Introduction:
The rise of Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is rife all over the world today. We have seen riots in most of the major cities in the western democracies against Israel with multitudes calling for a so called ‘Palestinian State’ which is an anomaly and a manifestation of the ignorance of the protesters in these rather violent protests. The name ‘Palestinian’ was an invention of the Romans in an attempt to destroy the identity of Israel as a people and a nation. Right across Europe we see the same scenario that was occurring in the late 1930’s with the rise of the demonic sadistic Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler.
Coming Back Home
Today in Europe we have seen the start of pogroms against Jews and many Jewish people in Europe are immigrating to Israel, and even though they are returning to a nation under siege by the nations, they feel they will be more secure in their homeland than in the cities where they have been living. Even in countries such as Great Britain, New Zealand, and Australia and in Canada Jews are coming under threat by hostility towards Israel fuelled by the mainstream media’s misinformation concerning the real situation in Israel being fed to the masses. The days are coming when the Jews from every nation will return to Israel and the Biblical prophets testify to this fact! (Isaiah 43:5-7).
The Big Picture
The big picture is that the LORD is using these fermenting pogroms instigated by Satan to bring God’s people back to their homeland that He might give them an encounter with the Messiah our Lord Jesus who will save them as a remnant people both spiritually and nationally. Added to this, anti-Semitism is rife within wider Christendom on a global scale and growing with replacement theology including Kingdom Dominion doctrine that teaches God has finished with Israel and has replaced it with the Church. Those into this replacement ‘theology’ have a problem with all of the books in the Bible that clearly teach the spiritual and national restoration of Israel in the last days. One of these books is the Book of Micah where we clearly see what will happen to Israel in the last days and the end result being the age to come after the close of this present age. Clearly God has not finished with Israel.
The Four Main Covenants
God is a covenant keeping God. In the Abrahamic Covenant God cut the blood covenant with Abraham concerning the present land of Israel and establishing its future inhabitants being the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, and not through the decedents of Ishmael and Esau, and God even marked out the boundaries of the Land (Genesis 15:17-19) (Genesis 17:15-22), and that the Land would be for the Jewish people as “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:7-8). Where Israel is concerned God is into real estate! Also through Abraham’s descendants would come the saviour of the world the Jewish Messiah our Lord Jesus (Genesis 12:3). The second main covenant was the Mosaic Covenant which gave Israel its laws by which it was to be governed which we have recorded in the Torah. A land must have laws that its people live by. Then the third covenant was the Davidic Covenant concerning David the king of Israel and the one “who was after God’s own heart” and the one God promised that one of David’s descendants would sit on his throne to rule over Israel, and that of course was the Messiah our Lord Jesus, who in the Messianic age to come, will sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem (Luke 1:32-33).
Then you have the New Covenant cut in the Messiah’s blood which guaranteed the salvation of all Jews and Gentiles who come to a saving faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus, who through His sacrificial blood procured this salvation at the cross forever establishing the everlasting covenant. The New Covenant was made with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, not with a Gentile Church (Jeremiah 31:31). Gentiles who believe in the Messiah for salvation are spiritually grafted into the commonwealth of Israel (Acts 15:12-21) (Romans 11:17-18) (Ephesians 2:11-22).
“Strangers and Aliens?”
So we see that the people of Israel have a land, have a law to live by, and have a king who will rule over them in the Messianic kingdom to come. As yet Israel, even though they have their own land as promised, by and large the people of Israel are still aliens and strangers to their own covenants of promise and estranged from their Messiah, however God is arranging things in these last of the last days to rectify this situation. The time is coming when the people of Israel will no longer be strangers and aliens to their own covenants of promise because God always keeps His covenants! The prophet Micah gives us the overview of Israel’s complete spiritual and national restoration at the end of this present age. Let’s now look at this chapter…
Micah Chapter 4: Exposition
(Vs.1) “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it.”
Mountains in Biblical prophecy represent kingdoms or empires (Revelation 17:9). Today we see many empires with their respective kings dominating the world and in rebellion against the LORD. It is much like we see in the empire of Nimrod, who with the other nations under his kingship, started to build the Tower of Babel seeking to establish an empire that would even reach to the heavens and that would dethrone God. Of course God put an end to that! Today we see another Tower of Babel arising in the earth where the nation’s leaders are rising against the Triune God and the time is coming when the Messiah at His Second Coming will bring the Antichrist and his alliance of nations to a fiery end (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).
