What is Good? - Micah 6: 8

0:50Micah 6, 8. He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. And so we begin. You might be curious about this picture and what it has to do with Micah 6, 8, and that would be an excellent question. So there we go. Let's start with who is Micah? In context, let's understand him a little bit. Who is writing this book? Well, you can find that at the beginning of the book. Verse 1 of chapter 1. He's from a little town, Morosheth.

1:38And it has been debated some exactly where that is, but according to some historical notes, it seems to be significantly south and slightly west of Jerusalem. So, for those of you that are familiar, that would mean that he's from Judah. He is of the tribe of Judah. At this time, when he is writing, the kingdom of Israel is divided. There has been a long-standing, by this point, civil war. You have to the north the ten tribes, Israel, and to the south, Judah and Benjamin. And this is important because as you begin working your way through the book of Micah, you're going to see Israel referred to, and it's not referring to, as we commonly would think when we see the word, the entire country as we have it today. It would be referring to the northern tribes. Okay, so he is from Judah, a small town there.

2:47And in Jeremiah, it talks about that again. We're not going to turn there. When is Micah speaking? We talked about a little bit the division of the kingdom, and it also at the beginning of the book tells us. When? During the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. So this gives us a period, two of these of which were good kings, if you will. And dates our book approximately for those of you who really like history and are interested in going and looking at some of that history and where he's at during this time. But then there's an interesting tidbit. You see, Micah comes in a three-book unit. At least in my mind, I like to think of it as a three-book unit with Jonah, Micah, and Nahum. Now, those of you, most of you are familiar with Jonah. He goes and he is a missionary of sorts to Nineveh. And he tells them to repent, and they do. And as they repent, God spares them. Micah comes along, and we're going to get a little bit into this, but in a synopsis, in a word, he's saying bad things are about to happen. And he mentions specifically the Assyrians. And guess what the capital of Assyria is? Nineveh. So not only have they, in about one generation, neglected and left their repentance, but now they are going to directly be in conflict with God's people.

4:31As a tool, God is using them as a tool, but nonetheless, they are going to ultimately be punished, and that's what Nahum is about. So you see, and it's all about God and his relationship, but also there's this story of Nineveh that I find very fascinating through these books. So you have this going on. Now, here's the interesting tidbit. It's not just about Assyria and Israel. You'll notice at the very beginning of the book, he says what it is concerning. The book is concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. Samaria, at least half, the larger half, if you will, of the northern tribes of Israel. So while this book is going to very particularly address Assyria, it is also about, and arguably even more so, about Judah. And they're going to be learning as they watch what happens to their northern brethren. So this is who Micah is. A little bit of the introduction that the book itself gives us as we are getting started.

5:48Okay. Well, let's look a little further. What is the book about? Now, I've given you some tidbits, but let's look a little further. Verse 1. Verse 2, chapter 1. Hear, O peoples, all of you. Listen to earth and all it contains. It starts pretty broad. That includes everything, everybody. But then it very quickly narrows down. We are told in verse 1, this is about Samaria and Jerusalem. 2, he encapsulates everybody. And then in verse 5, we have Jacob, the unified nation of Israel, Jacob and all of his descendants, including all of the tribes. And he says there's a problem with them. There's a bone to pick, so to speak. And what is the primary concern? Samaria. Is it not Samaria? Verse 5. But then it continues. And this will continue in the beginning of the book through chapter 3. And in chapter 3, we see that ultimately, because of the sins of Samaria, the sins of the northern tribes that are slowly creeping into Judah, at their very doors, at their very gates is some of the wording used. Because of what happens slowly giving way, they too are going to experience punishment. So chapter 3, verse 12. Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed as a field. Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins. And the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest. And this is actually noted by Jeremiah. So, whereas Isaiah is Micah's contemporary, Jeremiah is going to remind his fellow Judeans of what Micah said here. He said this was going to happen well before. So, this is the first unit, chapters 1 through 3.

7:56And bear with me a little bit. Our text is chapter 6, verse 8. But it's important to understand this before we get there. So, the first unit, chapter 1 through 3. And then we have something changes in chapter 4. And I use the word excursus. It's different. Let's just say that. Something dramatically shifts. Chapter 4, verse 1, and it will come about in the last days. So he seems to be talking about things that are going to occur relatively soon. And then, explicitly, you don't have to guess, in chapter 4, verse 1, there's this new section that's going to be about last days. And this is going to continue through a great bit, if not all, of chapter 5. And you're going to see all the way through, including chapter 5, verse 10, in that day. And it's referring to some day in the future that's going to happen. And so this is all coming, and this is immediately before our section. In chapter 6.

