A Study In Malachi: God’s Name Will Be Great Among The Nations

From S. Lewis Johnson’s Malachi series, a few thoughts from study of Malachi chapter 1.

Looking specifically at verses 11 and 14:

For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

and

For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

The King James Version puts it in the present tense.  Modern translations render it more accurately, as pointing to a future time.  Certainly the text itself does not describe the time of Malachi: at that time there were no offerings being offered among the Gentiles that were pure.  Only offerings made in Jerusalem, at the temple, were pure.

Some commentators apply it to the church age, by broadening the scope of the words (spiritualizing), as for example from John Gill concerning “a pure offering”:

meaning either the Gentiles themselves, their souls and bodies,  Isa 66:20 or their sacrifices of praise, good works, and alms deeds  Heb 13:15 which, though imperfect, and not free from sin, may be said to be “pure”, proceeding from a pure heart, sprinkled by the blood of Christ, and offered in a pure and spiritual manner, and through the pure incense of Christ’s mediation.

However, the overall text describes a time when God’s “name will be great among the nations.”  Similar to the idea of Satan now being bound, to suggest that God’s name is now regarded as great among the nations is very wrongheaded, a view that rejects both the NT writers description of this age as well as observed reality.

Malachi was addressing the remnant returned from the Babylonian exile, a group that had already gone astray, thinking more about themselves than of God, as evidenced by their polluted offerings.  God addressed the people in Malachi, this last word from God before the NT age, with rebukes to the priests (Malachi 1:1-2:9) as well as to the people (Malachi 2:10-16).

Malachi 1:11-14 is telling the people of that time:  I am a great God.  The time is coming when the whole of the earth will be worshipping me.  They will bring pure offerings.  Your attitude now is entirely contrary to the future.

In the words of Dr. Ironside, commentary on Malachi 1:

But it is blessed to know that, whatever the present failure, God shall yet be fully glorified; so we read, “From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, My name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered unto My name, and a pure offering: for My name shall be great among the nations, saith the Lord of hosts” (ver. 11). It is hardly the present work of grace among the Gentiles that is here contemplated, but rather that wonderful era of blessing which is still in the future-the times of restitution of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the ages began. Then shall Jehovah’s name be honored and His word obeyed throughout the whole earth, when all nations shall bask in the sunshine of His favor.

Zechariah 14 and God’s Divine Purpose

I’ve just finished S. Lewis Johnson’s series through Zechariah.  Zechariah 14 is of course one of the great OT chapters with so much to say about the Second Coming and the Kingdom.  Dr. Johnson noted the problems of spiritualizing, and the importance of recognizing the difference between figures of speech used within a passage, and wholesale allegorizing or spiritualizing to alter the meaning to something else; Zechariah 14 is an especially difficult passage to spiritualize.

Here is a great quote from him, regarding the believers and the missionaries in Korea in the early 20th century  (from the later transcript, second series in Zechariah:

C. G. Trumbull who was at one time associated with the Sunday-School Times took a trip to Korea where a tremendous work of evangelization had taken place in the early part of this century.  In fact, there was a great revival there and Mr. Trumbull was interested in the way in which they had responded to the word of God concerning the second coming of Christ.  And so, he asked one of the Koreans whether the Korean Christians believed in the second coming of Christ.  And he received this answer, “Oh, yes, they believe the Bible.  It’s only when some missionaries come and tell them something different that they begin to have any doubts.”

When one reads the Bible and reads in its normal plain speaking then, I think, the answer usually is, we sense there’s going to be some great disturbances in the future, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come, we see that he is going to fulfill the promises that he has made to the nation Israel, and we see he’s going to rule and reign upon the earth.  That seems to be the simple reading of the word of God.

Actually, I agree that Zechariah 14 is difficult to spiritualize, and yet of course the allegorizers persist in doing so, since the imagination can come up with so much — yet such treatment leaves the text with nothing of its original plain meaning, becoming instead the inspired version of the “exalted” human teacher who tells us what God really meant to say.

Here are some great recent articles regarding Zechariah 14, from Michael Vlach:

• Zechariah 14 and the Timing of the Kingdom

• Zechariah 14:10-21 and the Nature of the Coming Kingdom

• The Theological Implications of Zechariah 14

As I’m finding out through a study through Hebrews (also with S. Lewis Johnson),  that book also has many references to the Second Coming, including the Kingdom age.  The OT scriptures quoted in chapter 1 are filled with references to the Davidic covenant and Israel’s future.  Hebrews 2 quotes Psalm 8, a great psalm regarding man’s intended dominion over the earth:  something begun in Genesis 1, but we do not now see it; we will see it in the kingdom.  S. Lewis Johnson specifically noted that in Hebrews 2:5 (which introduces the citation of Psalm 8 ) the words “the world to come” do not refer to this age (the church), and do not refer to the Eternal State, but to the kingdom of God upon the earth.

As Michael Vlach also noted in the third blog article link above:

These conditions of Zechariah 14 can only occur in an intermediate kingdom between the present age and the eternal state. While people from all nations are being saved in the church age, the nations themselves do not obey our Lord (see Psalm 2). In fact, they persecute those who belong to the Lord. In the coming kingdom Jesus will rule the nations while He is physically present on earth. The nations will obey and submit to His rule, but as Zechariah 14 points out, whenever a nation does not act as they should there is punishment. On the other hand, in the eternal state there will be absolutely no disobedience on the part of the nations. The picture of the nations in the eternal state is only positive. The kings of the nations bring their contributions to the New Jerusalem (see Rev 21:24) and the leaves of the tree of life are said to be for the healing of the nations (see Rev 22:2).

Zechariah’s Prophetic Burdens

I’m nearing the end of S. Lewis Johnson’s Zechariah series, and the following is an overview concerning the book’s outline and prophecies.

A basic outline of Zechariah includes:

•     Chapters 1-6:  prophetic visions given to Zechariah during one night
•     Chapters 7-8: answer to a question about fasting and related matters
•     Chapters 9-14: two prophetic burdens, one in chapters 9-11, the other in chapters 12-14

Each of the burdens begins with the words “The burden of the word of the Lord.”  The first burden is “against the land of Hadrach” (Zechariah 9:1),  and the second burden “concerning Israel” (Zechariah 12:1).

The first burden’s theme includes the First Advent and the Jewish rejection of the Messiah.  It also stresses the judgment that would come on the Gentiles in Israel’s deliverance.  The second burden’s theme is the blessing that God will give them when they return to their Messiah.  It also stresses the deliverance amidst the judgments of the last days.

The First Burden:  Zechariah 9-11
Zechariah 9 begins with a prophecy about Alexander the Great (verses 1-8) followed by a contrast: Alexander the Great, versus God’s King, Christ the Lowly, in the familiar words of verse 9:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

The scene changes in verse 10, shifting from the First Coming to the Second.  The next passage, verses 10-17, includes a prophecy of peace (v. 10), a prophecy of liberation beginning in verse 11, and praise for the Messiah of Israel.  We see here God’s sovereignty: for all the attempts of man to bring peace, man’s attempts at disarmament contracts and treaties, that sought after peace will never happen until God brings it to pass.  The prophecy does have some reference to the more immediate Old Testament situation (Greece), but the language goes beyond it, describing worldwide dominion (verse 10:  from sea to sea … to the ends of the earth) and “in that day,” a prophetic term used frequently throughout the Old Testament, always in connection with events at the last judgment and Second Coming.

Chapter 10 showcases the Shepherd-King amidst the climax of occultism, in the Great Tribulation period of great satanic opposition. God is mighty to save the people who have wandered because of idolatry (Zech. 10:2), without a shepherd.  Verses 8 through 10 describe the regathering of the people of Israel, who had been scattered among the nations.

Chapter 11 begins with their rule by the Romans, until verse 4, which foretells their rejection of their Messiah.  The “three shepherds also I cut off in one month” in verse 8 possibly refers to the three offices, or three groups, of leaders in Israel:  kings, priests, and prophets.  Certainly that is what happened, at the rejection of Christ, and the destruction in A.D. 70:  no more prophets in Israel (or in the church), no more priests, and the king is in heaven, not on the Earth.

Zechariah, probably in ecstatic vision, acts out the scene of Christ coming to His people and being rejected and sold for 30 pieces of silver: the price of a slave that had been gored by an ox!

The national calamity is described in several verses of chapter 11, events fully described by Josephus in the historical records.  Such a horrific judgment:  the nations disavowed them (and sold them as slaves), their leaders disavow them; the Jews turned against each other. (Zechariah 11:5) The Lord Himself turned against them and did not pity them.

Zechariah 11:15 jumps ahead to the last days, describing the false shepherd: the antiChrist, also known as the man of sin, the son of perdition, the beast, the one who makes a covenant with the people but then turns against them in the middle of that seven-year period:

a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

Zechariah 4:10 — The Day Of Small Things

From Zechariah 4, a comforting thought concerning the day of small things.  The setting was such a time, a remnant of the mighty nation Israel, now back in the land and rebuilding the temple.  As noted in Ezra 3, when the foundation of the new temple was laid, some of the people wept, remembering how much greater Solomon’s temple had been.

Zechariah 4 includes the great words “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord,” followed by the encouragement of verse 10: For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice.  As another saying goes, “Little is much when God is in it.”  The temple in Zerubbabel’s day was a “small thing” yet it was God’s will, and great things would later come.  Zerubbabel’s day was even a type of the age to come:  a small temple then, and several hundred years later, Christ’s “small” act of the cross, the time when He was crucified in weakness.

How often life is like that, our activity is usually in the “small things” and yet when it is in God’s will it really isn’t to be judged by our standards of “great” or lesser levels of importance.  God’s providence, His working throughout history, nearly always comes in “small things.”  In my recent Bible genre readings, I read Zechariah at the same time as the book of Esther, another great example of God’s providence in the details.

S. Lewis Johnson, teaching Zechariah 4 in 1967, could give direct application to the situation with Believer’s Chapel, which at that time was a “small thing,” apparently a small group of people who did not yet even have a church building (then under construction).  Yet God was in that too, a ministry that has since helped countless people, both at that church and those of us who benefit from the online sermon collection.  Certainly the same can be said of many other great ministries and missionary efforts, that began as small things.

Was Zechariah the Prophet Martyred?

I’ve started S. Lewis Johnson’s Zechariah series, and for additional study recently read MacArthur’s notes (MacArthur Bible Commentary) introduction.  One rather surprising item was MacArthur’s note that this Zechariah was martyred, since Jesus mentions Zechariah the son of Berechiah in Matthew 23.  I also remember from S. Lewis Johnson’s Matthew series, a brief mention of that passage and reference to the Zechariah in 2 Chronicles 24.  In considering the overall history pre- and post-exile, MacArthur’s note just seemed odd, in that it basically says that there were two men with the same name Zechariah, and both were martyred in the very same manner.

I also consider the overall time periods: the idolatrous pre-exile period of King Joash, as contrasted with the attitude of the remnant in the days of the chapters in Ezra’s book along with parallel material in Haggai.  Haggai’s prophecies in 520 B.C., a few months before the prophecy of Zechariah, were received favorably and achieved the desired result: the people resumed and completed building the second temple.  Zechariah’s prophecy followed up a few months later, in 519 B.C., a favorable prophecy to encourage the remnant concerning the future, that God is still concerned about Israel and still has a great future for them.  Nothing in Zechariah’s prophecy, or in any of the other post-exilic writings, indicates that the post-exile people were still idolatrous and murderous in the manner of the earlier time.  Instead, only a relatively small number of them had returned (about 50,000 at the time of Haggai and Zechariah), and they were very conscious of their past sins, and more prone to discouragement, to build their own homes first.  All of the people faced persecution and opposition during this time, from the surrounding non-Jewish people: not exactly the time when Jews would be turning on their own prophets who were giving them a favorable message — and besides, the temple was only then being rebuilt, so how could Zechariah the prophet be killed in such a structure?  Yes, Stephen in Acts 7 declares to his generation “which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” and yet the post-exile period seems to be one of the rare exceptions, of prophets who gave messages that the people did respond to.  Before and after this period, the people were more secure in their location, not a small remnant oppressed by outsiders, and thus more inclined and able to persecute and kill the prophets.

