Albert Barnes Commentary Micah 7:20

"Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, [and] the lovingkindness to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old." — Micah 7:20 (ASV)

You will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham - What was free mercy to Abraham became, when God had once promised it, His truth. Abraham also stands for all those who, in him and his Seed, should be blessed—those who were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12), in no covenant or relation with God—as well as those who were the children of the faith: pagans, as well as Jews.

Jacob represents those who were immediately his children, such of the children of Israel as were also the true Israel and children of faithful Abraham. In both ways the gift to Abraham was mercy, to Jacob, truth. So also Paul says, Jesus Christ was a Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy (Romans 15:8–9). Yet mercy and truth (Psalms 25:10), together, are all the paths of the Lord; they met together (Psalms 85:10) in Christ. Indeed, Christ Himself is full of Mercy as well as Truth (John 1:14); and woe would it be to that soul for whom He was Truth without mercy.

Rup.: “For to be saved, we look not so much to the truth of the Judge as to the mercy of the Redeemer.” And mercy, in the counsel of God, reaches wider than truth; for truth is given to Jacob, the father of one nation, Israel, but mercy to Abraham, the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5; Romans 4:17).

Isaac, perhaps, is not mentioned here because all to whom the blessing should come are already spoken of in Jacob and Abraham: in Jacob, all to whom the promise was first made; in Abraham, all nations of the world who should be blessed in his Seed, through the mercy of God overflowing the bounds of that covenant. Isaac is, in his sacrifice, chiefly a type of our Lord Himself.

Which You have sworn to our fathers - That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation (Hebrews 6:18).

From the days of old - Alb.: From eternity, in the counsel of God; in promise, from the foundation of the world, as is said in the hymn of Zacharias, As He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began (Luke 1:70).

Pococke: The inspired hymns of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of Zachariah take up the words of the prophet and show that they are already fulfilled in Christ, although they shall be more and more fulfilled until the world’s end, as Jew and Gentile are brought into His fold: He remembering His mercy, as He spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever (Luke 1:54–55); To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He sware to our father Abraham that He would grant unto us (Luke 1:72–74).

“I too,” Jerome adds, “sealing the labor of my little work by calling upon the Lord, will say at the close of this tract: O God, who is like You? Take away the iniquity of Your servant, pass by the sin of my decayed soul, and do not send Your anger upon me, nor rebuke me in Your indignation, for You are full of pity and great are Your mercies.

Return and have mercy upon me; drown my iniquities, and cast them into the depth of the sea, so that the bitterness of sin may perish in the bitter waters. Grant the truth which You promised to Your servant Jacob, and the mercy which You pledged to Abraham Your friend, and free my soul, as You swore to my fathers in the days of old: ‘As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Then shall my enemy see and be crowned with confusion, who now saith unto me, where is now thy God?’ (Ezekiel 33:11).”

Amen, Amen, O Good Lord Jesus.