Commentary on Micah 7:14-15,18-20

Today’s final selection from Micah consists of a lovely prayer from a people aware of their great needs which only God can remedy. The prophet begs God to lead his people to richer pastures, for the people of Israel are his very inheritance:

Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock that belongs to you…

Right now, they live:

…alone in a forest
in the midst of a garden land…

The prophet says they are living isolated in a land that is unproductive—in the sense that they are living in a situation of desolation and hardship after their return to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.

They now long for the days when they could pasture in:

…Bashan and Gilead….As in the days
when you came out of the land of Egypt,
show us marvelous things.

This was a time when they were the witnesses to all God’s wonders on their behalf. And as in the days after they left Egypt, they long for more wonderful signs of Yahweh’s love and power.

The prophet then appeals to God’s very nature to come to their aid:

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over the transgression
of the remnant of his possession?

This prayer is a kind of psalm of which similar examples occur in the prophetic writings. He is not the kind of god that others believe in, a god who instils terror and fear. This God takes faults away and pardons crime. This God is not vindictive, who does not cherish anger forever, but delights in showing mercy and compassion.

Micah begs his God to have pity on his people in spite of all that they have done:

…tread our iniquities under foot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.

He appeals to God to remember and to implement the covenants of old that were made with Abraham and Jacob, covenants of faithfulness and mercy.

Perhaps we, too, feel now (or have felt at other times) that our lives were being lived in a kind of desert. We ask God to lead us to richer pastures where we can experience joy and peace. As well, we should also know that we have a God beyond compare, made known to us through the life and death of Jesus. Through Jesus, he has given us a new life in a new covenant. As did the people of Micah’s time, we also beg our God to wipe out all our sins and help us to turn totally to him in love and fidelity.