Micah 4:10

"For now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and shalt dwell in the field, and shalt come even unto Babylon: there shalt thou be rescued; there will Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies."

"For now shalt thou go forth ..." Again the temporal "now" focuses upon events much nearer in the future than the ultimate establishment of Messiah's kingdom. The people's going to dwell in the field signified their complete military defeat, an event that lay much nearer at hand.

"Thou shalt come even unto Babylon ..." Satan has a fit about this; but here it is, uttered a full century and more before the event, giving God's people an example of predictive prophecy unsurpassed, although frequently equaled in the Bible. Being unable to mount any convincing argument for excluding the passage from the Bible, the enemies of the word assert that Micah "thought his prophecy would be fulfilled by the Assyrians," thus alleging a contradiction based upon what they suppose the prophet thought. It is an old and very reprehensible device. At the time Micah wrote, Babylon did not even exist as an independent power, Assyria being the dominant world power at that time; "But Micah's seeing into the far-off future of Babylon's subsequent supremacy and Judah's connection with that proves him to be an inspired prophet."[31]

As is always the case with the great predictive prophecies in the Bible, this one also is multiple in meaning. The going of Israel to Babylon will come about because of military disaster, indicated by their going forth out of the city and dwelling in the field. The slavery of the people is indicated by their "dwelling" in the field, the usual habitation of slaves. The rescue and redemption of the people are also prophesied at the same time.

See the discussion of The Bible's Predictive Prophecies under Micah 5:2.

Students should keep continually in mind the summary of this study on Micah 4:10 by W. J. Deane, a scholar ranking very much higher than some of those claiming to be "the best." He wrote:

"There is no reason to consider that the reference to Babylon is the interpolation of a late editor of the prophetic writings."[32]

Much of the writing of the prophets states the glorious realities of spiritual truth in materialistic terms, leading to the oft-observed phenonenon of a double fulfillment. Such is true of this Micah 4:10. Israel's captivity in Babylon was, first of all, a spiritual thing. Having taken up the worship of the idol-gods of the Canaanites, they were in spiritual darkness, suffering under the captivity of sin and wickedness; and their going "unto Babylon" was a spiritual thing also, "Babylon" having stood throughout the ages as a synonym for sin and rebellion against God. In that sense, Israel went into Babylon before their conquest either by Assyria or Babylon.

But it was a real, historical event that Micah prophesied here. Israel was destined literally to be carried away into Babylonian captivity, a prophecy fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar and his generals who destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

There was also a double fulfillment of the prophecy that, "There shalt thou be rescued ... redeemed." It was literally fulfilled under Cyrus who released the Jews from slavery, aiding and encouraging their return to Jerusalem a full seventy years after their captivity began. "It is further being fulfilled under Christ, in the rescue of the true Israelites from the bondage of sin and the world."[33]