9:02And then verse 7, where we were talking about a nation as a whole, Jacob, all the tribes, Samaria and Jerusalem. He's going to start addressing a very specific subset of this nation. And starting in verse 7, he says, Then the remnant of Jacob, Jacob being the whole nation, the remnant, what is left of this nation. He's just expressed that they're going to undergo a tremendous time of trial and punishment. But there will be a remnant. And he's speaking about this remnant, and he goes through the remainder of chapter 5, talking about it and what is going to happen. And you'll see this word, the remnant, over and over, until you get to the last verse of chapter 5.

9:57So the remnant, in fact, I'll read, is going to be taken through something. Let's look at chapter 5, verse 10, and I'll read quickly through it. It will be in that day, declares the Lord, that I will cut off your horses from among you and destroy your chariots. I will also cut off the cities of your land and tear down all your fortifications. I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and I will have fortune tellers. You will have fortune-tellers no more. I will cut off your hands. Your carved images and your sacred pillars from among you, so that you will no longer bow down to work to the work of your hands. I will root out your asherim from among you and destroy your cities. So, and pause there for a second. He is going to forcibly and mightily bring them back to him. He's going to take his remnant and he's going to remove the things that are plaguing them. The very things that earlier in this book he is punishing the nation for. He's going to remove that from them. And then look at verse 15. And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations which have not obeyed. And I would prefer a word that some of your translations may say have not heard. It's the same that you have in Deuteronomy 6, to hear, O Israel.

11:30So suddenly, you've narrowed it down more and more and more in the audience of this book until you get to the remnant. And suddenly, you've brought back in the nations. So he's going to, on behalf of his remnant, execute wrath and vengeance on these nations who have not heard. Then look with me, strikingly, in chapter 6, verse 1. Verse 1. What's the very next word? Hear! Now! Hear what I have to say. The nations that have not heard are going to be punished. Hear me. This is your chance to hear. Now, he is still talking throughout this entire section to his remnant, to Israel, to his people.

12:27But I would like, before we go any further, to suggest to you that as those outside of his ethnic people, of the Israelites, as Gentiles, this is your opportunity as well. We have an opportunity here. You see, in the beginning of this book, you have Judah that is told what is going to happen to Israel, the northern tribes, and they're told, pay attention, because this destruction is coming to you. And sure enough, it does. And then you have another example here. The Gentiles are told, vengeance is coming to you.

13:05Hear. Those of us in this room, hear what he is saying. This applies to all of us sitting here. It is addressed to his people, but it applies to all of us. And this is our opportunity to stop and notice. So he goes through chapter 6, getting to our verse in verse 8. And he's saying in. Verse 2, he's going to contend with his people. And he's going to proceed with, and you'll see it on the slide, what I personally contend to be one of the most heartbreaking passages. And I can't hardly pass it without reading it. Starting in verse 3, My people, what have I done to you?

13:55And how have I wearied you? Answer me. Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt and ransomed you from the house of slavery. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, my people. Remember now what Balak, king of Moab, counseled, and what Balaam, son of Beor, answered him. And from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may now know the righteous acts of the Lord. He's calling out to them to answer. And they do answer. The beginning of this chapter sets up where we're at.

14:35It's as if we're in a courtroom, and he's presenting this evidence. And he's called all of the, just like we saw at the very beginning of Micah in chapter 1, hear, O peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all it contains, and let the Lord God be witness against you. And then the same language again in chapter 6. Hear now what the Lord is saying. Arise, plead your case, speaking to Israel before the mountains, before everybody that's listening. So it's a case, it's a case being made. And in verse 6, you are going to have a response. There's some dispute, some thoughts on who I is in verse 6. Some would say it's Micah.

15:28I would say, regardless of whether it is Micah or not, if it is Micah, he's speaking on behalf of Jacob. He's speaking on behalf of those who are on trial. What seems to be the case, he has, God has called them, the Lord has said, plead your case. And in verse 6, that case gets made. And what it seems to be suggesting is the requirement's unattainable. Look with me, verse 6. And with what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come to him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul? It's almost like the speaker here, Jacob, if you will, is saying, what possibly? Could appease you, Lord. What could we do? Like, we can't do anything. I could give you endless amounts of sacrifice, right? And it's not good enough. And then here we get to our text, with all of this as our backdrop, in the answer that we get. The response to this accusation on the behalf of Israel, that it's an unattainable, impossible thing.

