Forging Swords into Ploughshares

Introduction

It behooves all Christians to investigate this truth. You may have heard this quote: “Every verse in the Bible is about Christ.” This statement is true. Some modern Bible teaching omits Christ from the Book of Micah except for a few verses. In truth the whole book is about our Lord. If you would like to give Him the place that He deserves, please study this post. Some teach that the Book of Micah prophesies about Israel. Some teach that the most prominent message of the Book of Micah is the literal message. But this study explains that the real message of God in Micah is a message about our Lord. Israel is in it, but Jesus is the prominent one. You will learn in this post that Micah prophesies about our Lord Jesus Christ and His remnant the Church. He foretells details about it as you will see.

Micah 4:3 says, “Then He will judge between many peoples and arbitrate for strong nations far and wide. Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor will they train anymore for war.”

To understand “swords into ploughshares” in Micah 4:3, one must understand the context of Micah 4:3. So, the studies of Micah 4:1 and 4:2 are introductory points. If we learn the method of interpretation that God Himself teaches, we will give our Lord Messiah His proper place in the Book of Micah.

The meaning of Micah 4:1.

Micah 4:1 says, “In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it.” We will take it one part of the verse at a time, beginning with the “last days.”

The identity of the last days. The words in Micah 4:1 “last days” are a technical expression which refers to the days of the New Testament. We know this because of the teachings in the New Testament. Our Lord and His Apostles clarified the Old Testament. Now we proceed to the meaning of “last days” in Micah 4:1.

The last days are the days of the New Testament which are the days of the Good News of the Messiah’s death for sinners. His crucifixion, resurrection from the dead, and His ascension and enthronement in Heaven, are in the last days (Acts 2:17-18; 2:33).

Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “On many past occasions and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. 2But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the worlds.” The Holy Spirit, whose word Hebrews is, believed that the last days were New Testament days. Prophets who foretold them lived hundreds of years before Christ, and to them they were the last days.

Hebrews 9:26 says, “Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” The use of the phrase “at the end of the ages” shows that the Apostles believed that the last days were here in New Testament times.

In the same context, Hebrews 9:28 says, “so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.” Hebrews 9:28 sets the time of the “end of the ages” of Micah 9:26 as the last days. They are the days in which our Lord Christ appeared in this world. It says that “the end of the ages” is here now, and His second coming is yet future. Only at His second coming do the “last days” end.

The salvation that our Lord will bring at the end of “the end of the ages” is future salvation, which is glorification for justified people.

Notice that Hebrews teaches that the early Church is in “these last days now.” It does not mean that God has spoken to us by His Son in the recent days. He did speak to them in the recent days, but in Hebrews 1:1-2 the truth is that God spoke to them through His Son “in these last days.” So, Hebrews 1:2 says that He appeared in these last days, and Hebrews 9:26 & 28 says that He appeared “now at the end of the ages.” So, “last days” and “end of the ages” are equivalent. The “end” is the same as “the last.”

The words “last days” are a technical expression for the days of the Messiah. When the Old Testament looks forward to the days of Messiah, it calls them the “last days” as in Hosea 3:5; Isaiah 2:2; Joel 2:28; Micah 4:1. The Old Testament says that the “last days” are coming. The New Testament says that the “last days” are here now.

Acts 2:17 says, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people.”

In Acts 2:2-4 God poured out His Spirit on the Church. They were people of many languages who pilgrimed to Jerusalem for the Jewish Feast of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit caused many phenomena. This called for an explanation of what was occurring.

Simon Peter, preaching on the Day of Pentecost said that the ‘speaking with tongues and interpreting tongues on Pentecost were some of the phenomena of the “last days.”

Peter introduces a prophecy that he quotes from Joel 2:28 in Acts 2:16, saying: “No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.” In other words, the speaking with tongues, the interpreting of tongues, the cloven tongues like as of fire, the hearing of every man in his own language, the sound as of a mighty rushing wind the Day of Pentecost, and the filling of the Christians with the Holy Spirit was a prophesied event from the Old Testament prophet Joel.[1]

TABULAR VIEW OF ACTS 2:16-17

“This” --------->	“Is what was spoken by the prophet Joel”
Joel 2:28 prophesied the speaking with tongues, the interpreting of tongues, the seeing of cloven tongues like as of fire, the hearing of the Word by every man in his own language, the hearing of a sound as of a mighty rushing wind, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, as fulfilled in the latter days (Acts 2:1-4).	“In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17-18)

Peter gives the time of the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy as the “last days” in his Sermon on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:17.

In Acts 2:17 Peter quotes Joel 2:28 as follows, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

Notice that Peter says that Joel prophesied the spiritual phenomena that occurred on the Day of Pentecost.

And God fulfilled the prophecy on the Day of Pentecost “in the last days” (Acts 2:17).

It is wrong to interpret the phrase “in the last days” as the last days from our time perspective in the twenty-first century.

They are the last days from Joel’s perspective. Joel prophesied about 800 BC. The last days are the New Testament days. When God gave him the prophecy, the last days were 800 years in the future. God fulfilled them and is still fulfilling them.

