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Micah, the Prophet of Unchanging Love, part 13

God’s indictments against Israel were completed in Micah 7:6. Micah 7:7 then gives a response from the prophet himself:

⁷ But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

This introduces a shift in the narrative, where the prophet is optimistic in the final outcome of this dispute in the divine court. Of necessity, the prophet is seeing into the distant future after a long time of tribulation during which time Israel suffered judgment (exile) for their sin. Micah gives no hint as to how long this tribulation might last, but he skips over this time and lands in our time.

Death and Resurrection

Micah then becomes the spokesman for Israel, saying in Micah 7:8,

⁸ Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise; though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.

Dr. Bullinger’s notes translate this: “lit., I have fallen; I have arisen.” Speaking from the timeless perspective of heaven where the word of God brings things into existence, Israel had already fallen, but it had already arisen as well. Both were realities, both were inevitable.

So Israel was sure to fall into calamity, but not permanently. It was very much a death-and-resurrection experience. As with Jesus, Israel was to rise in the third day, as we read in Hosea 6:2,

² He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day.

Jesus Himself rose from the dead on the third literal day. But Israel’s resurrection was to occur on the third day, where a day is as a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8). In this case it is between two and three thousand years. The 21^st century is about 2,700 from the fall of Samaria and 2,600 years from the fall of Jerusalem.

Divine judgments are always proportional to the crime (sin). They are not unending. The judgment was a cycle of “seven times” (Leviticus 26:18), which turned out to be 7 x 360 years, modified in certain ways according to circumstances that I have explained elsewhere.

Overcoming Death

Hence, “my enemy” should not rejoice over me when I have fallen into calamity. Resurrection stops such rejoicing, and resurrection is assured, because judgment is temporary. On a prophetic level, this is Israel’s statement. Applying this to our own personal level, we can say with Paul in Romans 8:28,

²⁸ And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Paul then tells us in Romans 8:36, 37,

³⁶ Just as it is written [in Psalm 44:22], “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

The Holy Spirit purifies the believers on a personal level, but this is not the same level of judgment that is seen upon the nation itself. Even so, believers are part of the nation being judged, and so they too are like sheep being slaughtered. It is ironic that the nation that has fallen into calamity remains in such darkness that they slaughter those who bear the light of Christ in their midst. Nonetheless, to such believers (martyrs), all things work together for good.

Israel Acknowledges Sin

Micah 7:9 continues with the prophet speaking for Israel,

⁹ I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, and I will see His righteousness.

Here Israel acknowledges that “I have sinned against Him,” and waits for the Messiah to come and plead his case at the cross. Those who believe in Him will come into the light and “see his righteousness.” His righteousness is seen in the fact that He has kept His promise. The rest of the nation, which remains in a state of unbelief, remains in the darkness of the grave until the time of the end, for they must serve out their full sentence for sin.

Micah 7:10 continues,

¹⁰ Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will look on her; at that time, she will be trampled down like mire of the streets.

For Israel, the enemy is Assyria, an unbelieving nation who binds her captives with chains of death and mocks the believers among them for having hope in God for resurrection. Yet the prophet, speaking first for the believers but secondarily for the nation as a whole, professes faith in the promise of deliverance.

The prophet speaks generally and does not tell us the order of deliverance. For that we must see the New Testament writings, where we are told that the overcomers will be delivered in the first resurrection (Revelation 20:6), followed by the rest of the believers a thousand years later (Revelation 20:12; John 5:28, 29). The rest of creation will have to wait until the Creation Jubilee, when all things are restored from “the last enemy,” which is death itself (1 Corinthians 15:26-28).

The Walls

Micah 7:11 says,

¹¹ It will be a day for building your walls. On that day will your boundary be extended.

Walls are for protection and define a city’s boundaries. Walls also symbolize moral boundaries, that is, laws that define righteousness. So we read in Lamentations 2:8, 9 that “The Lord determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion… the law is no more.”

The rebuilding of this wall is much greater than some have imagined who think this refers to the wall of the earthly Jerusalem in the latter days. It is the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem, the capital of God’s Kingdom, pictured in Revelation 21:10, 11, 12. At this point in Kingdom history, a wall is yet necessary to keep out unbelievers who would try to enter the city without going through one of the gates, which are guarded by the apostles. The walls are there to channel people through the gates, because they must have the righteousness of faith to enter the city.

Micah also tells us that the boundary (wall) will “be extended.” Revelation 21:15-17 gives the measurement as 12,000 furlongs, which, in natural terms, is about 1,500 miles. We need not take this literally, of course, as the entire passage in Revelation 21 is symbolic and applies to the heavenly Jerusalem—a spiritual city. The 12,000 furlongs speaks of perfect government administering righteousness by the perfect law (Psalm 19:7).

Micah 7:12 says,

¹² It will be a day when they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, from Egypt even to the Euphrates, even from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.

Here we see how Micah draws from Isaiah 19, the oracle to Egypt. Isaiah 19:23-25 says,

²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. ²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵ whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

Micah says, “they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt.” Isaiah enlarges upon this, saying “the Egyptians will worship [God] with the Assyrians.” They, along with Israel, will be “a blessing in the midst of the earth.” Egypt will be called “My people,” a term reserved for those who have faith in Christ. Assyria will no longer be the enemy, nor will it be known for bringing Israel into exile, darkness, and death, but will rather be called “the work of My hands.”

All will be united by their faith in Christ. They will all have equal access to the throne of God without any “dividing wall” to separate them (Ephesians 2:14). The wall in Herod’s temple, which divided Jewish men from women and gentiles, was never commanded in the law, nor did it exist in Solomon’s temple, and so Christ abolished it, as Paul tells us.

Destroying the Earthy

Micah 7:13 concludes,

¹³ And the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants, on account of the fruit of their deeds.

At first glance, this verse appears to be out of place. If Egypt and Assyria worship God at the altar of the heavenly Jerusalem, how can the earth become desolate? This speaks of earthly things as opposed to heavenly things. The earthly Jerusalem, for example, will be destroyed and indeed “become desolate” in that day, as described in Isaiah 29:1-6 and Jeremiah 19:10, 11.

In a time of resurrection, that which is mortal and corruptible is changed into immortal and incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:53). The natural body is sown in the earth, but it is raised a spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15:48, 49 says,

⁴⁸ As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the earthy [i.e., Adam, “earthy”], we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

There is a great outpouring of the Spirit coming, in which many people will come to know the truth and to have faith in Christ. As this happens, the earth, with its earthly image, will become desolate on account of its evil fruit. Though Egypt and Assyria are mentioned specifically as becoming part of God’s Kingdom, these are a mere cross-section of humanity as a whole.

This is the revelation in Isaiah 6:3, “the whole earth is full of His glory.” It is the promise of God in regard to the destiny of the whole earth, and this is the manifestation of God's unchanging love.