It commonly true that whatever our expectations are of the future, will have a tendency to alter our behavior. An everyday example is the weather. If we think it might snow today, we will probably dress differently. Most of us will not be wearing Bermuda shorts or tank tops. It might mean we will take a coat along, and maybe a hat and some gloves.

On the other hand, if we are expecting 90 degree Fahrenheit temperatures today, coats and insulated pants will not probably come to mind, and few or none will make a point to drag them along wherever we are going. Expectations of what we think will happen commonly changes behavior.

Prophecy is INTENDED to change behavior.

It should never be considered as anything less than something intended to change expectations and thus behavior, so that we maybe better prepared for those things which are to come.

Micah chapter one has a dramatic description of
the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

“2 Hear, you peoples, all of you.
Listen, O earth, and all that is therein:
And let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you,
The Lord from his holy temple.
3 For, behold, Yahweh comes forth out of his place,
And will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.
4 The mountains melt under him,
And the valleys split apart,
Like wax before the fire,
Like waters that are poured down a steep place.”
Mic 1:2-4

Listen O earth it says. God is coming from His Holy temple to tread on the mountains of the earth, and the mountains and valley’s will melt like wax. God is coming to witness against us it says. But then comes the next verse, relating all of this to the sins of Jerusalem and Samaria in the 8th century BC.

“All this is for the disobedience of Jacob,
And for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the disobedience of Jacob?
Isn’t it Samaria?
And what are the high places of Judah?
Aren’t they Jerusalem?”
Mic 1:5

Ho! Ho! Ho! says the scoffing scholar.

What does this have to do with Judah and Israel of the 8th century BC? They would say this is merely metaphorical language expressing the Yahweh’s displeasure at their sins, and it symbolic of the desolations which will come down on them for their wrongs in the 8th century BC, so many would say.

Still, IF God was indeed personally coming from heaven to face men with their sins, and cause the mountains to melt, and MAKE MEN TO FACE THEIR SINS …?

That SHOULD change behavior!

Would it not?

And the men of Judah and Samaria WILL BE THERE
on that day, as will you and me!

Judah and Samaria’s sins did produce evil results in their days, as our sins also do today, and tomorrow and the next day. We will ALL be there somewhere on great and terrible day of the Lord, when the days of this present amnesty is over.

Further that should, and it is meant to, alter our behavior, our ethics.

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