A God Like You
Scripture Reading: Micah 7:18-19
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Micah oscillates between speaking to God and speaking about God to us. It is both prayer and proclamation. He begins by asking the rhetorical question, “Who is a God like you…?” The answer is there is no God like the One True God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The gods of men’s making and the devil’s devising are vindictive and bitter. They do not, and cannot pardon our transgressions. Whatever reprieve they offer doesn’t include forgiving and forgetting. Sin is held over men’s souls like the sword of Damocles, robbing them of any true peace and comfort in this life. These gods bully and cajole men into submission to their lusty aims.
Our God pardons with a real pardon. His anger ceases. His love abounds. He treats us with compassion, not contempt. He walks on sin, not on his sons. He forgets our sins as if they had been sunk into the depths of the sea.
Who is this God? He is the Father Who sent the Son, He is the Son who came to die, and He is the Spirit Who causes us to be born again.
