INTRODUCTION
The book of Micah concerns itself with Israel and Judah in the mid-700s BC to the mid 600s BC, foretelling the fall of apostate Israel to the Assyrians around 722BC and also of the inevitable desolation of Judah. The book consists of seven chapters which compose short prophetic messages, organised into three cycles of oracles of doom, of judgement, and oracles of hope, of future blessings. Each hope oracle matches the preceding topic of doom and thus resolves the conflict. With such a design, Micah also shows us an insight into the nature of God – as much as he will judge, he balances that judgement with mercy.
Each set of prophecies begins with the command ‘Hear’ or ‘Listen’ – read through the book in your own time, which can be summarised quickly, thus: Micah’s first oracle-pair, if you will, concern themselves with the exile of Israel and the destruction of their holy land because of their sinfulness. The Lord nevertheless promises to gather his elect remnant to Jerusalem to survive the Assyrian siege, from which their king will rise. The second series relates to the dismantling of Jerusalem for its failed leadership, yet the Lord exalts the city high above the nations and reassembles the afflicted remnant, who will restore God’s dominion over the earth – a prophecy which today finds fulfilment in Jesus Christ, the ultimate ruler. Also, in Micah’s time, Israel was unable to repel invading nations, but God promises the birth and reign of the Messiah who would gather the remnant and lead them to victory – this prophecy too finds fulfilment in Christ’s church.
In the final pair of prophecies, from the spiritually depraved and disintegrating nation, God forgives and saves an elect remnant of the chosen people – that remnant is now a part of Christ’s church.
It’s this last series of oracles our text comes from. Let’s look at the first eight verses of Micah 6:
Listen to what the LORD says:
"Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say.
2 Hear, O 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.
3 "My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.
4 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.
5 My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counselled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you
may know the righteous acts of the LORD."
6 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?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my
body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has showed you, O man, 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.
The language is clear – this is a trial. Israel stands in the dock, accused by the Lord, and with the mountains serving as the jury. Look again at verse 1 – Listen to what the Lord says open inverted commas Stand up… all the way down to the end of verse 5 close inverted commas – these verses are God’s opening arguments in the trial. God wants to know how he has burdened his people – he has been so good, so gracious and has blessed them so abundantly, they shouldn’t be (as they were) complaining about the burden he puts on them. Consider the very brief history of the relationship – freed from slavery; the gift of great leaders; miraculous intervention and protection from evil political enemies and divine guidance on the journey to the Promised Land. These high-level bullet-points, on their own, surely enough to be thankful for and to be grateful for.
This certainly wouldn’t be a list to complain about. How many of the slaves of the American South do you think berated and complained about Abraham Lincoln following his Emancipation Proclamation, or indeed, when the North won the Civil War and abolished slavery? How many of them do you think, once the Union was fully restored, would sigh wistfully and say to one another, "You know, freedom’s OK but I have a hankering for the days we used to pick cotton for white men that owned us." I doubt it – or maybe they did. And even if they did, it doesn’t make the Israelites’ case any better, does it? It just makes people look even worse. And in any case, even Lincoln’s fantastic efforts pale into insignificance alongside God’s – even the briefest of summaries.
In considering the last part of the last point – the journey (and possession of the Promised Land), we’ve seen in the Bible Class that this wasn’t one divine act. So God’s humility in describing his side of the covenant should shine a light on how wanting Israel is found to be. And we have in response, in verses 6-7, the retort from perhaps a king (judging by the magnificence of the sacrifices to be made, and the increasing value placed on them) : burnt offerings, year-old calves, ten thousand rivers of (olive) oil (normally measured in litres, or fractions thereof, such is its worth). Always raising the ante, always escalating the value of the sacrifice. Except that these things… are they offerings? Or purchases? Are these things an attempt to buy God’s approval through good works and giving-up of really valuable things? To put this in another time-frame, were these accusations laid before me in court, would we think God would find it acceptable if I offered him my car and motorcycle, my house and my iPod and all the songs on it, and all my penguin DVDs? Would this suffice? Or is something missing – something which by its absence, makes all of the aforementioned, and makes offerings and calves and oil all pointless? What about ‘good old’ repentance? A ‘sorry’? I know, I know, actions speak louder than words and how do I know you mean ‘sorry’ – but surely the difference is that God knows the difference between ‘sorry’ and true, heartfelt repentance.
And if you think that’s a bit harsh, consider again verse 7b – the sentence which nails the lid on the coffin of Israel’s own self-condemnation – "shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Yes – brilliant idea! Let’s not try anything which God has prescribed and instead go for one of the very things which he has proscribed! Again, we’ve been looking in the Class at the effect the Canaanites had on the Israelites, and in particular, the effect of their failure to dispossess them of the land – pagan practices bleeding into Israel’s culture with the result that they don’t, won’t or can’t keep themselves pure and holy. They become defiled to the point that they didn’t even realise what was God’s command and what wasn’t.
