SCRIPTURE: Micah 6
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
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? [Micah 6:6-7]
This passage starts with God’s frustration – ‘what more can I do for you?’
Then the people respond, ‘what does it take to make You happy?’
Apparently they are confused, they think they’ve done everything God wanted, keeping the rules of the Law and making the many sacrifices.
But God’s rebuke is that while they have followed the letter of the Law, they have defied the heart of the law.
What God wants is justice, humility, mercy, compassion, kindness… not just religious rule keeping and sacrifices.
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 6:8]
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. [Matthew 23:23-24]
Here we see the same problem; the religious leaders were convinced that they were following God’s rules, but Jesus says they’ve been missing the point.
The rules are but symbols of the more important matters – justice, mercy, faithfulness.
They’ve been majoring in minors, straining gnats out of their soup while ignoring the camel floating in the middle of it (great picture).
This is God’s frustration.
God is not hard to please, He is not looking for meticulous law-keepers.
God wants us to be humble before Him, merciful towards others and committed to justice and truth.
God knows that we will fail, and He can deal with that (that was the point of the sacrifices, He would cover for our failures).
God wants us to be committed to the important things, to strive with Him to make this world the kind of place He created it to be.
If we do not share His commitment to justice, mercy, faithfulness, then we are not committed to Him as we ought to be.
THIS is what it means to be a Jesus-follower, to please God – to love Him and to share His commitment to justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
He has shown us (again and again) what He really wants.
Do we really want what He wants?
PRAYER:
Lord, forgive me for majoring on minors. Remind me of what really matters, and to devote myself to these things!