Under the fig tree

EPrata photo

Here is something pleasant in store during the Millennium:

but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. (Micah 4:4)

In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree. (Zechariah 3:10).

Gill's Exposition says of the Micah verse,

It was usual for persons in the eastern countries to sit under vines and fig trees to read, meditate, pray, or converse together, where they grow very large, as were their vines; and even with us they are frequently raised and carried over supporters, so as to be sat under; and of fig trees, we frequently read in Jewish writings of their being very large, and of their going up to them, and praying on the top of them; and of sitting under them, and studying in the law there.

What a promise to Israel! S. Lewis Johnson preached on the verse in the sermon Jehovah Supreme from His Temple in Zion

Therefore, if someone in Micah’s day had pondered what the prophet was saying, “Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap or ruins,” he would have known, had he pondered those promises correctly, that while Jerusalem does face a time of chastisement and a time of judgment, that’s not the end for Jerusalem. Jerusalem has a glorious future.

The ruin of Jerusalem and their present disobedience as a nation cannot negate the covenantal pledges that God has given in the Abrahamic promises which were renewed to Isaac and to Jacob. They cannot be annulled because God has given his word that they will be fulfilled. And remember our great biblical principle: the God of the Bible cannot be frustrated insofar as his purposes are concerned. He will fulfill all his purposes. So, when we come to the fourth chapter, we come realizing that Jerusalem becoming a heap of ruins is not the final account of the future of Israel.

One of the many blessed benefits of the fulfillment of the Micah verse will be as Johnson explains,

And furthermore, when the decisions are rendered, the media will not turn to the republicans or the democrats and give the opposite side giving them an opportunity to quibble over decisions that are made by the high authorities. And that in itself is enough of a relief for us to say, Hallelujah when we think about the kingdom of God upon the earth. We’re not going to be told, Now what do others say about this? But when things come from Jerusalem, that’s the final word. He is the arbiter of peace.

LOL, no more talking yelling heads at Fox News or CNN. Here is another blessing the prophet Micah foretells:

The most significant thing about this of course is the freedom from fear that we finally have. But of course this can only be fulfilled by the prior condition of the opening lines of this chapter. And of course, the prior condition is submission to Yahweh, Israel’s God, because that is implicit in this whole account. All of these blessings that he unfolds here are blessing that proceed out of the fact that the day is coming when men are going to submit to the God of Israel or Yahweh.

What a day that will be.