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Praise the Lord! His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new ev’ry morn Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more! His Mercy is More (Matt Papa & Matt Boswell) When you are writing or speaking one of the things you want to keep in mind is that people will tend to remember the last thing you say better than all the rest. This means you need to make sure to save your best stuff for last. With that in mind, what does the prophet Micah remind us of at the end of his book? If you read through Micah, you’ll find it’s quite a journey of ups and downs. We see him announce judgment on the leaders and the priests of Israel. We see descriptions of the state of the nation as a whole that leave us sharing in his sadness and frustration. But at the end, we indeed find that Micah has saved the best for last. It’s a reminder of who God is; one that should stick with us wherever we go. What kind of God do we serve? We serve one who forgives iniquity. He forgives sin. Think for a minute about how amazing that is. If God is even a little bit like the various guys who contributed to the Scriptures describe Him to be, by what logic should we expect Him to forgive us? He created us. And it wasn’t like it was hard for Him. He put a little more effort into us, but most of creation He simply spoke into existence. If creation was that easy for Him and we rejected Him in favor of ruling ourselves (a crazy notion when you think about it… demonstrated amply by our failures at it), why not just wipe us out and start over? He doesn’t just forgive, though. Micah gets more descriptive next. He passes over rebellion. Seriously? How good is this God? Just how far are the limits of His patience?And when He gets angry, He doesn’t stay angry. We’re often told He’s an angry God. Nope. Not according to Micah here. He doesn’t hold anger forever. Why? Because He delights in faithful love. He would much rather shower us with love than hold us away in His anger. He made us to keep us near. |
And it gets better. He won’t simply forgive our iniquities, He will have compassion on us when we have sinned and vanquish them. He destroys our sin. This was not only a promise that Micah was making to Israel. It is a glorious reality for us because Jesus did indeed vanquish our iniquities on the cross. He vanquished them and cast them—all of them—into the depths of the seas. That is, He cast them as far away from us as they could possibly be. Furthermore, when He has made a promise, He keeps it. Period.
That’s the kind of God we serve. It’s the kind of God He’s always been. It’s the kind of God He will always be.
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us;
He will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old.
Micah 7:18-20