So, when Micah 4:1 uses “in the last days” and Micah 4:6 uses “at that day,” Micah means the days that are in “the last days” when God fulfills prophecy, which are the days of the Messiah, or New Testament Days.

2 Peter 3:3 says, “Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.” Characteristic of New Testament times is scoffing at the truth. And Peter warns the Church back then about scoffers. Again, the words “last days” in 2 Peter 3:3 refer to New Testament days that come continually at their inception, in their middle, and at their end.

It is easy for us to interpret this prophecy as fulfilled today because we have many scoffers. But it means that throughout the New Testament days, including our days, scoffers will come. The New Testament days are the “last days,” and we live in the last days. 

The last days are like a train. The engine is already here but the caboose is not yet here. So, the “last days” are already here, but some of them are not yet here. The last days are all part of the train. The caboose is still to come. According to 2 Peter 3:13 the last car of the train is the destruction of the present Heaven and Earth and the creation of new heavens and the new earth.

2 Peter 3:13 says, “But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”

James 5:3 says, “Your gold and silver have corroded, and their rust will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have treasured up in the last days.” James believed he was in the last days, and he chides his contemporary believers for not trusting God.

Hoarding money and things is especially sinful because we live in the last days. By hoarding we sin directly against our Lord who taught us in the last days.

1 Corinthians 10:11 says, “These things happened to them[7] as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” The New Testament days are the days of the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies.

And the warnings to the Israelites were prophecies which God fulfills as He warns us. The Holy Spirit did write them down and He preserved them as warnings to us. So, God intended what happened to the sinning Israelites to be examples of His judgment. And we are those on whom the “culmination of the ages” has come.

Therefore the “culmination of the ages” is identical with the “last days.” Both the culmination of the ages and the last days co-exist with the times of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, when Micah 4:1 speaks of the “last days,” He does not speak of a time future to us after our Lord comes again. It is a prophecy of the events of the Church Age.

1 John 2:18 says, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.” The Apostle John agreed with Peter, Paul, and James that he was living in the last days. He called it the last hour, but the fact that there were many antichrists in his day proved to him that he was living in the last times. Anti-Christs, like scoffers still exist today.

So, when Micah 2:12 says that God will gather all the remnant of Israel in the last days, He means exactly that. God will gather the remnant into the Church in New Testament times. There were other times of returning to the land, but they were only foreshadowing’s of the ultimate return to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when Micah 5:7 says that “the remnant will be in the midst of the peoples,” He writes precisely. God’s remnant consists of both Jews and Gentiles who know our Lord Jesus Christ by faith (Romans 2:28-29). And we live in the last days, and so did our Lord Messiah.

Romans 2:28-29 says, “A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. 29No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God.” And the remnant consists of both Jews and Gentiles whom God has saved in these last days. It is not the unsaved Israelites until they believe on our Lord Christ.

Please note that all the writers of the New Testament were Israelites except for Luke, who was a Gentile.

And when Micah 5:8 says that “the remnant will be among the nations in the midst of many peoples,” God precisely means that. They are New Testament days, and we have the Jewish and Gentile Christian remnant living throughout the world today as Micah foretold.

And when Micah 4:7-8 says, “I will make the lame my remnant…”  NIV, God is saying that He has chosen the physically lame to be strong in faith. Lame people are poor as a rule, but they become rich in Christ.[1] So, God has chosen many of the poor to be His people. James 2:5 says, “Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised to those who love Him” And our Lord Jesus Christ did heal lame people as illustrations of the New Birth.

The notable example of the lame becoming God’s own is in 2 Samuel 9:13 as follows, “Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table, and he was lame in both feet.” He was Saul’s grandson and Jonathan’s son.

The former days are Old Testament Days. The latter days are New Testament days.

The time of the fulfillment of Micah 4 is during the time of the salvation of the remnant of Israel during the New Testament Times. The ultimate time of the fulfillment of the phrase “in the last days” is in the time of our Lord during His earthly ministry. Everything in the Bible points to Him. Micah speaks of Him as well.

Having established the time of the fulfillment of Micah 4:1 as New Testament Days, we proceed to the following: “the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains.”

Cryptic Language in Prophecy

To understand the mountain of the house of the LORD, we need to know how prophecy uses the words: “Mountain,” and “House of the LORD.” These are code words. They are words that contain mysteries. Here is the explanation of God’s use of code words in prophecy: The key verse in interpreting Old Testament prophetic riddles is Numbers 12:6-8.

In Numbers 12:6-8 God says to Miriam and Aaron the following, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision; I will speak to him in a dream. 7But this is not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD.” (Numbers 12:6-8)

Since God says He speaks to prophets in dreams and visions that contain riddles, and since Micah is a prophet, we must expect there to be some riddles in Micah’s writings. Characteristic of dreams and visions is that they contain symbolic language, which God calls riddles. For example, the Book of Revelation is a series of visions that John received from our Lord Christ on the Island of Patmos.

 There is a mountain in Micah 4:1. But the mountain is a symbol for a Kingdom. God gives us a hint for interpreting it when He says, “the mountain of the LORD’s house will be established.”

