Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: So the Jews had to really flee Jerusalem, and they were scattered, the diaspora. But the Lord says, "I will gather them." Micah chapter 4 tells us that this will all happen. "In that day, saith the Lord, I will assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out."

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador, in an Old Testament prophecy concerning Israel fulfilled.

Brett Meador: So Micah's in line with Ezekiel 36 of the regathering. Lord says, "I will gather her." And you can check that box. He has gathered them. The Old Testament book of Micah chapters 4 and 5 give us some important details concerning the coming Millennial Kingdom. But many other things must happen first.

From today's Word, Pastor Brett Meador considers Micah's noteworthy prophetic statements, some of which are now history for us, some we seem to be currently experiencing, while others are yet to be fulfilled.

So far in our study of the book of Micah, we have seen in chapter 1 the sins against God by the people. Chapter 2, we sort of observed the sins against each other, people sinning against each other. And then in chapter 3, we saw the sins of the leadership of Israel, including the judges, the prophets, and the politicians.

We ended looking at those guys. And then in chapter 4, we start to look forward through the channels of history to the Millennial Kingdom. Micah is going to talk about the Millennial Kingdom and the second coming of Christ, the coming kingdom of Jesus, which is great. There's a little bit of a tricky thing, I'll warn you, that Micah does, and he bounces kind of in and out of the Millennial Kingdom, but also what gets you there.

So he'll back up and talk about things like the Tribulation and some of the precursors to the Millennial Kingdom, like the gathering of Israel, which we're watching as we speak. And so we're going to see some of these things that Micah is going to bring up. And I don't really think Micah is the best book to use for the order of events of how they're all going to unfold.

While it does talk about those things. I think if you're looking for the order of events, I like to look at the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation puts it out in perfect order, and it even says of itself in Revelation 1:19, you know, John, write the things which thou has seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. And that outline, given to us in Revelation 1:19, kind of spells out the way it's all going to unfold.

And the Book of Revelation is easy if you just take it sort of in chronological order. It gets really confusing when you jumble up the Book of Revelation. But one thing about Bible prophecy is the Lord did sort of encode in the Bible things about Bible prophecy that would not be understood until the times of the end.

Remember when Daniel wrote his book, seal up the words of this book until the time of the end. Because the idea is it wasn't for their day. It wasn't for Daniel's day for the most part. And Daniel walked away from writing his book saying, "I don't have any idea what that's all about," but good luck with that. And as history unfolds now, and you know, we have the Book of Revelation.

And it's sort of the key that unlocks the Book of Daniel, and Daniel then unlocks some mysteries in the other parts of the Bible. It's really cool when you start putting it all together. But Micah is going to look forward to the Millennial Kingdom, the second coming of Christ, and some of the days that are going to lead up to that. And let's take a look here at chapter 4, verse 1.

It says, "But in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills. And people shall flow unto it. 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."

Here in the beginning of this discussion, it talks about what the really, the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom is going to look like. Now, if you're just joining us and if you're just kind of new to this stuff, the Bible talks about how it's going to, you know, after Jesus rose from the grave and then ascended into heaven, we entered into a church age where the Lord uses his church. And the Jews were largely dormant, unbelieving during the whole time from Jesus to the present day, largely.

And Israel is in unbelief for the most part right now. But in this church age, God has done an amazing work through the Gentile church, or anyone, Jew or Gentile, who accepts Christ as the Messiah. But the Bible says that at the end of that time of the Gentiles, then there's going to be a kind of a cataclysmic event that's going to happen in the world, and that is the rapture of the church, the removing of the church, the bride of Christ, as the church is called.

And then the Lord is going to wake up the nation of Israel. And eventually, in the Tribulation period, seven years, Israel is going to be able to see that Jesus is the Messiah. And then during that Tribulation period, Tribulation for the Jews, Tribulation for anybody who's living on the earth. We're not going to be here at that time, I believe. And if you don't know why I believe in a pre-Trib rapture.

I believe it's a key understanding to know that the Lord is going to pull out his church and we get to be the bride of Christ. We go to the marriage feast of the Lamb with the Lord. Tribulation then on earth, seven years. At the end of the Tribulation, when the Jews will be hanging by a thread and the armies of the world are going to come together in a battle called Armageddon.

Christ is going to have his second coming. Well, Brett, I thought you just said that he raptured the church. Is that not the second coming? Well, as it turns out, the Lord is coming in the rapture in the clouds. He's not coming to the earth. We, who are alive and are remaining at the time, 1st Thessalonians 4 tells us, we will be caught up and gathered together with the Lord and with the saints that have gone on before us.

We get to meet them in the air, the Bible says. So people get confused when they think, "Well, the rapture is some secret rapture or secret coming." Nope, everybody's going to know what's going on. But when the church is taken up to be with the Lord, we get to be with the Lord, but that's when that Tribulation seven years kicks in. At the end of that seven years, Battle of Armageddon, Jews will be saved during that time. It's going to be an amazing time.

