Micah 5:1-6 The birth and exaltation of the Messiah

The Ruler to Be Born in Bethlehem

5:1  [1] Now muster your troops, O daughter [2] of troops;
siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike the judge of Israel
on the cheek.
2  [3] But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return
to the people of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
5 And he shall be their peace.

When the Assyrian comes into our land
and treads in our palaces,
then we will raise against him seven shepherds
and eight princes of men;
6 they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;
and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian
when he comes into our land
and treads within our border.

The focus now shifts from renewed Zion to the renewed house of David. The oracle is framed by a reference to Micah and the remnant with him in the first person plural (‘we’ and ‘us’) as they endure the Assyrian invasions.
    1 ‘Now’ (unfortunately omitted by the NIV) links this oracle with the preceding (9, 11); all of them begin with the present distress (1) and move to salvation (2-6). To fortify spiritually the blockaded city Micah commands: Marshal your troops, O city of troops. The siege... laid against us is Sennacherib’s blockade in 701 BC (cf. 1:9, 12; 2:12-13; 4:11). They [the Assyrian horde] strike Israel’s ruler [Hezekiah] on the cheek with a rod (‘sceptre’), showing that he has no defences of his own, even as God’s enemies later struck the greater Son of David to humiliate him (Mt. 26:67; 27:26, 30).
    2 The word But shifts the scene from besieged Jerusalem to Bethlehem, Israel’s future hope. Like the personification in 4:8, God addresses Bethlehem directly. The names, Bethlehem Ephrathah and Judah, recall the days of Jesse, David’s father (cf. 1 Sa. 17:12). God is about to start all over again. David’s decadent line will be cut down like a dead tree but, as Isaiah expressed it, ‘a shoot [the Messiah] will come up from the stump of Jesse’ (Is. 11:1). Though ancient Bethlehem was small (‘least’; cf. Jdg. 6:15; 1 Sa. 9:21) among the clans of Judah (and even omitted from the extensive lists of Judah’s towns in Jos. 15:33-60) today it has achieved universal acclaim through Christ’s birth, which was itself as inauspicious as Bethlehem was before his birth (cf. 1 Sa. 16:1-13). Matthew (2:6) interprets the verse to emphasize Jesus Christ as ruler, not as one of Jesse’s descendants. He omits ‘Ephrathah’, changes ‘clans’ to ‘rulers’ thereby forming a better contrast with ‘ruler over Israel’, rightly explains the text’s intention by adding ‘by no means least’, and replaces the end of the verse with 2 Sa. 5:2.
    In contrast to Israel’s self–serving rulers (cf. 3:1-4), the Messiah will come for me (i.e. for God’s advantage, not his own). The veiled reference to the Messiah’s historical roots, through the allusions to Jesse by the names at the beginning of the verse, is unveiled at the end of the verse: his origins are from of old, from ancient times, referring to the times of Jesse. The Hebrew behind from ancient means from ‘the remotest times’, ‘from time immemorial’ (‘long ago’ in Jos. 24:2; Je. 2:20) when used with reference to some historical event; when it is used of God, who existed before creation, ‘everlasting’ is an appropriate translation (e.g. Ps. 90:2). The addition of times (lit. ‘days’) shows this to be a historical reference. The full phrase is rendered ‘as in days long ago’ in 7:14, 20.
    3 From the promise that Zion’s new age will be inaugurated with the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem, Micah concludes that Israel will be abandoned without a human king until she who is in labour gives birth (see 4:9-10) to the Messiah. The prophecy found fulfilment about 700 years later through the faithful Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, Joseph and, above all, Mary (Lk. 1:5-2:40; cf. Is. 7:14). The [p. 821] nucleus of Zion’s new kingdom centring on the Messiah consists of the rest of his brothers, who are related to him not only by blood and history but also in spirit. They return (a word that signifies conversion) from their captivity to sin and judgment to join the true Israelites (a term that has a religious meaning). Having gathered the elect remnant, Christ inaugurated his kingdom from heavenly Zion when he sent the Holy Spirit on the brothers gathered in the upper room, and they turned the world upside–down (Lk. 3:16; Acts 2).
    4 The reigning Messiah will stand (i.e. endure forever; cf. Ps. 33:11; Is. 14:24) and shepherd his flock, providing for their every need, including spiritual food, and protecting them (Jn. 10; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4). Through faith he will rule in the strength of the LORD, not through human engineering and manipulation (cf. 5:10-15). His subjects will live securely for, conquering Satan (Mt. 12:22-29; Rom. 16:20), he will extend his kingdom to the ends of the earth (4:3-4; Mt. 28:18-20; Jn 17:2). Christ gives his elect people eternal life and no–one can snatch them from his hands (Jn 10:28).
    5-6 The theme that Christ’s universal rule secures the peace of his kingdom is now elaborated. Micah uses we, our and us (see above) to identify himself and the faithful with him as part of that triumphant kingdom (see 5:1). He surrounds this conclusion with the promises that the Messiah will be their peace (5a) and he will deliver us (6b). The Messiah will both defend his kingdom from enemy attack (5b) and rule over his enemies (6a).
    5 Micah refers to future attacks against the Messiah’s kingdom as being carried out by the Assyrians, who were destroyed in 612 BC, centuries before Christ’s advent. Prophets did not see the centuries that separated them from the fulfilment of their predictions but saw future happenings as imminent events on a flat tableau. Moreover, they described the future in terms drawn from their own experience (see 4:1; Is. 25:10; Am: 9:12). Under the Messiah’s rule the faithful community will raise up seven (the perfect number) shepherds (an image for protectors), even eight (i.e. more than enough) leaders (a rare word found in Sargon’s annals for his commanders).
6 They, the Messiah’s under–shepherds (cf. 1 Pet. 5:1-4), will rule the land of Assyria, which represents all the enemies of the kingdom of God especially the spiritual forces arrayed against it under its arch–enemy, Satan (Eph. 4:7-12; 6:10-18). The land of Nimrod is Babylon (Gn. 10:8-12), the Rome and Mecca of Micah’s pagan world. The mention of Babylon after Assyria supports the date in the book’s heading (1:1). In Micah’s time Babylon was subordinate to Assyria. The later Neo–Babylonian empire destroyed Assyria in 612 BC and was itself destroyed in 539. In the light of the NT the sword symbolizes God’s word ministered in the Holy Spirit.