Return of the King

Second, Israel’s territory will be expanded to include all of the territories promised to Abraham (Gen 15:18). At long last, the covenant will be fulfilled.

Third, King Jesus will reign on earth. During this time, the entire world will live under His sovereign power and glory. He will lead His people like a loving shepherd, providing for their needs with the best of everything He has to offer. His people will experience peace and favor in abundance. And they will witness and enjoy the miraculous works of God on their behalf. Having endured suffering at the hands of evildoers, the people of God will enjoy a forever rest under the loving reign of King Jesus. However, He will be a different kind of leader for the unregenerate who survive the tribulation. They will still bear the mark of the beast, and their hearts will still embrace an absolute rebellion against the conquering Messiah, King Jesus. Like Gollum, the tortured hobbit in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, the people have been possessed by the spirit and mark of the antichrist, and they are doomed. They will rebel against King Jesus and will only bow before Him by force (vv. 16-17). These He will rule with a rod of iron (Ps 2).

God has placed within every human heart the desire for the ultimate beauty, rest, and peace that King Jesus will provide on His return. However, only those who possess a personal relationship with King Jesus will ever experience it in the way that God promises. Israel will be the crown jewel of the earth during His millennial reign, and the saints of all the ages will experience and enjoy this age of unrivaled peace.

Micah 7:18-20

But that is still to come. In the meantime we wait for King Jesus. Micah ended his book with this truth: The return of King Jesus will be anticipated by a righteous remnant. The prayer of the New Testament is, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20). Authentic believers, struggling through the final days of the tribulation, will long for His return.

The concluding verses of Micah are amazing! Micah shared some wonderful truths about God’s continued faithfulness to His children. First, God will forgive their sins. In spite of all of their sin, wickedness, and rebellion, God was still extending His offer of mercy. He offered this forgiveness to “the remnant of His inheritance.” He was providing forgiveness to all those in Israel and Judah who were pursuing a covenant relationship with Him based on loyalty and obedience. He was still blessing those who loved God and neighbor.

Second, God will save them from their sin. This isn’t a carte blanche, universal forgiveness extended to people who reject God and His ways while choosing a lifestyle of rebellion against Him. This forgiveness and salvation are for those who receive them by faith. We, too, receive God’s mercy and forgiveness by grace on the basis of faith in God’s Son, King Jesus. He is the One who died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and was raised to life to demonstrate the effectiveness of His substitutionary sacrifice for us. He is the One who has made our reconciliation with God the Father possible, allowing us to be forgiven, sealed, and adopted into God’s forever family. All who place their faith in Jesus receive God’s pardon. He vanquishes our sins and casts them into the depths of the sea. Remember, God doesn’t look past our sin or over our sin; He blots our sins out. God has justified us, and this means He sees us just as if we had never sinned and just as if we had always obeyed perfectly—this is real, life-changing hope! We are fully forgiven by God, and our relationship with Him is fully secured by His eternal power and promise.

Third, God will position His people beyond the reach of sin. In the final verse of this book, Micah ended with the most amazing promise: “You will show loyalty to Jacob and faithful love to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from days long ago.” Micah found hope in God’s promise of eternal relationship. He knew that a day was coming when God’s covenant loyalty to His people from all the ages, both Jew and Gentile alike, would be fully realized. In that day His people would be completely delivered from the grip of sin.

Micah 7:7

We live in the reality of that promise too. As followers of King Jesus, we are among the families that God promised to bless through Abraham. Yet we struggle with many of the same challenges that faced the people of Israel and Judah. As we strive to be a people who do justice, love faithfulness, and walk humbly with God, we still carry the residual effects of our old nature (Rom 7:7-25). There will be days when we will face temptations, and the pull of this world will be strong in our lives. What will we do if we succumb in that moment? We will hear God say, “I want you to come back, confess your sin, experience My forgiveness, and continue to pursue Me with your life.” This is the restoration process that Micah was referencing. It begins in this life, and it will be fully realized in the presence of God in the next. God forgives, saves, and restores people to fellowship with Himself, and that is the source of our hope. There is nothing we can do that will take us outside the reach of God’s grace.

There’s one final word of hope that Micah provided for us in this chapter. We find it in verse 7: “But I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.” What do we do between the here and the hereafter? That is the pressing question. What does it mean to follow King Jesus in a world increasingly hostile to Christianity? We begin by keeping our eyes on the Lord. That’s the remedy for every temptation. That’s the solution to the problem of our strong attraction to the world and its false promises of hope. It’s the means whereby we embrace hope. If we look at our circumstances, we’ll be tempted to doubt. Like Micah, we may begin to wonder whether we’re the last generation that will pledge allegiance to King Jesus. Micah said in effect, “Everything around me may be spinning out of control, but I will keep my eyes on the Lord. I’m going to follow Him no matter what.”

Then, we trust in the promised provision of God in our lives. Micah said, “I will wait for the God of my salvation.” He knew that God had a plan, and He was going to accomplish that plan regardless of the obstacles that appeared to be in His way. We must live with that same confidence in the Lord. God is at work in us and around us, and we can have hope that His purposes for our lives will be fulfilled.

Finally, we must remember that we have this hope because we know that “My God will hear me.” He hears and answers our prayers as He works out His will in our lives. Unlike the people of Israel and Judah, who placed their hope in all of the wrong places, our hope must be placed in God. King Jesus will return! In the meantime, there is nothing better than living with the confident expectation that God will fulfill His promises to us as we follow after Him, both in this life and in the life to come!