Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 414 | Most Misused: Micah 6:8

Episode Date: May 4, 2021

Today we'll take a deep dive into an often-misinterpreted Bible verse: Micah 6:8. Some on the progressive side of Christianity use this verse to give credence to their social justice narratives, but is this verse really about making changes to society? --- Today's Sponsor: Annie's Kit Clubs helps you make the most of your "me-time" with a monthly creative retreat. No more trips to the craft store and no searching for materials. Save 50% off your first kit today! Go to AnniesKitClubs.com/Allie --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Today we are doing a most misused. If you don't know what that is, that's where we take a popular verse that is used a lot. It's decontextualized. And we look at what it actually means. So Micah 6.8 says, he has told you, oh 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. We've done a few of these in the past. We've done Jeremiah 29-11, plans to prosper. not to harm you. Psalm 374. He will give you the desires of your heart. Matthew 7.1. Don't judge. I'll sue be judged. And so what we do is we take this popular verse that's typically placed on mugs or t-shirts or used in social media captions. And we dive into what it actually means

based on the text and based on the context. Because so often the most well-known verses are the most misused and abused verses. Flippians 413 is another one like this. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's a wonderful verse, but when it's decontextualized, we actually lose a lot of the meaning. But what we see when we read these verses and we seek to understand them rather than just apply them in a feel good way in whatever context we want, is that the true meaning of the text is so much better. It's so much better than the pithy applications they have when they're just decontextualized. So today we are going to do Micah 6-8, because particularly in the past year, this verse has been used by many who may identify as, let's say,

social justice-focused Christians to biblically support their pursuit in the, for example, the abolition of what they might refer to as systemic racism in the United States. This verse was used a lot after the George Floyd incident on social media as a way to say, as Christians, we need to be talking about, marching about, et cetera. racialized police brutality. We need to be doing the work of anti-racism. We need to be working toward so-called racial reconciliation. And we've talked about all of these topics and concepts many times thoroughly before the media narratives versus what the data says about each. And we won't get into all of that today because what I want to focus on is what this particular verse that is used so

pervasively actually means. Not what I wanted to mean, not what you wanted to mean, but what it actually means according to scripture. And the way that we do that is by looking at the context. So as Christians, we hold to the truth that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and written by human hands, that God has been faithful, God has been sovereign over the translation and the compilation of the Bible. And by His grace, the text that we have today is nearly identical to the message relayed in the original documents that we have access to. So first, because of that, we take his word as authoritative. We submit our feelings, our preconceived notions to it, not the other way around.

We seek to understand each verse in light of the entirety of Scripture. We do our best to seek to understand each verse plainly, while acknowledging that we are finite. And therefore, we completely have the capacity to get it wrong. but also we acknowledge that God has given us and teachers and leaders who have come before us the wisdom and the insight through his spirit to be able to diligently seek and understand as best as possible what he means and what he is saying in the Bible. The various interpretations and the many translations of the Bible don't actually negate its integrity, but rather speak to its miraculously enduring nature and the piercing truth of the Gossip.

of Jesus Christ, which penetrates all of our disagreements and all of our confusion. So, as we dig into this verse, we have these things in mind, understanding that our exposition of this verse is fallible. I mean, my discussion of this verse will be fallible because I'm fallible, but we also humbly ask for God's wisdom. And we trust him to give us that wisdom because he promises that in the book of James, and he has given us the tools by which we can seek that wisdom to understand what he is saying in scripture. So let's zoom out in our analysis first before we zoom in. We have to understand the context, which means that we need to know what the book of Micah is, who wrote it, to whom it was written, when it was written, and why it was written.

I have a John McArthur study Bible that I enjoy. I also have an ESV study Bible that I highly recommend. I love the ESV study Bible. I also have a keyword study Bible. It allows me to look at the original Greek and Hebrew. And I will also reference other commentaries from biblical scholars. And if there's a big picture biblical concept that I need to better understand when I'm studying scripture, I typically consult systematic theology by Wayne Grudham. Another recommendation that I have. I have a whole list of recommended resources, by the way, on my website,

ali bethsducky.com that you can look at. But these are just a few of them that I use when I'm studying in scripture. Another great and reliable resource. I've talked about this. but if you're new here, maybe you've never heard of it. GotQuestions.org. I know it sounds cheesy and super generic, but I actually find their answers to questions

