What the Lord Requires

Micah 6:1-16

Welcome! Today we are continuing our study of the book of Micah, focusing in on Chapter 6. I want to start today by reviewing briefly some aspects of the covenant God made between Himself and the people of Israel at the time of Moses. This covenant was a conditional covenant that that either could lead to God’s blessing or cursing of the people, depending on whether they kept their part of the agreement. The agreement, or Law, included the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) along with many other commands, totaling about 600 requirements, about half of them positive (things to do) and half of them negative (things to not do). Through Moses, God told them:

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses. – Deut. 11:26-29

Later, led by Joshua, they did enter the Promised Land and proclaimed the blessings and curses as this passage said (the book of Joshua, Chapter 8). Near the end of Joshua’s life, Joshua assembled all of the tribes of Israel to renew their covenant with God (Joshua 24). This is a longer passage, but I want to read all of it because it will help us to more deeply appreciate and understand what is going on in today’s passage from Micah Chapter 6. Now before I begin, let me give a brief outline of what you are going to hear. First, Joshua, speaking the words of the Lord, is going to give the people a summary of God’s dealings with their descendants going all the way back to Abraham. He is going to show them that God has been continually faithful, continually generous, continually giving them things they did not earn and do not deserve. Then he will give them the choice of whether they want to serve God. When the people say that they want to serve God, he will proclaim that this is a reaffirmation of God’s covenant and point out that there are witnesses to this agreement. So here is the passage:

Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt. – Joshua 24:2-4

“‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. But they cried to the Lord for help, and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians; He brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time. – Joshua 24:5-7

“‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand. – Joshua 24:8-10

“‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’ – Joshua 24:11-13

“Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:14-15

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because He is our God.” – Joshua 24:16-18

Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, He will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after He has been good to you.” – Joshua 24:19-20

But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.” Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied. “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey Him.” – Joshua 24:21-24

On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord. “See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.” – Joshua 24:25-27

So to summarize, there was a summary of God’s faithful loving works to His people followed by the people given a choice if they would serve God. The people said they would, but Joshua, speaking prophetically, said they wouldn’t and warned them of the consequences if they did rebel. The people wouldn’t hear of it and insisted they would follow God. Joshua recorded these things and stated somewhat cryptically that the stone was a witness to the renewal of the covenant and would testify against them if they broke the covenant.

With this background, let’s look at today’s passage from Micah 6:

Listen to what the Lord says: “Stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against His people; He is lodging a charge against Israel.” – Micah 6:1-2

Now the picture here in Micah 6 is very vivid – it is a picture of a court trial. Much like in a modern trial, God first says to stand up. We do the same thing in modern court trials, don’t we? When the judge comes in, the bailiff says, “All rise.” People stand as a sign of respect when someone of importance enters; for example, you stand when a king makes his entrance. This is an ancient tradition.

Given the context of the Mosaic covenant we have heard, you can appreciate the seriousness of this charge. Now, it’s not like the people don’t know that they have been sinful and rebellious, but there is something about this prophecy, perhaps the formality of it, that shows you (and showed them) just how serious it is. Just like if someone knocks on your door and hands you an official court summons, for most people this produces a panicky feeling – you know the situation is serious – so too is the situation here.

Now what can we say about pleading a case before the mountains and hills? Well, in a literature course they call this personification, ascribing a human quality to something not human. Well, we had personification in Joshua 24 with the stone being called a witness; personification is actually pretty common in the Bible. Do you remember Psalm 98? Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing out their songs of joy.

So what is the role of the mountains and hills? I think it is much like the role of the stone. God alone is the judge here, so I don’t think they serve as jury. Instead, they, who have been present through all of the sins and rebellion of the people, are silent witnesses to these misdeeds, just as the stone was a witness to the reaffirmation of the covenant.

And they have witnessed a lot, if you think about it; one of the sins of the people and leaders was putting up altars to false gods in the high places. Almost certainly there were altars up in the mountains and hills at the very moment Micah, led by God, gave this prophecy to the people. There they were, the mountains and hills, exhibit A in God’s testimony against His rebellious and defiant people.