Proof that a mountain is a riddle for a kingdom: 

Proof of this: Daniel 2:35c says, “But the stone that had struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” The kingdom, of which he speaks by using the word “mountain” is the Kingdom of Messiah, our Lord Jesus. Matthew Chapter 13 tells the nature of that Kingdom.

Further, in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:5-10 God shows us what kind of people are in Christ’s Kingdom. They are people whom God blesses with humility, conviction of their sin, meekness, appetite for righteousness, being merciful, purity of heart, being peacemakers, and enduring persecution for righteousness sake. Perhaps you are one or all of these. If so, you are in Christ’s kingdom.

And Daniel 2:44 says, “In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end but will itself stand forever.”

So, that stone that was cut out of a mountain with no human hand was a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ in His virgin birth. That stone then became a mountain and filled the whole earth. At His resurrection and ascension, He began to reign in phase two of that kingdom. The first phase was from His baptism until His resurrection, ascension, and enthronement. The stone became a mountain and filled the whole earth. So, He began to rule the entire world of Christians at Pentecost. He also ruled Providence for all people, since controlling Providence is part of taking care of His people.

So, now we know that the mountain in Micah 4:1 is the mystery or riddle way of saying “kingdom.”

So far, we have identified “in the last days” and “the mountain” from Micah 4:1. Here is what we can interpolate so far into our construction of the real meaning of Micah 4:1.                 

Micah 4:1 means “In New Testament Days the Kingdom…”

Next, Micah 4:1 says, “the mountain “of the LORD’s house.” 

We know that the LORD’s house in the Old Testament is the Temple of Israel.” And that mountain is “the mountain of the temple of the LORD.” It is a high mountain called Moriah, and the Temple sat on top.

The word “temple” in prophecy points forward to the ultimate Temple, which is our Lord Christ.

In John 2:19-21 Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again” But, Scripture goes on to say that He was speaking about the temple of His body. He is the ultimate Temple.

Also, we know that that Kingdom in Micah 4:1 is the Kingdom of the LORD, since it says, “the mountain of the house of the LORD.”

So, now we can make another statement. Micah 4:1, after having the mysteries replaced by plain words, says “In New Testament Days God will establish the Lord Jesus Christ’s kingdom.” So, here it is in a block:  

Micah 4:1 means “In New Testament Days God will establish our Lord Jesus Christ’s kingdom.”

The next phrase is “as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills.”

The mountains in this part are also kingdoms. And the hills are smaller kingdoms or authorities.

So now we can say that Micah 4:1 says, “In New Testament days the Lord Jesus Christ’s kingdom will be established as the chief kingdom over all the kingdoms and authorities of the world”

The next part of Micah 4:1 says, “it will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it”

So, not only will our Lord’s kingdom be the chief kingdom of all kingdoms but also it will be above the smaller authorities, which are hills in the prophecy. There is no kingdom in the world above that of our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

God will raise it above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it. So, peoples’ are nationalities.

And they will stream into it, so it will have a steady increase. And through the ages of the New Testament, God continues to build His Church with people. So, now we can put the whole of Micah 4:1 in the block.

The meaning of Micah 4:1 is, “In New Testament days the Lord Jesus Christ’s kingdom will be established as the chief kingdom of all the kingdoms and authorities of the world and people will continually stream into it”

And the proof of this is that this prophecy came true. And it is still coming true. And it is still coming true though Micah wrote it in 700 BC.

So now, here is a table of prophetic code words so that we can understand many of the prophecies of the prophets.

TABULAR VIEW OF PROPHETIC CODE WORDS

Scripture	The word used	The code meaning of the word used
Micah 4:1	The last days	New Testament days Hebrews 1:2
Micah 4:1	Mountain	Kingdom Daniel 2:33
Micah 4:1	Hills or small mountains	Lesser authorities Micah 4:1
Micah 4:1	Kingdom	Messiah’s Kingdom Daniel 2:44; 4:3
Micah 4:1	The Lord’s house is the Temple	The ultimate Temple is Our Lord Jesus Christ (John 2:19-21)
Micah 4:2	Zion, a fort outside Jerusalem	The Heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22; Galatians 4:26)
Micah 4:2	The Law	The law in Micah 4:2 is a type of the Gospel. Romans 5:21
Micah 4:6-7	Lame people	Unsaved people whom our Lord saves. The lame walking was a sign to John the Baptist that our Lord is Messiah. Matthew 11:5 The healing of the lame pictures the New Birth because he could not walk with Jesus and now, he can.

Decoding Micah 4:2 

Micah 4:2 says, “And many nations will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

“Many nations” are Gentiles and Jews, who invite others to come with them to our Lord Jesus.

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD.”

Where they go: to the Kingdom of the LORD, which is equivalent with Jesus Christ’s universal Church. See 1 Peter 2:9. And Revelation 1:6 says, “who [Christ] has made us to be a kingdom…” Brackets mine]

So, it may refer to evangelism and bringing others to Christ.

He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.

What better way can we learn the ways of God than hearing sermons.

And Sunday School is a place of fellowship and learning the Bible which is God’s word.

Nothing can replace reading the Bible for oneself.

And we know that when we learn from gifted people, we are learning from the LORD. Ephesians 2:17 says that [Jesus] “came and preached peace to you [Ephesians].” But He did not personally visit Ephesus but went to Ephesus in the Apostles. Brackets mine.

So, this is a prophecy of Gentile Churches. And God knew it in 700 BC and gave a vision to Micah about it that one day there would be millions[2] of people attending Church. But we would not have this interpretation had it not been for the codes.

And we would not have had these codes had God Himself not told us what they are in Numbers 12:6-8.

We can now understand Micah 4:2 by saying, “And many Gentiles will invite their friends and families to Jesus’ Church. He will teach us His ways through preachers and teachers, in obedience to Jesus’ Great Commission, so that we may walk in His paths.”

Micah 4:2 means, “And many Gentiles will invite their friends and families to Jesus’ Church. He will teach us His ways through preachers and teachers in obedience to Jesus’ Great Commission, so that we may walk in His paths.”

Decoding Micah 4:3

Micah 4:3 says, “Then He will judge between many peoples and arbitrate for strong nations far and wide. Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor will they train anymore for war.”

The first word in Micah 4:3 is “Then” as in “Then He will judge between many peoples.” So, Micah points back to Micah 4:1, which identifies the time of the fulfillment of this prophecy as the “last days,” or New Testament Days.

We already know from Micah 4:1 that the fulfillment of this is in the New Testament times, and we know that it is in the Church from Micah 4:1-2.

For further substantiation of this, Luke 1:33 quotes Micah 4:7 as prophesying about our Lord Jesus Christ and His New Testament (formerly) lame remnant. Below please see the prophecy and the fulfillment. It is all in the same context. All Christians were formerly lame and could not walk with our Lord. But all Christians can walk with Him now.

TABULAR VIEW OF THE FULFILLMENT OF MICAH 4:7 IN LUKE 1:33

Micah 4:7 says, “And I will make the lame into a remnant, and the outcast into a strong nation. Then the LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.”

Luke 1:33 says, “and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

So, it is the Kingdom of the Messiah, and the Messiah is our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Micah 4:7 says that Messiah will make the lame into a remnant. And the remnant is the Church.

Romans 11:1-12 shows that the remnant are members of the Church. Paul is part of the remnant.

Proof that God has not cast His people Israel away is that He is saving Paul (Romans 11:1-2). And Paul is an Israelite.

Romans 9:6 shows that All who descend from Israel (Jacob) are not true Israelites. And only the true Israelites make up the remnant. True Israelites are the inner Israelites of Romans 2:28-29.

And according to Romans 11:5-6 God is retaining to Himself a remnant in the New Testament just as He did in Elijah’s day.

So, the remnant of which Micah speaks is the same remnant as in Romans 9-11. It consists of saved people from both Jews and Gentiles. Please see my posts from Genesis at the beginning of this prophecy series.

But the sincere disciple of Christ only needs this study to understand our Lord Jesus Christ and His remnant in Micah.

Another Scripture that shows the timing of Micah 4:3 is Micah 5:2. All these Scriptures are in the same context about the future kingdom of Messiah. Micah 4:3 prophesies the remnant of the last days which is the New Testament Church. Micah 5:2 is a familiar verse to most Christians. Please see below.

Matthew 2:6 quotes Micah 5:2 that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Ruler who fulfills Micah 5:2. So, this Scripture is about Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not another Jewish ruler, according to Matthew 2:6.

The King of the Kingdom which Micah foretells, is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Kingdom is the Kingdom of God. Micah 5:2 with Matthew 2:6 validates our interpretation of Micah 4:1-7. Please see below:  

Micah 5:2 says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.”

Matthew 2:6 says, “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”

It is in the time that God calls “the last days.” Micah 4:1 says, “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 in great numbers.” The last days are the times of the fulfillment of most of the prophecies of the prophets.

The ruler prophesied in Micah 4:1 is the Ruler of Micah 5:2 and Matthew 2:6.

We have already concluded that the meaning of Micah 4:1 is, “In New Testament days the Lord Jesus Christ’s kingdom will be established as the chief kingdom of all the kingdoms and authorities of the world and people will continually stream into it”

Now we have the Matthew 2:6 version of Micah 5:2. Matthew 2:6 says, “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

So, it is easy to conclude that the timing of the fulfillment of the entire kingdom context of Micah is in the last days, as Micah 4:1 says.

Now we can cinch the fulfillment even tighter.

The fulfillment is in the time that the Holy Spirit calls “that day.” Micah 4:6-7 says, “On that day,” declares the LORD, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the outcast, even those whom I have afflicted.”

We can identify “that day” because it looks back to Micah 4:1. What day is it? It is the day of “the last days” of Micah 4:1. And it is the same day that the Ruler of Micah 5:2 comes. Matthew 2:6 identifies Him as our Lord Jesus the Messiah. So, this entire context finds its fulfillment in the New Testament Days.

The mistake we make with prophecy is that we think the last days are last days from our perspective when they are the last days from the prophet’s perspective. 

