God's Promises: World Peace (Micah 4)

The previous three chapters of Micah have been indictments against Israel and its prophets. The prophets are false and the country immoral and unjust, crushing the weak and glorifying the ruthless. Micah, through the power of the Holy Spirit, bravely condemns his people and their sins.

The tone changes in Micah 4 to one of redemption and promise. Here God lovingly makes promises that He will bring Israel together again and make them a light to the nations.

Here are the big promises I noticed from chapter 4:

1) Verses 1-2:

It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the

LORD

shall be established as the highest of the

mountains,

and it shall be lifted up above the

hills;

and people shall flow to it,

and many nations shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of

the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.”

This is a promise: “It shall come to pass”. But what exactly is it that will come to pass? What is the “mountain of the LORD”? When is the time when people will flock to the house of God with open and ready hearts? Is it yet to happen or has this happened or is it happening now?

Let’s start with the last question first: when is this supposed to happen? There is an image later in the chapter which is repeated almost identically in Isaiah 2:1-5:

…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war anymore (Micah 4:3)

This image has come to represent world peace (check out this statue in front of the United Nations) or a time when war is unnecessary and weapons can be converted into everyday tools. I love this image and the fact that it’s in front of the U.N., but I don’t believe that such an age of peace will ever be ushered in by the United Nations. For a world of peace we need a world without sin and unfortunately the United Nations is made up of sinners – sinners stuck in a world of sin as much as the world they’re trying to fix.

But this world peace is coming (despite our futile and failing efforts) through the hand of Him who promised it. God is promising to bring in peace and change to the world through the only possible source – Himself. Only through Him can the world truly be 1) rid of sin – which means peace! – and 2) unified. If our problem is a lack of unity then we need not a unity through our common humanity (because, as we can see, it doesn’t work! we disagree too much) but a real and binding unity in the body of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. So what we will have in common is not “We’re all human” but “We have been made one with God in Christ”.

Both of these passages from Isaiah and Micah were talking to God’s people about the time of the Messiah. Think about it – who has united the nations and led them to God? The “mountain of the LORD” described in verse 2 is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a place “exalted as a source of instruction, justice, and righteousness” (from the ESV Study Bible Notes). Ancient gods supposedly lived on mountains (like Zeus on Mount Olympus) but here we see God’s mountain – the place where He is rightly identified and worshipped – rising above all other mountains, “established as the highest of the mountains” (Micah 4:1). The true God will be lifted and exalted above all the other fake and false gods and He will be worshipped. He will became a focal point of humanity – which indeed Jesus has.

It’s hard not to see Him as the “highest of mountains” in human history – it is quite impossible to get around Him. He’s so important and so changed history that our calendar is divided into two time periods before and after Christ. Truly He unites people together – people from all different backgrounds and religions – and makes them the Lord’s.

But how come we don’t have world peace right now if this passage is about the Messiah? He came, didn’t He? Why isn’t there world peace? Well, this passage is about today – and think about it, because every day there are people all over the world streaming to Jesus and becoming children of God – but it is also about the last day. There have been instances when swords were no longer needed, but there will come a day – the last day – when swords or guns or tanks or A-bombs will never be used again and God will have ultimate mercy on those He made righteous through Christ and ultimate vengeance on those who refuse to turn from their sins. Both are a promise.

Think about this way: there will be world peace when all of God’s enemies are killed and gone. That idea might make you uncomfortable, but think about it: can there be world peace any other way? And if it still makes you uncomfortable, Why? If God is supremely good, why does that idea bother you?

2) The second promise is a rescue from Babylon for Israel:

Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion,

like a woman in labor,

for now you shall go out from the city

and dwell in the open country;

you shall go to Babylon.

There you shall be rescued;

there the LORD will redeem you

from the hand of your enemies. (Micah 4:10)

This is told to Israel in many other places in the Old Testament as they were conquered and forced to live in Babylon. This is God’s message of hope: Hang on, I will come for you.