Then that's the second coming of Christ, Revelation 19. Revelation 6 through 19 talks about the seven-year period called the Tribulation period. You never see the church in Revelation 6 through 19 at all. You see Tribulation saints, people who accept Christ during the Tribulation period. But you don't see any mention of his church in Revelation 6 through 19.

And then in chapter 19, he returns and then he will, you know, do battle against those nations. And then it says, he will rule and reign from Jerusalem. And that's what Micah chapter 4 here, verses 1 and 2 is really starting to articulate that Jesus is going to come and rule and reign from Jerusalem. This is an amazing thing. And it says here that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established.

This might cause some of you Bible students to recall, where, where does the Bible compare or use as analogy the kingdom of Christ as a mountain?

Brett Meador: Daniel.

Brett Meador: Chapter 2. Daniel chapter 2. Remember it says there that the kingdoms of the world represented by the big, you know, Nebuchadnezzar's statue, gold, silver, bronze, feet of iron and clay, and that represents the nations of the world. And then a stone that was cut without hands, not with cutting of man's hands, is a stone cut without hands. We'll roll down the mountain and crush the kingdoms of this world.

And then that stone, do you remember it becomes a mighty, mighty mountain? The stone becomes a mountain, and then the Bible tells us, Daniel interprets, that mountain is the kingdom of God, that's established, that's being set up. So it's something you have to kind of remember, there's this imagery in the Bible that when you talk about the mountains, there's actually a for expositional constancy, as they call it.

Whenever you read about mountains, especially when it comes into Bible prophecy, we're usually talking about some of the kingdoms of the world. And it's not just the kingdom of Christ as a mountain. There are many little mountains, but the one that's going to come and subdue all the other mountains, if you would, is the mountain of the kingdom of Christ, spoken of in Daniel chapter 2.

But that's the language here in our text, when it says right there in verse 1, it says that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established. That's Daniel chapter 2 right there. And it says then it'll be established in the top of the mountains. It shall be exalted above the hills and the people shall flow unto it. So that's the idea, the imagery of the coming kingdom of Christ is going to be a great and powerful, mighty mountain.

That's the imagery that we're talking about here. Mountains in the Bible speak of that power, that strength of the nations. And that's really the imagery that Micah employs here. But what's going to happen with all those other nations? When the mountain of Christ's kingdom in Jerusalem is established, then all the other nations and people are going to flow to that mountain.

It's sort of going to become the new epicenter of all things global in the earth during the kingdom of Christ. And many nations will come and say, "Let's go up to that mountain and let's learn of the things of God." That's kind of what we're talking about here. When it says that in verse 2, that's where he's going to teach us of his ways. During the Millennial Kingdom, people will submit to Christ, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.

And the law is going to go forth out of Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. That's going to happen during the Millennial Kingdom. Now, by the way, interesting that Jerusalem today is not that. What is Jerusalem today? Have you ever thought about this? What a strange set of circumstances Jerusalem presents. Because Jerusalem, as far as natural resources, well, there's not much there.

As far as cities in the world, it's really not that glorious. I mean, I think Jerusalem is pretty in a certain way, but but kind of dumpy in a lot of ways. Honestly, I'm just being honest with you. And it's not really one of my favorite cities as far as it looks go. What makes Jerusalem such a big deal and why would Jesus call that his own?

In fact, it's interesting that the Lord says, "My name is upon Jerusalem." It's like God wrote his name there and said, "That's mine." And so technically, who cares about Jerusalem? You know, there's all this talk about these provinces in Ukraine right now and cities and places that people care about because suddenly there's warfare and stuff, but why do people care about Jerusalem?

Well, as it turns out, in some ways, where spiritually, the Catholics, the Protestants, the Muslims, the Jews, we all kind of converge at Jerusalem for some reason. Now, the Muslims could care less about Jerusalem until fairly recent history. It wasn't until Yasser Arafat's great uncle, the Grand Mufti, declared Jerusalem as the third most holy site of Islam.

But that's like just a couple generations ago they called it that. Jerusalem, how many times is it mentioned in the Bible? The Hebrew Bible, like 800 times. How many times is Jerusalem, the city, mentioned in the Quran? Anybody? Zero. Uh, it's only become kind of a thing for the Muslims politically and all that in recent decades. But isn't it interesting that right there, that's where everybody converges to to sort of worship, whether you're Muslim at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine.

Or you're a Catholic going to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or you're us as Christians realizing that Jesus was born and lived there in Israel. We appreciate it for that. But it's become sort of this epicenter. But isn't it interesting that the world is angry at Israel and Jerusalem today? Some scriptures you could jot down maybe in your notes that are important to sort of understand what's going on today in the world.

