‘What Does God Require?’

“He has shown you O man,  what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before your God?”  Micah 6:8

The prophet Micah was speaking to Israel again, asking a very simple question with a very easy to understand answer.     I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found it difficult for me to learn things slower than a lot of people around me.  

When I was going to school, from the 5th grade all the way to the 12th and even into my college years; instruction in the form of teaching me, and me comprehending and understanding to make it applicable in my life was always a struggle.   I remember  once when I was getting barely D- grades in advanced math classes.  I was really struggling in the way the teacher was teaching me.  I just couldn’t get the basic fundamentals down; because he was teaching me above what I was able to comprehend.     Then I had new math teacher, where everything he taught, I understood, and my math grades went from D- to B, so sometimes our ability to learn is not more that we are unable to learn, more that we need simple, basic, patient  instruction.

Things haven’t changed much since those days to now as a child of God, I’m being asked to follow God, trusting Him, and submitting to what I need to do to grow spiritually.   The problem, is I struggle with doing everything right all the time!  

Thank God that He knows my framework and He made me the way I am.  In His eyes, I am no better or worse than all others He’s created.  Some of us have ‘smarts’ some don’t.  Some of us learn faster than others.  But, God has made us all unique, in a special way that especially in our defects, if you will; God made us that way that we might lean even more on Him, and learn all about relationship and how we are to get along with God and each other.  

In the same way, God is giving the people of Israel yet another patient, simple classroom instruction on relationship issues with Him.    It seems that these people have tried to come to God in wicked ways.

Before this Micah has accused the leaders. Now he accuses the people. They don’t seem to have a clue on how God wants people to live.   Micah wants to bring a little hope to *Israel. The people in *Israel need to obey God’s *covenant. Only then will the nation have peace and safety.

“He has shown you O man,  what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before your God?”  Micah 6:8

Three examples of what ‘goodness’ is:

• Do to your neighbor (to other people) what is fair and right.
• Love kindness.
• Walk humbly with your God.

1. Do to your neighbor (To Other People) what is fair and right  

 The Leaders of Israel were in the habit of taking things that belonged to other people. They would take extreme measures to get as much as possible for themselves, and to make matters worse, the Rulers who were suppose to measure out justice for these crimes were doing nothing.  (Micah 2:1-2)

2, You must love kindness.

Some people are not as strong as you, some are poorer than you, so you need to be kind to them, help them, because you want to do it, not because someone is telling you to do it, be happy about it, there’s no greater feeling in the world!

3. Finally, we must walk humbly with God.  

The first two are what God tells us what we should be doing toward each other.   This one involves our actions towards God.   To walk or live humbly before God is to agree to what God wants for us.    We should want what God wants for us.  This means that our moral behavior is more important than memorizing rules and traditions of our faith.  When we walk humbly with God, we practice how to love God; and put them into action by doing good things for our neighbors.

‘ And coming up one of the scribes heard them reasoning, knowing that He had answered them well, he asked Him, ‘Which is the first commandment of all? ‘
And Jesus answered him,“The first of all the commandments is, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment.  

And the second is like this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ‘There is no other commandment greater than these. ”   And the scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher, according to truth You have spoken, that God is one, and there is no other besides Him. and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love the neighbor as himself, is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”      And seeing that he had answered intelligently, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God. And no one dared to question Him any more.”

God wants us to live for Him. And He wants our love. God has shown to *Israel’s people what is evil. He’s done it through Micah’s message.    Now God shows to the people what is good. The leaders were ‘hating what is good’ (Micah 3:2). They had been proud. So they were not humble. They were the opposite. The leaders had lived without God. They did not consider Him important. God had no part in the way that they lived. A basic part of God’s character is this. He always does what is right and fair. Also, He always loves kindness (Isaiah 30:18). These are the things that we should be doing.

“He has shown you O man,  what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before your God?”  Micah 6:8

 How we relate towards each other reveals how we are relating to God.  If we are in right fellowship with God, we will desire to live humbly before Him, and be thankful that He has been merciful with our lives.  What if we received what we deserved?  We’d all be living a a miserable life wouldn’t we?   Do what you know is good, love mercy, and live humbly before your God.

Today’s Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK80n34OQkA