JOYFUL MERCY
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Opening Prayer
Father, please speak to me through your Word today. Let me hear your voice as I reflect on what it says.
Read MICAH 7
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Israel’s Misery
7 What misery is mine!
I am like one who gathers summer fruit
at the gleaning of the vineyard;
there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
none of the early figs that I crave.
2 The faithful have been swept from the land;
not one upright person remains.
Everyone lies in wait to shed blood;
they hunt each other with nets.
3 Both hands are skilled in doing evil;
the ruler demands gifts,
the judge accepts bribes,
the powerful dictate what they desire—
they all conspire together.
4 The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.
The day God visits you has come,
the day your watchmen sound the alarm.
Now is the time of your confusion.
5 Do not trust a neighbor;
put no confidence in a friend.
Even with the woman who lies in your embrace
guard the words of your lips.
6 For a son dishonors his father,
a daughter rises up against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.
7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,
I wait for God my Savior;
my God will hear me.
Israel Will Rise
8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be my light.
9 Because I have sinned against him,
I will bear the Lord’s wrath,
until he pleads my case
and upholds my cause.
He will bring me out into the light;
I will see his righteousness.
10 Then my enemy will see it
and will be covered with shame,
she who said to me,
“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will see her downfall;
even now she will be trampled underfoot
like mire in the streets.
11 The day for building your walls will come,
the day for extending your boundaries.
12 In that day people will come to you
from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
even from Egypt to the Euphrates
and from sea to sea
and from mountain to mountain.
13 The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants,
as the result of their deeds.
Prayer and Praise
14 Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
which lives by itself in a forest,
in fertile pasturelands.[a]
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
as in days long ago.
15 “As in the days when you came out of Egypt,
I will show them my wonders.”
16 Nations will see and be ashamed,
deprived of all their power.
They will put their hands over their mouths
and their ears will become deaf.
17 They will lick dust like a snake,
like creatures that crawl on the ground.
They will come trembling out of their dens;
they will turn in fear to the Lord our God
and will be afraid of you.
18 Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show mercy.
19 You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
20 You will be faithful to Jacob,
and show love to Abraham,
as you pledged on oath to our ancestors
in days long ago.
Footnotes
- Micah 7:14 Or in the middle of Carmel
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How often have you said or thought, ‘I may forgive, but I never forget’? Why is it important to ‘forgive and forget’?Is there an activity you particularly enjoy: something that, in a stressful week, makes you feel happy? God has something like that: he ‘delights to show mercy’ (v. 18)!
Forgiving those who have wronged him (v. 18) lights up his week (so to speak!). Re-engaging with his estranged people thrills him to his core! No grudging acceptance of outcasts, but, like the father in the prodigal son story told by Jesus, a joyful, arms-open-wide, let’s-throw-a-party kind of renewal.
Israel, to be sure, was still a long way from enjoying this divine embrace. The people’s lives were in disorder (vv. 2–6), and they would still suffer for their actions (v. 9). But Micah knew that rebellion and judgment would not be the last words over Israel. His eye wasn’t so much on the disorder as on his God (v. 7). His hope was in the unchangeable nature of God’s character (v. 18) and the unshakeable reliability of God’s promises (v. 20). When all seems broken and lost, don’t despair. Keep looking to the God who delights to show mercy (v. 18).
Apply
It’s been said that justice is giving people what they deserve, but mercy is giving them far more than they deserve. Is there anyone to whom you need to show mercy? How might you go about that this week?
Closing prayer
Father, if there are people for whom I am holding on to anger or resentment, please convict me of my need to forgive; give me your heart to forgive as you do.
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