to be very thorough and very biblical. And so that's a really great resource. If you just want to type in at gotquestions.com, like what does the Bible say about the mark of the beast or something like that? Then it typically has really good responses for you to at least give you some food for thought and some direction to go into as you're studying

the subject in scripture. Okay, so, and when I'm looking at, when I'm looking at the resources that I have, what I find is that the book of Micah is named after the prophet Micah. This is Hebrew, this is a Hebrew name, meaning who is like the Lord. In Micah 718, at the end of the book, we see Micah use his own name as he is proclaiming the love and the compassion of God when he says this, who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression, for the remnant of his inheritance. He does not retain his anger forever, but he delights in steadfast love. So we don't know too much about Micah, but his name speaks to God's special sovereignty

in preordaining his prophets, that Micah's name would represent a rhetorical question pointing to God's glory. Who is like the Lord is a rhetorical question because we already know the answer. God's people would have known the answer, and the answer is no one. If we go to the words of another prophet, Isaiah, we see God ask this question almost sarcastically because the answer is so obvious. He says this, thus says the Lord, the king of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and said it before me. Since I appointed an

ancient people, let them declare what is to come and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid. Have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? There is no rock. I know not any. That's Isaiah 44, 6 through 8. It's a great chapter. I highly encourage you to go read the chapter in its entirety. But the Lord highlights his preeminence, his exclusive power compared to idols, which can't see, can't hear, can't act, while he is acting and moving and ruling in perfect strength and justice and wisdom. And actually, what is interesting is that Isaiah and Micah were prophesying around the same time period in close proximity to each other. So this is a theme that God communicates that God clearly

wants his people to know, a reminder that, hey, the guidance and the deliverance that you are looking for and the idols that you've now turned to will not come through for you. Am I not the God who made you, who set you apart and has done great things for you? Am I not better than all of these false, weak, useless gods, these inanimate objects that you've turned to? What we see throughout Scripture is that God is unabashedly fixated on his own glory. He is a jealous God who will again and again remind us that he alone is worthy of our worship and that our worship of him is inextricably intertwined with good and with

peace for us. And what he speaks through Micah demonstrates exactly that. Micah prophesied to the people of Jerusalem during the reigns of Jotham, of Ahaz, and Hezekiah from about 735 to 710 BC. The book echoes many of the themes that we see in Isaiah and Hosea and Hezekiah and Amos, who were all prophesying to Israel in different regions around the same time. And they were all in different ways prophesying to a people who had not just turned to idolatry, but who had welcomed injustice. Micah's focus was on the southern kingdom, ruled by Judean kings. There was much conflict in the region before God called Micah to prophesy that eventually led to the prosperous reign of King Uzziah, which led to the reign of Jotham, who was the first

king under whom Micah prophesied. Jotham helped continue the prosperity that his father's policies had helped ensure, but his problem was that he failed to outlaw the idolatry that was running rampant among the people. John McArthur notes in my study Bible, quote, Worship of the Canaanite fertility god bail was increasingly integrated with the OT sacrificial system, Old Testament sacrificial system, reaching epidemic proportions under the reign of Ahaz. Second Chronicles 28, 1 through 4 tells us, King Ahaz was another king under whose reign Micah was

prophesying. Refugees from nearby fallen Samaria had infiltrated Judea bringing their own idolatrous religious practices, which only added to the problem. The Judean people hoard after other gods. That's what scripture tells us, which, as we see throughout the Bible and throughout history, leads to the loss of morality, both individually and societally, and therefore leads to corruption and the oppression of the most vulnerable. And as we say often on this podcast, this is what we see in Israel's history, godlessness, refusal to worship and acknowledge the one true God makes hearts of stone and brains of mush. It makes hard hearts and mushy minds. And that's what was happening to God's people here. That's why Micah is prophesying as well as to warn that this

rebellion will lead to judgment, that Babylon will conquer them, a reality that at the time did not seem possible because their biggest competition and threat was Assyria. So like other prophets, Micah's message was probably hard to believe and definitely hard to hear for his audience at the time because, again, they had those mushy minds and hard hearts. A Micah presents his case like a prosecutor like some of these prophets do laying out the evidence of guilt of the people. My study Bible says this. There are three or cycles or cycles in the book of Micah, each beginning with the admonition to, quote, here. Within each oracle, he moves from doom to hope, doom because they have broken God's law at

