This morning I felt like I should read from the Book of the Prophet Micah, which is definitely not on my normal weekly or monthly reading list. I am always interested to see what the Lord is about when He leads me to what I would consider obscure, or maybe call them lesser-known, verses. This morning I am apparently continuing the theme I started yesterday, a reflection on the multiple levels of truth conveyed by God when He speaks. He we see the Prophet Micah, proclaiming what is seen as a Messianic Prophecy - Micah 5:2-9 NIV:
[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.”
[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.
[4] He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.
[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,
[6] who will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with drawn sword.
He will deliver us from the Assyrians when they invade our land and march across our borders.
[7] The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord,
like showers on the grass, which do not wait for anyone or depend on man.
[8] The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples,
like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep,
which mauls and mangles as it goes, and no one can rescue.
[9] Your hand will be lifted up in triumph over your enemies, and all your foes will be destroyed."
The first thing I will say is that when I read these verses, I could easily understand how the Jews were waiting for a Messiah who would free them, and would be a military leader! I mean the language is quite specific, and yet when we look at them against the record of Jesus' life, we see that He fulfilled the prophecies, but not in the militaristic way.
As I know very little about Micah, I figured I should do a bit of research. Micah was written between 735 and 700BC, which predates the Babylonian exile of the Kingdom of Judah, and is during the time of the exile of Kingdom of Israel to Ninevah, which interestingly would be the land of Nimrod, and peopled by the Assyrians. He was writing primarily to the Kingdom of Judah, but it seems God's heart was still for the tribes of the Kingdom of Israel, the Northern Kingdom. What is even more interesting is that it was the Babylonians that destroyed Ninevah, and defeated the Assyrians. It was 100 years before the Southern Kingdom (Judah) would be taken captive by the Babylonians.
When I read these verses, I tend to combine all references to Israel, Jacob, Judah into one people, and while that is true, from a lineage perspective, at this time Judah, who Micah is writing to, and Israel were separate Kingdoms and had been for close to 200 years. That really changes how I read these verses, and should help us understand that God speaks into very specific circumstances, and sometimes the things He speaks are just for a particular group, or even individual. If we look at verse 5, where Micah is talking about seven shepherds, even eight commanders, we can understand that based on the known history of the southern Kingdom they actually had eight additional kings from the time of the Assyrians capturing the northern kingdom and their own defeat by the Babylonians. At the time of his writing Hezekiah was king, and he clearly followed after the Lord, for we find the following passages - 2 Kings 18:5-7 NIV:
[5] "Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. [6] He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. [7] And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him."
As I look back at the verses above, I now understand that Micah was essentially intermixing prophecies about the Messiah (2-4, 9), a King for Judah (Hezekiah) (4, 6), the southern Kingdom (5), the Northern Kingdom of Israel (3,6), and all of the tribes of Jacob (Jews) (7-8). Wow!
Reflecting on all of this, I can see the multiple layers, some spanning 700-800 years in the making, others 100-200 years in the future, and other bits almost immediate, and some that are still in play! This makes me think back on the different things the Lord has said to me, and ask Him for clarity and understanding around timing. I normally just take God's word to be about now, but it is clear that He speaks in multiple layers and it takes a discerning heart to be able to hear and understand what He is saying. We must be able to parse out those words the Lord intends as seed for next year or the year following, those words He intends to give us nourishment and encouragement in the moment, and those things that are for ourselves or others. Clearly the only one who can guide us correctly is the Holy Spirit. I don't know about you, but I know I need to be praying for discernment much more than I have been!
I am also reminded of how important context is to understanding the word of the Lord. We could read these verses from Micah, and extracting them out of their historical context, think they all apply to us, or all apply to Jesus, and get all messed up in our minds and and understanding. The Jews in reading verses like these hundreds of years later, could have done exactly that, and thought that verses that applied to Hezekiah were actually speaking about the coming Messiah, and thus they would expect a warrior Messiah!
Lord, I pray that you will provide me greater understanding and insight, the ability to discern Your word more clearly! I know You speak from Your eternal perspective, and You know I need help understanding what You are saying! Help me to hear and understand more clearly!
Amen!
If you want to view the context of my historical view of the timing of these verses, here is a link to the image: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/586eb3372994ca8b180cb830/1483656581843-L4W79JQ4G2URIRBFJ09K/Old-Testament-Timeline1.jpg?content-type=image%2Fjpeg
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