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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
“In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will
be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the
hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, ‘Come,
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He
will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.’”
“The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.”
Micah 4:1-5
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
The people of Israel had reached rock bottom with the
Lord. Their sinful worship of false gods and idols, coupled with the injustices
committed against the poor by the wealthy, had led them to their spiritual
bottoming out point.
As the old saying goes, “there was only one way to go and
that was up” for the Israelites and as we see in the opening verses of Micah,
Chapter 4, up was where they would choose to go. Look again at these verses
here:
“In the last days,
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations
will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the
temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His
paths.’”
“The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.” Micah 4:1-5
Of interest, this passage is nearly identical to Isaiah
2:2-4. In both, we note that if Israel, or any other nation for that matter,
wanted to get right with God, they would have to seek Him where He dwelled, on
the mountain of the Lord’s temple, an exalted place set apart from the hills. The
symbology here is that we can’t possibly find direction as to how we should
live if we remain in the world. We have to look outside the world and up to the
Lord in order to know we are aligned with His will and purposes. The scriptures
tell us that the people who streamed to the mountain would be taught the Lord’s
ways so they could “walk in His paths” and live in His favor as a result.
What else would happen as nations went to the mountain of
the Lord?
The Lord would serve as the righteous Judge between
nations, settling disputes and brokering peace between “strong nations far and
wide”. This advent of resolution and harmony would lead the people to make
their instruments of destruction (swords and spears), into tools of provision
and harvest (plowshares and pruning hooks). And while other nations might
reject God and walk in the name of other deities, those who committed journeyed
to the mountain, seeking God, would walk in His name forever.
This is a day we long for, right? A day we have yet to
see for the “last days” have not yet come upon us but the process discussed
here in Micah’s prophecy is one that could happen at any time in the build up
to the last days. For there’s little dispute that we live in a troubled world
today, one that is more distant from the Lord than near. And if we’re looking
for a solution to our issues, the answer is right before us in these five
verses from the beginning of Micah 4, verses that call all nations to abandon
their current ways and go to the mountain of the Lord to be verses in His ways,
the ways He wants every nation to follow.
When that happens, when nations full devote themselves to
staunchly following the ways of the Lord without compromise, then and only then
can we rise about the sinfulness in our world today and set ourselves apart
through placing our faith, hope, and trust in the One who is already sanctified
and exalted, the Lord who dwells on the mountain in His holy temple.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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