But what of Jesus’ remark in Matthew 23:35, concerning “the blood of Abel.. to Zechariah the son of Berechiah”?  Some debate exists as to the actual names in the original manuscripts, and it is common enough to find Old Testament characters given more than one name, or even for generations to be skipped, such that the Zechariah of 2 Chronicles could easily have been a grandson of Jehoida.  Nothing in Jesus’ statement itself proves that this had to be Zechariah the prophet.

The reference to the Zechariah of 2 Chronicles makes much more sense when we also realize that the Jewish scriptures are  arranged differently than our Old Testament (see this link for the actual sequence), and 2 Chronicles (the full book of Chronicles actually) is the last book in the Jewish collection.  Thus, a reference to “Abel … to Zechariah” covers everything from the first book to the last book of the Jewish Bible: from Genesis to Chronicles, NOT Genesis to Malachi.

S. Lewis Johnson explained it thus, in his Matthew series:

Now let me say just a word about verse 35.  You’ll notice that our Lord looks back over the whole of the Old Testament, and beginning with Abel, the first of those murdered in the Bible, then on to Zacharias son of Barachias, slain between the temple and the altar (the account of which is given us in 2nd Chronicles).  And do you remember perhaps that in the Hebrew Old Testament the last book of the Bible is 2nd Chronicles?   For them the order of books is different from the order in our English text, so that what our Lord has done is to begin in the first of the murders in the book of Genesis and has ranged through the whole of the Scriptures, as he knew them, to the last of those that were murdered unrighteously, Zacharias son of Barachias, and has in a sense characterized the whole of the divine revelation up to that point as being a situation in which the righteous men were crucified by the religious men.  It’s a remarkable statement, a remarkable summary of the attitude of religious men, hypocritical men to the reality of the truth of the word of God.  We can then understand very easily how he should say, “Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.”

By contrast, MacArthur’s sermon explanation (also in a Matthew series) doesn’t even mention these points, and just assumes it must be Zechariah the prophet, and that Jesus’s statement affirms that the people were always killing their prophets down to the more recent time period.

From a sampling of other commentaries I checked, John Gill’s is the most thorough on this overall question, and he notes several things including the problem of the historical time period, and agrees with S. Lewis Johnson’s view above.  An excerpt from John Gill here:

Others have been of opinion, that Zechariah the prophet is designed; and indeed, he is said to be the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, Zec 1:1 and the Jewish Targumist speaks of a Zechariah, the son of Iddo, as slain by the Jews in the temple. His words are these {a};

“as ye slew Zechariah, the son of Iddo, the high priest, and faithful prophet, in the house of the sanctuary of the Lord, on the day of atonement; because he reproved you, that ye might not do that evil which is before the Lord.”

And him the Jews make to be the same with Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, in Isa 8:2 and read Berechiah {b}: but the Targumist seems to confound Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, with him; for the prophet Zechariah was not an high priest, Joshua was high priest in his time; nor does it appear from any writings, that he was killed by the Jews; nor is it probable that they would be guilty of such a crime, just upon their return from captivity; and besides, he could not be slain in such a place, because the temple, and altar, were not yet built: it remains, that it must be Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, who was slain in the court of the house of the Lord,  2Ch 24:20 who, as Abel was the first, he is the last of the righteous men whose death is related in the Scriptures, and for whose blood vengeance was required, as for Abel’s. He was slain in the court of the house of the Lord; and so the Ethiopic version here renders it, in the midst of the holy house.
. . .
The chief objections to its being this Zechariah are, that the names do agree; the one being the son of Jehoiada, the other the son of Barachias; and the killing of him was eight hundred years before this time; when it might have been thought our Lord would have instanced in a later action: and this he speaks of, he ascribes to the men of that generation: to which may be replied, that as to the difference of names, the father of this Zechariah might have two names, which is no unusual thing; besides, these two names signify much the same thing; Jehoiada signifies praise the Lord, and Barachias bless the Lord; just as Eliakim and Jehoiakim, are names of the same person, and signify the same thing,  2Ch 36:4. Moreover, Jerom tells us, that in the Hebrew copy of this Gospel used by the Nazarenes, he found the name Jehoiada instead of Barachias: and as to the action being done so long ago, what has been suggested already may be an answer to it, that it was the last on record in the writings of the Old Testament; and that his blood, as Abel’s, is said to require vengeance: and Christ might the rather pitch upon this action, because it was committed on a very great and worthy man, and in the holy place, and by the body of the people, at the command of their king, and with their full approbation, and consent: and therefore, though this was not done by the individual persons in being in Christ’s time, yet by the same people; and so they are said to slay him, and his blood is required of them: and their horrible destruction was a punishment for that load of national guilt, which had been for many hundreds of years contracting, and heaping upon them.

