Micah 5 - Prophecy

We now get another prophecy of the coming Messiah, namely that He would come from Bethlehem. Assyria would marshal her troops against Israel and Judah, and would experience a degree of victory. But another leader would come, this time from Bethlehem, an out of the way place. God has a habit of choosing the insignificant to do significant work. In saying that the ruler would be one "whose origins are from of old, from ancient times", Micah is signifying that this would be no ordinary ruler, and is an allusion to the deity of Christ.

Verse 3 is very interesting. Israel has, to a large extent, been abandoned since that time. She did experience a return from Babylonian exile, but Israel recognised that this was not a full deliverance, for they spent much of the time under the rule of other nations (eg Rome). Then after Christ came Israel as a whole rejected their Messiah. But once the "full number of the Gentiles" has been brought into the kingdom (ie the "rest of his brothers"), Israel herself will return as a whole to Christ.

Jesus shepherds His flock Himself, and He does this in the strength of the Lord, and we live securely. And His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. We have a great Messiah!

While Christ is the complete fulfilment of the prophecy, there would be a partial fulfilment in the time of Assyria. For Assyria would get to the walls of Jerusalem, but no further. This partial followed by complete fulfilment is a common pattern in the Bible.

Then we read of the remnant of Israel being "in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord". Again we see that this has actually happened. Many famous people in history have been Jewish and have benefited mankind as a whole, and individual nations (Einstein, Disraeli, Richard Feynman, Henry Kissinger, even Ed Miliband is the son of Jewish immigrants). They are also a very independently minded people. Despite the circumstances the Jews will ultimately triumph.

The chapter closes with a declaration of God's intent to judge the sin of the people. It is not clear whether this is directed against just the nations, or Israel as well, for Israel was guilty of many of these things as well.