Audio Download

The Book of Micah – Part 5, Micah 5:1-15

[Study Aired March 23, 2024]

When we reflect upon what the prophets of old are inspired to write, they all have the profound underlying theme of our God powerfully establishing His physical righteousness first in the nation of Israel. From her torrid experiences, the prophets have a hazy yet profound understanding that the world will be saved by some other source than Israel and their own works. However, like Solomon, they see dimly that a spiritual reality must emerge since keeping the Commandments by one’s own strength has proven endlessly by Israel to be utterly useless. Micah is dedicated faithfully to the same understanding that some element which the holy spirit keeps hidden is “black” to their discernment and is yet to be revealed. In the meantime, Micah and the entire Old Testament of continuing dead works, herald the coming of the holy spirit that will bring all understanding to truth.

Joh 1:29  The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Joh 1:30  This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.
Joh 1:31  And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptising with water.
Joh 1:32  And John bare record, saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
Joh 1:33  And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptise with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 
Joh 1:34  And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. 

Joh 14:26  But the Comforter, the holy spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you.

1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them [First with his Bride who is the only woman since Adam and this age who does love Him] that love him.
1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us [His Bride] by his spirit: for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 
1Co 2:11  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. 

1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow [that is to follow Micah and all the prophets of old].
1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels [Christ’s Elect] desire to look into.

The Ruler to Be Born in Bethlehem

Mic 5:1  Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
Mic 5:2  But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah [ef-rawth], though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

The daughter of troops symbolises the many harlot churches of Babylon that relentlessly lay siege against Christ’s commandments. Indeed, they did smite Christ, the judge of Israel, upon sending him to the cross.

Joh 18:22  And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? 
Joh 18:23  Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?

Bethlehem and Ephrathah (ef-rawth) are one and the same, as are Leah and Rachel, Jacob’s wives. Leah bore the many troops of Israel with her ten sons, while Rachel figuratively birthed Bethlehem, which represents Christ. Bethlehem, Christ’s ‘little flock’, is diminutive, scattered and mostly unknown to each other among the thousands of “troops” of Israel exiled into Babylon.

Ephratah’s (ef-rawth) Definition: Ephrath or Ephratah = ash-heap: place of fruitfulness n pr loc 1. a place near Bethel where Rachel died and was buried. 2. another name for Bethlehem.

Even though Ephrath is to be an enduring ‘ash heap’ ground to powder, Agar of Mt Sinai is incredibly materially fruitful, particularly in her distortions of Christ’s word and subsequent worship of ‘another Jesus’ (2Co 11:4). Yet, out of her travail, first comes Christ, the ruler, “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” and, close on His bruised heels, His Bride and co-ruler, represented as Rachel being spiritually fruitful!

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. [Babylonian Christianity, the “moon”, remains in bondage in Babylon, oblivious to being in subjection under the feet of her younger sister – Rev 12:1]
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren [symbolised as Rachel]  that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate [Rachel] hath many more children than she [The Great Whore] which hath an husband [… another Jesus. 2Co 11:4, Rev 18:7].

Following Israel being ‘given up’ for hundreds, even two thousand years in her coming exile into Babylon, a prophesied ‘remnant’ (“everlasting” Micah 5:2) will return in Zerubbabel’s name to rebuild the broken city of Jerusalem which parallels spiritually Christ’s building of His new Heavenly Jerusalem above.

Mic 4:2  And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

However, in the meantime, Micah goes on to say:

Mic 5:3  Therefore will he give them up, until the time [appointed] that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.
Mic 5:4  And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

Zerubbabel represents Christ who comes to build His new heavenly Jerusalem, to feed His remnant little flock in training as His Bride who will come first in the One-Thousand Year reign with the rod of iron to prove to her ‘children’ yet again, as old Israel endlessly proved impossible to keep Christ’s commands without the holy spirit. Her children, risen in the Resurrection to Judgment and numbered as the sand of the sea, will be chastised and fed God’s word on the Eighth Day, the Lake of Fire.

Lev 23:23  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 23:24  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month [eighth day], shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
Lev 23:25  Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD [Lev 9:1-24].

Rev 17:11  And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast [the Eighth Day, the Lake of Fire], Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

Mic 5:5  And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

Micah and all the so-called ‘minor prophets’ are not ministering to themselves, but to us today since the cross to the Bride Christ, forewarning her of her inward destruction spiritually yet with an astonishing glorious ending first for her and following the rest of the world )1Pe 1:10-12).

The ‘man of peace’ is easily seen as the coming of Christ to rout the Assyrian out of the lying wealth of our own doings and raise seven angels to first rule our heavens. The word of God is hidden in the dichotic meaning of peace when, in fact, there is coming war, yet the Elect of God are well-versed in the reality of the joy that trials (Jas 1:1-18) bring since they make their spiritual character strong.