After all opposition to the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth the Messiah will reign over the nations that have survived His Second Coming. The original Mt Zion in Jerusalem with the Millennial Temple sitting on it will be lifted higher than all of the other surviving kingdoms. Israel that God placed at the centre of the nations will be the chief nation in the whole world with its capital at Jerusalem and with David’s descendent the Messiah our Lord Jesus sitting on David’s throne to rule the whole world (Isaiah 9:6-7) (Genesis 49:10). In that day the people from every nation in the world will stream into the Holy City to pay homage and to worship the Messiah King (Zechariah 14:16-21).
(Vs.2) “Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. “
After the Messiah has returned the people who have survived the Second Coming will know that they are to go up to Jerusalem year by year to worship the Messiah in order to be learn and to be taught His way and His laws and what He requires of them. Many will be born in the Millennium who will need to hear about the salvation that the Messiah provided in the everlasting covenant established in the previous age. The sacrifices and offerings made in the Millennial Temple on Mt Zion will not be made to atone for sin but offered up as memorials to the perfect and complete sacrifice of the Messiah, the Passover Lamb, who by His own shed blood established the everlasting covenant (Luke 22:19-20).
There will be an acknowledgment by the nations of the world that the House of God is the house of the God of Jacob (not Esau). Jacob, the patriarch and the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, was the one through whom the pre-existent Messiah before His incarnation, gave the Jews the name of Israel (Genesis 32:22-30). In the Millennial Messianic reign of the Messiah we are also told that the law or the Torah will go out from Zion, the dwelling place of the Messiah, even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. In that day this will be done by the redeemed glorified saints (Luke 19:16-19). Possibly we will also see highly developed technology through which the law of God will be telecast to the nations. The internet and television broadcasts will be wholesome and pure and without any hint of wickedness or that which is spiritually defiled.
(Vs.3) “He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”
In that day when the Messiah reigns over the nations from Jerusalem He will have a most efficient legal fraternity and I would think community centres across the globe where His law will be maintained and carried out. No longer will there be wars and all the collateral damage they leave in their wake. His law will be the only law and it will be enforced when necessary to keep the peace (Psalm 2:8-9). Can you imagine a world without war and all of the death, the despair, the famine and the disease accompanying it? The Messiah will establish this!
(Vs.4) “Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken.”
Today in Israel by and large the people of Israel are not sitting under their own vine or fig tree without fear, but sitting in air raid shelters hoping that there will not be a direct hit by a missile. Fear is gripping multitudes of Israelis today and also many Arabs who are not hostile to Israel. The modern ‘Babylonians’ Jihadist Islamists are laying siege to Israel hell bent on its destruction as a people and as a nation. However, after the Messiah has returned and the remnant of Israel reunited with the Messiah there will be peace in Jerusalem, in Israel and in the nations of the world. The best holiday ever for the people in the Millennium will be to visit Israel as it will be the most wonderful place to visit in the whole world. In that day every Jew still living will have no fear as no one will be around to make them afraid. Satan will have been removed from human contact, his minions destroyed, the Antichrist and the nations that followed him will all be together down in that pit where Satan is chained. This will happen because the LORD Almighty has spoken His Word which always comes true (Proverbs 30:5).
(Vs.5) “All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.”
Here Micah reflecting on the Word of the God Himself who has been speaking with him in this prophecy of Israel’s future, affirms that even though at the time the nations were serving other ‘gods’ or entities, Micah declares that the people of Israel will walk in the name of their God for ever and ever as the prophet anticipated would happen in the Messianic age to come. Micah himself anticipated this happening and in his heart and it was already an established fact especially in light of the Word of God being revealed to His prophet. The Messianic age of course will be the harbinger of the final, eternal and perfect state to come when the New Jerusalem will descend from heaven to earth at the close of the Millennium after the final rebellion has been put down and the Great White throne judgement has been completed! (Isaiah 2:1-5) (Isaiah 65:17-25) (Revelation 20:7-15; 21:1-4).
