Faith Formation: Micah - Justice, Kindness, humility

He has told you, O mortal, 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 6:8

He has told you ... The Torah contains 613 commandments intended to guide God's people in their relationship with God and the world God made. The commandments were not limited to human/God affairs, but encompassed humanities relationship to all creation, animals, plants and the earth. 613 commandments are a lot, and many of them are time or faith bound to the particularities of Israel and an ancient culture. Along the way various condensations of the way of God were composed in response to the question, "what does the LORD require of you..."

"So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only 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 of the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being." Deuteronomy 10:12:13 Jesus was asked to sum up what God desires from people a couple times. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Matthew 22:36 "Teacher, ... what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Luke 10:25 Both times the response condensed into, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27 Paul summed up the entire Torah, what God taught and sought, in the word "love," particularly the love of neighbor. "Love does no wrong to the neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law." Romans 13:10 "For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" The writer of 1 John defines God simply as "love," and love necessarily extends to other people. "God is love. ... The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters."

What God requires, desires, seeks is not external objects, but hearts transformed into love. Rather than "With what shall I come before the Lord..." in terms of sacrifices, external offerings, which God does not need, what God wants is an internal change of heart in relation to the world in which we live. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, ..." Psalm 51 "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put in you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26 A heart of flesh is a heart of love and compassion for others.

The prophets spoke often about God's disdain for external offerings, even acts of worship, and God's desire for an internal reformation of the heart. "Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. ... learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed' defend the orphan; plead for the widow." Isaiah 1:14-17 "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings I will not accept them, ... Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Christmas and Easter are nothing, hymns and praise songs are empty, if the heart will not reach out to the neighbor in compassion and mercy. Or again, the Apostle, "If I speak in the tongues of humans and angels but do not have love, ..." I am just so much noise in the ears of God.

"...what does the LORD require of you?" What does the LORD want, seek, desire, long for from us, after all God has done for us, rescuing, redeeming, saving, promising, and blessing us? "...love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." John 13:34. Oh, and ...

Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with God.

Pastor Tim Bauer