Verse 18
Micah begins this final passage with a rhetorical question. Who is a God like you?
Now what is interesting about this question that Micah uses describe the greatness of God, the compassion of God, the faithfulness of God is that Micah’s name means, “Who is like God?” This is a statement that marks the very identity of Micah.
We tend to take names much more casual today. Parents find a name that they personally like for their child not giving much thought to what the name actually means.
But during the time of Micah, names were significant. An identity was being placed upon this child.
I believe Micah would have been aware of what his name meant. In fact, it may have been a question he wrestled with. Who is God? Is the God of Israel truly unique? Is He different from the gods of other nations? And so in a book in which the character of God could have been questioned (How could a good God bring judgment on His people? How could a good God use the evil actions of Israel’s enemies as a means discipline His own people?) Micah asked the question in a statement of awe and worship, “Who is a God like you?” There is no one that compares to you.
It is an interesting question to ask in light of this very God bringing severe judgment on His own people. Micah is not saying despite your judgment, but rather it is through your judgment that your goodness and faithfulness and compassion is known. Micah is not running from the judgment of God but rather recognizing what the judgment of God reveals about His character.
Now when Micah says, “who is a God like you” he could have pointed to a lot of things that make God different. But he focused on one specific thing that He is a God who forgives sin.
If you were talking to a non-believing family member or a friend was not a Christian and they said what is so great about your God.
I bet we would be quick to talk about a God who loves unconditionally or a God who displays amazing grace or a God who gives new mercies every morning. I imagine the first thing out of our mouth may not be, “O, he is a God who forgives sin.” But this is where Micah begins. Why? Because that is humanities greatest need. Our sin separates us from God. Our sin deserves death. Our sin is what condemns us to hell. Humanities greatest need is to have sin before God forgiven. While the rest of Israel may have been upset that God would punish them for their sins. Micah is focused on the facts that God is a God who would actually forgive their sins.
And so when Micah says ‘Who is a God like you” who pardons sin. He is essentially saying, who does that? What person, what ruler, what god does that.
Our nature as humans isn’t to pardon, it isn’t to forgive but our sin nature is to say, “you wronged me, I am going to pay back that wrong. You hurt me, I am going to hurt you. You rejected me, I am going to reject you. I want you to feel the pain that you brought into my life.” And yet Micah tells us that God’s judgment isn’t retaliation. But that God in His judgment is still preserving a remnant of His people and He is going to pardon their sins.
Micah begins to dive further into the character of God. And I think he is doing this because many in Israel may have been thinking, ‘I don’t understand the judgment of God. I don’t understand how to respond to Him. How to wrap my head around why God is doing this?”
Verse 18 ends with Micah addressing God’s steadfast love. When one experiences the discipline of God, you might think, will I remain under his discipline forever. Will he be angry with me forever. I think a lot of times we understand the emotions of God from the perspective of human emotions. When we think of the love of God, we think maybe we have to earn His love because maybe that has been your experience with love. Or maybe His love will eventually end because you have seen people withdraw their love. And so when we think of the anger of God, we think of it as an uncontrolled fit in which God is holding something against us.
If you have ever been in relationship with someone who is quick to get angry there is often not a rational or a sober-mindedness behind that anger but the person simply becomes consumed and controlled by their own anger and they get lost in that anger. And then within that anger they don’t want to listen to you, talk to you, they don’t want to reason with you, they don’t want to be in a relationship with you. And that anger can last days, weeks or even years.
Maybe some of you have relationship like that in your life. At some point someone in your life felt hurt by you and so they got angry with you and drew the line and said, ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with you.” And what happens is that in our human pride, our human selfishness, in our desire to protect our own wounds and hurt, we remain in angry.
And so Israel is seeing God angry. And they see a judgment that is coming that is severe. And they might begin to think, ‘ok. That’s it. God’s done with us. The relationship with over.”
But in verse 18 what Micah is saying is that God’s angry isn’t the kind of anger that last forever. God’s anger isn’t the kind where God is using it to keep us from Him because He is hurt or wounded. God’s anger comes from His justice, His holiness, His righteousness, His love for His world that He created. Sin has corrupted His creation, shattered his relationship with humanity.
God’s anger over our sin is because 1) sin dishonors the very one who created us 2) sin damages us causing us to seek the very things that bring destruction into our lives. And then 3) it of course, separates us from God.
God’s anger over sin is because sin keeps us from him. In his anger, we see his longing for his creation. And so God uses discipline to draw us back into a right relationship.
Micah is saying, the discipline is not forever because there is purpose to this discipline. When Scripture talks about the anger of the Lord it is in the context of relationship, it is in the context of restoration.
Psalm 103:9, “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. 9He will not always accuse us, nor harbor His anger forever.”
Psalm 30:5 says, “For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
Micah is reminding us his anger is temporary and then he tells us why.
This is a verse (verse 18) about the character of God that some of you need to sit with, meditate on, reflect on – that God’s heart is not to keep you in discipline or to simply be angry with you forever – but He delights in steadfast love. This phrase “steadfast love” could also be written “Mercy”. He delights in being merciful to us.
When we think about the word delight I think we often think about it in terms of US delighting in God.
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 1 tells that us the righteous man “delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
But we don’t always think that God is a God who delights in things. Have you ever thought about what delights God? That is good question to ponder. Because the things that delight God are the things that we want to be about.
Micah tells us that one of the things that delights God is showing steadfast love. He delights in showing us mercy. That is such a significant thing for us to understand about the character and heart of God. He forgives our sins because the heart of God is a God that desires to show us mercy.
That word delight in verse 18 means to take pleasure in. You and I are going to do what gives us pleasure. In those down times in which we are needing to be restored and renewed, we tend to go to the things that give us pleasure. For my wife, she unwinds by reading a good book. That is something that delights her and gives her pleasure.
God is saying I find pleasure, I find delight in showing steadfast, never-ending love.
What an intriguing thing for Micah to tells us in a book that begins with God coming down from his holy temple to bring judgment. Sometimes people can think that God delights in being angry. Too many people (non-Christians and Christians walk) around in shame unable to lift their eyes toward heaven, unable to walk through the doors of a church, unable to worship God, unable to open his Word or hear His word because they believe the sins of their past has created a barrier between them and God. They are afraid to turn to God but they are afraid they are going to be rejected by the God.
But what Micah wants us to know is that what God delights in is showing you mercy.
I love how Eugene Peterson in The Message paraphrases the second part of verse 18. He wrote, “You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long, for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most.”
If we are going to have a right understanding of God and then communicate that right understanding to this world then we need to understand that God delights in being merciful to his people. And if we are to rightly reflect God, then we should also delight in mercy.
Do you have bitterness that needs to laid for if for anything to rightly reflect the character of God?
And then we come to verse 19 that is such a significant verse. After his anger over our sin, we experience his compassion and this is how his compassion is displayed.
Verses 19-20
Micah gives us two very vivid images of how God will deal with our sins. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Your translation might say “he tramples” or he “subdues.”
And then he says, “he will cast all of our sins in the depth of the sea. We have both the crushing or defeating of the sin and then the removing of the sin where it can never be found again. And of course, where do we see this displayed? At the cross. At the cross, Jesus defeated our sins. At the cross, death lost its sting
When we place our faith in Jesus trusting in Him for our salvation and our old lives were buried with Christ and our new lives are risen with Christ, sin cannot no longer condemn us to hell. We are no longer slaves to sin. This is the mercy of God. When we look at the cross we see God delighted in steadfast love.
This book ends with God reminding Israel that “I am still your God and you are still my people.” God is reminded Israel that he established a covenant with their forefathers. And that God is faithful to keep that covenant.