Zionite, hope because of God's unchanging covenant with their forefathers, as 720 says. So the message is, you've been faithless. And because God is a just God, who cares about his glory and cares about your obedience and the consecration of his people, you will be judged and punished. But because God is faithful, he will also restore you. He will protect those of you who turn to him, who love him, who obey him. Because he is abundantly patient and abundantly gracious, he will not destroy you in your entirety as you deserve. He will bring you in. He will welcome you back. He will bless you. This is a cycle that we see throughout the Old Testament that culminates

in Jesus Christ, who pays the ultimate and eternal price for all of our sins, satisfying the judgment that each of us deserve through his death. So even though we are not ancient Israel, even though we are living under a new covenant as Christians, we read the prophets and we get an understanding of God's character, his will, his glory, his intolerance of sin, and the amazing miracle of the gospel that saves believers from his just wrath. So the first part of this book is the first oracle outlining the people's disobedience, the impending doom and the promise of deliverance. Here are a few verses that speak to that. For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place and will come down and tread upon the high

places of the earth, and the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will split open like wax before the fire, like waters pour down a steep place. All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the House of Israel. Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds when the morning dawns, they perform it. Because it is in the power of their hand, they covet fields and seize them, in houses and take them away. They oppress a man in his house, a man in his inheritance. Therefore, thus says the Lord, behold against this family, I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster. I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob, I will gather the remnant of Israel. I will set them

together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men. So what we read in this first oracle, in this first cycle, is that the people are guilty. They have done wickedly. God is coming to punish them, but he will save a remnant who is faithful to him. And then we see the second cycle or oracle that speaks to the leaders of the land, who are guilty, who are oppressing the vulnerable among them. God promises to deliver those who have been oppressed under these leaders. Here are you heads of Jacob and rulers of the House of Israel. Is it not for you to know justice?

You who hate the good and love the evil? Who eat the flash of my people and flay their skin from off them? Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time because they have made their deeds evil. Hear this, you heads of the House of Jacob and rulers of the House of Israel who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight. Its heads give judgment for a bribe. Its priests teach for a price.

Its prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us. Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field. Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the house a wooded height. So there was oppression, there was political and religious corruption, there was bribery among judges. Deuteronomy 1017 says this, for the Lord of God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords, the great, the mighty and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. God hates bribery, he hates dishonesty, he hates partiality.

We'll talk a little bit more about that later when we talk about what justice really means. Psalm 155 says this, who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent? He who does these things shall never be moved. So again, we see that God hates bribes. He hates corruption. He hates people who look good on the outside, but who underneath it are dishonest and manipulative at the expense of the weak and the poor. There were schemes for profit, it looks like, under the guise of priesthood and prophecy. that's what Micah is talking about. God through Micah is talking about in his prophecy,

which is another example of that kind of hypocrisy that God hates so much that Jesus also calls out in his ministry and condemnation of the Pharisees. It was not the Pharisees strict adherence to the law that Jesus detested. That's really important for us to realize. It was not their faithfulness that he didn't like, but rather their rule abiding in order to be arrogant to oppress others and to cover up their inner in secret sinfulness and corruption. Then God promises in this second cycle deliverance from the people's enemies and the preservation of the remnant. Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord like showers on the grass. And so he promises that because of his faithfulness, he is going to protect a remnant of Israel,

whom he will call to himself, who will obey him. And then in the third or cycle or cycle that we see in the book of Micah is where we get to our key verse today, which is Micah 6'8. In this last segment of the book of prophecy, Micah offers rebuke and lament. And then he ends with that message of assurance of victory in the Lord. Here are you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring fountains of the earth, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel. Oh, 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. So he's saying, have I honestly burdened you that you've gotten tired of me? Like how could that be possible when it was I, says God, that released you from the burden of slavery? Was my faithfulness not enough for you? Were my blessings not good enough for you? This is what God seems to be asking in this passage. Then Micah asks what they could possibly do, to make up for their sin, to get right with the Lord. Then Micah echoes what the people are probably asking when they're wondering, what could they possibly do then to make up for their sin, to answer the indictment of the Lord so they can get right with the Lord.

