The ultimate future king of Israel will be “higher than Agag.” Agag, the king of Amalek, sometimes pictures Satan. Therefore, this prophecy is saying that Jesus, the Messiah, will be higher than the god of this world, Satan. Jesus will overcome, defeat, and destroy Satan, the antitypical Agag, and his minions.

Incidentally, “Agag” is really Gog, for the vowels are supplied. Thus the king of the Amalekites is a prototype of Gog at the end of both the Gospel Age and the Kingdom Age. The enemies of Israel who die in Jacob’s Trouble will be buried in a cemetery called Hamon-gog (see Ezek. 39:11–15). Thus Haman in the Book of Esther, who by birth was an Agagite, is appropriately a picture of Gog.

The main lesson for the Christian is to understand where we are chronologically. Matthew tells us what to the expect during the parousia of our Lord. We see the fig tree (Israel) blossom, that is show signs of life, and are told that this generation who witnesses that event will not perish before all is accomplished. We are hoping the blossoming is 1948, but it could be 1967, in any event we are at “the end”. Time is short. We need to wake up, trim our lamps, and go out to meet our Lord!

For those of you who are not familiar with today’s most prevalent prophetic news pervading the Christian and Jewish scholarly communities, you should study Ezekiel 38 and 39, with the understanding that it alludes to a nuclear equipped Russian – Iranian led confederacy, which forms to invade the nation of Israel in the end times.

This was a day of vengeance, not the day of vengeance. For now, we will just say that a time frame of 3 1/2 years leads up to Jacob’s Trouble. Therefore, the antitype is the end time of the Gospel Age but not the final battle. A lot of events will take place before Gog and Magog come down.

Why did Micah introduce this prophecy about the “last [latter] days” at this point? After all his thundering predictions of trouble and destruction, he wanted to encourage the people. The Hebrew gives the thought of the “mountain of the house of the LORD” being firmly established. This figurative language about the house of God being established in the top of the mountains and above the hills means that Jerusalem will become the capital of the world—the most prominent city in the entire world, exalted above all other governments. No doubt, too, it will literally be higher than the surrounding hills after the earthquake mentioned by the Prophet Zechariah takes place (Zech. 14:4,5,10). All “people shall flow unto it” shows figuratively that there will be voluntary cooperation; the people will be drawn and not driven there.

Verse 7 is speaking about those of the Holy Remnant who survive Jacob’s Trouble in lands other than Israel. They will be like “dew from the LORD” and “showers upon the grass” in the midst of many peoples. Why is the time element then added: “that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men”? In the Lord’s due time, the Holy Remnant will be rescued. The “whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain … [waiting] for the manifestation of the sons of God”; it has been a long wait—and a long groaning—for the “desire of all nations” to come (Rom. 8:19,22; Hag. 2:7).

Imagine even the very best of them being like a “brier,” that is, sharp and dangerous! “The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation [punishment—RSV]” was the day of judgment. The prophets were the “watchmen” of the day of trouble. This thought is based on the fact that fortified cities in the past had walls upon which watchmen took turns day and night to look for approaching trouble, enemies, etc. That way the city could always be warned of impending trouble. Similarly, the Lord had some prophets arise late and early to watch over His people, Israel. Warnings were continually given of a coming day of judgment if the people did not repent and change their evil ways. Here Micah said that the day of judgment had come, that the experience was upon them.

In the antitype, Christendom will be in this situation, especially after the Harvest when “summer is ended” and the “salt of the earth” has been taken away (Jer. 8:20; Matt. 5:13). For the most part, no righteous man will remain (except the Great Company, who will not have a stabilizing effect on society).

The question is, When will this prophecy be fulfilled? Verse 5 refers to the deliverance of the Holy Remnant out of Jacob’s Trouble and the inauguration of the Kingdom. At the time of Jacob’s Trouble, God’s fury will rise up into His face, and He will make bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations (Ezek. 38:18; Isa. 52:10). “God speaketh once, yea twice,” and the third time He thundereth from on high (Job 33:14). Pertaining to the inauguration of the Kingdom, He said, “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psa. 46:10). The angry waves will be stilled. From other pictures, we see that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, will be the central agent, but the Church will be with him. Eventually, so many Jews will be going back to Israel that there will not be enough room, and the people will burst over into the land of Gilead (Zech. 10:10; Obadiah 19).

The NIV reads, “I will settle them in their homes.” God will settle the Holy Remnant in His own way in the homes He will make for them, for when the Kingdom is established, the contemporary generation of Jews will go back to Israel first. The Jews who come forth from the tomb throughout the Kingdom will comprise the second phase of the regathering that takes place after Jacob’s Trouble, for they will come forth in the various lands where they lived previously. As they go back to Israel, God will settle them as He did the Holy Remnant—in His way in the homes that He will make for them, for each man will have his own vine and fig tree.

“Cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished [ended].” What “warfare”? Israel’s punishment, her “appointed time” (KJV margin), her “time of service” (RSV footnote). In other words, Israel’s “warfare” is not merely a date but a period of time that terminates with a date.