Micah 5: A Way Forward

Hello again!

I don't know if anybody is even reading these Micah posts, but I sure am enjoying writing them. I was commenting to some of my sisters recently that I love social media and my blog because I find myself so entertaining. Hehe. It's pretty silly, but I feel like it's better than having the comparison problem. That was a COMPLETE rabbit trail, it has nothing to do with Micah. Alright, let's start.

So...there are a million things I want to say about Micah 5, but I'll just avoid the semi-obvious ones, and cut straight to the chase. When I read Micah 5 with the purpose of studying it so that I could learn all there is to know, I was very confused when I came upon verses 10-15.

Let's recap really quickly.

Micah 1 - God is bringing judgment on Israel.
Micah 2 - Israel is oppressive and deceptive, pretending they have favour with God when they have rejected Him.
Micah 3 - The leaders of Israel have corrupted justice.
Micah 4 - Someday God will reign over Israel, and bring peace to the world.

In Micah 4, God is just getting started about how He will bring peace and prosperity to Israel. He describes how He will reign in Jerusalem, and people from all over the world will respect His authority. In Micah 5, God promises that Israel will be a strong nation that cannot be defeated.

Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,
    and all your enemies shall be cut off. (Micah 5:9)

Then we get to the confusing part.

And in that day, declares the Lord,
    I will cut off your horses from among you
    and will destroy your chariots... (Micah 5:10)

Wait. Isn't He in the middle of blessing them? How are they supposed to be a strong army if they don't have horses and chariots? What will take them into battle?

...and I will cut off the cities of your land
    and throw down all your strongholds... (Micah 5:11)

Certainly doesn't sound like a strong nation to me. Homeless, weaponless... Verse 12 gives us a little more insight,

and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
    and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes; (Micah 5:12)

So they aren't following God? I'm confused. He just said He's going to gather the lame and afflicted back to Himself, so they will all follow Him again, and He is going to be the ruler that even other nations are going to look up to! Yet His own people will be listening to fortune tellers and using witchcraft?

and I will cut off your carved images
    and your pillars from among you,
and you shall bow down no more
    to the work of your hands;
14 and I will root out your Asherah images from among you
    and destroy your cities.
15 And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance
    on the nations that did not obey. (Micah 5:13-15)

That's when I realized, God didn't say He would come and make them all perfect. He just said He was going to rule. He said that He would come to deal JUSTLY with the people, both inside, and outside of Israel. Justice implies that there is a law that has been broken.

In my last post I said that I want to see the heart of God in His message to Micah, and here is a perfect example of it.

His heart was to "assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away," His heart was to give His people the freedom to "sit under their own vine and fig tree," and that "no one shall make them afraid." His heart was to rescue the people, and redeem them from the hand of their enemies, but He knows that it was the people themselves who created their wound in the first place, and that they made it incurable. He knows their tendency is to go right back to it.

As He gives them a vision of a peaceful time when all of their fears and sorrows are gone, He shows them that in order to keep that peace, their sin would have to have no way to get back in.

He didn't say He would cut off their hands, He's not talking about judging them anymore. He said He would cut off the sorcery FROM their hand. He's talking about a way forward.

He says that He will cut down their idols, destroy their cities, cut off their horses and their chariots, He is not saying He will cut down THEM.

It reminds me of back in 1 Samuel, (as mentioned in my last post) where we see that God didn't want them to have a king. Why? It wasn't that God didn't want them to have good reputation among other nations, or that He wanted them to be leaderless, He had provided them with both. 

He didn't want them to have someone who could easily lead them away from Him. Who needs horses when God is your king? Who needs chariots when God is your king? Who needs sorcery when GOD is your KING?

From the perspective of someone who wants to be close to God, this is a very reassuring thought. I've often thought things like, "NOW I've done it. God couldn't possibly love me after this. I've pushed the limit TOO far."

But Israel would push the limit past warning after warning, past judgment, past captivity, past redemption, past blessing. Even while God would be king of Israel, they would build an Asherah pole. And God would cut it down, but He wouldn't cut them down. Instead, He would show them how to let go of the Asherah pole as it crashed to the ground, and pick up a cross and follow Him.

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me    one who is to be ruler in Israel...
...and he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth.
5 And he shall be their peace. (Micah 5:2, 4-5a)

Micah 4: Love That Refused to Give Up

THIS is where it gets exciting.

