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MICAH
(722 A.D.)
8
Micah 1:2 Listen all you peoples
Give heed O earth and all it holds
For lo The Lord Is coming from His
dwelling place
He will come down and stride
Upon the heights of the earth
The mountains shall melt under Him
And the valleys shall melt under Him
Like wax before fire,
Like water cascading down a slope.
Micah wastes no time, he gets
right to the point. The Lord is coming and he is not happy
with the prevailing conditions on earth. The Lord is the
Messiah who comes at the end of the age when mountains and
valleys melt in great tectonic activity.
Micah 2:7 To be sure, My words
are friendly
To those who walk in rectitude,
But an enemy arises against My
people.
Micah 2:12 I will assemble Jacob,
all of you,
I will bring together the remnant of
Israel;
I will make them all like sheep of
Bozrah
Like a flock inside its pen –
They will be noisy with people
One who makes a breach
Goes before them…
Their king marches before them,
The Lord at their head.
Edom/Bozrah
Bozrah was the capital city of the
ancient country Edom. The remains of Bozrah is Petra of
Southern Jordan today. Edom is the most castigated country
in Old Testament prophecy due to their attack on Israel
during Israel’s decimation by Babylon. Edom is prophesied
for destruction in the messianic age. It is Bozrah where the
Messiah will first come to gather and unite the faithful
remnants of Judah and Israel, which together equal Jacob.
The enemy who arises against the Lord’s people are the
nations, sometimes referred to as Kittim, which come against
the modern country Israel at the end of this age. The
"bringing back" of the "Israel" and Judah remnants is the
telltale sign that these events are messianic, end of the
age and none other. "Their King," Lord (Melchizedek)
"marches at their head." People ask:
Isaiah 63:1 Who is this coming
from Edom,
In crimsoned garments from Bozrah –
Who is this, majestic in attire?
The red garments symbolize blood
from the battle that the Messiah is involved with in Bozrah.
(Petra of Southern Jordan in today’s terminology) The blood
is from the war against the world army that comes against
Jerusalem in the latter days. A faithful "remnant of Judah"
is chased, during this upcoming war, from Jerusalem to
Bozrah (Petra) and the Messiah rescues them from their foes
at Bozrah. There is another faithful Judah remnant, which
remains in Jerusalem. Isaiah and Jeremiah project a Messiah
that is angry with righteousness:
Isaiah 34:6 ...for the Lord hath
a sacrifice in Bozrah,…
Traveling in the greatness of his
strength.
Isaiah 63:1 "It is I, who contend
victoriously,
Powerful to give triumph."
Jer 49:13 For by Myself I
swear – declares the Lord –
Bozrah shall become a desolation…
and it’s
Towns shall be ruins for all time.
This is similar to the prophesied
ruin of ancient Babylon. As you can see, force appears to be
necessary in this situation. Lest we forget, Jesus and the
Urantia Book teach us that force is sometimes necessary and
even obligatory in protecting the weak from the strong.
One cannot always hide from the necessity for
action, for inaction is also a choice with real results and
consequences for which we are also responsible.
"For all time" indicates the messianic time period.
Clouds/Sky/Flying
Jer 49:22 At the sound of their
downfall
The earth shall shake…
See like an eagle he flies up,
He soars and spreads his wings
against Bozrah;
And the heart of Edom’s warriors in
that day
Shall be like the heart of a woman
in travail.
Notice, again, "the Lord" would
appear to be somehow "flying" in the sky – perhaps he is
"coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."
(Matt. 24:30). For we already know, "the Lord rideth upon a
swift cloud," (Isaiah 19:1) and is he "who maketh the clouds
his chariot; who walketh upon the wings of the wind." (Ps.
104:3) So, "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye
shall see him." (Rev.1: 1) Remember, "The chariots of God
are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: The Lord is
among them…"(Ps. 68:17). We are told in these passages that
"the Lord" comes in clouds, with power and glory, flying
like an eagle, through the literal skies, and that every eye
shall see him. We all can speculate together on what this
all actually means. How will the Lord "fly
like an eagle or is this phrase meerly figurative rather
than literal?" Now, back to the main narrative:
Micah 3:1 I (the Lord) said:
Listen, you rulers of Jacob
You chiefs of the House of Israel!
For you ought to know what is right,
But you hate good and love evil
You have devoured My peoples flesh…
Micah 3:9 Hear this, you rulers
of the House of Jacob,
You chiefs of the House of Israel,
Who detest justice
And make crooked all that is
straight…
Micah 3:11 Yet you rely upon the
Lord, saying
‘The Lord is in our midst;
No calamity shall overtake us.’