Should I sacrifice thousands of Rams, 10,000 rivers of oil? Should I offer my firstborn, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? These are hyperbolic questions used to make a rhetorical point. But then there's an answer to these questions when people are asking, oh my gosh, I'll do anything. I'll give anything up to make myself right with God. But then the answer is in Micah 6-8. He has told you, oh 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? So the answer is no. doesn't need you to sacrifice your firstborn child. He doesn't need a thousand rivers of oil. He wants your obedience. He wants your heart. He wants your faithfulness, oh Israel. He wants you to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. The rest of chapter six talks about the destruction of the wicked. The final chapter, chapter seven in Micah, is to the faithful remnant. This is still a part of that third cycle or or oracle. He is instructing them to wait for God, to trust in his steadfast love, his faithfulness to keep

his covenant. He reminds them of. He promises to destroy his people's enemies and restore and bless them. So chapter 7 verses 18 through 20 say, he does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all of our sins into the dead.

depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. So in light of all of this, what does our key verse that is very widely used today actually mean? What does it mean first to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God? Let's break the verse down and then we'll talk about it again in light of the context of the entire book and of this prophecy. So let's read the verse, Micah 6-8 one more time. He has told you, oh, 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. So let's break that down. First, let's look at that word, do, because I think that's an interesting part of this verse.

We're not just talking about admiring justice. We're not just talking about liking it or aspiring to it or even understanding it. God is telling his people to do justice. That Hebrew word for do is a saw and that's a s a h a saw so it means to do or to make to accomplish to achieve to acquire to act to complete to do something certainly tangibly absolutely to cause or to commit to deal or to determine my keyword study bible says this about this Hebrew word this frequently used Hebrew verb conveys the central notion of performing an activity with a distinct purpose a moral obligation or a goal in view. In other contexts, it's used to communicate the yielding of grain, constructing something, engaging in warfare, the completing of something. So it is a forward moving action with a moral

imperative attached to it. It's a word that seems to denote a project that's being executed that was handed down by a boss, for example, progress being made under the responsibility of an assigned task, work being done. It's very tangible. It's very concrete. Again, it is attached to a moral imperative. So what could it mean then to do justice? The word used here for justice is a Mish pot. That's M-I-S-H-P-A-T. This type of justice used in this context means a verdict that is pronounced judicially, especially a sentence for a formal decree, which includes the act, the place, the suit, the crime, and the penalty. So this is the word that describes the legal process carried out in a way that is proper. And in this case, that means

proper according to God. We see this exact same Hebrew word used in Zefaniah 2.3. Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord, which is very similar to what we're talking about in Micah 6-8. So do his just commands is a good way to understand this phrase do justice. It's a word this do and Meshvat put together. It's a turn that's used to describe executing God's commands. And in fact, we see consistently when it is used, when it is used, it always goes hand in hand with God's commandments, with God's ordained legal processes in God's definitions of fair treatment and just punishment. That means that when this word

justice, Mishvat, is used here in Micah 6.8, it is talking about God's commands, about what he says right and wrong looks like. It means people totally in submission to his law. Because remember, the fundamental, the foremost sin that he was indicting the people for was idolatry. So, So we can't talk about Micah 6.8 without talking about the fact that knowing justice and abiding by justice according to what God says justice is, we first have to repent from idolatry and obey the Lord. So that means when we say that we are going to do justice according to Micah 68, what is meant is actually just obeying the Lord. What is meant is being holy as he is holy. What is meant is aligning our lives and our definitions of right and wrong with his good instruction.

In all the biblical context that we see this word used, we see that it means how things are supposed to be done according to God's standards. In other words, right. It means to do things right and that God alone is the decider, the determinant, and the author of what is right. So when we use this first, it doesn't simply apply to that which we want it to apply. It doesn't mean whatever we want it to mean. It means define it. justice exactly how God defines it. It is predicated on turning from idolatry and turning toward the Lord and walking in his commands. And what I see so often today is people using this verse or the word justice in general to mean whatever they wanted to mean. If it means abolishing the police,

if it means looting, if it means reparations, if it means redistribution of wealth, if it means government subsidized health care, whatever. People apply this word justice and this verse, Micah 6-8, to mean whatever political cause left or right that they wanted to mean. But the reality is, as that this is talking in this verse, about procedural justice that is in complete alignment with what God commands. This is not talking about today's elusive, intangible idea of secular social justice, which almost always simply means whatever, whatever government programs or progressive talking points are proffered that claim to fix problems. It is talking about ensuring justice, Mishpat, happens as God says it must happen.

