No fishing – Tuesday, 16th Week in ordinary time – Micah 7:14-15, 18-20

In the final recorded words of the prophet Micah we read his prayer to the Lord. In it, Micah asks the Lord to be the Shepherd of His people and care for them.

The Babylonian invasion was no longer a threat, it was imminent and the people who allowed themselves to be swayed by bad shepherd’s now had more than just a fractured relationship with God. There was a time when God’s people enjoyed a close relationship with Him. The prophet prays that God’s people will be brought back to the place they belong and the relationship which was in tatters will be restored. Micah was praying past the circumstances for a closer relationship with the shepherd and hoped it would result in great wonders in their life

Micah whose name means “who is like God” now uses his very name in verse 18 to extol God and to glorify him. He asks, “who is like our God”? The simple and most accurate answer is…No one! Micah glorifies God for his great forgiveness. He has pardoned sin and will pass over the transgressions of the remnant that will emerge from exile. Micah saw that God’s forgiveness was so great, that it can’t even be compared to what often passes for forgiveness among men.

Why does God have such great mercy and forgiveness to His people? The reasons are in Him, not in His people. It is simply because He delights in mercy. So, one is bound to ask that If God delights in mercy, then why are some men lost? God opens His hand of mercy to all who will receive it, but those who will not receive His mercy can blame only themselves.