Micah 1: Deep Forgiveness

Key Verse
5 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? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
 
Meditation
Corrie ten Boom helped Jews escape Nazis during the Holocaust in World War II. She once used Micah in celebration of God’s forgiveness and love. Ten Boom said, “God buries our sin in the depths of the sea and puts up a sign that reads, ‘no fishing.’”
 
Micah’s prophecy climaxes with this covenant promise (7:18-20): Because of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, God pardons iniquity, passes over transgression, casts sin into the depths of the sea, and has compassion on His people when they repent and turn to Him. This good news is true because of the person and work of Jesus, and should remain central to interpreting and applying today’s reading. 
 
Micah’s prophecy begins with a sentence of destruction against the Northern Kingdom. (1-7) The Lord stood as both witness and judge of Samaria’s “transgression,” or revolt, against God and His word. The consequence was the ruin of Samaria, a historic event that happened when Assyria conquered Samaria in 722 BC. Micah continued with a prophecy against Judah (8-18) taking the form of lament. The destruction awaiting Judah paralleled Samaria’s fate, and Micah pleaded with God’s people to join him in lament to repent.
 
God’s word is direct in diagnosis: All of His people have sinned and deserve death. Sin ruins, and we should lament. Jesus’ work took our sin to the depths of the grave, rising again so we can repent and return to Him. Christians know that for which Micah’s original audience only hoped. Specifically, through the work of Jesus, believers are forgiven and free to swim in the ocean of God’s steadfast love. 
 
Today’s Reading
The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Destruction
2  Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place,
and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

4 And the mountains will melt under him,
and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.
5 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?
And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?

6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.
7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.
9 For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.

10 Tell it not in Gath;
weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
roll yourselves in the dust.
11 Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
shall take away from you its standing place.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.

13 Harness the steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found the transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.

15 I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to Adullam.
16 Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair, for the children of your delight;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they shall go from you into exile.
 
 
Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you from the contrast of today’s reading and the conclusion of Micah’s prophecy, celebrating God’s covenant faithfulness? 
 
-How do you specifically rebel against God as King, rejecting His word, His rule, and His authority? Where is your rebellion ruining you?
 
-The gospel frees us to both lament and repent, turning our hearts to heaven for hope and returning to Jesus for relationship. Take a moment to practice this invitation, lamenting over the ruin you have experienced from rejecting God and His work and repenting to return to Him. 

Key Verse
5 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? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?