Walking With God

"He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Micah 6:8

The context of the Micah passage is the controversy God had with His chosen people.  He had birthed the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt with miraculous deliverance, revealed Himself to them, provided His Law, and brought them into the land of promise.  Not a word failed of His good promise to them, yet they failed to keep His covenant.  They sinned more than the nations He displaced out of Canaan and He judged them with the curses written in the Law of Moses.

Micah, a God-fearing prophet, wondered what needed to be done for the nation to be restored, to show contrition for sin, and to take steps to revival.  The prophet asked God rhetorically in Micah 6:6-7:  "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"  Micah realised all the sacrifices a man could offer was not suitable to cover the greatness of their sin and transgression.  Even if they were to go beyond the Law and offer their beloved children as burnt offerings it would in no way wash them of their guilt.  So what did they need to do?

Then God spoke.  They did not need a new revelation from heaven, for God had already shown them what is good and what God requires of His people:  to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God.  The LORD's answer reminds me of David's words in Psalm 51:16-17:  "For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. ¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart--these, O God, You will not despise."  God looks upon the heart, and praise the LORD we are given new hearts through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.  There is nothing we can do to earn God's favour, no sacrifice possible to wash ourselves from guilt and shame.  He has provided His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for sin and has given us an example of justice, love of mercy, and humility in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ gave His disciples a new commandment, that they should love one another as He loved them.  By faith in God we can extend love, grace, and mercy that trumps our natural abilities.  His love is patient and kind, does not envy, boast, or keep record of wrongs.  This divine love bears all things, even endures the pain of betrayal, and seeks restoration of relationship.  To walk humbly with Jesus is to walk in the wisdom James spoke of in James 3:17 that is in stark contrast to the wisdom of this age, "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy."  Jesus has shown us how to live, and by the power of the Holy Spirit He empowers us to do so.  As we walk with Jesus by grace through faith, He always leads us in righteousness.