Micah 6:1-8 8/20/23 a.m.
I’ve always enjoyed the DRAMA of a COURTROOM. I love to watch reruns of PERRY MASON and MATLOCK. Now I don’t watch Judge Judy, OK? But I do enjoy watching the old TV shows. In REAL LIFE I know that there are probably a lot of BORING, MUNDANE things that happen in courtrooms most of the time but there’s just something about being there that’s intriguing to me. I’ve been called to Jury Duty 6 times and I’ve always looked forward to it. I’ve been on several juries. It can be rewarding and it can be very frustrating. Sometimes when you’re setting back in the Jury Room deliberating after a long trial, you could just CHOKE some of your fellow jurors. There will be one hold out. One person whose just not sure. And you just want to go home. You could just SCREAM, “Were you not listening? How could you be so STUPID?!!!” But that usually doesn’t do any good does it? This morning I want us to take a look at God’s courtroom.
So let’s go ahead and read Micah 6, Verses 1-8.
Hear ye now what the Lord saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
2 Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.
3 O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.
4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord.
6 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or 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 hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
As I read the first two Verses of this Chapter, I can picture a courtroom in my mind. Micah, the PROSECUTING ATTORNEY, the attorney representing God, begins to speak. And he tells us WHO God would be SPEAKING TO. The UNSHAKABLE, POWERFUL, MIGHTY WITNESSES. They have been around since the beginning of time. The MOUNTAINS and the STRONG FOUNDATIONS of the Earth. These will be the JURY.
And then in Verse 2, he tells us who the DEFENDANTS are. God’s own people. Israel. If you look at Verse 1 of Chapter 1 of this BOOK, you’ll see that the PROPHECY was to both Jerusalem and Samaria. In other words, both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Judah and Israel.
Here in Chapter 6 he is speaking of Israel back when they were in Egypt and after they came into the Land of Canaan but before the two kingdoms broke apart during the time of Rehoboam. Therefore, the DEFENDANTS were ALL of the TRIBES of Israel.
And then the PROSECUTOR, the Prophet Micah tells us that God Himself will now PLEAD His cause. He will speak. And in Verse 3, He begins. And that’s what we’re going to look at. God’s WITNESS against MANKIND.
Before we get into message, let’s go to the Lord in Prayer. Brother ______, would you lead us?
And so as we look at this passage starting in Verse 3, Micah, the Prosecutor steps back, and GOD begins to SPEAK. He starts off by QUESTIONING His people.
What have I done unto thee?
Wherein have I wearied thee?
Testify against me. TELL ME!!!
And when it really came down to it, God had done nothing to these people but GOOD. He had sent Godly leaders to BRING THEM OUT of the Land of Egypt. Moses, his brother Aaron, and their sister Miriam.
They had been there to try to work with the Pharaoh of Egypt to release the people. The Plagues. They had been there to LEAD them across the Red Sea. They had been there as they made their way through the Wilderness. They had been there as Israel fought against the Amalekites and the Canaanites.
God had always been there for them.
And then in Verse 5, God brings up Balaam and Balak. Numbers 22-24 tells us the story. After meeting with King Balak of Moab, Balaam prophesied over Israel four times. As he spoke God’s word, he didn’t curse Israel – but he blessed them each time. So he wasn’t able to CURSE ISRAEL but he did tell Balak how to bring Israel under a curse. Instead of trying to have a prophet curse them, the Moabites would lead them into SEXUAL DEPRAVITY and IDOLATRY. God would then have to deal with this DISOBEDIENT IDOLATROUS COUNTRY.
So Balak did just that. He sent his young women into the camp of Israel and they led Israel astray. Because of their sin, God brought a plague of judgment upon Israel that killed 24,000.
So why would God bring this up? Well, look at Verse 5,
“that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord.”
I think it was to remind Israel that He would NEVER CURSE ISRAEL UNLESS they brought it upon themselves by their IDOLATRY and DISOBEDIENCE.
There in this courtroom, God showed Israel that if they felt cursed in any way, it was because of their own SIN.