As it turns out, Zechariah chapter 12, verses 2 and 3, tells us what the last days will bring. "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day, will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people, that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered against it."

Some people say, "Well, you know, this must have been AD 70, when, you know, Jerusalem was attacked." The problem is back then, not all the earth was gathered against Jerusalem, just the Romans. But if you notice today, all the earth is gathered against the Jews. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, and the world's narrative these days is, "Well, those Jews took over that, you know, they're occupying the West Bank, including Jerusalem."

But the Bible says, "I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling." And then if you fast forward to Zechariah 14, listen to what he says. "Behold, the day of the Lord comes, the day of the Lord, of course, is when God raptures his church and intervenes into humanity. That's called the day of the Lord, beginning of the Tribulation through the Millennial Kingdom. The day of the Lord comes and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle." This is that battle of Armageddon that's coming that I was just talking about. "And the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, women ravished, half the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle."

When did the Lord fight in the day of battle? Read your Old Testament. God fought in several battles, and it was not good for their enemies. If you remember the one angel that went against the Assyrian army and one night killed a was it 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night, just poof over. So, all that to say, this is what the Lord says, "Of Jerusalem is going to be this cup of trembling."

And anybody that tries to, you know, mess with Jerusalem, they're going to be messed up. See, Zechariah is sort of speaking the same words that Micah is speaking here in verse 2, when it says, "Come, let us go up to the mountain where the Jews are and learn from the Lord." It's the same thing and it's going to happen when Christ comes in the Millennial Kingdom.

You might say, "Brett, I don't know about all this Millennial Kingdom." I'm just worried about tomorrow. Tomorrow's hard for me. Do I have a job tomorrow? Like a lot of us are worried about our thing tomorrow. But this could come sooner than you might think. And I don't know about you. I don't want to be a tourist when I get to heaven. I want to be an adventurer. I want to be a tour guide and say, "Here's what thus the prophet Zechariah said in 8:20 that people would come up to Jerusalem and want to worship the Lord there and learn from him."

Micah chapter 4, verse 2. This is all telling us exactly what's going to happen at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom. All that to say, Micah chapter 4 tells us that this will all happen, that he will teach them their ways during the Millennial Kingdom. Now, this is where Micah kind of bounces a little bit. What's going to happen just before he does that? Well, the Lord is the one who's going to bring in his kingdom.

And we read about this in verse 3. It says in verse 3, "And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." Does this sound familiar? Who else spoke of this?

Brett Meador: Isaiah the prophet spoke these exact words, right? Isaiah chapter 2. Maybe you're familiar with it because it's also on the UN building. This verse, "But they shall beat their, you know, their swords." Now, notice they left the first part of verse 3 off of there. "And he," that is the Lord, "shall judge among the many people and rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords."

It's not the UN, the United nothing that's going to, I'm sorry, the United Nations. It's not the United Nations that's going to actually bring in an everlasting peace where people will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. It's going to be the Lord who does that. The UN, by the way, what a joke. I mean, this verse is they're trying to take the credit for what God is going to do.

Do you think the UN is going to bring an everlasting peace into the world? The United Nations and NATO and all that. We're seeing what a joke it all is right now, right before our very eyes. By the way, you know, while the UN puts that scripture on their building thinking they're going to usher in peace and prosperity, which they're not. What's amazing is the church has become confused.

The church of Jesus Christ around the world has become confused on what's going to usher in the kingdom of God. Well, actually, if you ask me, there's only one thing that's going to usher in the kingdom of God. God. Well, Brett, we are the ones. We have to usher in the kingdom. And there's this whole thing of the kingdom now or dominion theology that sort of preaches that, man, we got to elect Christian officials and we got to get the world right and set up where there's a righteousness and a peace so that Jesus can come and rule and reign.

That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says in the last days, perilous times will come. People will be falling away from faith. Things are going to get worse before they get better. And the better is when Christ comes and sets all the wrongs right. So, some people believe that, you know, we're going to do this somehow. We need to as the church take it by the But remember the kingdom, Daniel chapter 2, that was cut without hands, that's not man, comes and tumbles and destroys the nations of the world.

And the United Nations are going to be a speed bump in that rolling down of that stone when Christ comes. Are you guys with me on that? That's important to understand that the United Nations is not going to be the entity that's going to help us. But be that as it may, back to Micah chapter 4, we see here in verse 4, "But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it."

Now, this is where Micah does kind of bounce around a little bit, but there's a time coming, Micah says, where people will sit under the fig tree or the vine. This is an idiom, by the way, of Israel. The fruitful branch, the nation Israel. Remember in Matthew 24, Jesus talked about the nation that sees the fig tree blossom, that generation will not pass.

