Micah was a man who lived and prophesied in southern Israel about seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus. That was a tough time to live in Israel. God had had enough of his peoples’ violence, idolatry, and oppression, and he sent Micah and other contemporaries to warn about his coming wrath. God made it clear that he would stand up for the weak and the oppressed, the widows and the orphans, and all who like sheep needed a true shepherd.
It seems that the Israelites, even though they claimed to live in covenant with God, were living like the pagans around them. Just as corrupt. Just as selfish. Just as unjust. And God told them that their religious rituals and gifts directed to God wouldn’t save them from his judgment if they stayed on the same wicked path. God demanded more than ritual sacrifices. Hear what God told Micah to proclaim to his neighbors:
“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?” (Micah 6:8, ESV).
Too often, we hear words like these that call for a higher ethic and a nobler way of life, and we immediately think of others who really need to hear it. But God needs us, as his children, to hear it ourselves. Let’s apply these words at home. Let’s live these words at school and work. Let’s put God’s commands into practice in all our relationships, because if we don’t start there, our lives will have no power to bring about change in the unbelieving world around us.
— Patrick Barber