You know folks, people live some pretty miserable lives. Turn on the NEWS, pick up a Newspaper, walk through downtown Tulsa, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
You try to talk to people about the Lord Jesus Christ and they don’t want to hear about Him. They live in so much FILTH, so much VIOLENCE, and so much ANGER you have to wonder what in the world is wrong with these people. And like 99% of the time it’s ALL because of the choices they make. It’s like they are BLIND to a BETTER way of LIFE. And when it comes down to it, I guess they are.
2 Corinthians 4:3 and 4 becomes more true everyday.
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
I ask you today.
What has God done to you today that you won’t serve Him?
What has God done to WEARY YOU?
What has He done to make you DESPISE HIM?
Go ahead, testify against Him. You know what it all comes down to? God has done nothing but GOOD FOR US. People try to BLAME GOD for this or for that. How their LIFE turned out. What they had to go THROUGH. Some of the LOSSES in their LIVES. But if they will EXAMINE their life they will realize that God has been NOTHING but GOOD to them. Most, if not all, of their problems have come from their own mistakes and failures.
And we live in a world where bad things happen to good people. And ... Good things happen to bad people. God is NO RESPECTER of PERSONS. All of these things that we go through is called LIFE. And if people want to hold things against God ..... THEY ARE THE LOSERS.
ILLUS: I had a Great Uncle who refused to serve God. He was a very good man. He loved my mom and there were times that we would come home from church on Sundays and him and Aunt Edna would be setting under the Pecan Tree in the front yard. He refused to HONOR, WORSHIP and FOLLOW Jesus because of one thing. They had one child. A little girl who died at a young age. That’s SO SAD. HEARTBREAKING. But he always held that against God. Do you know who was the LOSER in the end? He was. He could have died and went to Heaven with her but instead he HATED GOD and went to Hell. Now that’s SADDEST PART of his story.
Now in Verses 6 and 7, the DEFENDANTS begin to SPEAK. God’s chosen people. And they ask a question. Let’s read these Verses.
“Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or 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?”
Do you know what this is? I believe it’s a question asked out of BITTERNESS and RESENTMENT. WHAT DO YOIU WANT FROM ME GOD?
Hey, how about this God. Do you want me to BOW DOWN to you? or Should I offer burnt offerings? Maybe a yearling calf. And then they begin to get SARCASTIC. How about a THOUSAND RAMS!!! 10,000 Rivers of Oil. Or how about the ultimate sacrifice. My firstborn child. The FRUIT of my BODY for the SIN of my SOUL!!!
You know what, this makes me ANGRY. It’s almost like Israel is SHOUTING AT GOD from the Witness Stand. “You ask too much, God. Nothing will satisfy You. If we brought thousands of rams or rivers of oil or even our own firstborn it would not be enough to please You. YOU ... ARE ... UNREASONABLE!!!!!!”
Oh the MERCY of God is INCREDIBLE. You see, if it were me I would have STRUCK THEM ALL DOWN RIGHT HERE and started over with somebody else. I would have said, “You UNGRATEFUL WRETCHES!!! How dare you speak to me that way. How dare you have that attitude. I’ve had it with you.”
But yet God is MERCIFUL.
Lamentations 3:22 and 23, “It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
Listen, Mercy goes beyond justice. It doesn’t UNDERCUT IT or DO AWAY with it. Please get this, if I forgive you a $1000 debt that you owe me, that means I must use $1000 of my own money to pay my bills. I can’t make you a $1000 richer without making myself $1000 poorer. That’s just the way it works.
And that’s the VERY REASON that Jesus had to DIE. That’s the reason God couldn’t just look at my SINS and your SINS and say, “Ahh, just forget it. It’s OK!!!” NO!!! The DEBT WAS REAL and SOMEBODY had to PAY IT!!! And that’s why Jesus had to DIE on the CRUEL CROSS of CALVARY.
“Jesus signed my pardon, this I surely know.
He took my place at Calvary, now I won't have to go.
All my life I'll live for him, he gave his for me.
When he signed my pardon, there at Calvary.”
I realize I’m pretty hard on the Nation of Israel, especially when I’m really no different. I have been blessed beyond measure. I don’t deserve all of the wonderful things He has given me. I don’t deserve my wife.
