God preserves a remnant in Zion

Micah 2:12-13 God preserves a remnant in Zion


12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
I will gather the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together
like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture,
a noisy multitude of men.
13 He who opens the breach goes up before them;
they break through and pass the gate,
going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
the Lord at their head.

The book’s first section ends with an oracle of hope consisting of two parts: God’s promise (12) and Micah’s prophecy (13). 12 Israel’s Shepherd–King will gather... bring together the remnant of Israel who survived the Assyrian invasion (see 1:8-16) in a pen (a picture of the security of Zion). The reality behind the figure is Sennacherib’s blockade of Jerusalem in 701 BC. The difficult Hebrew text behind the second half of the verse should be rendered, ‘Like a flock in its pasture they [the remnant] shall be thrown into confusion with no man [i.e. the king] to protect them’.

    13 Micah unfolds the three subsequent stages of the remnant’s salvation. First, the one who breaks open the way (a title for Israel’s Shepherd–King) will go up to battle before them. Secondly, they will break through the blockaded gate of Jerusalem (see 1:9, 12). Thirdly, their king (better, ‘King’) will pass through before them, assuming his rightful position at their head. The first two stages were fulfilled in the Lord’s miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from the invading Assyrians (see the Introduction). The third stage, as will become clearer both within the book (see, e.g. 5:1-6) and in the unfolding revelation of the NT (see, e.g. Col. 1:18-20), finds its fulfilment in Christ and his church.