Episode 9: A God who delights to show mercy (chapter 7)
Micah gives us his heart in this final chapter of our online bible study. We hear his lament, but also his hope and his resolve to wait for his saviour.
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What do learn about the value of lament from Micah?
How are you seeing the cross in fresh ways in light of this chapter?
Spend some time dwelling and delighting in God's mercy for you.
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This episode is sponsored by 10ofThose.
10ofthose is a Book Ministry that hand picks the best books from across the Publishers; ensures that they hold to the Bible; and then discounts them so that more can go out.
They are kindly offering a huge discount to our listeners. Use the code TEA40 and you’ll get 40% off the retail price on any title you buy.
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The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Felicity: You're listening to the Two Sisters in a Cup of Tea podcast, the Bible study podcast for everyday life. We're here for a 20 minute burst of Bible chat over a cup of tea and an English style biscuit as we make our way through a Bible book over the course of the season and drive it to our hearts. And this season, we're in Micah. Whether you've been listening for a while or have just found us, we're so pleased you're here.
Sarah: We've been grateful for the support of ten of those throughout our podcast journey and really value the work they do as they get trustworthy books that point to Jesus into the hands of many. Did you know that Two Sisters has a partnership bookstore with 10ofThose and has all our favourite picks on our homepage? All you need to do is to go to 10ofthose.com/Twosisters and it'll take you there. On top of which, 10ofThose are kindly offering a huge discount to our listeners. Use the code TEA40 and you'll get 40 % off the retail price on any title you buy. That's TEA40 for big discounts at 10ofthose.com.
Welcome to Two Sisters and a Cup of Tea. My name is Sarah, I live in the UK. I am with my sister Felicity who normally lives in the US but is still with me here, wonderfully, in the UK. And we are into our final chapter of Micah today. It's our penultimate episode of the season, Micah chapter 7. And we've also been enjoying some quite amazing teas from Australia. I'm currently drinking Pumping Pomegranate, Felicity, and it's a joy.
Felicity: I mean it smells amazing. These teas, I've got to say... A step up. Step up. It's whether, like, maybe it's ruined us because now we know there is tea like that. In a bag, I think that's the thing, we haven't had to faff around with them, you know. No, no, you know the loose leaf action. there's no loose leaf action here. No, it's just
Sarah: I just love the descriptions as well. On this tea it says, this tea will take you on a flavour journey with its many surprises. That's good. That's good. Almost poetry. Almost poetry.
Felicity: I have been very much enjoying the gluten-free world that is available in the UK. I've got to say these might be the best gluten-free biscuits I've come across yet. Which one is it? The Nairn's gluten-free Oaties.
I mean, you tried some and they actually, you questioned whether they were gluten free? They were that good.
Sarah: I did. They were that good.
Felicity: They've got a crunch, they've got a flavour, just all in all. We are hitting the peak of our tea and biscuits accompaniment today. It is good.
Sarah: Well, we started the season thinking about different pictures and the poetic language used in Micah as we reached the final chapter. I’m wondering which one has resonated most with you or what's been particularly helpful for you with the pictures that we've been seeing through the book?
Felicity: I think actually mine is quite simple but it's a contrasting image. I've really been, the downs and the ups have been quite significant for me. the first chapter the the rubbling, like they're kind of raising to the ground as God steps down but then in in chapter two, chapter four we get this going up to the mountain and just the contrast between those two things and the way in which then, maybe I'm cheating actually because there are several images in one.
Sarah: No, no I think you're allowed that because you've basically stolen mine but carry on, keep going.
Felicity: And so I think there's more and more that we see those things, the ups and the downs, we see the distinction between who God is, who we are, but also what God is doing as he steps down in order to enable us to go up.
Sarah: Yes, I think you've missed one. I think you've missed an outfit. It's because we haven't got to it yet. But like here in our last bit, we're going to see the trampling underfoot and the trampling to the depths of the sea of our sin. And so we're starting with the mountains that are getting the highest coming down from his highest well in place. And he treads us in like to the depths.
Felicity: That's cool. I hadn't seen that. I like that.
Sarah: But also, I've been really enjoying the way Micah used language to describe the lament of the fruitlessness of going a way that isn't the Lord's and in contrast the fruitfulness, the blessing that comes from being part of his people and walking his way and I've enjoyed seeing the contrast. yeah, that's interesting. We're both picking up contrasting images aren't we in what's striking us? But I think we both say that the pictures in this book have really helped us to grasp the message.
Felicity: I think yes, and I think the pictures have really helped string the book together because there are quite, if you didn't have the pictures I think it would be quite disjointed propositions and so I think this has been really helpful just to have a bit of a continuum going through. All in all, yay for poetry, that's all I can say. You will never be allowed to forget that poetry is the... for
Sarah: Micah poetry, Micah poetry, okay, yes good. I'm gonna read chapter seven, let's get into it.
