Micah 4
A LOVELY contrast to the story in chapter 3 of man, his guilt and its punishment, is presented in the fourth chapter, all the painful history of Israel from the beginning of the Babylonian captivity, six hundred years before the birth of the heavenly Stranger at Bethlehem, until the Millennium’s dawn, being passed over.
In the last days a season of blessing will begin, the like of which never has been known on this earth since sin first entered. It is the promised restoration of Israel, made known in the Psalms, and more fully in the writings of most of the Old Testament prophets, when Jerusalem will be the center both of blessing and of government as never before. Verses 1 to 3 present a striking example of the Holy Spirit’s work in communicating through chosen persons the exact language of the Word of God, for they correspond with verses 2 to 4 of Isaiah 2. These two prophets lived at the same time and used the same words, but as is readily seen, in different connections.
Reading the close of verse 1 “and the peoples shall flow unto it” (i.e., Jerusalem), makes clear the meaning of the passage, for all nations are referred to. There will be then, as before remarked, none living but believers, and Israel will be the head, no longer the tail, among the dwellers on earth. Only when the Son of God shall have taken His great power and begun to reign can verses 1-8 have their fulfilment; man’s boasted advancement has made no progress toward God in all the centuries past.
What a change from the present state of things in a large part of the world is promised in verses 3 and 4! Then (verse 5) all the peoples will walk, everyone in the name of his God; no longer the false gods of the past but now the only true God. “We” (the saved remnant of Israel) “will walk in the name of Jehovah our God”—the same Person, but known to Israel by a name that speaks of an old relationship— “for ever and ever.”
Verses 6, 7, 8 as is plain, refer to Israel. Rulers may plan for preeminence for themselves or their countries, but God has decreed what shall be (See Psalm 2).
Jerusalem and its hill of Zion, on which, when cleansed, the temple will be built, will be the central point of the whole world, and Christ as Man, the King. Then shall righteousness reign, and truth be exalted when God is owned on earth as never since the fall of the first man.
In the five last verses we trace again the path of affliction which Israel has traveled and must yet travel, before the blessings of the former verses are to be tasted. It is not alone for God’s glory, but for His people’s blessing, that they are disciplined. There must be deep searching of heart and conscience, as the Christian, if he desires to walk with God, proves in his own experience (See Zechariah 12; 13 and 14, and, as illustrative of this, Genesis 49:21, 22,21Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. 22Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: (Genesis 49:21‑22) and chapter 44).
Verses 12 and 13 show that the very gathering of nations against the people of Israel in their land in the future day (just before the Lord’s appearing), though planned by their rulers, will be of God for their overthrow, and He will make use of the redeemed of Israel in their destruction.
ML 04/11/1937