Saturday after Rogate

Scripture: Micah 7:14-20 (NKJV)

14 Shepherd Your people with Your staff, the flock of Your heritage, who dwell solitarily in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel; Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in days of old.

15 “As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them wonders.”

16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; They shall put their hand over their mouth; Their ears shall be deaf.

17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent; They shall crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of You.

18 Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.

19 He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

20 You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old.

Devotion

“Who is a God like You?” the prophet asks, making a play on words based on his own name, “Micah.” In answer to this question, He is a God Who will show His people “wonders,” the most wondrous of which was the birth His own Son by the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem Ephrathah.

“Shepherd Your people with Your staff,” Micah prays. He, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, would lead His people not only to green pastures and still waters, but will lead them to the banks of the river of the water of life which flows through the new Zion, along whose banks grows the tree of life with its leaves for the healing of the nations. There the deathly consequences of Adam and Eve’s rebellion will be set right as Paradise is restored.

As this unfolds, the nations will imitate their father, the serpent-devil, and crawl in the dust, fearful of the Lord our God. We pray that our God, Who is like no other and delights in mercy, will bring them to faith also and they too may stand with us to praise Jesus in that home of righteousness where there is no more darkness, but only the light of Christ.

We pray: The Lord my pasture shall prepare and feed me with a shepherd’s care; His presence shall my wants supply and guard me with a watchful eye; my noonday walks He shall attend and all my midnight hours defend (TLH 368:1). Amen.