ILLUS: Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister of Canada and he gives us this story. He says, “In the spring of 1987, President Reagan and I were driven into a large hangar at the Ottawa Airport to await the arrival of Mrs. Reagan and my wife, Mila, prior to departure ceremonies for their return to Washington following their highly successful state visit to Canada. President Reagan and I were alone except for the security details.
When their car drove in a moment later out stepped Nancy and Mila looking like a million bucks. And as they headed towards us President Reagan beamed, he threw his arm around my shoulder and he said with a grin, “You know Brian, for two Irishmen we sure married up.” That’s ME!!! I married UP!!!
I don’t deserve my children and grandchildren. You know what, my Children and my Grandchildren have had to put up with me their whole lives and they didn’t even have a CHOICE.
This church. You as my church family. I don’t deserve you. And much to my shame there are times when I WHINE and COMPLAIN to God. And if the roles were REVERSED, I’m afraid that I might STRIKE MYSELF down for being so UNGRATEFUL but yet God in His LOVE, shows me MERCY.
And so in Verse 8, we see here that even though they were SARCASTIC. Even though they were DISOBEDIENT. God shows them what He requires of them. We’re back to Micah, the Prosecuting Attorney, speaking here.
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
3 things that God required of them.
3 things that they needed to do.
They acted like it was a MYSTERY. They acted like it was beyond their COMPREHENSION. But yet God had shown them what He required. Now it was up to them to DO IT!!!
I. First of all he tells them that God requires them to DO JUSTLY. Act in a just, fair way towards others. Treat others as you would want to be treated. We all want justice don’t we? Especially when it comes to someone else.
When someone commits a crime we want them to receive JUSTICE. We want them to be PUNISHED to the FULL EXTENT of the LAW.
And when someone is accused of something they didn’t do, we want JUSTICE. We want the TRUTH to prevail. We don’t want to see someone pay for a CRIME that they didn’t commit.
And MOST of the time we want JUSTICE for ourselves.
When someone treats us badly we want JUSTICE. We want to see them get what they DESERVE.
When we’re ACCUSED of something we didn’t do, we want JUSTICE.
But what abut when we’re GUILTY? And by the way we’re ALL GUILTY at some point. Right?
“For ALL have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.”
That’s you and that’s me. So do we want JUSTICE then? No, most of us would want something other than JUSTICE. Most of us would want the next thing on the list.
II. Most of would want ... MERCY. God tells the people of Israel to “Love Mercy”.
“Don’t just show mercy, but love to show it. Give others the same measure of mercy you want to receive from Me.”
We sing, “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a WRETCH like me.” But something that is just as AMAZING is the MERCY of GOD. You all know the difference right? GRACE is when you get what you don’t deserve and MERCY is when you don’t get what you do deserve.
ILLUS: I DO NOT deserve Heaven but someday I will get to go there because I ACCEPTED God’s plan of SALVATION. That’s GRACE.
I DO DESERVE to go to HELL because of my SINS but yet Jesus paid the price and now I don’t have to. That’s MERCY. Micah tells the Nation of Israel to LOVE MERCY.
It’s not enough to just to show MERCY, because that’s what is expected. We need to love Mercy enough to give it to others.
ILLUS: I was thinking about this. Maybe I’m way off here. Maybe I ought to leave this alone. But through all of the years of Rachel and I raising our children, I’ve tried to OBSERVE how others raise their kids. We've been doing this for 30 years now and with Si only being 12, we've got a few more years to go. But I’ve seen some parents raise their kids with No Rules. They run wild and when they GROW UP, most of the time, they continue to run WILD!!! That’s kind of expected.
I’ve seen other parents keep a STRONG HOLD on their children. They are very conservative on what they allow their children to WEAR. Where they allow their children to GO. What they allow their children to DO. And I agree with this. Rachel and I were always pretty strict with our kids. But sometimes when these children GROW UP they go WILD!!! They REBEL. Anybody here know what I’m talking about? It’s heartbreaking. It’s sad.
