Micah 4:1 - Meaning and Application

This chapter begins with a very comforting word, and it is deeply refreshing to those who care about the good of God’s church. At times we see corruption in the church, especially among rulers, priests, and prophets, as they seek their own gain instead of God’s. Then we also see the church laid waste, with Zion plowed like a field, and we are tempted to think it will all vanish and Israel’s name will be forgotten.

But our faith should not fail here. Out of the church’s ashes, a new life will rise. In the last words of the previous chapter, the mountain of the Lord’s house was as ruined and empty as the wild forest hills. Could such a wilderness ever become fruitful again? Yes. The very first words here show the mountain of the Lord’s house honored again, just as much as it had once been shamed by being deserted.

Even if Zion is plowed like a field, God has not rejected his people. By the Jews’ fall, salvation has come to the Gentiles, the nations, and so it becomes the riches of the world (Romans 11:11-12). This is the mystery God shows through the prophet here. He says the same thing in the first three verses of this chapter that another prophet said at the same time by the word of the Lord (Isaiah 2:2-4), so that the promise would be confirmed by two witnesses. These are precious promises about the gospel church, and they have already been partly fulfilled. They will be fulfilled more and more, because the one who promised is faithful.

First, there will be a church for God set up in the world after the Jewish church falls away and is destroyed, and this will be in the last days, meaning, as some Jewish teachers themselves admit, in the days of the Messiah. God’s people will be gathered under a new covenant, that is, a new binding promise from God, with a new spiritual way of worship and new offices to serve it. Better blessings will be given, and better means will be provided for spreading and strengthening God’s kingdom among people than under the Old Testament arrangement. The mountain of the house of the Lord will again be a firm place where God’s faithful worshipers can stand, walk, and build as they serve him (Micah 4:1).

Second, this church will be firmly founded and well built. It will be established on the top of the mountains. Christ himself will build it on a rock. It will be like an unbreakable fort on a sure foundation, so that the gates of hell cannot destroy it or weaken it (Matthew 16:18). Its foundations are still in the holy mountains (Psalm 87:1), in those lasting mountains that cannot and will not be moved.

Third, it will be lifted high and become open and well known. It will be exalted above the hills, and people will marvel at its growth from small beginnings. The kingdom of Christ will shine with more splendor than any earthly kingdom ever did. It will be like a city on a hill, impossible to hide (Matthew 5:14). The glory of this later house is greater than that of the former (Haggai 2:9). See also (2 Corinthians 3:7-8).

Fourth, many people will come into it, and converts will keep coming. People will flow to it like a river that keeps running. There will be a steady stream of believers coming in from every direction, just as the Jews once came to the temple to worship while it still stood. Then many tribes came up to the mountain of the house to seek God’s temple, but in gospel times many nations will flow into the church, flying like a cloud and like doves to their windows. Ministers will be sent to disciple all nations, and they will not work in vain. As many are persuaded to believe the gospel and receive the Christian faith, they will stir one another up and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, now raised among us, to the house of the God of Jacob, the spiritual temple that is near us and set among us.”

So people will become willing in the day of his power (Psalm 110:3), and they will also help make others willing, as Andrew brought Peter and Philip brought Nathanael to know Christ. They will call others to the mountain (Deuteronomy 33:19), because in Christ there is enough for all and enough for each person. Notice what these new believers expect to find in the house of the God of Jacob. They come for instruction: “He will teach us his ways,” meaning the way he wants us to walk with him and the way we can trust him to meet us with mercy. The lesson is clear: when we come to worship God, we also come to be taught by him.

Notice too what they promise to do when they are taught by God: “We will walk in his paths.” Those who are firmly resolved, by God’s grace, to do what they are taught may rightly expect that God will teach them.

Fifth, to bring all this about, a new revelation will be published to the world, and the church will be built on it, while multitudes are brought into it. “The law will go out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” The gospel is called the word of the Lord, because the Lord gave the word, and great was the company of those who published it (Psalm 68:11). It came from God, and it had God’s authority. It began to be spoken by the Lord Christ himself (Hebrews 2:3). It is also called a law, a law of faith, because we are under Christ’s rule.

This word was to go out from Jerusalem, from Zion, the chief city of the Old Testament order, where the temple, the altars, and the messages from God were found, and where the Jews came from all places to worship. The gospel was to begin there, showing the link between the Old Testament and the New. The gospel does not stand against the law, but explains it and grows from it, like a branch from a root. Christ preached in Jerusalem and worked miracles there. There he died, rose again, and went up to heaven. There the Holy Spirit was poured out. And those who were sent to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations were told to begin at Jerusalem, so that from there the streams would flow out to water the dry world.

Sixth, the gospel of Christ would carry convincing power wherever it was preached (Micah 4:3). He shall judge among many people.

