Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 54
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IMMERSE
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PROPHETS
Disaster ultimately does arrive during the reign of Hezekiah, as the
Assyrians invade Judah after conquering and destroying the northern
kingdom of Israel. In response to the Assyrian invasion, Micah declares
about King David’s birthplace, “You, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a
small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose
origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.” The
immediate reference is to Hezekiah, a godly king in the line of David
whose trust in the Lord would turn back the Assyrian invasion in Judah.
But the author of the Gospel of Matthew looks back to this passage and
sees a reference to Jesus the Messiah, who was also born in Bethlehem,
the City of David.
The prophets often speak to both the present and the future in such
passages, creating a longing for God’s ultimate redemption and the
restoration of all things. Micah speaks of a hope that looks beyond
the current generation and foresees that after the people of Judah are
exiled to Babylon, they will be brought back in a great deliverance not
unlike the Exodus. God promises, “I will do mighty miracles for you, like
those I did when I rescued you from slavery in Egypt.”
Perhaps the most marvelous oracle in the whole book is placed right
at its center, in the middle of the second group of oracles, just as the
theme changes from ruin to restoration: “In the last days, the mountain
of the Lord ’s house will be the highest of all,” Micah envisions, “and
people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People
from many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord , to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us
his ways, and we will walk in his paths.’”
Israel’s story will determine the world’s story. The vision of God’s salvation spreading over the whole earth is a bright light that shines forth
from the whole prophetic collection, pointing to the glorious culmination of the Bible’s story in Jesus the Messiah.