In the first three chapters of Micah, we see that the heart of God is grieved because His chosen people have rejected Him, chosen to follow other gods instead of Him, and in the process, begun abusing each other. He views their sin not as simply something they've done wrong, but as something that is destroying the people He loves.

We noticed that His desire for the people is the same in the Old and New Testaments. He urges them through Micah to turn from the gods they are following, and repent of their evil deeds toward one another. And He urges them through John to turn from their self-righteous practices, and repent of the evil they have done each other by making it hard to find Him.

Since we (my little bible study) were talking about getting to know God, I pointed out to them that when you are getting to know a person, it helps to see them in different situations. I can talk to someone about lots of things and come to know them really well, but if I see them in a stressful situation, I may come to know a completely different part of them. "In these first three chapters," I told the girls, "we see God doing damage control. He's dealing with a stressful situation."

In Chapter 4, we see another side of God. Instead of dealing with brokenness, He's showing His rebellious people what He wishes. He lays before them His "hopes and dreams," if you will, but they aren't just words of wind, they are a promise. Before we even know what it is that God wants for His people, we can see that He loves them enough to give them promise of hope before they have even begun to repent. We see that He has their good in mind, even while He knows that they are bringing destruction on themselves.

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,
2     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. (Micah 4:1-2)

His idea of a good situation for His people is that HE would be their ruler. Back in 1 Samuel, He made it clear that He never intended for His people to have another king, because He knew that they would inevitably follow their king into a mess like this. 

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:4-9)

Back to Micah, He starts to describe what sort of king He will be, or, looking at it from the perspective of what He wishes, what sort of ruler He wants to be theirs.

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;
4 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. (Micah 4:3-4)

I loved reading this for the first time, and realizing that what He promises to do for them, is address every problem He pointed out earlier.

Micah 1 - What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria?
Micah 4 - For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Micah 1 - Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all; in Beth-le-aphrah roll yourselves in the dust.
Micah 4 - ...and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord...

Micah 2 - But lately my people have risen up as an enemy; you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war.

Micah 4 - 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;

Micah 3 - Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice? you who hate the good and love the evil...

Micah 4 - He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away.

The judges and rulers ruling over Israel in the time of Micah were abusing power, violent, creating fear in the hearts of people. God makes sure to point out that when He is their king, people will desire to come to learn from Him. When He is king, they won't even need weapons, because there will be no violence. When He is king, no one will make His people afraid. (there is more in Micah 4 that I am drawing from than what I've cited, so please go look it up.)

Now, there is one verse that doesn't really seem to fit into the narrative very well, which is Micah 4:5. However, I don't really want to talk too much about the fulfillment of this prophecy, since I am looking for the character of God, not what the prophecy is specifically. I do think it's important to address though, so I am going to write a short separate page on that, which you can read HERE, if you're really curious.

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;
7 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. (Micah 4:6-7)

It seems to me, that God is being very intentional about addressing everything He already said. He's talking about blessing, but He doesn't ignore the fact that He is telling them this right before they are going to be judged. He points out that His Kingdom will be the opposite of everything that was wrong with their rebellious kingdom, and when He says that He will gather them, He makes sure to mention that He was the one who "afflicted" them. The reason they are scattered and crippled is because of the sin that they STILL have a chance to turn from!

Imagine hearing this, and knowing you have a chance to turn away. Imagine you are still too stubborn, which is pretty typical of all of us, and so you don't. Micah's prophecy comes true, and your whole country becomes captives in Babylon, a displaced and disgraced nation. Now, as you experience the hardship and shame that God warned you about, you have His promise that even now, He has not forgotten you. The written words of the prophet you didn't listen to, all those years ago, are still there for you. Reminding you that someday, God will bring you out of captivity, and bind up the wounds that now are open and festering.

Doesn't that, in itself, show us something about God's heart, that loves more deeply than we can? That in the midst of rebellion, He would be thinking about when they are shamed and disgraced, and how they will need hope. So He provides for it.

Now many nations
    are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be defiled,
    and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
12 But they do not know
    the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan. (Micah 4:11-12a)

Other nations could "get on God's side," in bringing ruin to the people of Israel, but that is not what was on His heart.

The foresight that His people would be willing to turn back to Him, and the love He had for them that refused to give up, reminds me of another one of God's "prophets," who put it this way:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 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. (Romans 5:6-10)