Micah 4:9, commentary and pictures

The cry over having no king and a perished counsellor marks Zion's distress when kingship, counsel, kingdom and power were taken away from Judah. The pangs as of a woman in travail picture anguish, suffering and loss as Jerusalem was broken, its temple burned, and the daughter of Zion was driven out of the city into Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar about six hundred years before Christ. That travail was the church longing and waiting for her Deliverer, the promised Saviour and King born in David's line, and though delivered from Babylon she remained under earthly powers in pain and expectation until Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Those birth pangs for her Son are the travail of Revelation 12:2, beginning her awful conflict with the Devil, the dragon who watched before the expectant mother to destroy her Child as soon as He should be born. Because Zion has a King and Counsellor to trust, God's people should not complain when trouble grows, for the labor pains also picture severe trials still ahead for the remnant and expose the last-days hope of peace from the nations' conferences and warlike preparations as a delusive snare before sudden destruction comes like childbirth.

Historical Setting and Meaning

The loud cry asks whether Zion has no king in her and whether her counsellor has perished, marking distress because kingship, counsel, kingdom and power were taken away from Judah. The king and counsellor are absent or powerless, and Zion mourns their loss as she faces overthrow and captivity. The pangs as of a woman in travail picture anguish, suffering, longing and loss, like a woman in labor crying out in pain. The loud cry and travail together express the anguish of the daughter of Zion as she is driven from Jerusalem.

The setting is Jerusalem broken, its temple burned, and the daughter of Zion, Judah, driven from the city into Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar. She goes out from the city and even to Babylon before being delivered, as the following verses describe. The travail began with the Babylonian captivity about six hundred years before Christ, when Jerusalem's kingdom fell and the people were taken into captivity.

The prophecy was given by Micah of Moresheth, a prophet of Judah in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. He was an early contemporary of Isaiah, living around the time of Isaiah or a little earlier, and his prophecies resemble Isaiah's. His fourth chapter concerns the latter days and the last days. That part of his prophecy combines rebukes and warnings of judgment with promises of blessing, warning that Israel's sins would bring judgment on Zion and leave Jerusalem in ruins.

Promise of the Coming Deliverer

The travail is the church longing and waiting for her Deliverer, the Desire of All Nations, the promised Saviour and Man Child. The loud cry over the lost king and counsellor is Zion's anguish and suffering as she is driven from the city and carried captive to Babylon, with pain like childbirth expressing her longing for a Deliverer. That promised One awaited in distress is the King born in David's line, the Shiloh of Judah to whom the nations would gather, not a literal earthly king ruling at Jerusalem.

That longing began when Jerusalem's kingdom fell and Judah was carried to Babylon, about six hundred years before Christ. It continued until Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the promised Deliverer. Though delivered from Babylon, the church remained under earthly powers and continued in pain and expectation until Jesus came.

The pangs are birth pangs for her Son, her Deliverer, and are the travail of Revelation 12:2. That travail began her awful conflict with the Devil, the dragon of the nations, who watched before the longing, expectant mother to destroy her Child as soon as He should be born. Jerusalem's overthrow began the final overthrow of temporal rule at God's earthly center of power, marking the beginning of the great church-and-state beast system of seven dynasties starting with Babylon as the first head and continuing until Christ comes.

Last-Days Warning and Trust

Zion has a king and counsellor to trust, so when trouble grows there is no cause for complaint, and the pangs as of a woman in travail picture great and severe trials still ahead for the remnant. Those pains lead on to going out from the city and even to Babylon before being delivered.

The verse belongs to the Lord's repudiation of the pretentious peace conferences of the nations in the last days, and to a time of warlike preparations when multitudes delude themselves with the hope of peace. That false hope will prove a snare. The promised vision of nations abandoning war and turning swords and spears into tools for peaceful work is not a prediction of peace in the present age, and the claim that peace is imminent is a false and delusive cry that deceives people. The words about standing on the vestibule of a resplendently glorious era are only what the people shall say when they have mocked themselves with illusion, not what the Lord has spoken. That great proclamation of peace pictures many peoples and nations recognizing the Lord's house as dominant and expecting the Lord through his representatives on earth to judge nations and rebuke distant powers, and this peace cry is associated with the church's restored dominance as a delusive sign near the day of God, before sudden destruction comes like the pangs of childbirth.

Instead of succeeding in establishing the kingdom of Christ by the sword of civil power, in parallel with Isaiah 2, the attempt of the nations in the last days will end in disappointment. The mean man and the great man will be bowed down and humbled without forgiveness and will go into the holes of the rocks and caves of the earth for fear of the Lord and the glory of his majesty when he arises to shake terribly the earth, a day of wrath when the mighty man cries bitterly and blood is poured out as dust. The people over whom he will reign are those then driven out of the cities to dwell in the field as Lot did in Zoar, at the time when Christ receives again the kingdom lost by Adam and himself takes the throne to reign in Jerusalem, the holy city, which is the heavenly Jerusalem and not the earthly. In the last days an independent government and nationality must be established where the true Israel, the church of God, can be protected in civil and religious liberty, sitting under its own vine and fig tree under its own independent government. This was fulfilled only by the government of the United States of North America, established when the scattering of the power of the holy people was accomplished.