Albert Barnes Commentary Micah 5:4

"And he shall stand, and shall feed [his flock] in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God: and they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth." — Micah 5:4 (ASV)

And He shall stand - The prophet continues to speak of personal acts of this Ruler who was to be born. He was not to pass away, not to rule only by others, but by Himself. To stand is the attitude of a servant, as Jesus, although God and Lord of all, said of Himself, “He shall come forth and serve them” (Luke 12:37); “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister” (Matthew 20:28). “He shall stand” as a Shepherd (Isaiah 61:5), to watch, feed, and guard them, day and night; “He shall stand,” as Stephen saw Christ “standing on the Right Hand of God” (Acts 7:55), “to succor all those who suffer for Him.” : “For to sit belongs to one judging; to stand, to one fighting or helping.” “He shall stand,” as abiding, not to pass from them, as He Himself says, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20): and He shall feed His flock by His Spirit, His Word, His Wisdom and doctrine, His example and life; yes, by His own Body and Blood (John 6:0).

They whom He feeds “lack nothing” (Psalms 23:1).

In the strength of the Lord - He, who feeds them with divine tenderness, shall also have divine might, His Father’s and His own, to protect them; as He says, “My sheep hear My Voice, and I know them and they follow Me, neither shall any man pluck them out of My Hand. My Father Which gave them Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s Hand. I and My Father are One” (John 10:27–30). With authority, it is said, “He commandeth even the unclean spirits and they come out” (Luke 4:36). His feeding or teaching also was “with authority, and not as the scribes” (Matthew 7:29).

In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God - As John says, “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of His Father” (John 1:14); and He says, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18); so that the divine glory should shine through the majesty of His teaching, the power of His Grace, upholding His own, and the splendor of the miracles worked by Him and in His Name. “Of the Name of the Lord;” as He says again, “Holy Father, keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy Name” (John 17:11–12). : “Whoever then is sent to feed His flock must stand, that is, be firm and unshaken; feed, not sell, nor slay; and feed in might, that is, in Christ.” His God, as our Lord Himself, as Man, says, “Unto My Father, and your Father, and to My God and your God.”

But that Majesty He Himself wields, as no mere man can; He Himself is invested with it. : “To ordinary kings God is strength (Psalms 28:7; Psalms 140:7), or gives strength (1 Samuel 2:10); men have strength in God; this Ruler is clad in the strength of the Lord, that same strength that the Lord has, whose is strength. Of Him, as Israel’s King, the same is said as of the Lord, as King of the whole earth (Psalms 93:1); only that the strength of the Messiah is not His own, but the Lord’s. He is invested with the strength of the Lord, because He is Man; as Man, He can be invested with the whole strength of the Lord, only because He is also God.”

And they shall abide - (Literally, sit, dwell) in rest and security and unbroken peace under Christ their Shepherd and their King; they shall not wander to and fro as previously. “He, their Shepherd, shall stand; they shall sit.”

The word is the more emphatic because it stands so absolutely. This will be a sitting or dwelling that will indeed deserve the name. The original promise, so often forfeited by their disobedience, should be perfectly fulfilled: “and ye shall dwell in your land safely, and I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid.”

So Amos and Micah had promised before. And this is the result of the greatness of the promised Ruler, as the similar promise of the Psalm rests on the immutability of God: “Thou art the Same, and Thy years shall have no end. The children of Thy servants shall dwell, and their seed shall be established before Thee” (Psalms 102:27–28). For it follows,

For now - (In the time that Micah saw, as did Abraham, with the eye of faith) “now,” in contrast to that former time of lowliness. His life shall be divided between a life of obscurity and a life of never-ending greatness.

Shall He be great unto the (very) ends of the earth - embracing them in His rule (as David and Solomon had foretold), and so none shall harm those whom He, the King of all the earth, shall protect. The universality of protection is derived from a universality of power. To David God says, “I have made thee a great name, like the name of the great that are in the earth” (2 Samuel 7:9). Of Uzziah it is said, “His name went forth far; for he was marvelously helped, until he was strong” (2 Chronicles 26:15, add 2 Chronicles 26:8); but of the Messiah alone it is said that His power should reach to the ends of the earth, as God prophesies of Himself that His “Name should be great among the Gentiles” (Malachi 1:11, 14).

So Gabriel said to His Mother, “This,” whom she should bear, “shall be great.”