What Shall I Give God? Micah 6:6-8 Pastor Barry Kerner
What Shall I Give God?
Micah 6:6-8
Pastor Barry Kerner
Everyone knew Albert was a hypocrite. He never went to see what he could do for his ailing mother, he never paid his bills, his language was deplorable, and his adultery broke up two homes. Yet, he worked for the church – He taught Bible classes, he served the Lord’s Supper, and he gave liberally of his means. Albert thought as long as he gave God good works, he could live however he wanted.
The Israelites really thought the same thing – They thought if they brought the right kind of sacrifices God wouldn’t care how they lived.
In Micah chapter 6 God brings a lawsuit against Israel. The imagery of God’s bringing a case against a nation and the mountains and hills being called upon to serve as judges is common in the Old Testament as well as the ancient world. The Lord first pleads his case before the mountains and hills, and he tells what good things he has done for Israel. He redeemed them from Egypt. He gave them spiritual leaders. He protected them against Balak.
God kept his part of the covenant, but the Israelites had not. God will always keep his end of the bargain, for he is faithful and true. If it seems as though God is far away, that he is not fulfilling his promises, it is because we are unfaithful, not because he is.
In our text this morning, the Israelites answer God. In verses 6 and 7, the nation attempts to placate God. In verse 8, Micah tells the nation what they really need to do.
In verses 6 and 7 the people ask God what they should bring him. The people are really bargaining with God. They basically say, “God, we do this or that, will that make you happy?”
Did God want sacrifices? They would give him burnt offerings – these offerings were totally consumed and no part was eaten. They would give yearlings. Although calves could be sacrifices from the eighth day, yearlings were considered the best calves. The Israelites were willing to give God the best sacrifices they could.
They would give thousands of rams. This sacrifice would take much wealth. In 1 Kings 3 verse 4 we find Solomon, a wealthy king, making this sacrifice. The Israelites were willing to spend much money to appease God’s wrath. They would give ten thousand rivers of oil. Oil was used in connection with many sacrifices. The amount of oil here is greatly exaggerated, but the point is that the Israelites were willing to give a great deal if God would just quit being so angry.
They would even give their firstborn. Although occasionally practiced in Israel, we find in Ezekiel 16:20-21 that child sacrifices received God’s condemnation. These Israelites were even willing to give their children if God would forgive. Imagine that! These Israelites will even kill their children if it will make God happy. They basically want God to quit being angry and bless them again and if that takes the death of their firstborn, so be it.
These Israelites wanted to earn God’s favor through their worship. They simply wanted to sacrifice to God and continue in sin.
Worship without the lifestyle to go with it is useless. In 1 Samuel 15:22, Samuel told Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Although God had told Saul to destroy everything when he went against the Amalekites, Saul did not do so. Saul told Samuel that he had spared the best animals to sacrifice to God – Saul must have thought this would make God happy. But, Samuel says that Saul should have obeyed rather than sacrifice – Worship without obedience is meaningless. Amos 5;21-24 reminds usn that God does not want worship without pure lives.
We can do exactly the same thing as these Jews. We can go through the motions on Sunday and live the way we want the rest of the week. We can give liberally of our means, yet not love our neighbor. We can take the Lord’s Supper, but harbor bitterness against a neighbor.
Micah tells the people that true religion is nothing but the enjoyment of a personal relationship with God through faith and sincere prayer. This truth is emphasized over and over again in the Bible. It is taught in many different ways: It is taught by precept in the commandment, Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the LORD thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”
True religion is taught by example in the life of Enoch who “walked with God” (Genesis 5:22), and in the life Abraham who was called the “Friend of God” (James 2:23), and also in the life of King David who was known as the “Man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). It is also taught through the recorded praises and prayers of people who had fellowshipped with God. As King David wrote in Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.”
And yet, despite such an abundance of clear teaching from God about what true religion is all about, it is this point that always seems to be missed by many! Time and time again people miss this important truth completely in all their religious efforts and activities. They reduce religion to nothing more than the holding of certain beliefs, following a set of rules and regulations, or performing certain rituals, or observing certain days for fasting, or chanting certain prayers. Now, they may feel that they are being most spiritual when they devote their time in doing all these activities. But what they still lack is the very essence of all spirituality, which is to enjoy a personal relationship with God.