God’s desire – God’s command – what pleases him, of course, is simply faithfulness to the covenant. Faith in him, and faith expressing itself
primarily in right living and only secondly in rituals. All the offerings in the world don’t count for anything if your heart’s not right.
Without these things, anything else you do is pointless. By that of course, I don’t mean it won’t serve any purpose but rather that in terms
of your relationship with God – well, there won’t be one, will there?
No amount of good works will have any merit where it counts unless they are underpinned and founded upon the attitudes which should form the
basis of all true worship (verse 8):
To act justly
To love mercy
To walk humbly with God.
Now clearly we could suggest that this verse lists three easy ways to please God. It ain’t that simple, however (although the verse is simple!). All three aren’t simple tasks. Consider acting justly – Micah hasn’t suggested that we should deliver justice, rather, all our actions should be just. That’s a little more all-encompassing. Similarly, we should love mercy. Not that we should only be merciful, or that we should champion mercy. We should love it. That’s rather a close, involved relationship. Finally, it’s not enough to walk humbly, or even to walk with God. We’re called to walk humbly with God, and in this phrase, any one of the words could carry emphasis. We need to consider one more point – these aren’t the multiple-choice options to the question of what the Lord requires of us. That would be d – all of the above. Indeed, if we were to remove one of the three, there would be something missing and that something would necessarily impact our ability to achieve the other two.
In this regard then, this verse defines the righteous, faithful Israel which God so dearly longed for. And if it defines a righteous, faithful Israel then by definition it defines today’s equivalent: a righteous, faithful church. Both Israel and the church are only the collective names of a group of people, so we therefore also have the definition of a righteous, faithful Christian – bearing in mind that ‘walking humbly with God’ is itself properly defined and includes all that it should. Odd then, you might think, that when I googled ‘Micah 6’, the top result was www.micah6.org – to which I initially thought, "Great! A site devoted to my sermon topic!" but what I found was even more amazing!
"WHAT IS MICAH 6?" the ‘About Us’ page asks… Micah 6 is a bold and exciting new direction in ministry for churches yearning to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Developed by the Economic Justice and Domestic Hunger Program of the National Council of Churches of Christ, the project extends an invitation to churches that are recommitting themselves to faithfulness. Recommitting themselves to faithfulness? Micah made it clear that three dimensions define the life of faith: Walking daily in intimate friendship with the God of all creation; becoming more actively engaged in the work of justice within the community; and developing a heart of compassion, love, and mercy for others. How can contemporary North American churches grow in all three of these dimensions? How can they integrate ministries of justice, mercy and spiritual discipleship? How can they use the lens of faith in Christ to interpret colourful and poetic ancient theology in the glaring light of twenty-first century needs? There are many demanding questions for people of faith.
The Micah 6 Project provides resources and support for congregations who are actively seeking answers.
Forgive me – isn’t there another source for resources and support for congregations actively seeking answers?
Micah 6 provides tools and resources for the journey, not answers to the questions. Although each congregation’s journey is unique,
participating congregations will share ideas and experiences as they support and encourage each other.
And elsewhere on the site you can find the following:
As congregations journey through the Micah 6 program, they are renewed, centred and strengthened in their calling to serve others
in the name of Jesus Christ.
Shouldn’t we be renewed, centred and strengthened in our calling… anyway?
I’m sure this program is well-meaning and I’m sure it generates results. My problem with the program is that there is deemed to be a need for a program at all – that churches feel they need a buzzword, a catchphrase, "yeah, we’re a Micah 6 church" in the first place! Because to me that necessarily means that not only have they lost sight of these three elements, it means they’ve also lost sight of the how-to… which means, I guess, that they’re not a great deal better than the Israel that’s in the dock in verses 1-5 of chapter 6.
I had it in my mind to get worked-up and incensed and passionate about this, because there is something about a program of how to be a Christ-like, Christ-centred church, which uses an Old Testament prophecy reference, that I just don’t get. But equally, I don’t do worked-up and incensed too well either (maybe Brooke will beg to differ). It does, for me in any case, show the perils that we face. We can indeed, as Israel once did, lose sight of what pleases God – and like Israel, we’ll pay a high price for it. There’s a further, almost more worrying side of these verses. And that is that, in being focused on the attributes of a Godly person, or a Godly group, we can still perhaps lose sight of what we’re doing. Why do we need a program? We have the text book right here. Adequate study, reading, teaching, prayer – the true humble walk with God – will negate the need for a flashy, zappy program.
CONCLUSION
Do you feel burdened by God? Is your load heavy? Ask yourself: what does the Lord require of you?
He has showed you what is good:
to act justly;
to love mercy, and;
to walk humbly with God.