“What God Desires”
Part 2: Micah 6:8 “Loving-kindness”
This week we continue our three week series on “What God Desires.” Last week we introduced ourselves to the prophet Micah and in particular the lawsuit God filed against his people for their breaking of their covenant agreement. Essentially by this agreement, the people of God were to obey his commandments in return for God’s protection and blessing.
ILLUSTARTION: American humorist, Sam Levenson once said about the Ten Commandments
Different people look for different things in the Ten Commandments. Some are looking for divine guidance, some for a code of living, but most people are looking for loopholes.
Sadly I suspect this to be case for many of us. Instead of looking to live the way God want us to live, we look to find a way out, and live the way we want to. However, God promised his curse for disobedience. As the story unfolds throughout the Old Testament, the people of God wanted their own way. In so doing they devised ways they believe would gain favour with God. So they focused their attention on ritual practices and sacrifice. As we determined in Micah 6:8, this is not what God wanted at all. God is more interested in the way people live than their religious practice. Even things such as attending church, praying, tithing and volunteering can become religious practices by which we try and buy God’s favour. However, God demands that we, “act justly,” “love mercy,” and “walk humbly.” When we live this way we demonstrate the love that God has for us, and hopefully the love we will display for others. For this is what God desires.
PRAY:
“Mercy”
The word mercy has been translated in other bible versions as, “steadfast love,” “unfailing love,” “love,” and “loving-kindness.” All of these demonstrate different aspects of the original Hebrew language, but none do so sufficiently by themselves. These words emanate from the Hebrew word hesed. Hesed appears in the Old Testament 250 times. Half of these appearances occur in the Book of Psalms.
As we did last week of the word, “justice” we ask ourselves the question, “why does God require us to ‘love’ or ‘demonstrate’ loving-kindness.” It should be no surprise that our response is the same as it was for us “acting justly.” It is because God’s nature and character is that he is a loving God, willing to demonstrate mercy, even when his people disobey.
1. God is loving and faithful
The God we worship is a God of love.
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6)
You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. (Psalm 86:5)
Even when Israel sinned -- he assured them of his loving-kindness
The LORD is slow to anger and rich in unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion … (Numbers 14:18a NLT)
The assurance of God’s loving-kindness is bound in the covenant relationship with his people.
You will be my people and I will be your God
God’s love is distinctive in that it is based on “loyalty” as in the loyalty shown to Abraham and his descendants. God’s covenant with his people is a “covenant of love”
If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers (Deuteronomy 7:12).
God’s love is enduring, it never fades or rusts.
The LORD’S loving kindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail (Lamentations 3:22).
The endless love is God’s commitment to his people, even if they are unresponsive and unrighteous. His loving kindness is his covenant. And so his blessings to his people speak also of his love.
ILLUSTRATION: A Sunday School teacher asked her class if they knew the difference between kindness and loving kindness. One little girl said she knew the difference. She told the teacher that kindness is like when you ask your mother for some toast and she gives it to you, but loving kindness is when you ask your mother for some toast and she gives it to you with butter and jam on it. And that’s the way God is. God, in his loving kindness, is an exceedingly generous giver. He doesn’t just give you some blessings, but He gives some ‘blessins’ with some butter and jam on it.
With butter and jam God showered the Israelites with blessings (Deuteronomy 7:13-16)
Israel is to “love” God—they are to be faithful as a covenant partner—as God loves Israel. However, there is no suggestion of coercion or manipulation on any being’s part; whether it is on God’s part or on a human being’s part. Israel’s relationship of faithfulness to God is motivated by love.
2. God requires us to show loving kindness
By now it should be no surprise to us that God requires us to show loving kindness, because that is his nature. God wants us to imitate him. Human beings who love God are to display kindness and faithfulness toward each other, especially the poor, the weak and needy.
What a person desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar (Proverbs 19:22)
However the people of God often fell short when it came to showing loving kindness. All the while, God desired a people who would maintain covenant loyalty and responsibility so that He could build his righteous community.
The prophet Nehemiah was one such person. On returning to Israel from exile in Babylon, Nehemiah challenged his people to rebuild the city walls and the temple to re-establish worship of God. At the end of his time he says to God,
Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services (Nehemiah 13:14)
Nehemiah faithfully demonstrated his love for God and his people by rebuilding the city.
God continues to build righteous faith communities to this day, and will well into the future. Though there one key difference today from 2,500 years ago. You see, no matter how much they tried, the people of God could not love God they he wanted them too. They became so enslaved by ritual and sacrifice that their worship practices meant little to God. So God had to do something to rescue all people from this slavery. His rescue plan was to send Jesus.
Jesus died on the cross in order that we might choose to love God because of that act of loving kindness, that act of mercy. God knew that human beings could not love by their own volition. So now, our religious practice, our rituals and sacrifices are no longer needed.
One day Jesus was asked a question about which is the greatest (or the most indispensible) of the Laws of Moses (Ten Commandments). Jesus replied:
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
Jesus even said on another occasion that we are to “love our enemies.” All of this stemmed, because as the bible says, God “so loved the world,” that the only solution was for him to lose his Son. The greatest act of loving kindness the world has seen. And there is no need to repay him; the debt was paid in full. Yet as a response to this great love, we should want to love as God has loved us. This is how God builds a faithful covenant community, one believer at a time.
What about us, what is God doing in Whangarei Central Baptist Church in 2009? In the short time that Bonnie and I have been here, we have witnessed many acts of loving kindness. We have been on the receiving end of some of these acts. On other occasions we have merely watched as members of this church have faithfully loved on others in the wider community. We cannot however become complacent in our efforts to love others. Many churches die as they rest on the laurels of their achievements that have long passed by. Perhaps we might respond and say, the issues are too great, how can I, one person make a difference. Well, you know they say that the way to eat an elephant is by eating it one spoonful at a time. You can change the world by changing the world in one person, one person at a time.
ILLUSTRATION: Starfish
An old man was walking on the beach one day and he noticed that hundreds and maybe thousands of starfish had been washed up on the beach and were dying. He thought to himself what a shame, but what could he do, he was only but one person. The problem was too great. Then something in the distance caught his eye. He went closer to investigate. When he got closer he noticed a little girl picking up starfish one at a time, throwing them into the ocean. The old man thinking this was a waste of time asked her what she thought she would achieve, that the problem was too great. What difference did she think she could make. At that the young girl bent done, picked up a starfish and threw back in the ocean and said, “I made a difference for that one.”
