There's None Like Yah Or You :: Micah 7:18-20

 Micah 7:18-20 AC 1Y 2022 Trinity 3

Who is a God like you, carrying away iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his heritage? (v 18a) 

That’s a great question: Who is a God like you? It was asked by Moses (Ex 15:11) and the Psalmists (Ps 18:31, 35:10, 71:19, 89:6, 113:5). It was declared by Solomon (1 Kgs 8:23) and proclaimed by the prophets. And we can put an exclamation point on it when talking about our Lord Jesus Christ. Who is a God like you!

This question has been asked and re-asked, both seriously and rhetorically. And the conclusion is always the same. Who is like you, Yahweh, among the Gods? Who is like you: Majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders (Ex 15:11)? What God is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like your works and your mighty deeds (Dt 3:24)? ... You will give truth (v 20).

If only the world would come to that conclusion, too. They suffer because they don’t ask the question, or they phrase it more like the Egyptian Pharaoh, who idolized himself like few before him. Who is Yahweh that I should hear with his voice (Ex 5:2), he said rhetorically to Moses before he was cast with all of his chariots into the depths of the sea (Ex 15:5). 

1. (Who is Yahweh that I should hear him?)

Our world says the same thing. They don’t know who God is, and they don’t know how to hear him. They’re too interested in listening to their own fleeting feelings. They say one thing and do something different. They cry about it being their body, then deny themselves permission to protect it. They cry about violence against others, and then advocate for killing our babies. They want evil to be good, and think good is evil (Is 5:20). They are dishonest and uncertain about the truth of their own words. They don’t know who they are. And they don’t think at all about where they really are going, much like the Rich Man of our Gospel reading a couple weeks ago (Lk 16:19-31). Instead, they ask, Who is Yahweh that I should hear him?

If your disappointment in people and the world around you is leading you to a point where you are even disenchanted with God too, then, today, I pray that you will hear the Gospel of Micah. Today, he is giving us God’s Good Word that cuts right to the heart of the matter. Micah tells us who God really is. He points us to the One True God who can be trusted ... the One True God whose words are always true. Micah calls us to repentance: Giving us faith in God’s Word that enables us to mourn our sin. And then most prominently, he points us to the atonement, the all-availing covering of Christ’s righteousness. He points us to our baptism. He points us to the Lord’s Supper. He proclaims the New Covenant in which your sins are subdued forever. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, because of this message, we know the unmistakable truth: 

THERE IS NO GOD LIKE YAH, AND NO PEOPLE LIKE YOU

This is our theme today. 1) There is no God like Yah because He is the one who pardons iniquity; 2) he is the one who subdues our sin and casts it into the depths of the sea; 3) And he is the one who continues to cover you by his new covenant.

2. (Who is like Yah?)

If you aren’t familiar with Micah, I strongly encourage you to read it. Some of the greatest pictures of God’s blessing on his people are found here in the midst of the Book of the Twelve, also known as the minor prophets. While we don’t know much about the author, we do know this: Micah’s name literally means, Who is a God like Yah?

Make no mistake, this question of the day does not go begging for an answer. Micah knew and understood well that there was no God like Yahweh. All the gods of the people ... including yours and mine ... the ones we set above the One True God. They are nothing when compared to Yah, which is just a scriptural abbreviation for Yahweh. He alone condemns sin; the gods of the world embrace it. Yahweh alone proves himself to be both just and the Justifier of men; our gods teach us to justify ourselves. Yahweh alone brings us out of bondage of sin; our gods keep us in it. Yahweh alone watches over us: He feeds us; He nourishes us; He preserves us; He subdues sin and casts it into the depths of the sea. This is Micah’s message.

Shockingly, an alarming number of people don’t believe that any more. The world is caught up in their perceived autonomy. They set their land, animals, family, and themselves above all things, just like a new Pew Research poll released earlier this month revealed. The poll shows that the number of people who say they “believe in God” has fallen to just 81 percent, down nine points in just four years. A much smaller number of Americans ... just 64 percent ... are convinced that God exists. I wonder how many of them actually believe in the True God. There is only Three-in-One. His name is Yahweh. 

3. There is no God like Yah because He is the one who pardons iniquity.

Unlike all the gods of the world, Yahweh delights in showing mercy and giving compassion. 

When you read Micah, you can’t miss this point. Micah stressed not merely the fact that there is but one God; he emphasizes his absolute grandeur and majesty. In his description of the gracious God, he heaps up no less than nine synonymous expressions and makes use of every linguistic means to assure his readers of the reality of forgiveness and the grace the Lord grants daily and richly. He is the one who carries away our iniquity and passes over transgression. ... He doesn’t hold fast to his anger forever … He delights in covenantal love. He will return (to us). He will be compassionate to us. He will subdue our iniquities. He causes all their sins to be thrown into the depths of the sea. (He) gives truth. 

Iniquity is one of the strongest terms for sin. It denotes perverseness, crookedness, which makes man guilty, a debtor to God, with no possibility of ever ridding himself of that guilt. There is nothing you can do to escape this debt. You can’t work it off. You can’t repent well enough. You can’t live a life that is clean enough, or holy enough. Too often we delight in making others pay up for their errors. We hold grudges. We throw the past into the faces of those who have sinned, and we never let them forget what they have done.

Oh, how different it is with our God!

4. There is no God like Yah, because he brings us repentance, subduing our sin and casting it into the depths of the sea.

He has a much better way of dealing with us than we do with each other. He is The One who not only sympathizes with the plight we face every day, but he is empathic: walking that mile in our shoes. He knows our sin and need for a savior, and then he does something about it. That is compassion. He delights in this mercy, and then rejoices when we, in turn, see our sin and our need for a savior, too! That’s the God we have. 

He subdued our sin by doing the unthinkable: He came to us. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. He became God in the Flesh. There is no other God like that. Jesus was born to carry our griefs and sorrows. He was born without sin, which truly made him the perfect sacrifice. In his compassion, he then carried your sin to the cross. There he ensured all your sin died with him. That is how he subdued it. He brought sin to bear on the cross so that it will be silenced forever. Your sin will never be heard from again. It has been trampled underfoot and cast them into the depths of the sea. Then he rose from the dead in pure glory, and now lives and reigns to all eternity. Tell me, what other God is like ours! 

On account of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension ...

5. There are now no people like you. He has assured this through the new covenant.

Micah is not just challenging those who hear his sermon to believe in some new god who does new things in new ways. He is calling men and women and children alike to have faith in the one true God who is faithful to his word, his covenant ... a promise he made to you in baptism. He has sealed his promise to you in baptism. This is not your covenant with him ... It is his with you. He made you one of his very own. He has washed you clean with the water and word of Baptism. And he has led you back here today to hear the Gospel again. 

You can now stand in confidence before him today when you come to the altar for the Lord’s Supper … which also is his covenant, sealed by his blood … for you. Why? Because we have a God like no other. We invariably forget why we need to come forward today. We tend to forget what his means of grace really do to us. But he never forgets. He always remembers you. That is his nature. He has prepared his body and blood for you to nourish your faith in a feast of forgiveness that has no end. Today there will be more joy in heaven as Jesus leads us to this. Let us always rejoice in his truth. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have no God like Yah, and there are no people like you. As Paul told Timothy, Christ Jesus our Lord, has judged us faithful. ... We received mercy for this reason ... so that ... Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen (1 Tm 1:12-17).