SERMON: Micah (What does God require of us?)
TEXT: Micah 6:1-8 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 4-5-20
I want to welcome all of you who are joining us online this weekend. And I must say that this whole stay at home — figure out how to do church in a different way — well it’s really been blowing my mind in some encouraging ways. My extended family has been joining us online. Old friends and roommates from my college days — who I haven’t spoken to in nearly 20 years — have been joining us — hey Raul and Casey — if you’re watching. Just some amazing things are happening — and — if you’re experiencing similar type stories — please make sure to share your story with us on our website — gatewayepc.org.
And speaking of worshipping online — the question that’s probably been on your mind — is: “Josh, how much longer are we doing this whole “online only” deal?” As you know, this past week our governor made some more decisions in our state’s fight against the coronavirus — for example — he extended our school closures through May 1st. So here’s what may be helpful for all of you to know.
Instead of looking for a date — “here’s the weekend we’ll be back physically together” — I want you to be paying attention to the reversal of the decisions that have caused us to go online. What do I mean? Well the two events — in our state — that caused us to make the decision to go online only were 1) the closure of schools and 2) the limitation on the size of groups that can meet. So until those two decisions are reversed — meaning schools are back in session and the size of the groups that can meet has been lifted — we’ll continue to be meeting online only.
Now — obviously — schools may be closed for the rest of the year. So — if that’s the case — we’ll be watching more closely for the limitation on the size of groups that can meet to be reversed. And — again — the reason why we’re watching for the reversal of these decisions is because the decisions — themselves — were the reason why the elders of Gateway decided we should be meeting online only in order to comply with the recommendations made by our state leadership.
Alright — with all of that out of the way — and hopefully you have a better understanding as to how and why we’ve made the decisions we’ve made — there’s one last thing I want you to know before we get to the sermon — and this is the one thing that I always want you to know — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.
Today we’re finishing up our Finding Jesus series. For the past few weeks we’ve been looking at a group of books in the Old Testament known as the Minor Prophets. And we’ve been seeing how the whole Bible is telling one story — the story of Jesus.
And here’s a quick idea of what this sermon will be like. I’m going to introduce you to a book of the Bible that you may or may not be familiar with. I’ll give you an overview of the book — think of this as a highlight reel and then we’ll focus in on one section of the book. And finally — and this is what I hope will be most beneficial to you — I’ll show you how to find the one story that the whole Bible is telling — the story of Jesus. Because the whole Bible is ultimately pointing us to him — so I’m going to show you how to find Jesus.
And in this iteration of our Finding Jesus series — we’re looking at the first six of the books known as the Minor Prophets — and today we’ll be looking at the book of Micah. So if you have your Bible, please turn with me to Micah chapter 6.
In previous weeks we’ve looked at Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah. And I hope you’ve grown to appreciate these often neglected books of the Bible and are spending time in them — finding Jesus and the joy that’s found only in him.
So let’s take some time to get our bearings in this book — and I hope you’ll see that Micah is a book you’ll want to go read for yourself.
First, what do we know about Micah? Well guess what? And this is the last time you’ll hear me say this for a while — Micah was a prophet — which means he spoke on behalf of God. And he lived during the 8th century BC in the nation of Judah along with the prophet Isaiah.
Now to give you an idea of what’s going on in history — the Jewish people are divided into two nations. You may be familiar with the fact that there were twelve tribes of Israel — each tribe descending from a son of Jacob — who was also named Israel. And these tribes eventually ask for a king. The first king is Saul — but he didn’t turn out to be the man for the job. Next came David — you’ve probably heard of him. Then David’s son — Solomon — became king.
After Solomon, there’s conflict over who should be king and the nation ends up dividing over the matter. Ten tribes join together and keep the name Israel — they’re in the north — and two tribes join together and are named Judah — they’re in the south.
Now for a while, neither Israel nor Judah experience external conflict — meaning war with other nations — but man do they have some internal junk going on. Evil kings. Moral corruption. The people abandon God. Things are a big mess — which you can read about in the books 1st and 2nd Kings. And during this time — the people of both Israel and Judah falsely assume that the lack of external conflict — the fact they’re not at war with other nations — is because God approves of the way they’re living. But — they were dead wrong. Remember — they’ve abandoned God. Yet somehow they think that God approves of their behavior.
