When I was a kid, I
remember being picked on by older boys. 
I may have always been a big guy for my age, but there wasn’t much I
could do compared to boys who were big for their age when they had three years
on me!  It made me so mad that their
strength was so much greater than mine. 
I was powerless to defend myself.

Then, my deliverers came to my rescue. 
These guys were the same age as these older boys and let them know to
pick on me was to guarantee a problem. 
The bullying stopped.  Ah…the
simplicity of childhood.

 

Maybe you have been in a
situation (work or home?) where you were mistreated or somehow oppressed.  No, maybe it wasn’t physical but it was an environment
soaked in unfair treatment, preferential treatment of others, and a general
sense of “help me!”.  Maybe you longed
(or long!) for a time when your deliverer will arrive and set things in order.

 

This was similar to the
case of the righteous and the poor in ancient Israel and Judah.

 

Justice had left the
building.  It’s not as if justice wanted
to leave; it was just escorted out of the nation.  The ones called to protect had become the
ones oppressing.  The ones called to
teach morality and righteousness had become corrupt, blessing people for the
right price.  It wasn’t a good time to be
righteous in the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

 

But there was hope.

 

Micah 4:1–5 (NIV)

1In 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.

2 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.

3 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.

4 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.

5 All
the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of
the Lord our God for ever and ever.

 

There is a “last days
craze” going on in the U.S. right now.  It
seems if someone writes a book about this period, it’s virtually guaranteed to
be a hit.  Perhaps the people of Micah’s
day weren’t that different.  The marker
in the text of “in the last days” designates a time in the indefinite future—at least
from the human author’s perspective. 
It’s not primarily a term of “end times” like we think although in this
case we know it is since it addresses the rule of the Lord during the Millennium (Revelation 20). 

 

But what was the
significance to the people of God when this was written?  What is its significance to us today—we’re
not living in the Millennium.  The events
described here are still in the future. 
So what hope and comfort does this bring?  Is this kind of prophecy really just
“prewritten history” and that’s it?

 

Imagine the hope filling
the oppressed and beaten down when they read these words.  There is coming a day when there will be no
more wicked and religious people twisting the truth to their own purposes.  There is coming a day when those ruling will
be put aside and the Lord Himself will be the judge.  In righteousness and fairness He will
adjudicate His Kingdom.  There is coming
a day when weapons will not be raised to kill each other.  Moreover, these weapons of war won’t even be
needed. 

 

As life gets harder for
Christians, there is still hope in the future. 
Ultimately, we’re on the winning side. 
We can take heart.  We can look
up.  We can cry but we also can
stand.  An old gospel song sums it up
pretty well…

 

Verse 1

There is coming a day

When no heartaches shall come

No more clouds in the sky

No more tears to dim the eye

All is peace forevermore

On that happy golden shore

What a day glorious day that will be

 

Verse 2

There’ll be no sorrow there

No more burdens to bear

No more sickness no pain

No more parting over there

And forever I will be

With the One who died for me

What a day glorious day that will be

 

Chorus

What a day that will be

When my Jesus I shall see

When I look upon His face

The One who saved me by His grace

When He takes me by the hand

And leads me thro’ the Promised Land

What a day glorious day that will be

 

“What a Day that Will Be”

© 1955. Renewed 1983 Ben
Speer Music (Admin. by Integrated Copyright Group, Inc.)

Jim Hill

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