AT 9 06/28/2026 God's Delight Micah 7:7-20 Well Good Morning everyone, it really is a great morning to gather together to study God's Word, to sing His praises. Maybe I'm a little biased but I really appreciate the music ministry, just preparing our hearts to continue to worship as we dive into our wonderful Savior's Word, our God's Word. I especially love the lyrics of that last song that we just sang: The love of our Lord reaches to the heavens; His faithfulness stretches to the skies. And that's the very thing, those two items, His love and His faithfulness are going to be combined in our study this morning as we're going to be diving into the book of Micah. It is amazing to be studying God, when we look at God and see what He has done. I've had the opportunity recently to dive into a study of God's attributes which of course is an inexhaustible feat if you seek to know everything about our God, our Father. But we begin to look at Him, and we think we know Him and yet, as Scripture says, we only see His fringes. In fact, Scripture many times over says that His greatness and His ways are in fact unsearchable. You cannot find the end. We often overestimate how much we know about God. We can know a lot about Him, we certainly can know Him personally as our Lord and Savior, but there really is no end to who He is, and so there is no end to the depths of His wisdom, the depths of His holiness, how perfectly set apart He is, how kind He is, how merciful He is, and as we'll look at this morning how deeply covenantally loving He is. This is certainly not to say that it is unimportant to study and to understand God and His depths because the actual opposite is true. I want to show an example of that in Ephesians 3. Here we are going to see Paul encouraging the people of Ephesus very specifically to not be discouraged in what they are hearing what Paul is going through, but there is so much more encouragement in the truths that are laid out in Ephesians 3. If you look at Ephesians 3:8 we see that he is proclaiming to the Gentiles, the good news of the unfathomable riches of Christ. Note there already “the riches of Christ our God, our Savior.” They are unfathomable, you can begin to look into them, but you cannot fully, deeply understand them, there is nothing you can really do to completely fully know. But then in verse 11 we see that he is doing this for a reason, he's proclaiming the truth for a reason. “This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.” Another sermon could be said on how we have confident access to our Lord. Verse 13, continue, “Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my afflictions on your behalf which are your glory. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” Already talking about how powerful He is. “And that He would give you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” So clearly Paul is not saying, get me the measurements of God's love, find out the breadth and height and depth. What they are to attempt to comprehend is that the love, the massive love that Christ has, in fact surpasses knowledge. That's the very words we see in this passage. Seek to understand who your Savior is and His love but just know that you won't be able to understand it fully. Rather, the encouragement is not to run away and think this is too big a study for me, I can't comprehend it, but it is to dive in, it's to see just how massive the love of Christ is. The love of God is for His people, for us, so that you may be empowered again by God from within. They are empowered against losing heart specifically here in the passage. They are empowered to accomplish much because of Him who works in them. The focus here, the encouragement here, the reason I wanted to start in Ephesians is to see that God having no finish line when it comes to studying His attributes is not a sign to run away, but it's a sign we need to dive in, study Him more, try to comprehend the abundance of His lovingkindness, as we'll specifically see today. What can scare people away often is that the more you actually know, and many teachers in here or Bible studiers in here, if you've dived into the depths of a topic; maybe it's an attribute of God, maybe it's the acts of God, what He has done. You quickly see that you know way less than you thought you knew before you did the study. In a way you have increased in knowledge and yet you have realized that there is so much more to learn. We know His love mightily because of what He has done for us and we are certainly thankful for that. Yet we can know His love deeper each day through praying to Him and asking for strength, asking for understanding of His love. We see God working in our lives and we also see it through studying His Word. So today that's our focus, we're going to do sort of a case study to see God's love in action. My desire for you today, if you as we go into the book of Micah and you get maybe bogged down by the details, maybe you don't quite understand the story of Israel, this is the topic that I want you to come out of this with. Know His lovingkindness, know how gracious and compassionate our Father is. We're going to be studying a pretty dark book today and yet there is always hope, there is always a future. Remember that this God that we serve today is the very same God that has worked in the lives of those who have come before us. So, if you get nothing else from today, try to focus back on Who really is our Father, what does He delight in, who is this God. So, although there are necessary details that we must go over as we are going to go over the history of Israel just a little bit, God's chosen nation. I hope you see this gracious and compassionate Father, your Savior, at work in His people. We certainly get to see His unchanging nature in this prophetic account from Micah. The special focus that comes at the end of Micah, which I've spoiled many times, and I'll spoil it again now, is that we're going to see that our Creator delights in lovingkindness. The title this morning is GOD’S DELIGHT, Our God delights in lovingkindness. That word lovingkindness is best we can do for the translation; it's just two words kind of smashed together. I'm going to save a deeper definition of the word for later, but the idea