Micah’s world, as we’ve seen, is an agricultural one. Though he preaches in Jerusalem, his stomping grounds are the farmlands of the Shephelah to the west of Judah. But everyone of his time would have related to his metaphors of sheep and shepherds, his references to fields and vineyards.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never lived on a farm and know nothing of that lifestyle. But I imagine that even the farmers of Micah’s day would have been astonished to see how farming is often done in industrialized nations now, with expensive, high-powered machines. That may be one of the few things about farming I do know: if a combine harvester is coming at you, you’d better get out of the way.

When wheat is harvested, it needs to be threshed. The word “thresh” is actually a cognate of the word “thrash” — in essence, the wheat needs to be beaten to separate the kernels from the chaff. Today, the work is done by threshing machines. In Micah’s time, and for many centuries after, it was done manually. Wheat would be gathered onto a stone threshing floor and trampled by people or oxen.

An ox might also pull what was known as a threshing sledge over the wheat. Imagine something like a wooden pallet studded with sharp rocks or metal spikes, turned upside-down on top of the grain then dragged through it, over and over, as the ox walked in a circle. The rocks would cut the stalks and help separate out the hard kernels.

Now imagine that you’re the wheat. You’d get out of the way if you could.

In Isaiah 21, threshing is used as metaphor for the suffering of God’s people in exile. But in Micah 4, it’s used for the punishment God will bring upon the people’s enemies. Micah writes:

But now many nations
    are gathered against you.
They say, “Let her be defiled,
    let our eyes gloat over Zion!”
But they do not know
    the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
    that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
“Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion,
    for I will give you horns of iron;
I will give you hooves of bronze,
    and you will break to pieces many nations.”
You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the Lord,
    their wealth to the Lord of all the earth. (Mic 4:11-13, NIV)

Micah begins by noting the people’s distress. Enemy nations have gathered against them; again, we should probably think Assyria here, together with the vassal nations that are obligated to ally with her. They are arrogant in attitude and wicked in their intent. They don’t just want to win a war, they want to “defile” Jerusalem, a word that can also be translated as “pollute.”

But in their arrogance and ignorance, they have no idea what awaits them. They aren’t just doing battle with the people of Judah, after all; they’re doing battle with God. They draw up their own confident battle plans, completely unaware of God’s plan: God is luring them to the threshing floor, and calls Jerusalem to do the threshing. The metaphor of Zion threshing its enemies is carried through in the imagery of bronze hooves breaking the nations to pieces. But the image of “horns of iron” also suggests a mighty and fearsome bull, a symbol of military might.

Micah, however, is not only describing military victory. There is a spiritual victory to be won as well. The kings of other nations, emboldened by conquest, like to thump their chests and proclaim themselves lord of all. They must learn the hard way that there is only one who can be called “Lord of all the earth.”

And God’s people need to be reminded of this too. It’s tempting for them to go the way of other nations; wasn’t that the reason for demanding a human king in the first place? It’s tempting to take credit for and boast in their God-given “horns of iron” and “hooves of bronze,” instead of remembering that the battle belongs to God.

Against this, therefore, Micah envisions the people devoting the spoils of war to God, as they should. It demonstrates that they understand their dependence upon God for the victory. They simply do not have the power in themselves to thrash such a superior enemy.

It makes me wonder: what victories have we won against impossible odds? And who got the credit?