17:03I'll read it again. He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? So to back up just a second, to move forward and give you an idea of where we're going, I'm going to make three points because I was told sometimes it helps to give people an idea of where we're going to go with a message. So I'm going to make three points in this. One, you should do justice.

17:40Two, you should love kindness. And three, you should walk humbly with your God. Seems pretty clear to me. Like, it's a self-made message right here, because that's exactly what it is. It's a message that was given to us. So let's start at the beginning. Before we get to doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly, he says, He has told you, O man, what is good. He's told us these things already. Well, how's that? Remember, he is speaking to his people. And in that context, what has he given his people?

18:22He's given them the oracles, he's given them the law. In fact, they have been blessed more than any other peoples with this fact. Romans chapter 3, when you get a chance, go back and revisit that whole, in fact, all of Romans, but chapter 2 and 3 as a whole, and look at how he's addressing the Jews there. And God said in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 11, and God said, This commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. And if you go back and look at that, he's not speaking of keeping all the tenets of the law. He is talking about keeping the law, but it's the fact of the heart. Being his, following God. That is not something that cannot be attained. Salvation is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. His people had a route to salvation, the same as we do today, through faith and trust in a God who is Saves. And that is something that has been provided always. And that is not too difficult. In fact, it is given to us free of charge. In fact, it is given in spite of the fact that we are constantly rebelling against Him. That is a wonderful thing. And it has been told us. And it has been told to us what is good. It has been told to them, the Jews. And now, these many years later, we have everything that they were given, plus more in the New Testament. We have an abundance in knowing exactly what to do.

20:11So there we have it. What are we to do? How are we to summarize it? And I gave you two references there. If I had my way, we'd just go through a whole bunch of stuff. Just keep going. But for sake of time, take note. Go look at those. Those are great places to look. So let's start with the beginning. Do justice. So this is an incredibly, it was a little bit challenging for me. Do justice, just the wealth that's there and understanding it. At the same time, as is so often the case, it's incredibly simple. So many things that are both profound and simple at the same time. So because I am not quite able to go Into all the complexities, we'll stick with the simple. I gave you a few examples of what some of the translations translate this as, but to do justice, to act justly, to do what is right, to do justly, to do judgment, and that's a special one, but we'll stick with the dominant idea there.

21:25The fact is, and how many people and I am actually curious, a show of hands, how many people were told when you were a kid, especially, actions speak louder than words? Okay, I'm not the only one. I'm glad to know that. If I heard it once, it made me sick, I heard it so much. My dad constantly, and that's exactly the truth. Actions speak louder than words. Do justice. It is an action. It is something you are doing. It is active. And you are doing that which is characterized by justice, by what is deemed or judged, in the example in the last case, to be right.

22:13So, do your actions reflect accurately? If you claim to be a Christian, if you claim to be one of God's children, albeit by adoption nonetheless one of God's children, Are you acting like it? Again, very simple, even if it has complex overtones that we can delve into for a very long time. Are you double-minded? That's another way that's put it. If you are saying you want to do something, but then you do another, what do you really want?

22:54That's the question, your actual desires. Because at the end of the day, you will do that which you desire. Are your desires ultimately in line with God? So that takes us to the second point. To love kindness. Many of your translations will say mercy. It's a word that is incredibly broad and encompasses many things. To love kindness. And I put a little bit of a tongue twister up there, if you will. But if your actions are seen outwardly, then this is your heart, to put it that way. Your heart. From your heart, a man is defiled. The heart. So if I'm in a relationship with somebody, how I treat them many times will show who I really am.

23:57Many times we don't stop. And think about our actions, we simply act. And in that moment, that's going to betray our values. Do we love kindness? Do we love mercy? Do we love what is good? It's not merely choosing to do those things that you are told to do, but it's loving the things that you are told to love. God is a God who gives us standards, but we don't merely meet the standards. It's not just a list of works. It is also about loving Him. It is also about loving who He is and walking with Him, which we'll get to in just a moment.

