Micah 5:7 - Meaning and Application

Glorious things are said here about the remnant of Jacob, that is, the small people the Lord will preserve from among the many who perish. This seems to be the remnant raised up from her who was lame (Micah 4:7), the remnant the Lord our God will call (Joel 2:32), on whom the Spirit will be poured out, the remnant that will be saved (Romans 9:27). God’s people are only a remnant, a little flock compared with the many who are left to die. Yet they are still the remnant of Jacob, a people in covenant with God and under his favor.

Here it is promised, first, that they will be like dew among the nations (Micah 5:7). God’s church is scattered across the whole world, living among many peoples like gold in ore or wheat in a pile. Israel by physical descent lived apart and was not counted among the nations, but spiritual Israel is scattered among many peoples, like the salt of the earth or like seed sown in the field, one grain here and another there (Hosea 2:23). This remnant will be like dew from the Lord.

They will come from heaven, as dew comes from the Lord, who is the Father of the rain and has produced the dew drops (Job 38:28). They are born from above and do not belong to this world in heart and mind. They will also be many, like the drops of dew on a summer morning (Psalm 110:3). They will be pure and clear, not muddy or corrupted, like bright drops of life-giving water. Their rise will be quiet and unseen, like dew that falls gently, we know not how, and that is how the Spirit often works.

They will also live in constant dependence on God, always receiving from him, like the dew that does not wait for man or the children of men. They will not lean on human help or power, but on divine grace, because they know they are only what God’s free grace makes them each day. And they will be a blessing to those around them, just as dew and showers help the grass grow without human work. Their teaching, example, and prayers will soften and refresh others, and make them fruitful. Their speech will fall like dew (Deuteronomy 32:2), and those around them will wait for them as for rain (Job 29:23). The people among whom they live will be like grass, which flourishes only by God’s blessing and not by human skill.

They will do good to others by drawing down God’s blessing on them, as Jacob brought blessing on Laban’s house, and by cooling and easing God’s anger, which would otherwise consume them. As Dr. Pocock observed, they will be mild and gentle in their conduct, like their Master, who comes down like rain on mown grass (Psalm 72:6).

Second, they will be like a lion among the beasts of the forest, treading down and tearing in pieces (Micah 5:8). As they are quiet, gentle, and ready to share good with those who receive the truth in love, so they will also be bold as a lion in testifying against the corruption of the times and places where they live. They will be strong in God’s strength to resist and overcome spiritual enemies. The weapons of their warfare are powerful through God, able to tear down strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4, 2 Corinthians 10:5). They will have courage that all their enemies cannot stand against (Luke 21:15), just as when a lion tears, no one can rescue.

When unbelief is silenced and wickedness is made to stop speaking, when sinners are convicted and turned by the power of the gospel, in the teaching of ministers and the lives of believers, then the remnant of Jacob is like a lion. This is explained in Micah 5:9, where the church has the upper hand at last over all who oppose her. Her enemies will be cut off, meaning their opposition will end and their hatred will be broken. Christ’s arrows of conviction will pierce their hearts, so that they fall before him, yield themselves to him (Psalm 45:5), and are gladly conquered and ruled by him (Psalm 110:2).

Third, they will be brought away from every worldly trust they have depended on. By God’s providence, they will be given such safety that they will not need these things, and by his grace they will see their folly and leave them behind. It was Israel’s sin to load itself with horses and chariots, and to turn to fortune-tellers and idols (Isaiah 2:6-8). But here God promises that they will no longer value them. This fits the peace of Christ’s kingdom, as in Zechariah 9:10, where the Lord says, “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem.”

It is a great mercy to be deprived of things we have trusted in more than God, made into an arm of flesh, and followed in place of him. They had trusted in chariots and horses and multiplied them (Psalm 20:7), but God will cut off their horses and destroy their chariots (Micah 5:10), as David once disabled the chariot horses (2 Samuel 8:4). They will not have them, so they will not be tempted to trust in them. They also depended on strongholds and fortified cities for safety, but God will have those torn down (Micah 5:11): “I will cut off the cities of your land; I will throw down your strongholds.” They may still live in them, but they will not rely on them as defenses, because God himself will be their place of safety, their high tower, and their deliverer.

Many also trusted deeply in conjurors, diviners, and fortune-tellers. God will cut these off too, not only because they are powerless to help, but because they are evil and able to ruin those who follow them (Micah 5:12). “I will cut off witchcraft from your hand,” meaning they will no longer cling to it or lean on it, “and you will have no more soothsayers,” because they will see their claims for the fraud they are. The law of the land was to remove such people (Leviticus 20:27), and the preaching of the gospel turned people away from curious arts and magic practices (Acts 19:19).

Many of them had said to the work of their own hands, “You are our gods.” So idolatry will be done away with and left behind (Micah 5:13). “Your carved images I will cut off, and your standing images,” both the movable idols and the fixed ones. They will be destroyed by the law of Moses and abandoned under the gospel of Christ, so that they will no longer worship what their hands made, but will be ashamed that they were ever so deceived. Among the signs of idolatry, God says, “I will uproot your groves from among you” (Micah 5:14). These groves had been planted and kept in honor of idols and used in their worship. They were commanded to be burned (Deuteronomy 12:2, Deuteronomy 12:3), and if people do not remove them, God himself will, so that they will have nothing left to trust in.

So God says, “I will destroy their cities.” This means the cities set apart for idols, built around some filthy false god or other, which the people trusted to protect them.

Fourth, those who keep resisting the gospel of Christ, and stay joined to their idols and witchcraft, will fall under God’s anger and be destroyed by it (Micah 5:15). God says, “I will carry out vengeance in anger and fury on the nations,” that is, on pagan worship itself. That judgment will be unlike anything they have ever heard of. Idolatry will be wiped out, and idolaters will be put to shame.

Some read the words this way: “I will carry out vengeance on the nations who have not heard,” or who would not listen and receive the teaching of Christ. God will give his Son either the hearts of his enemies or their necks. In other words, he will make them either willing followers or conquered foes, either his friends or his footstool.