“The house of the LORD” is the temple, and the temple in the Old Testament was the place where God’s presence came down on the earth. God had said that He would meet with His people at the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25:22).

The ark was housed in the temple and when Solomon’s temple was built, the cloud of God's presence filled the temple. So, when we read about the temple (or the house of the LORD) in the Old Testament, we are talking about the place to which God had said He would come.

Micah foresees a day when God would visibly come to His temple: “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 and that we may walk in his paths’” (4:2).

The “he” here is obviously God Himself. So, Micah is talking about a day when the presence of the Lord will be known to all the nations of the earth. People will come to see the Lord, to hear His teaching, and to walk in His paths. This is what he is saying!

God is invisible and so, if He is to be seen and known and heard, He must take some visible form. That means Micah is clearly anticipating a day when the Messiah, the Christ, will come to the temple in Jerusalem. There will be a day when God will draw near and His presence and His Word will be made known on the earth.

Can you imagine what this would be like?