What Does the Lord Require of You?: A Meditation on Micah 6 for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany

Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?

shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

 

 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;

and what doth the Lord require of thee,

but to do justly, and to love mercy,

and to walk humbly with thy God?

 

The Word of the Lord came to the Prophet Micah after the division of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Isreal and Judah, but before and during the great calamity of the Assyrian Exile which wiped out the northern tribes in the 8^th century BC.  Preaching in the southern kingdom, he would have been contemporaneous with Isaiah, sharing both warnings and promises from God for His wayward people.  While the northern tribes of Isreal were almost entirely consumed in pagan idolatry and the evils of surrounding pagan nations, the southern tribes vacillated between apostasy and faithfulness, and lasted a bit longer until their evils eventually brought upon them the Babylonian Captivity of the 6^th century BC.

 

Even so, the Word of the Lord came to His people, calling them to faith and repentance, because God did not wish to see the destruction of His people, but their redemption.  The 6^th chapter of Micah’s prophesies open with God calling His people to declare where and how He was unfaithful to them, even as God recounted the ways in which He had saved their fathers in every generation past.  Micah then answered hypothetically, asking what they could possibly bring as satisfaction for their sins, from the works of their hands to even the sacrifice of their own progeny (a horrific act forbidden by God, but often practiced by the pagans around them).  To those false answers, Micah received the great and resonating response:  He hath shown thee, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

 

Justice, Mercy, and Humility are what God demands of His people, because they envelope the entire order of Creation from its beginning to its end.  Justice is related to the Law, demanding that God’s people follow His Word to avoid evil and embrace what is good, true, and beautiful, as He once thundered from Mt. Sinai and delivered to Moses on tablets of stone.  Mercy relates to the Gospel of grace, preferring forgiveness to vengeance, and foreshadowing the Vicarious Atonement of Jesus who would take away the sins of the whole world.  Humility before God enfolds both Faith which believes, loves, and trusts God above all things, and Repentance which turns from evil to walk again in the ways of the Lord.  Thus, in the prophecies of Micah 700 years before Jesus, we hear the foreshadowing of the Holy Gospel which Jesus would send His Apostles to preach unto the ends of the earth and until the end of time:  Repentance and the Forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ alone.  Micah preached in type and form what Jesus would reveal fully by His life, death, and resurrection, with Justice, Mercy, and Humility all fulfilled in the Incarnation of the Eternal Word.

 

If it seems curious that the world is lacking in Justice, Mercy, and Humility, it should not.  Ours is an age in which many have abandoned humble faith and repentance before God in exchange for the intoxicating highs of Pride and self-worship.  Where is Justice found, when souls seek their own elevation and ignore the Creator who brought them into being, and to whom they must one day give an account? Who can discern Good and Evil when the Word of the Lord is rejected for social convenience and self-satisfaction? Where will Mercy be found when evil abounds, and the love of many grow cold?  Can forgiveness and grace be multiplied when there is no faith or repentance?  The humility of faith is what brings forth true justice and mercy in the lives of men, reflecting the Light of Christ who is the fullness of Justice, Mercy, and Humility. Without Christ, the world falls back into the old pagan darkness, surrounded by enemies they cannot defeat, where lawlessness and vindictiveness find their final fruits in death and destruction.

 

Yet we carry a greater hope than the darkness of any age, just as Micah carried that hope 2,700 years ago, and our forefathers carried it in every age since.  We may not be able in our own power to overcome the darkness, but Jesus has already done so.  It is Christ who calls the world to Faith and Repentance, that Love and Mercy might rain down upon every soul, every family, every parish, every community, and every nation who turns back to Him.  In Christ all Justice is satisfied, that His people might pursue what is good by the power of His Holy Spirit, speaking Mercy as it was spoken to them, and showing forth Humility in Faith and Repentance as our Lord has given it to them through His Cross.  Before the Light of Christ there is no darkness that cannot be put to flight, nor evil which cannot repelled— for Christ heals the wounds in every soul so that they might rise up in His Word to heal everyone else around them.  Now, even here, the Word and Light of Christ shines forth with undimmed glory, enlightening every soul who will turn to Him, believe and live.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.