Micah 5:3

Micah says that God will leave his people. That situation will be the result of what has happened before (Micah 4:9; Micah 4:11; Micah 5:1). It will include the exile (when God will send the people out of their country). (See Micah 4:10.) This message will not be popular. It will be a very sad message for the people in Jerusalem.

This is the message. God will not continue to help Jerusalem’s people. The people in the ‘Daughter of Zion’ (Jerusalem) will be alone (Micah 4:10). It will be a time when people suffer greatly. God’s people will suffer God’s punishment. Jeremiah referred to that (Jeremiah 4:27; Jeremiah 4:31). It will be a sad time for God too (Hosea 11:8). But, one day, the people will not suffer those things any longer (Lamentations 4:22).

People would suffer pains, but there would be a happy end.

The *Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. Zion’s (Jerusalem’s) new age will start then. Until then, *Israel’s situation will not change. They will have no human king until then. (Look at Micah 4:9-10.)

But then God would begin to establish his kingdom (rule). He would establish it in the lives of his people. And in the end, the result would be that *Israel’s people would return to God. The *Messiah would be king over the whole earth. And the nations would be at peace.

We now understand that these wonderful things did not happen immediately after the *Messiah’s birth. First, the *Messiah had to suffer the punishment for people’s *sins (Isaiah chapter 53; Psalms 22). Since then, God has been patient. He is waiting for people to trust him (2 Peter 3:8-9).

Micah said that the *Messiah would lead Zion’s (Jerusalem’s) new kingdom (government). At first, this had a *spiritual meaning. The kingdom would consist of the people that believe in the *Messiah. They are both *Jews and those that are not *Jews. Their relationship to the *Messiah would be like a family relationship. And it would have a link to what had happened in time. It would also be a *spiritual relationship. The *Israelites had been prisoners in a foreign country. But they would not be prisoners any longer. They would return to be together with the other true members of *Israel’s people. ‘Return’ here means something *spiritual. It means that they ‘come back’ to God. In other words, they start to obey him again. They leave behind their *sin and its effects. They go to be together with the other true *Israelites, the people that trust the *Messiah.

But ‘return’ also has a physical meaning. God has provided a home for the *Jews in *Israel. And in the end, he will rule as king there.

Christ (the *Messiah) started this process in an upstairs room in Jerusalem. There, 120 people that were his ‘brothers’ (people that believed in him) had gathered together because of him. Those were the few people that he had chosen. Christ then sent his Holy Spirit to them. From that time, those few people started to change the world (Luke 3:16; Acts chapter 2). Those few people were the first of the *remnant that is the true *Israelites.

Christ will complete this process in the future. Only God knows when Christ will return. But he will return with great power. He will return to rule as king from Jerusalem. And that is when the whole *remnant returns to *Israel’s people and to *Israel’s God.

v4 Then the Ruler of *Israel will stand. He will stand in the *LORD’s power. Like a *shepherd, he will feed his sheep. (In other words, the Ruler will take care of his people.) He will feed them in the strength of the *LORD God. His people will have a good, safe home. The people on the whole Earth will then know how great the Ruler really is.