When you’re struggling to make it through from day to day, the problems of the present can seem overwhelming. If someone tries to tell you that everything will work out in the end, you might be offended or annoyed. It’s not just because of the person’s insensitivity (though that may be part of it). It’s partly because when you’re mired in negative circumstances, a positive end is hard to believe or even imagine. You’re not likely to respond, “Everything’s going to be fine? Oh! Well, all right then! Thanks for letting me know. I feel better now.” It takes faith to believe that there is a God, that God is good, that God is sovereign, and that God can and will make sure that history reaches its proper end.

And it takes faith and humility to accept that it’s the big story that truly matters. Things may not always work out the way we want them to for our own chapter of the story, now, today, in our lifetime. But we have to trust that in the eternal scheme of things, a life of faith today, even in the midst of uncertainty and suffering, is what prepares us for the life to come.

As challenging as it can be, we have to take the long view.

Micah’s ministry, as we’ve seen, spanned the reigns of three kings in Judah: Jotham (a good king), Ahaz (bad king!), and Hezekiah (good king, but sick and tired — literally). That would mean that Micah’s ministry ran from about 742 to 687 BC. He preached a message of both condemnation and hope. Both he and Isaiah warned that Babylon was coming, that Jerusalem would be destroyed, and that the people would be carried off into exile. But both also promised that a remnant would return.

The story of the Old Testament spans thousands of years, and it’s been thousands more since the end of that part of God’s story. From our vantage point, we can look back on that history and appreciate — at least to some small extent — the vast sweep of time. But again, it’s harder to have that kind of perspective when you’re in the middle of the story yourself. When you’re a tiny and troubled nation and Assyria or Babylon comes knocking on your door, you wonder if there will even be a tomorrow.

As I’ve said, even though Micah and Isaiah prophesied the fall of Jerusalem, it wouldn’t happen until roughly a century later. In Micah’s time, Assyria was running roughshod over everyone, including Babylon. But in 609, Babylon returned the favor, and the once proud Assyria fell. Later, Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem for ten years before the city fell in 587 BC.

Kings and kingdoms rise and fall. That’s the way of things, even if the kings themselves prefer to believe otherwise. Assyria was the powerhouse everyone feared until they fell to Babylon. And then, of course, Babylon fell in turn. In 550 BC, Cyrus, the king of Persia, made war against Babylon, and forced them to surrender twelve years later. Ezra 1:1 then tells us that God moved Cyrus to release God’s people from Babylonian captivity to return to Judah and rebuild the temple. He even returned to them the things that the Babylonians stole from the temple.

Not that the work went smoothly. When the exiles returned to what used to be the kingdom of Judah, the land was already inhabited by people brought in by the Assyrians, and they didn’t exactly throw a homecoming party. They tried various ways to undermine the temple project, and for a while, the work was delayed.

But eventually, King Darius—a successor of Cyrus—ordered the work to be resumed and fully funded. To silence the troublemakers, he issued an additional decree: anyone who got in the way would be impaled and have their house destroyed (Ezra 6:11)!

That put an end to the objections.

The work on the temple then continued without a hitch. It was completed in 516, over 20 years after Cyrus’ original edict. It would be almost another 60 years before Ezra would be sent from Babylon, bringing another group of exiles home with him, to teach the people the law of Moses. Nehemiah, too, would bring back more exiles, and supervise the work of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. Chronologically, the end of the book of Nehemiah (which many take to be part of what was once a single book with Ezra) is essentially the end of the Old Testament story.

If you’re keeping track of dates, that means that roughly three centuries pass between the time of Micah and the time of Nehemiah. Micah had long ago prophesied that a remnant would be gathered to Jerusalem, and a remnant had indeed returned from Babylon. He foresaw a restored Jerusalem, and city was being rebuilt. Did people think that the prophecy had been fulfilled?

Not quite. Micah’s oracle had promised that “kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem” (4:8), but the people were still living under shadow of Persia. God had done great things for them through the Persian rulers, and they were grateful — but they knew it wasn’t the end of the story yet.

Another four centuries would pass until the time of Jesus, and again, it’s been two millenia since then. The prophecy still hasn’t been fulfilled.

When, then? We’ll explore this in the next post.