Micah 4:9-10

I was in the room for the birth of two of my daughters. Because of my autism, I do not experience normal empathy; therefore, my wife’s pain did not affect me at an emotional level. However, as a reasonably intelligent and rational human being, I could tell she was in a great deal of pain. Her screaming and hollering were my first clues, and the way she squeezed my hand made it very clear. Therefore, when Micah describes Israel as experiencing pain equivalent to childbirth, I understand the picture.

He told them that they were right to be in agony, because the pain was just starting. The pain would be a process. First, the enemy would drive them out of their cities and they would have to camp in the open fields. They would camp along the roads as the victors marched them off into captivity. Years before it actually happened, Micah shared with them his vision of the Babylonian exile. They did not yet recognize the danger; they still believed the Assyrians were the greatest threat. Because of their political dealings, both for and against, the Assyrians conquered their country and left them without defense when the Babylonians came from the east.

Micah referred to their pain as childbirth because of its intensity, but also because they had helped conceive the source of their pain. He asked them why they cried aloud, after all, they had a king and he was still living. Years before, Israel decided to follow a human king rather than a righteous God. Their choice gave birth to the political situation that would result in their nation’s destruction, and their own captivity.

Micah was not saying, “I told you so.” He was reminding them that when they chose unrighteousness instead of what was right, they conceived their own destruction. The same is still true of our choices today. Our unrighteous choices will give birth to our own destruction, or we can repent. We can believe in Christ, and choose to be born-again.