Micah 04: The Twist Ending

The story felt over. Judgment had been pronounced, the pressure was mounting, and the future looked bleak. Then Micah 4 opens like a window, flooding the room with light. We walk through this surprising turn—from dire warnings to a sweeping promise—where God lifts Zion, draws the nations, and turns weapons into tools for harvest. It’s a vision of justice that mediates rather than retaliates, and of peace that grows roots in ordinary lives.

We trace the pattern baked into the chapter: exile and return, wounds and restoration, weakness transformed into a strong remnant. The nations think they understand the moment; God overturns their assumptions and repurposes even opposition for His plan. This isn’t soft optimism. It’s hope with spine, grounded in the character of God and the prophetic arc of Scripture. Along the way, we connect the text to real life: the strain of a failing marriage, the fatigue of parenting through hard years, the fear that follows a diagnosis. When the middle feels unbearable, Micah 4 teaches us to set our eyes on the finish—God’s promised peace and presence.

You’ll hear how to live with a long view: training your heart like a runner who celebrates the finish line before the first mile begins, letting the end inform the middle. We talk practical endurance, discerning God’s justice, and learning to expect restoration without denying the valley we still must walk. If you need a fresh lens for a heavy season, this conversation offers a clear path: name the pain, remember the promise, and move forward with steady hope.

If this encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs strength for the middle, and leave a review so others can find the message. What twist of hope are you asking God for today?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown
Podcast.
In this podcast, we will bebreaking down the Bible one
chapter a day.
Whether you are a new believeror have been following Christ
for a while, we believe that youwill learn something new and
fresh every single day.
So thank you for joining us.
Let's get into breaking down theBible together.

SPEAKER_01 (00:23):
Well, hello everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, Micah chapter four.
And today's title is The TwistEnding.
The Twist Ending.
Can I tell you my favorite kindof movie is a movie that clearly
tells me where it's going andthen at the last minute twists

(00:44):
and goes in a completelydifferent direction.
And I'm telling you, myfavorite, favorite kind of movie
is it twists and then it twistsagain.
Like I am absolutely certainthis is where we're going.
And then at the very lastmoment, it just moves on me.
And can I tell you that's wherewe're going today?
If you've been with us over thepast few days, it's been going
down a dark path, but there's atwist ending on the on its way.

(01:06):
And I can't wait to get in thatwith you.
So if you've got your Bibles,what open up with me to Micah
chapter four.
While you're doing that, takejust a moment to like, share,
and subscribe to the YouTubechannel and the podcast.
Make sure to leave us afive-star review on the podcast.
It really does help.
And make sure you're going tothe Bible breakdown discussion
on Facebook.
It's an amazing group of people,doing a wonderful job.
And as always, we I forgot whatI was going to say.

(01:28):
As always, the more we dig, themore we find.
I can almost hear in my ear howmany of you are going, the more
we dig, the more we find.
And because of that, my mindwent blank.
All right.
So once again, we have been inthe book of Micah for the past
few days.
And the overall idea of Micah,if you're looking at it, is
direction during difficulty.
Now, during the life of theSouthern prophet Micah, he is

(01:51):
watching the destruction of thenorthern kingdom of Israel.
He's watching them fall apart.
And he's yelling at them, yougot to stop this.
You got to stop, you got tostop.
And then he says, and I'm goingto tell you exactly what you
need to stop, right?
And so that's what first threechapters were all about.
It was all about this mess.
And what it was looking like isit was looking like they are
about to be destroyed.

(02:12):
They're never going to riseagain.
All this bad stuff's going tohappen.
And they earned every bit of it.
If you remember yesterday, hewas even kind of likening the
things they were doing to likecannibalizing.
I mean, it was horrible, right?
Remember that yesterday?
And today, though, you wouldexpect more of the same.
And that's when God destroyedthem.

(02:33):
But you gotta love a twistending.
And can I tell you, our King,Jesus, he is the King of twist
endings because he can takenothing and make something
amazing out of it.
And so let's jump into chapterfour and watch what God does.
Here we go.
Micah chapter four, verse onesays this In the last days, the

(02:53):
mountain of the Lord's housewill be the highest of all, the
most important place on earth.
It will rise above the otherhills.
The people from all over theworld will stream there to
worship.
People from many nations willcome and say, Come, let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, tothe house of Jacob's God.
There he will teach us his ways,and we will walk in his path.

