Micah 2:13
The One who breaks open the way will go up before them;
they will break through the gate and go out.
Their King will pass through before them,
the Lord at their head. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Micah 2:12-13
Micah is the sixth minor prophet. He ministered to the southern kingdom of Judah during the same period of time of Isaiah’s ministry. His message was similar to the other prophets – forgiveness and restoration is available from God if Judah will repent. However, if Judah doesn’t repent, judgment will come.
In the midst of Micah’s ministry, there are a few prophecies that point to Israel’s deliverance and the future Messiah. The first is found in Micah 2:12-13:
“I will surely gather all of you, Jacob;
I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,
like a flock in its pasture;
the place will throng with people.
The One who breaks open the way will go up before them;
they will break through the gate and go out.
Their King will pass through before them,
the Lord at their head.”
This passage assigns the name the “Breaker” to Jesus. This comes from the King James Version:
“The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them.”
Jesus is given many names throughout the Scriptures and this is yet another name that gives us an insight into his attributes and character. Jesus the Breaker is found only once in Scripture as Micah uses it to describe Jesus as the one who breaks open the gates to lead his people out of captivity.
When does this take place exactly? It certainly could occur when Jesus returns a second time to lead the remnant of Israel as prophesied by Ezekiel:
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek 37:21-23).
When Jesus returns again, he will also break free all of creation itself from its bondage to decay. Recall that God has cursed the earth due to the sin of Adam:
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life” (Gen 3:17).
Only Jesus, the second Adam, is able to break creation free from this curse. When he returns again, he will accomplish this as well:
“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:20-21).
But the obvious accomplishment of Jesus that makes him the Breaker is that he broke us free from the bondage of sin. We are no longer slaves to sin or held hostage in death because of Jesus’s work on the cross:
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin” (Rom 6:6-7).
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1).
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb 2:14-15).
“Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed’” (John 8:34-36).
There will be a day when Jesus returns to finish what he started. He will break the chains that hold creation in bondage and lead Israel as their king. But his greatest work as the Breaker has already been accomplished. We have been set free from the bondage of sin. We are not required to do anything to receive this freedom except to simply accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And then as Micah so eloquently says, God’s only request is that we walk with Him:
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
Christ in the Old Testament 
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