Chapter 30.—What Micah, Jonah,
and Joel Prophesied in Accordance with the New
Testament.
The prophet Micah, representing
Christ under the figure of a great mountain, speaks thus: “It
shall come to pass in the last days, that the manifested mountain
of the Lord shall be prepared on the tops of the mountains, and it
shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall hasten unto
it. Many nations shall go, and shall say, Come, let us go up into
the mountain of the Lord, and into the house of the God of Jacob;
and He will show us His way, and we will go in His paths: for out
of Zion shall proceed the law, and the word of the Lord out of
Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke
strong nations afar off.”
1165
This prophet predicts the very
place in which Christ was born, saying, “And thou, Bethlehem, of
the house of Ephratah, art the least that can be reckoned among the
thousands of Judah; out of thee shall come forth unto me a leader,
to be the prince in Israel; and His going forth is from the
beginning, even from the days of eternity. Therefore will He give
them [up] even until the time when she that travaileth shall bring
forth; and the remnant of His brethren shall be converted to the
sons of Israel. And He shall stand, and see, and feed His flock
in the strength of the Lord, and in the dignity of the name of the
Lord His God: for now shall He be magnified even to the utmost of
the earth.”
1166
The prophet Jonah, not so much by
speech as by his own painful experience, prophesied Christ’s
death and resurrection much more clearly than if he had proclaimed
them with his voice. For why was he taken into the whale’s
belly and restored on the third day, but that he might be a sign
that Christ should return from the depths of hell on the third
day?
I should be obliged to use many
words in explaining all that Joel prophesies in order to make clear
those that pertain to Christ and the Church. But there is one
passage I must not pass by, which the apostles also quoted when the
Holy Spirit came down from above on the assembled believers
according to
Christ’s promise. He says,
“And it shall come to pass after these things, that I will pour
out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream, and your young men
shall see visions: and even on my servants and mine handmaids in
those days will I pour out my Spirit.”
1167
1165
Mic. iv. 1–3
.
1166
Mic. v. 2–4
.
1167
Joel ii. 28, 29
.