Micah 5:7-15
English Standard Version

A Remnant Shall Be Delivered
7 Then the remnant of Jacob shall be
    in the midst of many peoples
like dew from the LORD,
    like showers on the grass,
which delay not for a man
    nor wait for the children of man.
8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,
    in the midst of many peoples,
like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
    like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
which, when it goes through, treads down
    and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.
9 Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,
    and all your enemies shall be cut off.

10 And in that day, declares the LORD,
    I will cut off your horses from among you
    and will destroy your chariots;
11 and I will cut off the cities of your land
    and throw down all your strongholds;
12 and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
    and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;
13 and I will cut off your carved images
    and your pillars from among you,
and you shall bow down no more
    to the work of your hands;
14 and I will root out your Asherah images from among you
    and destroy your cities.
15 And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance
    on the nations that did not obey.

Let's zoom in a bit more on that final thought from yesterday's passage.  The Messiah is going to come as the Deliverer of His people.  When that day comes, the LORD and His people will live in fellowship together as they did in the Garden of Eden before the Curse of Sin.  The LORD will shower His blessings on His people like the dew that comes every morning to water the plants.

The remnant of Jacob will shall be among the nations (this could simply point to the fact that the Jewish people will survive or it could point to the fact that some of the survivors will choose to live outside the promised Land, like the Exiles that chose to stay in Assyria and Babylon when the people returned.  There are still Jews living in nations all around the world to this day--some in places very hostile to them, but they don't desire to leave.  The LORD will also cause these dispersed Jews to blossom and flourish.).  The Jewish people will be seen as an apex predator among the people.  Though they would be small in number, they would be greatly feared by the other nations because of the way in which the LORD would continue to bless them with descendants and wealth.  No one will be able to stop them or stand in their way if the LORD is with them for He will fight for and defend His people.  One day, all of their enemies will be struck down and cut off from the eternal blessings that the LORD has in store for them.  There will be no one left to try to steal the birthright or blessing that belongs to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or to deny them what rightfully belongs to them by the LORD's covenants.

The LORD then starts speaking to the nations.  In the day that He makes war with them, He will destroy all the weapons of war that they trust in.  He will destroy their fortifications that house their military men.  He will destroy their cities in which they take refuge.  He will destroy all the modern-day versions of sorcerers and fortune tellers that spread the works and words of demons.  All idols will be destroyed as well as all sacred pillars where people worshiped and made sacrifices to the stars or other things in nature which they did not give form to, but they worshiped.  No more will the people bow down to worship anything that is made by their hands.  They will worship the Lord GOD their Creator and serve Him only!

The LORD speaks specifically of destroying the Asherah poles dedicated to a fertility goddess where all kinds of sexual sin and perversion took place as "worship" to this pagan goddess.  He repeats that He will destroy the cities of the wicked Gentiles and that He will execute His anger and wrath against the disobedient nations (peoples) in that day.

Micah 5:1-6
English Standard Version

The Ruler to Be Born in Bethlehem
5 Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops;
    siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike the judge of Israel
    on the cheek.
2 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.
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
    when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return
    to the people of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD,
    in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth.
5 And he shall be their peace.

When the Assyrian comes into our land
    and treads in our palaces,
then we will raise against him seven shepherds
    and eight princes of men;
6 they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
    and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;
and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian
    when he comes into our land
    and treads within our border.

This is one of the passages that you may know about already from the book of Micah.  Specifically, you may be familiar with verse 2 from their citation in Matthew 2:6 when Herod asked the chief priests and scribes of the people where the Christ was to be born.  The prophecy pointed specifically to the Bethlehem that David was from--not the Bethlehem that was in the northern part of the country near Nazareth.

This ruler is to "come forth" from the LORD and "come forth" from old, meaning He will be the Son of God and coeternal with the Father and Spirit.  It's right in the middle of a passage that says that the people will be scattered, but when His time comes to be King, He will be The Good Shepherd to His people, and they will dwell in peace, safety and security during His reign (which will be a reign which will have no end).

