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RE Verse reading–Micah 6:1-8 (day six)  “My people, what have I done to you?  How have I burdened you?  Answer me.”  (vs 3)  It is a question that we might ask a spouse or a friend.  In moment of tension, we might say “what have I done to?  Why are you acting this way?”  It rarely elicits a response.  The truth is too uncomfortable.  In this case, the plaintiff is God and the complaint is against His people.  What possible explanation is there for their behavior?  Has He been unkind to them?  Just the opposite.  He has provided for them and been attentive to them.  Even so, His kindness has been answered with ingratitude.  No good deed goes unpunished.  Maybe a pleading God seems weak to you.  He is, however, making a point.  Our disloyal lives have nothing to do with a failure of His.  The truth is deeper (and worse) than we imagine.  We are ungrateful people.

RE Verse reading–Micah 6:1-8  (day five)  “The Lord has a case against his people. . . a charge against Israel”  (vs 2)  It was a common prophetic dream–a day when the people of God would be effectively confronted with their sins and the irrationality of their behavior.  If you have ever been in a dysfunctional relationship, you understand.  You probably dreamed of the day when you would be able to say what you were thinking–to express to the alcoholic or the narcissist or the ungrateful child all the pain you have felt.  You probably fantasized that they would see the  “error of their ways” and change.  Micah verbalized a similar dream from the Lord–a day when the people of Judah would be indicted and hauled into court.  Maybe then they would understand the seriousness.  It is what God wants for all of us–a time when He can confront us regarding our sin.  “Come let us reason together (argue). . .says the Lord” (Isaiah 1:18)

RE Verse reading–Micah 6:1-8 (day four)  “I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam”  (vs 4)  As God makes his case against Judah, as He reminds of His faithfulness and contrasts it with their unfaithfulness,  He recalls the leaders He has sent to them.  Ephesians 4 makes a similar point.  “And He GAVE some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints. . .until we all attain. . .to the fullness of Christ”  (vs11-13)  One of the ways that God speaks His love to us is by sending us leaders. Sunday School teachers, pastors and Presidents, mayors and managers.  They are gifts from God!  It is possible, in our tension with authority in general,  to forget that behind even imperfect leaders is a perfect love of God.  Read Romans 13 and Hebrews 13:17-18.  May we be faithful and prayerful and grateful followers.  Leaders are expressions of His love.

RE Verse reading–Micah 6:1-8 (day three)  “He has showed you, O man, 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”  (vs 8)  With apologies to Jim Collins, it is not greatness that God requires of us.  It is goodness.  They are not the same thing.  Not wealth, fame, status, or power.  Something more humble.  Something more human.  The word humble comes from the Latin word humus.  It means “earth or dirt”.  Much of our anxiety leaves when we realize that we were made from dirt and will return to it eventually.  The Lord does not expect more from us than we are capable (in fellowship with Him) of achieving.  Humility reminds us of our need for God.  To walk humbly with God is His plan for us and leads to acting justly and loving mercy.  Such a life, from God’s perspective, is very good.

RE Verse reading–Micah 6:1-8 (day two)  “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?  Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings?”  (vs 6)  Worship for the ancients was inseparable from gift giving.  No person would think to appear before a King (much less God) without a gift.  Think of the wise men who, “fell to the ground and worshiped Him. . .and presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh”  (Matthew 2:11)  “With what shall I come before the Lord?”  asked the people of Judah in Micah’s day?  Good question.  The problem was their answer.  They imagined that God was only (or mainly) concerned with “church things”.  If there was a problem with God what would satisfy Him would be more “church things”.  It fell to Micah to set this straight.  What God wants from us is not something we can give Him at church.  It is a certain kind of life.

RE Verse reading–Micah 6:1-8 (day one)  “He has showed you, O man, 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”  (Micah 6:8)  Sunday, we will recognize the High School graduating class of 2012.  It will be a celebration for 22 FBC Seniors and their families and their church family.  To qualify, these students must have taken and completed the required classes.  What does God require of us?  (Hebrew–darash, “to seek”)  For what does He search for evidence we have completed His course of study? When He looks over the transcript of our lives, for what does He look? Requirement is an unbending word. There is no gospel here–only Law.  Surely the God of the Universe is not less demanding than a school board.  He has told us what is required.  Now we must ask,  “how can I live a life that meets these demands?”

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day seven)  “Woe to those who plan iniquity. . .I am planning disaster against this people”  (2:1,3)  Wrath is different than anger.  More deliberate.  Wrath is God’s intentional, intelligent, eternal opposition to sin.  It is God’s determined commitment to restore the world to holiness, whatever the cost.  Micah expresses this truth in a shocking way.  He says that when men plan evil, God plans disaster.  It is both bad news and good.  Even in judgement, God is careful.  He is fair and measured.  His plan leaves a way of escape for people who turn back to Him. (see the Ninevites in Jonah)  His plan wounds but offers a path of healing.  As strange as it sounds, even in His wrath, we trust Him, draw near to Him.  The dark side of a familiar truth (“I know the plans I have for you”–Jeremiah 29:11), a planning God encourages us to fear Him and make plans that He will bless.

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day six)  “Then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them. . .they will cover their faces because there is no answer from God”  (3:4, 7)  Micah predicts a day when people will cry out to God and not get an answer.  God will stop speaking.  Perhaps this is where the world (and even many in the church) are today.  Unless and until we are willing to deal honestly and humbly with Him, further talk is useless.  He resists the proud. (James 4:6)  Christ is the “Stone which the builders rejected”  (Matthew 21:42)  “In the beginning was the Word”.  (John 1:1)  Until we are willing to hear what God is saying to us through Christ, what more is there to say?   “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets. . .in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.”  (Hebrews 1:1-2)  God is still willing to speak.  We must be willing to listen.

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day five)  “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord. . .to declare to Jacob his transgression.”  (vs 3:8)  I did not expect it.  Hard assignments from God.  People that have to be loved,  situations that have to be endured, decisions that have to be patiently prayed through–for the glory of God and the good of others.  I should have known.  Micah spoke of God’s power filling his life, not for some exciting, enjoyable purpose, but to declare to Jacob his transgression. NOT a popular path!  Paul (who also had his share of difficulty) spoke of being “strengthened with all power. . .for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience”  (Colossians 1:11)  The highest purpose of God’s power is to make me patient?  Hmmmmm. . . If I never accept a hard assignment, never promise to do it with patience and without complaint, will I ever know (or even need to) the power of God?

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day four)  “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord”  (3:8)  As Micah observes the people of Judah at the close of the 8th Century BC, he marks a dramatic contrast between himself and others.  They are ashamed and confused (vs 7).  He is filled with power and the Spirit of the Lord.  They are overwhelmed by life.  He sees clearly the path ahead.  This is not spiritual pride.  It is an honest report of the life that the Holy Spirit sponsors in those He fills.  While people of Judah were praying and not receiving answers (vs 4), Micah was experiencing the Answer of God for our human frailty.  ” I will ask the Father, and He will give you Another Comforter, that He may be with you forever”  (John 14:16)  May the Lord help us realize, like Micah, that the Spirit is God’s answer to our prayers.  He is what we need.