One of the most exciting things about being a Christian is knowing that the God of all creation who spoke everything into existence and breathed life into man has a plan for each one of us today. That is a great source of comfort and peace. But sometimes as we get wrapped up in the busy-ness of life while changing diapers that appear to be filled with hazardous waste, washing clothes and folding laundry, washing dishes, packing the kids’ lunches, going to T-ball practice, soccer practice, piano lessons, gymnastics, grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, preparing the next sales presentation, striving for that next promotion, paying the bills, washing the car, remodeling the kitchen, preparing for the garage sale, conference calls with customers, business meetings, football practice, basketball practice, prayer, bible study, worship, and whatever else we do with the spare time we have left, we loose sight of what God’s will is and unfortunately sometimes we even loose sight of God himself. The people of Israel had that problem. They lost sight of God, focused on the busy-ness of daily life, and forgot what was really important. But God, out of His great love, His great mercy, and His great compassion, sent his prophet Micah to refocus the people on what was important and what God’s plan and desire was for them. That is the purpose of Micah 6:1-8. I believe God has preserved this text for us today for the very same purpose, to refocus our attention and priorities.
Please turn with me to Micah chapter 6. The book of Micah is in the Old Testament and is after Psalms, Daniel, and immediately follows Jonah.
Please stand in reverence of God’s Word as we read Micah 6:1-8:
Mic 6:1-8
1 Listen to what the LORD says:
"Stand up, plead your case before the mountains;
let the hills hear what you have to say.
2 Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s accusation;
listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the LORD has a case against his people;
he is lodging a charge against Israel.
3 "My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
4 I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
5 My people, remember
what Balak king of Moab counseled
and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember [ your journey] from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD."
6 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?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has showed you, O man, 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.
NIV
Let’s pray.
Please be seated.
Can you picture this in your mind’s eye? We all have some idea of what a courtroom looks like whether it’s from participating in a trial, visiting a court while a trial is in session, or from one of the various courtroom programs on television. We can all see the judge dressed in a black robe seated behind a large mahogany bench that is elevated above everyone else in the courtroom. To the right is a jury of six or twelve people seated in one or two rows behind a wooden partition three feet high as if to separate them somewhat from the rest of the people participating in the case. Then there is the plaintiff who is the accuser. This is the person bringing the charge. The plaintiff provides witnesses to the events discussed in the case. And finally there is the defendant who is being charged and is offering some defense for his or her actions.
Now that you have the courtroom pictured in your mind lets remove the four walls and move the courtroom into the middle of the Rocky Mountains. We are now participating in the greatest courtroom drama that has ever been imagined. Now the courtroom has no bounds. The Judge in this case is the Almighty God, Creator of all things, our Sustainer, our Provider, our Redeemer, our Rock and our Fortress, who is Holy, knows all things, and is in every moment in time. There is no past or future with God because He is present in all of them. He is also the plaintiff in this case. He has summoned all of creation, the hills, the mountains, the very foundations of the earth, to be witnesses and jurors in this case emphasizing that there is no sin that is hidden and unknown. The charge is being leveled against the defendant who is Israel, you, and I. We have been summoned to appear before God Almighty in the Supreme Court of all creation and God himself is charging the people of Israel and each one of us today for having a lackadaisical attitude towards our relationship with Him!
In verse 3 God begins in a way that only God can. Even though we have continually turned away from Him, God the Father approaches us with love and compassion as He asks us if an intimately personal relationship with Him is too much of a burden. He reminds the Israelites of how he had provided for them in the past as He delivered them out of slavery in Egypt and provided leaders for them in Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. [expound briefly on Shittam and Gilgal as well as Balak]. Maybe now He is reminding you of specific times He provided for you. Maybe there was a time when you did not have enough paycheck to cover the bills but He made it sufficient. Maybe there was a time when you or a loved one was sick and He gave comfort and peace in the midst of it. I remember a specific time when Margaret was 20 weeks pregnant with our second child Nathaniel. It was discovered that he did not have a heart beat. Margaret’s body did not miscarry so the doctor had to induce labor. I remember after the delivery Margaret was asleep and resting. I was sitting at the foot of her bed looking at her and I cried out to God in my heart asking Him why it was necessary for her to deliver a dead baby. I wanted to know why. I began earnestly reading and searching scripture for passages on pain and suffering and while I was studying it seemed like God was leading me to understand that He was in control and He was going to comfort us by bringing about something good out of this situation. It was a difficult time for us but God did carry us through it. About 6 months later I received a phone call from my nephew Chris who lived across the country. We had not been in contact for about 10 years at that time. He heard what had happened and decided he wanted to call and offer condolences. After about 3 minutes the conversation turned to spiritual things and approximately 20 minutes later Chris prayed to receive Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior over the telephone. God made something good come out of a bad situation and He carried us through it. Our faith in Him grew through this experience.
How has God carried you? What has He delivered you from? How has He provided for you in the past?
Finally, in verse 6, the people of Israel responded to God’s charge and I believe we tend to respond in a similar manner today. They said that they brought their burnt offerings to the temple and they worshipped Him. What more did He want? More offering? Sacrifice of their first born son? We might respond in a similar manner. But Lord, don’t I come to church on Sunday and give the church some of my weekly earnings? I pray when I have time and I read the Bible when I get a chance. I’m a lot better than a lot of people I know. What more can I do? What do you want from me?
What does God want you to do? The Lord’s response is clear. He wants you to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” I do not believe we can act justly or love mercy until we first walk humbly with our God.
What does it mean to “walk humbly with your God?” It means He wants you and I to have a Love-Awe relationship with Him. Oswald Chambers said, “We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save nor sanctify ourselves; God does that. But God will not give us good habits or character, and He will not force us to walk correctly before Him.” He also will not force us to walk humbly with Him. What does God want you to do? He wants each of us to choose to “walk humbly with our God” and then He wants us to do it. He wants you to have such a Love-Awe relationship with Him that all you desire is to know Him more and be like Him.
Several years ago when Stephen and Grace were pre-schoolers they made a special T-shirt for me. On the front of the shirt they each put their handprint in paint on the top left and right corners of the shirt. Stephen’s handprint was in blue paint and Grace’s handprint was in red paint. The words, “They want to be like me…” were written between the handprints. On the back there was a cross and above it was written, “So I want to be like Him.” Children look up to their parents and desire to be like Mommy and Daddy. We should have a greater desire to look up to our heavenly Father and desire to be like Him. We should have a great uncompromising love for Him because of the grace, mercy and forgiveness that He shows us every day and for the excruciating sacrifice He made for us on the cross. We should be in total awe that the God of all heaven and earth who created everything out of nothing would leave His heavenly throne, associate Himself with us by taking on human flesh, endure everything that we endure yet without sin, be crucified on the cross in total humiliation, be dead and buried yet able to overcome death, rise again and ascend into heaven where He purchased a place in heaven for each one of us and offers it to us as a free gift that can never be earned, deserved, nor repaid. We should be totally in love with Him and we should be totally in awe of Him.
Micah 6:8 tells us that God’s will is that we walk humbly with Him. How do we do that?
1) First, we need to know God on a personally intimate level.
a. First, we need to receive God’s free gift of salvation and forgiveness of sin by accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. He has already paid the penalty of our sin because we are unable to. It is up to each one of us individually to either accept or reject Jesus Christ.
b. Secondly, we need to keep our relationship with the Lord in the proper perspective. Many times we begin to elevate ourselves to God’s level. We all do this. Anytime that we take control of a decision or situation and choose to exercise our own will or desire we are taking the place of God. We need to remember that He is the Creator and we are the created. We need to remember that He is the Redeemer and we are the redeemed. We need to remember that He is the Savior and we are the saved. We need to remember that He is holy and we are sinful. We stay in a proper relationship with Him by spending time with the Lord in prayer, by reading and studying the Bible, and by being encouraging one another in our spiritual journey.
2) Secondly, we need to trust God completely.
a. Remember how God has provided for you in the past. Look back on your life through the eyeglass of hindsight and see the hand of God leading you, providing for you, shielding you, shaping you and preparing you. Remember these things. Write them down and commit them to memory.
b. Have faith in God for today and tomorrow. Remember that the same God that has taken care of you in the past is with you today and will never leave you nor forsake you. He loves you more than any person ever can and He loves you with a love that you cannot even begin to understand. Some of you might think that you have done some things in your life that make you unlovable. God loves you. He formed you and knows everything about you including each and every thought. He loves you just the way you are but He also loves you so much that He does not want you to stay that way. He wants you to trust Him so the Holy Spirit can lead you in the process of changing your thoughts and actions to be more like Jesus.
3) First, we need to know God on a personally intimate level.
Second, we need to trust God completely.
Third, we need to surrender ourselves completely to God. This means:
a. Surrendering all of our dreams. I heard a story on the radio of a little girl who asked her Mom to buy her a toy pearl necklace at the dollar store. The little girl loved her necklace. It was her pride and joy. She wore it everywhere she went. One night, when Daddy was putting the little girl to bed, he asked if he could have her necklace. The little girl gave her Daddy and emphatic “No!” Every night the little girl’s Daddy asked for her necklace and the answer was always no. One night, Daddy came into the room and saw his little girl sitting on the bed with tears streaming down her face. Daddy sat down on the bed to comfort his daughter and with great pain and anguish the little girl held out her hand and gave her toy pearl necklace to her Daddy. Daddy took the toy necklace with one hand and held his other hand out to his daughter. In his hand was a real pearl necklace. The little girl’s tears turned into a huge, astonished smile as she jumped into her Daddy’s arms. By giving up her cherished toy necklace she was able to receive the real thing. Psalm 37:4 says “delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” When you surrender your hearts desires, plans, dreams, and goals God will place His desires in your heart and you will now desire the same thing that God Himself desires.
b. Surrendering your pride. You cannot be humble before the Lord if you are proud of your own abilities, circumstances, or achievements. The Lord says in Proverbs 29:23 that, “A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.” James 4:10 tells us to “humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. It is one of the paradoxes of scripture. The more we surrender
c. We need to surrender our rights. We tend to believe that we have a right to be happy or wealthy or married or to have 8 children or whatever. A preacher once said, “God is more concerned with your obedience than He is with your happiness.” Scripture gives us a picture of the rights we receive in Christ in Galatians chapter 4 which states, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”
4) We need to follow the example of humility that Jesus gave us. Philippians chapter 2 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death-
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines HUMILITY as “A freedom from arrogance that grows out of the recognition that all we have and are comes from God…Biblical humility is also a recognition that by ourselves we are inadequate, without dignity and worthless. Yet, because we are created in God’s image and because believers are in Christ, we have infinite worth and dignity.”
Walking humbly with God is a life long process. How is the Lord leading you today? What is the next step the Lord is prompting you to take in walking more humbly with Him? Maybe you have never received the free gift of salvation and forgiveness. Perhaps He is showing you that you need to continue to develop your relationship with Him. Maybe you need to trust Him more. Or maybe you need to give the Lord control of your dreams and plans. How will you respond to the Lord’s prompting?
