Micah 6:1-8. LBC (London School of Theology). Monday 10th Jan 94
Walking home from work one lunchtime this week I passed one of the guys I know in the street (because his son’s a christian...) sweeping snow off his car. Seeing me he said "thank you God" (kind of Eyore style) as he swept a load of snow off. "And thank you God for yesterday!"
When I asked him what happened yesterday he said "yeah- your God sent all that rain... and the electrics of my car just drink it in... yeah, and thanks God for that great big puddle that when I hit it just washed out my electrics... and then your God sent all this disgusting snow"
Actually.. he’s quite a good bloke... at least you know where you stand with him (and I do think he’ll eventually get ’zapped’).
"It’s funny how God gets the blame...rather than your car... or your driving", I said. "I’ve heard with these cars the problem is with the NUT holding the wheel"... sort of thing.
We went on to discuss other things from there.
It’s funny how God gets the blame for things... and of course in a way everything IS His fault.. but especially when we’re ’far from Him’ He gets the blame for things that are our own making. Or we doubt His loving hand because we can’t understand His working in our circumstances.
This is the situation here.
"My people, what have I done to you" (V3)
Israel thought they had a claim.. or a charge.. against God for the things happening to them- "I mean, why do you put these burdens on us, God?! Why do you reject the sacrifices we offer? How can you allow these Assyrians to threaten and assail us... we don’t deserve this kind of thing!"
The situation is that Samaria .. and even Jerusalem.. are in moral decline. Amos, a generation earlier, tells us of the rot setting in in SAmaria.. and inside information given us by Isaiah and Micah tell us just how bad things are. The gap between rich and poor had broadened to the point where landowners were now dependent on the elite rich. Dishonesty ruled as even the judges were corrupt. The religious leaders weren’t much better.
Things LOOKED good, religiously, as the gifts made to the temple were pretty lavish- but there was little evidence that some loved God.. or their neighbour. Ahab’s false religion had permeated the whole nation in just over a century. As an accomanying sign of this spiritual decline the power of Assyria overshadows the book and the fate of (particularly) Israel..
They think it’s God whose let them down. But God protests His innocence: "What have I done to you?" "HOW have I burdened you?... TESTIFY AGAINST ME!"
In reality they had wronged God... and what we have here in chapter 6, really, is a courtroom scene.
God tells Micah (V1) to state his case before witnesses.. before the mountains (which have been around long enough to have seen the whole thing..)
Micah speaks to Judah and particularly Israel in V2 saying "the LORD is lodging a charge against Israel"
and in V3
God tells it like it is
His aim is to rebuke Israel, and to woo them back. He LOVES them and He fires straight at their heart. He calls them "MY people" twice. He calls them to look back and reflect on what He’s done for them in the past. To "count their blessings"- then they’ll see just how much God has been with them.
I don’t know how you feel... entering another term.. you might be excited.. you might be exhausted, already (Gosh, I need another holiday)... you might be wondering where God is in all of this (yes, I’m sure people do that.. even working at a BIBLE college)... or a whole load of feelings that accompany the ’post-christmas slump’- varying from expectancy and the deisre to get ’stuck in’ through ’endurance & comitment’ to sheer spiritual weariness and dispondency.
But here, in their dispondency and sin God calls them to reflect on His deeds of the past. To remember His faithfulness as revealed over centuries rather than in the ups and downs of days and months.
REMEMBER your redemption from slavery, Pharoah and Egypt
REMEMBER the great leaders I sent you
REMEMBER how Moab’s attempted curse of Israel was turned to a blessing because GOD WAS FOR THEM. Pharoah and his magicians didn’t stop them. Neither did Balak’s.
God’s aim in asking them to reflect is twofold: firstly, they’ll see God does love them, is with them... and can do it again
Secondly, they’ll realise that the way things are with them are a pointer to the fact that THEY are the ones who need to change their approach, not God.
I was asking God how this applied to you guys... as having been led to the text He must have an application for you all... and I thought "it’s stretching it, Lord... as I doubt many of them have been exploiting the poor this week ( I mean they ARE the poor!).. or falling into Ahab’s sin of false religion.
But the principles apply all the same: Are you weary spiritually? Does God seem a million miles from you... rejecting your sacrifice? Do you feel you have a claim against God for the things in your life.. what He’s allowed... for the fact that being a christian... or specifically working in a christian environment seems so burdensome at times? REFELCT ON WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE IN THE PAST.
How He has come up with the goods (late though it may seem). How He has proven faithful. That same faithfulness will be seen again.
The second principle may apply, too. Of course it isn’t expoitation & false religion that’s the problem with you... but look at how the israelites respond to to God’s gracious case, as presented.
You’d have thought this emotionally charged statement from God of His loving paternity of them, and His past faithfulness would have prompted them to say "Yes Lord, I love you!" and "OK, Lord, I got it wrong.. not you... you’re innocent.. you havn’t made it hard for me". Would have prompted a response with loving and obedient hearts.
Instead.
Instead, they turn to a response of ritualism, and ’contract’, and almost trying to buy God’s favour back once they realise they’re in the wrong (V6).... shown in a series of parallel lines each beginning with "shall I"...
Shall I give Him burnt offerings... thousands of rams.. myriads of torrents of oil... my firstborn child?
It seems spiritual.... what devotion to the Lord? But they’ve missed the point! God loves them! That’s it! It’s as simple as that. And this response appears spiritual but actually shows an inward blindness to God’s goodness and character.
An awareness of their brokeness before God has caused them to try and BUY His favour... (I mean they were used to buying people!), and try and earn security by always increasing the price.
But it just doesn’t work like that. God loves them. He has shown them what is good.
You see, there are ways in which this passage speaks specifically to us... all of us as christian workers. Isn’t the malise of the christian worker the sense of being driven... wanting to work so hard for God... even feeling you have to..? Often feeling so bound up by the requirements of christianity... when surely it’s about FREEDOM
You DON’T earn God’s favour by what you DO.
Maybe that’s not you. Good. But my guess is it’s a number here.
And at the start of a new term, when we’re asking God what He wants of us... here’s the answer. In the end it’s all very simple. This is what the Lord requires of you:
Act justly. Do what is right. Be fair. Don’t show favouritism in who you rub shoulders with. Have integrity in all that you do.
Love mercy. Do just things for the right motive. Don’t manipulate. Be merciful to oneanother... try and get on... and don’t grouch
and criticise.
Walk Humbly with your God: It’s all very simple... and it’s all about loving Jesus. Isn’t that why you joined up here- because you love Him and simply wanted to serve Him. And that’s what it’s still about- and don’t let the simplicity of that be stripped from you.
Loving Jesus... listening to Him... walking with Him.. learning to know His ways... learning to simply care for others (even the difficult). That’s what it’s all about.
The added danger is that as leaders if we don’t model this kind of secure simlicity (rather than talking about it) how will our understudies ever lern about true Christian simlicity and freedom.
Maybe you, like me love: growth. Goals. Lectures. Zeal. Enthusiasm. Even administration, and typing occasionally. But in the end it is required of us that we be proven faithful ,simple lovers of Jesus, and nothing else.
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