Micah 7:7 - Meaning and Application

After complaining about the evil of his time, the prophet turns to thoughts that comfort him and his friends. The situation is bad, but it is not hopeless. There is still hope in Israel about this matter.

Though God is now displeased, he will be reconciled to his people, and then all will be well (Micah 7:7, Micah 7:9). They are under the Lord’s anger, and that anger is just, because they have sinned against him. Our sin is what stirs up God’s displeasure against us. When we are under his correction, we should see that clearly, admit it honestly, justify God, and use the suffering to turn from sin.

In times like these, we must turn to God in our trouble (Micah 7:7). “Therefore I will look to the Lord.” When God’s child has every reason to cry, “Woe is me,” as the prophet does here (Micah 7:1), it is still a comfort to have a God to look to, come to, and flee to. Even when everything around us is dark, things can still seem bright when we look up to him. The prophet had said there was no comfort to be found and no trust to place in friends and family. That drives him to God: “Therefore I will look to the Lord.” The less we can depend on creatures, the more reason we have to delight in God. If rulers cannot be trusted, we can still say, “Happy is the man whose help is the God of Jacob,” and happy am I, even in sorrow, if he is my help. If people are false, God is faithful. If relatives are unkind, he is gracious. So let us look above them and beyond them, and turn to the Lord.

We must also submit to God’s will in our troubles. “I will bear the Lord’s anger, because I have sinned against him.” True sorrow for sin gives us strong reason to be patient under suffering. Why should a man complain about punishment for his own sin? When we complain to God about how bad the times are, we should also complain against ourselves for the badness of our own hearts.

We must trust God to bring us out in his own time. We must not only look to him, but wait for him. “I will wait for the God of my salvation, and for his gracious answer to me.” Even in our deepest trouble, we do not need to despair if we see God by faith as the God who saves. He is able to save the weakest person who humbly asks, and willing to save the worst person who truly repents. If we trust him as the God of our salvation, then we must wait for his salvation in his own way and at his own time.

The church is taught here what she may expect and promise herself from God, even when things reach the worst point. “My God will hear me.” If the Lord is our God, he will hear our prayers and answer them with peace. “When I fall,” and seem close to being crushed by the fall, “I shall rise.” I may fall, but I will not be completely ruined (Psalm 37:24). “When I sit in darkness,” alone, troubled, sad, and unsure what to do, “the Lord will be a light to me.” He will comfort and revive me, teach and guide me, like a light for my eyes, my feet, and a dark place.

He will plead my cause and carry out justice for me (Micah 7:9). If we truly take up God’s cause, the righteous cause of religion and goodness, then we may hope that he will take up our cause too. Though the church’s cause may seem to go against her for a time, in the end it will be argued with zeal, and judgment will be carried out against her enemies. He will bring me into the light and make my honor shine openly out of hidden shame, and my righteousness will show plainly after the dark cloud of slander passes (Psalm 37:6; Isaiah 58:10). The morning of comfort will rise after the long night of trouble.

“I shall see his righteousness.” I shall understand the justice of his dealings with me and see the fulfillment of his promises to me.

Though enemies boast and mock, they will be silenced and put to shame (Micah 7:8, Micah 7:10). Notice how boldly the enemies of God’s people trample on them in their trouble. They say, “Where is the Lord their God?” As if God had abandoned them because they were afflicted, and as if he no longer knew how to help them or hear their prayers. David’s enemies said the same thing, and it pierced him deeply (Psalm 42:10; see Psalm 115:2). When they mocked Israel as if it were abandoned, they were really mocking the God of Israel as if he were unfaithful and harsh.

Yet God’s people answer these insults by faith: “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy. I have fallen now, but I will not stay down. When my God appears for me, you will be ashamed.” That shame will come not only because the church was not destroyed, but because the enemy will then receive the same cup of sorrow she gave others. Then the enemy will be in the same miserable condition that the church is in now. Then she will be trampled down. The rescue of the church will become the ruin of her enemies, and their shame will be doubled, because they trampled God’s people and then are trampled themselves.

Though the land stays ruined for a long time, it will at last be filled again when the set time for deliverance comes. Its salvation will not come until after it has been laid waste, as the margin says in Micah 7:13. God has a case against the land, and it must stay under his correction for a long time because of the people who live in it. Their sin is what makes their land desolate (Psalm 107:34). It is the result of their own evil actions, and also the evil results they helped bring about through their bad example and influence. For this, they must expect to suffer a long while. The world must learn that God hates sin even among his own people.

When deliverance comes, it will be complete. This seems to point to their return from Babylon under Cyrus, the Persian ruler, and also serves as a picture of our rescue through Christ. The decree will be far removed.

God’s decree about their captivity, and Nebuchadnezzar’s decree, the Babylonian king’s order that they would stay in exile forever, would both be set aside and canceled. No more would that burden rest on their necks.

Jerusalem and the cities of Judah would be built again. Then your walls will be rebuilt, walls for homes and safety, house walls, town walls, and temple walls. God cancels the decree so that this rebuilding can happen (Isaiah 44:28). Zion’s walls may lie in ruins for a long time, but the day will come when they are repaired.

Everyone who belongs to the land of Israel, no matter where they have been scattered or how badly they have suffered, will come back together. They will come to you, ready and willing to return, from Assyria, where the ten tribes were carried away, even though it was far away, and from the fortified cities and strongholds, where men thought they had trapped them safely. But when God’s time comes, even if Pharaoh will not let the people go, God will bring them out with a mighty hand.

They will come from every far-off place, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. They will not turn back because of discouragement, but will keep going from strength to strength until they reach Zion. In the great day of redemption, God will gather his chosen people from the four winds.