Micah 6:6-8

Marriage is a covenant relationship. A good marriage has love at the center of that covenant. Like all relationships based on love, marriage sometimes requires sacrifice. Some of the sacrifices are small, and at other times, love will require large sacrifices. We make the sacrifices because of the relationship; the sacrifices do not create the relationship.

Israel was in a covenant relationship with God. Love was the center of that relationship, but Israel had shattered it by loving themselves and the world instead of Him. Micah’s preaching confronted them with the consequences of their actions; they had lost the Lord’s protection. Faced with the devastation that was coming, many were wondering how they could be reconciled with God. Micah asked a series of rhetorical questions, and the answer to all of them were no.

Was there anything they could bring to the Lord that would force Him to forgive them? No! Would burnt offerings make a difference? No! Would giving the best and most expensive yearling calves force God to forgive them? No! If not quality, would quantity be enough? No! Thousands and tens of thousands could not bribe God. If they sacrificed their firstborn sons, would that impress God? No! That would just make them murderers and more wicked than they already were. There was nothing they could sacrifice to reconcile themselves to God.

Micah tells them that all they can do is what they agreed to do in the first place. They can live righteous. They can act rightly and justly toward others. They can love mercy, and prove it, by showing mercy to those who need it. Most importantly, they can walk humbly with God. God offered them the original covenant out of grace and mercy, and now the same grace and mercy offered reconciliation and restoration to all who would repent and keep the covenant.

Today we are reconciled to God through faith in Jesus, but His requirement that we are to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him remains unchanged.