The Book of Micah is only seven chapters in length, and it usually takes up about 5 pages in your Bible. That makes it a quick read for most people. But the substance of Micah, his message, is anything but simple or easy. Micah contains some of the strongest themes in the Old Testament for the Church. In Micah we read expressions of hope alongside of announcements of doom.[1]
This is all setup as part of a courtroom exchange between three parties. God. The prophet. And the audience (Israel). Back and forth this dialogue goes until it reaches our text today, and the famous words of 6:8 that everyone recalls where we are asked, “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Move 1- tenderness
In the midst of a courtroom drama, in a place where tensions could be high, the Lord expresses, tenderness towards his people. Not anger.
Although our text begins with a harsh opening: “Stand up and state your case…” the poet, the prophet has the Lord quickly begin expressing a different tone when speaking of his people.
Verse 3: “O my people.” When the Lord calls the Hebrews, “my people” He is indicating several things. First, God is claiming a covenantal relationship with them similar to what He created on Sinai. This is a term that reminds Israel that they are God’s treasured possession. We are God’s treasured possession. It stresses kinship and not political unity.
These people are together with God in a tender way that the Lord is protecting as the Lord has established with them. As such there is an ethical mandate in this tender relationship that God does not have directly speak about. It is just there. . . For instance, Moses might just know that he stands on Holy Ground because God is there.
So right when God plans to present His case against the people, a case that we know would feel right and just, for God is right and just, He begins with words that are tender, kind, and warm. He begins by reminding them of their treasured place in the Lord’s heart.
Move 2- Core memory
And further God’s response to the complaint filed by the Israelites, is THE core memory of his people. Not judgment or rebuke which we might think that a righteous God who is angered by our sin might this is right and proper. No, God remembers how He heard them and how he came.
When God presents a rebuttal to their argument, He reminds them of THE core memory of Israel: Egypt.
Still in verse 3, God remembers hearing His people in their most desperate hour cry out. Their most isolated hour they prayed to him. The hour when, as a people, that they needed God to come to their aid. If there was ever a time in Israel’s life that God needed to step in, it was when they cried out to Him in Egypt, and God heard and God came. “O my people, I came…” The Lord says.
This is not just their core memory, but perhaps it is a beloved memory of God’s as well that the Lord holds onto also. Perhaps stories like this have a special place in God’s heart as well. Perhaps it is a time when God and His people walked very closely together, tenderly.
And as such, God wants to remind these people of the dearness of this story. . .
Yet notice the charge that the people bring against God. Notice what God just said in this verse. Right in the middle of all this tender affirmation and core memory sharing, God says: “What have I done to make you. . . tired of me?”
And as Micah was read to the people, and reread over the years, a gentle pause fills the room. And silence fills the air. . . tired of God? Tired of this relationship? Tired of being cared for in this manner?
I wonder when was the last time you were ‘tired of God?’
Now no one, then and no one now, says that they are ‘tired of God,’ but are we? Do we live like that? Truly, are we? And while the church who stands in the divine courtroom that Micah is setting up might seek to escape the reflection by stating that this is just a rhetorical device the prophet is using, that it is just a word play, I wonder, if in practice, could it be true?
With your own core memory of how God touched your life, delivered a miracle around you, are there times in your faith walk that you could say your practices of faith, and your devotion to the Lord demonstrate that you are tired of God?
Do our practices demonstrate that we are wearied of the Lord?
Are we frustrated reading the scriptures?
What about how we care for one another?
Go back into Micah 6 with me? As God asks this question and as it homes for them. The Lord shows in verses 4-5 He continually stepped in to provide care and guidance in the form of others to support a people who would continue to fall short of the relationship of “O my people.”
Moses. Aaron. Miriam. Baalam. God sent them to protect His people knowing that the Hebrews would continually undermine the relationship that God seeks to build with us. The Lord goes with His people to Gilgal and every place that they travel. For God wishes to ‘teach us about His faithfulness’ if we are willing to learn.
Move 3- What is required?
This leads us to the end of our text and to the memorial ending of Micah 6: What does the Lord require of us?
Well, leading up to this moment, the people have consistently misunderstood what a right relationship with God looks like. As they have misunderstood, they have asked the respond incorrectly. Does the Lord truly want thousands of rams offered or tens of thousands of rivers of olive oil or even the sacrifice of the firstborn?
None of those actions were stipulated in the law of Moses that the Hebrews cherish and uphold. And while the sacrifice of the firstborn occurred once, it was not something to be repeated.
These laws were never taught the Israelites by Moses, and again, if you said, ‘well this is just a rhetorical tool for this courtroom scene,' I am not sure that the people felt this way. Rather I think they misunderstood what God wants from His people. And that is something that feels familiar to us as well. This is another question that we could wonder about also. A misunderstanding of what God wants from us each day.
So, what is required if we as a church and as Christians are going to live faithfully? What does it look like live like you understand what the Lord means when he calls you ‘O my people’ and sends you from this place to be among others who may not understand what is necessary or asked of you?
We find the answers in verse 8.
To know loving kindness is to know God’s loving kindness first. And more than just to be able to academically speak about what this text means, to know what this loving kindness is all about is to share that loving kindness with the people of this community that you come into contact with and not to keep it for yourself or for people who deem worthy of it.
We are to walk humbly with God by listening to God’s voice in every encounter that we have both here in the church and outside of here. Something we can do at times, but do we do it always and often?
We are to learn how to make sense of the varying voice that we hear and to help others discern the voice of God that they hear. For each of us know that God is speaking to us, at times, but we must extend that learning and helps others with it. We must have the courage to hear God’s voice whether it is whispered quietly or written on the pages of His word. For both instances are right and proper.
We are to be faithful to what it means to be the Body of Christ by sharing who Jesus is and what Jesus calls us to be and become as a church and as persons who have learned what it feels like and what it means to be ‘God’s people.’
Conclusion
Having the right answer is a matter of perspective, but for Micah, we remember the places that God created a core memory with us. And you each have those memories in your days.
And so as the courtroom scene ends, God leaves his people not in judgment but in reflection asking each person who finds this text to take stock of their lives, and as they take stock of their faith, they also are asked to remember how calls us to respond.
What does the Lord require of you?
DM
[1] James Limburg. Interpretations: Micah, p. 159.
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