December 14
Micah 5-6
Psalm 141:1-6
Proverbs 29:22-23
Revelation 8
Requirements
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8 NIV
Micah’s prophesies warn of destruction for both Samaria, the capital city of Israel, and Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah. As he predicted, Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 722 BCE and Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 587 BCE. But Micah also told them that because of God’s faithfulness to His covenant with them, He would save a remnant of the people and bring them back to their land. This passage points to a different way of thinking for them. Verses 6 and 7 give us insight into their mindset. They asked what they needed to do to please God. They suggested bringing a burnt offering with year-old calves or perhaps they would need to bring thousands of rams, or ten thousand rivers of oil. By the time of Micah’s ministry, the sacrificial system that Moses put into place had been distorted by the priests and religious leaders to control the people. It had also been corrupted by the cultural and religious practices of the nations around them so that they even asked if they needed to offer their firstborn as a sacrifice. This was a common practice by the pagan nations, but Jewish law never included child sacrifices. Micah’s answer to them was not what they expected. Basically, he told them that all God required of them was to love God and love people. Jesus gave the same answer when asked what the greatest commandment was. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV) The rules and regulations that God gave them were always intended to accomplish those two things. They were supposed to teach them how to love God and how to love people, but they had been turned into a legalistic system that they could not possibly obey perfectly. God has always been more concerned about our hearts than our ability to follow rules. His desire has always been that we follow Him because we love Him and not because we are forced to do so.
Jewish law had very specific guidance regarding justice. Many of the laws and provisions in our legal system are based on the laws God gave the Jewish people. Honesty, integrity, fairness, taking care of the vulnerable, impartiality, and equity are all necessary to provide justice. Acting justly toward others means that we treat them the way that we would want to be treated by others. The word that Micah uses that is translated mercy is the word “hesed” which we have discussed several times. It means kindness, mercy, faithfulness, goodness, and love. We not only need to treat people justly, but we need to be kind, good, merciful, and loving to them. And he says that we are to love “hesed”. We aren’t just supposed to do it out of obligation, we need to love being merciful and kind to people. Then Micah gets to the most important part. We are to walk humbly with our God. Walking side by side, talking, communicating, and going somewhere implies that we are together. It requires relationship and intimacy. And it also requires humility to recognize that He is the Creator God of the universe, and we are sinful creatures who owe Him everything. We cannot act justly toward others and love mercy if we are not walking humbly with our God. The love and gratitude we experience when we walk with God overflows and is expressed in “hesed” to others. God sees our hearts and knows why we do the things we do. A humble, loving heart has always been what pleases God.
Comments