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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? 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? He has shown you, O mortal, 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.” Micah 6:6-8 NIV
In chapter 6 of Micah, the people of Israel are bitter towards God because of His sentence of destruction upon them.
Thus, God presents His case—how He had brought them up out of Egypt…a land of slavery; how He provided them good leaders; and how He had made their enemy speak blessings instead of curses over them; yet, they had fallen deeply into sin with a pagan people group. They had turned their own way and ignored the precepts of God.
The people bitterly replied by saying, “What is it going to take to please you? Thousands of ram sacrifices? Ten thousand rivers of oil? Our firstborn? You are too hard to please (paraphrase)!”
But God replied, “I’ve told you what I require:
To act justly, love kindness, and walk humbly before me.”
These people were not any different from us today. God’s Word is clear. He has told us what He requires, yet we too often ignore, turn away, and forget the kindnesses and mercy He has shown.
Our nation has fallen away from God. We have shut Him out of our homes, our schools, our government, and even many of our church houses.
We have forgotten the goodness and mercy of God in our lives; therefore, He has allowed the enemy’s tactics of ungodliness and perversion to amp up and wreak havoc.
It is not His fault. He is not to blame. We are the ones who have strayed, not Him.
So, this is our call to action. It is time to turn back. We need to repent and get rid of our complacency and filth. We need to spend more time on our knees than on our phones, more time in His Word and less time with the world.
Lord, we ask Your forgiveness and seek Your hand of mercy. Help us to be fair with others and treat them as we would want to be treated. Help us to show others mercy when it is in our power to do so. And help us to humble ourselves before You and others. May we again return to You and be a nation and people whose God is the Lord.
