AUSTRALIAN BIBLE CHURCH December 31, 2006

A CONTINUATION OF THE THRUST AND BASE OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
OF AUSTRALIA ON BIBLICAL LINES …

THAT MAGNIFICENT MERCY    Micah 7:11-20  

Happy is the person whose God is the Lord! Look at Israel. For millenia its history has sulked in the rebelliousness of perpetual skirmishes, and its friendship with ruin. Its slaughter of the Christ, slowly, a sort of spiritual aversion made palpable on the Cross, is so like that of the Liberal establishment, which played havoc with the PC of Australia for decades in its virulence, its lack of concern, its remoteness from compassion, its animus against the biblical teaching, that it is awesome to see similar spiritual dynamic over so long a period.

Jew and Gentile have slaughtered spirituality as they could; except that it is not all of either, but in the national form, much of both.  

I   The Sure Word of God and the Startling Faithfulness of God   7:11-13

In the midst of this we find suddenly in the book of Micah, predicting in Ch. 3 the devastation of Jerusalem, that in the day when "your walls are to be built" there is to be a decree bringing back many Jews to their land. Is that now, with the wall of Sharon at last engineered into being, and approaching its terminus! There is such a drawing of Israel to its God-appointed land, that it is to be a mark of the times.

For all that, this (then) coming restoration of vast numbers of Jews to their land, is not to be dissociated from the continuing judgment (as in Leviticus 26), on their national unbelief. Thus they have not yet altered their complicated continuance in sin, far from the word of the living God in their very own Messiah, who as predicted in Isaiah 49:6, found it too little to deal with the chosen ones in Israel, but thrust far into the Gentiles to give them the light of truth, also.

II  The Sure Judgments of God  7:13

Desolations have indeed come to Israel even as the "desert" has been enabled to "blossom like the rose" (prediction of Isaiah 35, fulfilled in detail since 1948 in Israel world floral market, amongst the greatest on the globe). The "Fruit of their Deeds" remains until pardon is proclaimed, and the grievous blood-letting continues in the Middle East, as those who have forsaken the Lord mix with those who have done the same in other ways.

III  The Goodly Shepherding from the Lord 7:14

Amidst such developments, pregnant with emergence into the end of the action, the Lord is seen challenging those concerned to "shepherd your people with your staff", restoring to them the abundance of old. Here we are past the striking of the shepherd (Zechariah 13:7 cf. Matthew 26:41), and are looking to the times of His return, suffering past (Hebrews 9:28, Acts 1:7ff.). Is the charge to shepherd the sheep to missionaries, or converted Jews, or is this another intra-trinitarian exposition (as in Isaiah 48:16) ?

It seems both sorts of charge, for the majesty of the style suggests the action of the Lord, depicting His zeal indirectly in this way, but as this may be before the eventual return TO THE LORD in Israel, it may here refer to the power of the Holy Spirit in His people, to help bring the blessing to Israel, now about to turn back to God, as earlier many of them did return to their land.

IV   The Godly Assault on the Assailants 7:15-17

Also as in the days of old, not only is this shepherding, but this delivering dynamic from God. The divine action is to be parallel to that in the Exodus from Pharaoh, who, we recall was among the most powerful of rulers at the time. Whole nations will come to resemble snakes in their holes, for whole nations have dared to invade, assault and attack Israel (cf. Deuteronomy 32, Zechariah 14:1), as if they had unlimited licence to attack what after all has done much the same as they themselves in spirit have now done!

The Lord is never attracted to this victimisation (cf. Isaiah 51:22-23, Jeremiah 50:29-32, 51:24,49, Genesis 12:2). The assault on Israel is equally an assault on His word which having shown their discipline, shines on their restoration. Hence it is indeed as in Pharaoh's day; but whereas then, he would not let them LEAVE, so now many will seek to prevent their COMING, and CONTINUANCE in their land. The issues are drawn, the results are similar in awesome exposure of the hatreds both of God and man involved in this assault (cf. Micah 7:15-17).

Enough is enough in any discipline, and when nations seek to perpetuate it, and do it themselves, they too shall find that the power of God on those who overreach themselves is one, to Jew or to Gentile alike! When He acts, as in Isaiah 66, Micah 7, Joel 3, there is no doubt concerning it!

V  The Magnificence of the Mercy of the Lord  7:18-19

While the nations thus proceed to "be afraid of the Lord", an activity in which they have long become rusty, being afraid instead of one another, and so supine in spirit, ready for collision, collusion and contempt, Israel becomes one more example of divine faithfulness, compassion and peace. This is substantial at the national level (cf. Zechariah 12:10-13:1), an illustration of the Lord's munificent mercy to those who come to the pardon which Isaiah predicted ("though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow" -1:18).

“WHO IS A GOD LIKE YOU!” Micah is moved to exclaim. There is none, either in power as just seen, or in mercy, as now to be seen. Not only has He restored them, but now pardons their iniquity, loving to pass over sin, when it is that of those who avail themselves of His sin cover, which was His own life exposure to its ravages. If God is wrathful against the follies of impertinent sin, of ruining life and spoiling peace, ravaging spirituality and giving the run to godliness, yet "He does not retain His anger forever." There is a reason for this, as deep as the depth: It is "because He delights in mercy." As rest is a delight after a hard day's vexing labour, so to show mercy is to God a delight after His love moves Him to deliver those caught.

Not only so, but "He will subdue our iniquities" and this work more vital and profound than overcoming attacking nations, merges into the fact that  "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." This is as in Psalm 103:12-13, in the aura of divine mercy in its limitless depths, heights and scope, available to faith in the Messiah of Micah 5:1-3, the everlasting Saviour.

VI  The Holiness of Happiness in the Lord 7:19-20

In so doing, God is in His entire reliability and faithfulness fulfilling the covenant to Abraham, for now is the descendant according to the flesh, Christ, bringing blessing to all nations as well as to Israel, and this is part of the "truth to Jacob" promulgated by David in the Psalms (cf. Psalm 67), by Isaiah in Chs. 42, 49 and Jeremiah in 16:19. HERE is your New Year Message: God does in the NEW YEAR precisely what He has promised for ANY YEAR in the history of the faithful, to delight in mercy, to cast their sins into the depths of the sea, not to stay angry forever and to subdue their iniquities. Let this be your call to both victory and to praise, as we await for joyful expectation the return of this our Lord.