Epiphany 4 Micah 6:1-8

February 2, 2014

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sit with the crowds who gathered around Jesus and listened to him? What would you want to hear? Insights into who God is, what he is like, why he does what he does, what he can do for you? What plans God has for your life now and into eternity? No doubt his listeners had all that in mind. But one thing they also would have wanted to know is WHAT DOES GOD WANT FROM ME?

A memory of what he’s done for me

One of the problems of being a sinner is that we forget what is important. This was the case with the people of Israel. But through prophets like Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah God reminded them of all the things he’d done for them and how they had treated him for it. Micah begins this chapter with God summoning his people to court and calling on the mountains as his witnesses and jury. Oh, the stories they could tell of God’s faithfulness and Israel’s unfaithfulness!

Mt. Sinai could tell about the meeting God had with the people of Israel after he delivered them from slavery in Egypt. There God came to them, called them his family, and gave them the rules to live by. Sinai heard the people respond, “We will do everything the LORD commands!”
Mt. Zion in Jerusalem would tell about thousands of worship services at the Temple where animals were sacrificed day in, day out for centuries pointing ahead to the great Sacrifice in the coming Savior.
But all the other mountains could tell shameful stories of the people’s unfaithfulness, especially the filthy idolatry that took place on all their peaks and hillsides

Other places could tell stories of God’s love and faithfulness to Israel:

How God’s almighty power miraculously delivered them from slavery in Egypt.
How God provided faithful leaders in the wilderness: Aaron, Moses, Miriam
How God helped them through enemy territory in Moab, when King Balak and his heathen prophet, Balaam, did all they could to keep them from entering the Promised Land. God made Balaam speak blessings on his people and even made him give a prophecy of the coming Savior!
As they were crossing Moab, Balak sent a bunch of women to seduce the men of Israel at a place called Shittim. God put to death those who committed adultery with them but he still kept Israel as his people.
And how could they forget that first night in their new land, when then camped at Gilgal?

What had he done to deserve their unfaithfulness and insincerity?

If God were to summon us to court, what evidence could he bring against us? What stories could be told by the pews in our church about the hundreds of sermons, baptisms, and visits to the Lord’s Supper he provides here? What stories could be told by the walls of our homes about the words and actions of our lives? What has God done to deserve our unfaithfulness and insincerity when he has

Showered us with all we need every second of our life?
Not treated us as our sins deserve but has forgiven us again and again?
Given us the gift of faith and countless opportunities to hear the Word?

Provided the ultimate gift of grace on the Cross?

What does God want from me? God wants me to remember what he’s done for me! And he wants me to respond with…

A humble life of praise

That wasn’t how Israel responded. Like a defiant child who complains that his or her parents are unreasonable

and demanding, they replied, “So God, what do you expect from me? Do you want me to give you my valuable possessions? Or do you want lots of stuff – lots of money in the offering plate and lots of time serving you at church? How about if I gave you my most precious blessing – my own flesh and blood – to pay for my sin? Would that make you happy? Would that be enough to make things right?”

All those things can be given without a shred of faith in God. Many people in Israel were good at showing up for worship and meeting the requirements, but then living the rest of the week in service to the gods of their own making.They treated God like a dirty cop they could bribe in order to stay on his good side.

Not only is it impossible forsinners to make things right with God; it is an insult to his holiness to even think we can! If there was something we could do, God never would have promised to send Savior to rescue us from his judgment. If there was something we could do, Jesus never would have come to this sinful world to shed his own blood as payment for our sins. But God promised and Jesus came because it took nothing less than the holy, precious blood of God’s own Son to make things right with God again.

What God wanted from his people then – what he wants from you and me and all people today – is not our stuff, but our hearts.

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
In other words, the LORD wants people who know and remember what he’s done for them and who love him so much that they want to be like him. He wants children who want to love God above all things. He wants children who want to love their neighboras God loves them.
This is the work of the gospel in our hearts.
To act justly: to worship him and not the things of this world, to trust him and not people or money or worldly power; to deal fairly and honestly with others.
To love mercy: to rejoice in the goodness and kindness and forgiveness God has shown us by being merciful and kind and forgiving to others.
To walk humbly with your God: to remember who God is – the almighty Creator who has a right to tell us how to live and the holy Judge who has the right to punish every single sin; to remember who we are – people whose sins make us unworthy to take even a breath of God’s air, whose lives will die and return to dust, who have no right to expect a single thing from God; but to remember what God has done for us – he has not only continued to supply all our needs in life – far more! He has overwhelmed us with relief and joy beyond our wildest dreams with free, full, undeserved forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. Without our begging, pleading, bargaining!So “in view of God’s mercy, [we] offer [our] bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing in his sight (Romans 12:1)...because“he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Corinthians 5:15), and so “[we] are not our own; [we] were bought at a price, therefore [we] honor God with our bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:19,20)

It’s interesting that Micah 6:8 appears as a motto in the alcove of religion in the reading room of the Congressional Library in Washington, D.C. Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. For many, it’s just another one of many pious sayings among all the other religions of the world. Rules to live by, like the Ten Commandments that are posted on many public buildings.Things to do to make us look good to God and others.

If only they realized that it all begins in the heart – a heart changed by what God has done for us, a heart that responds in love for Jesus with humble praise. Amen.