Walking with God
6/9/26 Bible Thought (Micah 6)
Main Idea: In light of God’s great goodness, He desires His people’s whole-hearted devotion.
A Look at the Text:
In Micah 6, we see God call creation to witness against His people and their many sins. Essentially, what we have here is a courtroom scene.[1] Though apparently the people felt wearied by God (Mic. 6:3), He had been especially kind to them.
God delivered them from Egyptian slavery by a gift of His grace (Mic. 6:4). Even more, when His people were on their way to the land of promise and met opposition, God blessed them.
Balak, the king of Moab, tasked the prophet Balaam with cursing God’s people. To this, God had already commanded the prophet, “You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed” (Num. 22:12; Mic. 6:5). God’s disposition towards them was unequivocally good. Yet, it apparently wasn’t enough.
It appears that it is the people who respond in verses six and seven with essentially the unreasonableness of God’s demands. Bringing the nicest sacrifices, a myriad of sacrifices, or even their firstborn child, none of it would be enough.
To this, the Lord reveals through Micah that this wasn’t what He was looking for at all:
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Mic. 6:8).
At the end of the day, God wanted them.
He wanted them to be just in their dealings with others. He wanted them to love kindness or steadfast love and to pursue it as He gave it so freely to them. He wanted them to walk humbly, faithfully with Him. He wasn’t tasking them with impossible demands—especially if they would consider how good He had already been to them in the past.
Bringing it Home:
Throughout the pages of Scripture, we see the Lord’s indictment of His people who failed to walk in His ways while offering some form of worship to Him.
Israel’s first king, Saul, was corrected by the prophet Samuel for this very reason. After he disobeyed God’s command, using worship as an excuse, the prophet told the truth plainly to him: “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam. 15:22).
God’s desire first and foremost is not to have worship but to have the worshipper. Rather than bringing sacrifices, it is best to bring yourself. To be, as Paul puts it, “a living sacrifice” (see Rom. 12:1-2) in light of God’s unfathomable mercy towards us.
What does that look like? In Micah’s understanding, it was doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. Essentially, that their walk with God would be genuine and would impact their dealings with their fellow humans.
In a very similar fashion, the Lord Jesus once made it plain that all the commandments of the law hung on but two: love God, and love your neighbor (see Matt. 22:37-40).
We can quickly overcomplicate these things, but at the end of the day, God simply wants us—whole, entire, and fully devoted to Him. This will be proven through our walk with Him and our treatment of others.
Challenge:
Do I try to cover up a lackluster zeal for God in my day-to-day life with Sunday worship?
[1] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Mic 6:1.