Micah 5:10–15
10 5:10And in that day, declares the LORD,
I will cut off your horses from among you
and will destroy your chariots;
11 5:11and I will cut off the cities of your land
and throw down all your strongholds;
12 5:12and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;
13 5:13and I will cut off your carved images
and your pillars from among you,
and you shall bow down no more
to the work of your hands;
14 5:14and I will root out your Asherah images from among you
and destroy your cities.
15 5:15And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance
on the nations that did not obey.
Section Overview
The formulaic beginning “In that day, declares the LORD” clearly links this oracle with its companion in 4:6–7, with exactly the same terminology beginning both sections. Thus this final oracle represents the completion of the entire section (4:6–5:15), which is essentially detailing how the temple will become the supreme and central place in the world, where the will of God will be paramount and peace will reign. Thus there is now a shift from the remnant and a prayer for the destruction of enemies, to a final answer to that prayer: the destruction of everything that is in implacable opposition to God. Indeed, the word “destroy” is the dominating theme of this entire text (5:10–15). Verbs indicating destruction occur eight times in these six verses, recurring with great rapidity and intensity in order to convey comprehensive destruction.
Section Outline
Response
The final work of the Messiah is depicted here. In order to bring peace to the world, he will use violence—not for the sake of violence itself but because sometimes violent injustice may be ended only with violent justice. “God’s use of violence, inevitable in a violent world, is intended to subvert human violence in order to bring the creation along to a point where violence is no more.”1
This text, and this whole section in which it is embedded, also stresses the importance of complete trust in Yahweh. It describes how items of false hope, whether in terms of military might (5:10–11) or of idolatry (5:12–14), will be utterly destroyed. It also emphasizes that salvation will come only through Yahweh (4:1–5, 6–7, 8–10, 11–13; 5:1–4, 5–6, 7, 8, 9–14). It is thus complete folly to trust in anything or anyone else.2
The Christian church is always in danger of trusting in its own strength (budgets, programs, strategies), seeking wisdom and knowledge from extrabiblical sources (pundits, politicians, and experts), or replacing the living God with idols (leaders, buildings, traditions). But these represent a failure to trust in the living God and his Holy Spirit. For the church to be an effective witness to the outside world, it always stands in need of reformation. The NT makes it clear that God disciplines his church in order to refine it, that it might be the light it needs to be, to shine amid the surrounding world. Thus, e.g., Corinthian believers were dying because of their partaking of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner (1 Cor. 11:28–30).
Discipline may not be pleasant, but it is necessary for the church and its witness to the nations (Heb. 12:5–11). Indeed, some of the last words of Jesus to his churches in Revelation are words of rebuke and discipline (Rev. 2:4, 14–16; 3:19). These churches were to be lights shining in the dark to a needy world (Rev. 1:20), but Christ threatened to remove them unless they repented (Rev. 2:5). With repentance and reformation, however, they could become beacons lighting up the darkness, waiting in hope for that day in which God’s light would light up the entire world (Rev. 21:23).