Micah: Jesus Casts Our Sins Into The Sea Of Forgetfulness
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PREACHING CHRIST THROUGH THE BIBLE:
Micah: Jesus Casts Our Sins Into The Sea Of Forgetfulness
Micah 7:18-20 (ESV)
18 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.
19 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.
20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
One of the significant consequences of sin that affected human beings in relating to God can be seen in our limited capacity to understand Him. Because of limited understanding, it is so easy for us to misunderstand or misrepresent the character and personality of God.
Nevertheless, with God's ultimate desire to have a relationship with us, He knew that the only way we would honestly know Him and appreciate Him is when He reveals Himself to us. The author of the book of Hebrews explains how He initiated this revelation to us in Hebrews 1:1-3 (ESV):
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Examining these three verses, you will find two primary sources of revelations:
A. The Old Testament Messengers (v. 1)
The Old Testament Scriptures are filled with the words of God directly spoken through the prophets. God chose holy men whom He empowered with the Holy Spirit and allowed them to be the agents of His revelations (2 Peter 1:21).
B. The New Testament Messiah (vs. 2-3)
To enhance the efficiency of His revelation, He reinforced what the prophets have spoken by giving His own Son to us. If you notice verse 3, Jesus is "the exact imprint of his nature." Meaning, if you know who Jesus Christ is, then you know exactly who the Father is.
A very common promise that many believers love to claim is found in Psalm 37:4 (ESV):
4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
We all love to experience God giving us "the desires of our heart," right? However, there is an explicit condition in this verse, which is to delight in the Lord. This fact is the biggest reason why we need to have an adequate knowledge of God. The truth is that it would be impossible for us to delight in the Lord if we don't know Him enough or we have a very distorted understanding of who God is. So, let me ask you: Who is God to you? What is He like?
As we continue our studies on the Minor Prophets, the book of Micah was written to focus on presenting the glorious character of God. Since the name Micah in Hebrew means "Who is like the Lord," the prophet seems to have taken the hint from his name to help God's people to know more about the Lord.
Before we consider the book's actual contents, let's first establish some critical background information about the prophet Micah.
Little is said about Micah's personal background; the only information he provides is that he came from Moresheth, a village 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem.
He was a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea, and he served under the ruling of king Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
Although Micah prophesied concerning the tragic fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel into the hands of the Assyrians (Micah 1:6), his ministry was primarily to the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
He ministered for about 59 years between the years 743 and 698 BC.
The book Micah wrote comprises 7 chapters with 105 verses, and it's the 6th book out of the 12 Minor Prophet books.
As we study the Book of Micah, we can highlight three glorious characteristics of the Lord:
I HE IS THE POWERFUL JUDGE:
The first picture of God that Micah presents is that of a judge who is about to come out and deal with the sins of His people. Listen to the words of Micah 1:1-5 (ESV):
1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
3 For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
4 And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.
5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
From these verses, we would see two things that God as the judge is doing:
A. The Lord is Calling Out (v.2)
First, in verse 2, you will find the Lord calling on the peoples of the earth to listen to His accusations against Samaria, which was the capital city of the Northern Kingdom, and Judah (Jerusalem), which also the capital city of the Southern Kingdom (v.2).
Whenever the Lord is calling out your sins, are you ready to listen? Most often, this is the main problem with so many people. God has already been trying to get their attention regarding how they live their lives, but their ears are not attentive to Him. Listen, if you are inattentive to God, there are only two possible spiritual reasons for it:
1. You still do not belong to God
The Lord Jesus established this truth in the Gospels when He said in John 8:47:
47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God."
The Lord Jesus provides an obvious explanation why a person will not listen to God – It is because you are not of God. So, Let's always watch for our attitude towards God's Word. If we consistently reject it or argue against it, it simply indicates that we do not belong to Him.
2. You are rebelling against God.
I want to jump to verse 5 and highlight the phrase, "the transgression of Jacob." The word transgression in Hebrew is "Pasha," which means "to break away from authority" or "to rebel." The word appears about 80 times in the Old Testament, and whenever it is used, it brings a picture of God being the King ruling over His Kingdom, and the people transgressing are the ones rejecting His authority.
Therefore, whenever we habitually sin, it is because we have rejected His authority over us. The people whom God is confronting in this book are not simply falling short of God's expectations of them. They were defiantly rejecting His authority over their lives, so God had to deal with them. Let's be careful today that the Lord doesn't find us also rebelling against His authority.
B. The Lord is Coming Out (vs. 3-5)
After He calls the nations to be witnesses against His people's transgressions, in verse 3, we find the Lord coming out to judge His people. The judgments will be devastating. Listen to some of these declarations:
Micah 1:6 (Judgment against the Northern Kingdom)
6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.
Micah 1:8-9 (Judgment for the Southern Kingdom)
8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.
