LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for May 24: Hope: A path to fulfillment

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for May 24: Hope: A path to fulfillment focuses on Micah 4:1-4; 5:1-4.

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Hope is the door to dreams, the threshold to the future, the footpath to fulfillment and the fountain of determination. Spiritually, hope keeps the soul alert and turns the worse into the better. Hope, with an open hand toward the unknown, gives faith wings in the present to soar to new heights in the future.  

Hope is not eternal but as temporal as the mind wants to make it. Unless one chooses hopelessness, hope never leaves. Hope is a powerful force for good; hopelessness is a force of destruction. Hopelessness overwhelms with despair; hope empowers to make things brighter and better. Hopelessness can be turned around with something as simple as a promise.

Hope, though it cannot guarantee success, gives promise in despair by searching for answers. Hope is the breath of dreams; faith is the heartbeat of action. Hope fuels motivation to keep on trying in desperate situations; faith builds on substances and takes the risk necessary to walk through the darkness into light. Though uncertain, hope uses all human faculties to project tomorrow’s dreams and visions.  Add to that the possibilities of what God can do and hope works in earthly arenas with eternal consequences.

Israel has dredged through a long season of grief and pain in a strange land where they were enslaved to a foreign enemy. God had given a promise that kept hope alive and inspired a vision of a future return to their homeland and nation.

There are many questions about the date and origin of Micah 4-5. Many Old Testament scholars believe chapters 4-5 were composed after the exile, later after Micah’s death. Because of similarity to portions of Isaiah, this section of Micah may have been written by the same author. It also is possible both Isaiah and Micah shared a common older source. Other scholars insist these are the words of Micah.

Suffice it to say, scholarship awaits further knowledge and evidence to bring this discussion to a more precise conclusion. Prophesy, as seen here, partially is fulfilled in the return to Jerusalem but has further ramifications for the coming of Christ.

Regardless, the mode and theme changes dramatically from despair and judgment to hope and restoration. The probability is great that 4:1-4 should be the end of chapter three, proposing a happy ending to the despair of bondage and enslavement. Hope believes in the promises of God and anticipates the blessings that eventually will take place.

The chosen people of God are looking forward to the fulfillment of the certain promise of God to return to their homeland and see the nation restored as Israel neared the end of their exile in Babylon. Time after time, Israel had failed and again and again, following chastisement, God brought them back to the purpose to which he had called them. With homeland destroyed and a remnant remaining, God faithfully kept his promise, and hope was restored. Specifically, the writer and Israel hoped for a home-going, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the establishment of a theocracy through the laws of God and an abiding peace. God is the God of hope and faithfulness.

Hope in God’s law (Micah 4:1-2)


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Hope is introduced here. Compare 3:12 with 4:1-2, and see the change from negative to positive. Hope has a way of taking the most difficult experience and turning it into a positive array of answers.  

“In the latter days” does not refer to the end of time immortal, but to the end of the exile. The raising of the mountain and temple “above the hills” would not be literal but symbolic of the status that God’s temple and teachings would have.  

These verses focus on the laws and teaching of God. The mountain and temple, reduced to a pile of rubble on a hill overgrown with thickets of brush and thorns (3:12), would be restored as “chief among the mountains” where many people and nations would come in streams “to the house of the God of Jacob” (4:2). God’s house and paths would be glorified and from Zion the law, the words and ways of God, would be taught.

The display of power would not be in the physical appearance but in the spiritual dynamics that would take place. The teachings of God that came from the temple would be the most revered and powerful in the land. The truth revealed in the words of the law of God would pour out on all peoples far and near and people would respond with enthusiasm saying, “let us go up to the mountain of the Lord” (v. 2).

Eager for the ways of God, people would come in streams to learn and acknowledge God’s lordship and “walk” according to his teachings, instructions, principles and laws. Individuals who learn from God and walk with God are empowered in heart, mind and soul and are a witness to the glory of the God of Israel.

Hope for God’s peace (Micah 4:3-4)

From the temple in Jerusalem, God also will sit in judgment) and “settle disputes for strong nations far and wide” (v. 3). With God in charge and the final arbiter of disagreement and bitter dispute, his justice and fairness will bring about peace. Wars no longer will be the format for justice and judgment for nations will “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” and nations will not “train for wars any more” (v. 4).  

