Blessing for Israel - exaltation of Zion
Micah 4:1-8 · Roger Henderson · Dec 29, 2024
Micah, No. 10
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261937463392

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, Micah, chapter four. If I'm correct, let's see. Here's this, here's this chart, this chiasm chart. I want to begin with that. And I don't know if I've explained, and it's probably obvious, but the big X looks like an English X. But it's a Chi, right? It's a capital Greek letter Chi. And it's just an illustration to illustrate the Chiasm in the Book of Micah. So if you fold it in the middle, an X will fold in on itself. It's a mirror image of itself, so it's a Chiasm.

So right now, today we're in Chapter 4. starting out with verses 1 through 8, and the topic, according to the guy who built this chiasm, or recognized this chiasm, and put it in a written form, Harameh Merhe, or something, his name is up in the right-hand corner of the chart.

But you see, we're on the Mount of the Lord today, the restoration promised after exile to Israel. And last week with Bob, we heard in chapter three, it was all about the wicked rulers and prophets and God, so the curses coming from God. Today, we look at the blessings coming from God.

So it's a chapter four is a really sharp contrast from Chapter 3. Micah just totally pivots here this morning in Chapter 4 from the subject of wickedness of rulers and prophets in Chapter 3. So I wanted to just get a visual of this. Here's Micah 4, 1 through 3, and compare it to Isaiah Chapter 2, 2 through 4. And if you look across, you'll notice something very obvious. And that is that they are about the exact same thing. So how Micah 4, Chapter 4 starts out is exactly parallel to Isaiah Chapter 2, 2 through 4. And just We don't know if Micah copied that from Isaiah or Isaiah copied it from Micah, you know.

They have a meeting. Yeah, a meeting. And they're contemporaries. Yeah. But there's a third option. Can you think of that third option? God. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit and the inspiration of God. Both of them. Yeah. Yeah, the same Holy Spirit talking to them, they're both prophets, talking to them and giving them the words to write. And the Holy Spirit, God wants this text, this particular text to be exactly the same. Because it's almost like a standard text for this period of blessing. So, he just wants it to be the same, I think. So, that's my thought on it, and your thought, too. I have a comment. Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Bob. I was just going to make another point, maybe, is that, you know, first of all, the Lord is repetitive, is he not, in terms of Scripture? There's a lot of redundancy in it.

But secondly, is it possible the readership or the nation to whom Isaiah was writing was somewhat different than that of Micah, correct? Was Isaiah's history mostly directed to the Northern Kingdom and Micah to Judah or the Southern Kingdom? Or were those audiences, do you think, redundant?

Oh yeah, yeah. Two different, that's a good point, two different audiences. Maybe Isaiah's message only got to the Northern Kingdom and Micah's, at first, during this time, only got to the Judah. Judah and Benjamin. the southern kingdom. So that's a good point. So good.

There are a couple options there. Here's our ongoing chart of where we're at here. And it's just a chart for the benefit of people just listening. It's a chart of the entire history of the Earth from eternity past to eternity future. we had before the cross was the law, and then right now we're in the age of the church age, age of grace, and then the rapture happens, and then the great tribulation, and then the second coming of Christ. And our subject today is the millennial kingdom right here.

And you'll notice that, and Merriman brings this out, that God Back in Israel's time, before the cross, his desire was that Israel would reign as a kingdom, a mediatorial reign, so God reigning through the kingdom of Israel. But that didn't happen because that's the point of all these prophets is they mess that up. And you'll notice here in the future when Christ returns Christ will have a mediatorial reign from the Millennial Kingdom on. So God reigns through mediators, is the point of that. Here's another version of the same thing, and our subject then is the Millennial Kingdom, and the whole period in yellow there from the Rapture to the destruction of the earth and the heavens, present earth and heavens is the day of the Lord, right?

