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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." 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."
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."
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