Micah 4:1-7 commentary

 

 1: But in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of YHWH shall be established in the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow unto it 2: And many nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the mountain of YHWH and to the house of ELOHIM OF JACOB and He will teach us of HIS ways, and we will walk in HIS paths for the Law shall go forth from Zion ^[Israel] and the word of YHWH from Jerusalem 3: And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks nation shall not lift up a sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more ^{Isaiah 2:1-4} 4: But they shall sit every man ^{[who otherwise would have been a soldier]} under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of YHWH of armies has spoken it 5: For all people will walk everyone in the name of their ^{invisible women} ELOHIM and we will walk in the name of YHWH our ELOHIM for ever and ever

6: ^RR In that day  declares YHWH will I assemble the one limping and I will gather her that is driven out and the one that I have afflicted ^{time of Jacob’s trouble} 7: And I will make her that limped a remnant   and her that was cast far off a strong nation and YHWH He reigns over them in mount Zion from henceforth even forever ^{[6-7 Godhead speaking in first & third persons]}

Comments: Micah 4:1-7 is a prophecy of what happens after Messiah returns and defeats his enemies at the Battle of Armageddon. In verses :1-3, Micah and Isaiah use virtually identical wording to describe the kingdom of The Christ.

In verse six, the one limping, her that is driven out, and the one God has afflicted are all the Nation of Israel. The scattering took place when Titus sacked Israel in A.D. 70. Israel then ceased to be a nation for 2500 years, until, according to the word of prophecy, was miraculously restored. While aliyah flights continue to bring the scattered back home to Israel, the gathering will not be completed until Christ returns and sends his angels to complete it ^{Mark 13:27}.

The gathering is not a resurrection/ rapture of the Body of Christ. It is a physical gathering carried out by angels of the remnant of the Children of Israel, also called the Elect in Isaiah 65:22 and Matthew 24^:22. These are the Children of Israel—Jacob, who followed Christ during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble and who are left alive after the Battle of Armageddon. 

Biblically, the word remnant never refers to the Out-Called (Christians); it always refers to God’s people Israel, Jacob (those descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). The Body of Christ is never fractured into remnants. It is one single living organism built by Christ, using the living stones of each individual believer, into one single body that he calls the Out-Called ^{Matthew 16:18}.

Verse seven tells us that Micah 4:1-7 is 100% about the establishment, conditions, and permanency of Christ’s Kingdom.

Joel 2:17-b

 

17: Let the priests the ministers of YHWH weep between the porch and the altar and let them say Spare your people YHWH And give not your heritage to reproach that the nations should rule over them

Comments: ^{Joel 2:17-b} For centuries, the Jewish people were scattered among the nations, a people without a country. And now that they are back in their own land, the Nations continue to attempt rulership of Israel through the United Nations, which was established October 24, 1945, three years before Israel, in fulfillment of Bible prophecy, was restored back to their land and became a nation again. It is no secret that many member nations are bitter enemies of Israel. The United Nations has long been publishing maps that eliminate Israel from the Middle East. 

A 2008 CNS News article reported that Israel was missing from a U.N. sponsored map.

A 2014 article in the Jerusalem Post reports that HarperCollins publishing house has omitted Israel from maps in atlases they sell to English-speaking schools in the Middle East,” 

A 2017 article reports that textbooks used in UN-run schools feature maps without Israel http://www.thetower.org/4385-textbooks-used-in-un-west-bank-schools-erased-jewish-history-featured-maps-without-israel.

U.N. (world-wide) attempts to interfere with the sovereignty of Israel are signs that we are indeed living in the Last Days, and the news articles listed in this post are just the tip of the iceberg, only a few examples of the world-wide antisemitism that will continue to grow and infect every nation ^{Zechariah 12:2-3}. This will not stop, and the nation of Israel will remain a prophetic hot spot until the physical, visible, return of Yeshua ha Mashiach, the Messiah, to this earth.