And then Several weeks ago, the question came up, what's the difference with the Day of Christ? The Day of Christ there is on the left. You'll see that the Day of Christ is above where the Bema Seat Judgment is, and it's Christ with us up there is the Day of Christ.

And that's a period of a seven-year period there during the Tribulation of blessing for us. The Day of the Lord is a cursing or a judgment time of history. So two charts there just to get our bearing on where we're at. So this is going to go through. I'm really into looking at the conditions and characteristics of where we're at in the millennial kingdom, the millennial reign of Christ. And this is going to be a list kind of list-orientated lesson this morning to start.

And so the first purpose of the Millennial Kingdom, when Christ returns to set up His Kingdom at the end of the Tribulation, is to fulfill the covenants, specifically the Davidic covenant to Israel that He made in 2 Samuel 8, 8-17, and then also to fulfill the earlier Abrahamic covenant, that there'll be a seed of Abraham on into the future, and a remnant. And then the land covenant, or what's called the Palestinian covenant, and you see the scripture references there. And then also Israel's new covenant is going to be fulfilled in the Millennial Kingdom, thousand-year reign of Christ.

And it's a physical kingdom instead of a spiritual kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom as well, but in the Bible, it's a physical kingdom. And that's disputed today in much of Christianity, isn't it? A lot of Christendom thinks it's just a spiritual reference to a kingdom.

So literal 1,000 years. It's the universal mediatorial reign of Christ himself on earth. And it's the consummation of the day of the Lord. So he begins with a wrath cycle in the tribulation and he ends with a blessing cycle for Israel. Righteousness reigns.

And there's so many scripture references to all this. And this comes out of Merriman's book on the Millennial Kingdom. We can't go through it because it's just replete with scripture references. And I was thinking that the Millennial Kingdom, it has to be the subject that takes up the most ink in the Bible. Because it's in Isaiah, it's here in Micah, it's all over these prophetic books. And it's just a lot of, it's talked about a lot there.

Israel is regenerated as spiritual. There's spiritual regeneration of the Jewish people and the remnant. There's Holy Spirit dynamics given to Israel, which is the Holy Spirit will be in them and be guiding them at that point. Truth reigns in the Millennial Kingdom. Longevity of life returns in the Millennial Kingdom. So on with the list. We've got healing. There's healing. There's optimal agricultural production in the Kingdom. Cities are restored.

There's urbanization and industries. which leads to maximum private property, and that's an important point, and we'll see that today in Micah 4.4. So, people will be secure with their private property. Peace will reign. Joy will reign. And those are all characteristics of Christ. Are they not? Peace and joy.

And since he's at the one reigning, it makes sense. Jerusalem is the seat of authority. here on the earth. Zion or Mount Zion is the mountain epicenter of all this. And I think Bob W. mentioned that last week or the week before about Zion being a seat of authority and our role in the kingdom. You and I We'll be there. We'll be saints. Saints will judge the cosmos and the angels. Paul states that in 1 Corinthians 6, 2, and 3.

And I was thinking, we're going to be in the millennial kingdom. See if you agree with this. We'll be in the millennial kingdom, but we won't be of the millennial kingdom. We'll sort of be, we'll maybe have a, you know, it's going to be our business address. We'll go down there and do work for the Lord Jesus. Yeah. I think we will reign with Christ. You know, right now we're in Christ, and we're going to be raptured to be physically with Christ. And in the millennium, I believe we're going to reign and rule with Him. Yeah, and Paul makes that really clear, doesn't he?

So we'll be doing that, and I don't know if Christ is going to be there all the time or whether he'll go between there and heaven because there's David, the resurrected King David is going to be a prince and he's going to have a, he's also going to be there and be a, he'll be reigning in some capacity as a regent or as a vicar of Christ. So I don't know if...

I think that Christ will be sitting on David's throne, not David. Christ will be on David's throne. Physically. And then some say that, you know, when it talks about David being in the kingdom, that refers to Christ. That's what Ironside said, but Newell said that, no, it's the actual David, he's going to have some role as maybe vice king or something like that.

So I think that's, you know, we'll just have to see. We'll see. Wait and see. So hold that thought until the rapture. And then finally here we have the apostles. They're going to be judging the 12 tribes of Israel in the millennial kingdom. that's their role. They're going to be working as, so that's their job. And we'll have, you'll all have a job, I'm sure, so it'll be wonderful.

But we'll be there, but we just won't, we'll have resurrected bodies so that, we'll have eternal bodies so that healing and things like that won't really affect us because, you know, we've got, we've got these eternal transformed body So, as I said, we're going to start out with lists, and here's Pentecost's list from his book, Things to Come.

Much the same, but, and I don't include any references because they're too, they're too voluminous. So I'm just going to list them. And if you want to see the scripture references, just buy the book. Well, that's not a plug to buy the book, but you know. So we talked about that last week, didn't we, about selling books. So here's this list.

In the kingdom there will be peace, joy, holiness, the full manifestation of the glory of Christ, Comfort, justice, full knowledge, instruction from Christ himself, the removal of the curse, sickness will be removed. And this is because there's physical human beings in the kingdom that are bodies just like today. and they're going to die, the ones that go into the kingdom from the tribulation. So, but they will, sickness will be gone. Healing of the deformed, protection from the Lord Jesus Christ as the protector, freedom from oppression.

There's no immaturity in the kingdom, in the millennial kingdom. So, think of premature births, or things like that, or there's a scripture reference about a, there's going to be an infant won't, you know, be here just a few weeks and then die, is the thought of that.

Restored birth rates. It's there's gonna be you know, it's gonna go above. What are we at now in today's world? Like the birth rate is 1.6 1.7. It'll probably shoot up to 4.0 for a couple Excellent, so labor there'll be full employment and I'll be efficient and There's going to be no idleness. Economic prosperity is going to be a characteristic of the kingdom.

Here's an interesting one. There's going to be an increase in light. And Isaiah 30, 26 says specifically that the sun is going to be seven times brighter than it is here now. So you can look that up. The moon is, well, of course the moon will be brighter. And that's just physics, isn't it? Because if the sun is seven times brighter, the moonlight will be brighter.

So, I don't know how people will get sleep in the kingdom. There you go. So, bring sunscreen, too. of sunscreen. But know that sun will probably not have the damaging effects it does in the world of sin that we have now under the curse, right? That creation. So the sun will be brighter, but you won't get skin cancer. Because you'll have sickness removed.

There's going to be a unified language, unified worship of God and the Messiah. And Pentecost is the same thing as Merriman. The fullness of the Holy Spirit and the divine enabling of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Jews in the kingdom. And also the believers.

And the Millennial Kingdom will go on into perpetuity. It extends into the new heavens and the new earth, doesn't it? So two lists, and it's interesting because we don't often get to study the Millennial Kingdom too much, do we? Because Paul, you know, Paul doesn't reference it too much. Okay, here we are in Micah 4, 1 and 2, and I'll just read it.

And it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills and the peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob. that he may teach us about his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So a first point here is you'll see in first one that there's a universality of the reign of Christ.

Yeah, Andrew? Are you getting some back noise? Yeah, we are. Somebody needs to mute the mic, please. I'm here, Andrew. Yeah, let's see. Could it be? Ruthie, maybe? No, Kathy. I don't know if it's Kathy. It's Pat. Oh is it Pat? Pat Breimer? Yeah okay. Okay. Okay. Thanks Pat. Go ahead. I was enjoying the music though. So it created a nice bed for this lesson this morning.

So you've seen verse 1 that The reign of Christ is universal. It's over the mountains and over all the nations. And the Millennial Temple, that's in Jerusalem. And it's situated on Mount Zion. And Zion is the hill that Jerusalem is built upon. I'm not sure where it is. It might be south of the present-day Temple Mount, a little southeast of that. We see in these verses that the government of Christ will be one of absolute authority and power. You think of that verse, Revelation 19, 15.