So how do we live in the light of such promises? How did Israel live in the light of such a promise in Babylon? It must’ve changed everything! In Babylon Israel would have been under their control and their rule, subject to their culture (which was offensive in many ways to Israel). They were probably looked down upon, probably hated.

Right now as the body of Christ we are under slavery in this world – this is our Babylon, it is not our home. That can become extremely depressing unless we look to God’s promises. We have two important promises right here in Micah: God will draw the nations to Himself in peace and He will deliver His people out of the worst situations. If He said He will deliver us, He will. Look at history: less than a century after Israel was led to Babylon they were released and returned home.

God makes promises out of love and for our hope and joy, and it is ultimately in Christ that all of God’s promises coalesce. Praise be to a wise, wondrous, and merciful God!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord?

or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 11:34)

God is Just (Micah 3)

How relevant is Micah to today! Of course, it’s the word of God, so it is living and active, but listen to the words of this prophet! Through him the Lord denounces entire cities and cries for justice. Two things I noticed:

1) Ecclesiastes says “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc. 1:9), and truly, fast forward from the time of Micah (the eighth century B.C.) to now and the same evil and injustice is happening. People have not changed, they are as wicked as ever and in the same ways as of old.

I don’t know a lot, and I put forth this idea humbly, but it seems like because of the spread of Christianity (and the millions of hearts and minds who have been changed by the Holy Spirit) the world has a heightened awareness of social inequality and injustice. I’m not sure if there’s any less evil now than before – in fact, I maintain that humans are as wicked as ever – but because of charities and organizations today (these things seem to be the product of Christendom) we are more conscience of worldly evils (even if we still commit them ourselves). For example, at my school there is a new major devoted to “human rights violations”, which basically means “people who are being sinned against.”

I’m excited that we live in a country with groups like Amnesty International and the Salvation Army, but many of the people in such groups do not do social action work for a love of God but for a love of justice – which is a shame because the only reason we know and understand justice is because God is just. Unfortunately many think God is lazy or inept to prevent violence or abuse, which is absolutely the opposite of the truth. Throughout Micah and the Bible God is good and just and the Hero of all history, speaking throughout generations that What you’re doing is evil, stop now or I will stop you. Our God is strong and mighty to save from any situation, and it is only through Him that salvation from injustice comes.

Hear this, you heads of the house of

Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

who detest justice

and make crooked all that is straight,

who build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with iniquity. (Micah 3:9-10)

Replace “Jerusalem” with a city from today – what is Chicago built on? Is it built on blood and exploitation of the weak? What about the entire country? How does it thrive? Does it thrive by child labor, or prostitution? If it does, be sure that whatever nation in question will not be around for long. God will have justice.

2) Micah makes a distinction between false and real prophets. The false prophets cry injustice when they are not fed – when things aren’t going great for themselves – and a real prophet like Micah steps up and says everything’s going wrong even when it seems like everything’s going right. A real prophet may not be poor and oppressed, but that does not mean he does not care about those that are! Micah steps up and declares an entire nation guilty of not taking care of its children or poor.

Micah does this not out of an attempt to fix everything on his own, not out of a social program he’s started for himself, but out of a command from God:

But as for me, I am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the LORD,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob his transgression

and to Israel his sin. (Micah 3:8)

We may be able to see evil and injustice around us but it is the Holy Spirit that gives us the power (and the opportunities) to do something about it. When we see suffering and injustice in our world we should not blame God but ask instead: “What would You have me do, God?”

A "Minor Prophet": Micah 6 & 7

I really enjoyed this section in Micah. I often have trouble getting into the "Minor Prophets", the books with crazy names like Zephaniah, Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi. But, fellow readers, fear not our cultural (or temporal) differences, because these guys who lived millenia ago were full of the Spirit and full of things to say. So let's look at Micah, chapters six and seven.

