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Micah 7:14-17 Prophetic dialogue - Day 336

Good afternoon fellow strangers and exiles,

As we finish another one of the minor prophets, we must never think of them as insignificant.  I hope you are encouraged to use reference material in your reading, especially in the prophets.

Blessings,

Jeff

From Reformation Study Bible notes:

7:8-20. This concluding hymn consists of four stanzas: (a) Lady Jerusalem in her fallen status confesses her sin and her faith in the Lord (vv. 8-10); (b) the prophet promises that she will become a sheepfold offering salvation to the world under judgment (vv. 11-13); (c) Micah prays that the Lord will again miraculously shepherd His people (v. 14), which the Lord promises to do (v. 15), and Micah then prophesies that the unbelieving enemy will be conquered (vv. 16, 17); and (d) the people celebrate God’s forgiveness and faithfulness with a hymn of praise (vv. 18-20). 

I think I have mentioned that one of the challenges of reading prophetic literature is that it is sometime hard to tell who is speaking and to whom they are speaking.  This is one good reason to have a study bible.  

But once you look at notes, don't just take their word for it.  Look at the passage and see if the note makes sense.

v14 - Israel has had many kings, priests and prophets as shepherds.  Some good and some not so much.  But ultimately God is their shepherd and He is always good.  For the purely human shepherds, the flock was not their inheritance.    But the saints of all generations are God's inheritance.  The saints get salvation from God and God gets the saints as His inheritance.  So it makes sense that this is Micah asking the Lord to shepherd Israel.

v15 I will - not Micah, but the Lord's response.  Micah was not around when the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt.  God responding to Micah's request in v14

v16 - 17 Clearly a description of how surrounding nations will respond to what God promises to do in v15.  Makes sense that the prophet is again speaking and giving this future condition.

Of course, the remaining difficulty is does this refer to some future state of the Jewish nation or does it refer to the church..  I believe that it is a beautiful picture of how the Good Shepherd came for all his flock in first advent and the response of the nations to His second advent.

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