He'll be ruling with a rod of iron. Gentiles are also in the Millennial Kingdom and they also get blessing. And you'll see from verse one here in chapter four that people will stream to it because they'll benefit from Christ's personal counsel and his advice. You think of Solomon and how the Queen of Sheba went and traveled long distance just to sit down with Solomon. Well, that would be the same in the Millennial Kingdom with Christ.

At the end of verse 1 it says the peoples will stream to Jerusalem and that word stream is to flow. So people will have this inner desire to go there and and to worship, and to sit under the feet of Christ. And in Ezekiel 47, under the temple, there's going to be these streams of water, and they're going to join together and create a big river, if you read Ezekiel 47. And it's going to be lush, there's going to be trees downriver, and these the vegetation downriver will have healing properties. So there's going to be a downstream from the temple and then people streaming up to sea to Jerusalem, to the throne. It's kind of a neat picture there. a stream both ways. I thought of this verse, show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths, from Psalm 25 verse 4. That's what they're going to be doing.

Zion, or the seat of government, is going to be raised above the hills. In Zechariah chapter 4 verse 14, Christ, when he physically hits the Mount of Olives, it's going to split from east to west, the whole mountain. And it might even be that the geography of Jerusalem is going to be changed due to that. So it could be that Mount Zion will be higher than the other mountains or it could be, it could just be a spiritual reference that, you know, it'll be higher than the rest of the mountains around it. When you see that reference... Hey Andrew? Yeah. Yeah, just a side note about that.

It's often in the Old Testament references A mountain stands for a ruling body, a authority, and hills stand for those that are under that authority quite often. And this is one of those tags, okay, that actually put that out or illustrate it. It's a metaphor. And it's a metaphor, it's all metaphor. So, Roy, you your position that it would be all spiritual. It's a spiritual reference. No, no, this is literal. This is the Lord Jesus himself rules out of Jerusalem. That's his seat of authority. And that seat of authority is over every other nation. The U.S. is a hill.

Germany is a hill, etc., etc. Oh, okay, okay. So, yeah, not the Not that spiritual, I'm not talking about the spiritual reign, so that will be a physical reign of Christ. But you're saying that the mountains and the hills are metaphors, or they have a spiritual meaning only. They have a metaphorical meaning, yes. Uh-huh. Yeah. You got it. Okay. Yeah, go ahead.

I think we should be cautious of spiritualizing too much in the millennium. Yeah, spiritualization is not what we're talking about. It's a word that stands for something that is real. A mountain is a real kingdom, right? So it's a real rulership. Right, right. And then I'm trying to think of the other metaphor. Oh, I'm a horn. When the Bible talks about, especially Revelation, a horn, that's a metaphor for power, isn't it? You have little horns, little power. So yeah, good, good.

I got the mountain part of that, Roy, but I never heard about the hills being raised above the hills and the hills being metaphorical for possibly other nations. That's cool. That's a neat thing. Okay, good. So we have, I brought this out as physical hills and physical mountains around Jerusalem, but I think Roy is correct. It's metaphorical for the metaphorical for the nations and power, seats of authority, that's good. If I have that right, right? Right. Okay.

If you want a verse that actually shows this in the literal sense, Psalm 110.2 says, The Lord shall send the rod of my strength out of Zion. Rule them in the midst of thy enemies. So here's the verse that actually makes that reality. That is in parallel, of course, with this text we're dealing with in Micah. Yeah, okay, great. And you can see how replete the Old Testament is with this millennial kingdom reign. It's really incredible.

So the last point I have here is that you'll know that in verses one and two, peoples will stream to Jerusalem. And it's all nations in the first part of verse two there, many nations will come and say. So the Gentiles are blessed in the kingdom. And specifically, they are the Gentiles that that get into the kingdom by that judgment where Christ, the judgment of the sheeps and goats, he separates the goats on one side, the sheep on his right side. So it's, these are the right-handed ones who go into the kingdom from the Gentiles.

