Title: FAITH IN ACTION
Focus: Faith in Christ reveals itself in action
Function: To encourage people to continue deepening their relationship with the triune god by taking action steps of faith.
Text: Micah 6:1-8
If anything, the Christian faith is faith revealing itself in action—in word and deeds. You can’t read the Bible from cover to cover and then walk away with the notion that nothing is required from those who worship and fear God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
For example: when God entered into a covenant relationship with Abraham and his offspring, God said: (Gen. 17) “You must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.” And God gave Abraham the sign of circumcision—a sign that signified that Abraham and his offspring are set apart by God to be a blessing to God and to the whole world.
Later on, God rescued Moses and the
Israelites from slavery in Egypt. God gathered them at Mount Sinai in the
wilderness; and there God gave them his Law. Speaking through Moses, God said:
(Deut. 6:4) “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the
Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you
strength.”
Centuries later, in the fullness of
time when God sent his one and only Son, the Lord Jesus picked up this very
same command. And building upon Moses’ instructions found in Leviticus (Lev.
19:18), Jesus said that we must also “love our neighbor as ourselves.” Just before Jesus ascended to heaven, he
also gave his followers the command to make disciples. And later on, James, the
brother of Jesus, boils down the Christian faith into a pithy observation
saying: (James 1:27) “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.”
Clearly, the Christian faith as
found throughout the Scriptures reveals itself in action. That also comes
through in the words of the prophet Micah: (Micah 6:8) “What does the
Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly
with your God.”
The prophet Micah speaks these words about 700 years before Jesus began his saving work on earth. The nation of Israel is in disarray; the temple service and worship is in decline. The people of Israel fall back on distinct pagan practices such as the worship of foreign gods; and the marks of being a devout man or woman of God—marks such as sexual purity and fidelity—are being violated by many Israelites. There is a religious and moral decline among God’s people.
It’s in this context that the Lord
God (through the prophet Micah) hauls his people to the courtroom of
righteousness, where the mountains and the hills are the witnesses: (vs. 1,2) “Stand
up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to
say. Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s accusation; listen, you everlasting
foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people: he is
lodging a charge against Israel.”
Couched in these words of the Lord we find a mixture of pain and frustration. The Lord is upset with his people; they are abandoning him. So the Lord says, (vs. 3)“My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.” Surely, there is righteous indignation in the voice of the Lord as he prosecutes his people.
Then the Lord continues. Now he makes his case in the courtroom of the world. Listen: (vs.4) “I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.” Here the Lord rehearses the story of Israel’s deliverance, of Israel’s new beginnings in the land of Canaan. The Israelites are failing to live out of that story. Their trust, their faith, and their loyalty to God are waning. They spin their own story, do their own thing, and in the process open themselves to charges of immorality and especially idolatry—the worship of false gods.
So, the Lord reminds them of what happened to their ancestors: “Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.” Did you notice how the Lord personalizes his saving deeds for the people in Micah’s days? The journey from Shittim to Gilgal happened centuries ago, but the Lord says, “Remember your journey.” In other words, you share in the story. And you must learn from the story. You know what happened at Shittim? (Numbers 25:ff). The men of Israel began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices of their gods. They worshiped Baal. And the Lord responded with anger commanding Moses to put to death those who “have joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor.” That story of judgment and God’s wrath on his people now confronts the Israelites in this courtroom scene. For the Israelites in Micah’s days were doing the same thing.
As the Israelites hear the charges against them, Micah turns their hearts to the issue at hand. Micah speaks as a righteous man—as someone who seeks to serve the Lord and do his bidding. Listen to Micah: (vs.6-7) “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? In other words, will God be pleased with tokens of worship such as a perfect calf suitable for sacrifice? You can just sense from the question that such an answer won’t be sufficient.
So the voice of the righteous prophet goes on: “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?” In other words, will God be pleased with me when I throw my wealth, my riches, my net worth at his feet? Again, you sense from the question that such an answer won’t suffice.
So Micah goes on: “Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” In other words, will God be pleased with me sacrificing to him my future, my hope, my first-born child. Surely, that’s a huge sacrifice for me to make! But again, that’s not what the Lord seeks from us at all. It’s this:
“(The Lord) has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?” In other words, our faith must reveal itself in action.
Act justly. What does it mean to act justly for Christians today? What are some action steps of justice? At home and at school, we seek to do what is right: Parents dealing with their children justly; teachers treating their students fairly; and children dealing with each other kindly. To act justly means to seek the interest of others and often to consider such interests more important than our own. That’s tough. But a living faith in Christ calls for doing justice. It’s part of loving God and one another.
Everyone has a sense of justice and a need for being dealt with justice. Politically, that means making sacrifice. For example, what does justice mean for Israelis and Palestinians living together in the Middle East today? And what does justice mean for dominant groups in society dealing with minorities? How should the majority of Shiites deal with the minority of Sunnis in Iraq? How should we deal with each other in America where there are also all kinds of minorities and people groups who often feel dealt with unjustly in the political process? Today, the Scriptures remind us that Christians must sensitize themselves to justice and to action steps of justice all around us. Acting justly is a matter of stepping out in faith and doing what is right.