God has chosen to bless His people Israel and through them, the world.
• They were set apart to worship God and be His witnesses to the nations.
• But sadly, the people have gone astray.
God was pleading His case, calling the mountains and hills to be His witnesses.
• 6:3 “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.”
• Have I stressed you out? Have I burdened you so much that I drove you away?
6:4-5 says, look at what I’ve done. I saved you from slavery in Egypt. I gave you leaders to guide you out. When King Balak asked prophet Balaam to curse you, I stopped him. I’ve helped you overcome all obstacles on your journey out.
• I have been faithful to you. I did not let you down. I have kept the promise I made to Abraham, that his descendants will be blessed.
• You are if you would only stop and think, try to recall and remember.
God has been the faithful one. He has kept His promises. It’s sad that we need prompters to remind us of that.
• We live busy and cluttered lives. We lose sense of His presence and His concerns.
• We need to be deliberate in making time for God, to think about His Word, His workings in our lives, and His concerns.
• How do you do that? One way is to join a small group. Share what God is doing.
This recounting reveals God’s faithfulness, but sadly, against the backdrop of Israel’s unfaithfulness.
• “But what happened to you?” You can almost hear God asking. “I kept my part of the deal, but what about you?”
• Have you been faithful to your faithful God? Have you kept your promise to Him?
TRUE WORSHIP RELATES
True worship is an encounter with God. It relates. It is a communion.
Israel has left Him. What they’ve got now is religion, not a relationship. They’ve the look of it, but no substance.
• You have the look of a Christian, but your heart is not with Him. This is scary. If it can happened to Israel and the Pharisees in Jesus’ time, it can happen to us.
• Where is your heart today? Where is God in your life?
Micah 6:6-7 paints a sad picture: “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? [THE BEST] 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? [used in cereal offering, A LOT]
• I come with the best sacrifices, in terms of quality and quantity…
• Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” [even so my firstborn, copying the pagan worship of the Canaanites]
This was really sad. The Lord puts it this way to prophet Isaiah (contemporary of Micah) - Isaiah 29:13 “The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
• They have all the outward forms, but their hearts were far from God. They were living in sin and living religiously.
• Prov 21:2-3 “All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. 3 To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”
So what does God really wants? What does He expects from the people?
God is looking for RIGHT LIVING, not the rituals; the RIGHT HEART, not the forms.
• 6:8 “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.”
• This line was very similar to what Jesus said, to the Pharisees in Matt 23:23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices - mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”
• They were not without God’s Word. They were not ignorant of God’s ways. They knew it but they failed to keep it.
• Sound familiar? It’s all too familiar, right? We all struggle with that.
TRUE WORSHIP OBEYS
God says, the best worship you can give Me is not the offering of the best calves or the most, thousands of ram, but to do what I have shown you.
• The best worship we can give to God is to live in obedience to His Word.
• We worship God when we do God’s will. We worship God when we obey Him. When we honour God’s Name, that’s worship!
• Samuel told King Saul (1 Sam 15:22) “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
True worship therefore can only come from a heart of obedience.
• In true worship, we become and behave like the One we worship. It is not just an act (like bringing sacrifices or coming to church), it is a life.
• This is not easy for us to remember, because we are so conditioned by the surroundings and by tradition to think of worship as an event.
• We tend to compartmentalise our life into different areas – church life, personal life, family life, corporate life, social life… And when we come to church, that’s worship – an event where we dress our best and behave our best.
But worship is more than that. The Lord tells the Samaritan woman by the well – it has nothing to do with the PLACE but the PERSON of God.
• If worship is an encounter with Christ, then it happens every day and every where.
• Each time I choose to obey God and do His will, when His Name is honoured by my words and behaviour, I am worshipping Him!
• Are you worshipping Him every day? We are not talking about songs, but our thoughts, words and behaviour.
TRUE WORSHIP IMPACTS
The Christian faith is not an individualistic faith. It is not just about me and God, and nothing else.
• Israel was blessed to become a blessing to the nations. God’s blessing is not an end in itself – it is a witness to a lost world. It changes lives.
• The question, “What does the Lord require of you?” showed God’s expectations. God expects Israel’s faith to have changed their society.
It is interesting to hear what God said to prophet Ezekiel about Sodom.
• Ezekiel 16:49-50 “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.”
• The poor and needy are always on God’s radar screen. People are God’s concern.
Two orphaned brothers stay in a slum district of New York City. One of them is crippled and hardly leaves the room. The older brother has to take care of him and buys him food.
His younger brother lamented one day that he has not seen the sunlight for a long time. The older brother thought of an idea.
He put on his ragged clothes and ran down to the street with a small piece of broken mirror. He stood in the sun with the mirror.
“What are you doing?” someone asked. He said, “See that window up there? I have a little brother staying in that room. He’s a crippled. The only sunlight he can see is what I shine up to him with my mirror!”
The SON light that those in darkness will see is the light that is being reflected by our lives. So “let your light shine before men…” Jesus says (Mt 5:16).
To do that, we need to stay in the light.
• Stay connected to Jesus. It is all about relationship, not religion.
• Obey Him. Outward forms mean nothing if our heart is not right with God.
• Lastly, Micah says, “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” That’s how your light shines – “that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Jesus says. (Mt 5:16)
In the last week or so, 3 persons that I’ve not been in contact with for almost a year called me – Li Fang, Zhou Yang, and Qiao Liang. It has been so long, and surprisingly in a span of one week they called me, all with different requests. They needed my help, and I did what I can.
I believe through all these little acts of kindness, they will come to know the love of God, especially the 2 who are not serious believers.
Will I be taken advantage of? Maybe, sometimes, I think. Nevertheless, I am glad the connection is there and I hope by the “good works” they will come to know our good God.
Without any connections, my faith is dormant. There is no impact.
If the Lord dwells in my heart, and is the Lord seated on the throne of my heart, then I am an agent of change for my world!
6:8 “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.”
