For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Micah 4:1-8

1 In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
    as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
    and peoples will stream to it.

2 Many nations will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the temple 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.
3 He will judge between many peoples
    and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war anymore.
4 Everyone will sit under their own vine
    and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
    for the Lord Almighty has spoken.
5 All the nations may walk
    in the name of their gods,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord
    our God for ever and ever.

6 “In that day,” declares the Lord,

“I will gather the lame;
    I will assemble the exiles
    and those I have brought to grief.
7 I will make the lame my remnant,
    those driven away a strong nation.
The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion
    from that day and forever.
8 As for you, watchtower of the flock,
    stronghold of Daughter Zion,
the former dominion will be restored to you;
    kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem.”

A. Find Out

1. What will happen to what, and when? v.1
2. Who will come and with what expectancy? v.2
3. What will God do? v.3  
4. What signs of affluence and contentment will there be? v.4
5. How will the people of God be distinguished from the world? v.5t
6. What will God do? v.6,7
7. How will Jerusalem be changed? v.8

B. Think:

1. How does this passage differ from what has gone before?  
2. What is the time factor that is crucial here?  
3. How would you summarise the change to Jerusalem?

C. Comment:

The words, ‘in the last days’ (v.1a) frames the content of this passage at an end time, a time that is clearly a time of restoration for Israel. Although the anointed apostle Peter, on the Day of Pentecost used this same phrase, he clear indicated he saw it as ushering the era of the Church. Because, as yet, nothing like that appears in this present era, we are only left to conclude it is yet to be some future time.

It starts by declaring that God’s dwelling place (the temple) on His mountain (v.1) will stand out in the world above any other place of significance. If we interpret it in the light of Jesus’ parables (e.g. the mustard seed – Mk 4:30-32) we may see this as God’s kingdom or rule in the midst of His people. Such will it be that it draws people to it from all over the world (v.1c,2)   but His reign and rule will stretch across the world in such a way that He brings peace (v.3) and affluence (v.4).

There will still be other nations who don’t follow God but follow their own idols (v.5a) but the people of God will be known by the God they follow (v.5b).

This blessed and distinct people of God will be those He has rescued after they have been disciplined (v.6), and they will become strong (v.7a) as the Lord rules over them (v.7b) and Jerusalem will once again be the central place of His rule (v.8).

D. Application:

1. Keep looking to the future to see the Lord’s fulfilment of this.
2. Know that He has plans that WILL be worked out on the earth yet.

Micah 4:9-13

9 Why do you now cry aloud—
    have you no king?
Has your ruler perished,
    that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?
10 Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion,
    like a woman in labor,
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.

11 But now many nations
    are gathered against you.
They say, “Let her be defiled,
    let our eyes gloat over Zion!”
12 But they do not know
    the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
    that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 “Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion,
    for I will give you horns of iron;
I will give you hooves 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.

A. Find Out

1. Yet what is now their present plight? v.9
2. What had they yet to go through? v.10
3. How are they in the world at the present? v.11
4. How are they ignorant at the present? v.12ab
5. What does that plan involve? v.12c
6. Yet what will He do with them? v.13

B. Think:

1. Bearing in mind the previous chapters, and the first half of this chapter, and what He is now saying, how might Israel have felt?
2. How would you summarise in one sentence the content of these verses?

C. Comment:

Pause and think what we have read so far in Micah. First there was the Lord’s rebuke in respect of Samaria and Jerusalem AND the entire land, for their sin (Ch.1), then it focused on the sin of the leadership of the nation (Ch.2) – yet with a promise of deliverance (end of ch.2), and then it focused on the secular and spiritual leadership (Ch3). And then we come to the present chapter, the first part of which speaks of the wonder of the Lord’s restoration of His people (v.1-8) BUT THEN we are struck by present day realism, their current state. What was that?

Their general state appears one of worry and being  anxious (v.9) and basically the prophet is saying, don’t worry about that, it’s about to get worse (v.10) because you are about to go into exile in Babylon. We have no reason to doubt the writer’s information so even if these words were still coming in Hezekiah’s reign (1:1) it would still be roughly 80 years before Nebuchadnezzar took the first swatch of Israelites to Babylon in 605BC and then even later when Jerusalem fell and the full exile took place in 587BC. Clearly the possibility/probability of the Exile was in God’s mind that much earlier. (Indeed Isaiah, even earlier knew of it. It seems that God felt it was almost inevitable in that the people would fail to repent and, indeed, the last kings of Judah would just get worse and worse. Despite all this the Lord plans good (v.12,13)  

D. Application:

1. Learn to catch the ‘big picture’ of God’s dealing with Israel.
2. Realise that fulfilment of prophecy often takes time. God’s in no rush.