The people will go into Assyria and Babylon during their 70 years of exile.  They would look for Messiah to come and set them free and return them to the Land, but it would be another Messiah-like king of the Persians that would be called the LORD's messiah that would set His people free (though it would be the LORD doing it miraculously through Cyrus the Persian).  In the time when Jesus came to walk among them though, their greatest enemy (sin) would be defeated and He would come to set His people free.  Those whom the Son has made free are free indeed!

Micah 4:6-13
English Standard Version

The LORD Shall Rescue Zion
6 In that day, declares the LORD,
    I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away
    and those whom I have afflicted;
7 and the lame I will make the remnant,
    and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion
    from this time forth and forevermore.

8 And you, O tower of the flock,
    hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you shall it come,
    the former dominion shall come,
    kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 Now why do you cry aloud?
    Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished,
    that pain seized you like a woman in labor?
10 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.

11 Now many nations
    are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be defiled,
    and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
12 But they do not know
    the thoughts of the LORD;
they do not understand his plan,
    that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 Arise and thresh,
    O daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron,
    and I will make your hoofs bronze;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples;
    and shall devote their gain to the LORD,
    their wealth to the LORD of the whole earth.

In that day (The Day of the LORD), the LORD will not only judge and punish the wicked, but He will also gather all of His people unto Himself who have been scattered to the four corners of the earth.  He will save them and will no longer afflict them (the curse of sin will be over, so there will be no more need for the LORD to purify His people once they are made perfect and glorified).  He will heal all of our diseases (revere the curse of sin) and will reign over His people from the throne of David in Mount Zion (Jerusalem, the City of the Great King--that's Him).

Even in the light of this future glory, the people groan because of their current misery and suffering.  It is not enough for them to forget the trials and tribulations they are currently going through.  They will cry out again for the LORD to save them now--not some day way off in the future.

For now, they will go off to Babylon, but a day is coming when they will be rescued from their Exile and from the hand of their enemies.  This salvation will come from an unexpected source (though the prophesied it through the prophet Isaiah).  He will use Cyrus the Persian to save them from the people of Babylon.

As to the nations that are hoping for the total destruction of the people of Jerusalem so that they can swoop in and take it as their own possession, the LORD promises that they do not know the thoughts of the LORD--thoughts to bless and not to curse His chosen people.  He wants to give them a home, a hope, and a future that are incorruptible, and that is going to come from the Messiah that will not only be their King, but their Savior.  The people will be sifted and sorted.  Only the good grain will be taken into the Master's storehouses, and the chaff will be burned up in unquenchable fire.  The LORD will make His remnant strong again like iron or bronze, and they will defeat many peoples when the LORD leads them into battle to conquer all of their enemies.

The God-fearing remnant from all the other nations of the world will love the people of Israel and the LORD and they freely give their food and other resources to the LORD in freewill offerings as an expression of that love.  No longer will Israel have to fear the other nations for they will all be at peace, and if it were to come to it, the other nations would defend Israel.

Micah 4:1-5
English Standard Version

The Mountain of the LORD
4 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 peoples shall flow to it,
2     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.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
    and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples,
    and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
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;
4 but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
    and no one shall make them afraid,
    for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.
5 For all the peoples walk
    each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
    forever and ever.

Either the LORD is going to change the geography of the Earth to make Mount Zion the highest mountain in the world or this is speaking to its place of honor and everyone will "look up to" the mountain of the LORD where the LORD's Temple is located.  The nations of the world will desire to go to the mountain of the LORD and to learn everything that He has to teach them.  Did you notice that?  The LORD Himself will be their teacher.  We see this in the book of Ezekiel and other places where the LORD will be in His Holy Temple in the end times and people of all nations will come to bring Him tribute and learn from Him.  They also desire to walk in His paths (according to His Law).

​The Law of the LORD will go forth from Mount Zion and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.  These are two ways of saying the same thing.    The Jewish people will be the salt and light that the LORD called them to be.  The people will be at such perfect peace that there will be no more need for swords or spears and these weapons of war will be turned into tools for cultivation and harvesting of crops.  No one will go to war with one another.