(Vs.6-7) “In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief. I will make the lame a remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.”
Here the prophet foresees that time when the people of Israel will be taken into captivity by the Babylonians after Jerusalem has fallen and the Temple destroyed. This was a great grief to the Jewish people because of their sin and rebellion which God had to punish because Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne and also loving devotion and faithfulness go before Him (Psalm 89:14). Here the prophet foresees the return of the exiles to Israel and some who will be weak and feeble. After 70 years in exile in Babylon a remnant returned. However, once again in 70AD when the Romans destroyed the Temple and ransacked Jerusalem the surviving Jews by and large were exiled. Then after the Bar Kokhba Jewish rebellion against Roman rule (132–136 AD) Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were levelled, the remaining Jews who were not killed were exiled and the exile lasted until 1948 when after almost 2,000 years of exile the nation of Israel was reborn in a single day (Isaiah 66:7-9).
The day will come when after Israel has been back in the land as promised that there will be another invasion of Israel where half of the population in Jerusalem will be taken from the city (Zechariah 14:1-2). It will be a time when cries of fear are heard, terror and not peace, where every strong man in Israel with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labour and where every face will have turned pale. It will be a day unlike anything that has previously happened in Israel’s history and it will be the time of Jacob’s Trouble, but he will be saved out of it, the yoke of their enemies will be broken off from their necks their bonds will be torn away, and no longer will foreigners enslave them.
Instead they will serve the LORD their God and David their king (the Messiah) whom God will raise up for them. God will take away their fear and dismay at what has occurred and He will then save the exiles out of the distant places and Israel will again have peace and security and no one will make them afraid ever again. God will be with them and save them. (Jeremiah 30:1-11). The context of this prophecy in Jeremiah is the last days (Jeremiah 30:1-4). When the exile comes God will go out and fight against those nations that have attacked Israel (Zechariah 14:3-5). After this the Millennium will commence (Zechariah 14:6-21) (Jeremiah Chapter 31). The fact that Micah tells us that The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever puts this prophecy at the end of this present age.
When the Messiah returns and the remnant of Israel are saved when they see Him coming in the clouds of heaven, He will take the fight to Israel’s enemies and the Jews will fight alongside of their Commander in Chief. In that day we are told in scripture that Judah will also fight at Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:14). Even the weakest among the Jews will put Israel’s enemies to flight.
As we read in the prophet Zechariah; “The LORD will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of Judah. On that day the LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem, so that the weakest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them. So on that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:7-9). After the dust of battle settles the Messiah will begin His Millennial reign which will, after 1,000 years, merge into eternity in the New Heaven and earth.
(Vs.8) “As for you, O watchtower of the flock, O stronghold of the Daughter of Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you; kingship will come to the Daughter of Jerusalem.”
The watchtower of the flock has to be a reference to the Messiah, who is Himself the true shepherd of Israel and the stronghold of the daughter of Zion being the Jewish people corporately. Their former dominion over the land of Israel bequeathed to them by the LORD, but lost through their disobedience, will be restored under the rule of the Messiah after He has returned to inaugurate His Messianic reign. The daughter of Jerusalem are the Israelis, the wife of Yahweh, joined together with the Bride of Messiah being His Body and together being one shepherd under one flock will co-reign on the earth with the Messiah (John 10:16) (Revelation 2:27; 5:10).
(Vs.9-10) “Why do you now cry aloud- have you no king? Has your counsellor perished, that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labour? Writhe in agony, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in labour, for now you must leave the city to camp in the open field. You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies,”
Once again the prophet foresees and foretells the coming Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and the exile of the survivors to follow. Even as the people will be in disappear and strong people gripping their stomachs in fear as a woman experiences her labour pains, they will act as if they have no king or counsellor to turn to in their time of great calamity and that for a time they will have to leave the city they love and set up camps in the open field away from the city. Most of the surviving Jews would go into exile and only a few remain in the land. Anticipating what would happen as Micah prophecies to God’s people, he tells them that they will react to the invasion as if they had no king to defend them or one to whom they could turn to for counselling.
