Who Forgives Like Our God? #1

Complaint of National Corruption (Verses 1-6) 

1. Micah complained good men were only a few like a gleaning (Micah 7:1; Is 24:13,16).
2. Good and upright Jews disappeared; they were now rapacious for each other (Mic 7:2).
3. They were corrupt from top to bottom – princes, judges, great men conspired (Mic 7:3).
4. The best Jews were hurtful and wicked, but the day of judgment approached (Mic 7:4).
5. Hearts and character were so perverse you could not trust even the closest (Mic 7:5-6).

  Hope of Recovery after Captivity (Verses 7-13)  

1. In times of great national corruption, the only comfort and hope is in God (Micah 7:7).
2. The Jews’ punishment is described from a perspective of temporary judgment (Mic 7:8).
3. Micah for the nation confesses guilt, God’s righteous treatment, and an end (Mic 7:9).
4. Whether Assyria or Babylon, God crushed the Jews’ blaspheming enemies (Mic 7:10).
5. When time for Jerusalem to be rebuilt, the decree against Israel would end (Micah 7:11).
6. Jews would return from all over, where they had been scattered by enemies (Mic 7:12).
7. Enemies would be destroyed and Israel restored, but Israel’s desolation first (Mic 7:13).

  Marvellous Things of Forty Years (Verses 14-17)  

1. The prophecy is a prayer for God to prosper the nation as in blessed times (Micah 7:14).
   1. The desire and fulfillment was for God to be their caring, providing Shepherd again.
   2. The remnant Jews were God’s chosen people and His heritage; they were His sheep.
   3. They would be scattered as Micah had prophesied, but they would be gathered again.
   4. He made a highway for Jews/Gentiles to return and convert (Is 11:11-16; 19:18-25).
   5. They would be gathered from forests to fruitful places i.e. Carmel, Bashan, Gilead.
   6. God’s favor and blessing would be like before, but better, with Messiah (Mal 3:1-4).
   7. Their prosperity nationally and naturally was not like the days of old under David.
   8. We see to Jesus Christ and the gospel era by the final verse of prophecy (Micah 7:20 cf. Luke 1:46-55,68-75; Acts 3:25-26; Rom 11:26-31; Gal 3:16,29; Heb 6:13-18).
2. God would show the Jews His mighty power like He had in the Exodus (Micah 7:15).
   1. Changes of person are usual; the single male pronoun is Jews (Mic 7:1,7-10,12,19).
   2. Like progressive revelation, we have progressive providence (Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8), but there is more here than merely restoration to a mess and troublous times in Judah.
   3. The “marvelous things” is what He did getting Israel to Canaan (Ps 78:11-12,13-55).
   4. The length is 40 years, the full Exodus (Numbers 14:33-34; Deut 8:2-9; Acts 7:36).
   5. Moses career was 40 and 40 and 40, and the reformation 40, from 30 A.D. to 70 A.D.
   6. The apostles did greater works even than Jesus (John 14:12 cf. Acts 5:15; 19:11-12).
   7. Signs and wonders to Jews and Gentiles were great (Mark 16:15-20; Acts 2:43; 4:30; 5:12-15; 8:6; 9:35,42; 14:3,11; 19:11-12; Rom 15:19; II Cor 12:12; Heb 2:1-4).
   8. The signs and wonders began to wane approaching 70 A.D. (II Tim 4:20; I Tim 5:23).
3. Sennacherib’s ruin was fabulous and Cyrus at Babylon, but they were not 40 years, and neither were they marvelous things along the lines of the Exodus under Moses.
   1. The Jews’ recovery from Babylon was great, but greater were the apostles (Micah 7:16).
   2. Prophets could blend the future, and their return was great (Ps 126:1-3; Esther 8:17).
   3. We admit blended prophecies, some more obvious than others, but we do not rush there (II Sam 7:14 cf. Heb 1:5; Psalm 41:9 cf. John 13:18; 89:27; Hosea 11:1; etc.).
   4. The phrase, according to the days, is for length of time (Lev 12:2; Ps 90:15; Is 23:15).
   5. The nations were impressed by Cyrus releasing the Jews from Babylon, but where in that event were supernatural miracles like Moses in Egypt and in the wilderness?
   6. The nations were impressed by Cyrus releasing the Jews from Babylon, but where in that event did the Jews have “might” like the might of the apostles with miracles?
   7. Apostles turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6; 13:12; 15:12; 19:11-12; 28:1-6).
   8. The gospel of Jesus Christ carried by the apostles confounded kings and others (Is 52:12-15; Acts 17:18-34; 24:25; 26:28; Rom 15:20-21; 16:25-27; Phil 1:13; 4:22).
   9. Peter had a church in Babylon that greeted Paul’s churches in Asia (I Peter 5:13).
4. Nations were humbled to the ground by things they had not heard or seen (Micah 7:17).
   1. Philip turned the city of Samaria upside down as only an evangelist (Acts 8:4-13).
   2. In the island of Cyprus, deputy Sergius Paulus was astonished by Paul (Acts 13:12).
   3. Sales of idols collapsed causing anger and fear among idol makers (Acts 19:23-28).
   4. Fear was caused by God’s mighty power and by the progress of the gospel kingdom.
   5. Pliny the Younger and Tertullian both informed Rome that Christianity was winning.
   6. Why did a pagan emperor Constantine convert his empire to nominal Christianity?
   7. The gospel of Jesus Christ carried by the apostles confounded kings and others (Is 52:12-15; Acts 17:18-34; 24:25; 26:28; Rom 15:20-21; 16:25-27; Phil 1:13; 4:22).
5. This prophetic passage is a great cross-reference for apostolic gifts ending by 70 A.D.
   1. Paul wrote that revelatory gifts would end with arrival of scripture (I Cor 13:8-10).
   2. Paul lost his powerful healing gifts before Jerusalem’s end (I Tim 5:23; II Tim 4:20).
   3. Paul in three pastoral epistles has nothing to say at all about any such apostolic gifts.
   4. A reformation of 40 years from John to 70 A.D. occurred (Luke 16:16; Heb 9:10).
   5. The reformation was complete when the Jews’ religious center was ended in 70 A.D.
   6. With such things clearly told in the N.T., we love the prophecy here (Mic 7:14-17).
   7. For much more about the origin, duration, and the end of sign gifts … here, here, here.

