In Micah 5:1, a troop means the good that comes from truth. But... what is a good that comes from truth? Here's a mundane example: you know that it's true that it's safer to buckle your seat belt, so you do it; it's a good action that comes from knowing a truth.

In this verse, a daughter means affection, so it's talking about an affection for doing such good actions. A siege against that would be bad ideas trying to get in, and to smite on the jaw with a rod means to destroy falsities. The prophecy in verse 2 has this in mind. This is what Jesus is being born to do, to lift the siege of false ideas.

In Micah 5:2, we find the familiar prophecy about where the Lord will be born.

Then, in Micah 5:3, 4, there's reference to the Lord gathering the people of His church and teaching them. The term used for the people of the church here is "brothers", as they all address the Lord as Father. The same is true of “the sons of Israel”. "She which travails" is a reference to the woman clothed with the sun spoken of in the book of Revelation.

In Micah 5:5, 6, Assyria means reasoning. Reasoning from the truths taught, as meant by the feeding in verse 4, can bring agreement and peace. But reasoning from the falsity that Assyria brings in must be destroyed. The seven shepherds and eight princely men means a total deliverance from their falsity. Seven means something holy, and eight means complete conjunction.

In Micah 5:7, some of the people left behind were good and had stayed apart from the idolatry of the Israelite kingdom. These remnants could come to the new church the Lord was establishing, where they could be saved. But the vast bulk of the people were led away to captivity not only to physical slavery, but - spiritually - to reasoning from falsity, which becomes a form of slavery, too.

Micah 5:8. The lion and young lion, trampling and tearing are the evil and falsity of the kingdom of Judah, and there will be no support there for the church the Lord will establish.

Micah 5:9. The Lord’s church will win.

Micah 5:10-15. The Lord will establish a new church when He "bows the heavens and comes down" but He will not destroy the physical things that are listed here. It will really be a desrtuction caused by people who operate from selfishness, greed, ignorance, indifference, and love of power.

Horses mean someone’s understanding, and chariots their own false doctrine. Cities mean more general doctrine, and fortresses symbolize their strong opinions. Graven images are idols, i.e. false gods.

The Lord’s anger and vengeance are only appearances in people's imaginations. It's the way they feel when they want what is evil. When evil loves conflict, everyone is going to get angry with everyone else. The Lord would greet them with love if only they would mend their ways.

986. That 'the fear of you and the dread of you' means the lordship of the internal man - 'fear' having regard to evils and 'dread' to falsities - becomes clear from the state of a regenerate person. A person's state prior to regeneration is one in which the evil desires and the falsities that belong to the external man predominate all the time, which gives rise to conflict. But once he has been regenerated the internal man rules over the external, that is, over his desires and falsities. When it is the internal man that rules, the person has a fear of evils and a dread of falsities, for both evils and falsities are contrary to conscience, and to act contrary to conscience is abhorrent to him.

[2] It is not however the internal man that fears evils and dreads falsities, but the external; hence the statements at this point about the fear of you and the dread of you being upon every beast of the earth and every bird of the air ¹ , that is, over all evil desires meant by 'beast' and over falsities meant by 'bird of the air'. ¹ This fear and this dread are seemingly the person's own, but the reality is this: As stated already everybody has at least two angels with him through whom he has communication with heaven, and two evil spirits through whom he has communication with hell. When the angels rule, as is so with a regenerate person, the evil spirits who are present dare not do anything contrary to what is good and true, for they are at that time held in bonds. And when they do try to do anything evil or to utter what is false - that is, to activate it - some hellish kind of fear and dread instantly overtakes them. This fear and this dread are what a person feels within himself for things that are contrary to conscience. This also is why, as soon as he does or utters anything contrary to conscience, he runs into temptation and the gnawings of conscience, that is, into a kind of hellish torment.

[3] On the point that fear has reference to evils and dread to falsities, the situation Is this: The spirits that reside with a person are less afraid of practising evil deeds than of uttering falsities, the reason being that a person is born again and receives a conscience by means of truths of faith, and consequently spirits are not allowed to activate falsities. Indeed nothing but evil is present with every one of them, so that they are immersed in evil; their whole nature, and consequently everything they attempt is evil; and since they are immersed in evil and their own life within them consists in evil, their performance of evil is ignored when they are serving some use. But they are not permitted to utter anything false, for the reason that they may learn what is true, and in so doing may be corrected, so far as possible, to perform some inferior kind of service. But more concerning these matters will in the Lord's Divine mercy be mentioned later on. It is similar with a regenerate person, for his conscience is formed from truths of faith. Consequently his conscience is a conscience for what is right. For him the very evil of life lies in falsity because falsity is the reverse of the truth of faith. But with the member of the Most Ancient Church who had perception it was different. He perceived evil of life as evil, and falsity of faith as falsity.

Poznámky pod čarou: