Justly, Mercifully, Humbly

This passage, verse 8, without its context, is deeply inspiring all by its lonesome. We used to have a staff member, Maryellen Parker Boyes, who had this passage tattooed on her wrists.

My brother's tombstone has this passage on it. This passage, verse 8, without its context, is deeply inspiring.

It does hold together well as a single cohesive thought. Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.

But the context of the whole passage adds more urgency to the matter. And in context, it is sandwiched in between 2 urgent cries from God.

The five verses before verse 8 highlight that there are charges to be brought against his people, that not everything is as it should be, not everything is hunky-dory, even if we think that all is well.

There is something lurking beneath the surface, something in the sub-text that is a threat. That something has to do with forgetting. Forgetting God, even in the midst of benefiting from His grace and goodness. And forgetting God impacts our behaviours.

You might want to gloss over some pretty serious problems, Ya might want to get on with your busy lives, but you need to remember some things that might just have drifted to the edge of your thinking, but which really need to be central to, and in fact are the very reason, what you are doing and why you are doing it.

You’ve been delivered. You’re not the deliverer. You’ve been rescued, you’re not the rescuer. You’ve been led, you’re not actually the one in charge.

You've been sustained through trials and tribulations, through lawsuits and recriminations, you’re not the sustainer. All this is in your past so that you would know that God is and that God is good.

And then v 6-7 is a response. OK. Now I remember. I’m the leper in the story of Jesus healing the leper, I’m not Jesus. I’m the woman caught in adultery, not Jesus. What can I do to make things right, God?

I’m one of many starving for food in the crowd gathered for the Olivet discourse. I’m not the miracle worker. I’m maybe a surprised and discombobulated disciple handing out bread, one beggar showing another beggar where to get bread, but I’m not the source of bread and water.

So what can I do to make things right?

Because of time restraints, I’ll just say that what follows after verse eight highlights God’s judgment against the people for their dishonesty, violence, and deceit. It emphasizes the following key points:

Divine Call and Warning: God calls out to the city, urging them to heed His correction and recognize His authority.

Condemnation of Injustice: The passage condemns the use of dishonest scales and false measures, symbolizing widespread corruption and deceit among the people.

Consequences of Sin: Due to their sins, God declares that their efforts will be futile—they will not find satisfaction or success in their endeavors.

Historical Comparison: The people are compared to the corrupt practices of Omri and Ahab, indicating a continuation of sinful traditions.

Inevitable Judgment: As a result of their actions, God promises destruction and disgrace, showing that their sins have led to their downfall.

In essence, this text serves as a stern reminder of the consequences of living unjustly and the importance of integrity and righteousness in the eyes of God.

So I think it’s really in light of the context that we can perhaps try to look with fresh eyes at what God is saying to us.

Once we are re-oriented to remember the boundless grace of God, We can be tempted to kick in with a mindset of sacrifice, A mindset of scrambling to compensate for our past failings, we can wallow,

we can cast our eyes in reverse, where it’s quite possible to get stuck in a place in our minds and hearts that we no longer occupy in reality.

Instead the call to move forward with God is to press to God, to know God. And whereas our past performance may have been marred by sin or by values that are misaligned with who we are or with what we have been becoming,

The call is to right now behave as God would have us behave, which is to behave as God did behave when he was in the immediate presence of humanity. To press into and seek to reflect the attitude, behaviours and conduct of Jesus.

So it’s all about the future, it’s all about what is coming, it’s all about having hearts and minds that are prepared to respond in a way that more fully embraces and honours God.

This positions us to be able to respond to the things that are coming.

So how did God behave when he was in our mess? How did Jesus handle life and ministry?