  Jehovah’s Covenant Forgiveness (Verses 18-20)  

1. Powerful praise of God by a rhetorical question is right given the context (Micah 7:18).
   1. Let this rhetorical question thrill your soul, for your God is incredibly glorious here.
   2. The corrupt nation deserved severe judgment, but it was to be limited (Mic 7:1-6).
   3. The Jews would be recovered from their scattering to build Jerusalem (Mic 7:7-13).
   4. The national recovery blended into a far greater gospel fulfillment (Micah 7:14-17).
   5. The glory of God includes His forgiveness as Moses heard (Ex 33:18-23; 34:5-8).
   6. His pardon is greater than any thoughts or ways of men, including yours (Is 55:6-9).
   7. There is no other God nor God like Him, fulfilled prophecies proving it … here, here.
   8. Yet in this place and context the attribute and measure is forgiveness, not prophecy.
   9. This praise-producing question is not an appeal to His creation, providence, judgments of Flood and Babel, rule of nature, dealings with Israel … but forgiveness!
2. Eight descriptive phrases of forgiveness are great, prompting the question (Micah 7:19).
3. We see to Jesus Christ and the gospel era by the final verse of prophecy (Micah 7:20 cf. Luke 1:46-55,68-75; Acts 3:25-26; Romans 11:26-31; Gal 3:16,29; Hebrews 6:13-18).
   1. The forty years of “marvelous things” are fulfilled best by the apostles’ great might.
   2. The forgiveness now exalted and expanded is that of an elect remnant, not the nation.
   3. Micah had introduced the gospel kingdom and Messiah (Is 2:1-5; Micah 4:1-7; 5:2).
   4. The promises to Abraham and his Seed were primarily spiritual (Gal 3:16,29; Heb 11:8-10,13-16), and for much greater detail of this fulfillment, see his seed … here.
4. Eight descriptive phrases of forgiveness are so good as to deserve individual attention.

