Micah 4:9-13
God ordains temporary anguish and exile for His people, yet He also guarantees their redemption and final vindication.
9 Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?
10 Be in pain, and labor to give birth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now you will go out of the city, and will dwell in the field, and will come even to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There Yahweh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
11 Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye gloat over Zion.”
12 But they don’t know the thoughts of Yahweh, neither do they understand his counsel; for he has gathered them like the sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; and you will beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain to Yahweh, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.
God ordains temporary anguish and exile for His people, yet He also guarantees their redemption and final vindication.
To explain Zion’s coming anguish and exile while assuring that the LORD will redeem and ultimately use her to triumph over gathered nations.
The Future Exaltation of Zion and the Restoration of the People of God
Though Zion must pass through judgment, exile, and humiliation, the Lord will in the latter days establish his reign, gather his afflicted remnant, instruct the nations, and restore his people so that his kingdom peace and dominion will be made known in all the earth.