Micah 6: Walk with God. Walk as God.

​Key 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?
 
Meditation
Christians are given the Spirit of God to walk in a newness of life (Romans 6:4). Resurrected by God’s grace, Christians live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our Savior.
 
In today’s reading, Micah portrays a court room scene to indict Israel (vv. 1-2). Representing God, Micah articulates the Plantiff’s accusation (3-5) before the accused gives their defense (vv. 6-7). God was holding Israel accountable for walking with pagan gods, (16) a path leading Israel to re-directed their loves. The result was a ruined people and promised land. Fruitfulness was replaced with fracturing in a merciless society marked by violence, injustice, and lies. From love, the Lord longed to restore His people (vv. 9-16).
 
The Lord’s rebuttal revealed why He redeemed His people. God had shown them what is good and what He desired, that they walk humbly with Him by loving what He loves- mercy- and doing what He loves- justice. The Lord’s love longs for His people walk with Him, like Him. 
 
Through God’s covenant faithfulness, Micah’s indictment to ancient Israel is an invitation for us today. Like Micah’s original audience, we are guilty. We have not loved God with all our heart or loved our neighbors as ourselves. The gospel is this: The covenant curses Micah detailed as consequences were historically consumed by Jesus on the cross, so believers we can receive the promised covenant blessing- God’s Spirit! (Galatians 3:10-14) 
 
As redeemed people of God, we are empowered by the Spirit of God to humbly walk with God by loving what He loves and doing what He loves.
 
Today’s Reading
Hear what the Lord says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
    and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord,
    and you enduring foundations of the earth,
for the Lord has an indictment against his people,
    and he will contend with Israel.
3 “O my people, what have I done to you?
    How have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 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.
5 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 righteous acts of the Lord.”

What Does the Lord Require?
6 “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?
7 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?”
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?

Destruction of the Wicked
9 The voice of the Lord cries to the city--
    and it is sound wisdom to fear your name:
“Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!
10     Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
    and the scant measure that is accursed?
11 Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales
    and with a bag of deceitful weights?
12 Your rich men are full of violence;
    your inhabitants speak lies,
    and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13 Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
    making you desolate because of your sins.
14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
    and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
    and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
15 You shall sow, but not reap;
    you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
    you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
16 For you have kept the statutes of Omri,
    and all the works of the house of Ahab;
    and you have walked in their counsels,
that I may make you a desolation, and your[g] inhabitants a hissing;
    so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”

Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you in today’s reading, especially the Lord’s indictment and invitation?
 
-Do you walk with the Lord or with the gods of our culture? Asked another way, does the fruit of your life look like you walk with God, embodying His character with your lips, life, labor, and love? Or the fruit of our fractured society?
 
-Christ loved you and gave Himself for you. How does His grace fuel a faithful response to walk in love, with Him and looking like Him?
 
Key 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?