And eventually — because of their rebellion — the Assyrians will come and conquer the nation of Israel and — later on — the Babylonians will conquer the nation of Judah. But all of that is to come in the future. Which leads us to our prophet.
Micah’s message was a warning to the nation of Israel that God’s judgment was coming for them. He warns them about their coming destruction. Yet — obviously — the people didn’t listen to him — much like they didn’t listen to the other prophets we’ve looked at — thus they will be conquered by the Assyrians.
Now this book — unlike some of the others that we’ve looked at — isn't as easy to divide up into sections (See Bible Project Micah for a more indepth background of the book.) — as the prophet goes back and forth between accusations and warnings against the nation of Israel to promises of hope. So here are a few examples of the kinds of warnings and promises that are found throughout the book — there are many we could pick from — but we’ll focus on some accusations against the prominent people of Israel — this would be the rich, those in power, and the religious leaders. Here’s what Micah says to them.
What sorrow awaits you who lie awake at night, thinking up evil plans. You rise at dawn and hurry to carry them out, simply because you have the power to do so. 2 When you want a piece of land, you find a way to seize it. When you want someone’s house, you take it by fraud and violence. You cheat a man of his property, stealing his family’s inheritance.
3 But this is what the Lord says: “I will reward your evil with evil; you won’t be able to pull your neck out of the noose. You will no longer walk around proudly, for it will be a terrible time.” 4 In that day your enemies will make fun of you by singing this song of despair about you: “We are finished, completely ruined! God has confiscated our land, taking it from us. He has given our fields to those who betrayed us.” 5 Others will set your boundaries then, and the Lord’s people will have no say in how the land is divided. (Micah 2:1-5 NLT)
What a song to sing, right? So those are the accusations against the wealthy and those with power. They’re oppressing those who don’t have power. They’re manipulating things to gain the property of others. And there will be a consequence for their behavior. And this is what they — these people — say to Micah — in response.
“Don’t say such things,” the people respond. “Don’t prophesy like that. Such disasters will never come our way!”
So the prophet — speaking for God — replies with…
7 Should you talk that way, O family of Israel? Will the Lord’s Spirit have patience with such behavior? If you would do what is right, you would find my words comforting. 8 Yet to this very hour my people rise against me like an enemy! You steal the shirts right off the backs of those who trusted you, making them as ragged as men returning from battle. 9 You have evicted women from their pleasant homes and forever stripped their children of all that God would give them. 10 Up! Begone! This is no longer your land and home, for you have filled it with sin and ruined it completely. 11 Suppose a prophet full of lies would say to you, “I’ll preach to you the joys of wine and alcohol!” That’s just the kind of prophet you would like! (Micah 2:6-11 NLT)
The people would rather have religious leaders who told them what they wanted to hear rather than those who would tell them the truth — and that’s something all too common today. And though this seems like a hopeless situation — after all — the people just...aren’t...getting it — the very next verses contain promises of hope.
“Someday, O Israel, I will gather you; I will gather the remnant who are left. I will bring you together again like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture. Yes, your land will again be filled with noisy crowds! 13 Your leader will break out and lead you out of exile, out through the gates of the enemy cities, back to your own land. Your king will lead you; the Lord himself will guide you.” (Micah 2:12-13 NLT)
Now — they don’t deserve this promise — but God gives it to them anyway. That’s the grace of God on display. God’s grace is his undeserved mercy and favor and blessing being given to those who don’t deserve it. And here God promises that one day a leader will rise up. A leader who will lead them out of exile, out of the land of their enemies, and back to their own land. And this leader will be their king. And this leader and king — in fact — will be the Lord himself — he will be their God.
But then — after this wonderful promise — in the next chapter we’re back to the wickedness of the people and God’s coming judgment.
I said, “Listen, you leaders of Israel! You are supposed to know right from wrong, 2 but you are the very ones who hate good and love evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh from their bones. 3 Yes, you eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and break their bones. You chop them up like meat for the cooking pot. 4 Then you beg the Lord for help in times of trouble! Do you really expect him to answer? After all the evil you have done, he won’t even look at you!”
5 This is what the Lord says: “You false prophets are leading my people astray! You promise peace for those who give you food, but you declare war on those who refuse to feed you. 6 Now the night will close around you, cutting off all your visions. Darkness will cover you, putting an end to your predictions. The sun will set for you prophets, and your day will come to an end. 7 Then you seers will be put to shame, and you fortune-tellers will be disgraced. And you will cover your faces because there is no answer from God.”
8 But as for me (Micah says...), I am filled with power — with the Spirit of the Lord. I am filled with justice and strength to boldly declare Israel’s sin and rebellion. 9 Listen to me, you leaders of Israel! You hate justice and twist all that is right. 10 You are building Jerusalem on a foundation of murder and corruption. 11 You rulers make decisions based on bribes; you priests teach God’s laws only for a price; you prophets won’t prophesy unless you are paid. Yet all of you claim to depend on the Lord. “No harm can come to us,” you say, “for the Lord is here among us.” 12 Because of you, Mount Zion will be plowed like an open field; Jerusalem will be reduced to ruins! A thicket will grow on the heights where the Temple now stands. (Micah 3:1-12 NLT)
So the nation will be conquered — the city of Jerusalem — which is in Judah — by the way — it will be destroyed. So both Israel and Judah are being warned here. And this is all going to happen because of the sin of the people. And — yet again — that’s not the final word. For there’s another promise of hope.
In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all — the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship. 2 People from many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem. 3 The Lord will mediate between peoples and will settle disputes between strong nations far away. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. 4 Everyone will live in peace and prosperity, enjoying their own grapevines and fig trees, for there will be nothing to fear. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has made this promise! 5 Though the nations around us follow their idols, we will follow the Lord our God forever and ever. 6 “In that coming day,” says the Lord, “I will gather together those who are lame, those who have been exiles, and those whom I have filled with grief. 7 Those who are weak will survive as a remnant; those who were exiles will become a strong nation. Then I, the Lord, will rule from Jerusalem as their king forever.” (Micah 4:1-7 NLT)
So this is a future vision — and not just a future for the people in Micah’s time — but a future vision for us as well. For this is a heavenly vision — a promise of the New Jerusalem — when people of all nations will live in the eternal city of God — worshipping him together. A time when there will be peace on earth — not peace of a temporary nature — eternal peace as we live under the reign and rule of God’s King whose name is Jesus.
And this formula happens one more time before the passage we’re going to look at. In the last half of chapter 4 through chapter 5 we find another warning and accusation against the people — followed by a promise of hope. In fact, in Micah chapter 5 we find the promise that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem — the Christmas story — right here in Micah.
Which leads us to our section of the book so let’s turn to our passage — Micah chapter 6 — and discover a way to find Jesus in the book of Micah — and in all of the Bible. Let’s begin in verse 1.
Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel. 3 "O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! 4 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. 5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened 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 myself before God on high? 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 thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:1-8 ESV)
What does the Lord require of us — what does he require of you? That’s an interesting question that’s been answered in all sorts of ways. And it’s the question Micah forces us to wrestle with.
Now we hear God’s answer — through Micah — in our verses. We’re to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God.” But what does that even mean?
Justice — for instance — what does it mean to do justice? In our culture, doing justice can mean all kinds of things. From writing a really good social media post or liking what someone else has posted. Doing justice can mean giving to a particular cause or signing an online petition. But what’s seemed to have fallen away from our definition of doing justice — is our personal presence — a personal costliness — in order for justice to be done.
Now certainly the Internet can be used to make justice a reality. Things can be done quickly, efficiently, and globally in ways that weren’t dreamed of 50 years ago — that’s why social media can be a great tool.
But the misfire — in this cultural thinking — is how it’s exchanged what’s called “virtue signaling” — publicly expressing the “correct” opinion on something — we’ve exchanged “virtue signaling” with the act of actually “doing justice.” Because doing justice — ultimately — isn’t simply sharing the correct opinion about something — it’s about being a solution to an injustice in our world.
Now some go farther than just sharing what they think is the correct opinion — some in our culture get so wrapped up in their opinion being the right one that a whole “call out” culture has been created on social media. And this calling others out has led to online outrage that demands people to take down their posts or delete their tweets regardless if what they’ve stated is more true — or even more justice oriented — than the people calling them out.
