What does the future look like? Who’s got the magic eight ball? What should the future look like? We can answer both questions with these verses because this verse is a prophecy of the future, of today. And not just of today, but until the second coming of Christ. So let us look carefully at this prophecy to see what the future will look like.
And then realize what the future should look like also means how we should look towards it and act towards it. This prophecy, in other words, becomes a moral imperative for us. You see that? Not merely a description, but we’re part of it.
We should be like these nations and these people who say, come let us go to the house of the Lord. Let us learn from Him. Let us be judged by Him.
It should be our desire. The Gentiles are the nations coming to worship the Lord, verse 2. And part of 1, you know, these verses are helpful. That is a number of designations to find things quickly.
Gentiles Coming to Worship the LORD
But I sure wish they would rearrange where those numbers went. This splits these two verses that go together. And people shall flow to it and many nations shall come and say.
Many nations shall come. That is, the New Testament era is painted as a golden age. And I stopped short of the description of the golden age in particular where it says, they shall beat their swords into plowshares.
You’ve heard that one before, right? In Isaiah. It’s almost word for word the same. They are overlapping prophets, as you recall.
Every nation, tribe, tongue shall be God’s people. Mass conversion. That’s what this is a picture of.
Micah is speaking to Israel, the Old Testament church here, and the entire book. Judgment through three cycles, two chapters at a time roughly. At the end of each cycle he ends with good news of the glories of what God shall do.
Even though he’s going to bring judgment through the Assyrian Empire upon Jerusalem, upon both the northern and the southern tribes. Because of their idolatry, but especially because of their economic and social sins. That’s the emphasis, if you recall, the details I’ve gone through, and I’m going to cover more of that in the evenings and maybe again in the mornings.
And here he stops and says, you know, look, you may be worried about God destroying the temple, bringing judgment upon his special people, and you guys think you’re above reproach and judgment from God. It’s going to come. And yet even beyond that, we’re going to see this wonderful time when the mountain of the Lord, that’s a picture of his rule.
A mountain over all other mountains. There in Daniel, as you may recall, the rock that comes and covers the whole earth as a mountain. And the house of the Lord, which tends to focus on the worship of God.
The temple. It’s both. Rule and worship.
That’s the calling of the Christian life. That’s the image we have here. An encouragement to those who truly repented in listening to the call of repentance from Micah because that’s what he’s doing.
When you bring judgment, you’re also calling for repentance. This should be an encouragement to his audience and encouragement to us on the flip side. Just as much as they look forward to Christ, that is the promised seed, and believes in that promised seed to come for their justification by faith, like Father Abraham, Genesis 15.
We look back upon Christ. And so here they look forward to the golden age, and we look back upon it, and we are in the golden age. This is a golden age.
It’s absolutely incredible to see the nations of the world, the Jews, hearing this. The Assyrians, they’re the goyim, you’ve heard that phrase before, or nations. Peoples is another word.
Egyptians, Babylonians. I don’t know if they knew about the Romans yet. They’re just a small little blip there, they haven’t expanded yet.
The Greeks, they’re starting to grow soon after this. These people who ignore, are ignorant of, or despise the Jewish, the Old Testament church, they’re all going to come in mass and be with the Jews and worship God. This is astounding to the audience back then, as much as it was to Peter when he was told in Acts 10, right, oh, you can come talk to this Gentile Cornelius, it’s okay, he’s not dirty.
He’s like, what? We’ve had a thousand years of saying, these nations are dirty and you’re telling me they’re not dirty? Something’s going on here. And this is right here, this is before Peter’s time. Peter, I would submit, knew these prophecies, probably better than we do.
He didn’t quite make the connection though, does he? We can see it with hindsight. Oh, the nations are coming. That means the Jewish nation is gone.
Not that they’re all going to become Jews. That’s what Peter was thinking in the New Testament era. That’s the struggle in Acts, right? What do we do with these non-Jewish converts? They’re converts, and Jewishness is no longer distinct.
