Micah 4
Outline
I. \\#Mic 1:1-16\\ A Nation Destroyed
A. \\#Mic 1:1\\ An Introduction
B. \\#Mic 1:2-7\\ The Coming Judge
C. \\#Mic 1:8-9\\ Micah’s Reaction
D. \\#Mic 1:10-15\\ The Sin Belt
II. \\#Mic 2:1-13\\ Loss of the Land
A. \\#Mic 2:1-5\\ Sins and Consequences
B. \\#Mic 2:6-13\\ A Message to the People
III. \\#Mic 3:1-12\\ Judgment on the Leaders
A. \\#Mic 3:1-4\\ A Word to the Rulers
B. \\#Mic 3:5-7\\ A Word to the Prophets
C. \\#Mic 3:9-12\\ A Word of Truth
IV. \\#Mic 4:1-5:1\\ A Bright Future
A. \\#Mic 4:1-8\\ A Glorious Day
B. \\#Mic 4:9-12\\ A Present Dilemma
C. \\#Mic 4:13-5:1\\ A Future Victory
The last chapter ended in some of harshest judgments yet made against
Jerusalem. At the end of judgment, Micah appears to gave a prophecy
of hope \\#Mic 1:15\\ (maybe) \\#Mic 2:12-13\\. This chapter is the
hope that goes with the last chapter of doom.
I. \\#Mic 4:1-8\\ A Glorious Day
Mi 4:1 "But in the last days it shall come to pass…"
A. \\#Mic 4:1\\ A Future Time - This is a promise for the
millennial, the last days of man’s existence as mortals and
sin’s last days of existence at all!
B. \\#Mic 4:1-2\\ A Temple Exalted
1. \\#1\\ "the mountain of the house of the Lord" - This
speaks of Mount Moriah and the temple that will be built
upon it.
2. The temple "shall be established" and "exalted above the
hills," that is to say, above all other hills.
3. \\#2\\ "the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem"
a. Mount Zion is where David’s residence was and Mount
Moriah was where the temple was built.
b. The divide between these two hills has been filled in
and now together they hold the city and the temple
mount.
c. Let there be no mistake for the millennial temple will
be built in Jerusalem!
C. \\#Mic 4:1-2\\ A People Changed
1. "People shall flow unto it"
a. \\#1\\ People will come to worship the one and only
God!
b. \\#2\\ In fact, "many nations shall come…." In
these days, God will not only be worshipped by the
Jews but by all.
2. "and we will walk in his paths" - Not only will the people
be taught, but they will obey what they learn!
D. \\#Mic 4:2-3\\ God In Flesh
1. And why will they come?
a. \\#2\\ Because "he will teach us his ways."
b. The HE is Jesus Christ.
c. Jesus will teach mankind the words of God.
2. \\#3\\ "he shall judge …and rebuke strong nations" - But
not only will our Lord teach the world, He will rule over
the entire world; and the nations will obey Him.
E. \\#Mic 4:3-4\\ Peace Will Reign
1. \\#3\\ "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruninghooks"
2. "nation shall not lift up a sword against nation"
3. "neither shall they learn war any more" - War will be so
incomprehensible that mankind will not event think to
study and plan for war.
4. \\#4\\ "But they shall sit …under his vine" - A picture
of men enjoying the work of their hands in peace.
5. "none shall make them afraid" - There will be no crime or
violence to make one fearful.
6. "for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it" - God
has promised it to be so.
F. \\#Mic 4:5\\ False Worship Will Be Forever Abolished
1. "For all people will walk every one in the name of his
god" - There will not be many gods named but One!
2. "for ever and ever" - Even when the devil is released and
mankind rebels against God for the final time, they will
know but one God.
G. \\#Mic 4:6-7\\ A Nation Restored
1. \\#6\\ "In that day" - Still referring to the millennial
reign.
2. "will I assemble her …and I will gather her" - God will
regather Israel, but she will be a nation badly hurt,
"her that halteth …that is driven out." The anti-
Christ and his forces will have inflicted pain and
scattered Israel yet again.
3. \\#7\\ "I will make her that halted a remnant" - God will
take the broken and reform a nation with them.
4. "her that was cast far off a strong nation" - And God will
take those scattered and make the nation strong.
5. "and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion …for
ever" - While God will rule over all of the world and the
nations of the world may turn against God, Israel will
never rebel against God again and so they will never be
without their King again!
H. \\#Mic 4:8\\ A City Exalted
1. "And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the
daughter of Zion"
a. A location is never plainly named, but it is seems
likely that this verse is a reference to Jerusalem.
(1) It is a "tower of the flock." The tower was used
to watch over a city. The flock is likely a
reference to people, either of a city or of the
entire nation.
(2) The city is a "strong hold," a place of safety,
probably fortified with walls.
(3) It is also referenced as "the daughter of
Jerusalem," meaning a place where the people of
Jerusalem abode.
b. What better place than Jerusalem itself?
2. "unto thee it shall come, even the first dominion, the
kingdom"
a. To this location, the kingdom shall come.
b. But the Lord calls it "the first dominion," which
seems to say that highest and greatest honor of the
kingdom shall come to this location.
c. Again, this would seem to be Jerusalem, the city which
is home to the temple and where Jesus will rule and
judge from.
II. \\#Mic 4:9-12\\ A Present Dilemma
A. "Now" - Three times, one for each of this verses, the word
"now" is to show that God is no longer speaking of the last
days. Rather, Micah was speaking of a more present time.
Some of the warnings given in this section might apply to
the coming Assyrian conquest but some of them are definitely
speaking of the Babylonian conquest in 586 BC.
1. NOW \\#9\\ "pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail"
a. Judah was presently in a place of painful judgment
as Assyria moved closer.
b. "cry out aloud" - When they saw how badly things
were, they would be crying aloud.
c. "no king in thee" - During the course of the
judgment, the line of the kings would be removed.
