Micah 4:13 “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.
Have you ever tried to put yourself in someone else’s shoes? I mean literally tried on someone else’s shoes. They probably felt a little strange. Maybe they were the wrong size. The wear marks on the inside didn’t match your feet. They just didn’t fit.
Have you ever imagined what someone else was going through? I think we all have to one degree or another. They tell us of the difficult situation they are in and our empathy kicks in. The relate what they are going through to something we have experienced.
It helps us connect with them, and it helps them feel not so alone. Our eyes water and they know we get them. We understand more than simply the details, we understand the emotional toll the event is taking on the individual.
Can you imagine what wheat goes through as it waves in the breeze. It soaks in all it needs from the sun and soil. It is content as it grows. Imagine a life with no worries, just flowing in the breeze with all your cousins!
But then there is a rumble of noise. You hear the laughter of human children and some big humans. Then you hear a whoosh sound. And then again and again as the voices move closer. And then suddenly you are sliced from you source of water and nutrients, abruptly placed side by side with all your neighbors. This time you are smashed together and propped upright in the sun and you slowly wither.
After several weeks of the sun’s rising and setting the voices return and you are picked up and thrown with other bundles. A short ride on the cart and offloaded. And then you hear the singing.
One by one the assembled stalks are picked up and smashed on their heads. The violence of the smashing would mirror the impact of vehicle crash dummies. Heads ripped off in the contact with the ground and individual kernels sent hurling into the air.
You are gathered and walked on. Sometimes it is human feet. Sometimes an animal with a cart wheel smashes you. Finally you are picked up and thrown into the air and all your clothes blow away.
This imagery of threshing is used in our text. The promise to Israel is that they will thresh their enemies. Israel will be the iron wheels that will roll over them and extract only the remnant of the wheat. The remaining kernels, the ill-gotten gains of those nations, will become food for Israel. And the rest will be swept away by the wind.
I can imagine this being a very great comfort for those who about to go into exile. It would give hope for the future, that despite their current and the circumstances of their immediate future, the LORD will triumph and they will be restored. The wealth that was stolen from them in the captivity will be restored.
So what are your losses? What has gone missing from your life that was evidence of the LORD’s blessing?
Someday restoration will happen.
The Arnold Journey 