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The Book of Micah and Prophesy (2 of 2)

Apr 13, 2023, 4:14 PM

In part 1 we dove into the Book of Micah and covered chapters 1, 2, and 3. That’s possibly where Micah himself stopped prophesying. First, because the tone and language of the book changes, and second, because he, or someone, seemingly flip-flops history. Let’s take a look.

I mentioned last time that to me, the chapters of Micah read more smoothly in the order 1,2,3,5*,4*,6,7 rather than 1,2,3,4*,5*,6,7. Other opinions may differ. Why would anyone flip the chapters? I have no idea, but if a later chapter were inserted into the original work, it wouldn’t be a flip-flop, just an expansion. But the Bible presents them as 1,2,3,4*,5*,6,7, so that’s how I’ll cover them.

At the end of Chapter 3, Micah warns the Assyrian war, which has already come to Isarel in the north, is coming to Jerusalem in the south next:

3:12 Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

But that rubbling didn’t exactly happen. At least not then. In 701 BCE Hezekiah saved the city by paying off the Assyrians. Pope Leo I saved Rome from Attila in exactly the same way a few centuries later. Legend has it that both St. Peter and St. Paul appeared to help Leo negotiate with the Attila, but whatever was said or done, the Huns went away in peace.

Here they are, hashing it out…

But after Micah gets us all worked up for battle in Chapters 1-3, rather than diving into combat at the start of Chapter 4, he abruptly switches to the end of the world. Huh?

4:1 In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains.

4:2 Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD. 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.

4:4 All the nations may walk in the name of their god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

Now that’s kind of strange. First, God’s Temple becomes a mountain. Second, many nations are going to come to that mountain to learn the Law, and then spread it around the world. And third, any nation that doesn’t want the Law can keep their own gods. What?

The term “Mountain of the Lord” is pretty distinctive, and it only appears a handful of times in the Bible. We’ll save it for another day, but the beginning of Micah 4 is almost identical to the beginning of Isaiah 2. Check it out. Isaiah and Micah prophesied at almost exactly the same time, so that term and concept must have been in vogue at that time.

The start of Chapter 4 is pretty permissive. “Go to God’s mountain (not building) and learn the Law if you want, and keep your own gods if you want.” That’s not exactly “This is how Yahweh wants it and he will kill you if you disobey.” So verses 1-4 could have been written by someone at a low point in their existence. Like someone in captivity. Perhaps by the waters of Babylon, say.

Let’s go on in Chapter 4…

4:6 “In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief.

4:8 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.”

4:9 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?

4:10 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.

So there we have it. In verses 6-10 we learn that there are exiles, the “watchtower” Jerusalem has lost her dominion, she has no king, and the Jews are headed for Babylon. Now, none of that fits the Assyrian invasion back in Chapter 3. King Kezekiah saved Jerusalem from Assyria in 701 BCE. But verses 6-10 fit 586 BCE, and the Babylonian invasion 150 years later, perfectly. Which is why Chapter 4 seems so oddly placed.

The grammar matters too. It says “You have no king” but “You are going to Babylon. So that would seem to indicate it was written right after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, but just before they carted the Jews off in captivity.

And God refocuses his anger, too. In Chapters 1-3, Israel and Judah were about to get his wrath. Now the bad guys are going to get it.

4:18 “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.”

But that never happened either. Israel never broke any nations. She went on to be ruled by the Persians, and then the Greeks, and then the Seleucids, and then the Romans, and then she disappeared for 2000 years. So Chapter 4 is just an odd bird all around.

But now let’s time warp backwards, yes backwards, into chapter 5.

Chapter 5:

5:1 Marshal your troops now, city of troops, for a siege is laid against us.

What? Now the siege is on? The one from back in Chapter 3? After all that hopeful end of the world stuff in Chapter 4? It would seem so. Judah needed a messiah, so Micah put out the call:

5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old from ancient times.”

Now, in context, this verse could be a call from Micah to God to summon another great leader, just like David, from David’s birthplace Bethlehem. This great leader will save them from the Assyrian siege, and help God implement his plan of ruling the world under Jewish Law, while nations that chose to may keep their own gods. Remember Chapter 4?

4:4 The Law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4:5 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.

Or, it could be Micah predicting the birth of Jesus, to fulfill the ancient Law God just said he’d rule the end of the world with in Chapter 4, with all the other foreign gods he just said he was fine with.

