Micah 6:8 “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?”
There has been SO much going on lately. And, I don’t know about you, but it seems like everybody and their mother has advice for how to respond.
Pause from posting your regular life on social media but do NOT remain silent.
Elevate the voices that have not been listened to and use your own voice to speak up!
Protest, march, black out your social media in solidarity… but only in the ways that are actually helpful to the cause.
All of the above are great responses! They also seem to cancel each other out… and they are only a handful of ways non-black people of colour (POC) and white allies can do to show support and actively pursue change.
It can be incredibly overwhelming to take in the news and try to figure out how to respond. Whether it’s the recently accelerated anti-racism movement in North America or the marking a year of anti-government protests in Hong Kong. Phases for COVID-19 beginning to advance around the province as the GTA lags in our allowances…
How in the world are we supposed to respond?!
God has been bringing me back to Micah 6:8 a lot over the last few weeks. Reminding me that his heart is to see justice in action, for us to love his kindness (other translations say mercy) over judgement, and for us to continue walking humbly with him.
The verses right before this commonly quoted and calligraphed verse express the confusion and frustration of the people of God. God has just seriously called them out on how they are living their lives, neglecting him and forgetting all he has done for them!
And their response is, “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?” (verse 6)
They go on to list ridiculously impossible suggestions: “thousands of rams?” “ten thousand rivers of oil?” “shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions?” “the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?!”
Can’t you just hear the desperation and panic rising as they realize how far from redemption they are? As we realize how deep our sins and transgressions run, it can be easy to become overwhelmed by how inadequate our response might seem…
But the prophet Micah responds calmly and steadily to the spiralling out people; with a peace that only comes from a secure, grounded-ness in God: “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?”
He doesn’t want our over-the-top sacrifices to make up for the sins we’ve committed. He wants us to continue moving forward. Notice that none of those three things listed are backwards or retroactive actions!
DO justice. LOVE mercy. WALK humbly with your God.
Keep going. Keep moving. He has already told you what he requires. You’ve heard him before, and you need to be reminded now. And that’s okay! Let’s keep going… together.
The Hebrew word that is used here for kindness, or mercy, is the word hesed. It’s one of my absolute favourite Hebrew words… It speaks of God’s loving-kindness and his mercy, but there is a covenantal meaning that absolutely breaks my brain every time I think about it. What is being communicated by hesed is that God has made a covenant with his people – a covenant he cannot and will not EVER break, because he literally cannot do so and still be God – to always extend loving-kindness, mercy and compassion to his people. No matter what we do.
This is what he is calling us to love and take delight in!
I have no idea where we all go practically with the state of the world and even the state of our personal lives… I don’t know how exactly each of us must respond. But I do know that the Lord is calling each of us to remember what he has already told us… to act and be about bringing justice to the oppressed, to delight in his covenantal promise of hesed, and to journey forward together with him.
Jesus, thank you for being our Prince of Peace… our world needs You to reign here now!
May we sense your comfort as we walk with you, Lord.
May we be uplifted by your covenant to always love us by showing us mercy.
Give us wisdom, Holy Spirit, to know how to respond to our surroundings moment by moment… and may our inner thoughts and dilemmas never detract from being about bringing justice to those who need it most!
Thank you for never leaving us and for promising to be with us to the end.
Bring to completion that which you have started in us, Father.
We love you and we trust you.
Amen.