We are pressing on in our review of Micah to see what he has to say about Bethlehem.

Now Israel is going through bad times, morally,
politically, and internationally.

Micah is protesting all this wickedness in his prophecies, and he has said early that these things will cause Judah and Israel to be destroyed. Then he points out in Mic 4:1-2 that what seems to be a new law (and it was) going forth from Jerusalem. It did in the first century of the Christian age. Then he says that this will lead to end of all wars (but that is really only in the world to come). Then he drops back to talk about what will yet happen to Israel and Judah.

So how will these things turn out for a
Judah and an Israel that is to be
destroyed because
of their sins?

Vivid pictures of a future peace and prosperity are in Micah 4:4. Then it goes on to say that God says,

“6 “In that day,” says Yahweh,
“I will assemble that which is lame,
And I will gather that which is driven away,
And that which I have afflicted;
7 And I will make that which was lame a remnant,
And that which was cast far off a strong nation:
And Yahweh will reign over them on Mount Zion from then on, even forever. ”
Mic 4:6-7

Micah foretold the destruction of both Israel and Judah in Mic 1:6-9. Here then Micah says God will take some of the survivors, the lame, those who have been driven away, those God has afflicted and cast off, and make them a strong nation! Then it says Yahweh Himself will reign over them “even forever.”

Now it is clearly said in more than one prophecy that Jesus will reign forever over Jacob/Israel/Judah.

“33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his kingdom.””
Lk1:33

Without discussing all of the issues of both Jerusalem below and Jerusalem above, it is easy to see thatl a few survivors did come back from the destructions around 586 BC, and we see the survivors in the Bible books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and Haggi and Zechariah and Malachi.

But there are problems here.

You see they never became a really mighty nation with Yahweh Himself ruling over them. Shall we record this as a failed prophecy? Many would and do. Even so, Jesus says, Scripture cannot be broken, Jn 10:35.

So Micah pictures some Jewish survivors of catastrophe that are lame and weak and dispersed, whom God rescues and makes into a nation and reigns over them forever! And it has’t happened yet, so it has to happen.

Zechariah, who was with the survivors in Ezra and Nehemiah, says there will be a second dispersal of the Jews (which clearly happened in 70 AD), and a second regathering Israel, Zech 10:9-10. Also Isaiah, speaking before the first regathering, speaks of a second regathering, Isa 11:1.

So this gathering of the lame and the afflicted, and making them
a “strong nation,” is yet to come.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901