Micah 6:6-8 God Requires
What God requires is straight forward and ‘simple’. In ALL the Law that He gave Moses, the foundation of it all is love. Love for God and your fellow man.
Samuel said it best when he said that God would rather have obedience than sacrifice. ALL the rituals, sacrifices, offerings, and observances are for one thing. To point us back to God. To restore our heart to walking in His ways. To cement our bond and repair any breaches that have developed. But staying in His will and walking with Him daily is BETTER than ANY ritual ever given or devised by man.
God want our hearts, our hands and our feet. Our hearts come FIRST in this list. Without the heart, ‘hands and feet’ mean nothing; less than nothing. God was using Micah to correct and/or remind the people that their hearts HAD to be seeking Him above ALL else.
Judah was ‘going through the motions’ more than Israel. Israel had completely replaced God with idol worship. I’m sure there were those who still held to God’s words but they were few and far between. Most of the people were content to bow down to the golden calves Jeroboam had erected.
I was just thinking about those who may have been stuck in the society of idol worship while trying to maintain their connection with God. They weren’t allowed to go to Jerusalem to perform the offerings and sacrifices prescribed in the Law. I’m CERTAIN God honored their hearts when they were fixed on Him, even without the ritual. We have just read in today’s text and heard Samuel’s admonishment regarding this. God wants relationship over ritual. He would gladly forego the sacrifices for repentance if the heart would only remain true to Him. And when repentance is needed, God wants the HEART above all else involved in that act.
Have you ever heard the axiom; “It is better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission”? God says it’s the other way around. Having your heart set on Him minimizes the need to ask for forgiveness. And you don’t have to BEG God for forgiveness. When we have a relationship with Him we don’t have to beg, we ask with a sincere heart and He hears us.
That’s ALL God is asking for; a sincere relationship. That relationship results in the other two actions listed; “to do justice, and to love kindness” (verse 8b). A sincere relationship is walked WITH God, not FOR Him. It takes two to form a relationship. He is ready, willing and waiting for us to enter into relationship with Him.
But it has to be on HIS terms. A ‘form of godliness’ is NOT what He is looking for. Israel was ‘calling on their relationship’ with God whenever it suited their purposes. He was set aside unless they wanted something from Him. Because they refused to enter into TRUE relationship, there was no a sacrifice big enough to entice Him to act on THEIR wishes.
Israel, as a nation, still refuses to accept ALL of God’s requirements for relationship. That ‘requirement’ is accepting His Son, Jesus. They cling to the original statutes, as close as they can, and refuse to accept Jesus’ work on the cross. His work was for ALL. And since His work, there is no other way to relationship. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him’” (John 14:6-7). NO OTHER option exists any longer. Jesus fulfilled the Law. It is complete. He was the final sacrifice required.
With salvation through Jesus also comes the Comforter; God’s Holy Spirit. He takes up residence in our hearts and leads us into walking the two other ‘requirements’ God outlined for Israel through Micah. Good works alone is not enough. ‘Being saved’ without changing actions is not enough.
A relationship WITH God WILL result in love for one another and actions that honor God. The ‘actions’ don’t save us, they simply are ‘fruit’ born of a relationship with Him. BOTH are required by God. “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God” (verse 8b). BOTH have ALWAYS been the requirement.
Father God, THANK YOU for Jesus! He has done for me what I could NEVER do on my own. I could not come to You without His work. THANK YOU for Your Holy Spirit who leads me daily in my walk with You. I hear You so clearly when He explains or gives me examples of what Your word means for me in my life. I LOVE those ‘ah ha’ moments!
Thank You for changing my heart so that my action line up better with Your words. Keep working in me until ALL I DO AND ALL I SAY is born from walking with You! Someday… perfect I will be. Probably not until the day we meet face to face, but I desire to keep working to that end just the same.
