Who is a God Like You? (Micah 7)
In Micah 6, the prophet served as Yahweh’s prosecutor calling for witnesses, listening to the accused, and charging the defendants. They are not a people who pursue justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Through economic injustice and violence, the people have now received God’s verdict: invasion and exile.
But hope is not lost. Who is like Yahweh? That is what Micah’s name means, and it is the final word in his message. God will remember the covenant with Abraham and have compassion on the people, forgiving their sin and renewing their inheritance. Yahweh delights in mercy and will not hold a grudge against the descendants of Jacob or the nations either.
The Corruption of the People (7:1-7)
Before the announcement of hope, the charges continue. The description is comprehensive. The corruption is pervasive.
“The faithful have disappeared from the land, and there is no one left who is upright.” There are none righteous, we might say; no, not one. Even the best people are like briers and thorns in the land.
Rather, people hunt each other in violence, bribe officials and judges, and the powerful pervert justice.
Since there is no one to trust, everyone should keep silent. Even family members cannot trust each other, but conflict awaits. So, guard your mouths, even when you lie in bed with your lover.
Micah says, there is only whom we can trust. “But as for me,” he says, “I will look to” Yahweh. I can entrust my words to Yahweh; God will listen and I will wait on the “God of my salvation.”
The hope is that God will hear Judah if they seek God and wait on God’s work to be done. Judah will find mercy and grace, according to God’s steadfast love (hesed).
A Liturgy of Hope (7:8-20)
Many scholars suggest that this final section of Micah is structured as a liturgical celebration, a testimony in the assembly. Judah is given hope and invited to lean into the future God has promised because Yahweh will keep the covenant made with Abraham and Jacob.
Steven Dempster (Two Horizons Commentary on the Old Testament) sees five stanzas.
- Yahweh judges the nations (7:8-10)
- Yahweh rebuilds Jerusalem and gathers nations (7:11-13)
- Yahweh shepherds Israel in their inheritance (7:14-15)
- Yahweh humbles the nations and they align with Yahweh (7:16-17)
- Yahweh forgives Judah (7:18-20).
Limburg (Interpretation Commentary) suggests that the people speak 7:8-10, then a priest responds in 7:11-13. The people then respond in 7:14-17 followed by a resounding praise by the whole congregation in 7:18-20.
Yahweh Judges the Nations (7:8-10)
This first stanza is confession of sin and an acceptance of the judgment that will fall upon Judah. It also confronts the nations who taunted and despoiled Judah.
Israel and Judah will fall; they will go into exile. But the nations should not rejoice and pride themselves on their accomplishments. This is the Lord’s judgment; the darkness that enveloped the nation is from God. It is deserved; they had sinned.
But God had not abandoned the descendants of Abraham. God will be alight for them even as the sit in darkness, and there will come a time when God brings them out of darkness into the light…the moment God takes up the cause of Israel.
Though while Israel sat in darkness, the enemy taunted the people with questions like, “Where is the LORD your God?,” there is coming a time when Israel will see the downfall of the nations.
Yahweh rebuilds Jerusalem and gathers nations (7:11-13)
The second stanza announces the future of Jerusalem and Judah. The exiles will return, and this will include the nations as well as the boundaries of the nation are extended.
A day will come, however, the walls will be rebuilt, and the descendants of Abraham will come from the Euphrates and from Egypt to the land of Israel. God will reassemble the people, though the earth is desolate because evil has pervaded the earth. The earth bears the fruit of its judgment while Israel is gathered to God in their inheritance.
Yahweh shepherds Israel in their inheritance (7:14-15)
The third stanza prays for God to lead the people in the wilderness once again and bring them to their plentiful inheritance.
Micah prays, “Shepherd your people.” God will reign over the people in the land—and Israel will flourish. The flock will graze on the hills of Bashan and Gilead as in the beginning of the nation.
Yahweh humbles the nations and they align with Yahweh (7:16-17)
This fourth stanza recounts the humbling of the nations and their turning toward Yahweh. It is the fulfillment of Micah 4 where the nations will flow into Jerusalem to learn of God and learn war no more.
The return from exile will be like a new Exodus. And like Egypt and the other nations at the time, they will shut their mouths in awe. They are defeated nations, like a defeated snake crawling in the dust of the earth. But God offers them hope and a future—to come out of their fortresses (to give up their swords) and turn in fear to Yahweh, the God of Israel. Those nations who do will “stand in fear” of Yahweh.
Yahweh Forgives Judah (7:18-20)
God will restore Israel and redeem the nations? Really? There is no God like Yahweh who pardons sin, not only the sins of the remnant of God’s own possession but the nations as well.
Yahweh . . .
- Pardons sin
- Forgives (passes over) transgression
- Does not stay angry (temperance)
- Delights to show steadfast love (hesed)
- Shows compassion (like Psalm 103:13)
- Treads our sins under our feet (like trampling an enemy)
- Throws our iniquities into the depths of the sea (total absolution)
We know who God is from God’s own self-revelation in Exodus 34:6-7. God is gracious, merciful, and compassionate. His anger does not last forever. Rather, God will cast Israel’s sins into the depths of the sea, never to be recovered or remembered.
On the contrary, God is faithful to the promise to the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob. God is loyal to Israel’s ancestors.
Indeed, as Micah’s name reveals, “Who is like Yahweh?”