As we've talked about many times when it comes to the characteristics of God's justice in society, the handling of the guilty and the innocent, the accused, and the accuser, we see four main characteristics. And they are, you could probably recite them if you've been listening to this podcast for any amount of time, truthful, impartial, and proportional. Now, there may be other characteristics, biblical characteristics of God's justice, and there are different kinds of justice also that we see in the Bible. But when it comes to this particular justice, when it's talking about procedural justice, these are the main descriptors of God's justice that most prominently come to mind and come to the surface when you read

about his law giving to ancient Israel in the Old Testament. And even though, as we've said, we are not ancient Israel, and we don't follow all of the laws that God gave to his people then. We also know that God doesn't change. And therefore, we understand that God still hates that which he has always hated. He loves that which he has always loved. God's definitions of good and bad, of just and unjust have not changed. So when we see these principles articulated in the Old Testament, we get to hold to them today when we are asking ourselves, what does justice really mean?

And what does it even mean for or to do justice in society? So here are some examples of these four characteristics of God's justice, truthful, impartial, direct, and proportional. We see in Exodus 23, 1 through 3, you shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit. So right there, in his commands to Israel, we see two major aspects of God's definition of what is just, truthful and impartial, truthful and impartial.

Leviticus 1915, you shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. Again, we're seeing impartiality here. We also see the characteristic of directness. You are judging your neighbor specifically for a crime that he or she has done. Listen to Deuteronomy 1915 through 21 and God's concern with truth, with impartiality, with proportionality, and with directness. A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection

with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses. witnesses shall a charge be established. If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do for his brother. So you shall purge the evil among your midst, and the rest shall hear and fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you.

Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Now, I want to say something about that last line because you may be thinking about when Jesus says in Matthew 538 through 42 that instead of an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth, you shouldn't pay back people for what they've done. So I wanted to reconcile these two things. away with what is said in the Old Testament. Is Jesus talking about legal procedures? And so I consulted my study Bible, and this is what I found, Jesus shows that this principle,

which was meant to guide judges and assessing damages, was never intended as a rule for ordinary interpersonal relationships, which the faithful should seek to imitate God's own generosity. So here, and this is something that you can tell by the context as well of Matthew 5, is that Jesus is not doing a way with the legal principle of proportionality as we see it in the Old Testament. He is showing people. He's showing the Pharisees. He's showing the Jewish people at the time how they had perverted this law in order to apply to their interpersonal relationships in order to be hateful and oppressive in their friendships and in their relationships with their neighbors. And so when Jesus is saying, look, don't seek revenge. It's no longer eye for an eye or tooth for tooth. He is not trying to say,

that the justice penal system needed to be changed to no matter match proportionality. He is talking about interpersonal relationships where we should emulate that kind of forgiveness and generosity that God through Christ has shown us. So that means when it goes for justice in court, God's principle still stands as good and right. Proportional based on evidence and truth. It is direct and specific to both a crime and a person. The New Testament also makes clear that God's judgment and therefore,

his definition of justice is impartial. Acts 1034, Peter is preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. So Peter opened his mouth and said, truly, I understand that God shows no partiality. But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. James 2 8 through 9 says, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law,

as transgressors. So this means that God's definition of Mishpat of this kind of justice excludes slander, hyperbole, false narratives, wrong accusations made in the name of proving a point or pushing a political agenda, or misleading manipulative messages represented by hashtags, by social media graphics,

deceptively edited videos, or inaccurate reporting. It is absolutely rooted in. objective truth, not a subjective truth that is determined by someone's lived experience or their feelings, but in fact that is confirmed through evidence. God's justice cares about data because it correlates with reality. It cares about proof. It cares about actuality, about rationality, about objectivity. It means that God's justice favors neither black nor white, rich nor poor, influential or obscure male nor female. It is impartial. Because God is so concerned with what is actually true, he is not the least bit tolerant of

deciding someone's guilt or innocence based on their identity. Throughout scripture, we read that God hates partiality, that it's a sin that he sees it as evil as wicked. He's not for lesser or worse sentencing, better or worse treatment of someone based on their station, their race, their gender, their prominence in the community or lack thereof. It means that God's justice deals with those who are involved. It is direct. You are not guilty for the sins of your ancestors. When God says in Exodus 25 that he visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children

to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, he is talking about a specific people, Israel, for a specific sin, idolatry. And in context, this actually means that these next generations were following the same sins of their fathers. God did not make the repentant and the faithful pay for the sins of their ancestors. Furthermore, you are not guilty for those, you are not guilty for the sins of those who look like you. You are likewise, not innocent based on those factors either. God's justice is laser are focused on those who are involved with the matters at hand. You cannot repent for the sins of other people. When Daniel asks forgiveness for Israel, he is talking about sins that the entire people

were actively committing. He is asking for mercy for God to draw people to himself, to show his faithfulness, even though they don't deserve it. This is not the kind of collectivist shame and repentance that we see preached by many social justice activists today. Punishing people who did nothing wrong in the name of justice is not actually biblical justice. We don't see a biblical precedent for that. That's because God's justice is rational. It is sane. It is proportional.