behind it is that God has faithful covenantal love. He is faithful, He is loyal, and He does it in love. Not only is God true to His promises but He is loving in His fulfillment of them. Many times, we can know that God is true, we can know that God is love, but we forget that the two intersect deeply in the word “lovingkindness.” Not only is God true in His promises, but He is loving in His fulfillment of those promises. So again, learning about God's lovingkindness in a passage that is drenched with punishment, drenched with judgment seems counter intuitive, yet in places like this in Scripture like in Micah we are going to see the deepest evidence of God's lovingkindness. I think to see the depth of God's outpouring of mercy and His grace and His love we have to experience that wretchedness of sin. We must see what it is these people are being saved from. To see God's faithfulness and love toward His people through His promises we must see that others will fail and when others fail God will not. And further then, God cannot fail, that is against His character. The minor prophets are often avoided because of their doom and gloom nature, along with the potential to be confused by all those details about the history of the books. They are the book of the twelve as they are often seen. I plan to keep things rather simple today, speaking generally and just getting specific when the text demands it. We're not going to look over things that we must because of the text. But I hope that you can see that the prophets are approachable, they are understandable and more so than those things they are extremely profitable for our lives. It's not just a book about Israel; it's a book about God. We get to see more of our Savior in it, more of our Father. So, if you would let's turn to Micah, I'm going to give a little bit of background here. The prophet Micah, he as a person who is not very well known. What's revealed in the Scriptures is that he prophesied in the “days of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah.” That is in verse 1. His prophecies were for both the northern and southern regions of Israel. The only other reference we see in Micah is a big one, it's mentioned in Jeremiah 26, if you want to look at it later. This is where the elders protected Jeremiah by pointing to Micah's prophecy of destruction, thus preserving Jeremiah's life when Yahweh spoke through him. It has always been true that God often uses weak to accomplish His greatness and even in someone like Micah who did not come from a popular place as few references in Scripture, God used Micah mightily in the warning of destruction and the message of restoration. If you would, just to start let's turn to Micah 3, we'll go back to chapter 1. But Micah spoke to the people and as we'll see somewhat through, to the leaders of Israel during this time of wickedness. There was horrible manipulation of the people, especially from the leaders, for reasons of greed and specifically from the text for reasons of the love of evil. There is no getting around that. They loved evil. Even in a time like this Israel seems to be doing well, there was no sign of destruction coming by how things were going. They certainly were not doing well spiritually; they gave up all followings of God. Micah 3:8 shows us the reason for the prophecy, a good reason behind the book. We'll get to what it comes after, but verse 8, “On the other hand I am filled with power,” Micah speaking here, “with the spirit of Yahweh and with justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression, even to Israel his sin.” But as we'll see, the evildoers did not care one bit. One commentator on this topic, on the evildoers ignoring it, said this, “They rested on the inviolability of Zion, believing that God would not judge and abandon the people He had chosen,” that was their thought. They banked on well; He would not abandon us so we can do what we please. If you look down in verse 11 of chapter 3 we see that they thought they were safe because they were chosen people. Just right at the end of that verse, yet they lean, after doing these things for money “they lean on Yahweh saying, Is not Yahweh in our midst? Evil will not come upon us.” Turn back to chapter 1. My focus today, although I had to pick a passage, I could have just written a book of Micah, I decided to write down Micah 7:7-20, and that is where we will slow down a bit but we have to overview the book as we study what is happening at the end of Micah. But we're going to do an overview this morning, there are three sections of Micah as we'll see and then we'll really slow down in chapter 7, the end of chapter 7 where we see great restoration promised. I have three sections today, the first section is in chapters 1-2, this is The Destruction of Israel. In chapters 3-5 we have The Leaders of Israel Called Out, and then chapters 6-7 we have God's Case Against Israel, and that is a scary sentence as we'll see going forward. What is amazing as we are going to study these sections is that each section ends with a message of hope. Yes, these are doom and gloom sections where there is destruction that is promised to the people who have turned away from God and yet every section that we see in here has a message of hope, and I'll point those out as they come. To begin we see, just verse 1, we see those historical details of who Micah is and when he prophesied. Verse 1, “The word of Yahweh which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he beheld concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.” It's very clear who this message is to and when this message was written, some 700 years before the coming of Jesus Christ. Before we launch into the intro of the book we see our first wakeup call. One thing that I didn't say about the three sections of Micah is that each one starts with a proclamation to listen. Listen, hear, open your ears. Are you understanding what is being said? This is what we see right away in verse 2. So here is our first section, The Destruction of Israel. Verse 2-7, “Hear oh peoples, all of you, give heed oh earth as well as its fullness and let Lord Yahweh be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple. For behold Yahweh is going forth from His place, He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. The mountains will melt under Him, and the valleys will be split like wax before the fire, like water poured down into a sea place. 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? What is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? So, I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, planting places for a vineyard. And I will pour her stones down into the valley and I will lay bare her foundations. And all of her graven images will be smashed and all of her earnings will be burned with fire and all of her idols I will make desolate, for she collected them from a harlot's earnings and to the earnings of a harlot they will return.” All that Samaria and Judah and the nation of Israel as a whole have done; there is due punishment. We can talk about the lovingkindness of our Lord, we can talk about His mercy and His grace, but we cannot ignore the fact that there always will be, as we'll see in a few other passages, due punishment. God cannot simply just for no reason look the other way. He is holy, He is blameless. So, there must be punishment. We see a terrifying thing as we'll see in chapter 6 as well, that in the first couple verses, “Give heed oh earth as well as its fullness and let Lord Yahweh be a witness against you.” That would be a terrifying thing to have the Almighty God, the Creator of your soul, the sustainer of your breath have a case against you. We see this case against His people laid out even more plainly later, so we'll return. But for now, the coming judgment on Israel is clear, there is no question in this prophetic word. Who committed these transgressions? The message is to the general populace of Israel at the moment; we're going to dive in deeper with the leaders of Israel soon. But this is clearly communicated that all of Israel is under punishment. At a time of prospering financially it may have seemed impossible that they would fall. Not only is this warning of destruction, but complete annihilation. Micah even predicted the fall of Samaria through this as you look at verses 5-7. This is at the hands of the Assyrians. You can read about this stuff; this came to pass. It says, “I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, planting places for a vineyard. And I will pour her stones down into the valley and I will lay bare her foundations.” I hope you haven't, but have you ever experienced a tornado? Have you ever experienced a hurricane? In Nebraska a tornado where you look upon the path of a storm and you see nothing. Laid bare, the foundation is there. You could plant flowers, as Scripture says. The coming judgment is to lay flat these people and their riches, and it did come to pass. Here is a quick summary of chapter 1 because we can't read every verse this morning. God has a case against Samaria and Jerusalem, against the people of Israel. Their sins are cause for mourning over, as we see in verse 9, “an incurable wound.” There must be punishment. We continue in chapter 2 where the declaration of punishment simply continues. Micah 2:3, “Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold I am devising against this family an evil demise from which you cannot remove your necks, and you will not walk haughtily for it will be an evil time.” I want to again stress that the clarity of destruction for the sins of the people is not a confusing message, it is plain and clear in this prophetic word. It is not missed. This is an evil time and an evil demise that is coming. It is a fascinating word that is used there, evil, because our God is not evil. He cannot do evil. Of course, God is not evil, He cannot commit evil, but God is sovereignly ruling over evil. We see that example in the book of Job as well. God is going to allow evil to come their way at the hands of men, and there was great evil that came their way. There is no way to slip out of this, they keep walking in their proud ways. For the sins of the nation there is destruction. And yet there is such great hope. If you look in chapter 2:12, this is the shortest message of hope, and we get much more in the middle of the book. And yet in this first section of the destruction of Israel there is hope. Chapter 2:12, “I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in the fold, like a flock in the midst of its pasture. They will be noisy with men. The breaker goes up before them, they break out, pass through the gate and go by it. So, their king goes on before them and Yahweh at their head.” It is so amazing that this does not come at the hands of the people to do more, this is a common theme through Micah, but it's that they trust in the Word of God. God spoke, verse 12, “I will surely assemble all of you.” It's not based on what they are going to do. He will, not maybe, not perhaps, not it's possible I will come back for you. Rather, God says, Surely, I will assemble the remnant of Israel. I'll be bringing up the remnant of Israel quite a lot this morning because it is one concept that many people miss often when they go into the Old Testament, when they think about Israel, when they think about the church. There is a remnant of Israel that will be gathered, it will be gathered through them. God will gather them to Himself because of the promises that were made to Abraham. They must be fulfilled and they have not yet been fully fulfilled. We will see that at the end of our study with the last verse of the book of Micah. So, I want to be clear that this remnant, it's those who do indeed turn back to God and they make Him Lord of their life. They will be saved; they will be protected. There is a remnant and you are going to see it plain as day as we study Micah this morning. They are going to be used mightily for the Lord's promises. Chapter 2 summary, there is due punishment for those who can do nothing but evil, demise will befall them, but the faithful remnant will be gathered again by God. This is our second section, starting in chapter 3. This is when the leaders, specifically the leaders, are called out. We again have in verse 1, Hear, listen, “Hear now heads of Jacob.” I am going to go ahead and read the first four verses, let's read that. Micah 3, “And I said, hear now heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, Is