What does it mean for the fig tree to blossom? Boy, we could talk about that, do a whole sermon on that. Some people say it was May 14th, 1948, when Israel became a nation. Maybe that's the blossoming. Or some people might say, the Yom Kippur War, when Israel got a bunch of land and Jerusalem back and the Temple Mount. Or, you know, some people could say it's today.

They're they're the Jews are flourishing and largely sitting safely. Why are the Jews sitting safely? Because God has given them unusual favor. The a nation that's a speck, tiny, tiny little speck, New Jersey is about the size of Israel. And yet, they're one of the most powerful militaries in the world. They have proven that over and over again.

And even though rockets come and fly over their borders all the time, because of technology, with the assistance of the United States, making their Iron Dome, you know, system and Arrow 2 missiles and stuff, you know, those missiles come in and largely just don't hit Israel because of their technology. And the Jews have been prosperous, and we're seeing the fig tree prosperous.

And you can almost say verse 4, you can check that box. Every man sits under his vine and his fig tree and no one makes them really afraid. Verse 5, "For all the people will walk every one in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever." Now, this verse is hard to interpret by some, but I like the ESV version, by the way, of this verse.

I think it gets the nuance of what the Hebrew text is saying. For all the peoples each walk in the name of its God, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever. There's going to come a time where the Jews will actually see that Jesus is God. Right now, the Jews are not following the true and living God. That's the sad truth of it. But there's coming a day where they will, and they'll do that forever and ever like it says in verse 5.

And then verse 6, "In that day, saith the Lord, I will assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted." And you know, toward the last days. Remember, we're talking about the last days, which I believe we're living in those last days. So when Micah starts this chapter out and says, "But in the last days," that could be from right now through into the Millennial Kingdom.

But one of those attributes is the Lord says, "In that day, what's the Lord going to do? I will assemble. I will gather her that halteth. I will gather her that is driven out, her that I've afflicted." He's talking about Israel. And she was driven out, the diaspora, as it's called, where they were scattered. You know, it happened, you know, really from Old Testament times, but even the pinnacle of the diaspora happened in AD 70, when the Romans finally once and for all crushed Jerusalem.

And then the Roman emperors came after that and they drove the Jews out once and for all. Probably the biggest emperor that did it was Hadrian. The emperor who basically made it a law that if you saw two Jews talking together in Jerusalem, you could kill them. You had legal right to go and kill them both right there on the spot and let their bodies lay in the street. That was the Emperor Hadrian did that.

So the Jews had to really flee Jerusalem, and they were scattered, the diaspora. But the Lord says, "I will gather them." Ezekiel 36 and 37 talks about the regathering of the Jews. And we've seen that the last couple hundred years where the Jews have gathered. So Micah's verse 6 is in line with Ezekiel 36 of the regathering. The Lord says, "I will gather her that I have afflicted."

And you can check that box. He has gathered them. Verse 7, "I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation. And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth and forevermore." Man, a strong nation. And indeed, Israel is a strong nation.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador offering a verse-by-verse study of Micah chapter 4, noting prophecy of Israel already fulfilled in today's Word. And there's so much more to share next time as well. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. But first, our teacher, Brett Meador, is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church, just outside of the Portland, Oregon area. Each day, Pastor Brett will bring you an in-depth study of God's Word. If you've missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. All right, I have Pastor Brett with me now. As we're at the midway point of our study in the Book of Micah, which is another of the minor prophets of the Old Testament. Brett, this prophet makes some remarkable prophetic statements concerning the end times, some that we've already kind of mentioned we might be seeing right now, and some that are still to come. So the Book of Micah, although not read much by Christians today, is really an important book for us to look at, isn't it?

Brett Meador: It sure is, Kurt. You know, I've joked with our congregation when I say, "Turn to Micah," it's where your pages are still sticking together in your Bible. Because people don't look at it very often. But it is a really important book for us to understand, especially the times that we're living. You know, Micah's message is far-reaching. It speaks about judgment, mercy, the coming reign of the Messiah. It's all woven together with a reminder of the unchanging, perfect character of God. So Micah ministered during a time of moral decline in Israel, and the people were really religious on the surface, but corrupt underneath. And in the middle of all that, Micah points forward with incredible clarity, not only the first coming of Jesus in Bethlehem, but he also refers to the second coming and establishing his kingdom on earth. And it gives us great hope. Micah 7:7 says, "Therefore I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the Lord of my salvation, and my God will hear me." That's the heart of the book of Micah. It reminds us that while the world may be shaking, God's plan is unfolding. You know, a lot of people feel like the world is falling apart. Well, if you read the book of Micah, you actually see how everything's falling into place exactly the way the Lord prescribed.

Kurt: Well, I love it when we see God's Word give this kind of encouragement that the Lord does have a good plan for us, even when things don't seem to be going in the right direction. Thank you, Pastor Brett. Well, I want to mention that if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or today's Word, just go to todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will explore some of what's left to be fulfilled in the coming days of Micah. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.