The last counsellor and prophet God sent to the kingdom of Judah was Jeremiah who gave them God’s final ultimatum through His Word revealed and spoken to the prophet. The king Zedekiah, the people, the king’s counsellors, the religious leaders and the false prophets all rejected the Word of the LORD and his messenger Jeremiah who had been prophesying in Judah for about 40 years. God’s Word was clear. The people would be taken from the city and go into captivity in Babylon and there, after 70 years, they would be rescued which occurred sometime after the decree of the Persian King Cyrus. They would go to Babylon and there they would be rescued.
(Vs.11) “But now many nations are gathered against you. They say, “Let her be defiled, let our eyes gloat over Zion!”
Micah again telescopes to the end of the age when God will gather all of the nations against Jerusalem to enter into judgement with them because Israel’s enemies have sought to spiritually defile His people and gloat over their misfortunes and have scattered many of the Jews into the nations and divided up the Land of Israel and treated them as those being traded for prostitutes and as girls being sold for wine (Joel 3:1-3). We clearly see this scenario starting to happen today as Israel is being harassed and savaged by the leaders of the nations of the world. All nations will be gathered and none will be excluded. When the Messiah comes the armies of these nations will be thrown into the winepress of God’s wrath (Joel 3:13) (Isaiah 63:1-6) (Revelation 14:20; 19:15). And Micah tells us why this will happen
(Vs.12) “But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand His plan, He who gathers them like sheaves to the threshing floor.”
The Lord Himself says in the prophet Isaiah; ““Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it” (Isaiah 46:8-11). God is going to thresh those nations on His threshing floor for what they have done to His people Israel and to the Body of Messiah that has been spiritually grafted into Israel and have received the same treatment from the nations.
(Vs.13) “Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion, for I will give you horns of iron; I will give you hoofs of bronze and you will break to pieces many nations.” You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the LORD, their wealth to the LORD of all the earth.”
Gods threshing instrument will be Israel that will thresh the armies that have attacked Jerusalem. God will give the Jews horns of iron which will pierce Israel’s enemies and hoofs of bronze and crush Israel’s enemies underfoot breaking into pieces many nations, and with the plunder Israel accumulates (Zechariah 14:14), they will devote these ill-gotten gains to the LORD, their wealth to the LORD of all the earth who will be reigning through the Messiah, God the Son, sitting on the throne of David at Jerusalem.
Epilogue
The nations that are raging against Israel are in reality raging against God and against the Messiah His Son and do not know the thoughts of the LORD He has towards His people Israel “the apple of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8). They plan but have no idea of His plan for them and their armies to have them threshed in the threshing machine that is the nation of Israel. God is going to have the last laugh at the futile efforts of the nations to come against Him, His Son and His people Israel and by inclusion and extension the Body of Messiah spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel. As we read….
“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the LORD and against His anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the LORD scoffs at them. He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath, saying, “I have installed My king (The Messiah) on Zion, My Holy Mountain.” I will proclaim the LORD’s decree: He said to Me, “You are My son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or He will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for His wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him” (Psalm 2).
When the Messiah sits on the throne of David at Jerusalem all of the remaining Jewish exiles in the nations will come home to Israel. As God has spoken to Israel through the prophet Isaiah; “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth— everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” (Isaiah 43:5-7).
In that day when the Jews return to Israel from all the nations where they have been scattered God says that the Gentile nations will bring multitudes of them back to Israel. Plane loads of Jews will arrive back in Israel courtesy of the Gentile nations and many I dare say will be travelling first class. God has said to His people; “This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you face down and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame” (Isaiah 43:22-23). No matter what is happening to Israel and things are going to get worse before they get better.
There will be a settled peace in the Middle-East, and for a time things will seem to settle down and then the betrayal of Israel will occur and that without warning (Ezekiel 38:7-12), and if the LORD does not intervene no flesh will be saved so catastrophic will be the end of days. However, for the sake of His elect people He will cut those days short (Matthew 24:21-22) (Daniel 12:1), and send the Messiah His Son back to earth to rescue His elect people and to judge the nations (Ezekiel 38:14-23; 39:1-6). When The Messiah our Lord Jesus takes the fight to Israel’s enemies with the blast of the Shofar resounding throughout the land, and as Israel’s supreme Commander in Chief His battle cry will ring out to His troops in the day of battle “Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion!”