Here is how the “trial” continues: 

“My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer Me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.” – Micah 6:3-5

The meaning behind “What have I done to you” and “How have I burdened you” is that He hasn’t done anything to them; He hasn’t burdened or wearied them. He has been faithful to the covenant. He says “Answer Me” but they cannot answer because they have absolutely no charges against God, absolutely no excuses for their sin. In Hebrew, this is really a legal term; He is asking them, as the defense, to bring forth their counter charges against Him. All they can say is “the defense rests, Your Honor.”

God then goes on to remind them of all He has done for them. This is similar to what we saw in Joshua 24, although in a much abbreviated form. He reminds them of the deliverance from captivity and slavery in Egypt, and He again reminds them of how He sent them people to help them, Moses and Aaron. However, this time, interestingly, He adds a third person, a woman, Miriam. By the way, in Exodus 15 she is called a prophetess.

This shouldn’t be surprising to us, but I think it is easy for us to buy into the claims you often hear that women are seen as next to nothing in the Bible. This is certainly not true in the New Testament – when you think about the critical roles of Elizabeth and Mary as mothers who followed God through  extraordinary circumstances, or Anna, the prophetess in Luke 2 serving at the Temple, or Lydia, the believer in Acts 16 who had important responsibilities, or the four daughters of Philip in Acts 21 who were described as prophetesses, or Phoebe, the deaconess of a church (Romans 16), or Prisca (Priscilla), described as Paul’s fellow worker and as an essential teacher of Apollos (Acts 18 and Romans 16), and so on. But the idea that women have no important rolls is also not true in the Old Testament, where we see that both men and women could make Nazirite vows (Numbers 6), where daughters and not just sons have a right of inheritance (Numbers 27), where children, even young men, are to honor and observe the teachings of their mothers, not just their fathers (Exodus 20, Proverbs 1:8 and 6:20), where daughters, not just sons, led the music worship in the Temple (I Chronicles 25), and where, in addition to Miriam, we have the amazing examples of Deborah (who was a prophetess who led her people in the time of the book of Judges), of Huldah (who was a prophetess whom King Josiah asked to read and interpret the newly-found “Book of the Law”, 2 Kings 22, 2 Chron. 34), and of Queen Esther, who saved the Jewish people of Persia. The bottom line is that God has sent and still sends women for all kinds of important/critical purposes; God uses women just like He uses men. I know the women and girls here know this, but sometimes it is nice to hear it just the same. So yes, God gave the Israelites Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

God then again brings up Balak and Balaam; again, as a reminder, here is the longer version from Joshua 24: When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.

As for the journey from Shittim to Gilgal, Shittim was the last camping site before entering the Promised Land and Gilgal was the first camping site within the Promised Land. The “journey” from one site to the other therefore refers to the miraculous crossing of the Jordan into the Promised Land (Joshua 3). Again, this is mentioned in Joshua 24.

In the next verses of Micah 6, the focus shifts from God’s declaration to Micah’s response, speaking for the people, to what God has just said.

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 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 6:6-8

"With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?" That’s the question of the ages, is it not? First, Micah suggests burnt offerings, yearling calves. Certainly the Mosaic covenant included requirements of sacrifices, including burnt offerings and the use of animals in their prime. But let’s think about this answer a little more in light of the question. The question is, what do I, a regular Joe (or since we are talking about Israelites, a regular Yosef) do to personally approach God, to worship Him, to bow down at His feet? Did the sacrificial system of the Mosaic covenant accomplish this? No. If anything, the sacrificial system highlighted the distance between the Israelite people and God. Only priests performed the sacrifices; only once a year did the high priest go into the Holy of Holies – one person, once a year. For everyone else, never! Even with the sacrificial system, man was separated from God; no one could even look directly upon God and live. We like to say that is because of God’s holiness, but in reality it was because of man’s sinfulness. If man were completely without sin, He could then approach God, holy approaching holy. But no man was without sin. So yes, sacrifices were prescribed by Mosaic Law, but they were simply a part of the many commandments that were a component of the covenant; they didn’t bring one into the intimate presence of God.