It doles out punishments that fit the crime. It is not cruel and unusual. It cares about the guilty party too. The accused, according to God, even the accused's proven guilty, still has rights in God's sight. So that means those who have the authority to execute. justice are to honor those rights and only the exact punishment which is due to them in accordance with the crime committed. God is a God of process. We see this throughout the Bible that

hardly anything that God does is just done quickly and automatically. He almost always has a process by which, through which he is accomplishing things. He cares very much about definitions, about procedures, about the truth. He is not arbitrary. He's not ambiguous. He's not ambiguous. He's reckless. Everything he says, demands and does, is with care. It's with intention. It's with purpose for his glory and the good of his people. So when he says that his people should do justice, he means do it, how God defines it, which is a definition centered on both rationality and compassion. We should want our justice system, though we are not in a theocracy, we're not trying to build a and even though America is not ancient Israel to reflect the justice that we see defined by the moral

lawgiver because he created justice. He is the source of justice. Justice in this verse refers to legal procedural justice, but the verse calls us to more than just that, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God. Now, this Hebrew word for love used here, Ahaba, is often used to mean this intimate close love, a covenant love, a love that is faithful, that lasts, that binds. The word kindness, cassette, is most often used to describe God's love, his goodness, the works he does on behalf of his people, the gifts that he gives them. So we are being called to inextricably intertwine ourselves with the kind of kindness that God shows us, one that is generous, that helps rather than a priest.

the vulnerable, one that forgives, one that is joyful and steadfast. Then we are called to walk humbly with God, which is what knowing God's justice and emulating his kindness is predicated on. Again, this turning from idolatry. That means that we would be humbly walking with God. So if doing God's justice means defining and doling out right and wrong, according to his terms, and loving kindness means imitating God's goodness towards us in our own lives. and in our relationships, then in order to do that, we must first walk in total submission to God and His will, which is only possible through His Holy Spirit given to those who have believed in Jesus' death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins and the conquering of death.

Micah 6.8 is not a command for everyone because it can't be. People who are idolaters, people who don't obey God, cannot understand, cannot understand God's justice. It's a command for God's people. The pursuit of justice that Christians should be demonstrating should look so radically different than the secular worlds because we are walking humbly with God. It is up to us to show how God's kindness and truth-focused justice are displayed in this world. And again, that looks different today than it did for ancient Israel because we're not living in a theocracy and we're not trying to build a theocracy here. But when we are talking about justice, let's be very specific in defining our terms. And let us remember that anytime you talk of justice

seeking justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God, that in context, that is predicated on repenting from your sins and repenting from idolatry and submitting wholeheartedly to the Lord. That is the only way that we can understand what justice, what true compassion, what true love looks like. It doesn't mean latching on to the latest social media progressive narrative about what justice should feel like or what the world says justice is. God is specific. He's gracious to give us an idea of what this kind of specific justice that Micah 6-8 is talking about. And we should look to influence the spheres that we occupy with this kind of justice because, again, God hasn't changed. And so these principles haven't changed. And if God is the ever-living creator of justice,

the source of justice, then we would do well. And those are really. us would do well for us to advocate for this kind of justice. Too much of what people are talking about today when they talk about justice is actually partiality, is actually favoring one race or one socioeconomic status or one kind of person instead of another. And they say this is the kind of social justice that God advocates for it. You're not going to find a biblical precedent for it. Yes, of course, we meet needs in a different way. We're not going to give to the poor or we're not going to give to the rich in the same way that we give to the poor. There are different needs that different parts of society have, absolutely. But when we're talking about what this verse is

talking about, the kind of justice that we have to see involving both the accused and the accuser, we have to make sure that we are aligning our principles of justice with God's principles of justice. And like I said, he is so gracious to tell us what those are throughout his word. So I hope this at least gives you something to chew on. There's so much more to talk about in the book of Micah and even in this verse alone. But I hope that adds a little bit of clarity. And maybe the next time you see someone decontextualizing and throwing up this verse in order to justify whatever stance they have, whether it's an alignment with scripture or not, you can use this to have some kind of engaging conversation within that I hope is edifying and productive. All right, thank you guys

so much for listening. We will be back here soon.