Micah 5:7-9
7 The remnant of Jacob will be
in the midst of many peoples
like dew from the Lord,
like showers on the grass,
which do not wait for anyone
or depend on man.
8 The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations,
in the midst of many peoples,
like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
like a young lion among flocks of sheep,
which mauls and mangles as it goes,
and no one can rescue.
9 Your hand will be lifted up in triumph over your enemies,
and all your foes will be destroyed.
What do the morning dew and a hungry young lion have in common? It sounds like it ought to be the lead-in to a joke! Initially, we might read these verses and think: ‘I don’t know. What do the morning dew and a young lion have in common’! It’s hard to imagine two more different things. One of them is calm and tranquil, the other terrifyingly destructive. What does Micah mean by saying that ‘the remnant of Jacob’ - that is, the people who God will rescue out of the coming judgement - is like both of those things at the same time? Fortunately, he gives us some clues…. The dew ‘does not wait for anyone or depend on man’ The emphasis is not on how lovely a field of water droplets looks, sparking in the first light of dawn, ready to be captured and shared on Instagram. Rather, it’s on the fact that dew is sent by the Lord. It’s out of our control. You could stand there with your watering can, sprinkling the grass if you wanted to, but it wouldn’t be producing dew or rain. Only God can do that.
Similarly, we might think all kinds of things when we picture a lion running wild through a flock of sheep, but the thing Micah wants to focus our attention on is how unstoppable the damage is. There is no-one to rescue the sheep. The lion is completely able to overpower and consume them and there’s no way that the sheep can stand against him. From what we’ve heard in this book so far, we might be expecting the lion to represent the enemies who God is using to judge his people, and God’s people to be the sheep. But actually it’s the opposite. It is the remnant who are like a lion. Micah is looking beyond the Assyrian invasion to the deliverance that was promised in yesterday’s verses. Yes - destruction is coming on God’s people, and they will be invaded and exiled. But afterwards, the promised shepherd-king is going to turn the tables and his sheep will become lions, sharing in the Lord’s ultimate triumph over his enemies. God’s opponents, who now seem too strong to be defeated will, in the end, be shown to be as weak as a lamb in the jaws of a hungry predator. This might all sound a bit bloodthirsty to those of us whose lives currently feel fairly secure. But those whose lives are daily threatened by the presence of God’s enemies, such as our persecuted brothers and sisters, would be cheering the arrival of the lion on the scene. And perhaps all of us ought to long more intensely for the day when sin, death and the devil are destroyed for good. So today, let’s praise God that his victory over them is assured because of the cross.