  PARDONS INIQUITY  (Verse 18)  

1. Pardon. To remit the penalty of (an offence); to pass over (an offence or offender) without punishment or blame; to forgive. Pardon is a more formal term than forgive, being that used in legal language; also often in theology.
2. The N.T. does not use pardon, but uses forgiveness (Acts 13:38; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14), unblameable and unreprovable (Col 1:22), blotting out ordinances against us (Col 2:13-14), without charge (Rom 8:33), death abolished for life and immortality (II Tim 1:8-11), accepted in the Beloved (Eph 1:6), faultless before Him (Jude 1:24), etc.
3. The O.T. uses pardon in the sense of forgiveness to help us make the connection (Ex 23:21; 34:9; Num 14:19; I Sam 15:25; II Kings 24:4; II Chron 30:18; Ps 25:11; etc.).
4. We love Isaiah’s description of God’s pardon or forgiveness far above ours (Is 55:6-9).
5. Jeremiah has several references to God’s pardon, but one may be best (Jeremiah 50:20).
6. God comforted Israel with news of a pardon through Jesus the Christ (Isaiah 40:1-11).
7. When Nathan rebuked David, he judged death, but God pardoned David (II Sam 12:13).
8. The book of life should be seen as the book of pardons with names (Revelation 20:15).
9. Let the pardon of a stay of execution from the second death thrill your soul forever.
10. God’s pardons, like all else for His glory, get Him a name, praise, honor (Jer 33:8-9).
11. For more about pardons and how God pardoned us by Jesus Christ … here, here, here.

  PASSES BY TRANSGRESSIONS  (Verse 18) 

1. The Spirit limits this particular descriptive phrase to the remnant of God’s heritage, which must be the remnant’s transgressions, not the judged nation with a remnant left.
2. Pass by. To pass without noticing; to disregard, overlook, ignore (an offence, etc.) In judicial language, it is the royal or sovereign choice to deliberately turn a blind eye to an offense rather than bringing it to immediate judgment.
3. The N.T. uses language such as forbearance and remission of past sins (Rom 3:25), not imputing trespasses (II Cor 5:19), winking at times of ignorance (Acts 17:30), making us accepted in the beloved (Eph 1:6), and love covering a multitude of sins (I Pet 4:8).
4. The O.T. introduces this theme in the passing over of blood-stained doors in Egypt (Ex 12:13; 12:23) and the glory of passing over a personal transgression (Proverbs 19:11).
5. Amos made a sobering contrast where God warned He will not pass by them anymore, showing how precious Micah’s promise of passing by mercy truly is (Amos 7:8-9; 8:2).
6. The concept of the “remnant” identifies those few who survive, are chosen by grace, and remain faithful (Jeremiah 50:20; Isaiah 6:9-13; Joel 2:32; Romans 11:5).
7. He spared a remnant out of Babylon to prove His faithfulness and mercy (Ezra 9:8-15).
8. When David sinned by numbering the people, God passed by the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem, stopping the death angel as David had hoped (II Sam 24:16; I Chr 21:13).
9. Our Lord’s death putting the everlasting covenant of salvation into force and covering the names in the book of life is the ultimate passing by transgressions (Rev 20:11-15).
10. Think about God deliberately passing over your rebellion to fill you with daily wonder.
11. For more about God passing by transgressions to save His elect people … here, here, here.

  DOES NOT RETAIN HIS ANGER FOREVER  (Verse 18)  

1. Retain. To keep back; to hold back from departure; to hold, keep, or maintain in one’s possession [OED]. God has holy reason to keep anger burning against us forever, but His sovereign mercy and forgiveness intentionally lets it drop and even repents for it.
2. The N.T. does not use this phrase, but has the crucial idea through our release from wrath to come (I Thess 1:10), being justified by his blood to be saved from wrath (Rom 5:9), experiencing the kindness and love of God (Titus 3:4), and Jesus Christ delivering us from the fear of death and bondage (Heb 2:14-15).
3. The O.T. uses the concept of not retaining anger to highlight that His wrath is brief while His favor is eternal to preserve us (Psalm 30:5; 103:9; Isaiah 57:16; Jeremiah 3:5,12).
4. God comforted Israel with the message that though He smote them in a little wrath for a moment, with kindness He would have mercy on them (Isaiah 54:7-10; Jer 31:18-20).
5. When Israel made the golden calf, they deserved burning wrath, but Moses interceded, and God turned from His fierce anger and repented of the evil (Exodus 32:11-14).
6. Our Lord’s death should be seen as the place where God’s anger was fully spent on the Surety so that no wrath remains for the elect (Isaiah 53:4-6; Gal 3:13).
7. Let the reality that God’s judicial wrath is permanently extinguished toward you fill your soul with everlasting peace and security to live confidently in light of Judgment.
8. God setting aside His anger, like all else for His glory, causes His people to praise Him for turning away His anger to comfort them (Isaiah 12:1-3).
9. For more about how God’s wrath was pacified by the death of His Son… here, here, here.

