Arise and Thresh O Daughter of Zion
Key Verses: Micah 4:9 – 4:13
Judgment comes first on the house of God in this age which is only the chosen few that comprise God’s Elect also known as the Body of Christ. It is them (us Lord willing) that will be found faithful through their judgment process and be raised to serve the Lord and bring all others to judgment in the Lake of Fire in the age to come after the Millennium Reign.
1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
If we are so blessed to be in that first resurrection [in this age in the second harvest as all men will be in the first resurrection in due time which is having the mind of Christ], we will be given thrones and the seat of judgment of the Lord (Rev 20:4). The Elect will be judging all mankind that represent the twelve tribes of Israel (Mat 19:28).
Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Oba 1:21 And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.
It is the Body of Christ being judged now in this age, who are the angels of the church and will be the Lake of Fire and bring all men to perfection as we speak words of fire (Jer 5:14).
Heb 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Heb 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
To make the cut and be used of the Lord we are paying A BIG PRICE in this life. It is costing us everything and that is what makes spiritual childbearing so excruciatingly painful (Luk 14:33, Mat 19:29). Bearing this torment is the patience of the saints (Rev 14:11-12).
Here are the five verses for Part 14.
Mic 4:9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.
Mic 4:10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.
Mic 4:11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
Mic 4:12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
Mic 4:13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
Today’s verses like last week continue to tell us of the process and events in the Lake of Fire. The Elect live them out now and then the Elect fulfill them in all men in the times to come. Living by every word includes keeping and doing the Lord’s judgments.
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things (the judgments) which are written therein: for the time is at hand
Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
This process is directly likened to child bearing throughout all Scripture. Our flesh mourns and will be in pain but when the process runs its course, then we are no more in sorrow but joy.
Joh 16:21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
It is the process, the trials and temptations in which we are overcoming sin and our flesh. Knowing this is how we learn to rejoice and give thanks for these painful experiences (Eph 5:30).
1Pe 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
The baptism by fire necessary for salvation comes suddenly in the night in our day of the Lord (1Th 5:3, Mat 25:6). We are in outer darkness and spiritually lame and do not understand at first what the Lord is doing. Yet when the Truth comes via the Spirit of God we learn and grow quickly enduring the pain, the pressure and tribulation we experience in our flesh to have all things made new in us.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Let’s look at the individual verses a little deeper.
Mic 4:9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.
A woman in travail cries out in anguish and we are no different. Overcoming sin and the pulls of the flesh are the birth pangs. Bringing forth the new man causes us to shout/cry aloud as we endure our season of feeling forsaken “is, was and will be”. Feeling forsaken and not yet understanding the purposes in judgment we pray amiss. The Lord is not saving the things He has purposed to destroy. We are the Temple being rebuilt in “three days” (Joh 2:19, 1Co 3:16).
Mat 24:2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Lam 2:8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
The beginning has started, THE WORD has come to our heavens and our earth. The Lord does not come to bring peace but brings a sword. A huge war must be fought in every man’s heaven for salvation to come (Rev 12:7-10). When this process begins we have no understanding and there is no counsel or wisdom within us to explain it. This is the roaring and perplexity of the seas which is symbolism for our flesh and the flesh of all men when they travail under the judgment of God.
Luk 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
Luk 21:26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
The end is upon us and woe (the prophecy of further judgment) is announced to those with spiritual child and drinking only milk who have yet to endure the chastening to walk it out.
Luk 21:23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
The baptism by fire will make us doers of the Word and deliver us when all of our self-righteous efforts and cleaning the outside of the cup delivered nothing.
Isa 26:18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Mic 4:10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.
Our overcoming by our crucifixion with Christ (As He is so are we – Joh 20:21) like our Lord happens outside the Holy City. We will be hated of all men, persecuted, reviled, spoken evil of and our enemies will be of our own household as the Scriptures teach. This enmity will both outside of us but also inside us as the flesh and spirit war against each other. These are the many tribulations that are necessary for us to enter the kingdom of God.
Rev 14:20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Heb 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
Heb 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
The field represents the world (Mat 13:38) and we are ensnared or entangled in the affairs of the world until we are judged and only then are we given to truly come out and be separate (2Co 6:17, 1 Jn 2:16). We are getting there and now the Lord speaks of things that are not yet as if they are already done (Rom 4:17).
