“There is no other God like you! You forgive sin and pardon the rebellion of those who remain among your people. You do not remain angry forever, but delight in showing loyal love. You will once again have mercy on us; you will conquer our evil deeds; you will hurl our sins into the depths of the sea. You will be loyal to Jacob and extend your loyal love to Abraham, which you promised on oath to our ancestors in ancient times.”
— Micah 7:18-20
The whole chapter reads like one of David’s psalms. Beginning is despair, disappointment, frustration, almost hopelessness. Content/theme is clearly exile and punishment of Israel for their wickedness. Can’t even trust your own family it’s going to be so bad when Babylon attacks. But Micah turns to future hope of restoration. Enemies will be destroyed. Eat dust like snakes…picture of death.
Basis of this is two-fold: character of God and loyalty of God to His covenant. He will not destroy Israel…that would prove Him a liar to Abraham. But He would need to punish them for their incessant disobedience. He does not remain angry forever. Interesting that there is no theology here of why God’s anger is appeased. Did Israel just serve the rightful sentence? What covered the sin and threw it into sea? We know they couldn’t pay for their own sin. And there were no sacrifices.
I think it goes back to the two fold point of the author in this passage. God’s covenant and God’s character. Fairness has nothing to do with it. He can discipline and He can have mercy to restore His people to Himself.
We need to be careful before applying this whole scene directly to us. Obviously, we have Jesus. We interact with these themes at different levels. God is still merciful. And He has a covenant with His people. And He is still faithful to His promises.
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