Micah 5:9-15

Micah 5:9

Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.

 

One day the church will be triumphant over the enemies of Christ. That will be a time after the judgment of all the unbelievers and the enemies will be cut off, that is, never again will the believer see an enemy of God because they will all have been removed to eternal damnation after they have been judged.  It will become the greatest separation in history.  This cannot be speaking of the physical nation of Israel because the northern kingdom went into captivity and was never repatriated to the land.  Then Judah was also taken into captivity for 70 years but then brought back to the land.  When the Lord Jesus Christ went back to Heaven, 37 years later the nation of Israel was totally destroyed by the Romans.  So there is no way the physical nation of Israel would conquer any of their enemies because they never became a strong power after the time of Solomon, they just degenerated into apostasy.

 

Micah 5:10

And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:

 

Then in this verse Micah now reverts back to the situation at hand that the LORD is going take away from them their horses and the chariots.  The chariots were an implement of war which they might attempt to use the against the Assyrians and Babylonians.  They will become helpless before the enemies and will only be able to fight back with swords meaning hand to hand but that would also be futile because the decree of God has been declared and no matter what they do to resist, it will not work, it would only increase their hardship.

 

Micah 5:11

And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds:

 

Many of the citizens will attempt to flee to the cities which were prepared as strongholds but the LORD himself is going to cut off the cities and no matter how large the walls surrounding the fortified cities are, it will also be a futile effort.  They will try to trust in these fortifications but they will be unable to stop the invaders.

 

Micah 5:12

And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:

 

When Israel had gone into deep idolatry, one of the tenets of false religion was witchcraft basically those who had familiar spirits and used them to contact the dead and the spirit world which was the kingdom of Satan.  It should be noted that the idea of contacting the dead is a major deception because when spirits are contacted, they are really demons who imitate the one who has died.  So no one can actually contact a deceased person.  This is how King Saul was deceived when he went to the witch at Endor and they both believed that they conjured up Samuel.  No witch has the ability to bring someone out of Heaven.    A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.  (Leviticus 20:27)  Under the law any person who dabbled in the occult was to be stoned to death.  The soothsayers were the ones who divined or made false prophecies among the people telling them that days of prosperity were ahead and not captivity.

 

Micah 5:13

Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.

 

Then the land will also be cleansed of all the idols that they fashioned with their hands.  Many of those idols have been found today they are of Asheroth, Asherah, Moloch, Balaam, etc.  God warned Israel when they came out of Egypt that they were not to make any graven images.  {3} Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  {4} Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:  {5} Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;  (Exodus 20:3-5)  To destroy the images and the standing images was a sign that the god of the conqueror was stronger than the God of the vanquished.

 

{15} The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.  {16} They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;  {17} They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths.  {18} They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.  (Psalm 135:15-18)

 

{18} What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?  {19} Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.  (Habakkuk 2:18-19)

 

Micah 5:14

And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities.

 

The groves were places in the forests where they would place an altar to their false gods and would then worship them.  Many of these groves have been found and excavated and had the name of Baal on them or other false gods which were worshipped at those sites.  Back in Exodus 34, God gave Moses instructions that Israel was to destroy all the images, altars, and groves.  But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:  (Exodus 34:13)  Instead of destroying them, they built new ones for the false gods they chose to worship.  Not only would God destroy these groves but he also promised to destroy the cities of idolatry like Beth-el.  God also told Moses that they were to destroy the cities of idolatry including all those who practiced idolatry.  Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.  (Deuteronomy 13:15)  Instead of them obeying that command in perpetuity, they built their own cities of idolatry so God told then that he would destroy them himself.

 

Micah 5:15

And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.

 

Then God switches his attention to those heathen nations which have come against Israel, even those nations which God used to judge Israel and Judah.  Assyria would be conquered by Babylon which would be conquered by the Medes and Persians which would be conquered by the Greeks which would be conquered by the Romans.  Each of these kingdoms were considered to be invincible because of their great power and might, yet God brought an end to all of them in his timing.  The destruction of these kingdoms should be a warning to every country in the world that all their power cannot stand against the LORD because it is he who controls the world.  This should serve as a warning to modern nations that not one is invincible.. A warning to the United States, Red China, Russia, Israel who are always involved in incessant wars where many innocent people are being killed need to heed the warning that they are not unbeatable.  As God created them, he can destroy them.

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