Now — what the Christian faith teaches — is that doing justice isn’t just something we can give lip service to, but it’s something that involves all of who we are. Doing justice encompasses all of our life. That’s why — as the prophet Micah points out — what God requires of us is to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God.
So let’s go back to our text and take a closer look at — first — who this God is that requires something of us — and then second — what is it that he requires of us and how are we to do what he expects of us.
And the first thing we’re told is to remember who God is. In a courtroom like setting, Micah summons God to the witness stand — and in verse 1 — we read.
Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.
And now God speaks.
3 "O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! 4 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. 5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord." (Micah 6:1-5 ESV)
In a previous iteration of our Finding Jesus series we looked at the books written by Moses. And two stories from those books are being referred to here. The story of God rescuing his people from the land of Egypt and the story of God protecting his people when an enemy king hired a man named Balaam to curse them. Now if you’re unfamiliar with these stories, I’d encourage you to go watch the sermons on the book of Exodus and Numbers — you can find them on our website.
But — here in Micah — God reminds the people of these historic stories of his protection.
And we must remember this. Remember who God is first — then look at what he expects of us. Because when these two things get out of order, we attempt to do things for God in order to earn his love and grace. But that’s not the Christian faith — the Christian faith says, “God loves you. He cares for you. He’s protecting you. He’s being kind towards you.” And in trusting him — that’s what faith is — believing that God is who he says he is — in remembering who he is you realize that you can’t earn his love, but he loves you anyway. You don’t deserve his kindness — yet he’s been kind to you.
And in response to God’s love and kindness and mercy and grace — in response to remembering who he is — we come to verse 6 — and what we’re to do.
"With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? 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 thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8 ESV)
What does God require of us — what does he want? Does he want religious rituals — whether they be animal sacrifices of the Old Testament or the religious rituals of our day — religious sacrifices — things we must do in order to appease God and get him off our backs — like going to church, or serving, or giving money so he won’t be so angry or disappointed with us — is that what God wants from us? Well guess what? That’s not what he wants from us.
So what does God require of us? To do justice. Now there’s an aspect of doing justice that includes establishing laws in our courts in order to make sure justice takes place. Read the prophets and you’ll see that they slam the Jewish people for injustices against the poor and the weak and the vulnerable. It angers God when laws are put on the books that take advantage of those who don’t have a voice to fight for themselves.
And this brings us to two important points. First, justice — for God — isn’t primarily about punishment — which is what I think we tend to think about when we hear of God being just — I think we tend to hear “God punishing bad people.” And though there’s an aspect to God’s justice that includes punishment — primarily God’s justice is about fairness for all people. It’s about impartiality. His justice is built on his concern and care and love for all people.
Which leads to the second point — which is — we must acknowledge that our social systems aren’t always equitable. No system — here on earth — is fair to all people. God even understood this when the nation of Israel was created — for when he gave them the 10 Commandments and the rest of the Law that explained how they were to be governed as a nation — think of all the places where God made sure to highlight the rights of the poor, the orphans, and the widows. God knew that these kinds of people could easily be mistreated — that they could easily experience injustice — and so he reminded the Israelites of their responsibility to do justice towards these people. And in the world we live in — a world marked by sin — individuals — and even nations — will use their resources and power to take advantage of others.
Now the other thing we tend to do — and this is so subtle in our lives because it’s so easy to be focused on what we think needs to be done that — much like the people in the Good Samaritan story — we end up walking right by injustices without even seeing them. Injustices that we could have stepped into and made right.
Who are the vulnerable among us? How are you doing justice for them?
God expects us to do justice and to love kindness. Mark Twain said, “Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” Now the Hebrew word — translated here as kindness — is a word with so much meaning that it’s nearly impossible to translate it with a single English word. The word has the idea of mercy, and loyalty, and goodness. It has the idea of favor and grace and faithfulness. It’s a word with robust meaning.
And though here the command is to do justice and to love kindness — in other places in the Bible — we’re told to “do kindness” and to “love justice.” And the reason why justice and kindness are spoken of in these ways is because the two cannot be divorced from one another. What we do can’t be separated from why we’re doing it. And this is because you can be right — meaning you can have the correct opinion about something — and yet be unkind — and thus you’re wrong. Or you can really, sincerely love people — and hate an injustice you see them going through — and yet do nothing. And that’s a tragedy. Because our love and kindness is to lead to action — doing justice. And our doing justice is to be built on love and kindness for God and others.
