Devotion: Gospel Gems from the Old Testament— Micah 4:13 By Tom Nass Studying the Bible can be compared to hiking in a beautiful nature park. In a nature park, there usually are specially marked sights of particular beauty that everyone stops to see. In Yellowstone Park, for example, everyone enjoys "Old Faithful." But sometimes when you're off the main path on a back road, you can find sights seemingly just as beautiful as the specially marked sights. So in Bible study, there are passages of particular beauty that everyone stops to enjoy. Rightly, everyone appreciates John 3:16, for example. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." But when one takes the time to travel the back roads of the Bible, in books like the prophet Micah, one finds many more passages that are memorable and practical for our life today. There are treasures on every page of God's Word. This is what makes Bible study exciting in all its parts. This Old Testament gospel gem is such a passage. I don't expect that it is familiar to many if any of us. But it has a wonderful message. Listen to Micah 4:13. "Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion, for I will give you horns of iron; I will give you hoofs of bronze and you will break to pieces many nations. You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth." This prophecy from Micah has the picture of an ox threshing. Threshing was the way in antiquity that people would separate grain from chaff. In antiquity a farmer would cut his ripened grain and transport it to a threshing floor. A threshing floor was sort of like a modern tennis court—a flat, smooth area. There the farmer would trample or smash the grain to knock the heads of grain free from the chaff. Often he would use an ox for this. Sometimes he would have an ox or other animal pull a "threshing sledge." After pounding the grain to remove the heads, he would throw the chaff into the air to have it blow away in the afternoon breeze. Then the grain would fall to the ground to be gathered and used. In this prophecy God says that the people of Zion or Jerusalem will be like an ox trampling on the threshing floor. In this capacity, the people of Zion will have great power, because God will give them an iron horn and bronze hoofs. But remarkably, what Zion will be trampling on the threshing floor will be "many nations." Simply put, this is a prophecy that the people of Jerusalem will conquer other nations in the future. It's an aggressive, militaristic prophecy. Though Zion or Jerusalem will be defeated and destroyed, as is predicted in chapter 3 of Micah's prophecy, Zion will rise again, and in the end Zion will be victorious over its enemies.

Now of course, we ask, "What is this referring to?" As we look at the history of Jerusalem and its residents, we don't see that it was fulfilled literally. After the Babylonian captivity, the city of Jerusalem certainly was rebuilt. But in the return from exile and the subsequent years, we don't see any glorious military victories. We don't know of any occasion when people from many nations surrounded Jerusalem, and Jerusalem won a great victory.

It's been common among Lutheran expositors, therefore, to understand this as a prophecy of the evangelism outreach and the mission expansion of the New Testament church. The New Testament church is the "new Jerusalem" or "Zion." When Christians preach the law and the gospel, they conquer unbelievers, so to speak, when unbelievers are converted to Christ. Then these new converts bring their abilities and resources and devote them to the Lord and to the work of the church. Here then is a passage in which God rouses believers to get busy with the work of missions. "Rise and thresh," he says. Then he goes on to promise that he will give us the special power we need, and he promises success. He says we will "break to pieces many nations," and they people will "devote . . their wealth to the Lord of all the earth." Our People's Bible commentary says that this verse is the Old Testament equivalent of Matthew 28: "Go and make disciples of all nations . . . Surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age." And when Micah says that the Lord gives us an "iron horn" and "hoofs of bronze," it's no secret what this special power is. Our power is alone the gospel, in word and sacrament. It's the message of God's Son come to earth to redeem us from our sins through his life, death, and resurrection. Paul says, "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). Again, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believers" (Romans 1:16). With this message the church goes forward boldly and conquers. I still remember a little of how the discussion went at this point when we were studying this verse in our MLC classroom. The classroom is just across the way in the upper corner of the other building. There were about 23 pastor students, one year away from the seminary. I asked, "If you find yourself someday on an airplane flying to someplace like Thailand, or Brazil, or Zambia, because you've accepted a call to be a world missionary, how are you going to feel?" Well, the discussion came around to something like this: Unlike any other occupation on earth, we as church workers can go into our work with the confidence that God has promised to give us power and success in our work. The promises of God encourage us and keep us going. They give us the inner strength to accept challenging assignments and to go forward boldly. To say it another way, the person flying to Nigeria to sell computers for IBM doesn't have any promise from God that he will be successful in his assignment. Certainly if he is a Christian, he knows God is with him. But he has no promise about the success of his work. The person flying to China to set up a McDonald's restaurant doesn't have any promise from God that such a business will make money. However, the Christian missionary goes with this promise from God. He knows God will be with him and will give him power and success. Now of course, a passage like this doesn't mean that mission work always goes easy or that it accomplishes large numerical gains in every location. We all know that this world is the devil's playground. Jesus said, "Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:14). He said about the last days, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold" (Matthew 24:12). We don't operate under the false banner of some theology of glory. Yet there are passages like this that do predict success for the spread of the gospel. Revelation 7 describes a great multitude in heaven "that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language" (Revelation 7:9). Isaiah 60 says that nations will come to the brightness of Christ's light. Here Micah 4 says we should "Rise and thresh" because we will "break to pieces many nations." Some may wonder, where does this leave us? I remember hearing a Lutheran teacher once explain the proper attitude for a New Testament Christian engaged in the Lord's work. He described it as "realistic optimism." We are realistic. We know it's an uphill battle against fierce enemies. Yet the church on earth is the "church militant" and not the "church pessimistic." We know that Christ has won the ultimate victory. We know he rules everything in heaven and earth for the good of his church. He has promised to give power to us in our work, and has promised success. There is no reason to be timid, hesitant, defeated, or fainthearted. We can go forward with our work with all boldness and confidence, with a realistic optimism. God says to us, "Arise and thresh . . . for I will give you horns of iron; I will give you hoofs of bronze and you will break to pieces many nations."

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