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Long-stemmed lotus in Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens
Micah 6: 1-8 (NIV)
1 Listen to what the Lord says:
“Stand up, plead your case before the mountains;
let the hills hear what you have to say.”
2 Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;
listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the Lord has a case against his people;
he is lodging a charge against Israel.
3 My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
4 I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
5 My people, remember
what Balak king of Moab plotted
and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
6 “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?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has shown you, O mortal, 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.
The prophet presented to the people of Judah what we might imagine to be a courtroom scene. Recognising that the covenants which the Lord made with his people were centuries old, the prophet depicted God’s employing as his witnesses what existed all those centuries ago. The mountains and hills knew that God was right and that he was fully justified in making serious accusations against his chosen people. All his gracious acts in releasing his people from slavery in Egypt and all his protective interventions as his people journeyed through hostile territory towards the promised land seemed to have been forgotten. The Lord demanded repentance from his people because of their failure to honour him.
How then were the people of Judah to respond to “the righteous acts of the Lord” (verse 5c)?
The prophet posed rhetorical questions (“shall I come before him …”, “shall I offer …”) knowing that the people would see that God’s answer to them would be “No. No. No.”
Verse 8 rings out throughout the Old Testament as of enduring validity and of constant truth. God had already shown to the people what he required of them. Act justly! Love mercy! Walk humbly with God! We encounter similar injunctions in the Psalms (50: 12-15), spoken by Jeremiah (7: 5-7) and famously recorded among the “minor prophets” as evinced here:
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6: 6 to Israel
But you must return to your God;
maintain love and justice,
and wait for your God always.
Hosea 12: 6 to Israel
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Amos 5: 24 to Israel
This is what the Lord Almighty said: “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.”
Zechariah 7: 9-10 to Judah
It is good for us to know Micah 6: 8 by heart and to repeat it until we own it for ourselves.