In this series of posts, we’re verifying Peter’s words—all the prophets foretold his generation (Acts 3:24). We have confirmed that Moses, Samuel, Obadiah, Joel, Amos, Jonah, and Hosea did so and that their prophecies fit well in our inmillennial model of prophecy.1
In our last post, we saw that Micah, too, spoke of the “last days” of the Mosaic age.2 In approximately 735–700 BC, he foretold God’s judgments against Israel and Judah, which came in 722 BC and 587 BC, respectively. A darkness over Israel would follow (Mic 3:6–7). When God finished judging His Mosaic-age people, the temple would lie in ruins (Mic 3:12).
Micah showed these judgments would result in the Lord establishing His house in Zion during Israel’s “latter days” (Mic 4:1–5). Not the latter days of the church age or planet Earth, and not at the end of history. Instead, God would build His house in the “latter days” of the temple.
In this post, I will examine three directions in Micah’s prophecy about God’s house.
The House Goes Up
In the “latter days” of the Mosaic age, the house of the Lord would go up (Mic 4:1). This event would complete a crucial cycle: God’s decree of judgment from His temple in heaven (Mic 1:2), the fall of His house in Jerusalem (Mic 3:12), and the building of His new temple (or house) (Mic 4:1).
The contrast between the first house on Zion and the second house on Zion could hardly be more significant. The first falls; the second goes up, established “forever and ever” (Mic 4:5).
The apostles in Peter’s generation revealed that this house is the church. Paul, for example, tells Timothy how he ought to conduct himself “in the house of God, which is the church of the living God” (1 Tim 3:15). Again, Peter says New Testament Christians are living stones in God’s spiritual house (1 Pet 2:4–5). Local churches are the house of God Micah described.
Paul stressed the superiority of the messianic-age house to the Mosaic-age one. He said the up-building of God’s house occurred in his generation—in Israel’s “last days” (Heb 1:1–2). He then said,
This One [Christ] has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.… Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.(Heb 3:3–6)
Micah linked the coming of the messianic-age house to the coming of the kingdom (Mic 4:1, 7–8). The Lord Jesus said he was fulfilling that promise: He was building His church and giving the keys of the kingdom to Peter and the apostles (Matt 16:18–19) in Peter’s generation.
In Peter’s day, the apostles had the power to remove the old temple mountain (Matt 21:18–23). They did so, and in the same period, God brought His people to the new temple mount (Heb 12:18–29).
As the old temple was falling, the new one was going up.
The Nations Go In
In the “latter days” of the Mosaic age, the nations would come into the house of God (Mic 4:1–2b). Of course, they must recognize the identity of the new house before they go to it. Micah will show us how that works in a moment.
First, let’s notice the nations would come to the house of God to learn His ways, especially how to live in peace (Mic 3:3–4).
This fact lends urgency to the apostles’ appeals for unity. They knew that the churches they were establishing comprised the new house of God. So, they admonished the church members to live in peace. Paul, for example, says, “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor 1:10).
Why? Because the local church is the laboratory where God shows the nations how to live in peace through the power of the Holy Spirit. In this house, humans submit to His reign over them (Mic 4:5–7). How will the nations learn to live in peace if we fail to do so ourselves?
We Gentiles (the “nations”) started coming into the messianic-age house of God in the “latter days” of the Mosaic age—in Peter’s generation. Let us learn the house lessons.
The Law Goes Out
In the “latter days” of the Mosaic age, the law and word of God would go out of the house of God (Mic 4:2).
We should not separate what God has joined: the building up of the Lord’s house, the coming in of the nations, and the going out of the law create a harmonious whole! As I mentioned above, Micah said the nations would learn about the house of God because of the law going out of it.
The New Testament clarifies an important point: this law that goes out from the house of God is “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1–2). It is the gospel of the kingdom (Mic 4:8; cp. Matt 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; Mark 1:14), but it is also the “gospel of peace” (Rom 10:15; Eph 6:15). The gospel that goes from the church combines the elements—law and peace—of Micah’s prophecy.
The book of Acts shows how this process works. The church members at Jerusalem “went everywhere preaching the word.” Philip, for example, preached “the things concerning the kingdom of God” to the Samaritans (Acts 8:4, 12). They gathered those who believed the gospel into churches, and these churches sent out missionaries to preach the kingdom in other areas (e.g., Acts 13:1–3).
The nations learn to come into the churches of Christ (Rom 16:16) to learn peace because the gospel of the kingdom goes out from those churches.
Conclusion
This process—the building up of the Lord’s house, the nations coming into it, and the gospel going out from it—started a new age. Before these events happened, the Lord’s house was in Jerusalem during the Mosaic age. In the messianic age, the church is the house of God, and she is “in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).
Let those of us who are local church members pray and work to bring the nations, including our neighbors, into God’s house. Let us realize God brings His elect in by “the law … and the word of the LORD” going out from us (Mic 4:2; cp. 2 Thess 2:13).
Blessed be His glorious name!
Footnotes
- Please consider becoming familiar with the inmillennial view of prophecy. You can read a summary version here or tackle the full book-length version here. The title of the book—Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days—hints at the reason for my suggestion. This model says the “last days” are identical to Peter’s “these days”; both terms refer to the “last days” of the Mosaic age. This perspective will shed light on the prophets as we work through them.
- Also, consider watching the sermon I preached about this material at Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church in Opelika, AL, on September 10, 2023. You can watch it here.