The vine and the fig tree are symbols of the nation of Israel.  Everyone will sit under the Kingdom of God here on earth with the Messiah as the King of Israel (and the whole earth).  Though the Gentiles will not live in the Land of Canaan, they will live in the greater Promised Land under the authority and jurisdiction of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They will all be safe and secure because the LORD will be their Shield and Defender and Word of the LORD has commanded it.  Those who put their trust and devotion in other gods will perish because their gods will not be able to save them, but those who put their faith, hope and trust in the LORD will not be put to shame and they will dwell in peace, safety and security in the Kingdom of God forever and ever.

Micah 3
English Standard Version

Rulers and Prophets Denounced
3 And I said:
Hear, you heads of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice?--
2     you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
    and their flesh from off their bones,
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
    and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
    and chop them up like meat in a pot,
    like flesh in a cauldron.

4 Then they will cry to the LORD,
    but he will not answer them;
he will hide his face from them at that time,
    because they have made their deeds evil.

5 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
who cry “Peace”
    when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
    who puts nothing into their mouths.
6 Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,
    and darkness to you, without divination.
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
    and the day shall be black over them;
7 the seers shall be disgraced,
    and the diviners put to shame;
they shall all cover their lips,
    for there is no answer from God.
8 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.

9 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,
10 who build Zion with blood
    and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
    its priests teach for a price;
    its prophets practice divination for money;
yet they lean on the LORD and say,
    “Is not the LORD in the midst of us?
    No disaster shall come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
    Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
    and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

The LORD again lays the blame squarely on the political and religious leaders that were supposed to keep the people holy, but instead led them into into idolatry and all kinds of immorality.  Their leaders who are supposed to reward good and punish evil now hate the good and love the evil

The LORD promises that a people will come that will flay the skin off the people and boil them alive.  They will cry out to the LORD for salvation, but He will not answer them.

The LORD rebukes the prophets who speak contrary to the message that His true prophets have given and persecute and even kill His true prophets.  The false prophets speak "Peace" when the LORD has made a declaration of wrath and judgment.  These false prophets encouraged people to worship idols and engage in all kinds of paganism and claim they are worshiping the LORD by doing so.  They have made the name of the LORD and His people something vile among the nations, and they have perverted the gospel that was supposed to be preached to the nations.

Those who are supposed to like the way for others are full of darkness.  Instead of being led by the LORD, they engage in divination to be led by the unclean spirits.  Therefore, these false prophets will be humiliated and exposed for what they are, and woe to any who put their trust in them and their words of prophecy which were lies from the pit of hell.

These leaders have made the straight way (the way of righteousness) crooked (they lead people into unrighteousness and wickedness), have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and the holiness that God has called them to for the common and profane.  They take innocent life, are engaged in manslaughter and murder, and heap up iniquity upon themselves and all the people of Jerusalem as they lead people in the ways of unrighteousness and pervert justice to make themselves more rich and powerful, even if it means taking advantage of, falsely accusing or killing the poor, the widow, and the orphan.

They believe the judgment of the LORD cannot touch them, but they ill be some of the first to be touched by it.  Jerusalem, the great city, will fall and the princes and prophets that try to hide and take refuge behind its walls will find nowhere to hide when the day of judgement comes upon them.

Micah 2
English Standard Version

Woe to the Oppressors
2 Woe to those who devise wickedness
    and work evil on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
    because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and seize them,
    and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
    a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the LORD:
behold, against this family I am devising disaster,
    from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk haughtily,
    for it will be a time of disaster.
4 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you
    and moan bitterly,
and say, “We are utterly ruined;
    he changes the portion of my people;
how he removes it from me!
    To an apostate he allots our fields.”
5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot
    in the assembly of the LORD.

6 “Do not preach”—thus they preach--
    “one should not preach of such things;
    disgrace will not overtake us.”
7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
    Has the LORD grown impatient?
    Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
    to him who walks uprightly?
8 But lately my people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly
    with no thought of war.
9 The women of my people you drive out
    from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away
    my splendor forever.
10 Arise and go,
    for this is no place to rest,
because of uncleanness that destroys
    with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,
    saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”
    he would be the preacher for this people!
12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
    I will gather the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together
    like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture,
    a noisy multitude of men.
13 He who opens the breach goes up before them;
    they break through and pass the gate,
    going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
    the LORD at their head.

