Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops; he hath laid siege against us they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
The verse opens with an army around Jerusalem and ends with a blow to one man's face. Everything turns on who that struck "judge of Israel" is.
The picture is an army massing outside Jerusalem. One writer places this attack not in Micah's own day but at the end of the age.
The daughter of troops gathers herself in troops to besiege Jerusalem. It is the Assyrian army gathering before the city. But this is not the Assyrian of the past, whose invasion both Isaiah and Micah foretold. It is the Assyrian of the future, the great troubler who invades the land of Israel at the end-time. That is the time of Jacob's trouble, the great time of labour pains and final deliverance… The reason for all of it — their long history of trouble, ending in the great tribulation — is the rejection of the judge of Israel. He is the Messiah, our Lord.
Another writer sets it beside the earlier Assyrian attack under Sennacherib, and says what had changed since.
But here it is quite a different thing from the attack of Sennacherib. Judah had now sunk much deeper into sin and rebellion. The true Judge of Israel would be struck with a rod on the cheek. They would mock and beat the Christ.
Both the title and the blow carry weight. "Judge" named the highest office in Israel, and a strike to the face was the sharpest insult of all.
Scripture calls Him the judge of Israel, because the judge held the highest official position in Israel; the king of Israel held this office. People counted a blow on the cheek the greatest disgrace. So Zedekiah struck the prophet Micaiah on the cheek and asked him, "How did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?"
One writer points to the hour when these words came true.
"With a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek" — an amazing prophecy. It came true when they took the reed they had put in His right hand as a mock sceptre, and struck Him on the head.
What makes it more striking is who carried it out.
This is striking when we look at the Roman soldiers — men who did not even know the Scriptures existed… Micah 5:1 said that someone would strike the Judge of Israel "with a rod on the cheek." The soldiers did it… We think we are right in saying that at least 24 prophecies came true in the 24 hours of the day Jesus died.
Everything depends on who this struck man is.
Clearly this is the humiliation of the Messiah — One born in Bethlehem, One belonging to Judah, who, though born here, was still from everlasting. He was as truly divine as He was human… This is what shows how serious Israel's guilt is: that He, being what He is in His own person, and their Judge as well, should be struck by them, of all people, with a rod on the cheek.
One writer names who struck Him, and what followed for the nation.
It is His people who do this — His own, to whom He came, and they did not receive Him… Meanwhile God gives up the nation as such. Micah tells them plainly that this would happen. He also tells them the reason for it, and the limit God has set to it… True, some Jews are still saved. "At the present time," as the apostle says, "there is a remnant, chosen by grace." But these no longer share Jewish hopes: blessed be God, they have better ones.
The story does not end with the blow. The face they insulted becomes the delight of the nation when their eyes open.
In her blindness, the daughter of Zion despised and rejected Him because He came so low… But after all this hatred and cruelty, the daughter of Zion will be deeply sorry then. The veil will drop away… Then, instead of saying of Him, "no beauty that we should desire him," they will say, "He is altogether desirable." The cheek once marred, insulted and struck is to the heart of the nation like beds of spices.
- Siege — Writers see a future invader gathering against Jerusalem, not only Sennacherib's army of Micah's own day.
- Insult — "Judge" was the highest office in Israel, and a blow to the cheek was its deepest disgrace.
- Fulfilment — The rod became a reed placed in His hand as a mock sceptre. Men who had never read the prophets acted out their words.
- Identity — The struck man was born at Bethlehem, yet He is from everlasting. That is what makes the blow Israel's gravest sin.
- Outcome — So He gives them up, but only "until." The struck cheek is the very face Israel will one day call altogether desirable.
(And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he come forth unto me [who is] to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity.)
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.