And all of this points us to Jesus — quite easily — because of something he said.
One day, Jesus was in a heated discussion with some religious leaders. And at one point — in the conversation — he says to them, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law — justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.” (Matthew 23:23 NLT)
Here’s what’s happening — and I think it’s pretty obvious. The religious leaders were tithing — which means giving ten percent — not just from their finances — but even from their herb gardens. Yet they did so while not doing justice, mercy, and faith.
And notice what Jesus says to them. First — and you can’t skip this part — Jesus says, “Tithe, for sure!” So for those of us who have a problem with giving at least ten percent of your income to what Jesus said he came to build — the church — he didn’t come to build all of those other organizations we love to support and give to — he came to build the church — so if you’ve got a problem with tithing to the church — you’ve got to deal with Jesus’ own words because he doesn’t tell them — or us — to stop tithing. We tithe to the church and give above the tithe to everything else.
And I know, I know — gross or net income, right? That is the question we love to ask! Well these religious leaders were tithing from their herb garden. And — again — Jesus doesn’t correct their commitment to tithing here — he just tells them that tithing needs to be in its proper place — meaning — not in place of doing justice — because doing justice and tithing — — are to be done together. And I can’t imagine these religious leaders even asking the question gross or net income seeing that they were so committed to tithing that they made sure to give ten percent of what came from their garden.
But let’s keep moving on. Tithe — yes! — AND — don’t ignore the more important aspects of the law — justice, mercy, and faith. Or as Micah says, “To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
And a danger — for all of us — is how easy it is for us to be like these religious leaders. We’re all prone to be legalists. Where we shift the religious system in our favor so we meet the mark of what God requires of us even if we’re not being honest with ourselves. As Charles Spurgeon said to his congregation, “Beloved, the legalist [in us] is a great deal older than the Christian. If I were a legalist today, I would be some fifteen or sixteen years older than I am as a Christian; for we are all born legalists.” ( Charles H. Spurgeon, The Complete Sermons of C.H. Spurgeon Vol. 1-3 (lulu.com, 2015), 202. ) We’re all born — so this is natural to us — we’re all born wanting to do the equivalent of tithing from our herb gardens while ignoring the more important matters that God requires of us. And we fool ourselves into believing that God is pleased with us — when we’re bringing to him religious sacrifices — while we’re ignoring what he’s said that he expects of us.
Now as a church — as the people of God — we have an amazing opportunity because we live in a culture — as we’ve seen — that will often fight for justice without kindness — and rarely with humility. So we have an opportunity to do justice and to do so in kindness — all while walking humbly with our God. And — in doing so — we can make a difference as we engage with others — not with a spirit of superiority — but engage with others with a spirit of generosity, and kindness, and humility. And — in doing so — we can change what it means to do justice in our culture as we lead — by example — but more importantly as we follow the just, kind, and humble example of Jesus Christ. For he is the One who came to do justice on our behalf. And he did so acting in loving kindness towards us. All while being a humble servant of his Father. And as we follow his example — remembering who God is and what he requires of us — justice, kindness, and humility will be the characteristics of our lives. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, first we thank you for who you are. So often we forget that you are gracious to us. Kind to us. Loving, patient, tender, merciful, and the One who protects us. So often we forget who you are, doubt who you are, live life oblivious to who you are — and for this — we ask for your forgiveness. Thank you for waking us up — in these uncertain days — to focus on knowing and remembering who you are.
And — in response to remembering who you are — help us to do what you require of us. In response to Jesus doing justice on our behalf, help us to do justice in our world. In response to his kindness towards us, help us to love kindness and to be kind to others. In response to him humbling himself for us, help us to walk humbly with you. And in response to receiving your eternal love for us — receiving your love not earning your love — help us to love others — even those who we think don’t deserve our love.
Father, Son, and Spirit you are so gracious to us. Help us to joyfully respond to your grace by living for you. And we pray all of these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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May you go doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with your God. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
You can find the notes for this sermon here.
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