  HE DELIGHTS IN MERCY  (Verse 18)  

1. Delight. To take great pleasure or look with high satisfaction upon; to have a strong preference or affection for [OED]. God does not exercise His mercy reluctantly or with hesitation; it is a pleasant thing to Him, even identified as different from chastening.
2. The N.T. does not use delighteth in mercy, but proclaims He is rich in mercy (Eph 2:4), that He has abundant mercy (I Pet 1:3), that salvation is not by works but according to his mercy (Titus 3:5), in His view mercy rejoiceth against judgment (James 2:13), and in His ethical considerations that God will have mercy and not sacrifice (Matt 12:7).
3. The O.T. uses the phrase or concept to show that God desires mercy above outward religious rituals and we should do so as well (Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:8; Ps 147:11; Pr 21:3).
4. We love Jeremiah’s description of things that move God’s heart: “I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness … in the earth: for in these things I delight” (Jer 9:23-24).
5. But contrary to delight in mercy, our God calls chastening or judgment His strange work and act that does not involve His pleasure (Isaiah 28:21; Lam 3:33; Ezekiel 33:11).
6. Hosea has several references to this truth, most notably God declaring, “I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).
7. God comforted Israel with the grand disclosure of His name to Moses, proving His natural disposition is to be “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands…” (Exodus 34:6-7).
8. When the prodigal son returned, the father did not hesitate or lecture, but ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him, showing how God in Christ delights to show mercy (Luke 15:20).
9. The mercy seat in the tabernacle may be considered as the physical throne of God, showing that He chooses to sit upon mercy right over the law of God (Ex 25:21-22).
10. Let the comforting truth that God takes joyful pleasure in being merciful to you banish every doubt and fear from your heart about His forgiveness of your sins.
11. God’s delight in mercy, like all else He does for His glory, produced an inspired and gloriously repetitive psalm for praise for His perpetual mercy (Psalm 136:1-26).
12. For more about the marvelous degree of God showing mercy … here, here, here, here, here.

  HE WILL TURN AGAIN  (Verse 19)  

1. Turn again. To reverse direction; to return to a former favorable state; to alter one’s conduct or disposition toward an offender [OED]. It implies physically turning around to face a person with very different spirit and intentions than before when in anger.
2. The N.T. does not explicitly use turn again for God’s movement, but reveals a related idea through the times of refreshing from His presence (Acts 3:19), being brought nigh by the blood of Christ (Eph 2:13), and drawing near of God to us (James 4:8).
3. The O.T. uses the words turn again to describe a dramatic restoration of fellowship after a season of chastisement (Joel 2:12-14; Deut 30:3; Psalm 90:13-14; Isaiah 63:15-17).
4. God comforted Israel with the promise that He would return to build again the tabernacle of David that had fallen down by judgment (Amos 9:11-15; Acts 15:14-18).
5. A little different, when Peter denied the Lord, Jesus turned, and looked upon Peter, a look of conviction that caused Peter to weep bitterly in repentance (Luke 22:61-62).
6. The resurrection of Jesus may be seen as God’s “turning again,” moving from the forsaking on the cross, the darkness of the grave, to the light of justification (Rom 4:25).
7. Let the assurance that God will always turn back to you in love after confession of sins following His chastening keep you from ever despairing of His renewed favor.
8. God’s turning again to His people, like all else for His glory, causes the saints to shout, “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad” (Psalm 126:1-3).
9. For more about God’s sovereign restoration and returning in grace to His own … here.

