Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Thursday February 5 2026
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Micah 7:7-9-Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me. 8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, The LORD will be a light to me. 9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case And executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness.
Micah is one of my favorite Books of the Bible. His prophecies are amazing, describing both the First Coming of Jesus, the Christian Age, and the Second Coming. Yet what I find truly inspiring is his humility. He is a Prophet of God, but he freely acknowledges his struggle with sin and his guilt before God. He knows what it is to sit in spiritual darkness, and yet he does so in hope for the day when the Lord Himself will plead his case, execute justice for him, and bring him forth to the light.
What a message of hope for anyone who hopes in God’s salvation!
Yet what I want to especially call your attention to is this passage near the end of the Prophet’s declaration:
Micah 7:18-19-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.
Micah tells us here about the amazing love and grace of God. He is a God Who delights in mercy! Isn’t it great to know that God has a heart of mercy? That He loves us and wants to shower us with His love?
Yet there is something else that I would call to your attention just here from this text. Years ago, brother Dan Winkler pointed out something incredible about the word “forgive.”
“** To be forgiven is to have something _erased_ by God.** The other New Testament word for *forgiven* is *aphiemi*, a combination of the Greek *apo*, meaning *away,* and *hiemi*, meaning *to send*. Together, *aphiemi* means *to send away*. That’s what God does when he forgives; he graciously reaches out to us with his heart and throws away our sins. David summed it up well by writing, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103: 12). God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins [i.e., send away our sins] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: 9). Think of how big God’s heart has to be to do something like that. *When we sin, we ** FIGHT** with God.* That’s what *transgression* means: rebellion (Psalm 5: 10; Hebrews 3: 16-18). It’s a clenched fist we shake in God’s face. *When we sin, we are ** FILTH** before God.* That’s what *iniquity* means: perversion (Leviticus 18: 24-25; 19: 8; Job 33: 27). It’s conduct that makes us twisted and perverted in God’s eyes. *When we sin, we are ** FAILURES** to God.* That’s what *sin* means: missing the mark God has set for us to attain (1 John 5: 17; James 4: 17). It’s a life that is anything but what God wanted for us. But when God forgives, he throws all that away and allows us to start over with life. He looks at us and says, “This person ‘is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come’” (2 Corinthians 5: 17). It’s almost too hard to believe, but it’s true!” (Dan Winkler, Forgiven, Forgiving, & Free: The Peace of Living Without A Past, 18-19 (Kindle Edition): Huntingdon, Tennessee: D&D Publishing)
Here, the Prophet describes the forgiveness of God-the way that He Divinely sends away our sins-in beautiful and uplifting ways.
First, God will “subdue” our iniquities. This language of God subduing our iniquities is battlefield terminology. Our iniquities (or “sins”) are our enemies. They have conquered us, defeated us, enslaved us, and will be the death of us. But thanks to God, they will be “subdued.” There is the idea of sins being sent away in chains of defeat, with God as the great Conqueror and Deliverer. Notice the reversal: we had been taken captive by our sins but when we are redeemed, our sins have been taken captive by God and then sent away in shame and defeat!
2 Timothy 2:24-26-And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
Second, the Prophet declares that our sins will be cast “into the sea.” The language here goes back to Jewish baptism. Many are not aware that baptism is a Jewish institution. It was practiced all through the Old Testament Scriptures. Speaking of the Old Testament, the writer of Hebrews informs us:
Hebrews 9:9-10-It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—10 concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.
In describing the Old Testament, the writer reminds us that it contained “various washings,” literally, “baptisms.”
Sometimes these baptisms were performed by priests (when they began their priestly service, and at other times while they ministered).
“The basin was used by the priest. He was to wash his body (Ex 29: 4; 40: 12), parts of his body (Ex 30: 19) and/ or his clothes (probably Num 8: 7, 21[ 73]) in the water prior to entering the Holy Place. This served two purposes. Repeated washings (Ex 30: 20[ 74]) served the purpose of ceremonially cleansing him, since nothing unclean could enter the sanctuary. “They shall wash with water, so that they may not die. They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die” (Ex 30: 20-21). The other purpose specifically relates to the Aaronic priests (as opposed to the more general Levites[ 75]) in a one-time ceremony taking place at the beginning of his ministry. Ex 29: 4 says, “You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.” Immediately after this, the priest was clothed with his amazing garments, and in this way it says, “You shall ordain Aaron and his sons” (Ex 29: 9).” (Douglas Van Dorn, Waters of Creation: A Biblical-Theological Study of Baptism, 46-47 (Kindle Edition): Erie, CO: Waters of Creation Publishing)
Converts from Gentile nations to Judaism also underwent baptism (following the example of Naaman in 2 Kings 5).
“Baptism was a Jewish rite. If a man wanted to accept the Jewish faith, he had to do three things. He had to be circumcised, to offer sacrifice and to be baptized. Ceremonial washing to cleanse from defilement was common practice in Judaism (cf. Leviticus 11–15). The details of Jewish baptism were as follows. The man to be baptized cut his hair and his nails; he undressed completely; the baptismal bath had to contain forty seahs, that is about 280 litres, of water. Every part of the body had to be touched with the water. He made confession of his faith before three men who were called fathers of baptism. While he was still in the water, parts of the law were read to him, words of encouragement were addressed to him, and blessings were pronounced upon him. When he emerged, he was a member of the Jewish faith; it was through baptism that he entered into that faith.” (William Barclay, The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians (The New Daily Study Bible), 38-39 (Kindle Edition); Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press)
The Prophet Micah here describes “the sea” where our sins will be sent away. This was actually a reference to large baptistries that king Solomon had built into the Jewish Temple where ritual immersions could be administered!
2 Chronicles 4:6-He also made ten lavers, and put five on the right side and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as they offered for the burnt offering they would wash in them, but the Sea was for the priests to wash in.
Jewish baptisms foreshadowed baptism under the New Testament, and this passage prophesies it in stunning detail. These ritual baptisms were seen as being much more then an outward ceremony, pointing to redemption in the Messianic Age. It is also interesting how Micah 7:18-19 was interpreted and incorporated in those baptisms:
“Rabbi Akiva, who lived in the second century of the common era (commonly called AD, but in Jewish circles it is referred to as CE) recognized the importance of the mikveh. It was not just an outward manifestation. When a Jew went into the mikveh, he was identifying himself with the Holy One (YHWH, God) who cleanseth Israel for all defilement past, present, and future. The mikveh was the means by which the individual Jew was immersed in the mercy and providence of God. The water separated him from everything external. As he looked within, he was reminded of the time when man dwelt in perfect unity with his Creator in the Garden of Eden. The ultimate purpose of the mikveh is to carry man back to the perfect unity of the Garden of Eden. This represents the future time of the Messiah.11…Often synagogues were constructed near bodies of water. Josephus (Ant. 14: 258) speaks of a custom of Hellenistic Jewish communities “who make their places of worship near the sea.” Paul refers to prayer meetings held by a river where “prayer was wont (usually) to be made” (Acts 16: 13, KJV). Perhaps the same idea motivated the institution of the Tashlikh ceremony: Tashlikh ceremony on Rosh Ha-Shanah also lay beyond this custom although the site may have been chosen to obviate the need for a mikveh. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Jews traditionally proceed to a body of running water, preferably one containing fish, and symbolically cast off their sins. The Tashlich ceremony includes reading the source passage for the practice, the last verses from the prophet Micah (7: 19, Tanakh), “He will take us back in love; He will cover up our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” 13”. (Dr. Barry Fike, Mikveh: Jewish Ritual Immersion And Christian Baptism, 15-16 (Kindle Edition): Tustin, CA: Trilogy Christian Publishers)
When we are baptized into Christ, there is a Divine sending away of our sins. They are sent away in defeat and shame, bringing us new life and freedom; and they are drowned in the waters of baptism, allowing us cleansing and a fresh start.
All by the blood of the Lamb!
Then, as we continue to walk with the Lord, that cleansing blood continues to work in our hearts and lives, sending away those sins that we commit as saved Christians.
1 John 1:7-But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Christian, trust fully in the heart of God as you face sin in your life.
And if you are not a Christian: isn’t it time to repent and be baptized into Christ, accepting God’s gracious offer to send away your sins?
Lord, thank You for Your plan of salvation. Amen.