Well, the second thing Micah suggests is an extrapolation we all make from time to time. Just like the AT&T commercials that feature young children being asked questions about what is better, “bigger or smaller,” we assume that “bigger is better.” If sacrifices are good, more sacrifices are better. Thousands of rams! If anointing with oil is good, ten thousand rivers of oil are better! 

Now again, the Mosaic covenant did have situations in which large numbers of sacrifices occurred, for example, on Passover, where each family had an animal sacrificed, and there were also special occasions such as Solomon’s dedication of the Temple where huge numbers of animals were sacrificed. But again, these things did not directly deal with separation between man and God. The problem is that bigger is never big enough. You could sacrifice a million rams, or 10 million, and the situation would not change.

And third, furthering the distorted logic he is using, he suggests something horrendous, something actually forbidden in Scripture, sacrificing his own firstborn son for his sin. What is the thinking? Well, God wants sacrifice, and more sacrifices is better because it is more painful for me, but nothing would be more painful for me than to sacrifice, instead of an animal, a person dear to me, and my firstborn son is perhaps the most dear to me of all, so I’ll sacrifice him!

But God says NO (with ten exclamation points) to human sacrifice. There were those who sacrificed their children to false gods such as Molech, and God reserved His harshest condemnation for such practices. Now I doubt many people on Earth consider such sacrifices today, but it is common to turn to things clearly unacceptable to God in order to try to reach Him –for example, the use of terrorism or killing those who convert out of your faith. Some religions teach that it is OK to lie or do other wrong or deceitful things in the name of God. And then, some turn to illegal drug use to try to have a meaningful spiritual experience.

There are at least three reasons God shouts NO to sacrificing your son. The obvious one is that you are killing your son, taking away his life, and that makes you evil. Another is that it doesn’t work; because killing is horribly wrong, killing someone certainly won’t take away your sin. And a third reason is that, as we see in the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac but then being prevented from doing so, “God will provide the Lamb.” That is, only God Himself would sacrifice His son not for His own sins, but for ours. I am speaking of course of Jesus, who willingly went to the cross, and who, unlike anyone else, was truly without sin, and who didn’t die for the sins of His Father, who also was without sin, but instead died for the sin of all of us, who would have perished, eternally separated from God, if it were not for His sacrifice.

So these three things don’t work. Sacrifices don’t actually bring us into intimate fellowship with God, bigger is not better, not in this sense, and more personally painful (as in sacrificing your own son) is absolutely not better but is sin of the most severe order.

But then Micah says, “He has shown you what is good.” Shown how? Through Scripture, through God’s creation, through our God-given ability to reason. And just as Micah starts with three things that don’t work, he, inspired by the Spirit, gives us three things that God does desire of us.

The first is to act justly. That is, to be ones who are just. Unfortunately, justice is one of those words that has been modified in recent years from its Biblical meaning. We hear of economic justice, social justice, political justice, etc. Micah here is not calling for a greater discussion of justice, or for government programs to promote justice. He is not telling us to tell others to behave justly. He is telling us to do so ourselves! What is justice? It is giving what is due, neither less nor more. I am not doing justly as a professor if I give someone an A because I know their parents and they are friends of mine; neither am I doing justly if I give someone an F because I know their parents and they drive me crazy.

But doing justly goes far beyond giving grades. To do justly is to live out your commitments, to do what you are supposed to do whether it is easy or hard, whether it comes at a personal cost or not. To do justly is to give others the time they deserve even when it comes at a sacrifice of your personal time. To do justly is to never take unfair advantage of someone, whether it is a cashier who gives you too much change or to not disclose something about a house you are trying to sell.

If you owe anything to anyone and they have forgotten or you are taking advantage of your relationship with them, then you are not acting justly. If you have cheated in any way on your taxes or legal obligations you are not acting justly. If you don’t tell someone the truth, you are not acting justly. If you don’t treat someone as you would reasonably expect to be treated, you are not acting justly. I could go on and on. The more you think about this, the more you realize how all-encompassing it can be.

