God promises that one day there will be a new leader who will rescue his people and build a new kingdom across the whole world.
Read Micah 2: 12-13 and 4: 1-4
When I read chapter 4: 4 of Micah I was reminded of a song from a musical!
The musical in question is “Hamilton”, and the song is “One last time”, sung by George Washington as he contemplates stepping down as president after everything that has been achieved:
“Like the scripture says:
“Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid.” (Afraid)
They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made (In the nation we’ve made)”
Just as Washington reflects on the infant USA, with all his hopes and dreams for something better than what went before…a land of freedom and security for its people, so Micah suddenly interjects some really hopeful stuff into his narrative of judgement.
By now we have grown accustomed to the normal pattern of the prophecies of the minor prophets…chapters and chapters of judgements. with just a glimmer of hope thrown in at the end (or in the case of Nahum, no hope at all!)
Micah kicks things off in chapter 2 with the image of a new leader who will lead the people from exile into their own land.
But the land is not like the old land, it’s a better place, a place where Jerusalem, the symbol of God’s presence on the earth will become the leading place in all the world.
Because of God’s presence being so clearly seen there, Micah paints a picture of:
- People streaming to see God
- People wanting to live God’s way
- Nations living at peace with each other
Although in the short term the Jews have experience exile, return and rebuilding the nation it’s clear that we’re not there yet! The kind of new nation that Micah envisages is not yet obviously in existence.
In the writings of the prophets up to this time the Messiah has been a shadowy figure, from this point on he takes a more prominent place in the writings of the prophets. The early church saw the life, death and resurrection of Jesus foretold in many of the prophets. After Jesus ascension it very quickly realised that it was metaphorically the “new Jerusalem” which would draw all people to God. As they carried the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth they remembered what Jesus had said in Matthew 5: 14 – “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.”
It wasn’t the Temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem (which was destroyed in 60AD) to which all the nations would be drawn, but to the living church of Jesus wherever it went in the world carrying the Kingdom of God with it, culminating in the scene in Revelation 21: 2 where God’s presence comes down to earth like a holy city, the new Jerusalem.
This is a prophecy about enlarging God’s kingdom…from just the Jews to displaying God’s love for the whole world, just as God had promised to Abraham so many years before…”all the families on earth will be blessed through you”.
What sort of person do I need to be model “the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden”? Am I more like Jesus now than I was when I first followed him?



