Micah 6:6-8 (music stand, table, easel and notepad) INTRODUCTION Story about my first ticket Two philosophies

you try to live by: the Golden Rule: Treat others the way I want to be treated. or Rules...rules were made to be broken. God has some rules for us which the Bible calls commands. You are probably familiar with the 10 commandments. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, do not take the Lords name in vain, Honor thy father and mother. But did you know that there are 613 commands in the Old Testament? Commands on what to eat and what not to eat, what to wear and not wear, how to prepare sacrifices and offerings, how to conduct business and how we relate to one another as men and women. Throughout history, people have discussed and debated which commandments are most important. You may remember the story of the Pharisees coming to Jesus and asking him which is the greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:34-40, ESV) But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. Essentially, Jesus says everything in the Law and the Prophets (the entire Old Testament) depends on getting these two commandments down. I find it interesting that it was a lawyer who asked him this question. Here they were trying to trap Jesus in his words. They asked him for one commandment but Jesus gave them two. Now it wasnt because Jesus couldnt count very well...its that for Jesus these two commands to love God and to love one another were so connected that he could not separate them. In fact, you cant really love God if you dont love your neighbor; and you cant love your neighbor very well without loving God.

THE PROPHET MICAH Well there was another person in the Bible named Micah who answered this question in a similar way. Micah was a prophet and his name translates as a question, Who is like our God? So if you want to know who God is and what God is like, Micah is a good book to read through. Today we are just going to look at a small part of Micah and I want to share with you 3 things that God asks of us using the acronym LAW. So if you have a piece of paper or Bible write these letters down L-A-W. My hope is that this will help you remember what does ask of us. In Micah chapter 6, we see the people of Israel on trial with God and all of creation as a witness.

6 Listen to what the Lord says: Stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. 2 Hear, you mountains, the Lords accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. Could you imagine being on trial with God? God asking you to plead your case? What would you say to Him? Think about that for a moment and we will come back to it a bit later. But first, lets see what Micah says. In verse 6, Micah begins a list of things that he would bring to God. Remember, the Old Testament had a rich and meaningful sacrificial system that people followed. These sacrifices were a part of their worship and their offerings to God. Here is what Micah says...
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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 olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? So in this court case, Micah is asking, With what should I come before the LORD? What should I bring as my sacrifice and offering to Him? Now watch what happens and how this goes. He starts with a burnt offering, with calves a year old. Here he is referencing a costly sacrifice; a year old calf. Next, he increases the quantity of the offering; thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oil! More and more. It escalates to the extreme where he proposes to bring his firstborn and sacrifice his very own child for his own sins. The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? REFLECTION Lets pause here for a minute and ask ourselves what we would say to God. If God asked you to tell him why he should forgive you, what would you say? Would you point to how good you are or give him a long list of things youve done? Would you make an attempt to bargain with God? God if you do this for me then I will give you this... The problem is all of this falls short. It turns a relationship with God into a commercial contract that can be bought and bartered. God does not want a special offering or a list of good deeds. Even in the attempt to to offer ones own son; that still wouldnt satisfy. So what does God want? Verse 8 answers... 8 He has shown 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. Now, this isnt just another, slightly shorter list of things to do. Rather, it gets to the heart of who God is and what he longs for us to be. To act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with God are not so much things we do, but they are a posture of our hearts. Micah 6:8 is a summary of who god wants us to be and how God wants us to live. Sacrifices and offerings cannot replace the need for justice and kindness. The most extravagant offering they could give him would be their obedience.

ACT JUSTLY To act justly is to do the right thing, even when it is difficult or unpopular. It means treating others equally with dignity and respect, regardless of their social or economic status. Proverbs 31:8-9 says, Speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly: defend the rights of the poor and needy. Justice is care for the weak, the hurting and the oppressed. LOVE MERCY Jesus said, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matthew 5:7) To love mercy doesnt mean we love to receive mercy. It means we offer mercy willingly and freely to others. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. As people who have sinned against God, we deserve punishment, but God offers us mercy. In the same way, mercy is compassion and forgiveness shown to others. WALK HUMBLY To walk humbly with God is to know him personally and to be attentive to what he desires and loves. Humility is not so much putting yourself down (hang head low), but it is lifting up and exalting God. Some of us beat ourselves up and walk around defeated. That is a false humility. What God wants is for us to live in right relationship to him. To respect, honor and be in awe of how great God is. To love him and serve him with all that we are and all that we have. I like how The Message Bible puts it: Dont take yourself too seriouslytake God seriously.

CONCLUSION People have tried all kinds of ways to please God, but God has made his wishes clear: He wants his people to do what is right, love mercy and walk humbly with him. Are you fair in your dealings with people? Do you show mercy to those who wrong you? Are you walking in humility and right relationship with God? Or are you offering God everything else except what he really wants - a relationship with you? We dont need a year old calf because Jesus is the spotless lamb. We dont needs thousands of rams because Jesus is the one final sacrifice. We dont need to go to the extreme of giving our firstborn, because God gave his own son for us. (Deuteronomy 10:12-13 ESV) And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?

In reply to God, Israel proposes to make up for her sin by offering sacrifices. But God replies with what he wants from us.