Second is to love mercy. Now we all love it when mercy (or kindness) is shown to us, but do we love to show mercy to others? To love to show mercy means to be selfless, to put others above you. By the way, the verbs used here are interesting. We are to do justice, just do it, like the Nike commercials. But we are to love mercy. Part of loving mercy is not jumping to judgmental responses – when we see a pregnant teenager, for example, do we think “How could they” or mentally blame the parents, or do we seek to show them God’s love, being kind, even simply being willing to start a conversation with the person? By extension, part of loving mercy is being willing to share the gospel with anyone, overcoming your own fears or anxieties or sense of busyness to do so. Nothing is a greater show of mercy than to be God’s vessel of leading someone to faith in Christ!

Another aspect of loving mercy is seeking unity and harmony, even when we think we have better ideas. Realizing that certain actions of ours might create more work for someone else and choosing not to do those actions is a method of loving mercy. When someone wrongs us, choosing to let it go is loving mercy.

If you put the two together, doing justly and loving mercy, it means in a way that we set one standard for ourselves, a standard of doing justly, but a different standard for others, one in which we love to show mercy. This doesn’t mean we can’t ever show mercy to ourselves, but the reality is that most people flip these entirely around; they love to mete out justice but want to only receive mercy. The call here is to do the opposite.

And the third requirement is to walk humbly with your God. Spurgeon, perhaps not surprisingly, has an entire message on just this phrase. Let me just mention a few things that come to mind as I think about what it means. First, it’s not just walking humbly; it’s walking humbly with your God. It is impossible to do this if you are not staying connected to God, praying to Him, worshiping Him, reading His Word, thinking about Him during the day – this is what I get out of the verb “walk.” We are going to walk in a day, but where are we going to walk? Apart from Him? Or with Him? That is the choice we have to make each day.

Second, humility stems from a true understanding of who we are and who God is; pride stems from a false understanding of these things. Who are we? New creations in Christ, able to do all things through Him, and able to do nothing apart from Him. We need to be filled by the Holy Spirit, continually being filled, in order to serve Him and walk with Him. There is nothing good in ourselves apart from Him. I believe there is no way to manufacture humility apart from this kind of dependence upon God. Don’t waste your time looking for a Plan B to become humble!

Finally, walking humbly with your God has nothing to do with having a meager or lowly existence. Kings can walk humbly with their God. And paupers can be as proud as anyone.

Listen! The Lord is calling to the city—and to fear Your Name is wisdom—“Heed the rod and the One who appointed it. Am I still to forget your ill-gotten treasures, you wicked house, and the short ephah, which is accursed? Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights? Your rich people are violent; your inhabitants are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully. – Micah 6:9-12

The passage has moved back from the point of view of Micah, speaking for the people, into the point of view of God. The city here refers to Jerusalem. God becomes specific about some of the sins of the people. They have obtained riches through illegal and/or immoral actions, and they are using dishonest measures to rip people off. And they practice deceit, lying for personal gain.

Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins. You will eat but not be satisfied; your stomach will still be empty. You will store up but save nothing, because what you save I will give to the sword. You will plant but not harvest; you will press olives but not use the oil, you will crush grapes but not drink the wine. – Micah 6:13-15 

God’s judgment is that they should lose their ill-gotten gains or be otherwise unable to enjoy or use them. Note that God feels no obligation to “cover” up for their sins; He is not concerned with protecting the people who go around under His name. If they fall, some will say that their God is not powerful, but God Himself will not allow the wicked to prosper in His name in order to prevent this.

You have observed the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their traditions. Therefore I will give you over to ruin and your people to derision; you will bear the scorn of the nations. – Micah 6:16

This can seem like a harsh judgment. When you think about how the people had not followed God pretty much continuously for centuries, it makes you instead marvel about God’s patience. But at long last, God has finally brought these people into “court,” and they have been found guilty on multiple counts. The bottom line is that they have broken spectacularly the covenant God made with Moses and reaffirmed with Joshua. The penalty is the loss of their land, the loss of freedom, and the loss of blessings from God.

As for us, if you are a believer you do not need to fear a breaking of the New Covenant, but God can still cause you to face consequences in this life for your sin. The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I don’t believe that we should live in terror-like fear of God, but we should have a healthy reverence for God. As true believers we should want to serve Him because of what He has done for us. Let us this day, and every day, choose to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.