Again, Micah 4:3 says, “Then [Messiah] will judge between many peoples and arbitrate for strong nations far and wide. Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor will they train anymore for war.” Brackets mine.

So, the Lord Jesus Christ is the King during the New Testament Days, and He is ruling the Church now. See Micah 4:1 where the context is “In the last days.”

Micah 4:3 further says, “Then He will judge between many peoples…”

The meaning of this is that Messiah will judge between many nationalities. “Peoples” means multiple nationalities.

In the Bible, ruling and judging go together. For example, we may also call the Book of Judges, the book of rulers. That is because one of the responsibilities of rulers is judging the people.

He will judge that some are Christians, and some are not.

The classic picture of our Lord Jesus ruling, and judging is in the letters to the Churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. He sends letters via John to the seven Churches. He is walking amid the seven Churches and has both judgments and commendations for them.

The Holy Spirit is using the word “nations” here in the same way that our Lord used it in Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” We do not make nations into disciples. We make individuals into disciples who have a heritage from certain nations. And that is the same in Micah 4:3. The Lord arbitrates for people of strong nations in the last days.

In the Book of Revelation, our Lord judges between people in the Churches. He calls some out by name as cult leaders. He tells them to repent. He commends a martyr named Antipas. So, our Lord judges between saved people and some who may be apostates in the Churches. That is the fulfillment of Micah 4:3. He evaluates all the Churches for their performances. And, of course, the timing of it is during the last days, in the Church. He is judging all the Churches now. And there are many Churches.

Matthew 3:12 says that He separates the wheat from the chaff. This occurs in the Church now and at the end of the Church Age, which is the final judgment (Romans 2:5-10). As part of that, He judges between the “peoples,” which means nationalities.

Jesus is not just sitting around in Heaven. In Glory Land, everyone works, as does our Lord. He is the King. John 5:22 says, “…the Father judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son.” Our Lord is functioning as the King now.

The fulfillment of this prophecy is in the Church. With the time of the prophecy being in the Church in the last days, and with our Lord primarily dealing with the Church, it is easy to see that the prophecy points to the Church.

One of the big prophecies in this is that there will be many saved Gentiles in the Church. And God fulfilled it at first in Simon Peter’s ministry[3] and then primarily in the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Acts 22:21 says, “Then He said to me, ‘Go! I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

And God is still fulfilling this prophecy.

Micah 4:3 also says that He will “arbitrate for strong nations far and wide.”

Remember that this is the Church Age.

To illustrate: Think of two people becoming Christians. One is from Turkey and the other is from Greece. These two nations are enemies. So then, these two become Christians and by Providence become members of the same local Church. The lord arbitrates for them by saving them. Now they have hearts of love, and they embrace one another as brothers. Reconciliation comes from grace in Christ.

And the strong nations “far and wide” are distant Gentiles. God fulfills Micah’s prophecy, who in 700 BC foretells that the Church will be universal. It consists of multi-national people. How could Micah know if God had not told him?

As for Jesus advocating for strong nations far and wide, this includes the United States, the strongest nation in the world currently. Our Lord advocates for the Christians from these nations in Heaven. 1 John 2:1 says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”

Not only does our Lord Jesus advocate for us with God, but He advocates for us with each other by sending the Holy Spirit to us to convict us of the truth of Romans 8:33 which says, “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” So, the Lord Jesus teaches us to love one another.

Finally, Micah 4:3 says, “Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor will they train anymore for war.”

From reading the above we should be able to interpret this final part of Micah 4:3. Here is the meaning:”

Remember that the dissolution of the hostility between nationalities occurs in the latter days in Christ. The latter days begin with the baptism of our Lord.

This means that the solution to the problem of national strife is in the salvation that is in Christ. Individual Jews and Gentiles become united in Christ.[4] If everyone were mature Christians, there would not be strife. And in Heaven there will be no arguments.

It does not mean that Christians cannot be in the military or serve as law enforcement agents.

Forging their swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks is symbolic for the results of having a peaceful and Godly demeanor toward one another.

Instead of preparing to destroy those of another nation, they apply the word of God to their lives in the Church. There are indeed sometimes Church wars. But the result of the grace of God is peace.

Conclusion: The Berean Standard Bible translates Micah 4:1-3 from the Hebrew as follows:

“In the last days, the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it. 2And many nations will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 3Then He will judge between many peoples and arbitrate for strong nations far and wide. Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation”

And our understanding of the meaning of Micah 4:1-3 is as follows:

The decoded version of Micah 4:1 says, “In the New Testament Days the Kingdom of Christ, who is the true Temple will rank above all Kingdoms. And it will be above all small Kingdoms and authorities as well. People will enter it in substantial numbers.”

The decoded version of Micah 4:2 says, “And many Christians from many nations will invite their friends and relatives to come to our Lord Jesus. He will teach us of His ways so that we may imitate Him. For the Gospel of Christ will go forth in obedience to the Great Commission.”

The decoded version of Micah 4:3 says, “In the Church our Lord Jesus Christ will settle nationalistic disputes by saving believers from sin. They will dedicate themselves to Christian unity and cease from national dissensions.”

