Micah 5:3 “Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.”

Some people read the Old Testament and believe that they see a particularly cruel and vengeful God there. Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire and brimstone. Pharaoh’s army is drowned in the Red Sea. Canaanite nations cease to exist as separate peoples after the Lord wages war on them through Israel. Of course, to take this point of view, you have to lay the justice of God aside entirely and expect that sin on a mass scale should never have any consequences. It isn’t a fair or reasonable way to interpret the story.

It makes far more sense to read the Old Testament as an account of extended divine patience that stretches the bounds of belief. Every one of the patriarchs–Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob– and their successors like Moses and David gave the Lord multiple reasons to say, “That’s it; I’m done with these people” over the course of thousands of years.

And they were the good and faithful ones, by and large! As a nation Israel complained about God’s care on their march through the wilderness to their new home, abandoned him for other gods when they got there, and sunk further and further into rebellion, materialism, and perversion with each passing year. They experienced some short-lived revivals along the way. But for something like 1400 years the Lord continued to work with them, continued to forgive them, continued to give them second chances, continued to intervene and confront and reconcile with them.

Micah prophesied at a time when the Lord’s patience with them as a whole was about to run out. He would always be faithful to the believing and obedient remnant among his people. But as a whole nation, his patience with Israel was done. He removed the special protections he had given them. First, they suffered a long exile. Then came waves of foreign invasions, and subjection to heathen empires, first the Greeks, then the Romans. For almost 600 years, more than double the age of our own nation, the Lord abandoned the nation as a political entity to the other nations around them.

“…until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.” The birth of Jesus marks yet another example of God’s great patience and faithfulness, another dramatic attempt to win this people for himself. Jesus’ ministry was all seeking love. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37). It turned some minority of the Jews back to their Lord. It marked the beginning of “brothers” who were not Jewish, people of many different races all around the world, returning to the God of the Bible. It demonstrated God’s grace in coming to Israel again, this unlikely King coming from a people he had long ago abandoned with good reason.

I suppose there are two lessons for us to draw from the prophecy at this point. It is never safe to impose on God’s patience. He is incredibly patient and forgiving, but if we choose to harden ourselves against him, we shouldn’t be surprised if his patience ends. If the words “Israel will be abandoned” don’t strike you as frightening, you aren’t listening.

At the same time God’s patience to Israel itself is powerful encouragement to seek his grace. Neither the size of our sins, their repetition, nor their duration is any obstacle for his forgiveness. Without saying that he excuses our sin or lowers his perfect standards, it is not so much our obedience he desires as our genuine repentance and faith. He wants to forgive us like nothing else.