In this enlightening episode of ADDBIBLE, we delve into Micah Chapter 4, exploring the profound prophecies that promise peace and restoration. Join us as the passages reveal a future where nations unite in harmony under divine leadership. Allen J. Huth bridges these sacred scriptures with his personal reflections from decades of Bible study, providing a nuanced understanding of how such visions apply to us today. Listeners will find comfort and hope in the prophecy of nations turning war into peace, as echoed through various readings and interpretations of Allen’s journals from 1991 to 2015. Witness his journey with scripture
00:09:49 Alan’s Personal Story and Journey with the Bible
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to ADDBIBLE, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Allen J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
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Today we are in chapter 4 of the book of Micah. We’ll listen to the 13 verses as read by Faith Comes by Hearing, Micah chapter 4.
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Micah 4 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills, and people shall flow to it, and many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples and shall decide for strong nations far away. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” But they shall sit, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk each in the name of its God, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. In that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted. And the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation. And the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore. And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem. Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished that pain seized you like a woman in labor? Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country. You shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion. But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord. They do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron and I will make your hooves bronze. You shall beat in pieces many peoples and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.
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Back in 1991, I read Micah 4 and 5 on the same day. I only had a note on Micah 5, so let’s go on to the next journal. In 2006, I read Micah 4 and 5 together, and I wrote in my journal, Many call for peace on earth. It will happen when Jesus reigns from Jerusalem. And I quoted chapter 4 verses 3 through 4. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will they train for war. Each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree with no one to make them afraid. For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. And in 2015, I also read Micah 4 and 5 together, and I wrote in my 2015 journal, There will come a day when Israel will be restored, and peoples from the earth will come and look to Israel for instruction, the law and the word of the Lord. And I continue to write, God will bring peace and finally no more war. Quoting that verse 3 again. And then I went on. Yet people still come against the Lord because they do not know the thoughts of the Lord. They do not understand his plan. And that was quoting verse 12. And they will be defeated. Verse 13. And that ends my journal entry for 2015. In chapter 4 Micah is prophesying and he’s prophesying about the end times. We know that because these things have not happened yet. Let’s begin with verses 1 and 2. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and it shall be lifted up above the hills. and people shall flow to it, and many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Certainly in history, some of these things have occurred. But the biggest part of all this is yet to come. I can’t wait for the day when many nations come to Jerusalem. They say, come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. And out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Again, these things have occurred in history, but the day will come when the Lord himself will reign from Jerusalem, and these things will come to pass. Imagine a day with no more war. That has certainly not happened yet. But verse 3 says, Mankind has always known war. The study of history reveals war after war after war, but there will come a day when we will learn war no more. Hallelujah. Verse 4 tells us what that day will be like, when every man will sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. Again, we long for that day when no one is afraid anymore, when there’s actually peace on earth. Verse 5 says, I certainly hope you are part of the we’s. The we’s that walk in the name of the Lord our God now and forevermore but before these things happen Micah declares that Israel will be judged let’s look at verse 10 it says writhe and groan o daughter of Zion like a woman in labor for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country and you shall go to Babylon yes god judged his people then yes he will judge his people today And the Israelites were taken captive and exiled into Babylon. They were removed from the very land God had promised them. And though the Babylonian captivity did occur in Israel’s history, this is a chapter of hope for Micah because that verse continues, There you shall be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. The chapter continues. Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion. But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord. They do not understand his plan. And the chapter closes with this verse. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze. You shall beat in pieces many peoples and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth. So again, yes, Israel will be taken captive in Babylon, but they will be delivered. They will have the victory. What’s our application from Micah chapter 4? A couple of things. First of all, there will be peace on earth. It will come when Jesus reigns from Jerusalem. But until then, you may be battling, you may be afraid, you may be in the midst of a crisis, much like Jerusalem was at this time. Though you may feel that the enemy has beaten you down, you might think that he’s won a victory, just like Babylon did capture Israel. Though you may be down for the moment, you are not down for the count. God is still in the delivery business. He delivered Israel. He delivered Jerusalem. He can deliver you. Father, we thank you for the hope in Micah chapter 4. We thank you that we can look toward a day when there will be peace on earth. But until that time, we fight the battle each and every day. And sometimes the enemy seems to win. But you remind us in this chapter to not give up. that you will restore relationships, and you can restore us if we cry out to you. So I pray for any who seem to be defeated at the moment. Lord, lift them up. Remind them that you are the God of restoration. Restore their hearts, their souls, their lives, even this day. Give them hope in you. In Jesus’ name, amen. Thanks for listening to ADDBIBLE today. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war. So he was never home. So we took the car that day. Neither one of us with a driver’s license. And we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour. And he lost control of the car. We began to spin and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car, 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. The sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities. And I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control. But God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf, get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time, at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did, was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader.
