Beholding Beauty Devotional: Micah 7:18-19

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All Beholding Beauty devotionals are written as short, worshipful reflections to help you meditate on God’s Word.

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“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 7:18-19

The prophet Micah perhaps begins 18 verse with a wordplay on his own name. The name Micah means “Who is like the Lord?”. Micah highlights the infinite grace that the Lord shows to His people as He “passes over transgression” for the sake of His children. This is a wonderful blessing when you consider that God had just pronounced an indictment upon Israel in the previous chapter for their unfaithfulness to the Lord and His covenant with them.

As a matter of fact, the book of Micah is largely a proclamation of condemnation and judgment against God’s people. But though there is plenty of bad news in this short prophetic book, there is also good news of salvation!

Good News from Micah 7:18-19

It is helpful to remind ourselves that we are just like stubborn Israel, unfaithful people who have worshiped and served other gods instead of the one, true God. We have committed spiritual adultery time and time again! We are the unfaithful harlot, worthy of judgment and condemnation just as they were.

But as we remember who we were (guilty sinners) and where we came from (the domain of darkness), the good news of God’s salvation shines all the brighter to us! And these verses from Micah are most certainly good news!

• The Lord is a God who pardons iniquity and transgression (terms that refer to sin in its differing forms).
• He is a God who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in showing His steadfast love to His people!
• He is a God who has wonderful compassion toward us!

When you consider these beautiful qualities of our glorious God, you realize that the following actions flow from His character in these amazing ways: (1) He treads our iniquities underfoot, and (2) He casts all of our sins into the depths of the sea.

Dear Christian, all of your sins have been taken away from you and cast into the depths of the sea! Every sinful thought, word, deed, desire, motivation, etc. has been taken away from you and fully dealt with. The idea of casting your sins into the sea provides the comfort that they are never coming back to be reunited with you. They are gone…forevermore! We know that this has been done through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Just as the Lord cast the Egyptians into the depths of the Red Sea (as judgment), so the Lord Jesus willingly received that same baptism of judgment on our behalf, taking every single sin of ours into the depths of judgment.

But unlike Egypt, Christ Jesus rose from the dead following His death! Since Jesus rose from the dead, we know that the Father accepted His sacrifice on our behalf, and this leads to the marvelous conclusion that all of our sins have been completely and finally dealt with. Through Jesus Christ, the Lord has cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea, never to return again! 

Did you know? We publish a new Beholding Beauty devotional each week! View all Beholding Beauty devotionals.

Related Resources:

• How Do We Change?
• {Book Review} Don’t Blame the Mud: This is a great children’s book to help young children (and us adults, too!) understand sin in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ!