Micah 6:1-5 Indictment
The Lord calls for the people to plead their case. What indictment can they bring against God? What had He done to them that they feel justified in their actions?
This brings to memory a song from my youth; “What Have You Done for Me Lately” by Janet Jackson. A song I think Israel knew a little too well. Not what have You ever done for me, but what have You done for me lately? If they didn’t see His hand EVERY DAY they went looking elsewhere.
Remember the story of Israel’s first golden calf? It sprang from their desire for ‘a new leader’ because Moses had been on the mountaintop with God ‘too long’ and they ‘didn’t know what had become of him’. God had just led them through the waters of the Red Sea ON DRY LAND. He had been feeding them, DAILY, from His own table. He had forced Egypt to, not only let them go, but to send them out with great wealth. And they couldn’t wait a little longer for what He would do next.
When God split the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam couldn’t wait to see what God would do with this half kingdom. He had two golden calves made for the people to worship instead of God. “Here are you gods that led you out of Egypt.” He even gave the calves credit for God’s work. But then, they did that with the first one too. They ascribed ALL God’s work for them to their false gods.
God tells them that He wants to hear what they have to say against Him. ‘Shout it to the mountaintops! I want to hear it. I’m ALL ears.’
‘Hmmm. I don’t hear anything. Now it’s MY turn to speak MY indictment against you.’ God wants ALL creation to hear His charge too. Let creation itself bear witness. “O My people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer Me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam” (verses 3-4).
God could have gone on forever recounting the things He had done for His people. But He chose to focus instead on how He caused even the nations that wanted to curs them to bless them instead. God reminds them of the story of Balaam. I wonder if this is because the plan that Balaam put into the heart of Balak was the final obstacle before they entered the Promised Land. The last of the first generation to leave Egypt died after chasing after the women of Moab and their gods. God finished His ‘housekeeping’ tasks after the results of Balaam’s plan for the king to deal with Israel.
Did you notice that God didn’t focus on what He had done for them “lately”? He focused instead on their foundation. The beginnings of them as a nation for His own. From when He bought them with a price of blood; the place of the beginning of Passover. Two before and after moments surrounding His formalized covenant with them. The places of two new beginnings. 1) Out of Egypt, and 2) Into the Promised Land. The beginnings of ‘two people’. 1) The generation who left Egypt, and 2) The generation who would take possession of the land.
“Here’s to ‘New Beginnings!’” EXACTLY what God had been holding out to the people for a LONG TIME. He kept calling them back to Him so they could begin again. But they refused to come. He was now going to do what they would consider the ‘unthinkable’ for God. He was going to make ANOTHER new beginning. This would take place only after a firm ending; captivity and exile. He doesn’t say that in our reading today, but we know where they are headed.
God doesn’t require a complete demolishment for every ‘new beginning’. What is required though is what we will look at next time. Know this for certain though; if God is calling you to ‘start over’ with Him, what comes next is WORTH EVERY SECOND of the wait and WHATEVER IT COSTS to get there.
Father God, I don’t want to be caught up in the “what have You done for me lately” mentality. I love coming to sit with You each day. THANK YOU for making it possible for us to have our time together with all that was happening the last few days. I had resigned to not getting time alone, but You worked it out anyway.
I LOVE seeing Your ‘fingerprints’ all over my life! I LOVE looking back at what You have walked me through. I LOVE hearing the stories of the triumphs You brought about in Israel’s history. I wonder HOW they EVER walked away from You! What could they EVER have seen of greater ‘value’? Or desire??? I don’t want to know! I DON’T want that ‘temptation’!!! THANK YOU for my ‘new beginnings. They have been just as vital to my life as those You brought to Israel. I PRAY I will NEVER need another ‘new beginning’ but I KNOW You will be waiting right there for me if I do. It STILL amazes me that You NEVER give up on me.