Assuredly, because of you
Zion shall be a plowed field,
And Jerusalem shall become a heap of
ruins
And the Temple Mount
A shrine in the woods.
Since there are no definite
messianic references here, the prophet is addressing the
leadership of ancient Judah and Israel. Note that Zion was
literally plowed under along with all of Jerusalem during
their wars with Rome (1st and 2nd century AD).
Throughout the Old Testament prophets there is a recurring
theme of corrupt, arrogant, and suicidal leadership who come
to the fore at the ends of ages.
Ultimately, these power elite lead an acquiescing majority
of people to their destruction at the hands of the
Assyrians, and then Babylonians, and then the Romans, and
now the…? This leadershipcrisis is
usually how and why a particular age ends. It will also be
how and why our age, the messianic age, will end.
Next, consider:
Micah 4:1 In the days to come,
The Mount of the Lord’s House shall
stand
Firm above the mountains;
And it shall tower above the hills.
The peoples shall gaze on it with
joy,
And the many nations shall go and
shall say:
"Come,
Let us go up to the Mount of the
Lord,
To the House of the God of Jacob;
That He may instruct us in His ways,
And that we may walk in His paths."
For instruction shall come forth
from Zion,
The word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Thus he will judge among the many
peoples,
And arbitrate for the multitude of
nations,
However distant;
And they shall beat their swords
into plowshares
And their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not take up
Sword against nation;
They shall never again know war;
But every man shall sit
Under his grapevine or fig tree
With no one to disturb him.
For it was the Lord of Hosts who
spoke.
Though all the people walk
Each in the names of its gods,
We will walk
In the name of the Lord our God
Forever and ever.
Clearly this passage refers to the
messianic latter days. "The Lord" is in his House, the third
temple, and the peoples are coming from nations all over the
world to learn "God’s Ways" and God’s "path’s." "The Lord"
Melchizedek will be a teacher par excellent among other
things. He will also arbitrate for the nations and judge
among the peoples, war is forever gone. "Every man shall
(surely) sit under his own grapevine or fig tree," without
coercion or force. The individual and his freedom to choose
his own path, without coercion is the earmark of a divinely
established leadership, as opposed to the prior human
leadership of coercion, war, and might makes right
philosophy. Now, it is righteousness that makes
might. Never again will individual freedom be
allowed to devolve into license. The balance between justice
and mercy, love and righteousness will be maintained on a
divine, and not a human, fulcrum. And balance is always the
earmark of divinity. The Lord also tells us:
Micah 4:6 In that day
I will assemble the lame [sheep]
And will gather the outcast
And those I have treated harshly;
And I will turn the lame into a
remnant
And the expelled into a populous
nation.
And the Lord will reign over them
Now and for evermore.
Those unfairly marginalized in
today’s world will be the building blocks of the future
world. That this passage is messianic, is indicated by "for
evermore."
Ps. 18:22 The stone
which the builders rejected has become the chief
cornerstone.
This is from the Lord and is His doing, it is
marvelous in our eyes.
We remember that Jesus too was
rejected and marginalized. But Isaiah reminds us that "God’s
ways are not man’s ways." Micah continues and suddenly
shifts focus to another place and another time:
Micah 5:1 And you, O Bethlehem
of Ephrath,
Least among the clans of Judah,
From you one shall come forth
To rule Israel for me –
One whose origin is from of old,
From ancient times.
Truly, he will leave them
[helpless].
Until she who is to bear has borne,
Then the rest of his countrymen
Shall return to the children of
Israel.
He shall stand and shepherd
By the might of the Lord,
By the power of the name
Of the Lord his God,
And they shall dwell [secure].
For lo, he shall wax great
To the ends of the earth.
Now, suddenly from out betwixt the
lines of Micah comes a prophecy about the birth of Jesus,
700 years before it happens! It appears as part of a
discussion about Israel in the latter days (Micah 4:12 to
4:14), about the Babylonian captivity in 587 B.C. (4:10
through 4:11) and about Assyria in 700 B.C. (Micah 5:4 to
5:6). The prophet himself probably knows nothing of the
dates of occurrence of these separate events, or even their
true import to the future they speak of. Thus, the
interpretation of scripture is equally as important as the
scripture itself. God guides the interpreter,
through the leading of the spirit within
the interpreter, thus revealing his plans only to those who
have harmonized their will to His. Only God Himself
truly knows the future and any prophet that does not openly
acknowledge this truth is by definition a false prophet.