And that’s right here. Chapter 4. Prophecy fulfilled right before our very eyes. We are the nations coming.
Of course, not every individual from every nation. Not every nation as a whole, necessarily. But this paints in broad strokes the glories relative to the time in which the gospel was hemmed in just to Israel.
That’s it. I mean, how much did they want to go to Nineveh and preach conversion to Nineveh? They had to be swallowed by a whale to do that. That’s how ingrown, and God designed it that way more or less until he said you need to go out on these special occasions.
It wasn’t ordinarily the case that Jews would go out and try to convert people. And they weren’t really called to do that. They were called to be a light to the world, a little more passive that way.
And God changed all that, and he prophesied that here in these verses. From 1800 B.C. to 700 B.C., Abraham to Micah’s time, most conversions to Judaism were through births. You were born a Jew.
You’re born into the household of faith. That’s all you do. And that’s good and proper.
It’s how we do all kinds of things in life. You’re born an American. You’re born in your family a Matthews.
You’re born a Lilly. You don’t think anything about it. And they don’t think anything about it.
And they grew up Jews. Of course, they’re supposed to actually believe it and not just act like they believed it. Gentile conversions were apparently rare.
They were there. We know of them in the Old Testament. But they were rare.
So this imagery is a shock to Micah, I would submit, and certainly to his audience. The house of God, as I said, this is the temple of the Lord, the place of Old Testament public worship and instruction. They’re coming to Israel to pay homage to the king.
That’s what you’re doing in worship. It’s not just kind of this, we kind of get together and I guess we need to hear something and sing some songs and kumbaya or something. No, it’s a formal gathering of God’s people because he calls them to gather together publicly as a witness to the world and to an encouragement for each other in a secondary sense.
A proclamation of submission to the Lord. For these nations, for back then, every nation had a god and every subsection of a nation or the tribes had their own gods. And when you have a battle, whoever wins, that’s the stronger god.
And they would brag about it. The Assyrian king bragged about it. He said, my god’s better than your god.
We’re going to win. Have you seen what we’ve done and all the enemies around us? You’re next, Israel. And so for them to say, let us go to the mountain of the Lord instead of the mountains of the Assyrians or the mountain of the Babylonians, that is the rule and the empire, we’re going to go to Jerusalem.
We’re going to go to Israel and submit. They’re saying these nations are giving up their gods to worship the Lord, the covenant-keeping God, the Jewish God. The mountain of the Lord, as I said, is the rule and the kingdom of God.
The imagery of Daniel’s giant rock that becomes a mountain in chapter 2 that fills the whole earth, it says. Fills the whole earth. Daniel’s probably like, what in the world? I guess Israel’s going to conquer the world? And that’s what they’re thinking, because that’s all they know.
God’s people are Jews, or Jewish converts following the Jewish way. The nations coming to Israel, to the mountain of the Lord, his rule and his kingdom is a picture of nations that is all kinds of people submitting to God’s rule. And God’s ruler who is Jesus the Christ.
Jesus the anointed one. Yeshua, God’s salvation, who is especially anointed to rule over his people. And that’s happening this very day.
We have converts. We have you. We have the children.
When he says nations, their thought as a Jew, and as we see in Acts where it talks about family conversions, that makes sense. Of course, again, they’re thinking they’re going to become Jews. Well, they got that part wrong.
But again, God doesn’t destroy nature. He rather reinforces it. And nature is, we have family, family units.
That’s how it is. You’re born into a family. You follow your family ways.
And that’s good and proper. And society should reflect that. Whether Christian society or not.
We’d rather they be Christian, of course. And so in this case they hear nations. They’re thinking, a whole bunch of people with their kids and their servants and everything else.
And we see that in Acts, being fulfilled in Acts and in today. At least among us, I would argue, of course, that believe in infant baptism. Why are you here today, brothers and sisters? Why are you not home watching TV, going to a movie, or working on your house in your yard? Why? I believe with charity because you are fulfilling this verse.