2 Timothy 3 commentary

       1: This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come 2: For audawm shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphēmos disobedient to parents unthankful unholy 3: Without natural affection trucebreakers false accusers without self control fierce despisers of those that are good 4: traitors heady highminded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God 5: Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away 6: For of this sort are they who worm their way into homes and gain control over women who are not as yet spiritually mature[1] loaded [down] with sins led astray by various sinful desires[2] 7: Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth 8: Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth [they are] men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith 9: But these [men] shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all as theirs [Jannes and Jambres] also was 10: But you have fully known my doctrine manner of life purpose faith longsuffering love patience 11: Persecutions afflictions which came to me at Antioch at Iconium, at Lystra what persecutions I endured but out of them all the Lord delivered me 12: Yes and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 13: But evil men and seducers shall advance [becoming] worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 14: But you continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of knowing of whom you have learned them 15: And that from a babe you have known the sacred letters which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus 16: All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness 17: That the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works

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[1] Concerning the term, “silly” [women] as used in 2 Timothy 3:6 (excerpt from, Woman this is WAR! Gender, Slavery and theEvangelical Caste System, 2010, by Jocelyn Andersen)

This example of gender-biased-English-translation-theology might appear minor to some, but we do not believe it to be so. In 2 Timothy 3:6, a different word for woman is used and, again, James Strong, in agreement with the translators of the Authorized Version, displays misogynistic bias. In this passage, we are given a description of false teachers who target young women as primary victims. These female victims are described in the Greek as gunaikarion. Strong writes that gunaikarion is a diminutive of gune (woman, wife, or women). A diminutive of “woman” would indicate a young, not fully developed, or immature/ inexperienced (in the scriptures) woman. But, rather than reflecting the young and inexperienced status of these women [in his concordance] Strong defines gunaikarion (young and inexperienced) as “silly” women—which is the word used by the translators of the King James Bible, and does not reflect with the least bit of accuracy what gunaikarion meant to the ancient Greeks. The language of most other translations is just as misogynistic as the A.V., using derogatory words such as, “weak or gullible,” to describe women who are inexperienced in the Word of God, words that hatefully indicate a non-existent flaw or fault in the women. Describing these women as “silly, weak, and gullible,” is inexcusable on the part of Bible translators.  The Greek word “karion,” which is added to the Greek word gune [woman] to form the word gunaikarion, is still used in the Greek language today. It means, nut or kernel. Nuts and kernels are seeds. so we see, that the word does not carry a connotation of weak or foolish (silly, gullible) but rather the promise of growth and development. It is not a stretch to connect a seed with young [and as yet educationally and spiritually undeveloped] humans. All Christians, no matter what their natural age when they come to Christ, begin their Christian lives as spiritually young, full of promise, but not yet fully matured in the faith. So how is it justified that physically or spiritually immature female believers [victims], targeted by false teachers in 2 Timothy 3:6, are downgraded, using gender-biased-English-translation-theology, from young and spiritually immature women, to the disparaging [and incorrectly translated] terms, “silly, weak, and gullible?” About the word “silly,” in the A.V., it is used only one time in the New Testament—and that is in reference to. There is no corresponding Greek to support the use of the word, silly. This unfortunate rendering is entirely inappropriate and prejudicial against women. And the fact that it has gone unchallenged up to the present time, indicates how deeply ingrained and acceptable the derogatory stereotyping of women still is, among Biblical scholars and the Christian community at large. 

Under the Old Covenant, girls and women were not taught the scriptures in the same way boys and men were. Boys sat at the feet of rabbi’s and were systematically educated, while girls and women had to catch it on the fly (so to speak), hearing the Word of God only at Temple and synagogue attendance and by listening to men have conversations about their males-centered interpretations of the Law and Prophets [which were blatantly anti-woman]. This does not mean that women were less devout than men, completely ignorant, or that every woman was spiritually undeveloped. It simply meant that women as a group were less privileged and their knowledge was limited by discriminatory traditions that carried the weight of TORAH within the Jewish culture of the day. So there would have been many New Testament women, exhilarated by the new freedom given to them to learn, who would have been starving for knowledge, and who would have been targeted by false teachers.

** The Greek word, “karion,” means nut or kernel. “The name, karion, comes from the word, prokaryote. The word Prokaryote is derived from two Greek words--'pro' meaning before and 'karyon' referring to the nucleus. 

[2] It is the predatory male teachers that verse :6 goes on to describe as “laden with sins led away with divers lusts—and not the young women who were their prey. This is made clear in the following verses where no one questions that it is the false teachers who are 7: Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” and who “8:… also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith.” Despite this, translation after translation makes it appear as though it is the women who are “loaded down with sins and led astray by various lusts,” instead of it being the men (wolves) who targeted them. It is deceivers who are referenced in verse :6 as, “laden with sins led away with divers lusts,” not the ones they are attempting to deceive. Despite this, translation after translation makes it appear as though it is the women who are “loaded down with sins and led astray by various lusts,” instead of it being the men (wolves) who targeted them. 

   It is the deceivers, not the the deceived, who are referenced in verse :6 as, "laden with sins [and] led away with divers lusts." The women in this passage, are not bad people. They are not stupid people. They are people whose lack of education (not by their own choices) has prepared them to become victims.