God is set apart:
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 (Micah 7:18)
Micah asks a rhetorical question: who is like God? The answer, of course, is no one. No one can form better plans or have more complex or more wondrous thoughts than God. No one can see a perfect plan of salvation before the creation of the world besides God. No one other than God can open his mouth and create trillions of galaxies in which the morning stars sing together. More specifically to this passage, God is unique because although He is holy, set apart, and rightly punishes sin, He also forgives iniquity for those who trust in Him. Instead of remembering all our sins and holding them over us, He forgives us and rejoices abundantly to demonstrate His perfect love to us.
During the time Micah was ministering to the southern kingdom of Judah, the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians. Afterwards, Babylon conquered Judah as a divinely ordained punishment for the nation’s sin. However, Micah reminds the Israelites that although they will suffer God’s wrath, God still desires to show them his steadfast, abounding love.
God is compassionate
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 (v. 19)
Many authors and speakers have been quick to point out that compassion means to “suffer with.” This is what God does. In the midst of Judah’s punishment and pain, God was with them. One of the ways He shows compassion to them is by promising to crush all iniquities underfoot and cast all sins of those who come to Him into the depths of the sea. God treading anything underfoot is usually a terrible picture. When the Bible discusses God treading cities or people under His feet, the image is complete and total destruction. However, the image of Him totally and irrevocably crushing sins with His tremendous power is encouraging and hope-giving. Additionally, Micah portrays God hurling sins to the bottom of the sea, to a deep, Mariana Trench-like place, hidden by waves.
God is Promise-Keeper
You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old (v. 20).
Micah demonstrates a firm belief that God, who promised he would show love and faithfulness to Israel, would indeed keep His promise. Jesus’s act of pardoning sin and crushing iniquity on the cross would not come for another several hundred years, but Micah was confident that it would happen and encouraged the Israelites to wait hopefully and expectantly for the Messiah. Christians now, who have a far greater understanding of God’s story of salvation, declare that, yes, God kept His promise of salvation. Through all generations, God has demonstrated His faithfulness in keeping His promises.
When our sins constantly seem to conquer us in an endless cycle of weakness and frustration, when we don’t feel that God is compassionate, and when we doubt God’s commitment to keeping His promises, He reminds us that He forgives all sins without exception. He reminds us that in His perfect grace and mercy, He delights to show compassion. And when we wonder if God will ever fulfill His promises, we can rest in the knowledge that He will.
To the sinful Christian, God will show forgiveness.
To the hurting Christian, God will show compassion.
To the waiting and doubting Christian, God will show himself faithful.
What love could remember no wrongs we have done?
Omniscient, all knowing, He counts not their sum.
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore,
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more!
-His Mercy is More, Keith and Kristyn Getty
By Hannah Den Hartog
Image courtesy Malina Noble