Micah 7:14-20

Micah concludes with yet another wonderful picture of the Messiah and the effect of His ministry and reign in Israel.

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Valley of Jezreel taken from Mt. Carmel

7:14: It is the Messiah who is called to shepherd Your people … the flock of Your heritage.  Remember the Bethlehem Prophecy where the One to be Ruler in Israel (5:2) will stand and feed (shepherd) His flock (5:4).  The flock will grace in the finest of pastures, represented by Carmel which overlooks the Valley of Jezreel (see first photo), and Bashan and Gilead whose crops benefit from the blessings of nearby Mt. Herman (see second photo).  

·        7:15: The LORD promises wonders like those in the time of the Egyptian slavery.  What wonders were those?  They were the mighty plagues whereby God humiliated the gods of Egypt.  So in the end there will be severe wonders used by God to deliver His people (e.g. see Rev. 15-16 and the final plagues when bowls of God’s wrath are poured out on the earth).

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"Bashan" (the Golan Heights) with Mt. Herman in background.

7:16-17: The nations of earth who will be gathered against the LORD will be reduced to fear the LORD.  This accurately describes the revelation of Jesus Christ in Rev. 19:11-21.  

·        7:18-20: When all this happens, and when we think of these events now, God is exalted as a God unlike any other god.  Who is a God like You (v18)?  Micah calls on the Name of God as revealed by God to Moses in Ex. 34:6-7. 

o   7:18a:  By Name, and thus in His essence, God is a pardoning God (Ex. 34:7, NKJV forgiving).   The Hebrew means to bear.  Cain rightly said, my punishment is more than I can bear (Gen. 4:13).  But God bears the sin and guilt (iniquity) of the sinner.  In this He is passing over the transgression of His people.  While this is not the same term as the Passover, still that event and feast illustrates what Micah says about God.  All of this speaks of the Messiah who would come to give His life as the Lamb of God, God Himself bearing our sins in His body on the tree (1 Pt. 2:24) when Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us (1 Cor. 5:7).

o   7:18b-19: God does not retain His anger (cf. Psalm 103:8-9,13-14).  The idea is that God does not hold tightly to it.  Rather, and hear this, He delights in mercy.  We were told to love mercy (Micah 6:8); here we see that in His essence God’s delights to be merciful; it gives Him joy!  Because of that the prophet knows the day will come when He will again have compassion.  In the NKJV the term mercy (Heb. chesed) is widely used of anything that is good and is often translated mercy.  By using the lesser-used term compassion we understand that God’s goodness to Israel will primarily be seen in how He treats His afflicted people with compassion.  AND He will subdue our iniquities, meaning He will bring them into captivity, a phrase that perhaps the Apostle Paul had in mind in 2 Cor. 10:5).  In doing this He will remove their sin, casting them into the sea, so that they no longer separate Israel from her God.

o   8:20:  On the positive side, not only will God through Christ deal with sin; He will give His truth and mercy to Jacob and Abraham.  This was God’s promise in the covenant He established with the fathers; and in faithfulness God will fulfill that covenant in fullness.

Here is the point.  All this is wonderful for Israel.  But it all rests on her Holy God satisfying His righteous anger through the sacrifice and blood of Her Messiah, the Savior of Israel and the world.  This should all speak loudly to God’s people today.  The cross of Christ made Him the mediator of a New Covenant, a covenant God promised to establish for Israel, but which through Israel is offered to all the nations.  The God of Micah 7:18-20 is the God of the Church, the Body of Christ.  With godly sorrow let us confess our sins and receive by faith God’s Son as our personal Savior from sin.