What misery is mine? There is no summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard. There's no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. The faithful have been swept from the land, not one person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood, they hunt each other with nets. 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. The best of them is like a briar, 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. Do you not trust a neighbour? Put no confidence in a friend, even with the woman who lies in your embrace, guard the words of your lips, a son dishonours 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. But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my saviour, my God will hear me. 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. 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. Then my enemy will see it and will be covered in 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. The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries. In that day, people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, even from Egypt to the Euphrates, from sea to sea, from mountain to mountain, the earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants as the result of their deeds. Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest in fertile pasture lands. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago. As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders. 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. 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. 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. You will again have compassion on us. You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.
Felicity: Thank you Sarah. So start this chapter, it's Micah isn't it? We're thrown into Micah's kind of monologue at this point so what misery is mine? I'm like the one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning end. What we have is a lamenting Micah.
Sarah: It's a beautiful example of a godly lament, isn't it?
Felicity: And should we just define lament? When we say that, what do mean?
Sarah: Crying out to the Lord for the brokenness around him, in a way that is wholly right to do so.
Felicity: Yeah, that's it, isn't it? It's almost seeing the world, seeing around his circumstance through the eyes of the Lord.
Sarah: And seeing it, but seeing it with hope as well, isn't it? So I think his lament in the first part, chapter seven, is shaped by verse seven. As for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my saviour, my God will hear me. So he has real confidence that he can pray this kind of prayer, he can lament the situation around him, that he can cry out, and God will hear him. And rescue. He is going to deliver. And that’s a real confidence boost in how we pray and how we seek to do the same thing isn’t it?
Felicity: Yeah, and I think that's quite key if we look at the world around us and the world that Micah describes here is really not that dissimilar to the world that we see around us. Sin is rife and corruption is real. And it can be, it just can be really depressing, I think. And there's a right kind of anguish at it, but we don't need to be swamped by it. We're not swallowed up by it because of the but as we see in verse seven, I watch in hope for the Lord. I wait for God myself here because he is active. He’s not just left the world to destroy itself and that's it and so I think that's been challenging me as to the posture with which as I read the newspapers or watch the news and I just it's just like that but actually with hope I lament.
Sarah: Yeah and with hope in the fact that we know who this saviour is and actually as we were saying back in chapter one when we were reading Micah's lament a similar thing is here as well, it? It's that kind of episode in Luke 19 where Jesus weeps for the city that he's entering. He weeps, he laments, he grieves over the sin. And I just think this is a really helpful reminder of the character of God isn't it, that actually Micah points us to Jesus in that and God's heart is the same and so as we feel that we can be assured that God is also grieving over sin and yet where we feel powerless he is the one powerful to do something and I love that in the rest of the chapter we have a kind of display of God's power promised to his people for victory and it's just it's wonderful to see it, isn't it, Fleshed out?
Felicity: Yeah, no, I agree. But just to backtrack a moment and just to recognise that verse six is echoed by Jesus. And I just think that's a helpful thing. In Matthew's Gospel, I think he uses those similar phrases to describe these relationships. And it can be tempting to think, well, the world is just getting worse and worse and this is a new level of sin that we encounter now. But actually, Jesus speaks of a very similar thing and so God still sees, still hears, is still active. It's not that that's Micah and this is now actually it's the same. I found that quite comforting, quite helpful.
Sarah: I think also then as we go onto verse 8 and verse 9, we see the kind of personal deliverance that Micah is expecting before we see the kind of deliverance on a grand scale, would you say?
Felicity: I think that's right. Yeah, we have a lot of I, don't we? Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the Lord's wrath until he pleads my case and upholds my cause. And this is something I think as we understand Micah here, he is an individual in this moment in this time, but he is also representative of the remnant. So I think he aligns himself with the remnant. And we are to think that this is, he's almost a model remnant person in the way that he's responding to it. But we're also seeing him as a bit of a signpost towards Jesus, aren’t we? So we've got elements of Jesus here, as well as Micah the person, Micah the remnant person.
Sarah: Yes, that's helpful because it's not a straight line. No. Micah to Jesus is it like, is, yeah, it's just not straight.
Felicity: Well it's just not a direct copy is it? It's not like, this is Jesus right here, right now. There's things about him that make us see Jesus, that help us see Jesus.
Sarah: Yes, and it kind of helps us to desire the one who will bear the wrath for us and so as we then, I don't want to get there too soon because of the end of the chapter is so stunning, isn't it? we're kind of, you're kind of leading towards that of we know, we know the end of the story, we know how it ends. Yeah. And so we can confidently read on.
Felicity: I think that's right, isn't it? But that, pattern that we see in Jesus of death to life, it's kind of like a downwards and then an upwards, isn't it? Actually, that is what we see here, isn't it? So verse 8 I sit in darkness, the Lord be my light, I'll bear the Lord's wrath, he will bring me out into the light. So there's this kind of, that great reversal that we see through the death and the resurrection of Jesus, actually we see as well for God's people. What Micah is describing here is what happens for us as those who are in Christ because I will see his righteousness and he will bring me out into the light because of Jesus who is the light, who is my righteousness, who is the means by which I resurrection life.
