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Micah 6:1-4, 6-8 – Hear what the Lord says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against His people, and He will contend with Israel. “O My people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer Me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” … “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, 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 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?
It’s hard for me to grasp what God’s doing here—pleading with His people, contending with them, as the prophet calls it. Why should God almighty fight with Israel? Why not just decide they’re a waste of time, and wipe them out? It’s like me humbling myself to argue with an ant hill. What is so important about Israel that God will humble Himself to plead with them, to argue, to call them back to Himself?
Only one thing, really—and that is the fact that God has set His heart on these people, and He will not be happy until they return to Him. He loves them, little though they deserve it. He wants them back, even though He knows what they are. He intends to transform them, to make them His own children, people who actually do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with their God.
But how? It isn’t going to happen by God handing down laws from Mt. Sinai. He did that, and the people broke them before they even got the written copy. It isn’t going to happen by God sending prophets, either. He did that, year after year, and what was the result? They didn’t listen, and the whole nation went into exile as a result.
No, God’s going to do something unheard of. He’s going to come down from heaven Himself, to become a human baby, the Man Christ Jesus. He’s going to live as a man, teaching and healing and preaching, until the day when His own friends betray Him and He goes to the cross. And there He will die, in nakedness and shame, suffering for the evil of His people—because He knows that is the only way He can set us all free from the power of evil, and bring us home to Himself.
And then He will rise from the dead, never to die again—making Himself the very Source of life for everyone who trusts in Him. That is what God is planning. That is what God actually did, in order to win His people—all people—back to Himself. And it’s working, isn’t it?
WE PRAY: Dear Lord, thank You for calling me to Yourself, to be Your own. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.
Reflection Questions:
- Does it surprise you that God most high cares so much about us?
- How do you know for sure that He cares?
- What has He done for you in particular to bring you to Himself?
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