it not for you to know justice? You who hate good and love evil, who tear off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones and who eat the flesh of My people, strip off their skin from them, break their bones and spread them out as for the pot and as meat in the cauldron. Then they will cry out to Yahweh, but He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time because they have practiced evil deeds.” Our focus is now turned on the chief offending party. This is the corruption of cornerstone in the people of Israel, and that's the leaders of the people. They have twisted and made evil in all their practices. It's clear from Scripture they hate what is good, they love what is evil. I mean, their works are akin to ripping off the flesh of people, consuming them. These aren't works of someone who accidentally sinned, who accidentally slipped into it. It's malicious twisting of truth for their own gain. Go to verse 9 now, this is where we were before. “Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel who abhor justice and twist everything that is straight, who built Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice. Her heads pronounce judgment for a bribe, and her priests instruct for a price and their prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on Yahweh saying, Is not Yahweh in our midst? Evil will not come upon us. Therefore, on account of you Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the house of God will become high places of a forest.” In light of their twisting truth, they lean back on the idea that we are God's people, it doesn't matter how we live. In light of this the response is very clear—Zion will be plowed; Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins. Chapter 3 summary, the rulers over Israel, they love evil, they hate good. They lead the people astray; they twist everything that is right. These evildoers who are leading God's people have caused God to turn away and to punish them. Yet, what nasty words we just read, and yet there is hope. It starts in chapter 4 but we're going to jump to chapter 4 verse 6 to get a picture of this wonderful message of hope that is coming. Here is Micah 4:6-7, “In that day, declares Yahweh, I will assemble the lame and gather the banished, even those upon whom I have brought calamity. I will make the lame a remnant and the outcasts a mighty nation, and Yahweh will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on and forever.” The blessing of returning under God's reign is extended even to those who have been under the calamity of God. That is a fascinating thing that I want you to ponder on. Even though there is due punishment, the restoration is provided and offered for all, anyone who comes to be part of the remnant of Israel. That's the encouragement here. We know according to the Word of God that it's not just a mere possibility but again, a surety. It is not because of some miraculous work that God showed, it's because He spoke. He speaks and it is done. Once outcast, now protected; once lame, now chosen. His promise is forever, not for a little while, it's forever. Israel has come in and out of God's blessing. Right now, we see that they are not under His blessing, but there will be a day when it will stand forever. That is how we know it is coming in the future. Summary of chapter 4, there is an amazing future hope of no war, only peace because of God and it's all because He speaks and it is done. There is restoration, even for those who have been under God's punishment. Chapter 5, we're continuing, we're flying over the whole book. Micah contains some of the most glorious words of future redemption in chapter 5. We see Godly reigning. Let's start in verse 2 of chapter 5. “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,” which I'm not going to get too into that, it's just Bethlehem, “too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you one will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from everlasting, from the Ancient of Days.” Who is this man? Well, we know. Jesus Christ is proclaimed to be coming here, and this prophetic word happened 700 years before He was born. Not only is He coming but we got exact details here, the people of Israel got exact details, the messianic prophecy of His birthplace was here. What is amazing is He comes from a too-little place and yet He is from the Ancient of Days. That is a glorious message of hope. It's not the promise of some leader to come, and be strong and die, it's the promise of one who is from the Ancient of Days. Amazing. Continuing, Micah 5:3, “Therefore He will give them up until the time when she who is in childbirth has borne a child. Then the remainder of his brothers will return unto the sons of Israel and He will stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of His name, of Yahweh His God. And they will remain because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth and this one will be peace.” It continues, the text continues on to describe how He will do this but the point is that God, Jesus Christ, will come to be born, which is now history for us, and is coming to bring peace, which is now future for us. This message of prophecy would have been a confusing thing to see. Imagine the confusion when the people in Jesus's day saw Jesus quote Micah. If you want to write it down, it happened in Matthew 10. Jesus quoted Micah and said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth, I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” Then this is the quote from Micah. “For I came to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's enemies will be the members of his household.” The peace is yet to come. Jesus's coming will ultimately bring peace, of course, but His first coming did no such thing and that came from the mouth of our Savior. He came to bring a sword, to divide. Chapter 5 summary, there is a coming ruler of Israel who is from everlasting, from the Ancient of Days who will come to bring peace. This is the remnant of Israel. They will be many, they will be mighty, they will be empowered by God. Here is our last section for this morning, the last of the overview. This is when we see again chapter 6:1-4, “Listen,” there is our encouragement again, listen. I have titled this section God's Case Against Israel. A scary thing happens here; we see the righteous judge coming to court as a prosecutor. Micah 6:1, “Listen now to what Yahweh is saying. Arise, plead your case before the mountains and let the hills listen to your voice. Listen, you mountains, to the caves of Yahweh and you enduring foundations of the earth because Yahweh has a case against His people, even with Israel He will reprove. My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Answer Me. Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt and ransomed you from the house of slavery. I sent before you Moses and Aaron and Miriam . . .” It continues on, reason after reason, way after way in which God has provided for them, God has taken care of them. God has said, wait patiently for Me. And now He is demanding a response from them. It's a fascinating picture, God brings nature itself to witness, to testify against the people of Israel. Of course, God demands an answer. On this one the commentators said that the people have replaced heartfelt worship with empty ritual, thinking that this is all God demands. They have divorced God's standards of justice from their daily dealings in order to cover their unscrupulous practices. They have failed to realize what the Lord requires of man. There can only be one verdict—guilty. What are they to do? There is only one verdict, they cannot get out of it. More ceremonies? More work? Another Leviticus, if you will? No. Devotion is what is needed. This is a heart issue for the nation. Jump down to verse 6 now, we continue. We see this very same idea, what shall I do. “With what shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves?” Those are young calves, fresh, new. “Is Yahweh pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, oh man, what is good. And what does Yahweh require, but to do justice, to love lovingkindness and to walk humbly with your God.” God says love what I love, do what I do, walk in your lowliness with Me. Chapter 6 summary here, God's Case Against Israel is strong and even nature itself is testifying against them. So, God punishes, verse 13, “Desolating you because of your sins.” Verse 16, a terrifying picture, “Giving you up as an object of horror and your inhabitants as an object of hissing, bearing the reproach of My people.” The final chapter begins with words reminiscent of how God spoke to all mankind, both before and after the flood in Noah's day. Both before and after the flood God spoke about man's heart being continually evil. Micah 7:3-4, “Concerning evil, both hands do it well. The prince asks, also the judge for a payment,” there is bribery happening, “and a great man speaks the craving of the soul, so they weave it together. The best of them is like a briar, the most upright like a thorn hedge. The day when you post your watchman your punishment will come and at that time their panic will happen.” The evil of man is easy to come by. They are ambidextrously proficient in evil no matter what they try to do. And yet, I think you know what I am going to say, there is hope. This seeming wickedness that is coming upon them, there is still hope. Now before we dive into the conclusion, don't think of it as I'm only now finally getting to my passage, but rather we're going to slow down just a little bit here in Micah 7. I want to remind you that we are serving the depths of depravity not to feel better about ourselves, this is not a comparison game at all, but so that we can more clearly see this redemption story that God has in store for His people. We see one of the deepest displays of God's lovingkindness through what we've been studying. We can equate that redemption provided for Israel's sins to that of how we were before Christ. We were in need of deep, deep redemption. It can only be from our Lord. In the Scriptures Israel has lots of examples of failing and God redeems them, but that future perfect never-ending redemption of God's people is yet to come. It is yet to come through the remnant of Israel and thus to the nations in blessing. As we'll see, God is the keeper of His covenant promises. He delights in the love He gets to show them. I'll give you a quick summary of chapter 7 but then we're going to slow it down. When it comes to man there is only evil, both hands do it well. There is due punishment for evil, but there is great covenant faithfulness in the Lord. He delights in His faithful covenant promises, He forgives the iniquity of the remnant who follow Him. So, we've done our three major sections, now we're going to break down this last section of chapter 7 into three more sections, and I'll give you the titles as we go. But the first one is verses 7-10 where I say The Lord Lifts Up. Then we have the next verses, 11-17, The Lord Blesses, and then we have the final three verses, The Lord Delights. Let's read Micah 7 starting in verses 7-10, “But as for me I will watch expectantly for Yahweh, I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not be glad over me, oh my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise; though I inhabit the darkness, Yahweh is a light for me. I will bear the rage of Yahweh because I have sinned against Him until He pleads my case and does justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, and I will see His righteousness. Then my enemy will see and shame will cover her who said to me, where is Yahweh your God. My eyes will look on her, at that time she will be trampled down like mire of the streets.” Micah leads the charge; he's leading the charge to where the people must go. We must take the text for what it says so we see here that Micah is feeling these things that he is saying—I will watch, I will wait. But a bigger picture is that he is an example for the people of Israel, what they are to do, what the remnant will do. It's an example for them. They can think back clearly to what has come before them, the deliverance of God's people has happened time and time again. The providence of God over their protection has happened time and time again. Micah has his focus right. This message he has brought forth is filled with doom, filled with gloom, but there is good news. That good news, fascinatingly, is rooted in the character