And then you have other children raised with the same rules and when they get out on their own they do great. So what’s the key? What makes the difference? Is it
Proverbs 22:6? “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Yes it is. That’s a GENERAL PROMISE to us as Christian parents. That’s TRUTH. When you train up a child in the WAYS of GOD, then generally they won’t depart from what they were taught. But Proverbs 22:6 doesn’t take away a Child’s Free Will. EVERY CHILD BORN has to decide whether to follow Jesus or go their own way, no matter how they were TRAINED. So what makes the difference? Well, as I said, every child has a choice to make. Mama and Daddy can’t make it for them. But I also believe that some parents raise their children with ALL of the RIGHT RULES, they do it with ALL of the RIGHT INTENTIONS, but they do it without LOVING MERCY. They never show the LOVING MERCY to their children that was shown to them.
LOVE and MERCY MUST go along with TRAINING. It makes all the difference in the world. You see, we have no greater example today than the Lord Jesus Christ. He LOVED MERCY, and He showed us JUST HOW MUCH, by dying on the Cross of Calvary. We as Parents, Grandparents and Followers of Jesus MUST SHOW MERCY.
So once again, we step back into the courtroom, Micah tells the people “to do justly, and to love mercy, and ...
III. “To walk humbly with thy God?”
What does it mean to WALK with someone? Well, it means several things.
It means you’re going in the same direction. “We went walking together. I went this way and she went that way. No”
It means you’re going the same speed. “You can’t run ... ?”
And it means you’re going to the same place.
Was the Nation of Israel HUMBLY WALKING with God? A. It sure doesn’t seem like they were. If you look at the other Chapters here in the Book of Micah you’ll see that Micah PROPHESIED against them. He called them out for their IDOLATRY. He points out their COVETOUSNESS. He tells us that they called EVIL GOOD and GOOD EVIL.
No, they weren’t going in the same direction. In fact, they were heading in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION toward destruction. Verse 12 of Micah 3 tells us,
“Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.”
B. And they sure weren’t going the same speed. They were WAY BEHIND in what God wanted them to do. He’s trying to tell them what He expected. To “Humbly Walk with thy God.” To be BY HIS SIDE.
C. And this is sad. They weren’t going to the same PLACE. Instead of staying in the land that God had promised them, they were taken captive by the Babylonians 150 years later.
You know folks, if we’re ever going to live a successful Christian life, we’re going to have to learn to HUMBLY WALK WITH GOD. Not PRIDEFULLY but HUMBLY.
ILLUS: The story is told of a man who entered a contest to determine who was the most humble person. When he won, he was given a BADGE of MERIT!!!! – but he was later disqualified because he wore it.
That’s funny but there are so many PROFESSING CHRISTIANS today who aren’t walking HUMBLY with God.
A. They’re not going in the same direction. They don’t care that God wants to lead them and guide them OVER HERE, they’re going to do it their own way, OVER THERE.
Proverbs 3:5 and 6. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
B. And they’re sure not keeping up. They’re lagging behind and it won’t be long until they lose sight of Him.
C. And because of that, they’re gonna wind up going to a DIFFERENT PLACE. Now that’s sad. God has done everything to give us a home in Heaven with Him. He gave us HIS SON to die on the cross of Calvary so we could escape HELL.
But the choice is up to us. We can HUMBLY WALK with God. Go in the direction He will lead us. Grow and Mature in Him. And someday make Heaven our home. Or ... WALK our own way. In Deuteronomy 30:19, Moses is speaking to the Nation of Israel one last time. This is what he said,
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”
Micah, the PROSECUTOR proved his case before the court. Israel was GUILTY!!! They would PAY THE PRICE, NOT because God had CURSED THEM, but because their own sin had brought them down. And the thing they needed to do wasn’t some MYSTERY or something that was impossible to do. All they had to do was SERVE HIM.
Someday every single one of us will stand before the JUDGE of this universe. And we will be judged GUILTY or NOT GUILTY. Not by how GOOD we were. How RICH we were. Or how PRETTY we were. We will be judged by whether we SERVED GOD or OURSELVES.
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
It’s not a MYSTERY. God has shown us the way of SALVATION. Now, what will you do with it?
Let’s Pray