(03:18):
For the Lord's teaching will goout from Zion, his word will go
out from Jerusalem.
The Lord will meditate mediatebetween peoples, and will settle
disputes between strong nationsfar away.
They will hammer their swordsinto plough shares, and their
spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will no longer fightagainst nation, nor train for

(03:39):
war anymore.
Everyone will live in peace andprosperity, enjoying their own
great vines and figs, for therewill be nothing to fear.
The Lord of Heaven's armies hasmade this promise.
Though the nations will aroundaround us will follow their
idols, we will follow the Lordour God forever and ever.

(04:01):
In that day, says the Lord, Iwill gather together those who
are lame, those who have beenexiles, and those whom I have
filled with grief.
Those who are weak will surviveas a remnant, those who are
exiles will become a strongnation, and then I, the Lord,
will rule in Jerusalem as theirking forever.
As you, Jerusalem, the citadelof God's people, your royal

(04:24):
might and power will come backto you again.
The kingship will be restored tomy precious Jerusalem.
But why are you now screaming interror?
Have you no king to lead you?
Have your wise people all died?
Pain has gripped you like awoman in childbirth.
Writhe and groan like a woman inlabor.

(04:45):
You people of Jerusalem, for nowyou must leave this city to live
in the open country.
You will soon be sent in exileto distant Babylon.
For the pe but the Lord willrescue you there.
He will redeem you from the gripof your enemies.
Now many nations will gatheragainst you.
Let her be discarded, uhdesecrated, they say.

(05:06):
Let us see the destruction ofJerusalem.
But they do not know the Lord'sthoughts or understand his plan.
These nations don't know that heis gathering them together to be
beaten and trampled, likesheaves of grain on a threshing
floor.
Rise up and crush the nations, OJerusalem, says the Lord, for I
will give you iron horns andbronze hooves, so you can

(05:30):
trample many nations to pieces.
You will present their stolenriches to the Lord, and their
wealth to the Lord of all theearth.
So what we just read was, is forthe first three chapters, God is
telling them, Everything you'redoing is bad.
Every single thing you are doingis wrong and bad, and you're bad

(05:50):
too.
And so you're gonna extremeyou're gonna experience all this
destruction.
But then in chapter four, hesays, But one day, one day,
you're gonna have peace.
You are gonna be in prosperity,all the nations around you will
not mess with you, and then allof these other things are going
to happen, and you are you'reeven gonna have to go to a

(06:11):
distant land for a season.
But when the season is overwith, I'm gonna bring you back,
and all the people whocelebrated your destruction, I'm
gonna let you destroy them.
There will be peace.
Now, he is saying this to anation that is experiencing
extreme pressure by theAssyrians, and the Assyrians

(06:33):
overwhelm them.
And then, like a generationlater, the Babylonians come in
and take over Judah.
When you realize how massive thedestruction was, you look at
these two nations and you go,Man, well, they had a good run.
They're over with.
But God says, No, no, you'rethis this destruction is not

(06:56):
forever.
The end of the story is you'regonna have peace.
You're gonna come full circle.
It's going to be okay.
That doesn't mean there's notgoing to be a season in the
middle, but don't look at themiddle, look at the end.
Look at where it's going to be.
It reminds me of I had this umkind of had this experience when

(07:16):
I was I was in my 20s.
I had always wanted to run arace.
I'd always wanted to to run a5K, you know, and and I I
started kind of running them andrealized they were horrible.
Mainly because I was no good atit, right?
And I started running them andit was just, it was just, oh my
goodness.
It was like I'm training for allthese weeks just to now go and

(07:36):
get beat up.
I don't want to do this anymore.
But I kept going back to itbecause I kept wanting to get it
right, you know.
And one day I started torealize, actually, I am looking
at this thing all wrong.
I am thinking about all likewhen I would think about the
race, I would think about, youknow, getting up to the race and
getting started, you know, andand and how much pain it was

(07:58):
going to be and all this kind ofstuff.
What I never thought about isthat amazing feeling when you
cross the finish line.
And can I tell you, as someonewho was just a very casual
runner, I wasn't ever reallytrying to actually win the race.
I wasn't that guy.
But as someone who just alwayswanted to challenge myself and
run a race, you know, it didn'tmatter what position I came in.
The when I crossed that finishline, I felt like, man, I put

