Our preschool neighbor boy approached my teenage son and asked him, “Hey, which muscle is bigger?”  The boy then flexed both of his arms, showing off his preschool muscle.  My son carefully inspected both biceps, giving them a good squeeze to check their mass.  He reported, “Your right muscle is bigger.  Now, what about mine?”  My son also flexed, to which the neighbor boy’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open.  He then reached out in awe to check out the substantially larger muscles.

At times it is difficult to comprehend the enormity of God until we compare Him or His character to what we know and have experienced.  Even then, we don’t fully comprehend Him, but we gaze in awe with eyes wide in wonder and our mouths open in amazement.  It reminds me of the prophet Micah’s words in chapter 7, verse 18:

Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.

I can imagine Micah standing there, his mouth gaping open.  I can imagine it well, because I was recently doing the same thing after I read this verse in Hebrew.  I have a limited Hebrew vocabulary, so I was interested to learn the word translated here as “pardon.”  To my surprise, it was a common word I already knew (נֹשֵֹא). It means lifting, carrying, or even to lift and carry, as in taking.  This gave me a much more involved and stronger picture of God.  Pardoning feels more passive to me.  This is a picture of a God who not only has the ability, but also the desire to lift sin from His people.  Only He has shoulders strong enough to carry that weight.

The weight is heavy, indeed.  As is typical for Hebrew, the word here for sin (עׇוֺן) carries a broader meaning than it does in English.  It’s not only sin, but the guilt and punishment that go with it.  It’s a package deal.  God carries the entire burden of sin, lifting it from our shoulders.

The picture in my head changed from a passive, “You may go now.  You’ve been pardoned,” to, “You may walk with Me freely now.  I have lifted and now bear your burden.”

What God does that!?  What Sovereign humbles Himself, serving, instead of demanding payment?  This is the picture God painted throughout the New Testament, as well.  Jesus came to bear our sin and shame.  He paid the penalty so that we might be free.

There are some that believe the weight of sin is not great.  It’s manageable, they say.  They can handle it.  Well, what happens if we try to manage our own sin.  Can we carry it ourselves?  Or perhaps the good things we do outweigh or cancel out the bad.  This is what Isaiah 64:6 says:

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep (carry) us away.

We cannot carry our sins.  Instead, our sins carry us away.  Where does sin carry us?  Verses such as Romans 6:23 and James 1:15 reveal that sin carries us away to death.  We are not strong enough to deal with sin.  It is too powerful for our little muscle.  We need One with such big muscles we stand in awe.

We have a choice.  Either we trust God to carry our sin, or we are carried away by our sin.

Perhaps there is an area of sin in your life that you have chosen to manage yourself.  Maybe you don’t believe it’s serious enough to hand over or you’re ashamed to bring something so nasty before a righteous God.  I pray you see through these scriptures that any sin will carry you away if you are trying to deal with it on your own.  Also, remember how Micah 7:18 ended—God delights to show mercy.  God would be delighted to take your burden for you.  He wants to.  Verse 19 goes on to tell us that He will subdue our sin.  Our sin will be in bondage, not us!  Then, He will cast all of it into the depths of the sea.  What a mighty God!  May we all stand together with our eyes and mouths wide in wonder.

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Scriptures to consider this week are arranged into three categories with 5 short passages each.

Picture of Christ
Hebrews 2:14-18
Hebrews 9:24-28
John 1:29
1 John 3:5
John 3:17-18

That Which Carries Away
Hebrews 13:9
2 Peter 3:17-18
Galatians 2:13 (NASB)
Ephesians 4:14-16 (NASB)
James 1:14-15 (NASB)

OT Pictures of Carrying
Isaiah 46:3-5
Exodus 19:4
Deuteronomy 1:29-31
Isaiah 53:4
Isaiah 53:12

*All scriptures are linked/quoted in the NIV, unless otherwise stated.