Micah 4:3-4
3 He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into ploughshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war any more.
4 Everyone will sit under their own vine
and under their own fig-tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
for the Lord Almighty has spoken.
As I write this, the news is full of death and destruction. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been driven off the front pages by fighting in Gaza. There are thought to be more than 100 armed conflicts ongoing across the world in 2023, many of which don’t even register in Western news media. Many of these conflicts have been going on for decades. We don’t seem to know how to bring about lasting peace. And so we long for the situation described in these verses, where a perfectly wise judge settles disputes between nations so well that peace is permanent. In fact, the defence budget can safely be cut to zero and the entire military can retrain as gardeners, recycling their weapons into tools that create rather than destroy.
I don’t think that the picture of everyone under their own tree is meant to present being antisocial as a virtue. These people aren’t deliberately choosing to ignore their neighbours! Instead, I think it’s meant to be a contrast to the situation described in earlier chapters, where people’s land was being stolen by their own countrymen, and where they faced losing it altogether to an invasion by Assyria. Here we get a picture of what it would be like to have both those threats removed, so that the people could live in safety and security. It’s a picture of blessing, expressed in language that would be really vivid for the people of Micah’s day.
We might not long for our own vine or fig-tree, but we can still appreciate what it would be like to live in a permanent state of security. No more tiptoeing round the explosive anger of a colleague, neighbour, or family member. No more fear of what the future might hold. No more feeling powerless when what we have worked for gets snatched away because of an accident, illness or act of evil. When we live forever in the New Creation, where the Prince of Peace rules unopposed, no one will make us afraid any more. Let’s praise him for that today.
