Micah 6:1-8

The story of the Old Testament is the story of Yahweh, the Creator of the cosmos, entering into a covenant with Israel, so that he might bless all the nations through them. The prophets fit into this story as the covenant enforcers. That is, God redeemed Israel as his chosen people, then set forth the law, saying, this is how to live in relationship with me. Israel responded by saying, “all that the Lord has spoken we will do.” The prophets entered the scene to hold up the law in one hand and Israel’s actions in the other hand, and say, “your heart has strayed from your covenant God.”

So Micah is the spokesman for God the judge, who brings charge after charge against his faithless people. The basic pattern in Micah is that God gives the charge against Judah, usually idolatry or injustice, the consequential discipline that he will send, like exile or destruction of their land, and then there is a word of hope for future restoration. Let’s look at an example of this pattern in Micah 3:9 and following.

First the charge—
“Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.””

Then the coming discipline—
“Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.”

And then a word of promise—
“It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come…”

Six times in the first 5 chapters God the judge slams his gavel, “Guilty!” then through his covenant enforcer Micah gives the word of coming judgment, followed by a promise that after that season of judgment he will restore his people.

But there is something we must know about this judge. This is not merely an emotionally detached judge who is doing his job to see that justice is served. Don’t hear me wrong, justice will prevail in God’s court. But as we come to Micah 6, we see God make an astonishing move: after 6 sentences of “Guilty!” he steps out of the judge’s bench and steps into the role of the prosecutor. But it’s not because the seventh issue is harder to prove and requires cross-examination. No, God questions Israel because they have broken covenant with him. They have rejected his love. He is not only a just judge. He is a husband who loves Israel his wife; he is a Father who loves Israel his child; he is a shepherd who loves Israel his flock.

Turn with me to Micah 6:3, where God opens his heart to his people, with the brokenness and befuddlement of a husband that finds his wife with another man or a father who catches his son stealing from his wallet. His questioning begins our ascent toward understanding what Judah’s relationship with Yahweh was supposed to look like.

“O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! 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. 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 saving acts of the LORD.””

Here we see four “saving acts of the Lord” that were evidences of Yahweh’s covenant love and faithfulness to his people. And this is against the dark backdrop of Israel’s idolatry and injustice, that is, Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness. The first two—the Exodus and God’s subsequent provision for Israel in the wilderness—are well known to us. But let us look at the third and fourth “saving acts of Yahweh.”

In verse 5 Micah says, “Remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him.” This is a story from Numbers 22-24, where Balak, an enemy king, hired Balaam, a prophet, to prophecy against Israel as they moved toward the Promised Land. But each time Balaam opened his mouth, blessings came out. Four times Balak paid Balaam to curse Israel, and four times Balaam’s prophecy was blessing on Israel, making it plain that God had blessed Israel, and though he would punish them for their unbelief, his steadfast love for them would continue.

The fourth “saving act” that God lists is “what happened from Shittim to Gilgal.” This is a fancy way of referring to the crossing of the Jordan River, since Shittim is on the east bank of the Jordan, and Gilgal is on the west bank. Here God miraculously stopped the flow of the Jordan so that Joshua and the Israelites could pass through on dry ground, just as they had at the Red Sea.

What is Israel’s response to this? They completely miss the point. They import the notion of appeasing the gods from their idolatry and apply that to Yahweh. Look at Micah 6, verses 6-7. “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? 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?”

Put in modern day English, God’s people are saying, “Ok, God, we know we’ve been faithless and have thrown ourselves to the idols of status, property, and lust. So what would make you happy? How big of a check do we need to write to the church? How much time do we need to give to the building project? How many services a week do we need to attend?”

God’s response cuts through these externals. Here is the essence of what it means to be in a relationship with God. Look at verse 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?” In essence, what God wants more than anything is your heart; your devotion; your affections; your commitment; your desires. He wants you, not your stuff.

Throughout our time in the prophets we have seen how our spiritual condition is displayed both in our horizontal relationships with people and our vertical relationship with God. Micah 6:8, more than any other verse I know, captures not only the horizontal and vertical, but how the two are connected. He begins with the horizontal—to do justice. He ends with the vertical—to walk humbly with your God. And in the middle is the connecting point—to love kindness, or steadfast love. I want to explore this, because this is at the heart of what it looks like to be in relationship with God.

This word, translated “kindness” in the ESV, is the word we have seen throughout the prophets that represents God’s loyalty to his covenant—his lovingkindness and mercy and faithfulness. There is no stronger bond in the universe than God’s steadfast love for his people. In fact, it is the only hope the prophets have that God will not obliterate Israel from the map, because he has this steadfast love for them that endures forever. When they are disobedient he will punish them, he will take them away from their land, he will allow their enemies to prevail over them. But ultimately he will preserve a remnant for himself and continue to uphold his promises to Abraham.

One of the clearest statements of this bedrock called God’s steadfast love is found at the end of Micah. Turn with me to Micah 7:18 as the prophet celebrates the assurance of God’s continuing faithfulness to Israel:

“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.”

Getting back to Micah 6:8, the command is for God’s people to love kindness, to love steadfast love. And it is in this command that we see the hinge point between the vertical and horizontal. The text is ambiguous as to whether “steadfast love” refers to God’s loyalty to Israel or the type of mercy and faithfulness they were to show to one another. I don’t think we are forced to choose between the two—should I cherish the steadfast love God has for me or should I be merciful toward others. In fact, the rest of scripture attests to the interconnectedness between those two experiences. It is only because we feel and know and experience God’s mercy and faithfulness toward us that we are able to display true mercy and faithfulness toward others. The only true horizontal loyalty and kindness flows from the experience of the vertical loyalty and kindness God shows us. In this sense, any hope we have to do justice or walk humbly with our God is rooted in our experience of Yahweh’s mercy.