14 Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
in the midst of a garden land;
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
15 As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
I will show them marvelous things.
16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
their ears shall be deaf;
17 they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
like the crawling things of the earth;
they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
and they shall be in fear of you. – Micah 7:14-17 ESV
In verse 14, Micah petitions God on behalf of the nation of Judah. Even with knowledge of all the future blessings God has in store for HIs chosen people, Micah asks that God would continue to shepherd them in the present. He refers to the shepherd’s rod or staff. The Hebrew word is shebet, and it can also mean “scepter,” a symbol of kingly rule. It is the same word used by Jacob in the blessing he gave to his son, Judah.
“The scepter [shebet] will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from his descendants,
until the coming of the one to whom it belongs,
the one whom all nations will honor.” – Genesis 49:10 NLT
The Old Testament promise concerning the coming Messiah will be fully realized with the second coming of Christ. But at the time Micah penned the words of his prayer, he and the people of Judah were still waiting for their long-awaited Messiah. They were longing to see the coming of the promised one who would reign as David had.
He chose his servant David,
calling him from the sheep pens.
He took David from tending the ewes and lambs
and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants—
God’s own people, Israel.
He cared for them with a true heart
and led them with skillful hands. – Psalm 78:70-72 NLT
Micah is far from subtle when he reminds God that Judah is the “flock of your inheritance” (Micah 7:14 ESV). They were His chosen possession, His prized and precious sheep.
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. – Psalm 95:7 ESV
Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. – Psalm 100:3 ESV
Micah longed for the day when Judah would have a king who would guide and protect them as David had. He knew that the key to their well-being was a godly leader who feared and was faithful to God. Due to a long line of godless kings who had ruled over them, the people of Judah were like sheep that lived in garden-like land but had wandered and gotten lost in the forest. The prophet Jeremiah provides God’s bleak assessment of His flock.
“My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray
and turned them loose in the mountains.
They have lost their way
and can’t remember how to get back to the sheepfold.” – Jeremiah 50:6 NLT
So, Micah begs God to restore His lost and wandering flock, allowing them to “graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old” (Micah 7:14 ESV). The two regions that Micah mentions were well-known for their rich and fertile grazing land. He is essentially asking God to restore things to the way they used to be. He is longing for the ethereal and non-existent “good old days.” But those days never really existed. Even during the reigns of David and Solomon, the people of Israel had been marked by immorality, idolatry, and spiritual adultery. There was no time in Israel’s past when they had grazed contentedly in God’s pastures, fully satisfied with Him as their shepherd.
But God graciously answers Micah’s prayer, telling him “As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things” (Micah 7:15 ESV). God had rescued His lost and wandering sheep once before and He would do it again. Their 400-year stint in the land of Egypt had been marked by persecution, enslavement, and misery. They had been like sheep lost in the forest. But God had performed a series of unprecedented miracles that resulted in their freedom and had restored them to His care. He had rescued them and then led them – all the way to the promised land – a land flowing with milk and honey.
And God wants Micah to know that the day will come when He repeats His miraculous rescue of His chosen people. The shepherd of king Micah longs for will appear and he will redeem the lost and wandering flock of God, scattered among the nations,and return them to the land of Israel once again. And this time, their occupation of the land will be permanent.
…the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. – Deuteronomy 30:3 ESV
“Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.” – Isaiah 43:5-7 ESV
“Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land.” – Ezekiel 34:11-13 ESV
Ezekiel goes on to record God’s promise to restore His sheep to the rich and fertile land of promise, fulfilling the request that Micah has expressed.
“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.” – Ezekiel 34:15-16 ESV
But the day of Israel’s restoration lies in the distant future. What Ezekiel is describing will not take place until the Millennial Kingdom, the thousand-year reign of Christ which will take place upon His return at the end of the Great Tribulation. At that time, God will restore the fortunes of Israel, regathering His scattered flock from among the nations and reestablishing them in the land He had given them as an inheritance. And all the nations that had persecuted them over the centuries and during the seven years of the Tribulation will receive the just and righteous sentence of God for their efforts.
God gives Micah a little preview of what that day will look like for all the enemies of Israel.
“All the nations of the world will stand amazed
at what the Lord will do for you.
They will be embarrassed
at their feeble power.
They will cover their mouths in silent awe,
deaf to everything around them.” – Micah 7:16 NLT
God describes the nations as snakes crawling on their bellies, licking the dust with their tongues. This is an image of abject subjugation and humiliation. It is the same imagery used by God in His message to the prophet Isaiah.
This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“See, I will give a signal to the godless nations.
They will carry your little sons back to you in their arms;
they will bring your daughters on their shoulders.
Kings and queens will serve you
and care for all your needs.
They will bow to the earth before you
and lick the dust from your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Those who trust in me will never be put to shame.” – Isaiah 49:22-23 NLT
God will bring about a seismic shift in fortunes. The once-humiliated and persecuted people of Israel will be restored to glory, while the nations of the earth grovel before them. And, once and for all, everyone on earth will know that God alone is Lord. And God promises that, on that day, the people of Israel and Judah will once again be His chosen ones, sharing in His glory and basking in the greatness of His power. All the nations of the earth will bow down before the God of Israel.
“they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
and they shall be in fear of you.” – Micah 7:17 ESV
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson