Micah 3 ended with a blistering word of condemnation and a horrific prediction. Because the leaders of Judah had become so corrupt, because their dealings with the people were based on greed and filled with injustice, God would put an end to the whole sorry system. Jerusalem itself would be destroyed; the wonderful buildings in which the rich took so much pride would be razed to the ground. Just as Samaria would be decimated by the Assyrians, so would Jerusalem be decimated by Babylon.

God’s people were always meant to be those who reflected the character of their God, a God of mercy, righteousness, and justice. They were supposed to be an example to the nations of what humans were created to be, of how they were meant to relate to one another. But the kingdoms of Israel and Judah had lost their way. Though there were, from time to time, good kings who tried to bring the people back to their God-given heritage, it was never enough to stop the slide. Every good thing done by one king could be rapidly undone by the next, to the point where the long-suffering God would put up with it no longer.

End of story? Not quite. Prophets like Micah and Isaiah were not only given the task of preaching doom, but of preaching hope, of pointing to a future in which today’s brokenness would be swallowed up in tomorrow’s wholeness, a world in which injustice would be replaced by justice.

The grim oracle at the end of chapter 3, then, stands in stark contrast to the oracle of hope that begins chapter 4. It’s enough to give you whiplash. Here’s how verse 1 reads in the Common English Bible:

But in the days to come,
        the mountain of the Lord’s house
            will be the highest of the mountains;
        it will be lifted above the hills;
            peoples will stream to it. (Mic 4:1)

The previous oracle declared that Jerusalem would become a ruin. But this oracle envisions Jerusalem as being elevated to an exalted status. Moreover, it’s not just a gathering place for the people of Israel. It’s a gathering place for all peoples — plural — all nations. Verse 2 makes that clear:

Many nations will go and say:
    “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord,
            to the house of Jacob’s God,
        so that he may teach us his ways
            and we may walk in God’s paths!”
Instruction will come from Zion
        and the Lord’s word from Jerusalem. (Mic 4:2)

Like moths to a flame, one nation after another is drawn to Zion. This time, they’re not coming to destroy it. They’re acknowledging by their words and behavior that Jacob’s God is truly God, and they’re coming to learn God’s ways. The light of God’s Instruction (the Hebrew word torah) goes out from Jerusalem, and the people come in.

There’s nothing that can be said about the people at this point that makes sense of this, nothing in their faithless behavior that would predict the story would go this way. God had always wanted his people to be a blessing to other nations, but they had shown time and again that they preferred to seek blessing only for themselves. But in the end, the story will go the way God wants it to go. The nations of the world will be blessed.

How much of a word of hope is this, actually? I imagine that a prophecy like this, in which outsiders become insiders, in which supposedly heathen nations actually seek the one true God, would have been distasteful to Micah’s hearers. After all, think of the prophet Jonah’s attitude toward Nineveh. Think of the Pharisees, and how they looked down their noses at Jesus for his annoying habit of hanging around sinners. Think of the resistance even of the early church to including Gentiles.

It’s a prophecy of hope to us, if we’re among the Gentile nations drawn to God and included in his people. But realistically, I doubt the people listening to Micah would have heard it that way, except those who still knew what real justice was.

The point is that it’s God’s story, not ours. God’s way is meant to be everyone’s way, and God will still bring about his purposes even if we don’t do our part.

But how much better it would be if we did.