Micah 4:1-4 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains… But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, etc. "The last days" is an expression frequently used in the Old Testament. It points to the future, beginning with the Christian dispensation and running on to its close. It means the times of the Messiah. The patriarchal times had passed away, the Mosaic epoch was on the wane, and would soon vanish. The times of the Messiah, or "the last days," would succeed, and run on to the end of time. This prophecy, with scarcely any variation, is found in Isaiah 2. Whether Isaiah borrowed it from Micah, or Micah from Isaiah, or both from some older prophecy, does not appear. One thing seems certain, that the prophecy has never yet been fulfilled in the history of the world, and that its accomplishment must be in some distant period - "the last days." It enables us to make certain remarks concerning the true religion of the gospel age. I. THE TRUE RELIGION OF THE GOSPEL AGE WILL BECOME A GREAT POWER, "The mountain of the house of the Lord." Referring particularly to the temple that was built on Mount Moriah, and called the mountain of the Lord's house. The temple was the greatest thing in the religion of the Jews; it was the "mountain" in their scenery. The true religion is to become a mountain. The little stone will become a mountain, and fill the whole earth. In truth, the true religion, where it exists, is the biggest thing. In the individual soul it is the largest thing. It is the dominant power, it is the mountain in the scenery of a good man's experience. Let all men possess it, and then it will be to the whole world what it is to the individual. In sooth, true religion is either everything or nothing; supremacy is its essence the supreme thought, the supreme love, the supreme aim. Two things are here stated about this mountain. 1. It is to become established. How is it to be established? By civil authority, legislative enactments? Our foolish forefathers have thought so, and many of the dolts of this generation think so too. But this to the last point is unphilosophic and absurd. The weakness of religion in Christendom today may be ascribed to the futile attempts of unwise and ambitious men to establish it by law. You may as well endeavour to govern the planetary universe by the ten commandments as to establish religion by civil laws. 2. It is to become conspicuous. "In the top of the mountains." It will be seen from afar - the most elevated power of the world. It will be the chief thing in the markets, professions, and governments of the world, high up on the top of all. II. THE TRUE RELIGION OF THE GOSPEL AGE WILL BECOME UNIVERSALLY ATTRACTIVE. "And people shall flow unto it." "This is a figurative expression, denoting that they shall be converted to the true religion. It indicates that they shall come in multitudes, like the flowing of a mighty river. The idea of the flowing of the nation is of the movement of many people towards an object like a broad stream on the tides of the ocean, and is one that is very grand and sublime" (Barnes). In this period the social element will be brought into lull play in connection with true religion. Men will stimulate each other to inquire after truth. "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord." 1. They will study its laws in order to obey them. "He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." In those good times that are coming, men will study God's ways, and not man's theories, and study these ways, not as a matter of intellectual speculation, but in order to obey them, to walk in his ways. Religion in those days will be practical; it will be the law of every one's life, the great regulative force of society. 2. They will study its laws at the fountainhead. "For the Law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Jerusalem was the fountainhead of Christianity. Christ commanded his disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until they should be endued with power from on high. There also he commanded that the first sermon should be preached, a sermon concerning repentance and remission of sins; and there Peter opened his commission in his wonderful Pentecostal discourse. In those days men will go for religious instruction, not to patristic, puritanic, Anglican, or any other theological school, but to the fountainhead, to Jerusalem, where it is fresh and pure, most potent in spiritual stimulation and suggestion. Men in these days have gone far away from the theology of Jerusalem. In that theology there are none of those miserable dogmas that are now preached, but facts concerning a Person, and that Person none other than the Son of man and the Son of God. III. THE TRUE RELIGION OF THE GOSPEL AGE WILL BECOME POWERFUL TO TERMINATE ALL WARS. 1. Here is the destruction of war. "Beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." The arts of war destroyed, in their stead will flourish the arts of peace. The sword and spear, what ills of immeasurable enormity they have inflicted upon the race! Implements of hell, instruments by which all the infernal passions of the human heart have been excited and gratified. War is antichrist. 2. Here is the establishment of peace. "Shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree." The words, "sit under his vine," are taken from 1 Kings 4:25, etc. Most incredible must this prediction have been to the men of Micah's time; but it will be accomplished, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. If he has spoken it and it does not come to pass, it must be for one of three reasons: (1) Insincerity; which cannot be entertained. (2) Change of purpose; which is equally inadmissible. (3) Unexpected difficulties; which is an absurdity when applied to Omniscience. - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. |
    |