Haggai’s Prophecy: First or Second Coming?

From my studies through the minor prophets with S. Lewis Johnson, some interesting points  from Haggai 2:1-7.  This prophecy contains a familiar passage, since verse 6 is cited in Hebrews 12:26-27:

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken-that is, things that have been made-in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

Haggai 2:7 contains a well-known phrase — or rather, the incorrect King James translation of it:  “the desire of all nations.”  This mistake in the grammar, a singular noun instead of plural, goes back to the Latin Vulgate, and from that translation (in the KJV as well as the NIV) has come the common misunderstanding that this passage is talking about the First Coming of Christ.  Indeed I always understood it as such, that “the desire of all nations” and the promise that this temple would be greater than the previous (Solomon’s), referred to Christ coming to that temple a few hundred years later.  The traditional emphasis at Christian churches no doubt reinforced that, with the emphasis that everything in the Old Testament refers to Christ and the New Testament era.  Along with this, many see the citation of the passage in Hebrews, and (as with so many other NT citings of the OT) distort the plain words to conclude that the very fact of the citation means that the quoted passage must have been fulfilled in the first century, Christ’s First Coming.

First, though, the original Greek, properly translated in all modern translations (excepting the NIV) — NASB, ESV, HCSB, NLT, etc. — has a plural noun.  The ESV translates the passage as:

For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.

Thus, this prophecy in Haggai is actually an indirect Messianic prophecy, to Christ’s Second Coming.  Another Old Testament passage that relates to this one, is Isaiah 60 , a great chapter concerning the restoration of Israel. Consider especially verses 5-7, a clear parallel to the idea here that the nations will bring their treasures to Israel and the millennial temple:

Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and exult,
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you;
the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you;
they shall come up with acceptance on my altar,
and I will beautify my beautiful house.

Habakkuk the Minor Prophet: How to Solve Our Problems

From S. Lewis Johnson’s four-part series through the minor prophet Habakkuk, I offer the following overview of the book Habakkuk and its major themes.

This three chapter book teaches two great ideas:  individual salvation (the just shall live by faith, Habakkuk 2:4), and the problem of history — God’s dealings with His chosen people and His dealings with the non-elect.

Habakkuk chapters 1 and 2 records a colloquy, a conversation between God and Habakkuk, and chapter 3 gives a theophany.  Or, Habakkuk contains a dialogue in the first two chapters, and a song of God’s intervention in history in the third chapter.

Habakkuk can also be called the great book of faith:

• Habakkuk 1:  Faith is Tested
• Habakkuk 2:  Faith is Taught
• Habakkuk 3:  Faith Becomes Triumphant

Habakkuk’s problem is expressed in simple terms of “how long?” and “why?”  It is the age old question, often asked by Job and the psalmists:  why do the evil prosper, why is the law ignored, and why does wickedness rule?  God’s ways are often mysterious, and His inaction puzzles us.  His instruments are unusual; in Habakkuk’s case He uses the wicked Chaldeans to accomplish His purposes. Yet we observe Habakkuk’s manner, that he gets away from everyone and everything else, and spends time with the Lord.  We take our problems to God (not to others).