Joh 17:6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
The events in Jeremiah (Jer 25) tell us of our being taken captive in Babylon, by the Lord’s servant who inwardly is the old man, the king of Babylon within us and outwardly are the apostate orthodox churches. We don’t realize this speaks far more to us now than our time spent in the physical churches following the Jesus we first must know only in the flesh. Threshing wheat and winnowing the crop takes a beating process to break out the good from the bad.
Jer 25:10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
Rev 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
To have the voice of the bride taken away, we must have first had it. In our judgment the Lord is going to show us what our flesh is really made of, notwithstanding all of our knowledge and spiritual riches. Spiritual Babylon lives within us and that is where the harlot, the worst one of all sits within us after we come into the Body of Christ (Eze 23).
Our going into Babylon before we come out of her is hopefully a one-time event in the outward sense. But inwardly these are “is, was and will be” verses which we continually live out as we mature while abiding in the Truth. Through this winnowing, “little by little” process of judgment the Lord manifests disobedience in our walk and then brings fire (wind/spirit) upon us to burn it out of us. This is how things are truly sanctified throughout the Promised Land we are being possessing through salvation. The fan and instruments of threshing the Lord’s crop is the Body of Christ who judge ourselves and one another first.
Mat 3:12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
The only way of redemption is through judgment and it is the Elect who are delivered first as a kind of firstfruits unto the Lord.
Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
This struggle with flesh and spirit is a lifelong affair after coming into the truth and until our Faith is tested by fire and we fail. After we are given the gift of faith, when we stumble in sin as righteous men “in training”, we get right back up (Pro 24:16) and continue the walk and the struggle knowing we are in the “process” of being saved.
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
Rom 8:23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Lord willing, we will learn patience and our faith will grow and little by little the new man is born and moves onward to maturity. Many walk with Christ for a time but very few are given to continue walking and will be found faithful in the end (Rev 17:14).
Heb 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
Heb 10:37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry…
Heb 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
The new man will be saved and the old man who represents the King of Babylon within us and the same Lord that causes us to go into Babylon will deliver us out.
Jer 50:43 The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail.
Here are the next two verses.
Mic 4:11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
Mic 4:12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
We can’t mix the world and the things of God. Doing such is known as spiritual fornication and that is what makes us a spiritual harlot in our day of judgment. The old man will seek to save its life with everything it has. Many nations within us will rise up against the new man and seek to defile the sincerity and truth of the true gospel and pure doctrines of Jesus Christ. It is a narrow way with lies and false doctrines on both sides.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Eze 23:17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.
It is our own wickedness that shall be used to correct us in due time (Jer 2:19). Coming to see this shame and knowing what Paul meant in Romans 7 is an integral part of the process.
Nah 3:6 And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
The nations gathered against the new man, both within now in this age and without in the age to come at the END of the Millennium; will be used to bring about an end to our flesh and ultimately the flesh of all mankind.
Luk 21:20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
The Elect of God live the Millennium out inwardly now in our day of the Lord and outwardly it will play out at the end of the symbolic 1,000-year period before the Lake of Fire.
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Those rebellious nations that know not the Lord will all be brought into submission. As we saw earlier and in Isaiah those nations will have their weapons converted to plowshares and they will learn war no more (Mic 4:3, Isa 2:4). Every knee will bow and tongue confess at the end of this judgment process that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Sheaves are bundles of grain gathered in the harvest time. It is by threshing those sheaves that the wheat is brought into the barn and the chaff is separated. Joseph’s dream of his brothers, the rest of Israel bowing before him is a shadow of the Elect’s rule and reigning with Christ and being the instruments of threshing.
Gen 37:7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
Here is our last verse for today.
Mic 4:13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate [H2763] their gain [H1215] unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
When the going gets tough and the trials and afflictions heavy, our inclination is to go to sleep spiritually speaking instead of watching and praying as we are commanded. When we sleep, the enemy is able to come in and plant the tares and the lies that defile us and keep us from loving God by obeying Him. The Lord Himself has to give us faith and the zeal to walk it out and He alone is the one who wakes us from our sleep and pulls us up by the hands.
Luk 22:46 And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.
Mar 2:11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
Arising out of our carnal mindedness (which is death Rom 8:6) and learning to not think above what is written is how we walk in the light.
Eph 5:14 NKJV Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”
If we will judge ourselves, we will not be condemned (judged) with the rest of mankind in the Lake of Fire. The true Elect is rising up and threshing starting with ourselves within.
