What You Need

Micah 5 to 8

The LORD states His case against Israel.

That He has delivered this group of people from Egypt in response to their cries out to Him in their oppression.  Redeemed and freed from the yoke of slavery.  And before that from famine and sure death.  

All God asks for in return, with the covenant love-relationship,

Is that the people would acknowledge Him and consecrate and set themselves apart.

Not serve idols.

Or walk with glazed eyes through empty rituals that mean nothing more than following the letter of the law. 

Ch 6:7 “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?” 

NIV Notes. God desires sacrifices but shows that it does no good to offer them without obedience. 

Ch 6:8 “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.”

This is the kind of obedience God expects from his covenant people.  

To live full lives, serving and obeying.

We get this verse on the eve of the exile.

From God, through the mouth of Micah.

Spoken to a hard-hearted and indifferent people who forgot where they came from and began to blend into their surroundings and fade into woodwork.  They looked like everyone else. Not set apart, not consecrated, clean or holy. 

God requires that we stand out.

That our actions are not empty.

Our hearts, and our habits and our offerings.

Sacrifices that cost us something.

Authenticity and genuine heart actions. 

To love justice and mercy

And acknowledge God in everything. 

To spend time with Him

Til we are radiant.

Reflecting His Light back to the world. 

I’m glad for the NIV notes that help us navigate these verses and to sometimes indicate who’s doing the talking and who’s doing the listening and who should be doing the listening.  

And I love these chapters today, and how a beloved verse gets the dimension of context today. 

The balance for the doom and gloom is Hope.

Hope with a capital “H”.

Glorious Hope for Israel.

Ch 7:8 “Do not gloat over me, my enemy!

Though I have fallen, I will rise.

Though I sit in the darkness

The LORD will be my Light.

9 Because I have sinned against Him,

I will bear my LORD’s wrath,

Until He pleads my case

And establishes my right.

He will bring me out into the Light

I will see His righteousness

10 Then my enemy will see it

And will be covered in shame.

18 Who is a God like you

Who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance.

You do not stay angry forever,

But delights to show mercy

19 You will again have compassion on us

You will tread our sins underfoot

And hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. “

God is jealous and compassionate.

He will not forget and yet He will not remember.

That image of our unforgettable deeds being hurled into the depths forever. 

And I’m thankful

All over again

To be on this journey.

That is so far from over

The Story that keeps going and going.