Rev 1:19  Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; 
Rev 1:20  The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. 

Rev 8:2  And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.

The seven trumpets are the Elect of God in training, first blowing a warning of the seven plagues of the same seven vials within themselves and then collectively in the seven churches that are one Church, the Lord’s Bride in the Resurrection to Judgment.

Rev 16:1  And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
Rev 16:2  And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

In the next verse (Mic 5:6) the land of Assyria and Nimrod are figuratively the same as Babylon, that ‘the man of peace’ (Micah 5:5), Christ from Bethlehem, will first destroy us in the winepress of His wrath upon our inward borders before bringing us into His glory.

Mic 5:6  And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod [rebellion] in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

As we know, Assyria, Egypt, Sodom and old Jerusalem all represent Babylon.

Jer 23:14  I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
Jer 23:15  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood [bitterness], and make them drink the water of gall [venom, bitter, poisonous]: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.

The Lord in scripture is consistent in bringing His beloved chastisement before glory. Christ, the one seed, spiritually conceives in His little remnant-Bride the beginnings of a mighty harvest. One seed of wheat with today’s genetic breeding brings forth a highly varied number of kernels. In my day as a wheat farmer, depending on the soil moisture and soil fertility, one head of wheat would produce a nominal average of thirty-three seeds (Today’s genetics raises that figure to 50).

A Remnant Shall Be Delivered

The remaining verses of Micah 5:7-15 are, in part, a repeat of the exact theme for the salvation of man consistently shown throughout the entire Bible. Man is shown his sin to be acknowledged, and since he is designed to rebel, seven thousand years of chastisement ensues for his torturous learning to obey Christ’s commands. However, there is always a thread of people with God-given righteousness hand-chosen by Christ to present His coming. Since the cross, that ‘remnant’ continues hidden as a materially and academically dishevelled little flock who is given a double portion of His spirit to be unified in Him to bring forth the many children as the sand of the sea in the Resurrection to Judgment.

Mic 5:7  And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

The Bride of Christ is well-versed in knowing that the ‘remnant’ is her represented as “dew”, diminutive like the manna  which looked like hoar-frost fed to the Israelites. The dew of Christ’s word upon one kernel of wheat grows into a flood and mighty harvest of souls for everyone who is made to tarry on the Lord for one of the two resurrections. Just as consistently does Christ’s Bride know that it is she who is first to be beaten and ground to powder like a double portion of chastisement to be made worthy to be glorified in Christ. She is the “remnant” that shows her brothers and sisters the pattern of the heavenly they must endure in the Lake of Fire, the Resurrection to Judgment.

Gen 27:26  And his [Jacob’s] father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.
Gen 27:27  And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment [treachery, deceit], and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed: 
Gen 27:28  Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn [wheat] and wine:
Gen 27:29  Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be Lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.

Mic 5:8  And the remnant of Jacob [Joseph and Benjamin as one] shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. 

Judah, the priestly nation and today, is the reality of the Bride of Christ, likened to a male lion who has the authority to be intently watched and respected as it strolls through the midst of the beasts of the field, and woe upon any he fixes his gaze.

Gen 49:8  Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. 
Gen 49:9  Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 
Gen 49:10  The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [Christ] come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Num 23:24  Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain. 

Rev 5:4  And I [John] wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. 
Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

Christ alone has the right to open ‘the book’, and as He is, so she, his Wife, also has that right, being utterly one in unity of spirit. 

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 

Mic 5:9  Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off. 

Rev 3:9  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews [Christ’s Elect], and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 
Rev 3:10  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

Mic 5:10  And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots [mode of delivering 200,000,000 smothering (covering) lies Rev 9; particularly verse 16]: 
Mic 5:11  And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds [all spiritually within]: 
Mic 5:12  And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers: 
Mic 5:13  Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. 
Mic 5:14  And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities. 
Mic 5:15  And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard. 

Micah 5:7-14 is a mighty orchestral frenzy of chastising instrumentation reaching a crescendo in verse 15, a trumpet-like blast and deathly silence for inward trembling reflection as the Lion of Judah royally strolls among us, His gaze fixed on each of us, and we, initially utterly unable to hold a single-eyed returned ravishing (Son 4:9).

Rev 4:8  And the four beasts [around the throne of God] had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
Rev 4:9  And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, 
Rev 4:10  The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 
Rev 4:11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

However, before the First Resurrection, the Lord’s Bride has a God-designed devastating beauty matching Christ’s glory when he, in Solomon’s words, says,

Son 4:9  Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.