This was an immediate judgment on Israel but would
not happen to Judah for another 150 years.
d.\\#10\\ "Be in pain …like a woman in travail" - As God
had stated, in that day, God will offer Judah no
mercy.
2. NOW \\#10\\ "go forth out of the city" - When the enemy
comes, the cities will offer no protection.
a. "thou shalt dwell in the field" - The cities will be
destroyed and so any who remain will live in the
fields.
b. "thou shalt go even to Babylon" -
(1) Here God makes it plain that Assyria will not be
the nation that destroys Jerusalem but Babylon
will be.
(2) Assyria will indeed destroy the nation but God
will protect Jerusalem.
(3) At this point, Babylon would have been a
defeated servant of Assyria, but God knew and
foretold that in 150 years, Babylon would be
the nation that would destroy Jerusalem.
c. "the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine
enemies" - God goes even further into the future to
say that He would bring Judah back from the land of
Babylon, redeeming them. That would happen in about
220 years into the future.
3. NOW \\#11\\ "…also many nations are gathered against
thee"
a. In Israel’s immediate future, Assyria and the nations
which she had incorporated by conquest, would stand
outside the very walls of Jerusalem.
b. "Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion"
Those nations would be thinking that they were
going to defile the holy city. They would be wrong!
c. \\#12\\ "But they know not the thoughts of the Lord
neither understand they his counsel" - But they did
not know that God had brought them to Jerusalem for
His own purposes.
d. "he shall gather them as sheaves into the floor"
(1) God would take them (i.e. their dead) and stack
them up like a farmer would gather and stack his
bundles of harvested wheat.
(2) This was literally fulfilled as God smote 185,000
in one night (2Ki 18-19, Is 36-37, 2Chron 32).
B. While all of this revealed what was in Israel’s more immediate
future, it cannot be overlooked that this is also the endtime
scenario as described in \\#Zech 14:1-3, Rev 19:11-21\\.
III. \\#Mic 4:13-5:1\\ A Future Victory
A. Without doubt, God is running events from different times
together. It is one of the characteristics of prophecy that
God incorporated to make it difficult to understand, forcing
any who would understand to rely on the Holy Ghost. However,
many of the events have now been fulfilled, helping us to
better sort those that remain.
B. Although God spoke of the great defeat of Assyria outside of
Jerusalem in the last verse, that defeat would not be brought
to pass by Israel’s might.
1. In \\#13\\, God speaks of a day when Israel will help
bring in the victory.
2. \\#13\\ is still future and refers to battles still to be
fulfilled.
C.\\#Mic 4:13-5:1\\ "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion"
1. The "daughter of Zion" refers to the people who live on
Mount Zion. By the most literal interpretation that
would be the residents of the city of Jerusalem; however,
with a more liberal interpretation, the prophecy could
extend to the entire nation.
2. To "arise and thresh" means to get up and destroy.
3. Based on the imagery, God compares Israel to the a
powerful unicorn.
a. "I will make thine horn iron"
b. "I will make thy hoofs brass"
4. "thou shall beat in pieces many people"
a. The unicorn will be deadly to her enemies.
b. I have long believed that after the returning Savior
destroys the armies which will gather around
Jerusalem \\#Rev 19:11-21\\, He will lead an army of
Jews (and perhaps other nations) to destroy the
countries of goats \\#Matt 25:31-46\\. This will be
the Jews opportunity to have a part in exacting
justice from their enemies.
c. There are several Old Testament verses which prophesy
God using Israel to defeat their enemies:
\\Joel 3:6-8, Obadiah 1:17-18, Micah 4:13-5:9\\
\\#Miccah 7:12-13, Zech 9:12-15, 10:4-5, 14:13-15\\.
5. "I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord and their
substance" - To the victor go the spoils. That which the
Jews shall gather from those lands will be dedicated to
the Lord.
6. \\#Mic 5:1\\ "Now gather thyself in troops"
a. These first verse of chapter 5 in our English Bible is
the last verse of chapter 4 in the Hebrew Bible.
The Minor Prophets, by Charles L. Feinberg; Moody Press, Chicago,
Ill.; 1979, p.172.
b. The call for Israel to rally itself into troops or
fighting division does fit with the last verse of
chapter 4.
7. "they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the
cheek"
a. However, the last part of the verse does not with
the end of chapter 4.
(1) Instead of Israel being the victor, it looks like
Israel has again become the victim.
(2) If so, the question becomes, "When are we?" for
it would appear the prophet changed time zones
again.
b. Some would say the reference to the judge being
smitten upon the cheek is Christ and His crucifixion,
not that Jesus was literally smitten on the face with
a rod but symbolically that He the victim of a cruel
attack.
(1) The fact that \\#Mic 4:2\\ speaks of Jesus’ birth
is used as further evidence of this being the
case.
(2) While the case may be true, it should be noted
that the time sequence is not correct.
(a) Jesus was not smitten BEFORE He was
born but AFTER.
(b) If a change in time is necessary for the
prophecy to be understood, other changes
could also be happening.
c. Others believe the judge is a reference to Zedekiah,
Judah’s last king, being smitten by Babylon and
ending the time period of the kings as was prophesied
in \\#Mic 3:9\\.
(1) "he hath laid siege against us" - The latter
theory can claim as evidence this reference to
a siege.
(2) There was no siege against Jerusalem or Israel
when Jesus was smitten. In fact, Jesus was
smitten by His own people, the Jews. but there
was a siege in the days of Zedekiah.
d. Perhaps both theories are correct and this is a dual
reference prophecy. Several of these verses seem
to be left vague so that we might be seeing glimmers
of multiple time periods.
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