By: Curtis Baker
Last week we began to look at the prophetic book of Micah together. Micah is unique among the prophets in that he speaks to both the northern and the southern kingdoms of Israel. Usually the prophets only speak to one or the other. Micah is also unique in that he carries a balance between judgment and mercy. Many of the Minor Prophets tend to lean to either one or the other. Micah, however, speaks to both.
With this in mind, last week we saw how one of the crucial texts in the book of Micah plays out like a courtroom drama. God has an accusation to bring against the people of Israel, and he has called the hills and mountains of the land to bear witness to the charges he will bring. However, just as God prepares to make his accusations, a great drama began to unfold in the courtroom. Rather than pronounce judgement on Israel, God asks, “What have I done to you to deserve your actions?” It is a heart rendering appeal that not only touches the reader, but apparently touched the hearts of the people of Israel as well. Mercy will often do that when judgement won’t.
So as the people of Israel are cut to the heart by God’s compassion, they ask what they should do in response. They imagine it will require some elaborate form of worship to find favor with God again. But God surprises them in his answer. It is not some elaborate sacrifice or ritual or worship that God primarily wants, important though that may be…what God wants is for the people of Israel to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.
I want to take a moment this week to briefly examine these three things.
What does it mean to act justly? It means simply to order you life well. It means to live your life in such a way that it does not come at the expense of harming your neighbor. You act fairly, uprightly, and with integrity. Micah might remind them of the social responsibilities laid out for them in Leviticus 19: “Do not steal; do not lie; do not deceive one another. Do not swear falsely on God’s name. Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind. Do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich, but judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about spreading slander among your people; do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. Do not hate your brother in your heart, and rebuke your neighbor with frankness. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s what it means to act justly.
What about to love mercy? Justice and mercy must always complement one another because we see what happens when all falls on the side of justice. It’s legalism and misery that always follows. There must be a sense of your own weakness and the weakness of your fellow man. There must be a sense of where people come from, and an understanding of why they do the things they do. You don’t simply want them to do right, but have mercy on them when they do wrong. It is a willingness to overlook the small things; to guide with gentleness away from the big things. It is to honor the person even as you despise the sin.
And then of course there is the humble walk with God. This expresses the idea that we truly don’t know how to live; that we are not self sufficient; that we don’t know our own good because we, in fact, are so easily deceived about ourselves.
In a similar passage to the one I mentioned above in Leviticus, you have this thought marked out in Deuteronomy 10: “And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s command and decrees that I am giving you today [and then he adds this last line…] for your own good.”
That is what humility is. It is a willingness to acknowledge you don’t have the perspective to see it all, and you are going to trust the God who can see it all with your life. The way you prove that trust is to obey him.
So now we see in greater detail what God requires of us: it is to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.
(Don’t forget to join me for A Message From the Heart radio program Sunday evening at 8:00pm on KJAK 92.7FM, or streaming live at www.kjak.com) (curtisbaker@hotmail.com)
Write to: P.O. Box 157, Slaton, TX 79364
