Esse quam videri: "To be, rather than to appear"

Micah chapter 6 (NLT version) outlines a very interesting interaction between God and man.  It’s the opening argument in an indictment against man by God Himself.  Here’s what the Lord said:

Stand up and state your case against Me.  Let the mountains and hills be called to witness your complaints.  And now, mountains, listen to the Lord’s complaint!… Oh my people, what have I done to you?  What have I done to make you tired of Me?  Answer me!…I brought you out of Egypt (bondage) and redeemed you from slavery…I, the Lord, did everything I could to teach you about My faithfulness.

Wow!  That kind of indictment would make the best lawyer from Law & Order seem like an infant. 

In Micah 6 and verses 6 through 7, the people of Israel are trying to come up with something they can bring to the Lord.  Yearling calves? thousands of rams? rivers of olive oil? sacrifice our first born son to pay for our sins?  They were trying to identify physical things to satisfy God’s anger.  However, God was more concerned with matters of the heart.

Micah 6:8 (NLT): No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. 

God wanted them to “do justly” (what is right), love mercy, and walk humbly in relationship with Him.  I submit to you that we have warped that Godly order.  Instead, some of us love judgement (instead of mercy), and we DO mercy instead of loving it.  We aren’t walking with God, we are walking with traditions of men.  We have twisted being humble to mean that we don’t want to appear too spiritual to others so we pretend we can’t hear God’s voice and we cast aside our desire to be like Him under the disguise of being “humble”.  However, God wanted us to be humble AS WE WALKED WITH HIM, not so humble that we wouldn’t walk with Him.

Jesus Himself expressed his frustration with this approach when He rebuked the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23:

What sorrow awaits you teachers of religous law and you Pharisees.  Hypocrites!  For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law – justice, mercy, and faith.  You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.

Sometimes we can place our emphasis on the wrong priorities and we find random obscure Scriptures to proof-text our pet beliefs.  We’ve got to place the same emphasis on things that Jesus placed on things.  I’m not advocating that we don’t tithe, but somewhere while the Pharisees were tithing on their income from their pet rocks and Chia Pets, they missed the priority of God: justice, mercy, and faith.

Micah had it right when He gave us what the Lord requires from us: do justly (what is right), love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.