Conversely, a true prophet is known partly by the "fruits of
the spirit" that his/her close inner relationship with God
should yield. In fact, prophecy or prophecy interpretation
is itself one of the fruits of this inner relationship with
God, who is the very author of the prophecy under
consideration.
Micah 5:6 The remnant of Jacob
shall be,
In the midst of the many peoples,
Like dew from the Lord,
Like droplets on grass –
Which do not look to any man
Nor place their hope in mortals.
The remnant of Jacob
Shall be among the nations,
In the midst of the many peoples,…
The remnant of Jacob (equivalent
to Israel) and not Jacob itself is what is gathered together
in the upcoming trial period. These are those who know and
love the one true God and who survive whatever destruction
there is of that period. The remnant of Jacob is the remnant
of Israel (Christians) plus the remnant of Judah (Jews). Of
course anyone else who recognizes and knows the one true God
in his/her heart is also included in this group. God cares
little about who we are on the outside but everything about
what we are on the inside. As always, whoever would come can
come. The door to the kingdom of heaven is forever open to
all. And so, through the process of deciding what we
stand for in life we select who we will become, unlike the
flower, who has no choice but to unfold.
Further, we note that the geographic location is of little
importance, as the remnant arises from within the midst of
the world’s peoples "like droplets of dew on grass." These
people "do not look to any man" or "place their hope in
mortals" because they look only to God in everything they
do. They, the remnants say:
Micah 7:6 A man’s own household
–
Are his enemies
Yet I will look to the Lord,
I will wait for the God who saves
me,
My God will hear me
Do not rejoice over me,
O my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I rise again
Though I sit in darkness, the Lord
is my light.
In some circumstances, even one’s
own family can stand in the way of our choosing to do God’s
will. Such difficult and painful choices refine us in the
heat of affliction and as always, as we choose, so we
become. Ultimately, there is no peace
between darkness and light, we must choose one or
succumb to the other. Consider:
Matt 10:34 "Do not think that I
have come to bring peach on earth; I have
not come to bring peace, but a
sword." (Jesus)
UB 1782 "Think not that I have
come to bring peace, but rather a soul
struggle." (Jesus)
Everyone chooses for themselves
their own destiny – life or death? Yes or no? Darkness or
light? These are the days that bring clarity to what we are
and what we will become. No one will be allowed to sit
astride the fence – all will encounter life defining
choices.
Micah 7:16 Let nations behold and
be ashamed
Despite all their might
Let them put their hand to their
mouth;
Let their ears be deafened!
The world’s leadership will be
"caught in the act" when Melchizedek steps on the scene.
The worldview of many a modern human being will be
shattered, when brought face to face with the reality of
God’s existence. Our worldviews are conceptual
frameworks with which we organize and interpret new incoming
data. It contains within it our philosophic, religious, and
other assumptions about reality. If our assumptions about
reality are different from true reality, the mind tries to
maintain coherence and consistency by either changing its
assumptions about reality or by changing its perception of
reality. The honesty and sincerity of the individual is the
only counterforce against how far our minds will be allowed
to bend reality to make it fit with a false assumption. The
most important input to the worldview is the question of
God. Assumptions, philosophies, and almost all of our other
beliefs are affected by this single most important question.
If you get it right you are 99% of the way to true reality
(100%). If you get it wrong you are 99% off from true
reality. After all, God is the source of all
reality. The great majority of our modern
"leaders," "intellectuals," and "experts," who consider
themselves our elite, are atheists, agnostic, or merely give
lip service to God. Consider how utterly confounded and
shocked they would be if their worldview were suddenly
presented with an irrefutable fact to the contrary. They
would surely "put their hand to their mouth" and more.
Humankind’s long standing questions about who we are, where
we come from, where we are going , the purpose of life, and
whether or not there’s a God are about to be answered
definitely and with authority. And lest we worry about life
losing some of its surprise, uncertainty, and adventure; we
should remember that God is infinite in all dimensions;
there is an inexhaustible infinity yet to be unfolded and
explored – filled with surprise and adventure beyond not
only what we do imagine, but beyond also what we ever could
imagine.
1Cor.2: 9 Truly:
Eye has not seen and
Ear has not heard and
Has not entered into
The heart of man
All that God has prepared
For those who love Him.
And it is not God’s will that
anyone "die in his sin" because:
Micah 7:18 Who is a God like You,
Forgiving iniquity
And remitting transgression;…
He will take us back in love;
He will cover up our iniquities
You will hurl all our sins
Into the depths of the sea.
I hope the world’s leaders are
listening.
Now on to Nahum, the next prophet in chronological
line.
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