She says, come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord. And not just that in the broadest sense of, I’m converted. I’m in the church.
I’m a Christian. So wherever I am in life, that’s where the kingdom of God is. That’s certainly true.
Because wherever you are, you’re His servant. He’s your king. That’s a kingdom.
But in particular they say, come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord. He will teach us His ways. One reason why you’re here, I hope, is because you want to learn His ways.
Gentiles Coming to Learn from the LORD
Just like it says here, fulfillment of prophecy. Followers of Christ, we read often the translation disciples there, right? In the Gospels. That could easily be translated pupil.
Rabbi is a teacher. Master and a teacher. This is the school of Christ.
For three years they were listening to Christ, weren’t they? They were in the school of Christ. And Christ set up officers to do what? The office of what? Office of motivator? No, although that may happen. The office of a coach? To coach you through life? No, although there may be certainly advice and help.
It’s the office of teacher, of pastor, of preacher. You’re a pupil in the school of Christ, which is one of Calvin’s favorite metaphors. The church is the school of Christ.
And we should revive that idea again. The part of what the church is, is here that we may be taught, that is to learn His ways. Because the law shall go forth in the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, that is from the house of God, to instruct the nations.
Well, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? That’s right, the Great Commission. Christ is fulfilling this prophecy. He will teach us His ways.
Why? Because out of Zion, the latter part of verse 2, the law shall go forth in the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. We are the heavenly city of Jerusalem. We are the new Israel.
The word is coming from us. The word of the law, but more particularly of the gospel. And Christ gave us that commission there.
He gave it to the church. To go what? To the nations, the ethnos. That’s the Greek equivalent to going.
Discipling the nations. Preaching to them and baptizing them. And it’s interesting, as a side note, again it’s the word ethnos, language, nations, it’s groups, beginning again with the family unit.
It’s not preaching to individuals and discipling individuals and single people and things like that, although you certainly do that. It’s instruction and teaching. Why do we desire to learn from Christ? Because the nations of the earth cry out and say, He will teach us and we shall walk in His path.
This is a sign, in other words, of a heart wanting to grow in holiness. To come to God and to learn from Him, from His word, which is given to the church. That’s the Bible.
This is a picture of the future. And so we ask ourselves, am I a reflection of this picture of the future? There’s an applied moral imperative here, that we ought to desire to be with God’s people, to be of the church. And it’s particular to hear His word, to be instructed by His word.
Christ calls you to holiness. He even says, if you love Me, you will keep My commandments. How can you keep His commandments and therefore show that you love Christ if you are ignorant of His word? You must learn His word.
You have to learn it. It just necessarily follows. And it says it explicitly here, the nations of the world, and that’s you, want to learn more about God, and more about salvation, and more of the path of holiness.
Did not Peter wish his audience, did not Peter wish you to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior? He didn’t say, grow in grace. There you go. It’s just going to happen spontaneously.
And knowledge, and intelligent understanding, and growth, and interaction with the truth. Not that you have to have Bible studies every night, or read a book of the Bible every day, and be super holy or something. But you do want to learn.
As you are able, in your situation, you’re calling your vocation. Set aside some time. Remind yourself, you’re doing this in fulfillment of prophecy.
Maybe that excites you. I don’t know. Maybe it’s my dispensational background.
We’re always talking about the end times. We’re in the end times. This is us.
Learning a church certainly should not be intellectual only. He doesn’t say that He will teach us His ways, and we’ll be like, oh, that’s kind of interesting. God, thanks.
And you walk off on your own. But rather, He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His path. Why is God teaching you things? So you can sit there like a bump on a log? No, that you may go out and show the world the love for the saints and holiness, because you want to show your love to Christ.
If you love me, keep my commandments. Instruction in God’s law is not just a pastime. It’s interesting to note, I believe, the godly of the Jews understood this and paid attention to their own history.
