated. This is one reason that the Protestants would limit the use of images, pictures and icons: because in our imagination they take on a life of their own.

And because of the means by which the new birth is experienced through grace and mercy alone by the power of the Holy Spirit – it is not necessary to visually scare the hell out of any one, just to bring them to making a decision for Christ! Oh yes, seemingly “sacred” institutions have used the stations of the cross and all manner of art work to graphically make their point and thereby are able to lord it over those most afflicted by the senses!

The absolute point of our text here is that the worldly have declared war against not only the Holy One of Israel, but also all of His kin and followers in every age. And Micah in his explanation of the “City of God” and its relationship with the city of man, waxes poetic as well as prophetic in the entwining of the two futures, immediate and far forward as well as the blessing and cursing involved. Bruce Waltke describes the kernel of our passage being framed within the Assyrian destructive threat and the sudden defeat and destruction of those forces described elsewhere in the biblical record.

More importantly, there is described the worldly defeat of the promised kings born to the purple in Jerusalem when once compared to the Lamb of God to be born in the humble stable of Bethlehem Town in another age and era. In a similar fashion, it is the worldly kingdoms that are overturned and undone in, by and through the spiritual nature of not only the once, but also future king to come.

If that phrase and my chosen title sound familiar, it is because the “Once & Future King” is a title used to describe the Camelot saga of King Arthur and his troubled time. According to the British legends, there was known as recently as the eleventh century: a certain cave tomb for the ancient British hero of the late fifth century, and it was this title that was inscribed on the plaster surface barring entrance to the cave: “Here lies Arthur, the once and future king of Britain.” It was of course inscribed in the official Latin text of that day and age, and thereby it sounded more formal and poetic. But, deep down in the bottom of the British soul – it became a prophecy and to this day the Britannic monarchy will not name any ruler of the empire with the name of Arthur, because they anticipate that would be the end of their days. But, the British sense of understanding is only the things of legends, and by comparison – the biblical facts stand out sharply in all their definitive glory: the Messiah was coming. And this was the consensus of all the true prophets, priests and kings of Israel. What a blessed thing it is for us to know, that indeed He has come and even more – He is coming again. “Come quickly Lord Jesus, come quickly.”
Amen.

PREACHING RESOURCES

Bentley, Michael. Balancing the Books: Micah & Nahum.
Boice, James Montgomery. The Minor Prophets: An Expositional Commentary 2.
Smith, George A. The Expositer’s bible: The Book of the Twelve Prophets.
Waltke, Bruce. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Micah
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.
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