9 For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
If, in case, we fail to appreciate the purpose of why the Lord repeatedly gave these pronouncements of judgment to His people, I believe the statement of Kay Arthur in her Precept Upon Precept commentary would help us:
"When we listen to the Prophets, we catch God's heart, sense His passion, experience His holiness, and come to understand His fidelity to His character and to the words which go forth from His mouth. This is something you'll never experience fully if you study the New Testament alone. In the Old Testament we uniquely meet God's holiness . . . and stand in awe!"
I'm quoting her because I love the fact that she emphasized the character of God in her statement. For believers today who tend to undermine the prophetical books because they seem to be saying the same thing over and over again - judging the idolatry and immorality of God's people, her words are pretty enlightening. The bottom line is that we need to understand God's character better because this knowledge will help facilitate a more vibrant relationship with Him.
II HE IS THE PROMISED KING (5:1-2)
If there is a passage in the book of Micah that is quoted and used regularly, it would be these verses:
Micah 5:1-2 (ESV)
1 Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek.
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
In these two verses, we would find the transition of emphasis from Him being the powerful judge (v. 1) to Him being the promised King (v.2). Examining verse 2, this is a Messianic prophecy concerning the birthplace of Jesus Christ. This prophecy is precisely the verse that the religious leaders used to help the wise men from the East when they came to King Herod to inquire about the birth of the Messiah (Matthew 2:6).
This promise of a coming King is undoubtedly significant for God's people during this time that God was pronouncing judgment over their sins. They may misrepresent God while He was dealing with their sins as cruel and unforgiving. Although He cannot ignore their sins, He will not cancel out His covenant with His people.
On the part of God, there is a consistent pattern that we should not miss from these declarations. Every time He communicated judgments, He always followed them up with declaration of hope. So, there is a balance in His communications, He is still able to magnify His grace and faithfulness to His people.
Without a doubt, the most explicit demonstration of His grace is the sending of His Son to be their King. When Jesus comes as the King over-all the earth, He will bring about perfect governance and ultimately absolute peace and prosperity. For God's people, who have often been victims of injustice and oppression, the prospect of God ruling on earth is indeed great news.
I trust that we share the same hope. Today, we can never expect too much from government leaders because even in their best efforts, there's no way they can heal all the ills in our society. This reality is the main reason why we have to look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ. He and He alone can eliminate all the evils in our society today.
Now, if you wonder how we should live our lives while waiting for the Promised King, God has given us some great word through the prophet Micah.
Micah 6:8 (ESV)
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Let's try defining His three basic requirements to us today:
"to do justice" – we should always be fair in our dealings with others.
"to love kindness" – we should do our best to do good deeds to others.
"to walk humbly" – we should avoid pride and arrogance as we relate to others.
As God's people, if we desire to see God's help and mercy in our lives, we need to do our best in carrying out these mandates. God definitely can withhold His judgments when we are willing to submit to Him.
III HE IS PARDONING OUR SINS (7:18-19)
The third characteristic of God that we find in Micah can be found in the text we read earlier. Here, we will also find the central representation of Jesus Christ in the book. Notice these words, "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."
Despite all the sins that His people had committed, even when they provoked Him to so much anger, God will not cancel out His covenant to His people. Instead, he will be merciful and compassionate to them when they turn to Him in repentance.
I would like to especially emphasize the last sentence in verse 19, "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." This metaphor highlights that once He forgives, He never revisits our sins again and again. How many of us can do this? It is pretty standard for us to keep records of how others have wronged us? Praise God because He is not the same! The Psalmist acknowledges this truth as well: (I want us to read it in the Message Translation)
Psalm 130:3-4 (MSG)
3 If you, GOD, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance?
4 As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshiped.
It is only by God's amazing grace that He can do this with those who repent of their sins. Jesus Himself embodies this kind of forgiveness. If you ask me what my favorite story in the Bible is, I would say the parable Jesus shared: The Prodigal Son. I love it because when you consider some of the things the younger son did, it is incredible to see how his father forgave him. Let me share at least three sins the son committed:
He insulted his father by asking for his inheritance while he was still alive.
He isolated himself from His Father after he got his money.
He indulged in irresponsible and immoral behavior until he lost all his money.
Yet, when he decided to return home, there was no scolding, beating, or shaming from the father. On the contrary, the father was so excited to receive him back and restore him to a place of favor and honor. Amazingly, this is the character of the God we have!
As I close, I trust we maintain a balanced perspective of God's character. There is no question that because He is Holy, He will judge sins. But even his pronouncement of judgments in the Old Testament should not be seen as cruelty but acts of grace. He was giving His people enough warning, so they will return to him. Notice these words in Ezekiel, about 100 years later from the time of Micah. God said Ezekiel 18:31-32 (ESV):
31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live."
God never enjoys punishing sins, but He also will not tolerate sins. Therefore, instead of hardening our hearts, we as God's people must humble ourselves before Him and repent of our sins, knowing He will always be gracious and merciful in forgiving us all our sins.
-Bishop Dr. Jeremiah Lepasana