Micah

If any scripture has been given to me it is Micah 6:8. I have been led to it by the holy spirit too many times to count in the last 20 or so years. It was written on a notecard with a sweet message from a group at the first new Church I picked to attend when I moved to Charlottesville in Virginia after the death of my son. I have it engraved on my iPad. Written out and framed in my studio. It is written and stays on my desktop computer as a mission statement meant for my personal journey in this thing we call our Christian walk.

Be fair. Forgive quickly. Remain humble.

What God requires is heartfelt love and obedience.

Micah 6:8 (NKJV)

⁸ 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 with your God?

Isaiah 1:17 (NKJV)

¹⁷ Learn to do good;

Seek justice,

Rebuke the oppressor;

Defend the fatherless,

Plead for the widow.

Micah means “Who is like Yahweh?” Faithlife Bible.

This verse speaks of the underlying attitudes that must accompany all true worship. The idea here is that God seeks certain characteristics of true worship from His people. Do justly … Love mercy … Walk humbly: These phrases summarize biblical piety in true worship. The majority of the people of Israel had violated each of these standards repeatedly. The rulers did not know justice (3:1), had no interest in mercy (3:2, 3), and demonstrated no humility (3:11). 

It is the Lord who ultimately gives a person strength, courage, and ability to exercise the virtues of godly living.

Micah:

Old Testament prophets are often thought of as providing not much more than “doom and gloom” predictions, but the Book of Micah presents an impassioned and artistic interplay between oracles of impending judgment and promises of future blessing on Israel and Judah. The peoples of both nations had broken covenant with their Lord. Through His messenger Micah, the Lord confronted His people, but He also promised to bring future blessing through the One who would be coming. This One would be the true Shepherd of God’s flock. Micah was born in the rural village of Moresheth Gath in the lowlands of Judah, near the region of Philistia, setting him apart from his more illustrious contemporary Isaiah, who was from Jerusalem.

Much of Micah’s preaching warned Judah about an impending national disaster. Yet the religious leaders of Jerusalem were falsely confident that no evil would come to them because of the inviolable presence of the holy temple in their midst. Micah sternly confronted their arrogance and their mistaken notions of God: not even the temple on Mount Zion would be spared the onslaught of God’s wrath.

The interplay of texts of wrath and mercy in the Book of Micah mirrors the character of God, for even in His wrath He remembers mercy. In the darkest days of impending judgment on the nations of Israel and Judah, there was always the possibility of a remnant being spared. Although the Lord was determined to maintain His holiness, He was equally intent on fulfilling His loving promises to Abraham. The Lord would balance His judgment with mercy. Consequently Micah also balances his oracles of judgment with oracles of promise.

In doing so, Micah points back to the covenant and also forward to the coming One. The book begins with the language of a court. Micah calls the peoples of earth to come to hear the Lord’s case against Israel, for the nation had broken the covenant. The language recalls the language of the covenant or contract the Lord established with His people. The Lord was judging His people according to the terms of the covenant. But in the middle of the oracles of judgment, Micah reveals the Lord’s wonderful promises of a glorious future. There would be a time when the coming King would gather His people together, when He would establish peace, and when He would bring justice to the earth. Remarkably, Micah prophesies that this coming Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. The fulfillment of this prophecy in Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem gives us confidence that the prophecies of Jesus’ glorious future will also be fulfilled. NKJ Bible.