Often even Christians who may already know this truth and understand it well, will go astray from it after some time and begin to concentrate instead on the outward forms of their devotion, including church attendance, singing, praying and participation in church activities. They become content with a veneer or outer shell of godliness, without experiencing the real substance and power thereof.
Some may even become so fanatical about these outward forms, that the forms are more important to them than God Himself! In Romans 10:2, the apostle Paul testified that the Jews of his day were like that. They had a tremendous “zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.”
And we all need to be constantly reminded against committing this error, because anyone can easily fall into it. In all things that you do as a Christian, your primary focus must always be on this one thing: the building of your personal relationship or your walk with the Lord. That is where your spiritual life really is. Without it, your weekly attendance of worship services will be a waste of time. Without it, your singing of hymns will be lifeless. Without it, your tithes and offerings will be given out of duty rather than out of love. Without it, your listening to sermons, or your participation in Sunday school or in any Bible study will not profit your soul at all.
If you are already experiencing any of these things now, it may be time for you to regain your focus on building your personal relationship with God. I’ll ask you, “Have you somehow been neglecting your walk with the Lord? Have you become so busy with church activities and the outward forms of devotion that you have lost your primary focus on building your relationship with God?” If you have, then listen carefully once again to what the Lord has to say to you now through His Word in Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
In order to understand these words well, let us first consider the historical background behind them. The words of this scripture text were given by God through a prophet of Judah by the name of Micah, who lived around the year 735 BC. It was a time of great material prosperity in Judah. Unfortunately it was also a time of great moral and spiritual decline. No class of people was free from the corrupting influences of sin. The princes, the priests and the people – all alike were deeply affected by it. And so Micah was appointed by God to speak out against these sins. He spoke against the rich who oppressed the poor. He also spoke against false prophets who were making empty promises of sure deliverance from foreign invasion. At that time the Assyrians were about to launch a series of military campaigns into Palestine. Through Micah, God warned the people that if they did not repent of their sins, He would bring the Assyrian forces to destroy Jerusalem and reduce it to rubble.
But the people could not understand why God would ever allow His people to experience the horrors of foreign invasion and occupation. They could not comprehend what wrong they had done that God would take such drastic action against them.At the beginning of Micah chapter 6 God is pictured as one who brings a lawsuit against His people for the sin of ignoring Him. In verses 1 and 2 He calls on the mountains and hills to witness His charges against the people. Then, in verses 3 and 4, He reminds them of the ways He had helped them: “O my people, what have I done to you? and how have I wearied you? Testify against me. For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of servants; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” The Exodus of Israel from Egypt represents the first great act of God in which He showed His love for the people. In verse 5 the inability of Balaam to curse God’s people is mentioned as an evidence of God’s protection for them.
Then in verses 6 and 7 God’s people are pictured as a man who realizes all his sins against God and he is now so conscience-stricken that he wants to know what he could do to remedy the situation. But as you read these verses you will see that what he thinks God requires from him are merely outward acts of devotion. “How shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or 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?”
We often have mistaken ideas of what God really wants.
First we’re often mistaken as to how we should come before the Lord. The two questions of verse 6 speak about what man thinks he must do in order to come before God. He wants to know, “With what shall I come before the Lord?” He thinks that as long as he comes before God with the right gift to offer Him, God will surely accept him. Now, there is nothing wrong with the bringing of gifts and offerings to the Lord’s house when we come for the worship service each week. 2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us that, “God loves a cheerful giver.” The problem is not with the act of giving itself but with the motive for giving. We ought to do it because we believe that all that we have is rightfully His, and that the Lord deserves to receive the best from us. We should bring offerings and gifts to Him out of love and gratitude.
But gifts must never be used as an attempt to gain favor or approval from God. And this was exactly what the man in verse 6 was attempting to do when he said, “How shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?” He thought that the gift he brings along will enable him to gain God’s favor. Perhaps some of us too may have done this at times. You thought that you can purchase God’s favor and love with your gifts, and that the Lord will then be obligated to grant you whatever you request from Him. This mistaken idea actually comes from using our own human wisdom on how to gain favors from the people we know.
God’s love and favor cannot be purchased whether with money or with acts of faithful service and devotion. Don’t ever think that the Lord will certainly bless you with good health and wealth just because you have given Him so much and served Him well. No matter how well you have served Him and how much you have given to Him, always remember that Luke 17:10 says, “We are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do.” It is only by undeserved grace alone that we can receive any favor from God. And that grace is shown to us only because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us.
Second, we’re often mistaken as to what pleases our Lord.