6:8 Sacrifices cannot replace the need for justice and kindness. The focus on real righteousness anticipates Jesus teaching (Matt. 5:2324; 9:13; 15:1020) and is fulfilled in Jesus own righteousness (Acts 3:14; Rom. 8:14). Justice Is Care for the Vulnerable

And what does that consist of? The text says to do justice and love mercy, which seem at rst glance to be two different things, but they are not.17 The term for mercy is the Hebrew word chesedh, Gods unconditional grace and compassion. The word for justice is the Hebrew term mishpat. In Micah 6:8, mishpat puts the emphasis on the action, chesedh puts it on the attitude [or motive] behind the action.18 To walk with God, then, we must do justice, out of merciful love. The word mishpat in its various forms occurs more than two hundred times in the Hebrew Old Testament. Its most basic meaning is to treat people equitably. He executes justice [mishpat] for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind, he lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves those who live justly. The LORD watches over the immigrant and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. Psalm 146:79 He writes that in virtually all the ancient cultures of the world, the power of the gods was channeled through and identi ed with the elites of society, the kings, priests, and military captains, not the outcasts. To oppose the leaders of society, then, was to oppose the gods. But here, in Israels rival vision, it is not high-ranking males but the orphan, the widow, and the stranger with whom Yahweh takes his stand. His power is exercised in history for their empowerment. 20 So, from ancient times, the God of the Bible stood out from the gods of all other religions as a God on the side of the powerless, and of justice for the poor.

I had a dream the other night, a powerful and interesting dream. And the really frustrating thing is that I can't remember what it was about. I had a flash of it as I woke up, enough to make me think how extraordinary and meaningful it was; and then it was gone . Our passion for justice often seems like that. We dream the dream of justice. We glimpse, for a moment, a world at one, a world put to rights, a world where things work out, where societies function fairly and efficiently . And then we wake up and come back to reality. According to Wright, our longing for justice "comes with the kit of being human." Unfortunately, although we all strive for justice, we often fail to achieve it. As Wright says, You fall off your bicycle and break your leg. You go to the hospital and they fix it. You stagger around on crutches for awhile. Then, rather gingerly, you start to walk normally again . There is such a thing as putting something to rights, as in fixing it, as getting it back on track. You can fix a broken leg, a broken toy, a broken television. So why can't we fix injustice. It isn't for lack of trying. And yet, in spite of failures to fix injustice, we keep dreaming that one day all broken things will be set right. Wright contends, "Christians believe this is so because all humans have heard, deep within themselves, the echo of a voice which calls us to live [with a dream for justice]. And [followers of Christ] believe that in Jesus that voice became human and did what had to be done to bring it about." N. T. Wright, Simply Christian (HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), pages 3-13

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How can I stand up before God and show proper respect to the high God? Should I bring an armload of offerings topped off with yearling calves? Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, with buckets and barrels of olive oil? Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, my precious baby, to cancel my sin?
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But hes already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. Its quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And dont take yourself too seriously take God seriously.

67 Perhaps one of Israels kings, to judge from the magnificence of his gifts, responded in such a way as to condemn himself. Instead of repenting of his ingratitude and unfaithfulness he tried to gain access to Gods exalted presence through his own good works and ritual, transforming the spiritual covenant (cf. Dt. 6:45) into a commercial contract. 6 He hoped to come before the Lord through costly gifts. This unbelieving approach to Gods grace can never satisfy the conscience,

and so he escalated the quality and/or quantity of the gift ever higher: burnt offerings, calves a year old (representing the best), thousands of rams (cf. 1 Ki. 3:4; 8:63), ten thousand rivers of [olive] oil, which is otherwise measured in fractions of a litre. He even offered to sacrifice my firstborn, an obscene pagan custom (Lv. 18:21). 8 What God requires is faithfulness to the covenant, which is based on faith in him and expresses itself fundamentally in right living and only secondarily in ritual (see Ex. 2024; 1 Sa. 15:22; Mt. 5:24). The kings ignorance of what pleases God is inexcusable, for in the covenant God has shown humankind what is good, a term that summarizes the laws requirements: to act justly (see ch. 3) and to love mercy (i.e. from the heart, to protect the weak), and to walk humbly (or to walk thoughtfully in the light of the covenants requirements) with your God.

6:6. year-old calves. Yearling animals would have been more valuable than newborn ones. Thus to offer a year-old calf as a burnt offering would be real financial sacrifice and would represent a major ritual of purification or initiation. At the heart of this practice, however, is a polemic against the formulaic religious rituals of Mesopotamia and Egypt in which the process transcends the meaning. The prophet tries to establish exactly what Yahweh requires and like Samuel (see comment on 1 Sam 15:22) determines it is obedience and love, not simply going through the motions of making sacrifices. 6:7. hyperbole. There is a steady escalation of the size and precious nature of the offerings listed by Micah. Only Solomon could offer thousands of sacrificial animals (1 Kings 8:63). Oil was used for libations (see comment on Lev 14:15). Human sacrifice was abhorred by the Israelites, seeing it as a statute of Canaanite and Phoenician religious practice (see comment on Gen 22:12). In fact, while Yahweh had a claim on the first-born son of every family, the Law required them to redeem the sons and substitute animal sacrifice (see comment on Num 3:1213). God was not asking to be appeased through extravagant gifts. The most extravagant offering they could give him would be their obedience.