From Habakkuk 2:1 we can learn how to solve problems

1. Put away panic.  Don’t start talking and get upset.
2. Reflect upon the basic principles, the fundamentals.

You are the eternal God, the Lord Jehovah, the Creator of All, the Holy God, and my God, the covenant keeping God.

3. Put to use the principles that we learn.

Reference James 1:22 — prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers.

4. Leave it in the hands of the Lord, and expect an answer.

The ultimate example from scripture is our Lord’s prayer to His father, in the garden of Gethsemane.  Also, the answer may be yes, no, or even wait.  Sometimes we don’t receive the answer to our prayer in this lifetime.

Other relevant scripture:  Philippians 4:6-7 expresses this attitude of prayer and dependency on God.

The Old Testament shows examples of the wrong and right ways of dealing with our problems: Jacob meeting Esau is an example of the wrong way, and Daniel 6 (Daniel in the Lions Den) the right way.

The Prophet Micah and The Remnant

From S. Lewis Johnson’s Micah series, a look at Micah 5 and the description of the remnant.

The very word “remnant” suggests the tragedy of apostasy. So many are gone, only a few left.  Yet after apostasy, the very fact of a remnant also suggests the hope of a return.  God’s electing purpose continues.  In Micah 5 it is further called “the remnant of Jacob” and so we think of the weakness of the man Jacob, but also of the great covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The book of Micah contains three prophecies concerning the remnant:

• Micah 2:12-13 — a prophecy of being taken into exile
• Micah 4:6-7 — rescued and transformed, safe from attacks,  and
• Micah 5:7-9  — the remnant a blessing to the nations

In Micah 5:7-8, the remnant “in the midst of many peoples” is described in two comparisons that may not mean much to us in modern city life, yet which had great meaning to the people of Micah’s day.  In verse 7, the remnant will be “like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass.”  In verse 8 the remnant is “like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep.”

We don’t especially think of dew as all that important, but it turns out to be very significant for Israel, a rather dry and arid place.  Israel has a rainy season and a dry season, and the dry season lasts from spring until fall.  The crops can only grow there because of the night-time breezes that come in from the Mediterranean Sea, which comes over and pours a very thick dew onto the land during the night, when the land is cool and thus benefits from dew.

Dew is also mentioned a few other places in the Old Testament.  The story of Gideon and the fleece is the best known one, in which Gideon gains assurance from the Lord through signs from God:  dew on all the ground except the fleece, and then dew only on the fleece and not the ground.  Even earlier, though, comes Genesis 27:28 — Isaac’s blessing to Jacob includes the line “​​​May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine.”

Showers further remind us of God’s providence and blessing.  We cannot make it rain.  The dew and the showers have their source in the Lord and His sovereign grace.

Now to verse 8, the lion and young lion:  whereas dew is a silent blessing of the Lord God, a lion suggests irresistible power.  Israel will be the aggressor among the nations, and the other nations like the weak beasts of the forest.  For the lion theme we can also look back to Genesis 49:9, Jacob’s final words to his sons:

​​​​​Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?

Numbers 23 and 24, Baalam’s prophecies, also speak of God’s people Israel as a lion.

• Numbers 23:24  ​​​​​​​​Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises up and as a lion it lifts itself;

• Numbers 24:9 — ​​​​​​​​He crouched, he lay down like a lion and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.”

Within the lion theme, and this “blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you” statement in Numbers, we again find reference to the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 12:3:

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Micah 5:8 concludes with “none to deliver” and here we see the power of the remnant of Jacob, as the representative of the Lord God upon the earth.  Verse 9 concludes with a command, “Thy hand be lifted up over your adversaries, thy enemies be cut off.”

In the prophecy of Micah we again see the recurring theme of God’s covenant with Abraham and His covenant people Israel, and we eagerly await the day when this prophecy, part of all the prophetic word, comes to fulfillment in our Lord’s Second Coming and the restoration of Israel.

Insights From The Prophet Micah

From my recent study through Micah with S. Lewis Johnson, here are some highlights from Micah chapters 4 and 5.