Another mistaken idea of what God really wants can be found in the things that the man proposed to bring before God. In verse he asks whether the Lord would be pleased with them. The first thing he mentioned was burnt offerings. Burnt offerings were prescribed in the book of Leviticus. They are meant to be an act of consecration. In all other kinds of offerings only part of the animal was burnt on the altar while the rest could be consumed by the priest or the person who made the offering. In the burnt offering the whole animal was burnt on the altar leaving nothing behind for human consumption. It was completely devoted to God, and in that manner, it honored God. Now, different kinds of animals could be used for burnt offerings, but the offering of calves that were a year old was considered by the Jews to be the most costly because of their economic value. And so the man in our text was proposing to offer the most costly offerings he could give to God.
That’s not all. In the next verse he proposed to multiply his offerings lavishly, by giving thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oil to God. I think we can recognize what he was trying to do. He was essentially saying ‘I will give you whatever it takes to please you. Just name your price!’ And he even goes to the extent of offering to God his most precious possession, his own firstborn child. We remember how Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah when God commanded him to do so. But this man is willing to do that even without being asked!
From our own human perspective, all that the man proposed may seem to be commendable acts of devotion. Surely God would surely be pleased with them, would He not? Who will not appreciate such generous gifts? But what God sees is not the gifts but the heart. Beyond the multitude of costly offerings God sees a heart that is not right with Him – a heart that is far from Him and that is still tolerant toward sin. And this makes all the offerings worthless in His sight.
You must understand that the very best offerings and service that you can render to God are useless as long as you are not right with Him because of your sin. They are merely an empty form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Man is always trying to get back to the good graces of God with some outward religious service or some material gifts. But the Word of God, in Psalm 51:17, tells us that “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart.” This is what God really wants from us.
In order to be right with God your attitude toward sin must change. You cannot love God and love sin at the same time. You must hate your sins the same way that God hates them. The biblical word that is used to describe this change is repentance. Repentance is a change of attitude toward sin which leads to a change of conduct.
Are you giving God just the externals? Or, are you trying to give God the best?
Now in verse 8 we find that what God wants is us! God had shown Israel what is good. God’s law did not stand as something new – there wasn’t any need to bargain with God. He had already told them what he wanted. God’s law is good. Nehemiah 9:13 tells us that God gave the Israelites “good statutes” at Sinai. God’s law is good in that it lays down good moral instruction. As we follow God’s instructions, we are raised to a higher standard of living.
God has shown men what he expects.
First, we are to do justly. “Justice” means to see that the rights of others are protected. In Isaiah 1:17, the prophet equates justice with rebuking the oppressor, defending the fatherless, and pleading for the widow. Justice basically means that we help those who cannot help themselves.
We need to do justice. In James 1:7 we’re told that, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Pure and undefiled religion, is, in part, caring for widows and orphans. We have so many opportunities to do justice. We can take meals to the sick and shut-in as some may be doing. We can support our local Community Outreach Food Bank as Delphi Falls is doing.
The second thing God wants us to do is to love mercy.
“Mercy” literally means loving kindness. “Loving kindness” in this context refers to “brotherly love.” Micah is telling these Jews to love one another. God expects us to love one another as well. In Matthew 22:39 Jesus told us that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Romans 12:9 reminds us that our love is to be without hypocrisy. We have opportunities to show love to our brothers and sisters. We can pray for those facing difficulties, and we can listen when they need to talk. We can visit the funeral home when our friends and loved ones experience loss.
The ancients said of the early Christians, “They love each other without knowing each other,” and “Behold, how these Christians love one another.” The world ought to see us loving one another. Do you love your brethren?
The third thing that God wants us to do is to walk humbly with Him.
“Humbly” here is probably best understood meaning “wisely” – we need to know how to walk with God. We must walk with God. 2 Kings 23:3 teaches us that, walking with God means that we keep his instructions with our whole heart. Walking with God means that he is first in my life, and I make every decision based on his Word.
As you come to understand what God really wants of you, your daily walk with God will then become your source of spiritual life and strength to live your life fully for the Lord – and even to do justly and to love mercy as Micah 6:8 says. I would therefore urge you not to be satisfied with your devotional life until you are enjoying your walk with God. I would ask all of you to make a firm commitment right now, to keep not just doing the external things but spend quality time with the Lord, enjoying a personal and meaningful relationship with Him all the days of your life.