The Messiah, who is the lawgiver (Micah 4:2), is here shown as the judge, for the Father has given all judgment to him, and he came into the world for judgment. His word, the gospel word that was to go out from Jerusalem, is the golden scepter by which he rules and judges when he sits as king on the holy hill of Zion (Psalm 2:6). By that word he will rebuke strong nations far away, because the Spirit works with the word to convict the world (John 16:8). It was promised to the Son of David that he would judge among the nations (Psalm 110:6), and he does this as he goes out in the chariot of his lasting gospel, conquering and going on to conquer.

A peaceful spirit and mutual love are also happy results of Christ’s kingdom. They shall beat their swords into plowshares. That means angry, passionate people, once fierce and wild, will be changed into gentle and mild people (Titus 3:2, Titus 3:3). Those who once harmed others and could not bear injury themselves will, after conversion, be able to bear injury, though they will do none.

As far as the gospel spreads, it makes people peaceable, for such is the wisdom from above, gentle and easy to reason with. If nations were truly soaked through with it, there would be peace everywhere. When Christ was born, there was peace across the Roman Empire. The first believers were all of one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32), and the early Christians were known for how deeply they loved one another. In heaven, this promise will reach its full accomplishment.

It is promised, first, that there will be no quarrelsome spirit. The art of war, which some count as the glory of a kingdom, will be forgotten and set aside as useless. They shall not learn war anymore, because they will have no need to defend themselves and no desire to attack their neighbors. Nation will no longer lift up sword against nation. The gospel does not make people cowards, but it does make them peaceable.

Second, all will be quiet, free from evil and from fear of evil (Micah 4:4). They shall sit safely, and no one will disturb them. They shall sit securely and not disturb themselves, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, enjoying what grows there and needing no other shelter than its leaves. None shall make them afraid. There will not only be nothing likely to frighten them, they will not even be inclined to fear. Under the rule of Christ, as under Solomon’s, there will be great peace.

Though Christ’s followers have trouble in the world, in him they enjoy deep calm. If this seems unlikely, we may still trust it, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. No word from him will fail. What he has spoken by his word he will carry out by his providence, his wise care, and his grace. He who is the Lord of hosts will also be the God of peace, and those whom the Lord of hosts, the ruler of all armies, protects, may well be at ease.

The churches will also stay faithful in their duty, so they will use their peace well and will not provoke the Lord to take it away from them (Micah 4:5). When the churches have rest, they will be built up, strengthened, and comforted, and they will decide to be as loyal to their God as other nations are to theirs, even though theirs are no gods. Where the earlier promises are given, it follows, “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:2 and following). Here it says, “We will walk in the name of the Lord our God.” Peace is truly a blessing when it makes us more determined to cling to the Lord.

Notice how steady other nations were to their gods. All people will walk, each one, in the name of his god. They will own their god, stay close to him, worship and serve him, depend on him, and trust in him. Whatever people make into a god, they will make use of it and carry its name into all their actions and affairs. The sailors in the storm cried out, each man, to his god (Jonah 1:5). No example could be found of a nation changing its gods (Jeremiah 2:11). If the stars of heaven were their gods, they loved them, served them, and followed after them (Jeremiah 8:2).

God’s people now resolve to be just as steady to him. “We will walk in the name of the Lord our God.” That means we will acknowledge him in all we do, govern ourselves by constant regard for him, do nothing unless we have his approval, and openly confess that we belong to him. Their resolve is firm. It is not something to debate: “We will walk in the name of the Lord our God.” It is right and reasonable, because he is our God. And it is a lasting resolve: “We will do it forever and ever, and never leave him.” He will be ours forever, and so we will be his forever, without regret for our choice.

Even with the church’s scattering, trouble, and weakness, it will be formed, established, and made very significant (Micah 4:6, Micah 4:7). The church had been in a low and weak state in the later Old Testament days, partly because of the corruption of the Jewish nation and partly because of the oppression they suffered. They were like a flock of sheep that had been injured, chased, and scattered (Ezekiel 34:16, Jeremiah 50:6, 17). The good people among them, and in other places, who were inclined toward God, were scattered, weak, and in a sense lost and cast far away.

It is promised that all these wrongs will be set right and the sickness healed. Christ himself came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24), and he sent his apostles to them (Matthew 10:6). From among the Jews who were lame, or too weak to stand upright, God gathered a remnant (Micah 4:7), that remnant chosen by grace, spoken of in Romans 11:7, who received the gospel of Christ. And from among the Gentiles, who had been far off, as they are described in (Ephesians 2:13, Acts 2:39), he raised up a strong nation. Greater numbers of them were brought into the church than of the Jews (Galatians 4:27). The gospel church is such a strong nation that the gates of hell will never prevail against it. The church of Christ is more numerous than any other nation, and strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

The Messiah will be the king of this kingdom. He will protect and govern it, and direct all its affairs for the best, until the end of time. The Lord Jesus will reign over them in Mount Zion by his word and Spirit, through his ordinances, and this will continue from then on forever. For the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.