We read in 2 Kings 12.2 of the importance of instruction of the Word of God. In this case, not just for individuals, not just for families, but for entire nations. 2 Kings 12.2, Jehoiash did what was right in the sight of the Lord, that is, the king, all the days in which Jehoiada, the priest, instructed him.
Instructed him in what? The latest fad in Marxist theology? The Torah, right? The law of God. And as he was listening to the church, the priest represents the church, the formal office of teaching in the Old Testament. Of course, intelligently, not slavishly.
To that extent, he was blessed, and it was good. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and we know it was a blessing upon the nations, upon Israel in particular, when he, the kings, were doing the right thing, and destroying wicked idolatry, and upholding the law of God in righteousness and justice. Now, you can’t have a Bible teacher in your home.
There’s only so many Bible pastors to go around. Certainly, how much more wickedness we would see in America that would dissolve and disappear if our leaders at least attended churches that preached the whole counsel of God, even if they can’t get their own pastor. The Bible teaches us how to live in God’s kingdom, in the family, in the church, and in the state.
Maybe not as much detail as we’d like. We’d like to know where should I live, or what job should I have. The Bible doesn’t give that kind of detail to be sure, which means you have freedom.
God’s like, you’re an adult. Gave you some principles here. Apply them.
Don’t get jobs that, I don’t know, make you sin. Avoid those. But the Bible, nevertheless, gives us a path to walk, to walk in His path, the path of holiness and righteousness by His grace and spirits.
Praise be to God. And we have, in particular, in the New Testament era today, churches therefore must teach the gospel. Because it doesn’t say merely and only the law.
He will teach us His ways. We shall walk in His path, for out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word from the Lord. The law is more particular, the word is more broad.
The word of the Old Testament is whatever God gave them, and the Pentateuch, and the prophets, and what else did God give them besides law? The gospel! The good news! The Messiah has come to wipe away their sins. What we have in the New Testament era, this golden age, that they didn’t have then, is a clearer revelation. For Christ has come, in the flesh.
And there are witnesses of that. And they wrote down the New Testament for us. And so we are given more measure of the Spirit, more sanctification, because we have more revelation.
They go together. And yes, churches must preach the gospel. Churches must be known for the good news of Jesus Christ for those who repent and believe.
And trust in Him, instead of their own perfection. But they must also preach the law. There’s no accident.
It says here, law, Torah. The law. We want to hear His law, and it shall go forth from Zion.
That is the city of God, which is what? The New Testament. But the church, in particular. This prophecy, to mean anything at all, must mean that God’s law, His ten commandments, must be taught in the churches.
And the churches who do not do this are in violation of His word, as commanded in the New Testament, and here, in violation of prophecy, which is a moral imperative, because this is good things that are supposed to happen in the New Testament era. And they’re saying, eh, we don’t really want too much law here. That’s not good.
And churches that do not teach the law or water it down are not fulfilling prophecy, therefore, and they are disobedient on this point. May we pray that we don’t fall into such a trap. In verse 3 we read, in particular, He shall judge between many peoples and rebuke strong nations afar off.
Gentiles Coming to Submit to the LORD
Here we read about the Gentiles coming to submit to the Lord. They come to worship the Lord. That’s the picture of going to the house of the Lord, the temple, the Old Testament.
They come to hear the law of God. And in general, to submit. All those are expressions of submission.
Judging the people here, we read, He shall judge between many nations, many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off. That word judge, I don’t often like, I don’t like to go into word differences. I don’t want to confuse you all, but in English, we hear judge, and what do we hear? We hear a judge.
We hear the third branch of government, right? The judicial branch. And we have this judge who sits up here, very impartial. He doesn’t really know much about you in personal.
He’s not there to instruct you or anything, but just to make sure everything’s done properly in good order, and we find the truth of the matter, right? He’s not the executive branch. He doesn’t make law, execute law, excuse me. He’s not the legislative branch.
He doesn’t make law. But in the Bible, that is the Old Testament time, they didn’t think that way. This word is very broad.
