Who is like you LORD…..you delight in showing unfailing love. Micah 7:18
In a broken, hurting world, it can be hard to believe that God still loves His people. Do the words we read in our Bibles, penned so long ago, even still apply to us today? Or has our sinful world strayed too far for such love.
Let’s unhurry our heart for a moment, let go of worries, fears for the world, or perhaps even complacency. Put all of that aside as we breath in God’s goodness and let’s listen to what God says about His love.
Throughout the Bible, God is often described as having “unfailing love” for his people, but what does that really mean? It is certainly hard to see evidence of God’s love in the headlines of today’s world.
Interestingly, headlines throughout history have not differed much. In the mid 700’s BC, the headlines screamed of a rotting society, dishonest political and religious leaders, selfish motives, fraud, violence, and oppression (Micah 2:1-13). Sound familiar? Yet even in the midst of such depravity, God called out a message of hope and offered His unfailing love and His message and unfailing love for us continues today.
God called the prophet Micah from his rural village in Judah to warn the people of their coming judgement and exile. For years and years, God had steered his people back to himself, but they refused to listen. While none of them deserved His love, God wanted none of His people to perish. He sifted His people through a time of exile and captivity and blessed the faithful remnant who chose to love and follow Him. Who offers that kind of love to a depraved people? Just listen to the hope spoken to these people and to us today in the passage below.
“Where is the god who can compare with you-wiping the slate clean of guilt, turning a blind eye, a deaf ear to the past sins of your purged and precious people? You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long, for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most. And compassion is on its way to us. You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing. You’ll sink our sins to the bottom of the ocean. You’ll stay true to your word to Father Jacob and continue the compassion you showed Grandfather Abraham-Everything you promised our ancestors from a long time ago” Micah 7:18-20 (The Message Bible).
Micah’s very name means “who is like the LORD?” He explained that if his people would only turn to God, ask forgiveness and turn away from their sin, that God would forgive them and redeem them instead. When the world deserved the worst, God offered His best. That is God’s unfailing love.
God maintains His plan and His will for this World. His unfailing love is God’s covenant to us. God will not let anyone miss the chance to love Him.
The people of Judah resisted the prophet Micah’s message, and history recorded their foretold Babylonian captivity. But out of this captivity, God gathered and redeemed a remnant of believers and blessed them. That is unfailing love. God doesn’t throw us away because we mess up. He shows every willing person the way back to Him. Even if it takes wandering and captivity to get us there. He loves us too much to let those who love Him slip out of his hands. Like the Israelites, we are selfish and forgetful, but He continues to relentlessly pursue us with his unfailing love and redeems us, washing us clean when we turn back to him.
God made a covenant to Abraham and God protected a remnant of believers throughout the Old Testament. Micah 7:8 speaks of a covenant love, chesed, a Hebrew word describing absolute fidelity, unwavering even when that love is undeserved (from Strong’s Concordance). Out of this remnant Micah foretells a future deliverance not only for the exiled people, but for all believers as God’s unfailing love climatically emerges with the promise of the Messiah (Micah 5:2). Micah chapter 4 is a glimpse of God’s perfect kingdom that you and I as Christians get to live in one day when Jesus returns to gather His people. We have a future to look forward to and be excited about!
So does God still love His people? YES! Over and over again, account after account, example after example we see a cycle throughout the pages of the Bible of people messing up, God steering people back to Himself, God’s forgiveness and redemption, and God’s blessing. There is hope for God’s people and there is hope daily for us individually. This hope is God’s unfailing love. This unfailing love has a name; His name is Jesus.