Three Prophecies of Judgment Followed By Great Blessing
In Micah 4:9-10, then Micah 4:11-13 and Micah 5:1-6 we see a set of three prophecies, all of which begin with judgment, but end with a promise of future blessing.  Each of these sets begins with the word “now”:

• 1st prophecy:  ​​​​​​​Now why do you cry aloud? ….   There you shall be rescued;  there the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

• 2nd prophecy:  ​​​​​​​​Now many nations are assembled against you …  you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

•  3rd prophecy:  Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; … and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border.

As with all Bible study, looking at different translations shows some of the variations in the possible meaning.  Micah 5:1 could refer to gathering troops (the translation in KJV and ESV), but could mean “gash yourselves” (HCSB: you slash yourself in grief) or “now you are gashing yourselves, O daughter of troops,” in which gashing is a reference to mourning practices for the dead, in the manner of the heathens (reference 1 Kings 18: the Baal worshippers were slashing themselves while Elijah mocked).

The Preciseness of Bible Prophecies
The background setting for Micah 5:1 is the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians in Hezekiah’s day.  Then verse 2 shows a great contrast, with the well-known prophecy concerning Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem:

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

The Bible is so precise in its prophecies, so very unlike human prophets.  Even the mention of Bethlehem leaves no room for doubt.  Micah could have simply said “Bethlehem” and left open the possible interpretation to include the other Bethlehem in Israel: one in the north, in Zebulun’s inheritance (reference Joshua 19:15).  Instead, we know that it can only mean Bethlehem Ephrathah, the Bethlehem in the south near Jerusalem.

The Only Person Who Was Born A King
Also from this text and its citation in Matthew 2:  where is He who was born king of the Jews?  Human kings are never born as such.  They may be born a prince, such as the Prince of Wales, but never a king.  In some interesting trivia from actual history, I recall that a few have been declared kings from a very early age.  In Judah’s history, Joash and Josiah became kings as children of only seven and eight years of age.  From secular history, Henry VI of England was a king at only 8 months of age when his father Henry V died.  One human king in history was declared a king at birth, Alfonso XIII of Spain, whose father died before he was born.  But such is clearly not the norm for human rulers — our Lord Jesus Christ alone is the only one who was truly born a king.

Finding the Road to Christ: A Sermon Example

As a follow-up to my last post, The Proper Way to “Find Christ in the Text,” consider the following instance where a preacher demonstrates a sermon technique he had previously mentioned.

I noticed this in S. Lewis Johnson’s message on Micah 4:1-5.  As we’re reading along in Micah, chapter 3 ends on a very rough note:  wickedness from Israel’s rulers, and then pronouncement of judgment at the very end:  Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Then Micah 4 starts on a very positive note, with great blessings to come upon Zion, and the Lord ruling from Jerusalem.  Herein is the “road to Christ”:  Johnson asks how it can be, that judgment comes in Micah 3 but that blessings will come upon them in the latter days?  The answer is found in the redemptive work of the cross, Christ’s crucifixion still hundreds of years future from Micah’s day.  We could also refer to it as God’s working out of the New Covenant, that third great covenant (after the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants) which provided the means for forgiveness and atonement.  The road to Christ is there, not explicitly but as the answer to that very real question of how God can forgive sinners who deserve judgment, and put guilty sinners in heaven.  The next few verses of Micah go on to describe what Christ will do at His Second Coming, when He rules from Jerusalem as the true judge — again in contrast with the wicked men who judged Israel in Micah’s day.

How much more satisfying, and true to the word of God, is this “road to Christ” than the amillennialist’s spiritualizing attempt at “finding Christ” in Micah 4.  The typical approach there is to ignore the context of Micah 3 and Micah 4, then jump into the great words in Micah 4 and simply say that it refers to the wonderful church age we live in, a picture of the gospel going forth triumphantly and bringing people into the kingdom.  Sure that’s a way to “find Christ” — but by deceitful twisting of God’s word, not dealing with the details of the text — in both Micah 3 and 4 — and the meanings of words.