Two passages from the Old Testament prophet Micah were also referred to by the Savior when he appeared to his people in the land Bountiful. The first is from Micah 4:12–13 (cited in 3 Nephi 20:18–19), where the Lord, after bringing the exiles back from Babylon and finding other nations gathering against Jerusalem and eyeing her as prey, assured his people of ancient Israel that his purposes would be fulfilled. They will return from exile; they will be planted again in their land; they will exert their strength (as iron, brass, beating in pieces, etc.) with the protection of the Lord, because his people Israel must continue in the land in order to realize the promises to the fathers—for instance, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) and would minister to his people in their land. The other passage from Micah is 5:8–15 (cited in 3 Nephi 20:16–17 and in 21:12–21), similar in tone to the previous one.
Contrary to the threatening, forceful imagery of the above verses, the previous verse in Micah states that “the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass” (Micah 5:7). In biblical imagery dew and showers always suggest nourishment, peace, relief, and blessing. Apparently the remnant of Jacob in the latter days will also be a blessing to the Gentiles and promote the righteous life.
In ancient America, however, the Savior focused on the terror that he, through a remnant of Jacob, would strike in the hearts of their adversaries among the Gentiles (see 20:16–19; 21:12–21).
Note that many of the predictions of the ancient prophets of Israel like Micah, Isaiah, and others have multiple fulfillment or multiple adaptation. Prophetic utterances are sometimes used in different contexts in different dispensations. For example, Hosea’s words “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1), besides applying to the Israelite exodus from Egypt, were adapted by Matthew to another sense: “[Joseph] took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matthew 2:14–15). Micah’s words about the remnant of Israel could very well apply both to antiquity and futurity, but the Lord has not chosen to make the intent of these verses any clearer to us at the present time.