Matthew 24, verse 34. Okay, Micah, verse 3 of Micah 4. And he will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty distant nations. They will then hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war." So we have a judging, Christ will be judging.

It's a perfect judicial system. And he's perfectly impartial. We can see that in Isaiah 11, 2 through 5, the way that he rules perfectly. You know, in today's day and age, we don't have that, do we, in Washington, D.C.? So it'll be nice to have the perfect judicial system in the future.

I put here that the kingdom reign of Christ is the real United Nations. You think that. Many peoples are going to be coming for advice and counsel from distant nations, you see in verse 3. peace is going to reign. So they're going to hammer their swords into plowshares. And isn't that what the United Nations in New York City is trying to do? Isn't that the whole mission? So it's the United Nations here on Earth is trying to do what Micah 4 says. It's a false system. Yeah, go ahead. the logo above the entrance to the United Nations is this verse. Oh, yeah, that's right. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think I heard. Yes. Oh, yeah. Now you remind me. Thanks. Yeah. Isn't that amazing? How mankind tries to do a false Millennial Kingdom here?

We have As you see from the verse, peace is reigning. In Isaiah 11, 6 through 8, there's no end to the increase of his government, nor his peace, nor the peace. Even, oh that's, I'm sorry, that's from Isaiah 9, 6 and 7. But in Isaiah 11, 6 through 8, it talks about peace in the animal kingdom. If you know that, that reference to the, what is it? the lion will lay next to the lamb, and they'll all get along. So, peace will reign. Andrew?

Yeah, go ahead. You know, I'm just thinking of this. Jesus' reign will be a dictatorship, which will not be a democracy. Right. But his dictatorship is perfectly righteous. Yeah, and benevolent, right? Yeah, this is something we have never seen on earth and never will until he reigns. Yeah, and justice will be immediate and perfect. Instead of dictator, wouldn't theocratic be a better term? Yes, since dictator has some bad connotations, I guess. But yeah, it'll be sole rule from Christ. He'll rule solely. And authoritative. Yeah, authoritative rule. Good.

So The Jews living in the Promised Land are going to be secure in their own houses, and they're going to be able to build houses and plant the vineyards from Ezekiel 28-26, because it's a peace dividend, isn't it? And speaking of peace dividends, expenditures for war will disappear. And that adds to the prosperity of all nations in the Millennial Kingdom. If you think about the U.S. here, we currently spend 13% of our budget on defense spending, and that'll be able to go away. And you'll be secure because Christ is the one guaranteeing this peace.

So I just asked a question you might want to think of this throughout the week is how will we hammer our swords in the plowshares? And how will that be done? You know, how will you take an F-22 and make it into a combine or something? A tractor? It's gonna be a very fast tractor. It's interesting that for a tank, maybe a tank will be, you know, whatever those machines are that harvest. That's a combine.

So, verses 4 and 5 here, each of them will sit under his own vine, under his own fig tree, with no man to make him afraid, and we're continuing down this line of peace, right? For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken, and I read that line as a guarantee from the Lord. He has spoken it, and since he's spoken it, all this peace and security is guaranteed. In verse 5, though all the people walk each in the name of his own God, as for us, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. So there's, again, there's maximal enjoyment of private property.

That's what it means to live under your own fig tree and plant your own vineyard. And there's a reference from Isaiah 65 here. 21 and 22, they will build houses and inhabit them. They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They will not build and another inhabit. They will not plant and another eat. For as the lifetime of the tree, so will the days of my people. And my chosen ones will wear out the work with their hands. Verse 5 is a little odd.

