©Michael Player
Chapter 4:6-7 (ESV) - 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;
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.
Question to consider: What is another name for this group that the Lord promised to rescue?
In the latter days, the LORD came into the world as a baby incarnate in the womb of a virgin. Throughout His ministry, He healed the lame and sick and proclaimed that the kingdom of God was in their midst. He also preached salvation to those who had been driven out of the synagogues as sinners and was criticized for eating with them and welcoming them into His kingdom.
These He called the “lost sheep of Israel,” and He insisted that there was more joy in heaven over the repentance of one lost sheep than ninety-nine people who considered themselves to be among the righteous.
The promise in today’s passage would have also been a blessing to those who were led off into Assyrian captivity, for they were driven out of the land and afflicted. Even though their nation was temporarily lost, they had a promise from the LORD that their ancestors would be gathered, and He would reign over them in Mount Zion.
It is popular today to see this as a promise that has yet to be fulfilled, but the New Testament writers saw Christ reigning from the heavenly Mount Zion and people from all nations streaming to the holy mountain in faith. The apostle John was given a revelatory vision in which this heavenly Jerusalem descended to earth where Christ’s reign would continue forevermore, and sin and death were cast into the lake of fire.
Luke the evangelist wrote in his second book to Theophilus the account of Jesus ascending to the right hand of the Father, and the Holy Spirit descending on the disciples at Pentecost to establish the church. As proof that Christ’s reign had begun, Luke wrote of the apostle Peter’s proclamation of it to the people and the ruling authorities in Jerusalem as he healed a man paralyzed from birth in the name of Jesus.
An additional proof was in the stoning of a young deacon named Stephen who had a vision of Christ at the right hand of God standing in solidarity with him as he faced death and forgave his murderers.
The promise given to Micah was also reiterated by other prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah. The nation of Israel was regathered at the time of Zechariah when king Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest were a typological fulfillment of this promise. These three pointed to Christ as the ultimate prophet, priest, and king.
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for all of these promises faithfully delivered by these prophets even though they knew they were not writing for themselves but to generations far into the future. Now that we live in the midst of these latter days, help us to clearly see Christ in these promises. Amen.