INTRODUCTION

Micah addresses an Israel filled with injustice, ruled by cannibal kings. And he prophesies that Jerusalem will be reduced to ruins (3:12). Yet, the heart of his prophecy is a message of hope – hope for the restoration of Jerusalem, hope for a king who will be peace (5:5).

THE TEXT

“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD . . . ’” (Micah 4:1-5:15).

RESTORED JERUSALEM

After Jerusalem is destroyed, Micah says that the Lord will one day raise it again from the ashes. It will become the chief of the mountains, and the nations will learn of Yahweh’s law and turn to the way of peace (4:1-3). It will be a restoration of Solomonic glory, when everyone had his own vine and fig tree (4:4; cf. 1 Kings 4:25). From the afflicted and lame who have survived the judgment, Yahweh will form a remnant, a new flock (4:6-8).

ZION’S LABOR

Micah pictures the sufferings of Zion as the pains of a woman in labor (4:9-10). In chapter 4, the birth is the deportation to Babylon, where the Lord takes Judah to be redeemed from her enemies (v. 10). But the image shifts in chapter 5, where Judah is given up to her enemies until a child is born (v. 3). Combining these two sections, Micah is saying that Judah will go through the birth pangs of exile, but that the birth of a child will mean the end of exile and of oppression by enemies (as in Isaiah 7).

RULER IN ISRAEL

When Jerusalem is under siege, the Lord will raise up a ruler to deliver her (5:1-2). He is a new David, coming from the city of David (v. 2), but the emphasis of the passage is on Bethlehem’s littleness. The ruler will not arise from the center of power but from the margins. The child born of Zion will be a true shepherd of Israel, and will become great among the nations (v. 4). The rulers will deliver from Assyria and “shepherd” Assyria with the sword (5:5-6). He will bring peace to Israel (5:5). Paul picks up Micah’s statement that the ruler will “be peace” when he emphasizes that Jew and Gentile are united in Jesus (Ephesians 2:15-17).

NATION OF KINGS

Micah’s prophecy is not limited to the single ruler in Israel, however. The nations that assemble to besiege Daughter Zion are gathered together so that Zion can thresh them and give the plunder over to Yahweh (4:13). Psalm 72 describes the king as rain upon the grass, and Micah applies that image to the “remnant of Jacob” (5:7). As the remnant spreads out, it will be like dew, causing the land to flourish. Micah also compares the remnant with a lion that tears a lamb (5:8-9). Judah was once the helpless lamb, but she will turn against the nations that oppress her and triumph over them. The promise of Advent is not only that a King will come to rescue His people. The promise is also that the Lord is making a royal people, a nation of kings.