  HE WILL HAVE COMPASSION UPON US  (Verse 19)  

1. Compassion. Suffering together with another; participation in suffering; fellow-feeling; pity or mild tenderness toward the distressed [OED]. God’s forgiveness is not a cold, clinical legal transaction; it flows from a heart deeply moved by our misery.
2. The N.T. uses compassion to describe Christ being moved with compassion by the multitudes (Matt 9:36; 14:14), being a High Priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Heb 4:15), and the Father being very pitiful, and of tender mercy (Jas 5:11).
3. The O.T. uses compassion to show that God views us like a tender father views his weak, frail, and trembling children (Ps 103:13; Isaiah 49:15; Lamentations 3:22).
4. We love Isaiah’s description of compassion greater than a mother’s: “Can a woman forget her sucking child…? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee” (Is 49:15).
5. Jeremiah has references to this tender side of God, noting that “though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies” (Lam 3:32).
6. God comforted Israel with the declaration that He remembered them as a “dear son” and a “pleasant child,” causing His bowels to be troubled in pity (Jer 31:20).
7. When the leper came to Jesus, defiled and an outcast from society, Jesus was moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him (Mark 1:40-41).
8. The incarnation of the Son of God may be seen as a great demonstration of divine compassion, where God took on human flesh to relate to His people (Heb 2:17-18).
9. Let the comforting reality of Christ’s tender, co-suffering compassion encourage you to run to Him as a very considerate priest and the only one you need (Heb 4:15-16).
10. God’s rich compassion, like all else for His glory, should prompt thanksgiving for His mercies and compassion keeping us from being consumed (Lam 3:22-23).
11. For more about the compassion of Christ’s sympathetic and saving work … here, here.

 HE WILL SUBDUE OUR INIQUITIES  (Verse 19)  

1. Subdue. To conquer, vanquish, reduce to subjection; to crush, trample, or bring under complete control [OED]. God does not just pardon the legal guilt of our sins; He aggressively conquers and breaks the dominating power of sin in our lives.
2. The N.T. does not use the word subdue for sin, but describes the action: sin shall not have dominion over you (Rom 6:14), being freed from sin (Rom 6:7), mortifying the deeds of the body (Rom 8:13), and putting all enemies under his feet (I Cor 15:25).
3. The O.T. uses the concept of subduing or treading underfoot to describe military defeat and subjugation of an enemy, but our text is to subdue sin (Ps 60:12; 91:13; Is 63:3-4).
4. We love Paul’s application of this O.T. illustration to the Roman saints: “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom 16:20).
5. When sin raged within the apostle Paul, leaving him crying out in misery, he found victory through Jesus Christ who broke the law of sin and death (Rom 7:24-25; 8:1-2).
6. The resurrection is a great event when Christ officially broke the hold of sin, death, and the grave, leading captivity captive (Eph 4:8), and He shall do more (I Cor 15:24-28).
7. Let the glorious fact that Jesus Christ can and will subdue your most stubborn, indwelling sins give you confidence in your daily walk you can do all things (Phil 4:13).
8. God’s subduing our iniquities, like all else for His glory, gets Him the praise of being the Captain of our Salvation who reigns supreme over all our spiritual foes (Ex 15:1-3).
9. For more about the conquering power of the cross for victory over sin… here, here, here.

  CAST ALL THEIR SINS INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA  (Verse 19)  

1. Cast. To throw with force; to hurl, fling, or pitch away so as to completely get rid of [OED]. God does not leave our sins on the shore to wash back up; He violently hurls them into the deepest, darkest, and most unrecoverable depths of His forgetfulness.
2. The N.T. does not use the sea metaphor, but delivers a similar truth: our sins are blotted out (Acts 3:19), they are remembered no more (Heb 8:12; 10:17), and He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).
3. The O.T. uses spatial and geographic terms to emphasize the total, final, and irreversible removal of sins from God’s sight (Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 38:17; 43:25; Jeremiah 50:20).
4. When we confess and forsake our sins to live righteously, God will not even mention what we had done earlier in our state of rebellion and disobedience (Ezekiel 18:22).
5. When the scapegoat was sent into the wilderness on the Day of Atonement, it carried Israel’s sins into a land not inhabited, never to be seen again (Leviticus 16:21-22).
6. When we suggest forgiving, flushing, and forgetting, this is the ultimate flush right here.
7. Repentant sinner or troubled saint, let these depths cover all your sins for great peace.
8. God casting our sins into the sea, for His glory and our comfort, fills the church with an eternal song: “Sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously” (Ex 15:21).
9. For more about total disappearance of sin under redeeming grace … here, here, here, here.