“He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8 [NASB]
Micah was a prophet of God
during king Ahaz’s reign about 730-700BC. During the reign Ahaz, worship of
false gods became popular and accepted in the southern kingdom. Ahaz required
the priests of Yahweh to offer sacrifices to the false gods, too . By the
leading of the rulers, priests, and prophets, the people of Judah walked away from
the LORD God to serve other gods. Micah entered this scene and proclaimed
deliverance for the people who would go into captivity to Babylon and exhorted
them to destroy the nations who came against her.
In today’s passage, Micah
summarized in one verse what God required of His people, Israel. Micah
proclaimed God wanted justice and loyalty from His people. In verses six and
seven, Micah spoke for the people and asked if the LORD wanted burnt offerings,
rivers of oil, or their firstborn children as sacrifice for the sins they
committed against God. He told the people what God desired.
Micah told them what Moses
told the Israelites in Deuteronomy as they walked to the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 10:12 explained the LORD wants people to live a manner of life that
represents Him, to love Him, to serve Him, and to fear Him with reverence and
awe. Moses added to this in Deuteronomy 30:15 by telling what the blessing
would be for love and obedience to the LORD and what the curse would be for
unfaithfulness to the LORD and their covenant with Him. Obedience and faithfulness
brought life and prosperity. Disobedience and unfaithfulness brought death and
adversity. The priests of God to Israel knew this. He commanded them to teach
it to the people so they would not forget.
When Micah spoke up for
the LORD in his time, the people of God as a whole had forgotten these things
and walked away from Him. Micah called them back and reminded them what God
requires. He told them to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.
By walking with God following
closely in obedience and awe, the characteristics of God would become part of
their own lives. God is righteous and just. The people of Israel would become
just and do justice. Isaiah 56:1 and Jeremiah 22:3 give commands to be just and
preserve justice in their lives and to the powerless.
The kindness Micah spoke
of is goodness and faithfulness to God and other people. As God is the author
of goodness, their lives lived in faithfulness to Him would show goodness to
other people. Hosea 6:6 says God delights in faithfulness/loyalty rather than
sacrifice and knowledge of Him rather than burnt offerings. Knowing and being
faithful to God develops a person who is like God and lives out His kindness
and goodness.
Last, Micah told the people
God requires them to walk humbly with Him. He meant they were to live lives of
humility to Him, worshipping and obeying Him as their LORD. When people decide
to set up other things as their god, they decide they know better than Yahweh.
Those people make themselves greater than the LORD God when they decide they
know better than Him. Isaiah spoke for God in Isaiah 57:15 when he said God
lives on a high and holy place and the contrite and lowly of spirit live with
Him. Besides this, in Isaiah 66:2, God spoke through Isaiah and said He would
look to the humble and contrite of spirit. Humility before God is what God
required of the Israelites. By the time Micah became a prophet of the LORD, most
Israelites no longer revered the LORD and came before Him humbly. God was just another
god to them among the multitude of other gods they served.
Micah came to the Israelites
calling them to return to exclusive worship of the one God, Yahweh God. He told
them what the LORD required – justice, kindness, humility, and loyalty to Him
alone. As the Israelites lived their
lives in this way, they would take on the characteristics of God once again. Following
the LORD requires humility in recognizing He is greater than they. By following
Him and obeying Him in their daily lives, they would begin to love other people,
which would manifest itself in goodness, kindness, and justice.
One step at a time to
return to God requires the first step of acknowledging God is God of all
including your life. He is greater than you or anything you think is better. As
you make these steps one at a time, eventually you become more like God, more like
Christ. The Israelites ended up captives of Babylon, but they listened to God
and returned to their home land eventually. They returned to God and walked in
His ways.
We can do that, too. We acknowledge
God is supreme and the only God. We are nothing compared to Him. Next we accept
that Jesus Christ is His Son who died for the death penalty to our sins. We ask
forgiveness for our sins and give our lives to Him to be Lord – leader of our
lives.
Whether you are already a
Christian or not, we each are human and turn away from God. We tend to choose
to make our own decisions and make ourselves god of our lives, which usurps God’s
role as the Lord of our lives. God is waiting for us to turn back to Him. He promised
He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins (1 John 1:9). He waits for
each of us to accept His gift of grace through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.
Each time we sin after accept His grace gift, God waits for us to turn back to
Him, asking for forgiveness, and giving our lives back to Him to lead.
We can be just and live justly,
giving kindness, and live humbly with the Lord. Just decide to give Him your
life, ask forgiveness, and walk one day at a time with Him as your Lord. This
is what Micah told the Israelites. It is what God continues to call us to do.
What will you decide?