Beautiful words here in Micah and some challenging words from God. This is an important part of reading scripture: often times we'll run into things that challenge our beliefs. It's important to ask why this is and not to run from the Bible. I believe God uses these times of struggle and questioning to draw us closer to Him and to refresh our minds - minds that have been warped by sin and need constant refreshing. I need to continue to re-evaluate all my beliefs in the light of scripture and let Christ tell me the truth. As Paul writes:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

The first thing that challenged me in Micah was the harsh words against people. It's easy to criticize some groups of people - we can dismiss them as poor or lazy or whatever (and we all do this), but we still believe that humanity (as a whole) is not all rotten. There are intelligent, hard working people all around - surely they are not “sinners” or in need of a total heart change by God?

Micah writes:

Even the best and most honest of them are as worthless as weeds. (Micah 7:4 TEV)

I use to look up to people who were “religious authorities” – surely they wouldn’t need to do things like repent before God? No! Without a fear of the Lord they are as worthless as weeds.

I looked up to artists, musicians, filmmakers – yet they are nothing compared to Jesus. They die, and their glory fades along with them. Some are remembered longer, but are not around to enjoy their glory! Jesus died, rose again, and is reigning in glory forever.

The Lord asks us to “live in humble fellowship with our God” (Micah 6:8 TEV). Humility! We need to repent when we sin, not roll it away with silly platitudes like “We all make mistakes”. Our sin before God is not rolled away by us saying, “Let’s forget about it.” No, God says:

Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales

and with a bag of deceitful weights? (Micah 6:11 ESV)

Should God simply forget our sins? The answer from God that reveals Him to be all-loving and all-wise and a God of justice is “No”.

We have a very limited view of how damaging our sin is. If we sin against God, who is eternal, then we have sinned eternally. God is outside of time, and unlike humans He doesn’t forget. We have another funny platitude, “Time heals all wounds”. It doesn’t, we just hope it will and we hide behind that.

God is eternal and good and just and for our sins He demands blood:

Therefore I strike you with a grievous

blow,

making you desolate because of your

sins. (Micah 6:13)

In addition to God’s just punishment, we get the punishment of sinning itself:

You shall eat, but not be satisfied,

and there shall be hunger within you;

you shall put away, but not preserve,

and what you preserve I will give to the sword. (6:14)

Even if we start to do good things and we do them apart from God (Because of the sin that separates us) they will add up to nothing:

You shall sow, but not reap;

you shall tread olives, but not anoint

yourselves with oil;

you shall tread grapes, but not drink

wine. (6:15)

See, we are made by God to know and love and rejoice in Him. He surrounds us with gifts and gives us the joy of working (Genesis 2:15) and purpose. Then we sin, and rather than being humble and apologizing we run from God. Separated from God, our great joy, our life, is gone, so we try to fill it by living as we did before, turning to the gifts rather than the Giver and expecting happiness. But no, God says that that will amount to nothing! Olives will not make olive oil and grapes will not make wine.

But how then will we be saved from our sin, which is an eternal stain upon our soul, the thing that takes us – who are meant for eternity – into eternal death. So if our present state is so horrible, so empty, so destructive, what can we do? This is the fundamental question when it comes to sin. What can we do about it?

“With what shall I come before the LORD,

and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt

offerings,

with calves a year old?

Will the LORD be pleased with

thousands of rams,

with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my first born for my

transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my

soul?” (Micah 6:6-7)

We can’t do any of that. Even if we gave our own firstborn:

Truly no man can ransom another,

or give to God the price of his life (Psalm 49:7)

But God can. God can be the ransom, the price for our lives. He can pay the price and save us from death. He alone in Jesus has the power to completely destroy our sin. I love this verse, which echoes of Genesis 3:15:

He will again have compassion on us;

he will tread our iniquities

underfoot.

You will cast all our sins

into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19)

God has completely trampled our sin, completely crushed it on the cross. He has not simply annulled it or cast it aside, He has absorbed all of our sins in Jesus Christ on the cross and crushed them.

The answer to “What can we do?” is “Nothing”, God has done everything through Christ, and our role is to turn to Him. We do not need to walk in shame and wallow in sorrow for being sinful, because we have a mighty Savior who is always at work and open to us at any time. We just need to lay aside our pride and admit our inability to do nothing.

But as for me, I will look to the LORD;

I will wait for the God of my salvation;

my God will hear me. (Micah 7:7)