24:46So, when I say, How do you feel when you're relating to others? It's not just a warm, fuzzy feeling, it's what's coming from inside of you. And there's only one person, Jesus Christ, only one God who can change who you are fundamentally and change what is on the inside, which will then take us to the next step. And I'm going to break this one in two briefly: walk humbly. So, this one we've talked about a lot as we've gone through the book of Mark, and I was very tempted actually to go back and look at Mark. I think I'm going to here in just a moment. But for this part, I'm not going to. We're going to look back. We already read it once. We're going to look back at inside our book, chapter 5, verse 10, as he talks about this idea of humility within the context of our book. Chapter 10. We read it. I didn't really discuss it much, but we're going to look at it. It will be in that day, declares the Lord, that I will cut off your horses from among you. What does that mean? What would the horses do? Well, it's a very common theme as we look through the Old Testament of Israel depending on horses, predominantly from Egypt, for their might. Another idea you can look at is the numbering of the people, something that David sinned in doing. Depending on something outside of God.

26:28Right? Okay. Cut off your horses. I'll destroy your chariots. Same thought. 11. I will cut off your cities of your land and tear down all your fortifications. Back then, more so than now, if you did not have fortified cities, you were vulnerable. People would come, they would ransack your towns, your villages. And we see examples of this throughout the Old Testament: of towns that are being fortified or being. Being torn down, and you come to depend on that. I'm depending on physical walls to protect me. Look at Jericho. They depended on their walls for safety, so impregnable that they thought that nobody and no God could mess with them. And then they found out that there is, in fact, only one God and they have no protection whatsoever.

27:26What are you depending on? And you keep going through this list, and I think what you have is an example of what it means to be humble. See, it's not about just bowing down or kowtowing or making some show. You see this in verse 6, chapter 6, verse 6: with what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the Lord on high? It's not about a show. It's about where you're placing your dependence. See, if I take pride in myself, I don't have any, I'm not depending on anyone. See, I got pretty good. I look to myself, and that is the source of my pride. And that is something we struggle with a lot, in fact, most of all, and something we see a lot in this society.

28:21I think it's been mentioned quite a bit, actually, including from this pulpit. Look at what do we call some of our movements today? Pride movement. I'm taking pride in basically thumbing my nose at God. And you can do that for a time. And then there's going to be vengeance coming. See, he might allow you to continue for a moment, but justice will be done. And pride comes before a fall. Instead, you are called to walk humbly and walk with your God.

29:04See, after everything else has been removed, and now I will turn to Mark just briefly for my young adults this morning's text, chapter 11, looking at that text there. We talked about obstacles, the obstacles of unbelief. We looked at the obstacles of forgiveness, internal obstacles, external obstacles. And instead, you have faith in God, which removes these obstacles. And who removes it? God removes the obstacles. You see, when I take away the pride, when I love kindness, love goodness, and this is me speaking, but I would dare extend that to love God Himself.

30:00As part of what that verse points to, I'm loving God, I'm walking with God, I'm doing what He's told me to do because of that love, I am doing what is right. When I come to that place, then and only then can I come to the place that I have answered this question in verse 6. I've come to the Lord, and the Lord takes me in. I'm His. He has saved me. There is no longer wrath, but instead only love. We are together, I as His child, He is my Father, in the relationship mended as it was supposed to be, accomplished through Jesus Christ. So here's my final words for us tonight: If you have not come to this place where you've been willing to lay everything down, where you've been able to say, Lord, I'm done. I'm not going to try to live by my own standards, my own sense of right and wrong, my own justice. I'm going to love kindness, mercy, the kind of mercy shown at the cross, instead of despising it.

31:23And I am going to walk with you and no longer walk on my own. If you have never done that, tonight's your chance. And you may. Or may not get another chance. See, in fact, you have a choice, a choice before all of us, a choice that most people make in the first instance to reject him. Most people, unfortunately, decide to reject God. And if you do, I don't think it is wrong of me where the Scripture says to point out to you that there is justice and vengeance.

32:04There is justice and vengeance in a place called hell. And there is going to be a time when you can run no longer. But there is another choice on the other side, which He will grant to follow Him, that He will come in and change who you are and make you His child. And in this instance, how to do that is laid out for us right here, as we've seen today. Three points: Do justice, love-kindness, which are both summarized in short, walk with God. You might say it in an even shorter way, believe.

32:57With that said, let us pray. Dear Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here tonight who has not believed in you, that you will send your Spirit, that you will convict them, and you will bring them to you. Lord, I pray for all of us that we will walk according to your ways and not our own, that you will continually remind us of who you are, that we will love you and who you are. I pray that we will be able to be beacons to this entire community.

33:41Lord, I thank you for your love and mercy, and I pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.