It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains. And it shall be lifted up above the hills and peoples shall flow to it. And many nations shall come and say, “Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways that we may walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
– Micah 4:1–2
Oh yes. Some my favorite verses in the book of Micah, this picture here in Micah 4:1–2. This picture of how Jerusalem, Zion, the place where God’s glory dwells among his people in the temple. So many nations shall come. Peoples shall flow to it. And they’re saying, come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord, Yahweh to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, that we may walk in his paths for out of Zion shall come forth his law, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
God, make us a people who are passionate about the world knowing the word of God.
The whole picture here is the nations flocking to hear the word of God. To worship, to encounter the glory of God and to worship him. It’s a picture that is fulfilled in many ways in what God did, and even the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, but it’s a picture of something much bigger to come. The whole picture is the reality of what God is doing in the world even today. So He is drawing all the peoples to himself, all the nations to himself, to hear his word, to believe his word. He’s drawing the nations to learn his ways and to walk in his paths.
And this is what the great commission is all about. Think about it, go and make disciples of all the nations. Don’t miss the difference here. It’s not about all the nations coming to a temple. It’s about the temple, you and me, our bodies filled with the Holy Spirit of God, going to the nations and the word of God flowing from our lives as we take it to all the peoples and we proclaim the salvation of God and they begin to walk in his paths, they begin to learn his ways.
Micah 4:1–2 Reminds Us of God’s Temple, Which the New Testament Describes as Our Bodies
This is why we pray for the nations to come to know Jesus. This is why we spend our lives and our churches toward the sin, because this is the great commission. Make disciples of all the peoples of all the nations. This is what we’re on this earth to do. So, God, we pray. Help us all to spend our lives, not just missionaries or these kinds of people, or that kind of people. God, forgive us from compartmentalizing your great commission into a program in the church for a select few people who are really passionate about that.
So God, help us all to be passionate about the spread of your word to all the nations, to all the peoples, to the Nkomazi Kurds in Turkey. Lord God, 9 million Kurds in Turkey, hardly any followers of Jesus out of 9 million of them. God, we pray that the Kurds of Turkey would flow to you, would turn to you that this nation. So that this people group would come to you and say, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.
So let’s encounter the glory of God. Let’s hear the word of God. Let’s put our faith in Jesus. And let’s learn to walk in his ways. God, we pray that disciples would be made among the Kurds in Turkey, that churches would be multiplied among the Kurds in Turkey, that they would be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and taught to obey everything you have commanded.
Obeying The Great Commission
God, help us to obey this great commission. And God, help us to work and to pray and to give and to go how ever you lead until all the nations have encountered your glory have been saved according to your word, until all the nations have disciples made in churches planted and multiplied among them. God, we pray use all of our lives, use all of our churches toward this end. So God, keep us from being distracted from lesser aims. Help us to live for this aim, disciples made in every nation just as you have told us to do.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