Please note that in a previous post entitled “NEW TESTAMENT TIMELINES OF THE FUTURE” by God’s kind grace, we pointed out that all the timelines of the New Testament, which are timelines, end with the creation of the New Heaven and the New Earth. So, please read that post as well.

The following conclusion shows our steps and procedures in arriving at the understanding that we now have. If anyone wants to speak with me about it, I am very much wanting to learn from you. Just send an email to billrandolph4@gmail.com

Conclusion: Micah 4:3 was a prophecy about beating swords and spears into agricultural tools. Our goal was to demonstrate that the time of the fulfillment of this prophecy was in the latter days, which was in the time of the Church. Since context was important when understanding any verse, we started with Micah 4:1. It began with the words “In the last days.” We showed that the “last days” were New Testament Days. We displayed Hebrews 1:1-2 which said that ‘in these last days God spoke to us by His Son. The Holy Spirit wrote Hebrews in the New Testament days. So, we accepted Hebrews 1:1-2 as proof that the “last days” were New Testament Days.

We presented Hebrews 9:26, which said that Christ appeared “at the end of the ages.” We concluded that it was true that the last days were in New Testament times. Further, we pointed to Acts 2:16-17, another text that included the words, “in the last days.” In Acts Chapter 2:16-17, Simon Peter explained that God fulfilled the thaumaturgic phenomena of Acts 2:1-4 on that day and called the time of the fulfillment the “last days.” Then we presented 2 Peter 3:3 that says that there would be scoffers in the last days. And Peter pegged the time of those last days as “the [same] last days” in which the scoffers would come. Brackets mine. Scoffing was occurring even as Peter wrote. So, we accepted this as proof that the “last days” of which Peter wrote were New Testament Days, since Peter wrote his Epistle about AD 67. Another proof that the last days which Micah foretold were the New Testament days was the Epistle of James Chapter 5:3 in which James was chiding his letter recipients for hoarding money “in the last days.” Those days were also the days of the New Testament. And Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:11, spoke of Old Testament historical events whose purpose it was to warn people, as he put it, “on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” So, Paul also believed that the “last days” were New Testament Days.

Then we quoted Micah 2:12 where Micah said that God would gather all the remnant of Israel “in the last days.” And we noticed that the days of the gathering of the remnant of Israel were in Romans 11:1-12, which were also in New Testament times. We further mentioned Micah 5:8 which prophesied that “the remnant will be among the nations amid many people.” And, given that the remnant of Israel was the believing people of the Jews and that they were living in the diaspora among the Gentiles, we concluded that God was fulfilling the remnant prophecy of Micah 5:8 in New Testament times also. And we indicated that Micah 4:6-7 was also a prophecy of the return of the remnant. God said, “I will make the lame my remnant.” We connected the fulfillment of that prophecy to the New Testament times because our Lord Jesus Christ healed lame people during His earthly ministry. And we noticed that Micah 4:6-7 were in the context of chapter 4, where Micah began the chapter by saying “in the last days.” And we noticed that Micah 4:6 was only 3 verses from our text which was Micah 4:3. So, it was convincing evidence that God fulfilled the entire prophecy in the last days, which were New Testament Days.

We concluded for certain that the time of the fulfillment of Micah 4:3 was in New Testament times. So, we proceeded to explain the next phrase in Micah 4:3, which was “the mountain of the House of the LORD.” We observed that we needed to be certain about the meaning of the prophetic word “mountain.” So, we studied the use of cryptic words in prophecy. We pointed to Numbers 12:6-8 where God said that when He gave prophecies to prophets, they contained “riddles.” We called them “code words.” God also called them “mysteries” in the Bible. We learned from Daniel 2:35c and 2:44 that the word “mountain” means a “kingdom.”

Since our quest was to know the meaning of the phrase in Micah 4:1 which says, “in the last days the mountain the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains,” we addressed the meaning of the word “house.” Since God’s Shekinah glory dwelt in the Temple that Israel built for Him, we concluded that the word “house” means “Temple.” But then we noticed that our Lord had told the unbelieving Jews that if they were to destroy the temple, He would raise it up in 3 days. And John told us explicitly in John 1:19-21 that our Lord Jesus was speaking of the temple of His body that He would raise up. We observed that He was the ultimate Temple of which the Bible spoke. So, we concluded that the Temple of Micah 4:1 was a prophecy of Jesus Christ. Since we already knew that the timing of the fulfillment of Micah 4:1 was in the New Testament times, we thought of Acts 2:32-33 where God, His Father had raised His Son Jesus from the dead and installed Him in Heaven as His King in the role of Messiah.