The Jewish people may have heard Micha's message and thought it was meant for the Gentiles, but it's going to become clear that the LORD is talking to them.  He starts to enumerate their sins (verse 2 reminds me of the sin of Ahab that led to his downfall).  The LORD condemns those who devise wickedness against the innocent, but then He says that He is devising disaster against them because they are wicked.  In the day of judgment they will look for someone to blame, but there will be no one to blame but themselves.

They have tried to silence the LORD's prophets and substitute His message with their own.  They have told the people not to listen to the Word of the LORD.  Though they hear the Word clearly, their hearts are hard and will not receive it.  The LORD sees this as the enemy within and He needs to bring severe judgment for the sake of those who can still be saved.

The people will listen to a man who is drunken babbler, but they will not listen to the LORD's prophets.  The LORD will one day gather all those who are called His sheep together and He will know those who belong to Him because they will hear His voice and will obey Him and follow Him.  He will separate the sheep from the goats and all those who claim to be something they are not will be exposed for what they are.  The LORD will once again be their King and the Shepherd of His people in the coming Kingdom.

Micah 1
English Standard Version

1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Destruction
2 Hear, you peoples, all of you;
    pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and let the LORD God be a witness against you,
    the LORD from his holy temple.
3 For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place,
    and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
4 And the mountains will melt under him,
    and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
    like waters poured down a steep place.
5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob
    and for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
    Is it not Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
    Is it not Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
    a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones into the valley
    and uncover her foundations.
7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
    all her wages shall be burned with fire,
    and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
    and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

8 For this I will lament and wail;
    I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
    and mourning like the ostriches.
9 For her wound is incurable,
    and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
    to Jerusalem.

10 Tell it not in Gath;
    weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
    roll yourselves in the dust.
11 Pass on your way,
    inhabitants of Shaphir,
    in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
    do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
    shall take away from you its standing place.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
    wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down from the LORD
    to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the steeds to the chariots,
    inhabitants of Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
    to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
    the transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts
    to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
    to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring a conqueror to you,
    inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
    shall come to Adullam.
16 Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
    for the children of your delight;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
    for they shall go from you into exile.

The book of Micah is going to be different in that it is not written to just one people, but to all the nations of the world.  The prophet warns all the peoples of the world that the LORD is coming in judgment and that when that day comes He will come forth from His Holy Temple in Jerusalem to make the high places low and the make the low places high (all men in all places will be equal under His system of justice).  Judgment will start with the LORD's people for their idolatry and rebellion.  Samaria, the capital city of Israel was full of wickedness and Jerusalem, though it was the City of the Great King was just as bad, maybe even worse.  The LORD is telling all the nations what He is going to do to Samaria and Jerusalem so they will understand that it is for the sake of His name and for the good of His people that He judges them.

This does not stop Micah from grieving the destruction that is going to come over his people--the people of Jerusalem.  He does not want them to be destroyed and to have to go into exile.  The LORD knows that the enemies of the Jews (like the Philistines) will gloat, but their day of judgment is also coming.  Micah then names several places and plays on their names to tell people of those cities how they should react and prepare for the coming Day of the LORD.  Make use of the free Bible resources under the Links and Resources section if you want to have a fuller understanding of what the place names mean and how that ties in with the message that the LORD is giving to Micah to share with all people about what He is about to do to His people.

​In short, all the people that would think about rejoicing in the punishment of Israel and Judah should humble themselves because the LORD is about to bring judgment on all of them as well, and He has no intentions of preserving a remnant of these evil peoples like He does for His covenant people.  These people will be taken into exile and will never return, but His people will return and be restored.  These Gentile nations should start preparing themselves for their time of mourning by stripping themselves naked, rolling around in the dust, cutting off all their hair and giving their riches away to other while they still can.  Judgment is coming swiftly on them--perhaps there is a chance that the LORD will spare some of them if they repent.