True peace comes in the principles and precepts of God’s law.  When God exercises his righteous judgment and justice, there is no question of fairness only perception of truth and acceptance of his authority. Accepting God’s justice is accomplished through changed hearts and the peace that comes from knowing him fully and completely. People from all nations will experience the joy of this life of peace and settle down in harmony and love “under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will be afraid” (v. 4).  

The challenge of turning Israel and the nations of the world into a theocracy is a spiritual ideal. The writer speaks using an earthly metaphor with a heavenly meaning. This ideal is sought, but keep in mind that Adam and Eve had such an experience only to want what they wanted and not what God wanted and later saw Cain take the life of his brother, Abel. Sin is strong and appealing, and Satan is deceptive. Given the depravity of man, perfect peace cannot exist in our world in spite of our best efforts.
 
To those who know Christ as Savior, there comes a peace beyond our own understanding because Christ promised: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).

The messianic age of the victorious Christ is our eternal hope and will come as the fulfillment of the promise of God and bring the ultimate peace to all men and nations.
 
Hope beyond sin’s consequences (Micah 5:1)

There is a lack of clarity regarding this passage because of the intermingling of the prophesies of the fall of Israel to Babylon (4:10) and the siege on Jerusalem by Sennacherib of Assyria (5:1, 5-6).

When Micah prophesied, Israel was threatened by the forces of Assyria. Because of temporary revival, Jerusalem was spared when God’s angel eliminated 185,000 Assyrian soldiers who had laid siege to Jerusalem, causing the remaining troops to be withdrawn.

Judah and Jerusalem soon turned from following God to fall back into their pagan practices which brought on the Babylonian captivity which is the focus of the larger portions of Micah’s prophetic warnings. The background for the Bethlehem prophecy was, most likely, the Assyrian siege against Jerusalem. The confusion does not nullify the truth of the broader view of history and the faithful hand of God in ascribing victory and restoration.  

Hope brings resilience in the worst of times. Micah 5:1 fits best with the ending of chapter 4. Even though Israel would “go to Babylon,” she would be rescued and redeemed from the “hand of your enemies” (4:10). The consequences of sin, which was writhing in agony (v. 10), would not be avoided, but under God’s hand, Israel would benefit from the stress of captivity and God’s chastisement. God’s plan included painful discipline but also the reward of restoration based on the trustworthiness of God’s word (v. 4). The enemy of Israel would “gloat over Zion” but without understanding they were part of God’s plan (vv. 11-12) to punish Israel of sin and rebellion.

Israel should gather or mobilize its military forces for the “siege” that would soon come upon them that “will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod” (5:1). These were desperate times as the neighbor nations waited for the moment to ravage and destroy any last vestige of government, royalty, wealth and inhabitants.   

Sin brings its own punishment and the direct discipline of God. Beyond the consequences of sin, hope builds the bridges to a better future and the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose. In this manner, God’s people can lose but yet win, could suffer but find deliverance. Beyond the suffering and stress, hope would be objectified in a new and powerful ruler who would come from Bethlehem.

Hope because of a messianic leader (Micah 5:2-4)

Micah addressed the far-sighted future that would expect a strong, personal leader who would come from Bethlehem and insure the necessary purpose assigned to Israel by the grace of God. Regardless of any immediate application of this passage to the days of Micah, the ultimate fulfillment would eventually come through Jesus Christ (Matthew 2:5-6), the promised Messiah.

Specifically naming Bethlehem Ephrathah as the birthplace of the “one who will be ruler over Israel,” Micah also suggests the Messiah’s pre-existence, as one “whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” or from the times of eternity (v. 2, also Isaiah 9:6-7).  

Furthermore, “Israel would be abandoned” until Israel would give birth to this Messiah-leader (v. 3) who will “stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God” (v. 4). This shepherd would bring security and peace (vv. 5-6). The expectation, for Israel, was the restoration of the nation and the monarchy. Rather than the expected theocracy, God would give this Messiah authority and rule by means of a spiritual kingdom, not of this world. Rather than ruling as a national king, he would rule as a shepherd-servant who would feed his flock in green pastures and by still waters (Psalm 23).  

Conclusion

The new born Messiah would produce spiritual new birth which would produce new men who could produce a new world.  This is the future of the messianic kingdom: “To them God has chosen to make known …the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).


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