Then we recalled that Micah 4:1 said that the throne was the throne of the LORD, which translates to Yahweh. And we knew that our Lord Jesus Christ is 100% Yahweh and 100% man. So, we knew that Micah’s prophecy was about our Master. And since Luke 1:33 and its context proves that our Lord fulfills Micah 4:1 we concluded that the meaning of Micah 4:1 is, “In New Testament Days the Lord Jesus Christ’s kingdom will be established.” And we interpreted the small mountains or hills the same as we interpreted the “mountain” of Micah 4:1. So we said that the small mountains or hills represented smaller kingdoms and authorities. When we saw that the phrase “people will continually stream into it” was plain language and had no coded words, we arrived at the conclusion of the decoded version of Micah 4:1. It was “In New Testament days the Lord Jesus Christ’s kingdom will be established as the chief kingdom of all the kingdoms and authorities of the world and people will continually stream into it.” Then we noticed that the proof that our decoding was correct was that the prophecy did come true according to the New Testament. And we pointed to our post on “The Sermon on the Mount” in this blog that proved beyond question that, according to the New Testament, the kingdom which the prophets foretold was the Kingdom of Messiah. So, we had completed our quest to decode Micah 4:1. We then presented a helpful table of code words that are in Micah chapter 4 with their meanings.

We proceeded to Micah 4:2 which said, “And many nations will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

We said that the “many nations” of the prophecy were Jews and Gentiles, with the Gentiles including many nations. And we knew that literal “nations” in the Bible did not invite anyone to come. So, we understood that the word “nations” meant individuals in those nations, whom we called Gentiles. So, we thought that it meant that both Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles would invite their friends to go up to the mountain of the LORD. And we reflected upon our previous decoding of “Mountain of the LORD,” from Micah 4:1, that it meant the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we settled on the decoding of the first part of Micah 4:2 as “Come with us to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Since the Kingdom of Christ was synonymous with His Church, we wrote that the meaning was “Come with us to the Lord Jesus Christ’s Church. And since the next section of Micah 4:1 had no coded words we let it stand as, “He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths. And we observed that, at Church we would learn the ways of God and worship Him in songs. In Sunday School we would fellowship with others and learn the Bible from gifted men. Our conclusion to the meaning of Micah 4:2 was, “And many Jews and Gentiles will invite their friends and families to Jesus’ Church. He will teach us His ways through preachers and teachers in obedience to Jesus’ Great Commission, so that we may walk in His paths.”

We finished our examination and decoding of the first two verses of Micah Chapter 4. We proceeded to our main quest, the decoding and understanding of Micah 4:3. We determined to place the section about the swords and ploughshares in its proper context of Micah 4:3 and of the entire kingdom section of the Book of Micah.

Micah 4:3 said, “Then He will judge between many peoples and arbitrate for strong nations far and wide. Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor will they train anymore for war.”

We saw that the first word “Then” was a time word. So, we recalled that the previous temporal phrase was in Micah 4:1, which said “In the last days.” And since we had a firm conclusion about the sense of that phrase in Micah 4:1, as meaning “in the New Testament times,” we knew that the time of fulfillment of Micah 4:3 was a time after the baptism of our Lord. And since Micah 4:2 spoke of occurrences in the Church, we pinpointed Micah 4:3 as events that happened in the Church as well.  

Then we looked to the verses that follow Micah 4:3 to see if that could flavor the time of the events of forging swords and ploughshares. We found Micah 4:7 which says, “And I will make the lame into a remnant, and the outcast into a strong nation. Then the LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.” In the first part of Micah 4:7 is the sentence, “I will make the lame into a remnant.” We recognized the remnant as a theme of Romans Chapter 11:1-12, where the Apostle Paul said, “So then also, in the present time, there has been a remnant according to the election of grace.” And since Paul had previously divided Israel into two parts, inner and outer Israel’s.[5] we understood that God had delivered inner Israel from their sins, while “outer Israel” still had not repented and turned to Messiah in faith. And since the Apostle said in Romans 11:1-2 that his very existence as a Jewish Christian was proof that God had not cast the nation of Israel away, and since Paul spoke of the remnant as substantiation that God had not cast Israel away, we concluded that the remnant of Israel in the New Testament was the real Israel of the prophecies of the Old Testament. And we concluded that the remnant of which Micah speaks is the same remnant as in Romans chapters 9-11. It consisted of regenerate people from both Jews and Gentiles and was equivalent with the Church.

Then we introduced another verse, which was from Micah 5:2, a familiar verse, known by almost all Christians. Micah 5:2 said, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.”[6] This text we presented to be another peg that marked the timing, of the Micah context, and of the New Testament context. In Micah, we found no change in the context from Micah chapter 4 and Chapter 5:2. So, we wrote that the timing from Micah 5:2 was the same timing as Micah 4;1, 2, 3, 6,7.  So we knew that the “Ruler” of Micah 5:2 was the “Ruler” of Micah 4:1. And we knew that the Kingdom over which He ruled was the Kingdom of Messiah. Then we noted that Matthew showed the correct interpretation of Micah 5:2 by saying that its subject was the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 2:6 said, But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come the ruler who will shepherd God’s people Israel. And Matthew equated the Lord Jesus Christ as the Ruler of Micah 5:2 by writing Matthew 2:6. So we found in this the validation of our interpretation of Micah 4:1-7. And we could identify “that day” of Micah 4:6-7 as “that day” of Micah 4:1, which set the context of Micah 4:3. This assured us that the entire kingdom context of Micah chapters 4-5 was prophetic of our Lord and His Kingdom, of which He spoke in Matthew chapters 5-7 and 13. To this kingdom the entire New Testament refers as present in New Testament times.

We then examined the next part of Micah 4:3, which was [Then] “He will judge between many peoples.” That is, Messiah will judge between many peoples.” We knew that the “many peoples” represented the Gentiles of many nations to whom He sent the Apostles in the Great Commission. We verified that our Lord sent the Apostle Peter first to Cornelius, who was a believing Gentile (Acts 10-11). Then Messiah revealed Himself to the Apostle Paul, saying that he must go to minister to the Gentiles (Acts Chapter 9, 22, 26). As for our Lord Jesus Christ judging “between many peoples” we thought of His letters to the seven Churches of Revelation Chapters 1-3. We observed that in those letters He revealed Himself as walking amid the Churches while He ruled and judged them. And He judged between the members of the Churches, commending some and warning them. He knew exactly what each was doing. We observed that He was performing the work that a King does. And we noticed that, according to the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, He shepherded His disciples as they went, saying “I am with you always.” So, we observed that, as our King, He was busy ruling the Church.[7]

 Further, we quoted Micah 4:3, as saying that He will “arbitrate for strong nations far and wide.” Here, we wrote that this occurred also in the Church Age. We said that there would be times in the Church in which two deadly enemies would become Christians and be members of the same Church.” We said that such was the power of the New Birth in Christ, that it would change each of them to the point in which they would embrace one another as brothers. We said our Lord advocated for His people before God, always defending them before God, based upon the blood that He shed for them on the cross. He pointed to their justification by His righteousness, in which they stood. Further, we noticed that Micah 4:3 said that He would arbitrate for strong nations far and wide. We wrote that Micah had thus prophesied that the Church would consist of nationalities all over the world. And we found that that situation existed in the time in which we wrote. And we said that our Lord advocated for us with each other, quoting Romans 8:33, which said, “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” So, we believed that no Christian, upon whose heart the Holy Spirit had impressed this truth could be at enmity with any other Christian. We said that, in that way, God arbitrated for Gentiles all over the world.

Finally, we observed that Micah said “Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor will they train anymore for war.”We observed that there was no question about the context and the timing of this text. The context spoke of our Lord Jesus Christ doing His work as King in the Church. And the context spoke of Jesus arbitrating in the Church. So, since there was not a change in the context, a disciple must agree with this closing section of Micah 4:3 as in the Church. Micah 4:1 set the context. Micah 4:6-7 did not change the context but added to it. It referred to events in the New Testament Church without question. And to that belief Micah 5:2 explained that the context was about our Lord Messiah. And we noted that the entire context was the about the Kingdom of the messiah. Therefore, we said that we must conclude that the last section of Micah 4:3 was also in our Lord’s Kingdom.

And we observed that the two preceding thoughts of Micah 4:3 were perfectly consistent with His reign as King. We thought, He did begin to advocate for nations far and wide at the inception of the Church, even sending Apostolic embassies to Gentiles. We also noted that it would be unthinkable to claim that we could not understand Micah 4:3 as truth about the Church. And we quoted again Micah 4:3 as follows, “Then He will judge between many peoples and arbitrate for strong nations far and wide. Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor will they train anymore for war.” We explained Micah 4:3 in language that proved uniformity between Micah 4:2 and Micah 4:3. “Then He will judge between many peoples,” spoke of the same truth as in Micah 4:2. Micah 4:2 said that our Lord would give the Great Commission at Jerusalem.

Then we noticed that our Lord would not only send embassies to Gentiles but also in Micah 4:3 that He would judge between Gentiles and advocate for Gentiles, bringing peace to nationalities. We noted that God did not fulfill this in the nations, but in the Church. So, we found ourselves compelled to interpret the peace of the first part of Micah 4:3 the same as the peace of the last part of Micah 4:3 as speaking of the same brotherhood. We took the “forging of swords and spears into ploughshares and pruning hooks” to be perhaps an idiom of Micah’s age. We concluded that God fulfilled “not learning war any longer” as in the Church, and not in the world. Christians, in the Church, learned Scripture. The subject in the Church was never how to fight. But we observed that it was not wrong for a Christian to fight in a war, since war was not a function of the Church. Therefore, war was not a function of the Kingdom of God, to which our Lord alluded when He told Peter to put up his sword.

NOTES

[1] This is not necessarily something that will occur in our future. It was an occurrence in the early Church as Peter says.

[2] Scripture does not use the word “millions” but the multitude streaming into it eventually did amount to millions.

[3] In Acts chapters 10 and 11 is the record of Peter visiting Cornelius, a Gentile, and preaching Christ to him.

[4] Ephesians 2:14-16 says, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility 15by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace 16and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He extinguished their hostility.”

[5] Romans 2:28-29 says, “A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. 29No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God.”

[6] We also concluded that the word “Israel” was a code word, since Matthew Chapter 9:6 says that all descendants of Israel are not Israel.” Only the Israelites of faith in Christ are Israel.”

[7] There is one group of Christians who believe that since our Lord Christ will rule in the millennium, He does not rule now and is not even king now.