of God. Again, it is not rooted in more things to do, more work to be had, find the holiness yourself, but it is rooted in God's character. There is such confidence in who God is that Micah urges the enemy not to boast over him. Israel will rise again through the remnant that God has promised to redeem. And He will. Even in a time of darkness there will be light again because Yahweh is the light. I think a faulty view people can get of God's forgiveness and the message of hope is that there is no reason to stop sinning. We kind of see that argument in the New Testament. Shall I continue to sin that grace may increase? Not at all. We learn that from chapter 3, we can't do that. Verse 9 says, “I will bear the rage of Yahweh because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and does justice for me.” When there is sin, it has to be made right, and yet in this verse God is not pleading a case against Israel but for Israel. Chapter 6 we just saw the opposite, we just saw the exact opposite in chapter 6 where God is pleading His case against His people, but now there is something that has shifted where God is defending them. God's people are being condemned for their acts but now they have a mighty defense. God pleads their case. Justice is done to those who did evil things to Israel. Through this Micah says that he sees the righteousness of God. God is holy, God is blameless and, in His holiness, and perfect righteousness we see that it is on display as He casts away sin, as we'll see soon, and He brings justice. At that time the enemy will be trampled. Here is our second point here. The Lord Blesses, starting in verse 11, this is future blessing that is coming. “It will be a day for building your walls. On that day your boundary will be extended. It will be a day when they will come to you from Assyria and the cities in Egypt, from Egypt to the River, even from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.” This message is to the people of Israel. What's amazing is when they are reading this message they are already doing well but as we see they will be destroyed, which has already been fulfilled. But then there will one day be a future hope, when their borders are going to reach far and wide. Some of the other messages of hope in Micah are about the incredible strength in the people of Israel, not only by their numbers but specifically by God's strengthening them. They are going to be great in number and power due to the Lord. God doesn't have to be general with His revelation too, which is amazing. He can be specific. We get specifics such as Assyria and Egypt. Remember the Assyrians are the hands by which Israel fell. So, it's amazing to hear that they will be coming to Israel. Even the enemies will be subject to them. But further than that, God's blessing on His people extends their reign far and wide. What a message of hope for them. This might and reign certainly is not true for the other nations. Verse 13, “And the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants, on account of the fruit of their deed.” According to their deeds, all those outside of Israel have nothing. There is no fruit for them because they did not turn to God. That's not unjust, that's fair, that's right. This desolation did not come in an unfair way; it came according to their deeds. This section now moves to the one true King to rule over his people in verse 14. “Shepherd your people with your scepter, the flock of your inheritance which dwells by itself in the forest, in the midst of a fruitful orchard. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the ancient days.” God's chosen people have been equated with the sheep. We see that picture all over and I'm thankful that also we church age saints see that same picture, that we are sheep needing a shepherd. But they need a shepherd. God will gather His people and be their shepherd. We even see that same example earlier in Micah. They stand alone in the forests as His people, and it's a beautiful place that they have been given possession over. It's going to be extended beyond what they have now. You get the specific examples of Bashan and Gilead; these are places that they used to have. They were fruitful and they are going to get them back one day. That would have been a great specific example that would have hopefully encouraged them to turn. One day it will be just like it used to be and more. Verse 15, “As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show you wondrous deeds.” I don't want to just read over that verse; I think we read of God's wondrous deeds so often that we just say “wondrous deeds” and move on. We don't even think about what that means. But hear what that is saying. As in the days of Egypt when they came out, when they were delivered. Wait, what kind of deeds happened out of Egypt? There were the plagues on Egypt, there was the parting of the Sea. You could even include the feeding as they wandered and wandered. They miraculously were fed. That is some miraculous works that God is comparing Himself to. Just in those days you will see more in the future. The point of the displays of wonder coming in the future are going to be on that same level. They are going to be miraculous. Sometimes I think about that Exodus account, and I think just a little bit that I wish I could have seen it, I wish I could have seen how miraculous it was for the Sea to be parted just like the kids' depictions of it. The fish jumping from side to side. How cool it would have been. What is amazing is when we are absent from the body we are going to be at home with the Lord, and I think it's my belief that miracles are going to be before us in the future. Maybe we missed out on Exodus but we're going to get to see the wonderful, marvelous works of the Lord in the future. That's an exciting thing. Verse 16, “Nations will see and be ashamed of all their might, they will put their hand on their mouth, their ears will be deaf. They will lick the dust like a serpent, like crawling things of the earth. They will come trembling out of their fortresses. To Yahweh our God they will come in dread, and they will be afraid before you.” There is no standing before the Lord here. They will so clearly have no answer to God, but they will seem to not even hear what is going on. They have no answer, they are ashamed. In all the power they have, they have nothing. I still have young kids in the house, so my kids' analogy always comes. Love wrestling. I put up with it; I also like it a little bit. If I were to just show my strength all the time it would not be fun for them anymore. So often I feign weakness, I let them overpower me on occasion, I'll sometimes even ask my son, do you want me to really try or just play with you. And he'll say, not all the way please. Because once I turn it on maybe I've let them get too many strikes in, they are overwhelmed. They know my strength, maybe one day my son will be stronger than I am, but until then they are overwhelmed with the strength that I have in comparison to how little they are. The same goes for these nations, they can bring all the strength they want, there is no comparison to the Father. Seeing His mighty works again they'll come with no answer, no excuse and they come in dread. They don't want to come before Him, they are afraid. The last section here, the good news, the Lord delights. Starting in verse 18, in light of these magnificent blessings that are coming to the remnant of Israel, Micah really just steps back in awe and declares how is this possible. I know how, he knows how. Verse 18, “Who is a God like You, forgives iniquity, passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance. He does not hold fast to His anger forever because He delights in lovingkindness. He will again have compassion on us, He will subdue our iniquities, and You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob in lovingkindness, to Abraham which You swore to our fathers from the days of old.” Who is a God like You, the first recognition. After seeing the promises of the future is to look back at God, He is making all this happen. You can make a big point of it or not but it's interesting that Micah is, the origin of his name is actually the phrase, “who is a God like You.” This is a play on his very name that he is saying here. Of course it has an obvious answer already. Nobody is like our God. This phrase acts as a response to the wonderful blessing that is to come to the nation Israel while also reaching forward to what God is doing to make these future blessings happen. So, who is a God like You who forgives iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance. We've worked pretty hard together to establish there will always be punishment for sin in some form. God is holy, it must happen. There is no justice without having punishment for the offense. And yet Micah is basking in the reality that God, as He said He would, is going to pass over the transgressions of the remnant. These people are turning back to God and in doing so God shows great compassion toward them by passing over their transgressions. God is forgiving, God certainly is unlike any other. What is interesting is it could have been left there, and it would have been enough, it would have been sufficient to consider that God would pass over, and we don't really need a reason. But we get a reason. Why would God pass over their sin? Why doesn't He just hold fast to the anger, be just? Verse 18 continues, “He does not hold fast to His anger forever because He delights in lovingkindness.” Our God delights, the definition there really is to move, to be pleased, to have pleasure, to desire. I really want to focus on loving kindness, but I can't ignore what it means to delight. Our God cannot be moved by anything outside Himself unless He would allow Himself to do such a thing. And as we see here that's God's desire, His pleasure is in His lovingkindness. So, then lovingkindness, it's God's faithful covenantal love, sometimes to be understood as favor, kind, merciful, loyal, faithful love. The best understanding is that lovingkindness represents God's covenant promises in love, His covenant promises, faithful to them in love. Maybe you do make a covenant with someone, but you are only bound to it by the legality of the signature or the rules that you have written in. But this is not that loving covenant that we have, that they have with God here. Can you imagine if, to my wife, I said Honey, happy ten-year anniversary. I checked and the marriage certificate is still valid so we will continue on. It is much deeper than that. It's my joy, it's my delight to show my love for my wife. Not only do I have that permanent relationship, but I love it. So, too, and in a much, much deeper way God delights in His covenant keeping promises. He delights in the forgiveness of sins. God is not holding fast to His anger because He delights in lovingkindness. God's anger subsides because He delights in lovingkindness. What is interesting is lovingkindness is almost always used to describe the character of God. It is who He is, it's something He delights in. What is especially amazing about loving kindness, as we see all over Scripture, mainly the Old Testament, is that it is endless. If you look through Psalm 136, we're not going to read it all, but every other line talks about how His lovingkindness endures forever. And the other lines are about how God has done, how God has shown it through His people. He is abounding in lovingkindness all over Scripture. If you would, turn back a few pages to Jonah. I have to go to Jonah 4, at the end of chapter 3. This reality of God delighting in lovingkindness is even used by Jonah in frustration. The reality of who God is, is so true that even those frustrated with God know who He is. Jonah, he is unhappy in Jonah 3:10 with the outcome of Nineveh repenting of their ways and turning back to God, they have done what God desired them to do and Jonah blames God's character for making it happen. Jonah 3:10, “Then God saw their works and they turned from their evil way, so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them. And He did not bring it upon them. But this was a great evil to Jonah.” Notice that use of evil. “He became angry and he prayed to Yahweh and said, Oh Yahweh, was this not my word to myself while I was still in my own land. Therefore, I went ahead to flee to Tarshish,” tried to get away, “for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and One who relents concerning