Or it might be both, or it might be neither. No one can say for certain except Micah. But whatever that prediction means, Jerusalem is going to be abandoned until this mystery messiah appears and reunites the brothers of Israel.

5:3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.

So who is the one in labor? “She who is in labor” might be Mary, or she might be Daughter Zion herself, again from the previous Chapter 4:

4:9 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?

4:10 Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion, like a woman in labor…

And those “brothers” might be the brotherhood of man, or they might be the 10 Lost Tribes, who were scattered by the Assyrians just 20 years earlier in 722 BCE.

So Micah could be prophesying about a world Messiah 700 years in the future, or he could be talking about current events right outside his own city gates. Next, in Chapter 5, we learn a little bit more about this messiah who is going to come from David’s birthplace. He’s going to demolish Assyria.

5:5 And he will be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses. We will raise against them seven shepherds, even eight commanders, who will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with drawn sword.

5:6 He will deliver us from the Assyrians when they invade our land and march across our borders.

5:9 Your hand will be lifted up in triumph over your enemies, and all your foes will be destroyed.

Not won over by love. Destroyed.

And all that “other nations can worship their own gods” stuff from the oddly placed Chapter 4? Forget that. God closes out chapter 5 with the hardline stance we have grown to know and love him for:

5:15 “I will take vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations that have not obeyed me.”

Chapter 6:

And then, just like that, God abruptly takes Israel to court. Almost as if someone else wrote the last part of Micah, chapters 6 and 7. You can probably guess the accusation: disobedience. Naturally, Israel is guilty as charged, even proposing human sacrifice to atone for her sins, and must be punished. Yet again.

6:2 For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel.

6:6 With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?

6:7 Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
[The fruit of my own body? Whoa.]

6:16 You have observed the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their traditions. Therefore I will give you over to ruin and your people to derision; you will bear the scorn of the nations.

Don’t do it!

In the concluding Chapter 7, Israel admits she has fallen off the wagon, again. And that she will rebuild herself, again.

7:8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise.

7:11 The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries.

Which is exactly what Nehemiah did when he led the second group of exiles back from Babylon.

Nehemiah 2:17 “Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.”

In fact, all of Micah Chapter 7 sounds a lot like what Nehemiah found when he returned to Jerusalem in about 486 BCE. Which is why some think it was written after the Exile. So, after 539 BCE. Compare…

Micah 7:3 “Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire—they all conspire together.”

Nehemiah 4:7 “But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.”

But whoever wrote Micah 6 and 7, and the rest of the Book of Micah for that matter, they ended it on a positive note. The Jews maintained faith in their God Yahweh, and he did in them.

7:20 “You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.” Nice.

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I actually think there is a lot of truth in the Bible. Things that are corroborated outside of the Bible. The easy stuff is the historical stuff and the insights into the nature of man. Just yesterday I was reading Isaiah 36:

[Rabshakeh the General] said: “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?
Where are the gods of Sepharvaim?
Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me?
How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

That is straight up Psychological Warfare 101. The very same thing we did to Noriega in Panama in the late 80's. You stand outside their walls and taunt them, and attack their confidence and willpower, before the very first arrow is even fired. I can see that happening back then as easily as the sun rising tomorrow. That's real.

or from Isaiah 3:

"walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, strutting along with swaying hips, with ornaments jingling on their ankles." That's my own wife, lol.

Or Paul describing the difficulties of trying to get converts in Asia Minor. At the risk of even death. All totally believable.

Of course, there's a lot of other stuff that requires differing degrees of faith. But I wouldn't call the Bible "untrue" at all. The people who wrote it fully believed what they were writing, and how they understood God, IMO.

It's not the only way to interpret God, because the folks in India and China and the Americas and everywhere else were also trying to describe the mysteries of existence in their own ways, at the same time. But for the folks in the Middle East, this was the explanation that made the most sense to them.

The Book of Micah and Prophesy (2 of 2)

Re: The Book of Micah and Prophesy (2 of 2)

Re: The Book of Micah and Prophesy (2 of 2)

Re: The Book of Micah and Prophesy (2 of 2)

You never know the final score until the end of the 4th qtr.

Re: You never know the final score until the end of the 4th qtr.

Re: You never know the final score until the end of the 4th qtr.

Re: You never know the final score until the end of the 4th qtr.

Re: You never know the final score until the end of the 4th qtr.

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