Sarah: Yes, yes! And the impact of that is then so wonderfully felt and seen in verses 11 to 13 isn't it? In that day people will come to you from all corners of the earth, from sea to sea, from mountain to mountain. It's this beautiful picture of God's people multiplying isn't it? As his anger is passed over and as restoration comes and obviously we do know that to be the you know that is we're still waiting for that we are able to sit with Micah and say I watch in hope and we wait for Jesus's second coming we're absolutely confident it will happen because of his first coming and what's already happened, the of the judgement that will happen in 14 to 17, the rightness of his judgments that we've seen all the way through this book, that will happen in its fullness. But then I think we were just discussing this before we pressed record, it's the outrageous surprise then of verses 18 to 20 because I think what I'm expecting to read is who is a god like you, who is worthy to judge in this way from all that we've seen through the book. And yet what do we get instead? We get beautiful pardon.
Felicity: Yeah. I think that's right. And we've seen that. We've talked about it previously. We do have this pattern of justice and mercy, but here it's literally next door to each other. So there's no denying the same God who judges is the same God who delights to show mercy at the end of verse 18. And I don't think we can overstate how surprising it is that those two things come together. And we've seen it previously, like how can this be possible? And that is most likely the remnants kind of, well, I see that justice is necessary. I see that it's coming. How on earth is anyone gonna be standing at the end of this? And this is the answer because this is a God who pardons sin, who forgives, and who will not stay angry forever. I love this picture in verse 19. You will again have compassion on us. And the way in which you will do that is by treading our sins underfoot. I love what you were saying in our chat previously, our sins are thrown to the depths of the sea. There's no way that they're gonna come back. This is being dealt with which then supports the image that we just had at the start of the chapter that he will come out into the light, he will be seen as righteous because the sin is not going to mar the righteousness, it's been dealt with.
Sarah: It's been dealt with and I just love that this is like an kind of like arrow into the heart of God's character isn'tn because we expect him to judge and he does rightly judge but actually the heart of his character is he delights to show mercy. Why is he doing this? Why? Why does it end like this? Because that's who he is. He is one who delights to show mercy and he's faithful to his covenant. I love that final verse because that kind of stretches right back through the rest of the Bible and shows us that he doesn't change. God's character doesn't change. Who is a God like him one who does not change, he does not go back on his word, his promises are true and faithful because they are wholly bound up with his character of who he is. I just think that we've seen such comfort and challenge in this book haven't we? But the comfort that comes from remembering that we worship a God who delights to show mercy so that when I'm feeling beaten up with my sin, when I feel like the battle is raging and I don't know how to press on when it feels I'm just being really weak. This is a God who delights to show mercy. This is how he's going to deal with my sin once and for all. There's no question here that it's dealt with and we see that in the cross don't we?
Felicity: If you have a bible with a concordance you know where you have the verses and references, that word v18 pardons sin - it will take you back to Leviticus 16 and also Isaiah 53.
Sarah: Ooh nice, what does it say?
Felicity: Well we have in Leviticus 16 that day of atonement, the idea of bearing the burden of the sin. You know the goat has to take the sin out of the desert. And it's that same word. And also in Isaiah 53, it's the same word for this, the one who bears our transgressions. So this idea of pardoning sin, the thing which is really encouraging here is it's not a new characteristic for God. This is what he's always been like. And what we have here is just an outworking of his character. So as we see it in action here, he does pardon sin. He bears the burden of our sin that is true to form. That's what's been going on all this time. And I just think that bolsters my conviction that this is really true. This is what God does, this is what God is like. I enjoyed that.
Sarah: And how much more would it bolster the remnant he is speaking to be reminded this is who God is, this is who you are and so press on, press on knowing, confident in your salvation, confident in your hope that you have, so that you can then pray in back in verse seven I watch in hope for the Lord I wait for God my saviour my God will hear me and there's such confidence that comes from that yeah it's just really good it's really good stunningly wonderful isn't it I just love it so much what a well done Micah for finishing up such a high note it's like your peak so wonderfully at the last a few verses in the book. Felicity, could you pray for us as we close?
Felicity: Yes, I'd love to. Father God, we praise you so much that you are a God who delights to show mercy, that you pardon sin and that you do not stay angry forever. We praise you for Jesus, the ultimate fulfilment of that. And we praise you that this is what you're like, this is who you are. And so we pray that we would be those who are able to watch in hope and wait for God our saviour, knowing that you are in the business of saving and rescuing and carrying us through to the light, to the new creation. And so Father, we pray that you'd work in our hearts, that we might love this more, delight in you more, that we would be for your glory. Amen.
Sarah: Amen. Well, what will it look like for you to delight in God's mercy today? Why not pause what you're doing right now and just take a few moments to praise God for who he is, the one who delights to show mercy. We will be back for our final episode next Friday as we round up our time in Micah. We're really looking forward to it and we hope to see you then. Goodbye. See you then.
This episode has been sponsored by 10ofthose.com. Don’t forget to check out our partnership bookstore at 10ofthose.com/twosisters
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