Elders can judge. They can judge by instruction. It’s justice or rule or even governance can be the proper translation of it.
If you think about it, even in English, when you hear governance, you can say, well, part of governance is you’ve got to make a judgment call, right? You’re not just a judge formally speaking, but a father, a mother, a police officer even makes judgment calls. So it’s not just formal distinction of the three branches that we have today, and it’s important that we don’t reduce it to that way of thinking. So a leader, like I said, an elder of old, or a priest actually, if you recall, the priest not only taught, the priest were also involved in judgment, weren’t they? You go to the high priest, if it becomes bad enough, and he’ll make a final decision on a case before you.
So judging is both formal, legal issue, and everyday disputes, and to everything in between, like the administration of the government of Old Testament Israel. That’s the idea of the word there. So it’s not as though it’s Christ that is he, Christ shall judge between many peoples, and he’ll rule over them.
Not, you’re wrong, you’re right, you’re wrong. It’s his rule, it’s his control, it’s his direction and the like, which includes, you’re right, you’re wrong. So the nations of the world are willing to come to Israel to learn the Lord’s law and to submit to that rule, to those judgments of God himself, and to submit to that, to his judging between many people.
This is not condemning the nations, but ruling over them, which may include fatherly judgment, right? It’s a picture of the father for the nations, coming and submitting to him willingly. Our God is no longer our judge, he’s our father, but that doesn’t stop him from judging us. Don’t get confused in that word there.
We’re justified, but in our sanctification we’re still disciplined, like we discipline our children. We are adopted in the household of God, and God has adopted all these nations. Rebuke is involved, that’s the second word there, and he shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations from afar off.
The idea there of rebuke is again related often to a proper relationship, like a father-son, or in the case of Leviticus 19, neighbors. Fellow Jewish, right, Old Testament Christians, rebuking one another. There’s no sense of, I’m the judge, and I’m going to preside over this issue of this case between, no, it’s a brotherly rebuke.
And here we have Jesus Christ rebuking us out of love, that we may grow thereby. His law rebukes us, and the nations, the peoples that submit to God’s rule, submit to Christ’s rebuke, because Christ uses the law for our growth. Rebuke through the word, rebuke through the church, it’s hard, but if you sin, you must submit to rebuke, even from one another.
Galatians 6 tells us that. Not only carry our burdens, but to bring admonition to one another if needed. That’s Christ exercising his rule through the church, not just formally through the preaching of the word, or you reading it throughout the week in your home devotions, but you opening your mouth in the context of speaking the truth of God’s word to one another.
You’re rebuking, in essence, in the name of Christ. And so we see then, this picture of the nations giving up their mountains, their kingdoms, to come to the kingdom of the Lord, and giving up their laws, because every God had their laws, right? To follow the God of the Old Testament, the covenant keeping God and His law, and His covenants. They want to hear His law walk in that path of covenant righteousness, and to submit to that.
Those are expressions of submission, to such an extent that they’re willing to be rebuked and corrected. That’s amazing. And that’s what you are, brothers and sisters, if you’re submitting to Christ.
Do you submit to Christ? We have seen the prophecy paint the picture of one of learning, and growing, and submission, of worshiping, listening to His law, His rule. And if we are in that age of prophecy, does that not mean we ought to do what was prophesied? Unless, of course, wickedness is prophesied, and it’s not. These are all righteous and good things.
In this case, do we submit to Christ’s rule, to His worship, to His law, to His rebukes? And I pray all of us today will indeed submit to Him and His ways. Let’s pray. This amazing prophecy God above may be an encouragement to us as we fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Lord, as we are even mocked at times as Christians who love God’s law, may this encourage us, Lord, to continue to do such, that we want to be taught Your ways, to listen to the law that shall go forth from Zion, and to submit to Your rule, governance, and rebuke over us, God. These are signs and evidences of Your love for us, and our submission to You, God. May we continue to do such.
Amen.