It makes it sound like how it's worded that everybody will worship, all the other nations will worship their own God, and then come to Jerusalem to worship the Messiah Christ, which would be odd, but what's that? That's really saying, if you think about it this way, it says that although the people now, in the present day, And meaning the present day of when this was written by Micah, in his present day, even though they then followed their own gods, in the future, under the blessing of Israel, Israel will be committed to following the God of Israel. And they'll no longer stray to those other foreign gods. So if you read it that with those caveats inserted there. The people walk now, each in the name of their own God. As for us, the Jews, in that day we'll walk in the name of the Lord and God forever. So that clears that up a little bit. Okay, verses 6 through 8.

Verse 6, In that day declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather the outcasts. even those whom I afflicted." And that's more about gathering the people according to fulfilling the Palestinian covenant of the land covenant. And it's best in verse six to think of not people here, but the lame and outcasts as sheep. think of it allegorically in verse 6. So it's outcasted and lain sheep over physically lain people. If we refer back to Micah 2, 12 and 13, we get that reference of God bringing sheep back into the fold, and that's referring to people as sheep. Part of the making of God's flock lame and outcasted is the evilness of the rulers and the prophets and the kings. They sort of, they abuse the people. And that references back a chapter to Micah chapter 3 and specifically verse 3. If you remember that. Does anyone have it right there?

Micah 3.3? I can read it here if you want. Okay, great. Thanks, Ron.

Who also eat the flesh of my people and lay their skin from them. They break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and like flesh within the cauldron. Yeah, so there's the reference to just the abuse that these kings, rulers, and prophets have given the nation of Israel. And we'll take that figuratively instead of literally as well, right? Because then if we took it literally, we'd be talking about Alfred Packer, I think, right there, right? So Christ is the King of Righteousness and Justice.

He'll restore the strength of these outcasted Israelites. And don't we have a little of this now, a little preview of Israel being a strong nation in the present time? I mean, they're doing really well. So, you know, they might lose that position, but right now they're doing well. And if you think about Ezekiel 38, which is Armageddon in Ezekiel 38, where the nation of the north or the king of the north streamed to Israel and they camp in the valley.

And they're going to make war with Israel. And so how did they get there? So Israel seemingly doesn't have the strength that they do in this present time. And then in the second half of the Tribulation, Israel is going to be outcasted and lame. So right now Israel is on top, but they're going to come down in the tribulation. Finally, verse 8 here, it says, As for you, tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come, even the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

I've made it clear that there's two towers. There's the Tower of the Flock, which is Migdal Eder. That means Tower of the Flock. And then there's the Tower of the Hill of the Daughter of Zion. That's the second tower. And this is what Feinberg says. And that's Ophel. And so the Tower of the Flock is in Bethlehem. about a mile from Bethlehem. The Tower of Ophel is right south of the Temple Hill in Jerusalem. So it's just saying that David, or the line of David, Christ, will rule from both the birthplace of David and where David is seated in power, you know, the kingdom.

Which is, it's kind of a cool thing that Feinberg brings out there in the last verse, in verse 8. It's a little unclear in the English, but I'll trust him as there's two towers. And the tower of Eder, E-D-E-R, is referred to in Genesis 35, 19 through 21, when was I think Rachel dies in childbirth and it says that Jacob, if I have it right, goes and goes beyond the tower of Aedirn camps. And I think a tower of the flock, I think that's just a watchtower, right?

So you can watch your flock and protect it. So, So there you go, Micah 4, 1 through 8. I'm sorry it was kind of quick there at the end, but we're over time. That's good, Andrew. Okay, yeah, there's a lot there. Yeah, a lot there. Millennial Kingdom lessons, so yeah. We could probably spend months on the Millennial Kingdom, so all closing prayer here.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that we could Look at your future and you are the God of the timeline and you will make these things come to pass. And we thank you for it. And we thank you that we are secure in Christ and that we'll be there with you, ruling and reigning with you in this kingdom. And we thank you for all that, that blessing in creating these things in Christ's name.