(08:20):
all that work in.
That was an accomplishment.
But the problem was, is when Iwould get ready for the race, I
was never thinking about thefinish line.
I was just thinking about howhard it was going to be in the
middle, right?
And then one day I was gettingready to run the race, and it
occurred to me, I am looking atthis thing all wrong.
Because the guy beside me, hewas saying, man, I because it

(08:42):
was it was cold.
It was, we called it a turkeytrot.
You know, it was aroundThanksgiving.
So it was cold outside.
And he was like, man, I can'twait till this race is over
with.
I can't wait for my hotchocolate.
I can't wait for my hot bagel.
Come on, bagel and hotchocolate.
You know what I'm saying?
He was just, he was alreadycelebrating the end of the race.
And because of that, this wasjust in the way to get to where
he wanted to be.

(09:02):
And all of a sudden, it's likeit only took me 10 races, you
know, for this to find the snap,you know, in my head.
And I was like, wait a minute.
That is exactly what I ought tobe doing, is to not think about
how painful the race is going tobe because I'm running and it's
it's you know, all that stuff.
Let me remember the metal at theend, you know, the free t-shirt,
you know, the hot chocolate inthe bagel at the end.
And can I tell you, itabsolutely changed not just the

(09:25):
way I ran the race, but the wayI trained for the race.
Because instead of even when Iwas training for it, instead of
thinking about, okay, how fastis my pace gonna be, all that
stuff, there was a place forthat.
But what I really thought aboutis, man, I can't wait to cross
that finish line, get thatmedal, experience that that
momentary high, that's what Ican't wait for, right?
And can I tell you, sometimes ifwe're not careful, that's what

(09:46):
happens in life.
Is when we realize, hey, this isgonna be a difficult season.
I didn't want this, but this isgonna be a difficult season.
But if we could start looking atthe other side of it and realize
that God's gonna be with us thewhole way, man, what a
difference that can make.
Example.
Let's say you're headed toward adivorce.

(10:08):
You don't want it, you didn'task for it, you're praying that
it doesn't happen.
But it's happening.
Instead of looking at howpainful it's going to be,
instead go, but on the otherside of that pain, God's God's
gonna give me healing.
Your children are walkingthrough a difficult season.
You know, you've got preteensand teenagers are on the way,

(10:28):
you know, or or just whatever,you know, it's going on with
your children, or maybe it'sjust a difficult season for a
thousand different reasons.
Instead of looking at it andgoing, oh, this is gonna be
terrible, this is gonna behorrible, I I want this season
over, whatever.
You say, you know what?
Actually, there's gonna bebeauty, there's gonna be pain.
But the only other side of this,I'm gonna have the opportunity
to walk with my children throughsome of the most formative years

(10:50):
of their life.
Let me do one more.
You get a cancer diagnosis.
You don't want it, you don'tneed it.
You know God can heal you, youknow God is able, you know God
will in his own time and his owndesign and all that kind of good
stuff, but you still gotta facechemo.
You still gotta face theunknown.

(11:11):
Instead of looking at the nextdoctor's appointment, and
there's a place for that, on theother side of this, I'm gonna
get to see the miracle of God.
And that miracle may comethrough an instantaneous
healing, that miracle may comethrough a process of healing,
that miracle may see seeing Godin the middle of a storm, and

(11:32):
through my suffering, I maybring glory to God that I was
never able to bring Him in anyother way.
You're able to take somethingthat's ugly and find something
beautiful in it.
That's the twist ending.
That God can take anything andmake something beautiful, and so
instead of focusing on themiddle, focus on the ending.

(11:52):
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you, God, that you cantake anything ugly, anything
difficult, anything troublesome,and you can make something
beautiful out of it.
I know there's a thousanddifferent reasons why the enemy
would tell us that that's nottrue, that we should just give
up, that we should just throw inthe towel.
I pray you will open our eyes,Holy Spirit, to see that twist

(12:15):
ending, see that ultimatevictory that you have for each
and every one of us, either onthis side of eternity or on the
other side, but it is alwaysassured because it comes from
you.
And so we celebrate that today.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
And amen.
God's word says in Micah 6,verse 8, what does the Lord
require from you?
To act justly, to love mercy,and to walk humbly with our God.

(12:39):
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow from Micahchapter 5.