1Co 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged (in Lake of Fire)
2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates
The Body of Christ is, was and will be the judges and the deliverers as seen earlier (Rom 11:26, Oba 1:21). The Body is the copper (fine dust and brass e.g. the flesh) feet that describes Jesus Christ.
Rev 2:18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;
Nah 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
A horn represents power and strength. The Body of Christ is the lake of fire through which all men are being saved. To accomplish the Lord’s purpose, we are given a spiritual horn and a rod of iron. This is used to rule the nations and to bring judgment.
Rev 12:5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.
Iron is instrumental in building the Lord’s house just as many other materials. This portends a spiritual meaning for us today.
1Ch 22:14 Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.
Iron represents the trials and tribulations we must endure to enter the Kingdom. It takes LOTS of iron (without weight) to be saved and break apart the false doctrines and deeply imbedded carnal mindedness that is at enmity with the Lord. Iron is normally thought of as a negative thing, it rusts, it is not pliable yet the Lord uses evil for good in saving mankind. The word brings iron down upon the rebellious nations within all men in the day it is heard.
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
1Sa 2:10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.
We are all sharpened when we break bread and speak the word together as judgment is now on the house of the Lord.
Pro 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
It is trusting in the Lord and His body and the multitude of counsellors by which the Elect are being saved now from our enemies. The breaking to pieces of the potter’s vessels is done by judgment, using this horn of iron that is also the Word. Collectively the Body of Christ is the Lord’s Battle Axe by the words of fire we speak to one another now and all mankind in the end. All of our fleshly strength and false doctrines that keep the old man alive will be broken in the winepress of the Lord.
Jer 51:20 Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
Jer 51:21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;
Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
The translations really obscure the Lord’s doings in this last verse in chapter 4.
Mic 4:13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate [H2763] their gain [H1215] unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth
H2763, châram
Total KJV Occurrences: 51
destroyed, 23
Exo_22:20, Num_21:3, Deu_2:34, Deu_3:6, Jos_2:10, Jos_6:21, Jos_8:26, Jos_10:1, Jos_10:28, Jos_10:35, Jos_10:37, Jos_10:39-40 (2), Jos_11:12, Jos_11:21, Jdg_1:17, 1Sa_15:8-9 (2), 1Sa_15:15, 1Sa_15:20, 1Ch_4:41, 2Ch_32:14, Isa_34:2
destroy, 14
Deu_7:2 (3), Deu_20:17, Jos_11:20, Jdg_21:11, 1Sa_15:3, 1Sa_15:9, 1Sa_15:18, 1Ki_9:21, Isa_11:15, Jer_25:9, Jer_50:21, Jer_50:26, Jer_51:3
destroying, 5
Deu_3:6, Deu_13:15, Jos_11:11, 2Ki_19:11, Isa_37:11
consecrate, 1 – Mic_4:13
To consecrate something is to “make or declare it sacred”. In this way the translation is fine as the Lord is declaring His Temple to be sacred. But this consecrating comes by destruction and that is what is really being said. The Lord is DESTROYING this gain. Now what is this “gain” of ours that is being destroyed? The use of the Hebrew word translated here as gain quickly answers.
H1215, betsa‛
Total KJV Occurrences: 16
covetousness, 10
Exo_18:21, Psa_119:36, Isa_57:16-17 (2), Jer_6:13, Jer_8:10, Jer_22:17, Jer_51:13, Eze_33:31, Hab_2:9
profit, 3 – Gen_37:26, Psa_30:9, Mal_3:14
dishonest gain, 2 –Eze_22:13, Eze_22:27
lucre, 1 – 1Sa_8:3
It is our covetousness, the very heart of the Jebusite spirits that we looked at earlier in this series. Judgment destroys the spirits within us that seek the riches of this world of one kind or another. Our pride and merchandising ways will be brought to the light and burned out.
1Pe 5:2 Feed (rule with judgment) the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
As the governors of Judah, the Elect are made into torches that will consume the adversaries of the Lord now within ourselves and ultimately all men at the White Throne Judgment. We will execute our roles humbly which is the very reason we are enduring through this winepress of judgment first.
Zec 12:6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
Heb 1:7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
Next week Lord willing, we continue in the process and see in more splendor the raising up of Christ within us to smite the nations within. The Elect are undergoing on the job training for our roles to be the outward kings and priests of the Lord in the Millennium and “as” the Lake of Fire. We first live out these words and then if we are found faithful to the end; we will then be used to fulfill the Lord’s purposes as His Kings and His Priest doing service. Judgment is what molds us and prepares us for these specific duties.
Rev 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen