Micah 7:18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy
People who solve problems don’t think like the people who make problems. To be sure all of us make problems and maybe most of us solve problems on occasion. None of us is an all-the-time problem solver, but all of us are problem makers. However, there are people who just seem to have the gift to solve problems. Almost invariably they think nothing like the rest of us. A lot of times they are unorthodox thinkers. That is the very reason that they solve problems because the problems were created by people who don’t change their ways when they don’t like the results.
This is the reason you might sometimes wonder if God can really forgive you. If God is like everyone else, that would be a valid question. Could and would God forgive? If God is like me, perhaps He would not. I can be petty, vindictive, small, and miss the big picture. I can be totally human and totally a sinner. God is not like me. The Bible says that God’s ways and thoughts are higher than my ways and thoughts. So, the reason you wonder at God’s forgiveness, grace, or anything that God can do is because you know what you would be able to or want to do.
One of the wonderful messages of the prophet Micah is that only God can forgive the way God does forgive. Micah 7:18 says, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?” Who is like God? No one is like God. Micah’s name means “who is like Yahweh.” This may be a play on words, but the question is a good one. Who is like unto God? No one is. The reason you can’t forgive is because you are not God. The reason God forgives the way He forgives is because He is not a super version of me; He is a different category, singular, a one-off. He is the transcendent God. Only God can forgive the way God does forgive. His nature is higher.
Micah 7:1-7 begins with woe, trouble. Micah seems to say, “I looked the land over and there are no good people left. The good man has perished out of the earth. The land is desolate because of the fruit of wicked people.” That is ironic. Desolation and fruit should be different things, but the fruit of their wicked doings was desolation. This was true of the prince, the judge, the great man, the son, the daughter, the daughter-in-law. Micah says a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. You can’t trust anybody. Now, if God is like all these people in whom you cannot place ultimate trust, then we are in trouble. If I can’t trust the best people I know, then is it possible that they could forgive in a perfect way? The answer is that they cannot on their own.
A question that has often been asked is, “What would Jesus do?” Sometimes we ask that question, but what we are really thinking is, “What would I do? Jesus is good and all that. He is a good teacher, a super version of myself, so what would I do?” You could never forgive the way Jesus does. The only way you could forgive the way Jesus does is if Jesus is forgiving through you, as if God is empowering what your nature would not produce. Only God can forgive the way God does forgive because His nature is higher. “You can’t trust anyone,” Micah seems to say. “Therefore,” verse 7 says, “I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation.” God’s nature is higher, therefore only God can forgive the way God does forgive.
Not only that, but God’s mercy is greater. Verse 18 says that He pardons iniquity, passes by the “transgressions of the remnant of his heritage,” and “retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy.” His mercy is greater. Am I ever merciful? Yes, maybe, but I always know it and think, “What a good boy am I. They’ve been horrible and I’ve been merciful.” That just increases my arrogance.
Have you ever nursed a grudge? That comes naturally. Does God nurse a grudge? No, God is holy. He will whack sin and wickedness and judge what is wrong, but if you draw nigh to God, He will draw nigh to you. I nurse a grudge, but God delights in mercy. He is not just grudgingly merciful. No, He delights in mercy. That is something I don’t do. I may give mercy on occasion, but not nearly the mercy I myself would want. His mercy is greater.
Ultimately, God’s capacity is deeper. Verse 19 says, “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” It reminds me of Psalm 51:9 where David says, “Hide thy face from my sins.” Spurgeon says to hide the face from anything means not to see it. Psalm 103:9 tells us that God will not keep His anger forever. Verse 12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” God removes our sins deeper and further than any human could. He has put them in the deepest sea. When God casts them into the sea, He casts them where they will never be found again. When we turn to Him, He will turn and have compassion on us. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh you.
Aren’t you glad for God’s mercy? God says in the last verse of the book, “Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.” God is true to His Word and to His people. Only God can forgive the way God does forgive. If you wish to live in that forgiveness and show that forgiveness to others, you must be animated by a power greater than yours, a nature higher than yours, a mercy greater than yours, and a capacity that is deeper than yours. Those are found in God Almighty.