The Lame I Will Make a Remnant – Micah 4:6-13

Micah’s description of God’s people is “the lame.”  Like Jacob of old, her ancestor, Israel is lame, incapable of walking in strength, dependent, if she chooses, on Yahweh’s help and protection.  He is our crutch.  It is pointless for us to tell ourselves that we are fine without Him, that we can walk in His ways unassisted.

6 In that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted; 7 and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.

8 And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 Now why do you cry aloud?  Is there no king in you?  Has your counselor perished, that pain seized you like a woman in labor?  10 Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon.  There you shall be rescued; there the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

11 Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, “Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”  12 But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.  13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth. (Micah 4:6-13, ESV)

Still speaking of the future after Israel’s judgment, Yahweh declares through Micah that all those He has afflicted in judgment and who survived are His remnant of the people, the ones through whom He will restore the nation, with Him, finally, as their ruler forever.

But first must come the judgment.  Now there is no king ruling who can deliver them, no counselor to advise them, because Babylon will be their destruction and they will go there, even as Daniel and his three friends did, and it is from there that Yahweh will affect their rescue.

Before the rescue the nations will be certain that Israel is so defiled that the nation can never come back.  But they have failed to understand Yahweh’s thoughts, controlled as they are by His covenant with the nation, and failed to understand how He has devised this plan to make Israel once again the place where He brings about judgment on the other nations.  It will be like the threshing of the wheat at harvest, Zion’s army being too powerful to withstand as He once again gives Canaan and its wealth to Israel.

How do you live in light of God’s promise?  You seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, anticipating the coming of His kingdom by working to bring to earth what life is like in heaven, strengthening what is lame with a confession of God’s solitary greatness.  Let all that is not a part of His kingdom fall away.