evil. So now, oh Yahweh, please take my life from me for death is better to me than life.” There is no denying, no matter what situation you are in, that our God who is eternal and everlasting delights in lovingkindness. He is gracious, He is slow to anger, He is compassionate. Back to Micah 7, looking again at verse 19. “He will again have compassion on us, He will subdue our iniquities, and You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” It's not a plea to work harder, it's not a plea to do more, it's a plea to turn. You cannot be perfect. God calls for perfection but luckily, He provides a way of perfection. So, turn back to Him. We're not going to turn there now but even Joel 2, another minor prophet, we see the emphasis on turning back with their heart. It's in Joel 2:12-13, “Yet even now, declares Yahweh, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and wailing and tear your heart not your garments. Now return to Yahweh your God for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting concerning evil.” The same truths—return to God. Again, we're still in Micah 7, we're going to look back at why is this happening, and where did this come from. It came from the promise. Verse 20, “You will give truth to Jacob and lovingkindness to Abraham which you swore to our fathers from the days of old.” Promises, these promises that were given to Abraham must be fulfilled. We've seen promise of the land that is coming, the physical land. We've seen promises of offspring more numerous than Abraham could count. We see promises of blessing to all nations on the earth through his descendants. These promises cannot change because God has spoken. There is that truth again. He has spoken; it is done. We were able to have Dr. Layton Talbert here recently and I must quote something he said in the context when he was talking about God's character, and it cannot change. But He can legitimately and genuinely respond to things that are outside Himself. The sovereign God allows it if He does. Dr. Talbert said this: The threats, and we see a lot in Micah, “the threats of God that express His hostile posture against sinners are not empty words, but neither are they necessarily irrevocable words. Sometimes God gets very graphic in His warnings because He wants to elicit in people a response. And when they don't, that threat is unfailingly fulfilled. But when they do, God likewise changes His posture.” This is what we see all through Micah. God is calling down on His people to repent, turn back. His words are not empty, but God rejoices in lovingkindness. He is compassionate, He wants a response from His people. God is loving, God is merciful, God is gracious. This God of the Old Testament is my God. If you've placed your faith in Him, this is your God that we are talking about. There are two things really quickly that I want to talk about that we can learn from this, how we can apply it. What is the truth we see here? Of course, I know the facts that there is a future for the remnant of Israel, they will be restored and they will be powerful. But what have I learned? I think we have time, turn to I John 1. It's probably a passage you know anyway. Our first point is Our Salvation is Sure, that's what we can learn from this. Our salvation is sure on the basis of God's character, not on the basis of what I do. I John 1, it's a great message in I John of encouragement, of hating evil, loving what is good. I John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful,” on His character, “He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” The forgiveness of our sins is not based on us making sure something happens. In light of His character, in light of His faithfulness it will happen. If we have turned to Him, then it is done, He is faithful. Of course, those who instead pretend that they have no sin make God a liar. And today we actually get to see more clearly than the people of Israel because we have His full canon of Scripture. We get to see plainly the message of Christ coming. There is nothing more sure in life than when we bank on the character of God. Our salvation is rooted in God's character, so we have nothing to fear. Very simply, if you have turned to Him for forgiveness of your sins, it is done. That is the message, that is the faithfulness of our Father. It is not because of who I am, it's not because of what I can give my Father, but it's because I have confessed that I am in need of a Savior. And I rely, I bank on the character of God to save my soul. There is nothing better that you can bank on. The second point that you can pull from this is How Compassionate our Father Is. We're not going to go to a passage to see this, but the compassion and mercy of our God is something that God Himself loves to talk about. He writes it all over His Word, He wants us to know that He is approachable and loving. Jesus, fullness of deity, God in flesh described Himself as being gentle, humble in heart, desiring people to turn to Him, a light burden is following Him. He loves you; He desires you to turn to Him. He wants you to run from your sin and run to your Savior. Jesus Christ has come; He has provided the way of salvation through the cross. If you would now, just to conclude, let's turn to Revelation 21. Seems like an odd place to go but I want us to really consider the reality of the future coming days in light of our faith in our Father. This is one of the final prophecies we have yet to be fulfilled. We still are limited to only imagining it, but words paint a mighty picture when it comes to our Father's compassion on the people of Israel and on us His children. Picture this which is coming in the future in Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is among men and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people and God Himself will be among them.” That's said twice. “And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will no longer be death, there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things passed away. And He who sits on the throne said, Behold I am making all things new. And he said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Our Lord is so faithful and so good, and I hope you see how loving He is. God delights in lovingkindness.